[00:00:00] Speaker A: Castaway is the original private island. I mean Castaway was before any of the other cruise lines had their own private island experience or private island destination, I should say.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: There was drug running and then there was Disney.
[00:00:11] Speaker A: Yes, and Splash.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Splash was somewhere in there too, right?
Welcome back everybody to this week's episode of the DCL Duo podcast. Brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel. And Sam, do your jingle.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: Simply the best.
Better than all the rest.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: There you go. The new the new and improved review jingle. This week's review comes from Disney Judy who writes great podcast. We have been going to WDW since 1972, our honeymoon but took our first cruise this past January 2024. An eight day Eastern Caribbean cruise in the fantasy. Not sure why why we waited so long. It was fantastic. I used a scooter and the cast members were so amazing and helpful. We booked our second cruise for December 2024 on the Dream A Very Merry Time Christmas cruise. Wish I had found your podcast earlier but so glad I did. I love your descriptions of cruises. Your guests are so interesting and give so much good information about the different cruises. Thank you for providing such a positive upbeat podcast.
[00:01:23] Speaker C: Well there you go.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: Oh I love that. Awesome. Well we're so happy you had such a good cruise Judy and that you're now hooked. Cuz you know I feel like that's what just happen people for others out there. If you are someone who uses a scooter on board and want to talk to us about accessibility, come on board and you know reach out. So Judy, if you want to talk about accessibility we'd love to to talk more about it. That's one of our one of our favorite topics I think to cover.
We love you know of course covering first time cruisers. We love covering cruising with any kinds of disabilities. You know we have of course we have a special place in our heart for cruising with kids with autism since that is we experience. But we love covering all.
[00:02:05] Speaker B: So if you would like your review read at the top of one of our main episodes like Disney Judy, just remember one of the easiest ways to help support the show. Head over to Apple Podcasts, hit those five stars. If you leave us a written review we will read it on the air. All right Sam, you want to introduce our fabulous guests for this evening.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: Speaking of fabulous guests, speaking of first time cruiser episodes, I'm super excited. I always love first time cruiser episodes. We actually technically speaking only one of you is a first time cruiser. We have a couple joining us today and only one is a first time Cruiser, but they're both first time cruisers on Disney. So welcome to the show. Sarah and John.
[00:02:41] Speaker D: Hello.
[00:02:42] Speaker E: Hello.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: So nice to have you guys. Now, Sarah, you had been on a cruise before, but you mentioned it was many years ago. Tell us when you went on this cruise and which line was it on?
[00:02:55] Speaker D: Well, that was back in my 20s and that was on a Carnival cruise with my mom, my sister and my aunt. So it was a long time ago.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: And tell us what your Disney background is. I know, Sarah, you are a travel advisor, so I'm imagining you probably book Disney vacations. But where did your love of Disney come from? And is that love of Disney for both of you or is it just Sarah, Is it just John? Both. Like where does that come from?
[00:03:25] Speaker D: It's both.
We went on our honeymoon to Disney World and then we've just never looked back. We have, yeah. So we have four kids and so we've been going, you know, nonstop since every, like every stage of their childhood. We've been going to Disney. So we've only been to Disney. We usually go to Disney World, but we've only been to Disneyland once.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: And are you guys like yearly Disney visitors and DVC members and all that good stuff?
[00:03:58] Speaker E: And we usually go at least once a year, sometimes twice.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: Yeah. So you're, you're hardcore Disney people. I would say that at that. Now I understand John had a lot of reluctance to try a cruise in general, not just a Disney cruise. John, tell us where that like came from. Are you someone who gets motion sick? Like, what was the reluctance to cruise? Where did that, where did that sort of spring from?
[00:04:24] Speaker E: Well, I didn't travel much as a child, so I didn't really have any dealings with large ships or anything like that. And until you're actually on one, you don't really have a grasp for how big they are and how much there is to do.
So I was just apprehensive because I felt like I'd get bored.
[00:04:42] Speaker A: Oh, really? Oh my. Okay, so you, then I'm going to guess of the two of you, Sarah, you're the podcast listener and John, not so much because I feel like there's, if you listen to obviously our show, but other shows about all kinds of Disney vacations, right? Like Cruising, there's a ton to do.
[00:05:01] Speaker E: On board, but relatively speaking to a.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: Parks trip, it's a little bit different.
[00:05:05] Speaker A: Well, it's different.
[00:05:05] Speaker B: It's less to do.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: It's different. It's less to do. You have less freedom. Right. You can't, you know, you are confined To a ship, of course, as opposed to a park, which is much bigger. But there is obviously a lot to do on board a ship. So how did Sarah convince you? Because I'm imagining that, you know, Sarah wanted to go on this on a Disney cruise. Wanted to go for the first time and maybe had to convince you. Did you have to convince the rest of the family, Sarah?
[00:05:33] Speaker D: No.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: No. Okay. Just John. Okay, so how did she convince you to try this out?
[00:05:39] Speaker E: Basically because it was her 50th birthday and she's recovering from cancer.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: Well, that's a good, I mean, that's a pretty good reason, a pretty good way to convince somebody. I mean, it's, you know, certainly unfortunate that that's what it took Sarah two thumbs up.
[00:05:58] Speaker D: I do what I got to do.
[00:05:59] Speaker E: You know, she 50 or gotten cancer.
[00:06:02] Speaker D: We would not have went, oh my God.
I think like just referencing, like he, he kind of said it best because so many people were telling him, like.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: There'S so much to do, you're not.
[00:06:14] Speaker D: Going to get bored. There's so much to do. And he kind of said like, I know there's a lot to do. I just don't know if I'll prefer what we're doing on the ship to what I enjoy in the parks, if that makes sense. Because he's, you know, he's a park sky hardcore. And so my daughter and I were really excited about the cruise, but he was just kind of, I think that's where a little bit of his apprehension lied, of just making sure it was going to be fun. So.
[00:06:36] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and it's, it is a very different vacation than a parks vacation. I mean, I like in my mind it's the superior vacation. Even though I, and I love a Disney Parks trip. In particular Disneyland, obviously I'm very, very partial to Disneyland. But like I said, I think it's a superior vacation because there is, at least for me, it kind of forces me to slow down and relax a little bit versus the parks. I'm kind of go, go, go, go. I want to, you know, I have a lot of.
[00:07:05] Speaker E: For us at all, there was no slowing down.
[00:07:09] Speaker A: No slowing down.
Well, well, let's, let's kind of jump into that. Let's start with the planning process.
Now you guys were first time on dcl, so what cruise itinerary did you choose and why did you choose that particular itinerary and which ship and whatnot?
[00:07:27] Speaker D: So I think just listening to your show and I know you guys recommend like first time cruisers, kind of go with that. Three Day itinerary just to make yourself comfortable, like you're not really sure what to expect. And so we went on the Disney wish to the Nassau and Cassowa Key itinerary is what we chose just because we were just trying to make sure that was a comfort level for, you know, our, our party.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: So.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: Yeah, yes, yes. Well. And now I understand John's comment that it was go, go, go because on the wish on a three night you are really, if you want to see a lot of stuff and there's a, there is a lot to do but not a lot of time to do it on a three night cruise. And I, I think if somebody knows for sure they're going to love cruising. I say just go whole hog and go seven nights. But if you are apprehensive. Yeah, I think starting with a shorter cruise, you know, of course they're less expensive because it's less nights on board. So a three night, a four night, I wouldn't do anything, I wouldn't do it tonight. I know they do some weird, occasionally a weird like repositioning tonight or something. I would never do that because I don't even think that's enough to get a taste of what a cruise is like. But I totally, yeah, it is a lot of go, go, go if you're only on a three night. Well, let's talk about were there things you wanted to book in advance of the cruise or were you like we're just gonna do whatever's available on board, you know, and kind of.
Because there as, as you know, from listening to our show, Sarah, there is so much to do that you don't need to book anything ahead of time.
[00:08:58] Speaker D: And I think the recommendation like I was explaining to John was like the Nassau port, a lot of people are like, just stay on the ship. There's so much to do, don't get off, you know. But I think with it being our first time there, we wanted to at least get off and explore a little bit and let our daughter kind of experience that as well. And so we did book the, it was the Blue Lagoon package through Disney and so that, that's the excursion that we chose for that day. So.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: Awesome. Did you, did you book anything in advance at Castaway or just decide Castaway you're going to beach there? What did you book if anything?
[00:09:31] Speaker D: We did the getaway package that had the bicycles, the two or the floats and the snorkeling.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: That's a great one because if you know you're going to use it, you're going to save money. Booking in advance.
I don't think it's like a necessary. But if you are somebody who wants to do those things, then it is a good idea to book in advance because you. As I said, you do save a little bit of money. All right, well, so you're booking some excursions in advance. I'm imagining you're probably not booking adult dining because it's such a short cruise and maybe not even trying to book drink tastings or anything like that. Am I right?
[00:10:04] Speaker D: Yeah. So Our daughter is 15, and she was supposed to take a friend, but she. When she couldn't go, it was kind of like as a. Just a family, we decided, let's just experience everything together. And I think we had a.
That's accurate.
[00:10:21] Speaker A: She ditched you, I bet.
[00:10:22] Speaker E: Push her to go to the teen club. And she said, no way. So we were kind of stuck with each other.
[00:10:29] Speaker D: So.
Yeah. So you did not want. She wanted to just stay with us, which was. We had a great time as a family, but I think that kind of led us just to. And, like, I think your recommendation is, like, experience everything. So, like, we just did the rotational dining. We really just tried to, you know, go all in on everything and just kind of see this cruise experience for us. But I can definitely see where you could make it your own. So if you wanted to do adult dining in the spa and, like, you could really tailor it to be the type of vacation you want. But we were.
[00:11:04] Speaker E: We were go.
[00:11:04] Speaker D: We were coming back from excursions, you know, taking turns with the shower, going to the shows, and then going to dinner and then watching the fire. I mean, we were. Yeah. And then, not to mention, we had bookended the trip with, like, an epic day and the day at Universal. And when we came back, we had two days at Disney, so.
And we just got home this morning, so we're pretty tired.
[00:11:24] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. You guys just got home this morning as we're recording. That's crazy. Well, let's back up to where you stayed and talk a little bit about embarkation day. John, why don't you start us.
How far in advance did you get into town?
I assume the Orlando area because you said you went to Universal and Epic.
Where were you staying in the Orlando area and for how long?
[00:11:49] Speaker E: Well, like, she's. Like Sarah said, we did a stint at Universal, so we did three, two days later. And then our third day, we moved to the Wilderness Lodge and stayed there. That way we could just use the Disney Cruise line shuttle to take us directly there. And that seemed like the best way to do it. And then like she said, we were bookending it with Disney at, on the last two days. So we just took the cruise line back and stayed at the Grand Floridian for a night.
[00:12:19] Speaker A: Fantastic. It's always a good listen, it's always a seamless way to do it. If you're going from Disney property or you're going from MCO to take that Disney Cruise Line transportation, you don't have to worry about, you know, getting your bags there and all that kind of stuff. It's just a really easy process and you get that benefit of earlier port arrival time as well. So let's talk about embarkation day. You're at Wilderness Lodge.
What time did you guys leave for the port? Like what time did your bus leave for the port?
[00:12:51] Speaker E: Well, so I guess that's kind of hard to tell because there were several stops. It made a couple of other stops.
[00:12:57] Speaker A: Gotcha.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: To pick you up at Wilderness?
[00:12:59] Speaker D: Nine, I think. Yeah, I think it was about around nine that we started our pickup rotation.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: Gotcha. So you went to a few other resorts and then head to Port Canaveral. About what time did you get to Port Canaveral then do you think?
[00:13:12] Speaker E: 10:30?
[00:13:13] Speaker D: Yeah, I think so.
[00:13:13] Speaker E: 10:30.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: That's great. I mean that's, that's still pretty quick because it's about an hour drive. You know, it's usually not that time of day, not usually any traffic to get to Port Canaveral. So I mean, I think a lot of people say, oh, it's an hour and 15 minutes. It's not, it's really more like an hour. It's really pretty close.
And so that's not a bad, you know, even just a half hour of picking up other folks at other resorts is pretty quick.
So tell us when you get to the port, Sarah. What, how, how does the check in process work for you guys? Any bumps in the road? You're Port Canaveral, so should be like a pretty well oiled machine. Although you guys are. You were not in Disney's main terminal. I think you were in Terminal 10 instead of Terminal 8. So you don't get the Mickey ears to walk through, unfortunately.
[00:14:00] Speaker D: I think that was so what I'm finding out just kind of from the Facebook group from our cruise.
That was a lot of the feedback was from that embarcation day that the check in process, like the security and that process with showing our documentation that was, I think where we kind of had an issue was it was very small and there Were no seats for us to sit down, but they wanted us to move to make room for people. But it's like we don't have anywhere to go, so what do you want us to do? And so we were like huddled in a corner with our stuff just by the vending machine, just waiting. I mean. And granted we were grateful that because of the transportation, we were in group four, which was fantastic, but we still kind of experienced that, that it was very crowded.
[00:14:45] Speaker E: And I don't know where the breakthrough was. The breakdown was if they just don't have enough spacing in between the times that they have the groupings come in or are people that are driving to the Port Sneak, are they letting them in before their time? Because it just seemed like there were way too many people in there to accommodate it.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I think it's probably all of those things. My guess is it's just that space is probably not like the Terminal 8 is pretty nice and pretty big. And even there, there's maybe not enough seats if everyone's in the port at once. Although there's plenty of room, even, you know, standing room. I would say over an 8, but you guys are in 10, which I think is not as new and not quite as nice as the. As Disney's main terminal, because that's their sort of overflow. I'll call it an overflow terminal when they have two ships sailing out of Port Canaveral. And so, yeah, I bet it's a couple different things. They're not giving enough different categories of port arrival time, so they're putting too many people in to each sort of category of time. And then also they might be letting folks in before their port arrival time as well. That's a bummer because it's not. I mean, embarcation day is a little bit chaotic and that's. That's probably putting it nicely. And so when that's your sort of first experience, that's a bit of a bummer. So about how long was it that you're waiting in the terminal till you got on or do you know approximately what time you got on board? The Wish wasn't.
[00:16:18] Speaker D: It wasn't long. I feel like it was maybe like around 45 minutes. I don't think it was.
[00:16:23] Speaker E: It was just. It was probably just after 11 when we got in because we went straight in and had lunch.
[00:16:28] Speaker A: Oh, perfect. Now tell us this is your first time walking onto a Disney ship. Your family name is announced as you enter the Grand Hall.
Obviously she's very grand. Both the Wish and the treasure have that grand hall. I think it's a superior experience in just aesthetically because it's very large and open as compared to the original four ships. What was your first impression of that welcome and of that space?
[00:16:57] Speaker E: I think it was really cool.
[00:16:59] Speaker D: It was neat. I didn't tell them I knew what was going to happen, that they were going to say our name and I didn't tell them that. And so I think when they said our name, my daughter was just kind of like, we're here. Like they know we came. And so it was, it was pretty great. Like it was, it was pretty magical. Yeah.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: Yeah. John, what did you think of the size of the ship when you, I mean one, when, when you were driving up to port, of course you're on the bus but like did you get a look at the ship and obviously the other ships, because there's always other ships in port at the same time.
[00:17:29] Speaker E: Yeah, and I took a picture at one point in time there were four of them lined up and you know, the wish was bigger than all of them. I mean it's a, a, it's a massive ship.
[00:17:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Did that quell your. When you get on. Well, when you see the ship and then you get on board and you're in this grand hall, did that start to quell your fears of or reluctance about, you know, would there be enough to do and see and that you're sort of confined to this ship instead of having.
[00:17:57] Speaker E: You could start searching all the activities and stuff where, you know, on the cruise line app where you start exploring. And that was just, I mean there's just so many things to do. Like we didn't do all of the things because we either had two things occurring at once or got tired and needed to sleep. So yeah, we tried to watch, you know, a full length movie that started at 10:45.
[00:18:22] Speaker D: It was like 10:45.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: Oh God. Oh, yeah.
[00:18:25] Speaker D: What are we doing? I know, it's not happening.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: Yeah, it's not happening.
[00:18:29] Speaker B: We watch full length movies starting at 10:45, just in the bed in our.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: Stateroom and we fall asleep watching them or we turn them off 15 minutes.
[00:18:37] Speaker B: And then our son comes in at midnight.
[00:18:39] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Our 11 year old comes in midnight from Edge. Yeah. Well, okay, well I, I. Where did you guys decide to go to lunch on the first day? Because this is always like, there's always the debate, do we go to sit down lunch? Do we go to Marceline market or cabanas on the other ships?
[00:18:56] Speaker E: Did you sit down?
[00:18:57] Speaker A: Ah, okay.
[00:19:00] Speaker D: We were. Well, our goal was I think that like by recommendation and kind of what we've heard was like try to do the Aqua Mouse when you get on board. But unfortunately we went back, we got sunscreened up, we got dressed, we went up and it wasn't open.
Yeah, well, so we, we opted to go to lunch first because we knew the weather. So yeah, we were in Arendelle that first day.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Oh, awesome. And I will say with the Aquamouse or the aquaduck depending on or the Aqua Dunk, like sometimes it's open when people board and sometimes it's not open till later. And so you just don't necessarily know. And of course weather can always impact that if there are higher winds, bad weather, more likely that it's gonna not be open right when you board.
But what did you think of the, the sit down lunch in Arendelle? Was it a good start to the cruise?
[00:19:48] Speaker D: It was very good. Yeah.
[00:19:49] Speaker E: Service was pretty good.
[00:19:51] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:19:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:52] Speaker D: I think as the, as I think lunch you could tell is a little bit more, I don't know if chaotic is the right word, but definitely when the road, the dinner started, you could definitely tell that is like a well oiled machine. Like they, we just commented on how like they are things out at record time and just the sheer volume. And I'm like, and this is happening every night in three different dining rooms. So it was very impressive.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: It is, it is. Well, speaking of that, would love to hear your impressions of impressions of the dining experience overall on board. Obviously Disney is unique to other cruise lines in that we, it does have rotational dining. We have, there is a buffet, but the buffet's only breakfast and lunch. A lot of other cruise lines have a buffet that's open for dinner. They of course don't. Nobody else has rotational dining, but they do have a lot of like other cruise lines have a lot of like specialty dining options that Disney doesn't really have. But I'm curious what you thought of, you know, the concept of rotational dining. Did you enjoy it and did you enjoy the food and the theming in the different restaurants on board? The wish.
[00:20:56] Speaker D: Can I share Anna's feedback real quick? So my, our daughter got a little shy and didn't want to be on. But she wanted me to make sure I told you both that her feedback about dining was she loved the cleanliness.
She loved the fact that you were given a sanitary wife or made to wash your hands. That was like her favorite. She's like, I can respect this. So she really appreciated that and she wanted me to, like, she just loved that our head server, like, it was just such the attention to detail that you come to expect from, like, Disney that, I mean, we know and, like, appreciate from the parks, but just on a whole nother level.
And so she just really appreciated that, that they acknowledged her by name. They treated her like she was. Like, they didn't look to us for her to order or anything. Like, she was in charge of everything. And great challenges. Like, he would have a challenge for the teenagers at the table each night, and so they'd have, like, kind of a game that they'd have to do. And she just really enjoyed that. So she wanted me to share her feedback first.
[00:21:53] Speaker A: Oh, I love that, Anna. I'm with you. I love that they make you wash your hands or use a hand or sanitizing wipe when you enter into a dining facility. I think think every restaurant should do that. I think every place in the world where you eat should do that. Like, it's just. It makes me feel more comfortable also, like, because I know that they're also, like, very consistent about, like, hand washing and cleanliness and all of that. What about. What about you, John? What did you think of the dining experience on board?
[00:22:25] Speaker E: I thought it was efficient. I think it was. There's. It could have pros and cons. Like, it was good that once you figure out how to find your table number and then, you know you're going to the same table number every meal, that's kind of good.
The con would be like, luckily we had some really good table mates, people sitting next to us that were fun and, you know, it was a joy to talk to them and hang out with them. But I could see where if you drew the short straw and got, you know, a boring group of people, a.
[00:22:55] Speaker D: Dud family, probably, or like, there were.
[00:23:00] Speaker E: Some families that we, you know, were sitting close to us and that it was a little problematic. You kind of wish you could not have to sit by the, you know, in their general area every meal. Yeah.
People directly at the table with us were delight. Yeah.
[00:23:16] Speaker A: Now tell us, like, was it another family with a kid of a similar age to Anna or what kind of. What was the matchup that you guys ended up with?
[00:23:26] Speaker E: One older and one younger. She was like, There was a 16 and a 14 year old and our daughter's 15.
[00:23:31] Speaker D: Yeah. It ended up being perfect. They were a gap family that live in Ohio. And yeah, we just started talking the first night in 1923. And, you know, every night we showed up and Talked about our day and everything we had done, and it was. It was really nice. Yeah.
[00:23:48] Speaker A: Oh, that's awesome. And I have to say, like, we have made so many friends through cruising, and especially if you find another family that, like, has, you know, a similar love for Disney. And not to say that everyone who's on Disney Cruise Line as a passenger is that hardcore, either into parks or Disney, but they tend to be. And so you're likely to have at least something in common with your table mates. And if they do a good job matching or if it's just. If it just randomly ends up being a good match, it's really, really quite lovely. And we sail with people all the time now that we have met through cruising or through the podcast, and so that's always a really fun experience.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: I feel like we need to start the pineapple symbolism, but for Disney, can we just wear a little Mickey somewhere? And then we'll know when you're out cruising or just out and about. If you have a little Mickey on, we can talk a little Disney Cruise Line.
[00:24:45] Speaker A: Right?
[00:24:47] Speaker E: There you go.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: I like it. I mean, listen, Brian, we constantly wear Disney Cruise Line apparel. I mean, I'm wearing a lookout key shirt right now. Right.
[00:24:58] Speaker B: I try to wear a little of it these days at work, but, yeah, you know, I don't want to be the. Don't always be the Disney guy, but yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we were told when we sailed on Virgin, like, you know, you can strike up a conversation at any bar by talking about Disney Cruise Line because, like, half the people on Virgin voyages were former Disney cruisers.
[00:25:13] Speaker A: Yes, yes. And a lot of the. And a lot of the crew as well. Well, let's. Let's jump to some of these activities that you guys got up to on board. It sounds like you were a bit worried that you might have fomo, and so you hit up as many things as possible.
I can't believe you tried see a movie at 10:45pm I would not. I would not do that because I would be falling asleep in the movie, but I. More power to you for trying.
[00:25:39] Speaker B: I just was say. What I love is it went from not enough to do to too much, too much.
I need a break. I love it. I love it.
[00:25:47] Speaker D: When we did start to fall asleep, Anna was like, guys, we can go.
We're like, both over here snoozing. And she's like, then we can go back.
[00:26:01] Speaker A: What were some. What were some of the favorite? Obviously, you tried to hit a whole bunch of activities, and so we aren't.
[00:26:07] Speaker D: Going to be able to talk about.
[00:26:07] Speaker A: Every single activity you guys probably did on board. But what were some of the favorite things that you were like, oh, I wish we could have done more of or we'll definitely do that again kind of activities?
[00:26:17] Speaker E: Well, I don't know. I mean, we saw everyone that we could. But the live action shows, like the Broadway caliber stuff, that was amazing. Yeah, it was like pyrotechnics on a boat. I thought that was a little risky, but, you know, they did it.
[00:26:34] Speaker B: The pirate parlay deck party on board that they introduced for the Wish and the Treasure. I just feel like it's like the perfect party for, like, I don't know, us. Us as adults and for the kids, because the music is amazing and then the visuals and the fireworks. The kids, I mean, I love fireworks too, but the.
[00:26:49] Speaker E: Even in the Aladdin show, they had them indoors.
[00:26:52] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:26:53] Speaker A: Yes. The pyrotechnics in the. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. With the gen appearing and disappearing. And they do a really wonderful job with special effects. I mean, Disney is just known for, you know, obviously wonderful storytelling and theater and visuals and all of that. And they do a really good job of transferring that onto a ship. And it's kind of amazing when you think about, like, the limited space they have both on the stage and sort of in their backstage areas.
But all that they're able to accomplish on those stages is pretty incredible.
Now, I want to talk a little bit about those port activities that you guys did do, because you mentioned you booked the excursion for Blue Lagoon at Nassau. We ourselves have never been to Blue Lagoon. We've heard good things. We've heard as far as the places to go, that that's probably that. And I think Pearl island are the two that we get, I think, recommended the most.
[00:27:49] Speaker B: Royal Caribbean's private thing is going to be a destination.
[00:27:51] Speaker A: I think that is too.
But right now that's only going to be limited to Royal Caribbean. And for folks going to NASA, I think the two places we get told, I mean, Atlantis is still very popular as well, but I think a lot of people really like Blue Lagoon and Pearl island more. Tell us what you thought of Blue Lagoon.
[00:28:10] Speaker E: I thought it was pretty.
I don't know if it's a tide issue. The water was a lot shallower than I would have preferred because I'm vertically challenged and I still was in no danger of drowning.
[00:28:23] Speaker D: So. Yeah. And I think, like, we. As being our first day, like, first day there, I should say we were like, oh, this is. This is nice. The water's so pretty. And then we got to castaway key. We're like, oh, what were we thinking? Like, this is, you know, this is obviously better. But we. I think our only. It was nice and we really enjoyed it. I think our only feedback for like just getting there was just the queue up line and kind of. There had to be. There's probably a better way they could have done that. But once we got on the boat and got out there, it was really nice. I mean, there were several open chairs. We didn't really have trouble finding a chair to like get our stuff. I think we were all pleasantly surprised with the food.
They had a lot of options. They had barbecue chicken and rice and like, we were trying to go a little bit on the healthier side and.
[00:29:10] Speaker E: The food was really good. Yeah, the staff was all good.
[00:29:13] Speaker D: Yeah, it was, it was a really nice experience. We were kind of like, oh, is it already time? You know, because we, we just. We were really enjoying ourselves, so. And that was just kind of a beach day that we just. Just pretty much were on the beach, just kind of in the water having fun, had lunch together and it was really nice.
[00:29:32] Speaker E: They take you back at the end of it. They take you back kind of a different route. And it's kind of touristy that way. They can make sure you go through.
[00:29:39] Speaker A: The port, right through the shopping area and the market in the port. Yeah.
[00:29:44] Speaker B: Every good ride ends in a gift shop. Yep.
[00:29:46] Speaker E: They also kind of showed us the celebrities houses and stuff, so that was kind of cool.
[00:29:51] Speaker A: Oh, that is cool. Yeah.
[00:29:53] Speaker D: And they talked a little bit about the history because it was. We sailed on 4th of July and they were talking about the Bahamian independence and so, like kind of giving that little history too. So it was just kind of a nice ride back of just to kind of experience a little bit more of their culture and kind of their environment. So it's nice.
[00:30:12] Speaker E: We were quite surprised to not hear any Caribbean type of music. It was all like 80s and early American music.
[00:30:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:22] Speaker D: Yeah. They had a karaoke contest out the way back to some 80s rock and we had them all. So it was, it was fun. And Anna Gill, our daughter, was just like, don't.
[00:30:34] Speaker A: Well, I mean, the American influence in the Bahamas is obviously huge. Right. Like, it's mostly. They're mostly American tourists. Of course there are European tourists in the Bahamas as well. But much of the Caribbean and the Bahamas are, you know, filled by American tourists. And so the influx of that. That, you know, sort of cultural melting pot is, you know, really melting.
[00:30:56] Speaker D: It out too.
It was so fun.
We loved it. It was so great.
[00:31:02] Speaker A: Oh, I love that. That's awesome.
[00:31:04] Speaker B: If you want the cultural experience of the Bahamas, then next time you go, look out key because they have. They have that cultural stuff kind of built in. And they do have the music. They had some, you know, musicians who they pulled together do some. They have their own song. They have their own theme song on the island that's done by some Caribbean musicians. And then they had them take Disney favorites in the reprise of Caribbean music. Yeah, yeah.
[00:31:29] Speaker A: It's really nice. Well, I want to jump over to Castaway Cay because of course, like that.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: Is because it is but a hop skip and a jump from Nassau. So you can jump right over there.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. It's also there in the Bahamas and it's for. I think a lot of people will book their first Disney cruise and will choose an itinerary with Castaway specifically in mind. Like they want their first, you know, Disney cruise to include a stop at Castaway Cay. I think now we've got more of a mix because Lookout exists in addition to Castaway. But Castaway is the original private island. I mean, Castaway was before any of the other cruise lines had their own private island experience or private island destination, I should say.
[00:32:08] Speaker B: First there was drug running and then there was Disney and Splash. Splash was somewhere in there too.
[00:32:15] Speaker D: Funny you mentioned that. So Anna loves a good countdown, so I always do a countdown for her. And this time I printed a 30 ships and they each had like a fun fact either about the cruise line or Castaway key or, you know, the fact that. So that was one of them I like. You know, it was a drug smuggling airstrip and then it was. So that. No, I just. Yeah.
[00:32:35] Speaker B: So they filmed Daryl Hannah. Yeah.
[00:32:39] Speaker D: So we had fun each day learning things about the ship or Castaway. So it was nice. But yeah.
[00:32:44] Speaker A: Oh, that's a great way. That's a great way to get a kid, particularly a teen, like excited about a Disney vacation in particular with just different fun and unique facts. And there are actually, there's a lot of really fun and unique history facts about Castaway and about Disney Cruise Line in particular. So I love that. Well, what did you guys think of Castaway? You mentioned you did the floaty bicycle and snorkel package. So you had those things available to you to use for however long or short you wanted to on the island. But what did you guys think about the whole Castaway experience? Experience?
[00:33:23] Speaker E: I thought it was cool. There was a lot of good stuff the snorkeling lagoon, they had that. A lot of neat things kind of thrown in there, and there were a lot of, like, little areas for fish to kind of mingle in that weren't marked with buoys. So there was stuff to discover on your own on top of the things they had marked with buoy. So it was pretty cool. And then, I mean, there were things that I wanted to do that we didn't get to do. So I just ran out of time, you know, but it was. It was fun.
[00:33:51] Speaker D: I. I said, let's board the boat at 4, 29, and 58 seconds, because we literally wanted to, like, stay the whole time. We were just trying to make the most of it. And I mean, just as a family, like, our daughter, she's like so many family firsts that we experienced that day. Like, she had never been snorkeling. And to have that experience in the Disney way, Like, I mean, she was yelling at me through that snorkel, pointing at. You know, and she's like, like, we remember that time we got to touch Dumbo's hat underwater, and here he is at the park, you know, and so it was just, I think, created so many memories of, you know, and. And even though the bicycle trail, like, we were kind of expecting something a little bit different. But that was one of her favorite things. She had a ball just riding a bicycle out in the Bahamas. Like, she just loved it.
[00:34:37] Speaker E: You had to ride a pretty good clip just to get to a scenic view. I was like, we're out in the Caribbean. Like, why isn't the scenic?
[00:34:44] Speaker D: Yeah, like.
[00:34:48] Speaker A: You'Re in the middle of bushes. Like, there's like the, The. The. The. It's the. The bike trail and also running trail, whatever you want to call it, is really the most. For the most part, not the whole thing. You're either on the airstrip or you're on a trail that has bushes on either side. And so there's really not much of a view unless you go all the way to the end. There's kind of a beach view at the very end. Yeah, I. That's. I go out and run. I. I don't do the. I'm not a great cyclist, so I foot and. But it's only if I have to get a long run in that I go all the way to that. That end, past the.
Past Serenity Bay, basically.
And that. Yeah, you can get a nice view over there, or if you take. If you walk, decide to climb up the tower if you just. Then you can get. You Know, a view from that. That. That tower that's kind of in the middle of the. The loop.
[00:35:40] Speaker E: I think we intended to do that, but didn't get around to that either.
[00:35:43] Speaker D: That was on the list.
[00:35:45] Speaker A: I mean, there's a lot of stuff on the list you can't do Mentioned. Did you end up using your. Your. Your fl. The tubes that you had rented also? Do you have time to do that?
[00:35:55] Speaker D: Yeah, we did. That was nice. We just kind of connected as a family. And we just floated for a while until, like, I'm getting too hot. I have to.
[00:36:02] Speaker B: Sorry.
[00:36:03] Speaker D: He's got to work off. Sorry. It happens.
[00:36:04] Speaker A: Okay. It's all right.
[00:36:07] Speaker D: So we did use our wraps. It was really fun to just be out there together as a family. And so he was like, I'm absolutely too hot. I have to go in. But. But Anna and I had such a good time. Just. I mean, we could not. Not just. The water is so beautiful, just the whole environment. And again, we were pleasantly surprised by the food. Like, we thought it was good. And I think for Anna, it was a nice surprise because our head server had told us what he would be doing that day on Castaway. And so for her to find him, and it was like, there he is. And, you know, then he brought her a special plate of fries, of course. And, you know, oh, Annigail's gotta have fries, you know, so it was really nice to just have that connection and just kind of made her feel even.
[00:36:48] Speaker E: More special because she was.
[00:36:50] Speaker D: Was like, oh, you know, he's here. And so.
[00:36:53] Speaker A: And he went out of his way to get her. Yeah, that's so lovely.
[00:36:57] Speaker D: Yeah, we had the. It was. It was one of our best days we've ever. I mean, it was. It was great. We really. We really liked it, so.
[00:37:05] Speaker A: Oh, I love it. I love when they make the. The kids feel, like, very special and appreciated as individuals. I mean, I even love when they give. When they make sure to tell the kids, particularly, you know, older kids, like, you can order off the regular menu, you can order off the kids menu. You do whatever you want. You can order two off the kids menu if it's too small of a portion or you, you know, but, like, why don't you try something off of each menu, right? Like, I just. I feel like they. If you get a good service team, which, you know, that doesn't always happen, but if you get a good serving team, like, they do sort of just go above and beyond to make those. The kids feel welcome, to make the kids feel that sort of sense, I think like you had mentioned and they don't turn to the parents for you to order. I mean for little kids, they still, they turn to the parents for you to order. But for tweens and teens, they really address the teen and tween and ask them, you know, what would you like for dinner tonight? You know, you know, with us, it's funny because Nathan will just say Mickey's Mac and Cheese every single night and won't like it's very, very rare occasion that he will change his dinner order.
But like, it's just, I think it's lovely when they, when they really just, you know, sort of make that effort.
[00:38:20] Speaker D: And I think like you said, like for the little kids, obviously, like they, there is like a, almost like a catering to that as it should be. It's, it's Disney, but also from Anna's perspective, like she's obviously been raised, you know, through Disney. Her first time at Disney World was when she was 4 years old. So I think that for her as a teenager to experience that magic to too and kind of, to just kind of experience all of that, it was really special for her. So she, she really loved it.
[00:38:48] Speaker C: 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 My Path 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, for their expertise and service. They have sailed on all the Disney ships, including in concierge, visited the theme parks, adventured with Disney, relaxed at Aulani, and so much more. Whether it's a Disney cruise, a theme park, vacation or adventures by Disney, or if you are looking to expand beyond the mouse, 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 mypod mypathunwinding.com forward/dclduo or email dclduoypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. Thanks My Path Unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
[00:39:46] Speaker A: What were some of Anna's favorite activities? Jumping back onto the ship. What were some of her favorite activities to do and with you or with, I don't know if she ended up ditching you guys at all. I know you said she didn't go to, to the. She didn't want to go to the teen club, so she didn't really want to check out vibes. Probably a little bit shy about it, did she? I'm curious. You mentioned the table mates. So there was a 14 and a 16 year old. Did she end up like hanging out with them at all or. No, she just hung out with you guys except staying with us the whole time.
[00:40:16] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:40:16] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:40:17] Speaker D: I think that had her friend been there, it probably would have been a totally different excru experience for her and for us. But I think the fact that she, she was just felt kind of a little shy about things.
She felt a little more comfortable with us. I think she was even a little shocked because we got on the elevator and there was a younger kid that was probably about, you know, 10 or 11, I think, like, like how you talk about your son about. He just navigates the shift by himself and does everything. And he's like, oh, yeah, I'm going to the kids club. And she was like, yeah.
[00:40:44] Speaker A: He's like, peace, I'll see you later by himself.
[00:40:46] Speaker D: I'm like, yeah, that's kind of the cruise culture here with the Disney that they did. She's like, oh, okay. You know, and she's, she was worried and I'm like, you know, he's okay. But yeah, but she loves, like as soon as we saw the Little Mermaid the first night, she's like, we're coming back tomorrow, so just know our shower order so we can be prepared and we have to get gelato. So she told, she told her brother today when she got home. She's like, just so you know, this is my Bing bong Sunday dish that I got and that gelato every night. So the schedule was excursion, showers, gelato show, and we hurry up and get everything gelato every night. So she. That was one of her favorite things was definitely the shows on the show. He really enjoyed it. And then I think just each night kind of not knowing what to expect with dinner, I think was a. Was really special for her. She really enjoyed 1923, I think was her favorite. But she also enjoyed Marvel and Arendelle as well. So I think it was, it was really neat.
[00:41:48] Speaker A: Awesome. I love that. Now, did you guys enjoy the. We didn't talk much about the dinner shows. Obviously. We talk a lot about them on the show.
You know, Arendelle is a little loud, a little bit crowded.
I like, I like the menu for the most part, it's not my favorite menu, but I.
I always find something that I'm happy with on the menu. I pretty much find something I'm happy with in every menu.
Except for 1923. Second night menu. You wouldn't have had that menu. You had first night menu. There's really. Honestly, I think that's like, the only menu across the fleet where I just cannot find, like, anything I like on it. But I'm curious what you guys thought of the show experience in the restaurants. Because that, like, some people are, like, it's too much, Some people are like, it's too little. Some people, like, it's fine. But I could live. I could do with it without it. Right? Like, 1923, there's no show, but you've got all this fun artwork and stuff to look at. But the other two are, you know, more interactive, let's say.
[00:42:48] Speaker E: I thought the Marvel show was pretty cool how they, you know, integrated the stuff on the screens.
And I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but the special visitor, you know, that was kind of cool.
[00:42:59] Speaker D: Cool.
[00:42:59] Speaker E: But I think for us, it comes back to the staff. But in the Arendelle show, I mean, that got crazy. We had servers out there doing the worm, and, like, there was, like, a dance off between servers. Like, it wasn't even. I don't even think that's part of.
[00:43:15] Speaker D: I don't know.
[00:43:15] Speaker E: It was Aaron Dell show.
[00:43:17] Speaker A: But that is not part. I'm. I will tell you definitively, we have been in Arendale multiple times. That is not part of the show. I have never seen a server do the worm during an Arendelle.
[00:43:29] Speaker B: So did you.
[00:43:29] Speaker A: Did they.
[00:43:30] Speaker E: The times you've been there, did they have, like, a conga line thing going?
[00:43:33] Speaker A: I have never seen a conga line in Arendale either.
[00:43:36] Speaker D: Great experience.
[00:43:37] Speaker E: So the guy that's like, blowout, whatever.
[00:43:41] Speaker A: That's. Yes, that is part of the show. Yes.
[00:43:44] Speaker E: But what I'm saying is he got everyone kind of dancing and circling through. And then that just morphed into the staff dancing.
[00:43:51] Speaker D: Dancing. And it was the D, like, throw. Like, everybody had their napkins up like you were a hockey game. It was. It was so great. I mean, I took the best video of Anna because she is just smiling and just so into it, and she was so mad that we were coming back to the table, and she thought we were getting in the conga line. But I went to go sit down, and she wanted to go.
It was. It was. But it was really neat. The only thing I would say is like, I'm just being adults and having an older child. Like, we were really close to the stage. So just because of our table number, like, I. I would have. I don't know if it was strategic that maybe they would have had a family with a younger. Try it. Like, it was fine that we were close to the stage and it was loud, but, yeah, it was. It was. It was good. I like the menu. I thought I. I had trouble deciding on something, and so did Anna. But thankfully our head server, he, you know, brought her two things for her to choose from. So, yeah, it was. It was really great.
[00:44:48] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:44:48] Speaker A: I wonder if some of the. I wonder if they sometimes, depending upon who the performers are, if they sort of can tweak things a little bit. Because it has been a little bit since we've on the Wish. To be completely honest, we haven't been on the Wish since the Treasure came out. And so that's. Already. We're recording this in July. The Treasure came out in December, so it's been more. It's been nine months or something since we've been on the Wish. So having different performers, and I wouldn't be surprised if they tweak the show. So, like, they're. The conga line may be a more regular thing now, but. But it wasn't when the Wish was opened in 2022, July of 2022, when the Wish opened, and the couple of years that we were on her a bunch after that, that was not a thing. So I. But that's. That's really fun. You know, one thing we. We haven't talked about is your stateroom.
You had not been. Sarah, you had been on a cruise once, but almost 30 years ago, you mentioned. Because this is your 50th birthday, right? So. And your family had never been on, you know, in a cruise. How did you go about choosing your stateroom?
[00:45:59] Speaker D: So I think just. I also have vertigo. And so we were a little worried kind of how we would all do, just not sure how we would feel. And so I think when we were looking at the state room, he was like, we're. We're going for a veranda room because we thought just having the window wouldn't be enough. And so the veranda room was like our choice, just. And it was phenomenal because we were actually on the starboard side, so we. The fireworks. I mean, we haven't got to that, but I mean, we went up to the deck party and asked Anna if she wanted to stay, and she was like, it's A little too people y for me. So we went back to our room and I mean, talk about a magical experience. Just as a family watching those fireworks coming over off our veranda. Not to mention she now wants Mickey waffles served to her on the veranda on the ocean, so. Because we, we went to Marceline for breakfast, but we would bring her Mickey waffles back. And so she, she is, you know, living her best life.
[00:46:57] Speaker A: She is a cruising princess now. She gets Mickey waffles on a, on a veranda. I mean, I don't.
[00:47:02] Speaker B: I.
[00:47:03] Speaker A: That's awesome. I love that. I'm a little jealous. Nobody brings me Mickey waffles on my veranda.
[00:47:09] Speaker D: So. But yeah, we went with the veranda room and it was, it was beautiful. I mean, I, I thought it was really nice.
[00:47:15] Speaker E: Yeah, A lot of amenities. It was very nice.
[00:47:18] Speaker D: And I think like you guys have talked about the split back bathroom. Brilliant.
[00:47:23] Speaker E: I think the, the bath, the actual toilet section for me was a little smaller than I would like. Again, being vertically challenged, like if my knees touching the wall, I feel like it's, you know, it could have been a little bigger, but it was very nice.
[00:47:38] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:47:38] Speaker E: Modern.
[00:47:39] Speaker D: Yeah, we really thought it was. Yeah. And that was one thing. Anna loved that she, with our stateroom host, she just every day looked forward to coming back and what, what he was going to have prepared for her. And she loved, because when we would see him in the hallway, address us by name, you know, ask where we were going, ask us how our day was, like, that was just one of her key takeaways that she just loved so much that it was just really personal for her.
[00:48:05] Speaker A: So I love that too. I love. I. You know, sometimes it happens that on like the first day you somehow like miss your stateroom attendant and then you don't meet them till the second day. And like that. I feel like that first time you meet your stateroom attendant and they, you know, get, you know, they learn your name, you learn their name, and then they sort of learn your habits. Even in a three day cruise, like, even a three night cruise, they can learn your habits of like, what time do these people tend to like get up and get going for the day? And what time do they tend to come back at night and things like that. It's really cool. Like they're really. I'm. I feel like they're kind of wizards in a way because they just figure out like, and they like anticipate your needs without you even asking a lot of, of the time. And like, you know, Figure out, like, what's. They're like MacGyver and figuring out, like, when they should make up the room. Right. And when they should do the turndown service and all of that. I'm always just, like, really amazed by that.
Oh, sorry.
[00:49:03] Speaker D: I think. I think we were just surprised because when he came to the door, he just kind of said hello and introduced himself and was like, where's John? Where's Anna? And I was like, oh, they're here. But he actually wanted to meet them.
[00:49:14] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:49:14] Speaker D: And I think that was. Yeah.
[00:49:16] Speaker E: He didn't just knock on the door and like, hey, you need anything? He's like, hey, I'm John. Yeah, here's Mr. John. Yeah.
[00:49:23] Speaker D: Yeah, it was. It was really nice.
[00:49:26] Speaker A: I think it's. Yeah, I think it's amazing. I think they. I love when they ask me, like, oh, like, if I'm. I'm usually the one getting up and going to get us coffee in the morning, for example. And, you know, so if I see my stateroom attendant in the hallway, they're, good morning, Sam, or Samantha. And then, you know, what are you up to today? Oh, I'm just going to get coffee. Brian and Nathan are still in bed. And. Oh, oh, have wonderful. You know, like, they just are so friendly and so inquisitive. And.
And then, of course, if you. I always tell people, like, if you have time, if you're not rushing to get to something, like, take a moment and stop and talk to that person and find out something about them in their life, because they have such unique and interesting stories of their own. I mean, most of these people are, of course, from, you know, parts of the Caribbean or parts of Asia, and they are working to send money home to their families, and they may have a spouse and children or grandchildren at home. And it's just, like, lovely when you get to know these, you know, folks on a personal level and you can make that connection. And I will say, when you make that connection, you also get better service, usually. So it's a little. You can. You can do it for altruistic reasons, but also a little bit of. You might get, you know, a little karma works there, too.
[00:50:42] Speaker E: So we were on Castaway Key and we were eating, and I guess we grabbed different. And I don't even think that was out there forever. So, like, our server, he recognized. He recognized us because he was. I think he was doing staff meals or something.
[00:50:57] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:50:57] Speaker E: And so we go and sit down and he runs over with two plates smashed together, like, hey, I got something for you. And he gave our daughter a plate of French fries.
[00:51:04] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:51:05] Speaker E: Which wasn't even something that was on the menu.
[00:51:07] Speaker A: Yes. Which they don't have on Castaway key, which means it came from the ship. And so that's. Yeah, that's. It's a really. These are like those. And Sarah, Sarah was telling us about that. It's like these are these special moments where they make you realize like you are individually special to them or you made an impact on their day and they want to make an impact on your day. And it's a really just lovely, lovely moment. Yeah.
[00:51:31] Speaker E: Captain Jack Sparrow.
[00:51:34] Speaker A: No, what happened with Captain Jack Sparrow?
[00:51:36] Speaker E: So our server again was amazing.
[00:51:40] Speaker D: Oh yeah.
[00:51:40] Speaker E: So like she was a little creeped out at first. Like, what is he doing? So like he took napkins and wrapped them on her head to make it look like a bandana and like dreads and made her look like Captain Jack. Captain Jack Sparrow. So great. With several napkins. Yeah.
[00:51:56] Speaker D: Clean napkin. No, I'll have to sit that as one of the pictures because she, I mean, delight on her face that she, you know, that he was doing this was just so amazing and so funny that she loved it. It was great. Yeah, I love that.
[00:52:13] Speaker A: Now, is there anything that we've missed that either, you know, memorable or maybe it was something that went well or something. Something that went poorly? I mean, we always, we, you know, we, we leave room for improvement. There's always, you know, they're not. Everything is always perfect.
Opportunities, opportunities. But is there anything that before we subject you to, you know, some rapid fire questions, we. I was there. Is there anything that we've missed that we haven't talked about that was, you know, particularly memorable or maybe unexpected?
[00:52:42] Speaker D: We've covered pretty much everything. I think we covered a lot. I just think that Castaway was just above our expectations. We just had a lovely day there. It was so fun as a family. And then just.
I think I would described it as experiencing the Disney magic in a different way, if that, you know. And I think it was so just.
[00:53:06] Speaker E: To kind of put, put it into perspective. You look at the flyers and stuff, the pictures on the Internet for Blue Lagoon and it's like, oh, that looks amazing. Then you get there like, ah, it's pretty, but it's not. And then you go to Castaway Key and it's like, this looks even better.
[00:53:24] Speaker D: Than how they portrayed it.
[00:53:26] Speaker E: Yeah. You know, so like it's, it's. Was very beautiful and a lot of fun.
[00:53:31] Speaker D: I think you asked what was something we didn't get up to So I think that Anna had said that she would like to do like some of the family games and things and like that was something that just kind of got lost in the shuffle that we didn't really get to participate in that just because we were for. From excursion to you know, show and dinner and so and then we tried to watch a movie which was, you know. So I mean I think maybe you.
[00:53:54] Speaker A: Didn'T have a sea day at all. Right. You. Because if, if you're on a three night cruise and you decide to get off at Nassau, you don't have any, you know, there's a lot of people who decide on a three night cruise to stay on the ship at Nassau because they. You don't have a sea day in the mix. And so really your only sea day is your first is embarcation day which isn't a full day. And it's also kind of, as I mentioned, chaotic and you're you know, dealing, learning where everything is. So you don't really have a ton of time to do a bunch of different activities. Although of course you, you get to do like the deck, you know, the sail away party.
[00:54:26] Speaker B: But yeah, it's hard in general on those wish class ships especially no sea day, three days or less. It's just, it's, it's a lot. I mean the seven night sailing on the Treasure, it's a lot. And there's still stuff. We did an 11 night to the southern Caribbean and there was still stuff we didn't get to do that we wanted to do. Yeah. So yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:54:45] Speaker A: Because if you more days just also means more stuff to do.
[00:54:49] Speaker D: Well, we compare it to like the parks and thinking like how many times we've been going. Like we've been married almost 25 years now and there are still things in the parks that we haven't done that have been there the whole time we've been going.
[00:55:01] Speaker E: So I think like probably seven years in a row and keep forgetting to ride the train. And then when they were, then when they were building Tron it was down for a year so we finally got to ride it.
[00:55:14] Speaker D: And then when our son who is a train enthusiast, he like they were giving the instructions and he, he shushed us because he's like I've been waiting a really long time to ride this train. So he sh. Just even the like just keep your hands and legs in. Like it was just. Yeah, it was an experience for us.
[00:55:29] Speaker B: So I got asked a question before we move to rapid fire.
So John, would you, would you go Back. Would you go back on another cruise at this point?
[00:55:37] Speaker E: We actually did our ending.
Put a placeholder on one, but. Okay, all right, all right. The placeholder.
[00:55:43] Speaker B: I thought you said you already sailed again. I was like, oh, no, they just.
[00:55:46] Speaker A: Got home today, Brian. They just got home. That's right.
[00:55:50] Speaker E: I mean, to me, it was fun. I'm not going to say it wasn't fun. Nassau, I could never go there again and be fine with that. Yeah, for me, it was more about how much they enjoyed it.
[00:56:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, and if, if, if, if Sarah's told you anything about the podcast, I would tell you that our advice to people is not Nassau. Our advices to use, especially on a shorter cruise. Like, I'm not saying that never get off at Nassau. I'm like, there are people who love certain things at Nassau, but on a shorter cruise, you just, you don't have a lot of time. And so I would choose to spend my time on the ship and not venture off at all at Nassau on one of those shorter sailings.
[00:56:31] Speaker E: We're kind of paranoid anyway about traveling out of the country and safety issues, so. So I just, you know, unless it's something very public and I just, I could skip it.
[00:56:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:56:43] Speaker E: You know, that's kind of why we went with the private Blue Lagoon thing, you know?
[00:56:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I'd say, I'd say any just Disney discursion, Disney excursion that you take, you can expect that they have well vetted those providers, and if they, if those providers rack up any kind of complaint, Disney's going to find a different provider. Right.
[00:57:03] Speaker E: So which is why we didn't want to just go to a public beach, scrolling down the streets and exploring. Yeah, we stuck with the.
Recommended by Disney.
[00:57:12] Speaker D: Yeah.
Yeah. And we've, we've had. And I know this was just kind of like his feedback of just like watching my daughter and I enjoy ourselves. Like, obviously, we talked about earlier, this has been a really hard year for us. And so to be able to know that, like, my birthday present last year was the deposit on this cruise, and then not knowing that in September I would be diagnosed with cancer, and then to be able to be recovered and be able to be strong enough to travel and ride a bike on, like, all the way out to that trail and snorkel like we did, and just have an amazing trip, like, it was, it was, it was truly magical for us.
[00:57:48] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and I mean, I can't think of any better way to celebrate, like, beating cancer than going on a Disney cruise. Like, it's a pretty. It's a pretty great way to celebrate. I mean, I mean I, any, of course any Disney trip would be a great way. Whatever your preferred Disney trip is, is a great way to celebrate.
But like, you know, that's, that's the win, right? Like that's the win that you're celebrating. And so to be able to have a wonderful vacation and to not think about that and to really immerse yourselves in Disney storytelling, I think that's, that's what you want. And you know, you can do that on a ship with everything pretty much included. You know, instead of doing a Parks vacation. I personally think it's a little, little bit.
[00:58:35] Speaker B: I think we just, we got to get you on a longer sale.
[00:58:37] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, we gotta get you on.
[00:58:39] Speaker B: We gotta get you to like an adult dining opportunity.
[00:58:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:58:42] Speaker B: You know, a Palo brunch, a dinner.
[00:58:44] Speaker A: And you gotta, you gotta do a duo dip so you can get to Lookout Key. I mean. Yeah, yeah.
[00:58:49] Speaker B: Honestly. Honestly, I love the Treasure for you because I also want to get you into the rainforest room where you can just relax.
[00:58:57] Speaker A: Plus, I think John needs to go to on the Treasure because he's, you know, as a Parks guy. Like, the treasure has all the parks theming and so I feel like, I feel like your next, your next ship has got to be the. I'm not, not that the classic ships are fantastic. All four.
I'm not just talking magic and wonder.
Dream and fantasy are amazing also. But I feel like for the Parks fan, you know, treasure is. It can't be beat.
[00:59:23] Speaker B: I don't know if you're an old fashioned guy, John, but if you didn't stop by Hooks Barbary one night and grab one on the Wish, it's definitely a must do on the Treasure in my opinion. I find the whole Hooks Barbary experience to just be great because it doesn't.
[00:59:35] Speaker C: Feel like you're in a spot.
[00:59:36] Speaker B: It feels like you're in a barbershop.
So. Yeah, that was really fantastic.
[00:59:40] Speaker E: Yeah, that was something that was on my list. But, but it was actually, it was actually was booked. You have to make an appointment. It was completely booked when we looked at it to try and to book it. They didn't have any openings.
[00:59:53] Speaker A: Well, so they do have the tastings, but you actually can go in.
[00:59:57] Speaker D: They are, they have though between like.
[00:59:59] Speaker B: Like, like four or five until just before dinner where they just have the bar open and you can just go order an old fash.
[01:00:06] Speaker E: I thought I was talking about getting a haircut.
[01:00:09] Speaker A: You wanted to get hair?
[01:00:11] Speaker E: Yeah, no, those yeah, those straight razor shave on a shit might be a little dangerous, but they don't use a straight razor.
[01:00:17] Speaker A: They don't use a straight razor.
[01:00:18] Speaker B: They don't use a straight razor. They use a safety razor. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[01:00:21] Speaker A: Brian gets. Brian does.
[01:00:22] Speaker B: And I actually don't even have him use that. I just have him use an electric trimmer to kind of get things down. And then it's just all.
[01:00:28] Speaker D: It's just a facial product everywhere.
[01:00:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[01:00:32] Speaker E: You just ruined the magic for me.
[01:00:33] Speaker A: I was really cool.
Brian loves it.
[01:00:36] Speaker E: A straight razor shave.
[01:00:37] Speaker A: No, Brian loves the experience. I have. I have several pictures of him with his face wrapped in the towel and you can't see other anything but, like his nose.
[01:00:46] Speaker B: Hot towels, cold towels. I love it all. All right, Sam, we have reached that point in the show where it's time to subject our guests to your arbitrary questions, your arbitrary rules and your judgment or the round we know as rapid fire. So, Sam, take it away.
[01:01:01] Speaker A: Okay, Sarah knew. Knew this was coming. John, I don't know if you, if you knew this was coming, but I'm going to ask. Ask you some, some Disney favorites.
[01:01:08] Speaker B: You may go back on a cruise again. Never coming back on the show again.
[01:01:10] Speaker A: He's never coming back on the show. I'm going to ask you some Disney favorites, and then I'm going to ask you some Disney cruise line favorites. I'm going to ask each of you. Your answers do not have to match. These are your personal favorites. So when I direct a question to you, John, you give me your personal favorite, and then I'll do the same with Sarah. You'll get the same questions, but it's, it's very much okay if your questions do not. If your answers do not match. This is known for being the area where I get a little bit judgmental over people's answers. So that's just morning. But I'm going to already tell you, you guys have already won because he beat cancer, Sarah. So you can't, you can't get any. You can't, you can't. Even if you get a question wrong.
[01:01:47] Speaker E: I'm going to let you guess.
[01:01:49] Speaker B: You cannot intimidate.
[01:01:50] Speaker A: Right?
[01:01:51] Speaker E: Exactly.
[01:01:52] Speaker A: We're going to start. I'm going to start by setting aside your favorite ship question, because the answer right now, your favorite ship is the Disney wish. So there you go. There you have it. I know it's soon to be the Disney treasure, but we're going to start with who's your favorite Disney character? And when I say Disney, I mean Basically everything and anything in the universe. Because Disney owns, like, all the IP in the world around right now, pretty much. So you don't have to choose a classic Disney character. You can choose, you know, Star Wars, Marvel, whatever. But I got to ask each one of you, who is your favorite Disney character? Sarah, we'll start with you.
[01:02:26] Speaker D: I have to go with Ariel, followed closely by my book Nerd Bell, so.
[01:02:31] Speaker A: Oh, love it. Love it. Great. Both great answers, great princesses. All right, John, who's your favorite Disney?
[01:02:38] Speaker E: I probably would have originally went with Darth Vader from Star wars, but having a grandson now, he's like, taking some kind of affinity to Donald Duck for some reason. I don't really know why, but he loves Donald Duck.
[01:02:52] Speaker A: So now you love Donald. Oh, I love that.
Yeah. You have a grandchild. You can't not love what your grandchild loves. All right. Love that. Okay, we're gonna. The next question is your favorite Disney movie. John, we're gonna start with you for this. This question. Same rule applies. Disney means. That means everything.
[01:03:11] Speaker E: Return of the Jedi.
[01:03:13] Speaker A: All right, great answer. All right, Sarah, what's your favorite Disney movie?
[01:03:17] Speaker D: So we play a lot of family games, and this is always a tough one for me. So we always do, like, top three favorite movies. I'm going to go with Inside Out.
[01:03:26] Speaker A: Love that.
[01:03:27] Speaker D: We love that one.
[01:03:28] Speaker A: So good. And such great social, emotional lessons in that movie, all of that. Love it. All right, favorite Disney song, Sarah.
[01:03:37] Speaker D: That's tough.
Okay, I'm gonna go classic on it and I'm gonna say when we're the best of friends from Fox and the Hound, because it doesn't matter. Like, I will cry at that no matter what. It is such a great song.
[01:03:53] Speaker E: I don't know.
[01:03:54] Speaker D: I just love it whenever I hear it.
[01:03:55] Speaker E: So, yeah, awesome.
[01:03:57] Speaker A: John, what about you? Favorite Disney song.
[01:03:59] Speaker E: That's tough. So maybe supercalifragilisticexpialidocious or I don't even know the name of the song, but the song from Tangled, the Snuggly Duckling.
[01:04:10] Speaker D: Oh, yeah.
[01:04:11] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I had a dream. I have a dream. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good one.
[01:04:16] Speaker D: Probably love that. Yeah.
[01:04:18] Speaker A: Awesome. Great, Great answers. Okay, now we're going to move on to Disney Cruise Line. I'm going to ask you what is your favorite stage show, meaning one of the three main stage shows in the Walt Disney Theater on the Disney. Wish you could can choose which one is your favorite? John, we'll start with you.
[01:04:35] Speaker E: It was Aladdin by far.
[01:04:37] Speaker A: Yeah. What about you, Sarah?
[01:04:38] Speaker D: I have to stick with my girl Ariel, Even though Aladdin was phenomenal.
[01:04:42] Speaker E: Yeah.
[01:04:43] Speaker A: All right, so, Little Mermaid. Okay, what was your favorite onboard activity? Let's say, other than the shows, because I know you guys loved the stage shows. What was a favorite onboard activity on the Disney Wish? Sarah, we start with you.
[01:04:57] Speaker D: I think we finally were able to get Aqua Mouse in and just riding that with Anna, and we both took a turn with her, and just hearing her be like, we're on a water slide on a cruise ship as she's screaming down, and we're just.
[01:05:09] Speaker E: She.
[01:05:10] Speaker D: I mean, just her laughter and just to know she was having so much fun. It. We just. It was great to finally be able to do that. It was. It was really fun. We had a good time.
[01:05:19] Speaker A: Oh, I love that. John, what about you? A favorite activity.
[01:05:22] Speaker E: I don't know if this qualifies as activity, but even though we didn't go to the parties, but the fireworks, I was amazed by the fact that, yeah.
[01:05:30] Speaker A: That'S an onboard activity. Absolutely. Anything you do watch, experience, Right? That's. I. I call that an activity. It could just. I mean, we have people answer sitting on their veranda, drinking a cup of coffee in the morning. To me, that's an activity. I love it. All right, favorite rotational dining. Now, you can pick this based on any factors that you deem appropriate. So it's. It could be because you like the food the best in this restaurant. It could be because you like the theming, the. You like the show the best. But overall, which one was your favorite rotational dining restaurant?
[01:06:01] Speaker D: John Arendelle.
[01:06:02] Speaker E: Probably by far. Again, just because of the. I mean, just the painstaking decorations we went through and then the fun, like, the. It sounds like that's not a normal thing, but it was a lot of fun with the staff getting into it.
[01:06:16] Speaker A: To be fair. It is always fun. It's just not. Maybe not as much interactivity as it was like. That's awesome. So, yeah, that's fantastic. Sarah, what about you?
[01:06:28] Speaker D: I would agree. I think we ended up watching Frozen later, like, that night, and just looking at, like, comparing the decorations that they did and the. Everything that. I mean, it was just like they thought of everything kind of like we always say about Disney. But it was just a really fun night. We had a great time.
Awesome.
[01:06:44] Speaker A: All right, we're gonna stick in the food category, and I'm gonna ask you a favorite sweet item on board your Disney cruise and a favorite savory item on board your Disney cruise. We start with the sweets, because I like savories the best. So I always save what I like the best for last. So, Sarah, we'll start with you. What was your favorite sweet item? And remember, this can be from anywhere on the ship. So this could be from the sweet shop, but this could be from main dining. This could be pool deck. Doesn't matter.
[01:07:10] Speaker E: Wherever.
[01:07:11] Speaker D: I think I would have to go with. I was going to say the gelato, but we actually had one of the no sugar added desserts the first day at lunch. And Erin Arendelle. And it was so. It was just really good. Anna was like, are you sure this is no sugar added dessert?
[01:07:25] Speaker E: But it was really good.
[01:07:26] Speaker D: It was kind of like a raspberry kind of chocolate bar dessert thing. It was really good. I really enjoyed that.
[01:07:31] Speaker A: Awesome. What about you, John? Favorite sweet item?
[01:07:34] Speaker E: I thought it was really unique. We got. They have the churro. Mickey waffles.
[01:07:39] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:07:40] Speaker A: Good answer, John.
It's like you've been listening to the show.
[01:07:46] Speaker E: I'm not really a big fan of the waffles either, but together they work.
[01:07:50] Speaker A: I love that. Sarah, you didn't coach him at all for this?
[01:07:53] Speaker D: I didn't say any.
[01:07:54] Speaker E: No.
[01:07:54] Speaker D: I had no idea what to expect from him.
[01:07:57] Speaker A: I love that. Yeah, good answer, John. Okay, savory item. What was a favorite savory food item on board your Disney cruise? John?
[01:08:07] Speaker E: I'm just going to throw out a range of the fact that all of the salmon options. I'm a really big fan of salmon. I love, love salmon. And they just had a lot of options. Almost every meal you could have salmon.
[01:08:20] Speaker A: Awesome. Love that.
[01:08:21] Speaker E: Pretty much did for pretty much an appetizer or whatnot.
[01:08:27] Speaker A: Sarah, what about you?
[01:08:28] Speaker D: I think for me, Baez, I'm. I'm kind of limited on what I can have still. And so just being able to find something on the menu that was within the range that I could. But I really. There was a pork tenderloin. It might have actually been from Arendelle. That was really good. I really enjoyed that. It was really good.
[01:08:46] Speaker A: Awesome. Love that. All right, my last question, since I already answered your favorite ship question, my last question of rapid fire is a question I ask everybody who does a rapid fire round with me, which is what is your bucket list cruise? And by that I mean if you could go anywhere in the world but on a Disney cruise line ship, and it doesn't even have to be a destination that Disney cruise line currently goes, this is a make your own cruise adventure. So as long as it's someplace that's reachable by water, where would you go, Sarah? We'll start with you, your bucket list cruise. And again, you don't have to match these don't have to be this. They don't have to be the same cruise.
[01:09:23] Speaker D: I would ideally just say something that already exists is like an Alaskan cruise that I would love to do. But I think it would be fun to visit each of the parks if there was. If it was feasible to do that, like just to be able to. The itinerary to just visit every park. Because that's kind of a bucket list thing to be able to go to.
[01:09:40] Speaker E: One of the other parks.
[01:09:41] Speaker A: So absolutely, I will be on that bucket list cruise with you, Sarah. That is definitely on the list. I mean, like you said, it doesn't exist, but in our imaginary world, it can exist. All right, John, what about you? Where would you go?
[01:09:56] Speaker E: Probably like Italy or Greece.
[01:09:58] Speaker A: Yeah, some great Mediterranean cruises on. Well, those are ones that exist, John. So, I mean, that could be.
Yeah, that could be something. I mean, you're allowed to. As I said, you're allowed to pick something that exists. I mean, Sarah gave me Alaska also, and that, of course exists.
[01:10:14] Speaker D: Does the treasure go to Greece Oriental?
[01:10:17] Speaker A: No, unfortunately, right now the treasure is only doing seven Caribbean itineraries.
It's every other week. So it's Eastern Caribbean, Western Caribbean, Eastern Caribbean, Western Caribbean. Repeat ad nauseam for at least the next year. Well, all of 2025, 2026 has been announced through September and it will do that. We expect that the treasure will be doing that for the next couple of years. But I would highly recommend. The Eastern Caribbean itinerary is fantastic. It does have three port days. It goes. Typically the typical itinerary is St. Thomas, Tortola and Castaway. And then you have two sea days. And so two full sea days. And I think that's a better use of time. Time. Then the Western Caribbean has four port stops, so you only get one sea day. So that's what I would definitely recommend for you guys. Now, I. You mentioned you have a placeholder. Oh, congratulations. You. You. I already told you, you won.
So. So excellent job on. On Rapid Fire.
You mentioned you have a placeholder. What are you. Are you eyeing anything in particular or you kind of just. You just got home, so you haven't had probably a chance to really look at the website.
[01:11:35] Speaker D: And we were already planning at Castle, let's be honest.
[01:11:38] Speaker B: So.
[01:11:38] Speaker D: Yeah, I think he didn't realize there was a. Oh, sorry, go ahead.
[01:11:43] Speaker E: I was just going to say. No, I wasn't.
[01:11:44] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:11:45] Speaker E: Looking anything particular, but we had talked.
[01:11:47] Speaker D: About like the duo dip like you talked about, like look out with Cast Away because we really enjoyed that day, like just as in conversation.
[01:11:54] Speaker E: But I just feel like if they're going to bully me and going to another one, I should get a discount at least.
[01:12:01] Speaker A: Listen, we don't make any money off of this podcast, John. We donate all of the proceeds that we make for this podcast to charity. And neither Brian nor I are travel advisors and so, so we, we can't get a commission on your cruise, but your wife Sarah can.
[01:12:16] Speaker B: So.
[01:12:18] Speaker A: But I would tell you, so understanding you might want to do a duo dip, which is means a cruise that goes to Lookout and Castaway. Your best options for that are going to be typically the Fantasy, the Dream and the Magic. Those are the ships that, that have those on their itineraries, as I mentioned. Unfortunately, the Treasure does not.
I think it might have, it might have like one or two that go to Lookout a year, but it's really mostly going to Castaway. And then when the death actually when the Destiny comes out, it also has several duo dips in its itineraries and those are out of Fort Lauderdale instead of out of Port Canaveral, which is, you know, which is fine as well. So lots of options out out there. Brian and I recommend the Treasure for the ship experience, but if you are really set on doing Lookout and Castaway, there's fabulous options. You're looking probably more at a four or five night itinerary though, instead of a seven night itinerary. So it's really going to matter as to how long you've got your vacation schedule and what your budget is. But with that, Sarah, we got to tell folks if they are interested in connecting with you to book a Disney or other vacation.
How can people reach reach out to you?
[01:13:32] Speaker D: They can find me on Facebook@SarahBody. Destination Wonderland Travel, or I'm on Instagram @Sarah WonderlandTravel.
And I would say that like one of my motivations for, I mean, obviously I wanted to go on a Disney cruise, but something that impacted me was a potential client asked me what my favorite ship was for the Disney Cruise Line and I, I felt pretty inauthentic being a Disney person and not being able to give her an authentic answer. And so now I can speak to at least one ship. So yeah, yeah, now you got to.
[01:14:06] Speaker B: Go try them all so you can have a favorite. Yeah, there you go. Try them all.
[01:14:10] Speaker E: Try them all.
[01:14:11] Speaker B: Try them all. Well, Sarah, John, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to share your fabulous experience with our audience out there. We just, we really, really appreciate it.
[01:14:22] Speaker D: Thank you guys. Thank you so much.
[01:14:29] Speaker C: Well, thanks everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us live, we have a live show now every week, Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want to help support the show, be sure to hit those five stars on Apple Podcasts. And if you leave us a written review, a five star written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. Of course, you can also help support the show by supporting our fabulous show sponsor, My Path Unwinding Travel. You want to book your next Disney vacation? Head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email them at DCLDUOYpathunwinding.com so they know we.
[01:15:19] Speaker B: Sent you their way.
[01:15:19] Speaker C: If you've got got questions or you'd like to connect with us, the best way to do that is to head over to DCLDuo.com it's got links to all of our things, full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store where we sell some fun fan inspired magnets. Link to our Patreon. If you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month, just head over to the website or patreon.com DCLDUO Also, as a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter newsletter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here at least, and a few blog articles that we've written. So DCLDUO.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also of course email
[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 in no way reflective views 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.
[01:16:37] Speaker D: Sam.
