October 12, 2025

01:27:36

Ep. 582 - Welcome Home? More Like Welcome Aboard! Tom's Family Sails the Disney Treasure for the First Time

Hosted by

Brian Sam
Ep. 582 - Welcome Home? More Like Welcome Aboard! Tom's Family Sails the Disney Treasure for the First Time
DCL Duo Podcast: A Disney Cruise Line Fan Podcast
Ep. 582 - Welcome Home? More Like Welcome Aboard! Tom's Family Sails the Disney Treasure for the First Time

Oct 12 2025 | 01:27:36

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Show Notes

Tom and his wife from the Welcome Home Podcast join us to share their family’s first Disney Cruise experience aboard the Disney Treasure! Hear what this DVC-loving family thought of rotational dining, staterooms, Castaway Cay, onboard entertainment, and what makes the Treasure unique among Disney Cruise Line’s fleet.

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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.

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Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Moana. Can I just tell you, though, that I. I sat next to my nephew. I have never seen this child so still in his life. [00:00:10] Speaker B: He was so glued. [00:00:12] Speaker C: Is this the four year old? [00:00:14] Speaker A: No, the two year old. [00:00:16] Speaker B: Yeah, the two year old. [00:00:17] Speaker C: Oh, my God. [00:00:30] Speaker D: Welcome back, everybod, to this week's episode of the DCL Duo podcast, brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel and Sam Jingle time. Do your jingle. [00:00:40] Speaker C: Simply the best. Better than all the rest. [00:00:44] Speaker B: There it is. [00:00:45] Speaker E: All right. [00:00:45] Speaker D: It is review time. As Sam's jingle, it's the signal for review. So here we go. This week's review comes from S. Dart, which I think is Sarah Dart, who we've had on the show or is coming on the show soon. She writes fun and informative. Love the podcast. Very informative and fun to listen to. Brian and Sam are such lovely hosts. I enjoy the dynamic between them. And I love Sam's perfectly clear and crisp voice as opposed to, I guess, my marble mouth. [00:01:11] Speaker C: It's not. It's not Sarah Dart, though. It's Samantha Dart. [00:01:14] Speaker D: Samantha Dart. Oh, I think we also have a Sarah Dart who might be coming on. Maybe they're related. Who knows? [00:01:19] Speaker C: I don't know. [00:01:19] Speaker D: Well, regardless, thank you for that review. We really appreciate it. Yeah, Sam loves any direct compliments to her. [00:01:28] Speaker C: I do. I. I'm a sucker for a direct compliment. I'll be honest. I eat that stuff. [00:01:36] Speaker D: It's the only way I survive the day. All right, so thank you for that review. For all of you out there listening. [00:01:40] Speaker C: Please remember, tell me and tell me I look pretty. That's right. [00:01:43] Speaker D: For all of you out there listening, please remember the easiest way to support the show. Head over to Apple Podcasts, hit those five stars, and if you leave us a written review, we will read it on the air at the top of one of our main episodes. Sam, our guests, it's not happened enough that we've had Tom on this show, and it's because we're a Disney Cruise Line podcast. [00:01:59] Speaker B: That's true. [00:02:00] Speaker D: And Tom is a DVC podcast. Well, Disney podcaster. [00:02:03] Speaker B: Or the DVC bent Disney parks. [00:02:06] Speaker D: Right, exactly. But we are excited to welcome Tom and Karen to the show this evening. Welcome. [00:02:12] Speaker B: Thank you so much for having us. [00:02:14] Speaker A: Yes, thank you. [00:02:14] Speaker D: Still your intro there, Sam. It's still your intro, Sam. Sorry. So usually you do the guest intros, but I know Tom, so I feel. [00:02:20] Speaker C: Like I need to. You've spent more time with Tom than I have Brian, so it's okay for you to jump in and take over a little bit. Of my duties, especially because that listener review was so specifically towards me. Feel like, you know, you need some compensation. [00:02:34] Speaker D: Throw me a bone. [00:02:35] Speaker B: A little love. Yeah, you gotta. [00:02:37] Speaker D: You gotta. Yeah, yeah. It's funny, though. Tom and I have been on shows together, we've never actually met in person. I don't think. We've never been in a park at the same time, so. [00:02:44] Speaker B: No, we have not. Well, that's okay. If it makes you feel. If it makes you feel any better, you know, my three member, you know, podcast team, we've been doing our show for eight years and not. And all three of us have never been together at the same time. [00:02:56] Speaker C: All three of you? That's hilarious. [00:02:59] Speaker B: We've one on one. Yeah, we've done one on ones with each other, but never all together. [00:03:04] Speaker D: Yeah, this is like that Batman paradox. Like somehow you're all the same person because you've never all been in the same room at the same time. So there you go. [00:03:10] Speaker B: It is. Yeah, I just do different voices. Really. I mean, that's what it is. I just. Yeah, I just do impressions of other people and show it to myself. [00:03:18] Speaker D: So to be fair, Damon was a puppet for a while, so it could have. It could have happened. Yeah, it still is. [00:03:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:23] Speaker D: You know, Tom, for our listeners out there, explain your. [00:03:26] Speaker A: You. [00:03:26] Speaker D: You have your podcast, the welcome Home podcast. We've been on your show before, so I'm assuming some of our listeners have heard of the podcast. But tell folks about your show. [00:03:33] Speaker B: Yeah, and I think we share a lot of a fair amount of the same listeners, but obviously you guys have different ones too. But we do. For a long time now, we've been doing a DVC oriented podcast. Now listen, DVC is a really interesting topic, but you can't do a podcast on it every single week just talking about dvc. There's only so much you could do about dvc. So it's almost like we do Disney parks from a DVC owner's perspective, kind of. And really, it's just. And I've described this to you guys before, it's like we just like to hang out and talk about Disney stuff. Stuff. And that's kind of the vibe we always go for is just. It's just a hangout, you know, it's hangout. We're talking about Disney news where, you know, we go on tangents about all sorts of random stuff all the time and. And talk about our regular lives. So. But yeah, it's. It's just a fun hangout to come. And if you like Disney stuff, And you, like, just, you know, hearing people just chat about, you know, what the latest news is. That's. That's what we do. And then, of course, you know, we sprinkle in some DVC stuff here and there. [00:04:26] Speaker D: So, yeah, Tom, show is definitely worth a listen. If you haven't listened to it before, head over there. [00:04:32] Speaker B: Especially the one where you guys were on, because you schooled me on this whole Disney Cruise Line thing. [00:04:37] Speaker C: We gave him a little tutorial. So for those who are interested, we gave Tom a tutorial, we'll call it a DCL101 tutorial, and answered a bunch of his questions and some listener questions about planning his first Disney cruise, which is what we're going to talk about today, and how that whole shebang went, because Tom and Karen are now back from their first Disney cruise. So welcome. Welcome to the Castaway Club, you guys. You are now Silver. Congratulations. [00:05:07] Speaker B: We have status, Karen. We've got status now. The very bottom of status, but we got still something. [00:05:13] Speaker A: Okay, we got. [00:05:14] Speaker C: Listen, you get a lanyard when you're on board. [00:05:17] Speaker A: Oh, yes. My daughter will walk. [00:05:21] Speaker B: Speaking of DVC and dcl, by the way, one of the rookie mistakes we made is that I didn't realize that if you go to the DVC stand every day, they have a different free thing every day to get. And I felt really weird about it the first time I went over there, but then the lady there was just like, you're here for the free thing. I'm like, yeah, yeah, free thing, please. Yeah. I was like, can I. Yeah, can I have the free thing? But I think I only did it like three, three days out of the seven. I think maybe. Yeah, three or four. [00:05:47] Speaker A: What do we get? Like a magnet, a hat. And. Oh, we got the reusable straws, which. [00:05:51] Speaker B: I'm pretty sure we lost. [00:05:53] Speaker A: One of them was still here, but it broke. [00:05:55] Speaker C: Well, so I will say oftentimes the gift is like the chapstick. So that's like a day you can totally skip. [00:06:03] Speaker D: The reusable straw is clutch. Have those flavored straws. And I hate those flavors. [00:06:08] Speaker B: Oh, she. Karen loved. [00:06:09] Speaker A: I loved them. [00:06:11] Speaker C: Oh, God. Hot take. Yeah, I do not like those. But they also have sometimes luggage tags. You can also get lanyards. So for DVC members, they will give you lanyards as well. Sometimes they'll show up in your room. Other times you have to get them from the desk. It kind of depends. But yeah, you can actually get a lanyard for free, even if you're. I don't have Any castaway club status if you are a DVC owner. So yeah, if you're on board a Disney cruise line ship, go to the DVC desk when they're open and you'll get free stuff. You can get free stuff every single day. But some days are better than others. [00:06:45] Speaker D: I do have to share one fun fact about the flavored straws that we learned is that they are not vegan. [00:06:52] Speaker C: They're not vegetarian. [00:06:53] Speaker D: And they're not vegetarian. And we're like, how does one put meat in a straw? [00:06:57] Speaker C: It's gelatin. [00:06:58] Speaker B: It's gelatin. Okay. I had a feeling. [00:07:00] Speaker A: Tom Dilton's nassy. [00:07:02] Speaker B: Oh, my sister and brother in law are vegetarian. Right. So. And they, we always forget. They sometimes pretend like the gelatin thing's okay because the gelatin just, you know, it's, it's in a lot of stuff. Yeah, it's hard to avoid, but yeah, that's interesting. I wouldn't have thought that, but it makes sense. [00:07:17] Speaker C: I will tell them or you can tell them that if they don't listen to our show that they, if they find kosher marshmallows. Kosher marshmallows do not have gelatin in them. [00:07:28] Speaker B: They're actually just coming back from Aulani. So I'm going to try to get my, my sister on my show to talk about Aulani, so. [00:07:34] Speaker C: Oh, nice. Absolutely. Absolutely. [00:07:36] Speaker D: Anyway, well, we got to, we got to talk about your. So this is the natural extension. You had the, the preview, you went to school on DCL with us and now you're back. And so it's time to find out how things went. Tell folks you haven't cruised before so we can dispense with the. What are your Disney cruise line creds. So this is your first cruise. [00:07:55] Speaker B: No creds. [00:07:56] Speaker D: But tell folks about the sailing that you decided to take. [00:07:59] Speaker B: Yeah, so we, so we did the. Was it seven, seven day carrot cruise. Yeah, seven days on the Treasure. And so this was back in May. This is where we took a little bit of time for us to get on here to talk to you guys. But this was back in May, so we're still pretty early on in the Treasure. Right. Like the Treasure is still brand new. This particular trip was to the Western Caribbean. So we went to Cozumel, we went to Jamaica and Grand Cayman and then Castaway. So I will tell you, Karen and I are not huge port people. I am like, I'm a little bit of a curmudgeon about this. I'm just like, all of these ports are Tourist traps. That's all they are. Right. Like, and there's a bunch of shops and they're just, you know, they're all selling you the same bracelet. And I'm not even joking though. Cozumel. We're walking around and they're like, you know, my seven year old daughter and they say to her like, oh, well, you know, what's your name? And you know, she says her name and they're like, oh, we have, we have your name in a bracelet. And and then we were like, all right, we'll buy that one. And then she gets offered the same bracelet about 20 more times as we're walking at least. So, so, like. But you know, the nice thing is we were happy staying on the ship though too. So like, we were fine with, you know. [00:09:15] Speaker D: Yeah, you got to equip her with, you know, my spelling has a silent Z in it. [00:09:21] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. [00:09:22] Speaker C: Well, let's rewind as to like, why did you choose the treasure in particular and did you choose Western Caribbean just because you wanted to steal the Western Caribbean or because you it was the week that worked in your vacation schedule? [00:09:36] Speaker B: I would say we don't really care about where we go necessarily in the Caribbean. Like if we went somewhere else, we probably care, right? But the Caribbean, it's like, we like the waters and stuff like that and the beaches and all that, that's all nice. The reason we chose the treasure specifically was because I'm a Parks guy. So this is the park ship, right? I had to see that Haunted Mansion bar. I had to like, I, I, I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do that or go to. And I mean, I'm a huge 20,000 leagues under the Sea fan. Like, that was my favorite ride when I was a kid and I was like, I gotta, I have to go to this bar. Like I can't, you know, I have to be there. So for me as a Parks person, we felt like we really wanted to do the treasure and also just it was the new shiny thing, right? So. And it was, it was a big family trip with Karen's family. And so Karen's whole family was with us. And so, you know, and they know where the Disney people. So I believe your dad asked us. He was like, well, he actually did. [00:10:33] Speaker A: He basically asked like, what, what do you think we should do? And my parents are big cruise people, especially before the pandemic. They love celebrity especially. So I, as, you know, a teenager in young 20s, I used to go with them to Europe and such. So I Definitely been on cruises before. And so they realized, like, hey, we don't really want to do like a 3, 4 night one. Especially with young kids. We want to make it worth it. And so when we found that the treasure was doing the seven nights, we're like, well, a, it's the newest ship, so it's gonna be beautiful. Was what, like five or six months old? And B, the fact that this could be a long time on the boat and really too for our kids, you know, they love the beach. So we figured those types of ports would be perfect for them. [00:11:15] Speaker C: Absolutely. Absolutely. Now tell us, Karen, how many family members were in this trip? Like, what was your entire sailing party? [00:11:23] Speaker A: So if I'm doing the math correctly, I think there was nine of us. So it was Tom and I, my daughter, my parents. We were actually celebrating a little bit early, but their 50th wedding anniversary, so that's why we were doing this trip. And then my sister, her husband, and her two kids. So we had three kids with us. A two year old, a four year old, and a seven year old. [00:11:45] Speaker B: And so three rooms in a row. Yes. [00:11:47] Speaker A: Which actually it worked out pretty nicely in the end, having that back to back, it was a lot easier to kind of shuffle around and get people together. But it was definitely a lot of people. And I'm sure we'll talk about that with some of our events that we had. [00:12:02] Speaker C: Yeah. Now, now, who was, who was the head of planning? Right. Like Tom or did you take on the planning as the Disney person? Or did you know, Karen, did you take on the planning? [00:12:13] Speaker A: I definitely did not. When it comes to Disney, I let Tom do that. I like to kind of be like the passenger princess here. [00:12:20] Speaker C: Sure. I love being passenger princess. I'm with you, Karen. Yeah. [00:12:23] Speaker A: But it's funny. My parents actually got a travel agent and so she kind of helping out with this. But then Tom was also like, oh, no, we need to do this. Especially after meeting with you guys and had a little bit of better idea of what we needed to actually get done to have a good time. [00:12:38] Speaker D: Oh, my gosh. Now I want to. Now I want to know what your travel agent disagreed with. [00:12:45] Speaker B: I don't know. She did all of the initial booking. I booked all the stuff after that. Right. So like, all of. That's a good way of putting it because there were a lot of massages going on. In fact, everyone in our party, every adult in our party got a massage. Massage on the ship. Except for me. [00:13:01] Speaker C: Nice. I love. [00:13:02] Speaker A: That was his choice. [00:13:04] Speaker B: That was my choice. I'm just saying everyone else got a massage except for me. There were massages going on. We tried to do the adult dinner for my in laws, which actually did not work out. We were not able to get that. What else did I book? We didn't even do any excursions ahead of time. [00:13:20] Speaker A: No, we actually booked it, what, like two days before. The one that we did. [00:13:24] Speaker B: Yeah, the one we did. We booked like on the ship two days before through the app for Grand Cayman. We did the submarine, you know, the half underwater submarine, which was great. We had a great time, actually. I think Cayman was probably our favorite port besides Castaway, obviously. [00:13:39] Speaker C: You were just trying to relive 20,000 leagues under the Sea. [00:13:42] Speaker B: That's what it was. [00:13:42] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. [00:13:45] Speaker B: Yeah. In a much safer way. [00:13:47] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, let's talk about getting down to the port. Did you guys pair this with any time at the parks, given that you were going out of Port Canaveral? [00:13:57] Speaker B: Of course we did. We had to. [00:14:00] Speaker A: Right? [00:14:01] Speaker B: So my mom lives about two hours from Port Canaveral. And about what, like she's like an hour, like maybe an hour and 15 minutes to Disney. Right. So we frequently, like ever since she moved there, we will drive to her house and then stay overnight and then we'll drive to Disney the next day if we're doing a Disney trip. And we did the same thing with Port Canaveral, ironically enough. My mom was also leaving for a cruise the same day that we were also from Port Canaveral at the same time. [00:14:31] Speaker C: Oh, nice. But a different terminal and a different line. [00:14:33] Speaker B: Different terminal. They were going on a royal cruise. Theirs was a 20. What was it, 23 or four days. [00:14:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:14:40] Speaker A: And they actually backed it up with a second one. Then they can go to Europe too with it. It was across the ocean once. [00:14:47] Speaker B: It was a repositioning. They went across the sea, across the Atlantic, and then they had to switch rooms and then they did like a cruise around, around Europe. So. But theirs was like 20 some days. But it was just funny because we were like, we were like, oh, we're all leaving at the same time for the same place. [00:15:03] Speaker A: We passed them on the road. [00:15:05] Speaker B: We passed them on the road on the way there because they, you know, they drive like, you know, older people do. But we actually, we did the opposite, I feel like, of what most people do. And we ended our trip with the park stuff because we were coming back on Saturday morning, you know, and this was kind of a last minute ad. I said to Karen, I said, listen, we're going to be off the ship, like really early in the morning. We can drive to Disney in an hour. Half. We can be there before some of the parks open. And we can make a whole day out of it on Saturday. And then Saturday, of course, turned into Sunday. And then so we ended up doing two days at the end of the trip, you know, and we were lucky enough to be able to secure rooms. Where did we say? Wilder's Lodge. [00:15:44] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. [00:15:45] Speaker B: One of our favorite places ever. Yeah, we got to stay at Wilderness Lodge. Yeah, we got upgraded, although it was kind of a downgrade because we went from two beds to one bed, but that's neither here nor there. We got upgraded from a studio to a one bedroom. And I said to Karen immediately, by the way, which was. Yeah, it was fantastic. It was Copper Creek, so it wasn't Boulder Ridge. It was Copper Creek, so it was Wilderness Lodge proper. And as soon as they upgraded us, though, I was like, now we have one big bed and then the pull and the pull out bed. And I was like, I know who's sleeping on the pull out bed and that's gonna be me. So. Yeah. But anyway, yeah, no, we. So we did the parks trip after, which was. Which was actually kind of great because we weren't really exhausted or anything from the cruise. We were raring to go. And, you know, we go to Disney so much that we kind of just took it easy, you know. [00:16:31] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, let's rewind to getting to the port. Yeah. So how did you guys get to the port then? [00:16:37] Speaker B: We drove. [00:16:38] Speaker C: Okay. And then. And so you parked at the port. What was your port arrival time and how did the whole check in process go? We tried to prep you a little bit, you know, have all your documents, all that kind of stuff. But how did that process go? [00:16:51] Speaker B: So that wasn't. It wasn't bad. I will say the interesting thing. So. Well, what happened was we ended up getting there way before our check in time. The reason was because my mom was leaving at the same time. My daughter got very impatient and just wanted to leave. [00:17:04] Speaker D: Right. [00:17:04] Speaker A: And also upset too. [00:17:06] Speaker B: She was getting very. She was very upset. So we were like, all right, we can go now. But just so you know, we're gonna have to stand around outside the terminal for like an hour here. Right. What was our check in time? Was it 1:15? [00:17:16] Speaker A: No, it was 12:45. [00:17:17] Speaker B: 12:45? 12:45? Yeah, 12:45. [00:17:19] Speaker A: Really? I will say it wasn't that bad of a time, honestly. [00:17:23] Speaker B: No, no. And honestly, we were. We were standing out there and we were Chatting with one of the cast members and she was like, once the rest of your party gets here, just tell me and we'll, we'll, I'll take in, you know, which I was surprised by because I thought they were a little strict about the arrival times, but seemingly not. [00:17:38] Speaker C: It very much depends if they're all caught up. Right. Like particularly at the later port arrival times, which I would call yours a later. It's not like a very late but a later port arrival time there. If as long as everything went well with clearing customs and everything's going smoothly with check in, they're going to be very, very caught up. And so it's going to be super easy to let people in a little bit early for port arrival times if they've got a port arrival time similar to yours. So I'd say at that time it's hard to get in early if you show up at 11:15 because that's when they're just starting to let people into the terminal. Although occasionally they're all caught up even then and they'll let people in early. But like I would say, the later you up, the more likely it is you can probably get in even before your port arrival time. [00:18:27] Speaker D: Well, and once they call boarding, things move very quickly because like the, they can clear the boarding hall out in about a half hour and get people on the ship and then it's just a constant flow of people coming constantly people going on. [00:18:37] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly, exactly. [00:18:38] Speaker B: Our problem was that we were the only ones there. [00:18:40] Speaker C: Right. [00:18:41] Speaker B: Everybody, everybody else was still at or at, in Orlando at their, at their hotels. [00:18:47] Speaker C: Right. So you want them all to arrive. [00:18:49] Speaker A: Yeah, it was actually, it wasn't too bad for them either. My sister and her family ended up actually doing the opposite of us and went to Disney first. So they were at Disney proper. They took private transportation. My parents had flown in the night before, took a transportation from their hotel and back. So I think my parents honestly was probably the easiest transportation for. Of all of them, my dad's the best. I'm not surprised they were the latest. [00:19:14] Speaker B: They were the latest, though they came up much later than everybody else. We actually got on the ship without them. [00:19:19] Speaker C: As long as you're in different rooms. Rooms you are. It is generally speaking, it's easier to all check in when you with a full room. I mean, you can, I think, do it separately, but it's, it's generally they most, you know, most of the time they want you to check in as a room, but even if you're linked with other parties you don't have to check in together as long as your, you know, your, your room is there and you have all your documents and somebody else isn't holding one of your passport or something like that. Right. So yeah, so you guys check in, you, you go through it eventually, obviously you go through security and all of that and you board the beautiful Disney Treasure for the very first time. Your first Disney Cruise line experience, your first Grand Hall. Karen, what did you think of the Disney Treasure Grand Hall? [00:20:04] Speaker A: Oh my gosh. I just will never forget seeing my daughter's face, honestly, like, I was taking that in mostly because I don't think she really understood how big of a ship. She beforehand was so worried the sharks were gonna eat the ship. And so for her to go in. [00:20:19] Speaker B: There and see this very concerned. [00:20:21] Speaker A: Oh my God, it was the cutest thing just watching her, she's like, oh my goodness, it was so beautiful. And I will say, you know, because I don't know, there were still quite a few people when we were getting on. It didn't feel all that crowded though because of how they were doing it. So obviously Disney knows what they're doing when they're getting people on board because it felt like there were only a few people around us and we could really be able to, you know, get a view and be able to take it all in. [00:20:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I have to say so obviously, because I pay attention to this stuff. I saw a lot of the concept art and the concept art made the grand hall look very dark. The colors look so dark. And I was like, there's no way it's this dark. And then when we got in there, it's like, okay, so that's just the concept art made it feel really dark. But obviously when we walked in, it was amazing to just to see everything, especially after seeing so many of the pictures and everything. And that whole grand entrance where they announce your name and everyone's there clapping and all that fun stuff. That was great. We had a lot of. It was really neat getting on board. And that was part of why we waited for our niece and nephew and Karen's sister and brother in law because we wanted to kind of do that all together. We thought that would be kind of nice to do. But yeah, I thought the ship was beautiful. Well, at least the grand hall was amazing. When we walked in and just all the details and everything walking around and looking at the. And Disney does this with everything everywhere, with those mosaics and everything that they have. And you know, you just know that they. Somebody handmade that. And it's just. It's. It's just, it was just. It's a beautiful ship. [00:21:55] Speaker D: We actually talked to somebody about that. Like, all of that tile work was done by hand by an artist, and, like, it's amazing. And the concept art thing is. Is a good point because I. I can't stand it when people are complaining about, oh, this ship doesn't look good. It's. It's concept art. Until you see it in person, you don't know what it's going to look like. So. [00:22:13] Speaker C: Yeah, and people have said similar things about the Destiny, although not about it being dark, but, like, there's a bunch of, you know, buzz about, oh, it very stark on the Destiny. Right. Like, it's just. It's not very ornate of decoration, concept art. You just can't, like, yeah, you can't see exactly what it's going to look like in real life until you see it in real life or maybe see videos of it. Right. Like, it's just the concept art doesn't do it justice. [00:22:38] Speaker D: Well, if you actually look at the concept art as compared to what the Treasure was like, there's a lot of differences between how they. [00:22:44] Speaker C: Absolutely. [00:22:44] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:22:45] Speaker D: Conceived it and what it. And what it looks like. Yeah. Tom, so what kind of rooms did you. You said you had three rooms in a row. Verandas or. [00:22:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:54] Speaker D: What kind of room did you book? [00:22:55] Speaker B: Yeah, so we had verandas right next to the bump. Right. So we were on. What side were we on? Car. I forget. We were on aft. Yeah, we were on aft. Well, the aft. It was the. Whatever side it was. I forget now. [00:23:07] Speaker C: Aft is the back of the ship. [00:23:08] Speaker B: Then we were aft. Port, I think, maybe. [00:23:12] Speaker C: Okay, port is the left side. If you're facing forward. [00:23:14] Speaker B: Yeah, we were on left side. Yes. [00:23:15] Speaker C: Okay, so there you go. [00:23:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I just don't remember too much. [00:23:18] Speaker C: It's okay. The way, you know, port and starboard is. Port, like, the word left has four letters. Starboard is longer, like the left. [00:23:27] Speaker B: I honestly just didn't even remember what side of the ship we were on. [00:23:30] Speaker C: Let alone port and starboard and then forward and aft. Yeah. [00:23:34] Speaker B: No, but we were on the left side of the ship. [00:23:36] Speaker C: Towards the back. [00:23:37] Speaker B: Towards the front. [00:23:38] Speaker A: We were towards the front. [00:23:39] Speaker B: Okay, we're towards the front. I forgot. We were forward. We were forward. So we're right on the edge of the bump. And so we had the verandas, and then we had. So actually we had an issue with our rooms to start off with, which is. I'm not entirely sure whose Fault it was because it still doesn't really make any sense to me what happened. Because we had our room number and then we got to our room number, we're like, this is not the right room. [00:24:00] Speaker A: Well, let me back it up though. The reason being is that we wanted my parents to be in the middle. And so that, that way with the kids, it was a little bit easier. We also wanted to have the connecting room to be my sister because she had two younger kids. It would be a little bit easier. And then us to be on the other side because our daughter is a little bit older, and then have the connecting verandas. And so when we got there, it was all jumbled up. We were in the middle. And I guess part of the reason, Tom, you can go into more detail about this is. But we ended up going down to customer service, who is really great, but in their system, it showed that the room that we eventually were in did not have the pull down bunk. And so that's why they didn't put us in that. It did, though. [00:24:42] Speaker B: I had to argue with her. She goes, Because I'm like, oh, no, the room we're supposed to be in has a pulled up bunk. She says. She's like, well, no, my computer says it doesn't. And I'm like, I was just in. [00:24:50] Speaker C: The back, I saw it in person. It has. [00:24:51] Speaker B: And she goes, she goes, well, it's in the ceiling. You can't see it. I'm like, yeah, but you can see it though. [00:24:55] Speaker C: Yeah, you absolutely can see. [00:24:56] Speaker B: Like, I know what it looks like, you know? And I'm like, yeah, the room that we're supposed to be in has the pull down bunk. I know for sure. And she was like, that's not what it says on my computer. I'm like, well, you gotta update your computer then. [00:25:07] Speaker D: Sometimes technology is wrong. [00:25:10] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:11] Speaker B: To her credit, she actually called somebody over like immediately to let them know that it was wrong in the system. So. Which was interesting because you just took my word for it. I could just be an idiot and not know anything. Right? But I mean. But yeah, I don't know what happened because we even looked at it beforehand. Like we looked at the deck maps and everything was fine. And then we got there and the rooms were in the wrong and it was just. It was weird. And we had. I didn't even tell you this, Karen. When we went to the, to the guest services desk, she says to me, she goes, you guys ordered a lot of stuff, so just so you know, you got to move all that Stuff to the other room. And I'm like, I know I ordered a lot of stuff. Okay. I'm aware of this because we did. [00:25:48] Speaker D: Did thank you for amenities. [00:25:49] Speaker C: Pre orders. [00:25:50] Speaker D: Right. [00:25:52] Speaker C: You order the decoration packages for the rooms and all that stuff. [00:25:55] Speaker B: It wasn't decoration so much. So we did the. The bag for my daughter that had, like, the hat in it. And what else was in that? [00:26:01] Speaker C: A water bottle. [00:26:02] Speaker B: Water bottle? [00:26:03] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:26:04] Speaker B: And like a purse and stuff. And so my daughter loved that. And then I also use it. She still does. Yeah. And so I. And then I also got a non alcoholic blue cider thing with chocolates and stuff for her. [00:26:16] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh, it was so good. [00:26:18] Speaker B: Well, because it had been Karen's birthday, like, the week before, so, like, we were kind of celebrating her birthday on the cruise. And so we had that. There was really only two things. I don't know what she meant. We had. [00:26:26] Speaker A: No, there was a third one. You got me the robe, which came with a rose. [00:26:30] Speaker B: That's right. I got you the robe, too, which. [00:26:31] Speaker A: That robe is like. I look at him, and this is how in shock I was. I look at him, I'm like, wait, do I get to keep this? [00:26:37] Speaker B: He's like, she's like, this is so soft. Do I get to keep this? I'm like, yeah, I bought it. [00:26:44] Speaker C: So you just had to, like, swap out the stuff. And obviously they have to switch your room keys and then make sure the right credit cards are with the right room. [00:26:54] Speaker A: Exactly. And the only other issue there was, and this wasn't really an issue, to be honest, was that we were really hoping that all three verandas could be connected so the kids could go back and forth. But because of the deck that we were on, we had the metal wall. And so only two of them could be. [00:27:11] Speaker B: Yeah, we were able to join two of them. Just not all three. [00:27:13] Speaker C: Right, right. [00:27:14] Speaker B: But you could take, like a route through the adjoining room and then come through, you know. [00:27:19] Speaker C: Yeah, there are some. That. There are some veranda walls that are not movable, and there are others that are. And so you just don't necessarily know when you're booking which one yours is and which one. So you can. There's a good chance, if you have. If you have, you know, staterooms next door to one another, that you'll be able to open it. But it's not a guarantee because not every single one of those veranda walls opens or folds back after you boarded. [00:27:43] Speaker D: We always like to ask, like, where did you go first? Did you end up doing a Sit down, Lunch or did you go to the. To Marceline's or the pool? Where'd you head? [00:27:51] Speaker B: The first thing we tried to do was go down the slide to the kids club and found out very quickly that the slide was closed. And I was very disappointed. [00:27:57] Speaker C: Aw. How can you go back at a later time to, oh, yeah, I did it later. [00:28:02] Speaker D: Yeah, don't worry. [00:28:04] Speaker A: You got to do that. [00:28:05] Speaker B: Well, when I. When I had them on my show, that was my biggest question. I was like, can I go on the slide? That's all I want to know. Can I go on the slide? [00:28:11] Speaker C: Yes, but only when it's fully open house. Only when the club is in the full open house mode. [00:28:16] Speaker B: I. I think care. What did we do for. I'm trying to remember, actually, because by the time. I think we just kind of walked around, like, we walked around a little. [00:28:23] Speaker A: Bit, and then by the time that we boarded, my parents actually ended up on there too. When we were walking around, we did end up going to our room, which, believe it or not, already had some of our bags there, which was incredible. I've never been on a cruise where literally our bags were right outside of our door. It impressive. [00:28:41] Speaker D: I honestly think they changed the. The. They changed the luggage tags recently. And I honestly wonder, because we've been noticing that, like, bags are getting on a heck of a lot faster. And so I don't know if the new tagging system is, like, helping them move luggage around a lot faster, but, yeah, we. We've had all of our bags. By the time last time we were on, I think all of our bags were there by the time the rooms were ready. [00:29:01] Speaker C: Yeah, they were just down the hall from us actually, though. They weren't actually in front of our room. They were down. [00:29:06] Speaker D: Like, we just grabbed them. [00:29:07] Speaker C: Yeah, they were down, like. Yeah, they were just. [00:29:09] Speaker A: We saw them. [00:29:10] Speaker C: Like, it's coming from the elevators. You know, you're walking down the hal. The elevators, and we saw them, like, just sitting there, just right outside of where the kind of the crew stairwell is. And so we're like, oh, perfect. And we just grab them and took them to our state room because, yeah, we know what they look like. [00:29:25] Speaker B: So someone thought you were stealing bags. [00:29:26] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Or delivering bags. You know, we'll pretend we're crew. [00:29:30] Speaker D: Well, with the number of bags you were hauling, I'm sure they did. [00:29:32] Speaker C: They probably. [00:29:32] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:29:33] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, where did you guys. Where did you guys eventually go to eat? Because at some point you're gonna get hungry. It's, you know, it's Lunchtime. Did you grab pool deck food or like. We did pool Dec. Yeah, that's the way on the Treasure. [00:29:48] Speaker B: You guys have to tell me, okay? Because I. The taco place tastes exactly like Chipotle. I don't know. [00:29:56] Speaker C: At sea, we. That's what we always say. It's Chipotle at sea. [00:29:59] Speaker B: Did Disney just rip them off? Is there, like, a secret, like, sponsorship deal going on or something? Because I swear to you, I got the exact order I get from Chipotle from that, and I could not tell. If you gave me a blind taste test, I would have not known the difference. Difference? It was exactly the same. [00:30:13] Speaker C: I don't think that they have any deal with Chipotle. Let me just put it that way. Probably they just dealing them or they just got close enough with their recipe. Right. Without actually infringing. [00:30:25] Speaker B: So I hit that up probably every day. I mean, I think I maybe had that every day after I had it the first time. Because I. And yeah. [00:30:31] Speaker A: And honestly, like, the pool deck food, I know that on previous cruises that I've been on have been like. They're just like hot dogs. Oh, my gosh. That barbecue was fantastic. Of course, the unlimited ice cream, the drinks. [00:30:43] Speaker B: I heard people raving about the burgers. Yeah. The loving. The burgers. [00:30:47] Speaker C: Yeah, Burgers are good. The burgers are good. Their pizzas, actually, especially on the wish class, I think the pizza is excellent. It's better than on. It's better than on the other ships. It's like the dough is, like, made fresh on board or whatnot. It's just. Yeah, it's just better. Yeah. [00:31:02] Speaker B: My only problem with the pizza is I felt like every time I went up there, they had no pizza. [00:31:06] Speaker C: Yes, it does. It is a bit of a. You have to wait because that pizza. People just eaten pizzas by the pound, I swear. [00:31:12] Speaker B: Yeah. There's like, people go up and it's like, I'll take that entire two pizzas that you have there, and then they just walk away. And now there's no pizzas. And yeah, it's. [00:31:21] Speaker D: They should do, like, buy the slice. And then if you want a whole pizza, they should just make you order one. [00:31:25] Speaker B: Yeah, they should make you order. Yeah. If it's like more than three slices, then you gotta order. [00:31:30] Speaker C: Listen, I like to get four slices for myself. They're like little baby slices. [00:31:34] Speaker A: Come on. They're small. [00:31:36] Speaker C: That's like a half a pizza already. [00:31:37] Speaker D: You know, Going back twice. [00:31:39] Speaker B: That's true. Yeah, that's true. I will say, I think we probably ate The. Well, no, I. We probably ate the deck food as much as we went into to Marceline. [00:31:47] Speaker D: Right? [00:31:47] Speaker B: I mean, we, we. Because we always went into Marceline for breakfast. Right? And we. I think we went there once for lunch and then all the other times for lunch. We did the deck because we were in the pool a lot. [00:31:57] Speaker C: What did you. What did you guys think, speaking of Marceline and on the topic of food, what did you guys think of the. We'll. We'll talk about main dining a little bit later. But what did you guys think of the food in Marceline and did you enjoy breakfast there? I mean, breakfast is where I loved. It is actually weaker, but. Okay, great. [00:32:13] Speaker B: I. Listen, I. To me, there's no bad breakfast. I'm a huge breakfast person and I love a breakfast buffet. [00:32:19] Speaker A: As long as there's bacon, he's happy. [00:32:21] Speaker B: Listen, if there's a make your own omelette thing, I'm good. Like, you know, and that's, you know, they got the omelettes there. They had. I mean, the kids station was great. You know, they had a nice selection. I like that they were switching it up every day. They had had like those random Benedicts every day that were different and unique that I only noticed like four days in that they were changing them out. But no, we. I thought the breakfast was great. We. I mean, we all of us enjoyed it every day, I think. Right, Kara? [00:32:46] Speaker A: I mean, yeah, I think it was really good. My only issue was that I felt like when we did go there for lunch, and maybe this is why we didn't go there all the time for lunch. I didn't feel like there was a huge, like, variety. Like, it didn't feel like for me that there was like, you know, of course they had seafood and stuff like that, but like, I'm sure that's any cruise that you go on. They can only do obviously so much, but I feel like, like breakfast, you know, they. They had obviously like different specialties, but it wasn't as. They didn't have like a. Feel like a Chinese day or like things like that where like it kind of like varied enough. Enough. [00:33:22] Speaker B: No, they. They did because we went the one time and they had like Indian food and like. [00:33:26] Speaker C: Yeah, there was like the one station. But I'm with you, Karen. [00:33:28] Speaker B: The main station. [00:33:29] Speaker C: Yeah, Yeah. I don't think that that the buffet has quite enough variety on the cruise line. [00:33:35] Speaker D: It's a place for frankly does better. Royals buffet is like much bigger and more choice. But they, but they're. I don't Think they're suffers. [00:33:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:43] Speaker C: And I don't think their food quality is as good. I think that Disney's food quality, but I think they're, they have more variety of food and their buffets are. Tend to be bigger than Disney's. But you know, to me that's the place where Disney's food is the, the weakest of, you know, on Disney food is, is the buffet. But that's not saying it's week. [00:34:03] Speaker D: But. Did you get a Mickey churro waffle? [00:34:06] Speaker A: Yeah, of course. [00:34:07] Speaker B: Yeah, of course. [00:34:08] Speaker C: You did pass away day. Absolutely. [00:34:11] Speaker B: You gotta, you gotta have the churro waffles, you know, gotta. [00:34:14] Speaker C: I mean and your kid probably had Mickey waffles multiple times. Just have the churro waffles on the, you know, on castaway day. Love that. [00:34:20] Speaker B: She just loved that she could have a lot of bacon. I mean like that was. [00:34:24] Speaker C: She takes after you, Tom. [00:34:26] Speaker B: So we're the, we're the family that like if we're on vacation there are no rules. Right. Like as far as like, you know, diet goes. As far as like we, we also. [00:34:34] Speaker C: Like, you know, you can scream, you can have as much as you want. Yeah. We're the same with, we're the same with our kiddo. Like if you want Mac and cheese for, for dinner every night, if you want a burger and french fries for lunch every day, if you want ice cream four times a day, like it's. [00:34:49] Speaker D: Your vacation or cleaning it up, so have whatever you want. [00:34:51] Speaker B: Exactly. That's you're on vacation. Like the whole point of vacation is that the rules don't matter. [00:34:56] Speaker D: Right. [00:34:56] Speaker B: Like normal life doesn't matter. Like have fun, eat, eat all the bacon you want. [00:35:01] Speaker D: That's. [00:35:01] Speaker B: That's what we want to do. Right? And so that's what I mean, that's, that's what she did. She, she loved the buffet and everything. I will say there were a couple of times we wanted to eat out on the back deck of Marshall line and it was closed often and I don't know why. I don't know if it was like windy or something or maybe we were just there super early because we also, you know, we have, we had all kids under 7 and under basically. So we were all up by 6 o' clock in the morning every single day. Like there's no sleeping in. [00:35:27] Speaker C: Oh yeah. That two and that four year old that were with you. Yeah. [00:35:29] Speaker B: Oh yeah. [00:35:30] Speaker D: Y. [00:35:30] Speaker B: So we were at breakfast by like seven. [00:35:32] Speaker C: Yeah. So it might have just not been open yet. But it might have also been the wind conditions because they don't want your. Your. Your food and your cupcake. Well, I want to jump. Yeah, I want to jump over to, like, the spaces on the ship because I know that was one of the big reasons why you guys chose to go on the Treasure. You mentioned, of course, Haunted Mansion Parlor. You mentioned Periscope Pub. We've got Skipper Society got Scat Cat Lounge as well. I mean, everything is really themed out on the Treasure. Even obviously, the grand hall is Aladdin themed. The theaters are Neverland and Wonderland themed. Like, Tom, what did you think about all the theming? Like, it was this ship everything you wanted it to be? [00:36:15] Speaker B: Where do I start? Okay, so the Haunted Mansion bar was amazing, right? We were sitting in there and I, you know, know, I, you know, when you first walk in, you. And I don't want to spoil anything for anybody, so, you know, skip ahead if you don't want to hear this. But when you get in there and you look at the paintings on the wall, right? They look so legitimately real that I thought they were just paintings. Like, I didn't think, I thought they were going to do maybe what they do with the Haunted Mansion where they, like, flash a light on it and, like, you know, things show up. Right. What I did not expect is that as you're sitting there, the paintings are going to transform and sing and do all sorts of crazy stuff. And we sat there for hours and we didn't see the same thing happen twice. And actually somebody. It's funny, somebody said to the bartenders, like, oh, you know, how long is like, the loop in here? And the guy was like, there isn't a loop. He's like, it's. It's different stuff constantly. And, and we did, we did, we did notice that I couldn't get enough of the fish, the. The skeleton fish, and the fact that they were singing along to grim, grinning ghosts. Like, I. It was killing me. It was hilarious. But also, it was just great. Our bartenders were hilarious. They were really in on it. They were. I mean, they. [00:37:22] Speaker A: They gave me so much mischief because I was, like, laughing at everything that he did. And like, he kept spraying like, the, the. The smoke gun at me in her face. [00:37:32] Speaker B: Yeah, she would. He would just go up to her face and go poof. Like, she's just like. Which was hilarious. He was just being silly. I mean, it wasn't anything mean, but, I mean. And, you know, he would, like, say, you know, like, Madame Leota would be talking. He'd be like, hey, listen. You need to listen. You need to Listen, you need to respect her. Yeah, you respect madame. You know, so, like, he, it was the, the people were really great into it. You know, obviously, it's, it's a pretty small little lounge, and the first time we went, it was pretty packed. The second time we went was on the last day, and it was dead. We were the, like, one of two. Yeah, it was great. There was no one there. It was excellent. We, we really enjoyed that. The drinks were very good. We had a lot of fun with the, with the tablet and, you know, mess around with the, with, you know, the secret menu thing, which we did order off the secret menu. And, you know, I got the, the drink that comes in the box, you know, that they open up the box and the smoke comes out and, And I. Here's the thing. I don't drink. So, like. [00:38:22] Speaker C: You got a death certificate? Yeah, yeah. [00:38:24] Speaker B: All that. Yeah. So I didn't, I don't drink typically, so I, this was, you know, I, I, I will occasionally, but I was like, all right, well, you know, we're, we're on the ship. We're on the Haunted Mansion. I can't not do this. But just all the effects in the room and just the feel they had of it, it just felt so cool. And, I mean, there was nobody. I, I feel like I enjoyed also just watching, Watching other people walk in and just be like, you know, just like, the looks on their faces was great to watch, too. We loved that. I didn't get to spend a lot of time at the Periscope Pub. Unfortunately, I did go and check it out and hung out there for a little bit. It was during hockey playoffs, so we do watch some hockey in there. It's a, you know, it's a sports bar. But the theming is incredible in that room. Even, Even, like, just like the, the, the taps, like the, the, the handles they had on the taps were like. I just was looking at all those, and I was like, this is amazing. Skipper Canteen. So should I go on my rant about this, Karen? [00:39:14] Speaker A: I think you should. [00:39:15] Speaker B: I love the Skipper Canteen. What was frustrating to me is they had the band. There was the Doublooners, right? Yeah. Right. So we walked by, and I was listening to them play, and I was like, ooh, I want to go back and listen to this. Right. And so we did. Later, after the set was over, we started talking to the singer, and she's like, oh, well, I'm not usually. Usually like, you know, the singer, usually a guitarist is. But he's sick. Whatever. So then after the cruise I decided because I was like, I really enjoyed their music. When I went and checked them out, I was like, let me look them up. I want to, you know, like, check them out. Well, they're not a real band because I've been on. We've been on other ships before, you know, not Disney ones. [00:39:54] Speaker C: Disney. Disney has so on. On some of the other ships there are some duos and quartets and trios that are. Are contracted to come on. Right. And so those are like. There's one called Soul Duo and you can find them on the on. But like the De Blooners, Victor Phonics, like those ones are Disney Cruise Line bands. And so they are disappointed they are created and put together and they don't have the same people in them every time. Right. And they are on different ships even and stuff. So like. Yeah, it's just. [00:40:29] Speaker B: I wanted more. [00:40:31] Speaker C: Sorry. They're Disney cast members. They're wonderful though. They're absolutely wonderful musicians. What did you think that the theming in Skipper Society. [00:40:40] Speaker B: I thought it was great. I wanted to spend more time there. There was a time during the day that we just kind of hung out there for a little while and just relaxed. I mean, I don't even think the bar was open at that point or anything. Yeah, we were just hanging out, just enjoying the music, enjoying the ambiance of it because it is in an interesting area. And yeah, we really liked it. I mean we're big Jungle Cruise fans so it really spoke to that. Now we didn't get any drinks there or anything. We actually just hung out there. Although you got something? [00:41:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I got a drink there. You did? I forgot. I think it was non alcoholic though. But again, I got the love straw which actually was. I really enjoyed. It was lemon flavored flavored straw. [00:41:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:41:19] Speaker A: But no, it was. It was really good. The ambiance just was fantastic. I like that during the day and we didn't actually end up getting to experience this. But I like that during the day they had a lot of kid activities. So they had drawing, they had, you know, trivia and things like that. And then they obviously had some more, you know, adult like activities later on. But it was. I like that it was kind of like in the middle of things so we could just walk by and see and we would just stop by if we had time. [00:41:44] Speaker C: Yeah, well. And I think one of the nice parts about that space is really. I think at all times of the day kids are allowed to be in that space. And so versus the other bars Right. The other bars that are in enclosed spaces. So Skipper Society is like you said it kind of in the middle, in a middle space. So you have to sort of. You actually have to walk past it to get to like the theater for example. But the other bars are really in enclosed spaces. So while they're open to kids during the day, they are not open to kids once you hit 9pm and some are never open for kids except if they are closed and you can kind of go in and just take a peek. Like Scat Cat Lounge is a good example of that. The Rose Bar is another example of that. Speaking of those spaces, did you guys spend any time in. In Scat Cat? And if so, what'd you think about it? [00:42:35] Speaker B: We wanted to. We just didn't get to it. [00:42:38] Speaker C: So lot to do on, I mean, a seven night cruise. I know it sounds like a lot. I think people think, oh, a seven night cruise, I'll be able explore every space. And it's like, no, no, there's still a ton. There's so much to do, especially if you're spending a lot of time up on the pool deck, as you mentioned, with, you know, with kids. And then of course you're spending time in the rotational dining, you're spending time at ports. Right. Like you're spending time in the theater. Right. So there's all these things to do. Karen, what were some favorite activities you guys got up to on board the ship? [00:43:08] Speaker A: Well, we actually did not do a ton of activities, I'm going to be honest. And some of that we did do bingo. Yes. Which was fun. And our daughter. Actually part of our issue though is that our daughter was not a huge fan of the kids club and so it was interesting. So we, you know, we kept hearing from people, and obviously you guys too, that you know, the kids club is great and we loved it when we got to go down there. It's amazing. I think that part of the problem was though is that because My niece was 4 and wants to do everything that my daughter does, she had to be in a separate group because she was so young. And so I don't think our daughter really got a chance to fully experience it on her own. And she's kind of shy to begin with. [00:43:49] Speaker C: With. [00:43:49] Speaker A: So not necessarily finding people. She found people in the pool, no problem. But you know, she only went down there two or three times. So Tom and I didn't really get a chance to spend a lot of time ourselves. And when we did, we were looking at the artwork, you know, we were buying Art shocker. Or actually, we didn't end up buying. [00:44:06] Speaker B: We didn't buy art. Your parents. Your parents bought art. [00:44:09] Speaker A: You know, we didn't get a lot of chances to do other types of activities. And that's something that I think next time I really want to explore a little bit bit more. [00:44:17] Speaker B: One of my daughter's complaints, and I understand her on this, is that there was almost too many open houses. There was almost constantly either an open house or where they had one or two of the rooms closed. And so she would go down and she was like, well, why am I down here? This room's closed. I want to be in that room. Or this room's closed. And it seemed to be every day they had these rooms closed off for a certain amount of time. And I didn't love that. It was a little. I don't know, it just felt weird because it. And I understand what they were doing. Like, they were doing, like, you know, character meet and greets in those places. But it was. My daughter just was like, well, you know, like, the room I wanted to be in was closed, or, you know, this. A bunch of these other ones were closed. And so that was where she. And, you know, there were like, several open houses during it where, like, she, you know, we couldn't leave her there too. So that was really. It's funny because I think I said to you before you went, Karen, I was like, everyone's saying that your kid's never going to want to leave the kids club. And I was like, I know our kid, and she's going to be the exception. Like, she just is like. [00:45:13] Speaker C: And now we try and tell people, People that. That there are. I don't think it's a universal, like, the kids club is awesome, hands down. That does not mean that your kid is going to want to stay there. It. It can be very overwhelming and very chaotic. There are some organized activities, but a lot of it's not organized. A lot of it is like, just on your own, do whatever you want. If your kid is a little bit more shy or easily overwhelmed, or if they're with siblings or cousins that are in a completely different age cohort, whether that means in the same club or even different club, like, those are the things that are going to impact the experience and perhaps may not make your kid want to stay. If you have a super extroverted, outgoing, friendly child who is like, the leader of the pack, that's the kid who's gonna love the kids club and not want to leave. So, like. But it just It. So it depends on the kid's personality. And I think most people like have some idea of which category their kid fits into. Our son, when we first started cruising, was not in. Into the kids club, but then a couple years into us sailing on Disney, then became totally obsessed with the kids club. But he was a little bit old by the time he was obsessed with the kids club. I think he was about 8. So perhaps your daughter in a little bit. She might. And you know, it just kind of also, the more exposure, the more comfortable she might feel that sort of a thing. So it very much absolutely varies. [00:46:39] Speaker D: I want to ask about entertainment on board and I want us to start with. I'm not going to do shows because. [00:46:45] Speaker C: No, you can do shows. [00:46:47] Speaker D: I know where I want to start. I want to start with Sam's other favorite entertainment topic on the Treasure, which is. Did you catch any of sage and coriander? And what did you think? [00:46:56] Speaker B: No, no, we did not. Listen, we. Our daughter is a pool addict, man. So we were at the pool almost like non stop. [00:47:06] Speaker C: You couldn't be down in the h. In the grand hall because you're up on the pool. [00:47:09] Speaker B: Yeah, no, we were literally, I mean, anytime we were. I mean, really, the. Pretty much the whole time we were. We were in the pool. I mean, it's. And occasionally, obviously we went to go get lunch and stuff like that. And we, we did a few other things like bingo. [00:47:20] Speaker A: But like characters and stuff. [00:47:22] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we did. You know, we, you know, did a million characters because it's like just, you know, character round robin going on. Like, it's just like, oh, there's another character. [00:47:29] Speaker D: There's another. [00:47:30] Speaker B: But outside of that, we didn't. We were so. We were so on the pools and you know, and I. I'm trying to think of if we even saw anything other than like doing B and then doing the main shows and then, I mean, pushing to the sail away party. [00:47:45] Speaker A: Yeah. I feel like this is like when we went to Disney for the first time together. Right. Because there's everything you want to see, everything you want to do. I understand why people want to keep coming back for more while you guys continuously, no matter how many times you've been on the boat, because there's always something else to see. There always will be new things. And so I know the next time we're not going to be as obsessed maybe with, you know, looking at every piece of artwork because, hey, you know, I know every boat is different ship. Sorry. I know every ship is dead. [00:48:14] Speaker C: It's okay. [00:48:14] Speaker B: We forgot the Aquamouse a thousand times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We, we. I mean, we. [00:48:20] Speaker D: Did you, did you enjoy the Aqua? Did you do the Aqua? [00:48:22] Speaker B: Oh, we loved it. [00:48:22] Speaker A: Oh my gosh. Yes. [00:48:24] Speaker D: Did you get to see all three shows? Did you get to see all three shows of the. [00:48:28] Speaker B: Of. Of. You're saying of the Aquamouse? [00:48:31] Speaker A: Yes. [00:48:31] Speaker B: I didn't know that there was different shows. They all seem the same to me. I. I don't know. [00:48:35] Speaker A: There's different shows. [00:48:36] Speaker D: Yeah. They have the, the Kraken, the Yeti. [00:48:39] Speaker B: I think I saw the Kraken. [00:48:40] Speaker A: We only saw the Kraken cracking. Yeah. [00:48:42] Speaker B: Ah, yes. [00:48:42] Speaker C: So they, they change them. They rotate through. [00:48:46] Speaker D: Sometimes there's a little movie poster outside the attraction that shows you what's playing that day. [00:48:52] Speaker A: Though if they only showed the cracking because we went on multiple days and that's all we saw. [00:48:56] Speaker C: But they do show multiple. Like sometimes they'll change it every. Every day. Sometimes they'll change it every couple days. Sometimes you. If you, if you went every single day, day, I guarantee you would have seen all three of them. But you might have to go every single day in order to see all three of them. [00:49:16] Speaker D: The only one you can get on the Treasure, you can't get on the others is the Curse of the Golden Egg. [00:49:19] Speaker C: The Golden Egg, yeah. [00:49:21] Speaker A: I'm so excited about that. [00:49:22] Speaker C: Yeah. The Wish has the Kraken and the Yeti versions, but doesn't have the Golden Egg version. And then the Destiny will have all three as well. I don't think it'll have a fourth one. [00:49:36] Speaker E: Are you listening to our show because you want to make the most out of your next vacation. Great news. The fabulous team over at MyPath Unwinding Travel can help guide you so you don't miss a thing. Their team of professional travel advisors are caring, knowledgeable and experienced. It's why we use them to book our own travel. My Path Unwinding Travel is an authorized Disney vacation planner, which means they are recognized by Disney for their expertise and service. They have sailed on all the Disney ships, including in concierge, visited the theme parks, Adventured with Disney, Relaxed at our 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 mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email DCLDUOMYPATHunwinding.com so they know we sent you you their way. Thanks my path unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode. [00:50:34] Speaker C: Oh, look at your cute dog. [00:50:36] Speaker B: Our dog's just jumping into the scene here. [00:50:37] Speaker C: I love it. I love it. [00:50:39] Speaker B: Get out of there, dog. No, but we, we. I think it took probably three days for my daughter just to work up the courage to do it. And then once she did it, she wanted to do it non stop. So we probably didn't do it the first three days. We did the other water slide, which I actually got stuck on at least twice. [00:50:53] Speaker C: Rex, it's not meant for adults. Let me put it out there. [00:50:56] Speaker B: Well, so I, I, I wear swim shirts. I wear swim because I don't like putting sunscreen all over myself. So I wear swim shirts. But the swim shirt just got me stuck. Like, I just literally got stuck, like, and I was like, all right, now I just got to rip this thing off and then I'll be fine. And which I was. And it was fun. But yeah, we got stuck on that several times. But Aqua Mouse was great. We had a lot of fun doing that. My daughter did it, I don't know, probably 10, 15 times. [00:51:19] Speaker A: Did it with my father too. [00:51:20] Speaker C: It was great to put this out there. The Slidosaurus Rex. Adults are allowed to go on it, but it is not meant for adults. [00:51:27] Speaker B: I'm going to put it out there. [00:51:28] Speaker C: Because I have done, I have gone, gone on it. And I got doggy butt scoot stuck. I had to scoot down. Yeah. [00:51:35] Speaker B: Oh, it hurt my back too. I, I never felt older than when after I did that thing a couple times because I was like, oh, man, this is, this is not good. [00:51:42] Speaker C: All right, well, we got it. We got to jump back to entertainment and ask you guys about the shows. You guys are parks people. You. There's plenty of shows in the parks these days. Karen, you gotta, you gotta tell me, what did you think about, did you go to all three shows? And when I say three shows, I mean the main stage shows, the Disney, Walt Disney Theater shows. I don't mean like the magician or variety act, although those sometimes are fantastic as well. So no shade on those. I just mean the Disney productions. [00:52:13] Speaker A: So we went to. Tom and I went to three. We went to the two main shows and then we also saw a jazz group. My parents and my sister actually went to see the two singers that were from Broadway and did all like the music. I'm sad that I missed I am a theater girl at heart. I used to do theater, and so that kind of made me a little bit sad. I will say, though, Beauty and the Beast and Moana, they know what the heck they're doing. It was on point. It was. [00:52:45] Speaker B: Is there any doubt in that? No. [00:52:47] Speaker A: I mean, let's be real. It was. Beauty and the Beast was really great. I've seen it so many times. I was in it in high school as well. Saw it on Broadway. They did a really great job. My only issue, and this is just me personally, I'm really sad that they did the new version. You know, the Emma Watson version, that's what I call it. Because I just. I don't like the storyline as much, but that's just, you know, personally, me. [00:53:08] Speaker C: But yeah, it is a retelling of the live action version. It's not. It's not. Which is a little bit different than the original animated. [00:53:17] Speaker B: I like that version better. I like that. I liked it. I like what they added to the story there. But that's. [00:53:22] Speaker A: Yeah, the nostalgia thing for me was it. [00:53:24] Speaker C: I feel it. [00:53:26] Speaker A: Moana. Can I just tell you though, that I. I sat next to my nephew. I have never seen this Char child so still in his life. [00:53:36] Speaker B: He was so glued. [00:53:38] Speaker C: Is this the four year old? [00:53:40] Speaker A: No, the two year old. [00:53:42] Speaker B: Yeah, the two year old. [00:53:44] Speaker A: My goodness. He actually, the four year old ended up falling asleep. [00:53:49] Speaker C: It was her every time. [00:53:52] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. But my nephew, like, watching his face, especially when Maui came out, I like, I'm getting emotional thinking about it because it is just the cutest thing. And he was like the whole time. And that just. I mean, that just shows a lot that, like, you know, it's what, like an hour and 15 minute show? Something like that. And they. I mean, when we got back, we had to watch like behind the scenes of it because of just like them getting it prepped. The sets were absolutely incredible. I still don't understand how they did Te Fiti. I just. I don't get how they did it to Kahn Taffiti and all that. It just. It was incredible. [00:54:28] Speaker B: I remember you're sitting next to me and as. As Taka is like coming on the stage and like moving the way it was, you literally turn to me and you go, how are they doing that? Because it just looked. It looked so real and it looked. It was so well done and so like, you know, it looks so true to the movie. And then just that transformation from Takat to Defiti was like. It was beautiful to watch that happen in front of your face and still not really understand how it all happened. It was. It was really pretty amazing. [00:54:57] Speaker C: Love it. Love it. [00:54:58] Speaker B: I will tell you, though, show up early for that one. [00:55:01] Speaker C: Oh, yes. [00:55:02] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. [00:55:02] Speaker C: We show up early for. So for Seize the Adventure is probably the one you don't really need to show up early for, because they have it on the Wish. It's a wonderful show. It's actually shorter than the others. It's a. It's a really good show, but it's only maybe 35 minutes long. But I would say for Beauty and the Beast and for Moana, you need to show up early for both of those. Beauty and the Beast, they have on the Dream, but it is still very popular, and it's arguably one of. I mean, it's one Awards. That production, in particular, the cruise line. [00:55:31] Speaker D: One for Moana, at least they'd started adding in, like, matinees and such during the day. [00:55:36] Speaker B: That was the. That was the bad one. That was the one we went to. We showed up 45 minutes early to get in line for that one because it was castaway key day when they had it, and we showed up 45 minutes early. We're like, oh, we'll be good. We showed up a half hour early to Beauty and the Beast. We were, like, literally right at the door. We showed up 45 minutes early to Moana. The line was all the way to the back of the ship already for the matinee, and we were like, oh, we're doing the right thing here. Because we're like, oh, we're. We're getting. We're doing the early show, like, you know, where I cast away key. A lot of people just stayed on the island, right? Like, nobody will be here. And then, you know, we were like, way back in the line. And I'm like, oh, man, we probably should have gotten earlier now, too. [00:56:14] Speaker C: You know why, though? It's because. So castaway day is your last day on the ship, right? So it's the last day on the ship, and a lot of people are worried about getting packed up. And if you have younger kids, kids, you know, like, you were with younger kids, right? I mean, your daughter is young, but you're the niece and nephew are even younger. You're not staying up for that late show, or it's going to be hard to keep them up for that late show. And so a lot of people are like, okay, we. We're gonna cut our castaway day short and go to Moana. So I think that's where. I mean, that's why it's so important for the cruise line to continue to have that. That. That earlier show, because otherwise a lot of people would be disappointed because they would miss out on. On the show, so. Absolutely. Well, I'm glad you guys loved the shows. [00:57:01] Speaker D: I want to shift us over to main dining. So three restaurants. 1923, Worlds of Marvel and Coco. What did you think? Let's start with. Let's start with 1923. The sort of the blandest of the bunch. What did you think of 1923? [00:57:16] Speaker B: Classy. We enjoyed the food there. We enjoyed the ambiance. It's nice. It was just a chill spot. We really liked it. All the food we had there was good. You know, we had nice seats right by the windows. So, yeah, I can't, you know, 1923 was fine. The food was good. Can't complain, right, Kara? I mean, you know. [00:57:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I really liked it. Of course, our last night, you know, having lobster, my mom decided to order two. It was hilarious. [00:57:41] Speaker B: I mean, that's what you do, though. That's. That's the right. She made the right decision there. [00:57:44] Speaker A: She totally did. And I actually. I really regretted not getting a second one. It was so good. Yeah, no, I thought. I thought 1923 was great. Our server was absolutely fantastic. He was so good with the kids. I'm not surprised. Our head server, he was phenomenal. There were multiple times where my nephew. In the beginning, we ended up. We had him in dinners with us, but then they started to realize that he was just really struggling. He was tired, so they ended up putting him in the nursery during that time. And so it ended up actually being a lot better, to be real. And, you know, I'm sad that he missed out on some of it, but he just wasn't enjoying it being two years old, so. But, you know, our head starter just, you know, he kept coming over. There were times that our kids were falling asleep. He checked on us, you know, just making sure. Like, he even offered to bring over another chair, a blanket. [00:58:31] Speaker B: You know, that's the biggest extra tip of all the crew members. [00:58:35] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. Usually the. Usually the head server is the one that I kind of don't leave much extra for, because usually he's only a factor if you're having a problem. And then it's like he factors in and he's. And then I. I will give him an extra tip if he solves a problem that we're having. So. Yeah. [00:58:50] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:58:50] Speaker B: So if. If we could probably have any complaint about this cruise. It was actually the Service, which it was shocking to us because we, you know, it's Disney service. You, you expect, you know, really great things and it wasn't. [00:59:03] Speaker D: Our. [00:59:04] Speaker B: Our main server was fantastic. Really great. Head server was great assistant server. We went very long periods of times without drink refills and we would, Our assistant server just disappeared. Like he would take our orders and then just disappear. Half the time we didn't get our drinks until after our food had already come. And I mean, and that was frustrating for us because, you know, like, listen, I, I don't want to have to ask for a drink refill like three times. Like, that's. You know what I mean? So, like, that was a. Probably our only complaint and that's probably why we interacted with the head server so much because he could. There was obviously something going on. I don't, I don't know what. And our assistant server also seemed like he didn't know what was going on. [00:59:40] Speaker A: Yeah, we figure out, we did come to figure out though, the fact that, you know, with their contracts that we could have, or we actually were on when they recently switched over. [00:59:50] Speaker B: They might have recently switched out because it was right six months after and. [00:59:54] Speaker A: Maybe not necessarily knowing, maybe this was even his first cruise. And so for us, yeah, that honestly was the only complaint of the cruise. [01:00:02] Speaker B: But I mean, like, what struck me, like the first night we were there, right? So like somebody asked him, like, well, what. What beer do you have? And he was like. And you had no idea, like, just had it. And then he had to go find out. And it's like, she kind of know that. You know what I mean? [01:00:16] Speaker C: Like, that tells me he's brand new for sure. Yeah. [01:00:18] Speaker D: Our assistant server on the maiden voyage was. Was tossed off in port. They were doing well. [01:00:25] Speaker C: He was also brand new. [01:00:26] Speaker B: Yeah, we gave them a pass on that. Like, listen. And there were also a couple times where our food took a really long time to come out and came out cold. That happened, I don't know, a couple times in all of the restaurants. But listen, the food was good overall. Like I said, our server was great with the kids. He was making them laugh and everything. I don't think it was his fault and I don't think it was. The assistant server clearly just didn't know what was going on and. [01:00:50] Speaker D: Yeah. Did you have late dining or main dining? [01:00:53] Speaker A: Main. [01:00:54] Speaker B: Early. Yeah, we had the early dining. [01:00:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Which was. [01:00:56] Speaker B: So our kids crashed by seven o'. Clock. All the kids were crashed by seven. So, yeah, it's. [01:01:01] Speaker D: What did you think of Worlds of Marvel. We'll save Coco for last. What'd you think of Worlds of Marvel? [01:01:06] Speaker B: So I loved Worlds of Marvel, right? So I thought it was a lot of fun. I liked the interactivity of it. I have to say the funniest part about this. We were talking about my daughter thinking that sharks were going to eat the ship. Well, on the first night, when all the stuff is happening, you know, where they. Again, spoiler alert, they shrink the ship. My daughter actually thought the ship. The ship had been shrunk. So she was very concerned about it. And then, you know, all. [01:01:31] Speaker C: Can I tell you, that's like the cutest thing ever. [01:01:33] Speaker B: It was adorable. Listen, it was adorable. [01:01:37] Speaker C: So done. [01:01:38] Speaker B: Well, it reminded me of when we went to Space220 at EPCOT. And we're going up the elevator and my daughter goes, are we really going to space? And of course, me being me, I go, yeah, we're going to space. [01:01:49] Speaker C: Of course we're going to space. [01:01:51] Speaker B: And then, and then she starts getting kind of freaked out. And then, and then Karen says to her, she goes, she goes, no, we're not really, sweetie, it's pretend. And then she gets more upset because now it's pretend. She really wanted to go to space. There's like no winning here. [01:02:04] Speaker A: She's also the child, though. We're watching Fantasmic today because I saw a really cool TikTok of the player in Magic Kingdom playing on the piano. And so I was like, oh, we have to watch, right? And she's like, mommy, I know how they did that. They totally had like a little trapdoor. [01:02:18] Speaker B: I'm like, the magic. [01:02:20] Speaker A: You're seven years old, come on. [01:02:22] Speaker B: But yeah, so she thought it was real and that was. It was cute, but it was also like, you know, she was freaking out a little bit. The aesthetics of the restaurant are amazing. The effects that happen, the interactivity that happens. We like the food there too. We actually. One of the nights we got like a, like a. Somebody got a drink drink. And the glass that it was in, like, my brother in law, he's like, I want this glass. And he's like, I gotta find out where they got this glass from. Because it was like really cool. It was like, you know, I don't even know how to describe it. But then we said something to the waiter, like, you know where they get these glasses from? And the waiter, no joke, he said, I didn't see anything. If it disappears. [01:02:58] Speaker C: Exactly. [01:02:59] Speaker B: And I was like. I looked at my brother in law, I'm like, listen, I'm not stealing It. But if you feel like stealing it, that's up to you. You go to steal it if you want. [01:03:08] Speaker C: Listen, all you have to do is walk out with it because you haven't finished it, right. You haven't finished your drink and you take it back to your room and like. [01:03:15] Speaker D: Yeah, it's not stealing. [01:03:16] Speaker C: There are some. [01:03:16] Speaker D: There are some glasses there where they pour it. They pour it into another cup where they're like. They're like. They're like, no, no, no, that can't leave the bar. [01:03:24] Speaker C: Those are usually. But those are usually like. So at the rows. There are certain places where they have special glasses and so they'll. Yeah, and hooks. Yeah, so they'll. Where they'll pour something into a different glass for you. But not in main dining. That's not really a thing. [01:03:36] Speaker B: I will say the second night was fun too, because they were doing Guardians of the Gal. And so as soon as I heard that that was the case, I was like, oh, this is going to be fun music while we're sitting here. But it was also fun, like the little trivia game they did with the things on your table. So we liked the interactivity. It kept the kids really entertained. It kept me entertained. I mean, I say the kids, but I was entertained by it too. And then also Spider man running around at one point. My only complaint about Spider man, and I don't think that there's any way they can fix this, is like Spider man was running to each table and was there for a hot second. You take a picture and he runs through the next table. But I get why that's the case. It's a huge restaurant. You know, you can only. There's only one Spider man, right? So it's. He's got to get to all those people very quickly. [01:04:13] Speaker D: He's got to do one half at a time. They stagger the shows so that he can go from one side to the other. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:04:20] Speaker B: So it's. We. [01:04:21] Speaker C: Like. [01:04:21] Speaker B: I liked Worlds of Marvel, although I will say I think that was probably your parents least favorite, maybe because they're not really into the superhero stuff. [01:04:28] Speaker A: So I think. And my. My mom actually was a little concerned with the. The little ones that they were getting a little afraid for the first show. The second show is great. Like, I honestly, the second show, the music was fantastic. The trivia, like you said, it was funny. I don't think that my daughter and niece really understood what was happening the first night. But I get, you know, you obviously have to play to everybody, so it. [01:04:49] Speaker B: Does bother me that Bradley Cooper can't be bothered to voice Rocket for the, for the cruise ship. I mean, clearly not him. [01:04:56] Speaker D: Anyway, sorry, what about, what about Coco? Coco's our last restaurant. [01:05:00] Speaker A: Oh my gosh. [01:05:00] Speaker B: I think Coco was our favorite. [01:05:02] Speaker A: Tom did such a great job because he was able to get us a table closer to the stage. We are actually right near the kitchen. And so we had like the wall which was nice. So we had a little bit separate area. Well, Coco is one of my favorite movies to begin with. Just the music is incredible. Our daughter was so mesmerized by the music. She literally stopped just every time they would come on. It was amazing. The food. I really personally, I think that was one of my favorite places was the food there. It was incredible. The one funny thing though was the lighting. Tom was sitting next to my brother in law at one point and they were looking at their food and then looking at like down the row and it looked different. And apparently because of the lighting just like, it was kind of like an orangey yellow. It looks so different. [01:05:50] Speaker B: Yeah. And it made the food look really weird. And I'm looking at this food, I'm like, it's like this food looks weird. And then I would take it out. [01:05:55] Speaker C: Of the light and I'm like, yeah, you moved it. And it looked just fine. I was like, this looks great. [01:06:00] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean. So I was really pumped for the croquettes there. Cause I love croquettes. And I was really excited to have those. And those were just delicious. They had a them. [01:06:07] Speaker C: I did not like those. [01:06:08] Speaker B: I liked them. I, I like them. I thought they were really good. I, they were different than ones I'd had before, but they were good. I, I liked them. I, I also liked. I got, I got a dessert that was like a chocolate cake that was also spicy. It was kind of. It was really interesting. It was. Right. It wasn't a chocolate cake. I. Yeah. And it was like, like a little. [01:06:25] Speaker A: Bit of chili or something in it. [01:06:26] Speaker C: Yeah. Like a Mexican chili aftertaste though. [01:06:31] Speaker B: Like you didn't taste it up front. Like they. [01:06:32] Speaker C: Yeah, it's just the heat on the back end. Yeah. [01:06:35] Speaker B: Yeah. And. But the entertainment I think at Coco was the best by far. The, the singing, the dancing, the costumes, all of that was really fantastic. The way the entire restaurant is decorated is impeccable and just, and just fantastic. I mean it just. We, we really loved going there. We had a, had a beautiful restaurant. It was. And just, you know, the singers were great. The, the musicians were great. I Mean, mean. It was all around. That was just a great experience. In fact, it's funny because I was just talking to my daughter. I said, you know, was that your favorite restaurant on the ship? And she was like, yeah, you know, this is my favorite because she was enamored. She sat at the end of the table every time so she'd be closer to the stage so she could watch the dancers and the singers and everything. So, yeah, it was just. It was great. [01:07:16] Speaker A: It's interesting though too. When we were there the first night that we were there, it was actually really rocky on the boat. That was probably the only time that it was pretty rocky. We had had some. Some wind and whatnot. It was actually cooler where we were than in Florida, which was really shocking to us in the Caribbean. [01:07:33] Speaker B: It was cooler. [01:07:33] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:07:34] Speaker A: I will say though, I don't know what they did, how they formed, you know, the restaurant, but you can barely feel it in that restaurant. And knowing that like where you were on the ship, you would think that you would have been able to feel it. And I was getting nervous before we went to dinner because I'm like, nobody's going to want to eat because it's so rocky. And like, it was, it was. [01:07:52] Speaker B: I thought I felt it more in that restaurant than any other restaurant. But that's. I mean, than any other place. Place on the ship. But that's neither her nor that. By the way, one of the times it was really rocky, we were walking by our room and we just. The captain just is right there and walking very quickly down the hallway and I'm like, that feels concerning. The ship's rocking back and forth and we just like, all of a sudden the captain pops up and I look at his tag and I'm like. I was like, oh, that's like the captain. But we were. I think we were on the same deck as the bridge. Yeah, I think we're on the same deck as the bridge. [01:08:21] Speaker A: So we were on the same deck. And I will say, Tom, should we tell them about what happened the. In. In the middle of the night? [01:08:26] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, we should talk about that. You didn't ask us this, but we got woken up at like 4:30 in the morning with an announcement to the whole ship that said, red team, Red team, report to incinerator room level, whatever. And I was like, I woke up and I'm like, okay, Red team, incinerator room sounds like there's a fire. Like, right? And. And I wasn't that concerned about it. Cause they figured they. And I know that They, I think they had a fire previously already on the, in the incinerator room and it went out and it wasn't a big deal, but it was like 4:30 in the morning. They announced it to the whole boat. Everybody woke up and it was a whole thing. And then maybe a little bit later I think the captain came on and awkwardly was like, everything's fine, don't worry. He was like, we had a situation earlier but all is fine. He didn't give any details about it. But again, red team and incinerator room I just assume means fire, but I. [01:09:17] Speaker D: Think we had that happen on one of our sailings. And like they're obligated to come through the state rooms about it. Yeah, and, and like. Yeah, yeah, they're, they're obligated. Yeah. And so like they, and they're obligated for that. I think also sometimes medical emergencies in the middle of the night, they broadcast all ship. So like it's usually only an emergency, but I think the captain came on later in the evening for us too and was like, everything's fine. [01:09:44] Speaker B: Everything'S good. [01:09:45] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:09:45] Speaker B: So a lot of people were mad because, you know, woke all the kids up and you know, and, but I was like, and like, why didn't they just announce it to like you know, the staff or the, the crew rooms? But it's like we figured they probably like legally had to announce it to the whole ship if there's something like that going on. And truthfully I'd rather they announce it to the whole ship if that means they're going to, you know, take care of whatever's going on quickly, you know. [01:10:05] Speaker D: All right, well, we normally don't dive deep into this and actually, actually before I do this, Tom, I just have to know the answer to one question. Did you go to hooks and get an old fashioned? [01:10:14] Speaker B: I did not. Although my brother in law did it. My, yeah, they did. I, I'm not a drinker, so I, I, I didn't. But I, I, they actually knew about it. This was a thing I didn't know about. They didn't know about that. They went and did. And they were, I mean, didn't, I think they were very pleased with what they got. [01:10:31] Speaker A: They were, they said that that was the best that they fashioned on the ship. [01:10:34] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I did not. Unfortunately, I'm not a drinker, so I just, you know. [01:10:38] Speaker D: No, fair enough, fair enough. Well, okay. We normally don't deep dive on castaway because, you know, the focus is on the ship. But since this is your first trip to Castaway. Castaway. It's like, you know, the reason to go on Disney Cruise Line forever was to get to Castaway Cay. So what did you think of Castaway? [01:10:55] Speaker B: We loved it, I would say, right? [01:10:57] Speaker A: I mean, I'd go back in a heartbeat. [01:10:59] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean honestly, we had friends that just did a cruise on the Magic a couple weeks ago and they did both the islands and like Nassau. And I was like, that sounds like an ideal cruise to me because like we, you know what I mean? Those are ports we actually want to go to is the island. Like that's where we'll spend the day. But we loved Castaway. We got off the ship very early so we could get a decent chair. We wanted to make sure we actually had tried because we don't have any status. We couldn't get ourselves a cabana. We were going to get a private cabana we just couldn't get right. So we got off early though. We got to the beach first of all. Yeah, no problems. But as Karen mentioned, it was kind of cold. This was early, early May. We walked into the ocean and I was like, woof, this is, this is freezing. And if there was an. As I was making those comments, there was another, an older lady there from. And she goes, I'm from Florida. She goes, this is like ice cold to me. She's like, I'm used to, you know, it being warmer than this. But we really enjoyed the food on Castaway. Actually. We, we thought the food was really good. And we had some really great conversations with a couple crew members while we were over there as well. I will say. We did snorkeling. So we, we did go snorkeling. Interestingly enough. They had the regular. The first part of the snorkeling bay was actually closed because they had a fuel spill that they were cleaning up, which we watched them clean up. I don't know why fuel spilled into the snorkeling bay, but whatever. We did see a pretty quickly though. They did. Yeah, they did. We saw Stingray which was pretty cool. And then my daughter did it too. My 7 year old daughter actually, you know, did the snorkeling. It took a while for my wife to convince her to do it. But we got out to Dumbo and what else did we see? [01:12:41] Speaker D: We see. [01:12:41] Speaker B: We saw Dumbo. I think we saw Minnie. [01:12:43] Speaker A: Minnie. We didn't go all the way out though because at that point Tom had gone. [01:12:48] Speaker C: It is a very long swim. [01:12:49] Speaker B: It's a very long swim. Yeah. And I had already been in there for, like, three hours. [01:12:52] Speaker A: Exactly. Because I. I did have to. I had to convince her quite a bit. And to be fair, I think that she and I should have gone sans the flippers, because I think that was part of the issues for me. I know that was definitely the issue. It was kind of like weighing me down a little bit. But besides that, like, she loved it. She loved being able to see the fish. That was really, really cool. She actually was really upset that we had to leave the island now that. [01:13:17] Speaker B: We left early to go see Moana. [01:13:19] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, then we also do the slide, though. [01:13:22] Speaker B: We did do the slide. [01:13:23] Speaker D: Yeah. The water not being warm, you know, like, being cooler out also explains why there's more people back on the ship. Because, like, if that island is, like, if it's just the perfect day, like, no one leaves. [01:13:33] Speaker B: No one leaves. Yeah, it. I mean, it was not cold, but I mean, like, the air temperature was what, maybe low 80s, which was comfortable. But it's funny because as soon as we walked off the ship, when we got back to Port Canaveral, we were like, ugh, like, like, the Caribbean was so nice. Humidity was low, the temperature was nice. We get to Florida, it's 90 degrees and 100,000% humidity. And so, like, it just was, it was, it was rough. But I mean, we loved Castaway, though. We had a great time. Like I said, we really enjoyed the food too. Um, we had a great time with the crew members there. We, our brother in law did the. What do you do, the 5K or whatever. 5K that. On the, on the island. Which, you know, I'm not going to do that because I'm on vacation and I don't want to do anything that involves exercising and I want to do nothing. I want to do nothing. What else did we do? Oh, yeah. So we did the slide. The slide was fun. Although I will say I. It's six feet of water at the bottom of the slide, and you. You don't really think about that as you're doing it. And so, you know, I, you know, I can. I could swim and everything, but I, I hit the water and I was like, whoa. Like, I actually have to swim to, like, get back up again and then wait for my daughter to come down, who I. Even though she was wearing a life jacket, I knew she was going to freak out after she hit the water, but that was a lot of fun. What else did we do on Cast Away? I'm trying to remember. [01:14:48] Speaker A: My niece and nephew did go over to the splash pad. Area, which was nice. They enjoyed that. But again, you know, I feel like there wasn't enough time because we did go back on the boat. If we had, you know, the next time, you know, that we go, because we're going to go again. Let's be real. I would love to stay a little bit longer. Like I said, our daughter was just happy just staying in the water. She was looking at fish, you know, just being able to enjoy that. And as Tom said, we talked to some amazing crew members there too. Just kind of learning about their experience, which was really nice because they were just all around. I will say. I know. Don't know if this was your suggestion, but we went to the second tram stop, which was so much better. It was a lot more open. It didn't feel as crowded, and that was perfect for us. [01:15:36] Speaker B: It might have been their suggestion, but I definitely took credit for it. [01:15:41] Speaker C: You know what? Keep it. Tom. You can. [01:15:46] Speaker D: There's not second tram stop. Tm, you're good. [01:15:48] Speaker B: It might have been inception on your part. Like, you might have, like, put it in my brain. And then I like, was like, this is my idea now. Clearly my idea. [01:15:56] Speaker D: Well, it sounds like an amazing cruise, but we have reached that point in the show where I need to subject you to Sam's arbitrary questions. Arbitrary rules and a dash of judgment are the round we call Rapid Fire. So, Sam. [01:16:12] Speaker C: All right, you guys, I'm just gonna. We're gonna do. We don't have a ton of time, so I'm gonna give do a short version of Rapid Fire. We're gonna talk Disney cruise line favorites only. But I'm gon the first question for you. I'm going to be asking you each the same question, and you're each going to answer with your favorite. Not each other's favorite, not your daughter's favorite, your brother in law's favorite, or anything like that. I just want your individual favorites. Okay. But I'm going to start with what's your favorite ship? And the answer is the Disney treasure, obviously. [01:16:42] Speaker B: Yeah, clearly. Yeah, Actually, no, I think it might be the magic. [01:16:49] Speaker C: You. You are not allowed to pick a ship that you haven't sailed on, Tom. So you're breaking the rules. These are my rules. Okay, all right, fair enough. We're going to start with what is your favorite Disney cruise Line Main Stage show. And because you saw Beauty and the Beast and Moana, those are your two choices. Tom, which one was your favorite? [01:17:05] Speaker B: Moana was really great. [01:17:07] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:17:07] Speaker C: Karen, which one was your favorite? All right, good answer. All right, what Was your favorite bar space on board the Disney Treasure? Karen, we're starting with you. [01:17:17] Speaker A: Definitely Haunted Mansion. [01:17:18] Speaker B: Yeah, Haunted Mansion's the answer. [01:17:20] Speaker C: All right. Okay. [01:17:22] Speaker B: For sure. [01:17:23] Speaker C: Favorite activity on board. This can be like, going on the Aquamouse, be hanging out on the pool deck, Going to see shows. Like, this can be anything. [01:17:30] Speaker E: Coffee on your veranda. [01:17:31] Speaker C: Bingo. Like, it doesn't have to be an organized activity just to be clear what activity means. Okay. So, Tom, what was your personal favorite activity to do on the ship? [01:17:41] Speaker B: Is people watching. Does that count? [01:17:42] Speaker D: No. [01:17:42] Speaker B: I'm just kidding. [01:17:43] Speaker C: No. People watching counts, though, if that's your favorite. [01:17:46] Speaker B: No, my favorite activity was eating those. The knockoff Chipotle, I think. [01:17:50] Speaker C: I like it. [01:17:51] Speaker B: It. [01:17:51] Speaker C: I like it. Chipotle at sea. All right, Karen, what was your favorite onboard activity? [01:17:56] Speaker A: Honestly, I think just standing out on our veranda. [01:18:00] Speaker C: Yeah, I love it. All right. Favorite rotational dining restaurant, Karen. And it can be because of the food, the atmosphere, the show, whatever. Your reason doesn't matter, as long as it's your favorite. So, Karen, which one was your favorite? [01:18:13] Speaker A: Definitely Cocoa Coco. [01:18:15] Speaker C: All right, Tom. [01:18:15] Speaker B: Coco. Definitely Coco. [01:18:17] Speaker C: All right. Okay, we're going to talk food now. We're going to talk a favorite sweet item and a favorite savory item. Because savories are the best, we save them for last. And that's my rule. So, Tom, we're going to start with you. What is a favorite sweet item that you had on board your Disney cruise? [01:18:34] Speaker B: Oh, man, that's. That's a tough question. [01:18:36] Speaker C: I mean, it can be anywhere. It could be pool deck. It could be on Castaway, it could be from Marceline, it could be from Main dining, wherever. [01:18:43] Speaker B: It was actually at Jumbos, we went and got ice cream. [01:18:47] Speaker A: Stop taking my answers. [01:18:50] Speaker B: Sorry. [01:18:50] Speaker C: I mean, which ice cream was it, Tom? [01:18:53] Speaker B: Gosh, I don't remember. Did I get chocolate chip cookie dough, maybe? I don't know. I'm a basic man. [01:18:56] Speaker A: I think I got mint chocolate chip. [01:18:58] Speaker B: Yeah, we enjoyed the ice cream in there. The only problem with that place. Not a lot of seating, but yeah. Sorry, this is rapid fire. But. [01:19:04] Speaker C: All right, Karen, your answer. [01:19:06] Speaker A: I mean, honestly, Jumbos. [01:19:08] Speaker C: Jumbo seats. Okay. All right. Now we're going to move to the. Like I said, we saved the best for last. And the same savories are the best. So, Karen, what was your favorite savory food item on board your Disney cruise? [01:19:19] Speaker A: Honestly, anytime they had steak, they knew how to cook their steak. [01:19:23] Speaker C: I would agree. They have some good steaks on board. All right, Tom. Favorite savory Item. [01:19:28] Speaker B: There was a. This is weird. I'm not a soup person, but there was a soup I had. It was like a corn soup of some sort that was. [01:19:36] Speaker C: Ooh, the corn chowder. [01:19:37] Speaker B: So good. [01:19:38] Speaker C: Really good. [01:19:39] Speaker B: It was so good. And I had soup almost every night. I was like, oh, oh, man, this soup is so good. Yeah, it was really good. That's a random one, but, yeah, corn chowder. [01:19:49] Speaker C: That's a good one. I love it. All right. Okay. I usually ask the ship question now, but I already answered that. So my last question is the last question I ask of every person who does my Rapid Fire, which is, what is your bucket list Cruise? And what I mean by that is, if you could go anywhere in the world but on a Disney ship, where would you go? And it doesn't have to be someplace that Disney Cruise Line currently sails. It can be just someplace that is feasible to. To go on a ship. [01:20:16] Speaker D: Just must have water. [01:20:17] Speaker C: It just must have water. Exactly. It's the only requirement. [01:20:20] Speaker B: So, Tom, it sounds like a conversation that's been going on in our house already. Yeah, I mean, we've been talking about doing Alaska. So Alaska is probably up there, I would say. [01:20:31] Speaker C: Awesome. What about you, Karen? You don't have to go to the same place as. [01:20:35] Speaker B: She's got to say. [01:20:36] Speaker A: No, I'm not, actually, because I really want to go to Australia and New Zealand. [01:20:40] Speaker C: There you go. There you go. [01:20:42] Speaker B: All right. That's a good one, too, because we want to see blue on the ship, too. And you can only do that from those. [01:20:45] Speaker C: Listen, you can have more than. There's more than one right answer to the bucket list. Cruise. Because there's so many amazing places to go in the world, and a lot of them you can go on a ship. So I think those are both. [01:20:56] Speaker B: You know what we'd actually love to do is we'd be able. We would love to be able to take the ship from California to Aulani. That's what we really want to do. We want to take the ship to there so we don't have to fly all the way to Hawaii. [01:21:10] Speaker C: You can. [01:21:11] Speaker D: You can. [01:21:12] Speaker C: Vancouver. Yeah, you can take it from Vancouver. Not from California currently. But again, these are imaginary. They don't have to be real itineraries that currently exist, even as I said. Well, thank you so much for playing Rapid Fire. My only judgment is that you didn't see all three of the shows. [01:21:33] Speaker B: But. [01:21:34] Speaker C: There'S only so much to do, and there's only so much you can do on one cruise. So you've got goals for the next cruise. Speaking of next cruise, what's next? Did you guys book a placeholder? Have you booked a cruise? [01:21:48] Speaker A: It's kind of a touchy subject right now. [01:21:50] Speaker B: No, I'm just kidding. I mean, it is. Yeah, we did book a placeholder. Yes. [01:21:55] Speaker C: Okay. And what are you eyeing? [01:21:58] Speaker B: We're well be fighting over that. [01:22:00] Speaker C: It sounds like. [01:22:01] Speaker A: No, it's not him and I are fighting over it. It's. We were going to try and see if we could do the family thing again, but timing wise and, you know, it's not seemingly working out. However, Tom and I are still talking about doing something with just the three of us. We definitely want to. We even talked about, you know, going back to the Caribbean or going to New England. We really. We really, really, really want to do Alaska, but we want to wait until our daughter's a little bit older to truly experience it because I don't know if we're going to get to do it a second time. So I would rather. And we've even talked again about Hawaii. You know, our. Yeah, so we're definitely doing something next year for sure. [01:22:41] Speaker B: We just don't know what yet or what shift. We know nothing. [01:22:45] Speaker D: I'll put in a plug for Norway, which we' you kind of some of the experience of Alaska without kind of all of the super active. I feel like, you know, shore excursions, plus the fjords are protected and they're incredible. They're incredible to see. And I don't know how much longer cruise ships are going to be able to sail up the fjords, but the. [01:23:07] Speaker C: Problem is going to be school year timing. So that's. That's going to be the problem. [01:23:12] Speaker B: That's our big problem right now because our daughter is going into second grade. And so we really are very limited the times that we can take vacation. It. It was EAS easier before because we just pull her out because it's like, oh, it's kindergarten. Who cares? [01:23:23] Speaker C: Absolutely. [01:23:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:23:25] Speaker D: We had that attitude all through elementary school. [01:23:27] Speaker C: We were like, well, we just. He's. [01:23:30] Speaker D: Now that he's middle school, it's a. [01:23:32] Speaker C: Different starting middle school. But we've. The last year we've been trying to cut back too, because it gets harder. As every year, it gets harder. Well, you guys, thanks so much for coming on the show. Tom, why don't you tell folks where they can find you on all the socials, where they can find your podcast if they want to follow along with the welcome home podcast and perhaps join. Join the community. [01:23:53] Speaker B: Yeah, so there's a lot of places you could find us. We don't do nearly as much video content as you guys do. We do do a food only show on YouTube though, where we talk about Disney parks food. Our main show is welcome Home podcast, so you can find that anywhere. Where there's podcasts, right? We're on all the platforms. Anywhere. You can just search for welcome Home podcasts. There are a couple. Just the one that says Disney and has the castle in it. That one's us. You can find us there. We also have welcome on podcast on Facebook. We do have a Facebook called Welcome Home Disney Waitlist, which is just kind of like a group of DVC people that chat. And it's a no drama group. It's nice if you like no drama. Karen's my social media coordinator, so she does all my Instagram posts because I'm old and I don't understand how Instagram works. So I think it's like welcome Home pics or something like that. That sounds right. And then of course the YouTube channel is also welcome Home podcast too. So yeah, just check us out. We just, like I said, we chat, we have a good time. Brian, he's been on the show. Sam, you guys have both been on the show. You, you know what we do? We just, we just hang and have a good time and laugh and don't take ourselves too seriously. [01:24:55] Speaker D: So nice. Well, Tom, Karen, thank you both for taking some time out of your day to come on and share your cruise experience with our audience. We just, we really, really appreciate it. [01:25:04] Speaker A: Thank you guys for having us on. It was really nice to chat with you for sure. [01:25:08] Speaker B: Thank you for having us on. We really appreciate it. [01:25:14] Speaker E: Well, thanks to everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us alive, we have a live show now every week, Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want to help support the show, be sure to hit those five stars on Apple Podcasts. And if you leave a us a written review, a five star written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. Of course, you can also help support the show by supporting our fabulous show sponsor, My Path Unwinding travel you want to book your next Disney vacation? Head over to mypathunwinding.com forward/dclduo or email them at DCLDUO mypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions or you'd like to 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 Released and a few blog articles that we've written. So DCLDUO.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also of course email [email protected] or reach out to us on our voicemail line at 402-413-5590. That's 402-413-5590. The DCL Duo podcast is not affiliated with Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Company or the Disney family of theme parks. The views expressed on the show are solely those of the individuals on the podcast and it no way reflect the views of 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 and we'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL Duo. Good night. [01:27:24] Speaker C: Sam.

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