[00:00:00] Speaker A: I didn't do any excursions. We just kind of wandered about. We watched. It was a. A disaster themed trip because we watched Jaws as well and my son was like, I love Jaws.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: You watch Jaws too?
[00:00:23] Speaker C: Welcome back everybody, to this week's episode of the DCL Duo podcast, brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel and Sam, it's review time. Do your jingle.
[00:00:32] Speaker D: Remember?
[00:00:33] Speaker C: We changed it though. We changed the song, remember?
[00:00:35] Speaker B: I don't remember what the new song is.
[00:00:36] Speaker C: Simply the best.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: That's the one that is. That's. No, that's the one I have been singing. There was another.
[00:00:41] Speaker C: There was another song that we killed.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: A different one.
[00:00:43] Speaker C: We Are the Champions. No, that wasn't it. All right, we'll do a jingle.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: It was. We are, but. Well, I like Simply the Best better than all the rest.
[00:00:51] Speaker C: There you go.
[00:00:52] Speaker A: All right.
[00:00:53] Speaker C: The smooth sounds of Samantha Cannon right there. All right.
This week's review comes from Disney Judy, who writes great podcast. We have been going to wdw since 19 1972. Oh my gosh, longer than we've been alive. Sam. Our honeymoon, but took our first Cruise this past January 2024. An eight day Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy. Not sure why we waited so long. It was fantastic. I use a scooter and the cast members are 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 the different cruises. Thank you for providing such a positive, upbeat podcast. So there you go.
[00:01:41] Speaker B: I love that. Thank you, Disney Judy. I. I hope that you. Well, you couldn't have been named after Judy Hopps, but I hope that Judy Hopps is your favorite character because she's one of my favorite characters.
[00:01:51] Speaker C: I don't think her. Oh, I guess Disney Judy. I was thinking like that was the last name, but you're right, that could be the first. That's more likely the first thing I was like. I was like. I'm sure their family was not named after Zootopia. No, Judy at Ellis Island. They changed our name to match the Zootopia movie.
No, that's not. That's not right. All right, well, Disney Judy, thank you for leaving that review. We love it. We're still a year. A year out, Sam. A year out on our reviews. But hey, we love reading each and every one of them. For all of you out there listening as always, one of the easiest Ways you can help support our, our show is to head over to Apple Podcasts, hit those five stars and if you are so inclined, leave us a written review and we will read it on the air at the top of one of our main weekly episodes.
All right, Sam, intro the guest.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: All right. I am super excited. We're going to do a little compare contrast episode here today. So we are going to venture a little bit outside of Disney Cruise Line to another cruise line and another major.
[00:02:46] Speaker C: Cruise line to HAL. But not the computer from 2001 Space Odyssey. No, we're talking about Holland America.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: Yeah, we're going to talk about Holland America Cruise Line. And we're so excited. Here.
[00:02:58] Speaker C: Headquartered here, I think.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: Yes, headquartered here in Seattle.
[00:03:01] Speaker C: Even though it's Holland America Cruise Lines.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: It'S headquartered, well, the U.S. you know, it's, it is a U.S. company. Anyway, we're going to talk Holland America. We're going to talk with a returning guest. We are so happy to welcome you back to the show. Sarah. Sarah Holland, funny enough, is going to talk about Holland America. Welcome, Sarah.
[00:03:19] Speaker A: Hello. I'm back. Welcome, welcome, welcome to your place.
[00:03:23] Speaker C: Are we going to find out on today's show that Holland America Cruise Lines is actually named after the Holland family?
[00:03:28] Speaker B: Yes. And Sarah actually owns Holland America.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: No, no, just like literally one of my favorite things to say all the time, it's like, welcome to my ship. Welcome to my ship.
[00:03:37] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. Listen, you know, if you were an owner of Holland America, you probably wouldn't be talking to us. You'd probably be living in some humongous mansion or traveling on your private jet or something like that.
Well, but we are super excited to talk to you, Sarah, because you are a travel maven. You travel on quite a few different cruise lines. I know that you took this cruise in the northeast to get, you got to go to Canada on this itinerary. But let's give a little bit of your cruising background to our guests so that they can understand your, your frame of reference when we're talking about this cruise.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: Well, I started on Holland America back in 2017.
My parents, who are not named Holland but still absolutely loved Holland America, have between the two of them just about a thousand days at sea. They like to do like the 30 day cruises and they love Holland America. So while I have sailed, this was my third sailing with Holland America. I've sailed with Royal Caribbean and I've also sailed on the Disney Wish, which was how I ended up here, I think, last time. Comparing and contrasting, I think a little bit of the wish against some Holland America stuff.
I have now started my year of cruising. I have From July of 2025 through July of 2026, I have five different cruises on four different cruise lines on I think like it is five different ships.
So I am awesome. I know I gave up my Walt Disney World annual pass for this. So.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: We're doing it. We are doing it.
[00:05:22] Speaker B: What, what different cruise lines are you going to be sailing on this year?
[00:05:26] Speaker A: I will be doing. I just was on Holland America. I have Carnival in about a month and a half doing the Carnival, Mardi Gras, going over Celebration Key. So I'm excited.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: All the stuff, the new island.
[00:05:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm excited to check this out. Compared to everybody else's. I'm actually doing the Disney wish for my birthday in November and then doing the Disney Destiny in January and then have a bit of a gap and going back with my sorority sisters. We have another round of our group cruise. We're on Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas next July.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: Oh, awesome. Fantastic.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: So like a nice variety, mostly beachy. This was the non beachy one. But hitting all the different islands, that's the thing that I really like.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I love that all the different cruise line private islands are. I think those are great things to be able to experience because they all, I will say generally speaking, I think they all do a pretty good job and then it is nice to kind of then that can help guide what cruise line you want to sail on. If the private island experience is a big part of the experience for us, I, I think the private island experience is a big part of it. So we, and that's frankly, I know.
[00:06:31] Speaker C: I have not looked forward to a cruise more than I'm looking forward to those Destiny cruises that we have coming up that literally just go to the private islands and no place and that's it.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: Yeah, we're on. Only going. Yeah. For the maiden voyage on the second cruise on the Disney Destiny, we are only going to the two private islands with Disney both times back to back. So. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Sarah, let's talk about this cruise in particular.
Tell us the itinerary, how many days and then I want to know why you booked it. But I mean I imagine just because of the ports you're going to tell me that that's going to be obvious why you booked it. But yeah, tell us about that.
[00:07:08] Speaker A: There's a funny reason actually why I booked it. But I'll give you, I made sure while I was doing this cruise because I had talked to you beforehand that I wrote things down the entire trip so I could ref back to them. So I don't think everybody does that. But I actually have notes to remind myself.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: I love it. You're. You're not the first. Probably not, but you are. But the few. But the few. And, and we love it because it's super helpful when people have, you know, be able to refer to like what order things happened in what like some. I. I think also your. Our memories, you know, our memories tend to fade over time and so if there's something really great that happened, great to write it down. Yeah, love that.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: What we did, we departed on July 5th from Boston, Massachusetts. And then we had a sea Day on July 6th. No, we didn't. We had. We went to Portland. I can't even read my own notes. We went to Portland, Maine. And then the next day we were in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Then the day four, we were in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Day five, which was the crown jewel personally for me. We were in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
Day six was a sea day, but not just any sea day because we were actually traversing the St. Lawrence Seaway, which took two days. And then day seven, second day, which also both of them, some of my favorite sea days ever. And then day eight was arrival in Quebec City, but we didn't stop there because we hopped on a train, went to Montreal, putted around Montreal for the rest of the day, wandered around, did a bunch of other stuff, flew home on. Technically for me I think it was like day 9 or 10 if I count like pre. Pre cruise stuff.
But it was, it was a seven night. And you know, if you're going to be on a ship, you know, you have to do whatever works within your budget and within your time frame. But honestly, being on a ship for seven nights is really the best. And I haven't been able to do that since 2018. So finally I got to be on a ship and really just know everybody. And it brought me so much joy. But the reason why this trip actually happened, my parents obviously love Holland America and my dad has been wanting to go on a trip with not only me, but with our. With my son, their only grandson. And we had been chattering about, he's like, ah, you know, I want to do this. And I was like, well, I've got some time, I'd like to do that. And I had a bunch of interest in people actually doing New England, Canada cruises this year. I ended up sailing while I had other travelers sailing with Holland America. But a slightly different itinerary. We are chasing each other around the entire spot. I've got people sailing on this exact itinerary, this exact ship at the end of August. I have this exact one booked next summer. And all that stuff all happened at the same time. And I haven't been to these areas since I was approximately 7, 8. And unlike last time, I actually know some French. So I convinced my parents, who actually this is the fourth time then they have done this exact sailing.
My parents love. I know. And the reason why my parents absolutely love Anna Green Gables. And the highlight of this cruise is that you go to Charlotte Prince, you go to Charlottetown, and there is Anna Green Gables musical spoiler for a couple, you know, a couple days ahead in the. In the cruise. But they have tried to do and see that exact musical three times before. The first time a in fall 2022, if you were trying to sail, I think it was Hurricane Ian kind of knocked out everybody's cruises. Knocked out. Mine knocked out there they were on the ship, but it nailed Prince Edward island on the day they were supposed to go there and they had to reroute so they didn't get to do it. And then they said, you know what, we're going to try this again. We'll do it as a back to back the following May. They did it. It was fine. But the musical did not start until June. So this was attempt number four.
And we did it. Spoiler alert. It was an incredible musical. Oh, that is.
[00:10:54] Speaker B: Yeah, amazing. It was so like, for. This is like a bucket list to check off. To be able to go to that location, to be able to see that show. I love that. And then, I mean, honestly, I'm a little disappointed that Disney Cruise Line right now is not doing any of those New England Canada itineraries. Like there. There. There aren't any on for 2005 and there weren't any on for 2004. 4. From my memory, we haven't yet seen fall of 2. Well, yeah, we've only have. Right as we're recording this episode. We only have itineraries up to September of 2026.
But usually these itineraries are done in the summer, sometimes a little bit into September. I mean, they. You can do these itineraries in like September. So it's possible for 2026, but I still think kind of unlikely.
But I'm really hoping that Disney Cruise Line brings back some New England itineraries because I would really like to do some of these locations. And of course, they're the best I think on smaller ships because those ports tend to be quite small as well. Tell us about the ship that you were on with Holland America.
About what size, you know, meaning what? How many passengers?
[00:12:11] Speaker A: So I was on the Zeterdam, which I like to mispronounce about half the time. And then I would hear it be pronounced. So I think it's finally burned into my head. It is Zeterdam. I've sailed on this ship, not this ship of its sister ship, the Oosterdam, or I never pronounce everything correctly, but that's what it is. It's north, south, east, west. They have four of them.
They are older ships. They're approximately about the same age as the Magic and the Wonder.
Well, taken care of. This one needs a little bit. I think there's supposed to be a dry dock like unexpectedly coming up because there was air conditioning issues in a couple places.
But I mean it sails. It is. The thing that I love about this particular styleship is that it's not big. I think we had a total of 10 decks. 11 if you were up on the sport court.
And you know, half of that is going to be staterooms. So you really have like five, you know, decks just to kind of run about and see everything. You recognized everybody. This was a full sailing and they actually announced it by the cruise director on the very first night. There were approximately 2,064 people on that sailing.
[00:13:14] Speaker B: I know it's smaller than the Magic and the Wonder in terms of numbers at full capacity.
Several hundred smaller than those ships. That's fantastic. Yeah. I mean, I love a small ship, to be perfectly honest. Yeah, yeah. Well, let's talk about the booking process of excursions, activities, things like that. I want to talk pre booking.
Remind me because it's been a while since we talked about Halloween. Remind me how that works on Holland America. Do you. Are. Are you able to pre book things or are you waiting till you're on board to book things?
[00:13:50] Speaker A: You can pre book things. So once you have your deposit down, you can start pre booking. Usually you want to be at least 12 months out before you're really going. And that's kind of for everybody else's. Not Disney you're going to in that 12 month window. But you can do a couple variety of things. You can just book the cruise. You can do their have it all program, which is. It'll include a drink package. It includes the signature package, which is drinks $11 and under it includes a basic WI Fi. You can surf, you can. I played on Facebook And Instagram and it would let those happen. Couldn't quite do like TikTok or I couldn't stream, but I could upgrade, like, if I wanted to have like, heavy duty streaming, which my son was very upset that I didn't, um, I made him just deal with it.
But.
[00:14:41] Speaker C: Sorry, did you say how old your son was?
[00:14:43] Speaker A: Max is now 11 and a half. So I got to finally travel with a surly preteen for the first time.
So. And that was, that was part of the trip. But he, he, he had a really good time.
But it comes with. You get an excursion credit per person, and that's always dependent on the length of your Cruise. You'll get 1, 2, or 3A specialty dinner credits, depending on the length of your cruise and several of the premium dining facilities and will depend on the ship as, like, what actually is available.
But honestly, if you end up booking a cruise within the first 90 days of that itinerary has opened, you'll also get prepaid cruise gratuities. You'll get your drink package upgraded to the elite, which is $15 and under.
And you get. I feel, I feel that is it. I feel those are like the two big things. It's nice just having prepaid gratuities done and having like that little drink package.
[00:15:37] Speaker B: Yeah, that drink package for I'm, I'm assuming $15 and under gets you most alcoholic beverages. Not, of course, like your Macallan Scotch or something like that, but you get, you would get you most, you know, mixed drinks and things like that. Yeah. Whereas the $11 one I'm imagining a lot of stuff probably doesn't even. Well, no, that still covers.
Oh, wow.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: Actually worked. And even if, you know, there were some cocktails I like to have that were 12 and so I would just pay a dollar. I'd pay. You just pay like the difference.
[00:16:06] Speaker B: Which is nice. Yeah, that's nice.
[00:16:08] Speaker C: Virgin. They didn't let you pay the difference. You had to pay the full price of drink if it was over your package.
[00:16:12] Speaker B: If it's over that one. I mean, theirs is over $25, but still they don't let you pay the difference, which is kind of annoying. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, all right, well, let's, let's jump.
[00:16:23] Speaker C: Before we go there. So, Sarah, a couple questions here for me, which are in your estimation, I'm assuming Holland America was less expensive than sailing on a comparable. I know they don't. Disney doesn't.
Canada cruises currently, but let's say a comparable Caribbean cruise.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: If you didn't. If you Wanted to just get on the ship. It probably could be a little bit less. But Holland more goes for like slightly, a little bit more premium. So they're. I would say they're kind of comparable like Holland and Princess, very similar. They have a lot of crossover in their population.
And I feel, you know, Disney tries to be a little bit more premium as well. So it's going to be a lot. A lot more things are going to be included.
There's a couple things they're still not, but you can walk on the ship and not spend anything and actually still feel pretty happy. And you don't have to feel like that. Nickel and diming.
[00:17:14] Speaker C: From a drink package standpoint, did you feel like a drink package was necessary?
I mean, I don't know if like they include soft drinks and stuff on board like Disney does, or did you feel like you had to have some kind of drink package when you got on the ship.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: You could do it without. If you like to have soda, I think it's probably just a wise eye. But they also have a soda only package as well. So it depends kind of on you.
They have a couple of varieties that you could do for most people. I think honestly the have it all was fine. I ended up racking up a little bit extra here and there because sometimes there was something weird that I want. Milkshakes aren't included, weirdly. I don't really know why, but that's across any of the packages. But there's only like one place you can really get them. Sodas aren't included. Sodas are included in the drink packages. But if you just want to walk on, not have anything, you know, teas, coffees, lemonades that, you know, the basic drip coffee. But there's a spot where you can walk up to and just get that 24 7.
And it kind of depends. I probably did a lot more of ice water and lemonade probably during like breakfast lunch. You know, I'd go grab a coffee like here and there. But my favorite thing to do is just go sit on the back deck and have a drink and then have like three more because I'm sitting on the back deck, which is one of my favorite places to be. And then at nighttime go have like a special coffee up at the Crow's Nest or grab a couple other drinks there. And so I think it depends on you.
I think it's just nice because they. The price per day. I feel it's a. Don't quote me on it because I'm not looking at stuff. I feel it's around 60ish a person. But that also includes like the wifi, which was perfectly fine for me. So if you're like, I want to do like a couple of different things, you know, I think, I think it's worthwhile but some people just want to go on and just be like the bare bottom everything. Like, you know, I don't need to have any of that stuff and I book some folks that are like that. And if you're doing it like that, you will, you'll be like fairly cheap.
[00:19:08] Speaker C: And then, and then talk to us about the staterooms. So as you talk about booking, like how did you choose your stateroom? How does Holland staterooms compare to Disney?
[00:19:19] Speaker A: So with Disney, you know you're. For most people they're going to have that split bathroom and these ones are always going to be a walk in.
There's going to be, for most of the rooms there's going to be a shower tub and it's like a night. It's a, it's a decent sized tub.
A little bit compared. This ship is a little bit older.
When I was on the Koningsdam so many years ago, that ship, everything, it was a year old at the time. So everything was just like nice and modern. This one, you can tell, could use like a. Probably I would say feels like it's very like 2015ish or so like in how it's like designed. But was everything in good working condition? Yes.
Did I have USB ports? Yes. Did I. Could I have like a couple more? Absolutely I could, but I had space. We had a nice like so what we had, we had a veranda and we had a nice sized veranda with two tables. Well, two chairs and a table. We had two twin beds that were split apart. Unlike Disney, everybody else does the twins that combine. Actually our beds were together and I just made sure to tell that to the steward to make sure they got split. Walked in the next time, split apart and I was like, this is wonderful.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: You mean your 11 year old didn't want to like share a king sized bed with you?
What a jerk.
[00:20:38] Speaker C: You're the mom with an.
[00:20:44] Speaker B: Oh God. That's our 11 year old too. Brahman.
Oh my God. I'm not your bra.
Go take a shower.
[00:20:52] Speaker A: Yes, yes, that's exactly. Please go do these things.
[00:20:56] Speaker C: Go cut your hair. That's what you sound like. Sam. Damn hippies.
Oh, keep going, Sarah. Sorry.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: Oh no, no, you're fine. I was just thinking, I was like, yes. The conversations I was having about 30 minutes before this are exactly that.
In our room, it had the two beds.
One of the nice things is great. Something that it beats. I feel like Disney much. The amount of storage space that we had in the closets, the actual cabinets, not just wire, but cabinets just floor to ceiling. We had so much space, ridiculous amounts of place. Plus putting stuff underneath the beds so much just. But this type of ship is usually doing. Can do longer cruises. And so that's probably why I always think of the Wish, how everybody kind of has complained a little bit about like the Wish. Like the Wish and its sisters about could have a little bit more. This one. This one really had. That had like a nice sitting, had a nice desk, had multiple curtains in multiple places. So you could have multiple changing areas, which actually. It would actually split the room into three different areas, plus four.
[00:22:04] Speaker B: That's really nice. Yeah, I mean, that's nice. If you're sailing with, you know, a child of a different gender who is a teenager or a preteen and they're going to want. You're going to want privacy. They're going to want some privacy or other adults. Right. If you're sailing with friends who are. You're not married to. Right. You might want a little bit of changing privacy. That's really nice.
[00:22:22] Speaker A: Yeah, the bed would.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: Oh, oh, sorry.
[00:22:26] Speaker A: Yeah, the bed also turned. The sofa also turned into a bed as well. So they had the three divisions. Everybody had their own spot, which honestly was pretty good.
[00:22:35] Speaker B: Yeah. And your. Your folks, they were on this cruise with you. Were they on in a similar type of stateroom as what you and Max had?
[00:22:43] Speaker A: Yes, they were right at the end of the hallway. We were in the middle on starboard. Where were we? Deck 5.
And I always like picking out a very specific balcony for them because they. If you think of the ship, I'm sure everybody who is listening that can think of a cruise ship at some point.
If you are looking at, you know, that ship is going forward, some of the bump out.
If you're on the backside of the bump out, you'll have that nice larger balcony that's not getting hit by the wind. And that's what my parents love. So I look for that every single time. And their balcony was twice the size of ours.
[00:23:19] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:23:20] Speaker A: I didn't end up going. I went in the room a couple times just to kind of like say, hey. But they could see me from theirs and they got a couple pictures of me just kind of waving at people on Sail Away. And I was like, oh, hi. I was like, paparazzi picture.
[00:23:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I like that. I like that. I'm curious about the ship in general. You know, you've mentioned the state rooms. They could have used a little bit of an update. It sounds like not the newest of the ships, of course, but not. But everything you said, you know, everything was nice and in good working order. I'm curious about the ship kind of overall, did you get that sort of same sense about the rest of the ship? And then I want to talk about some of the amenities on the ship and what sort of is similar to or different from Disney.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: So the rest of the ship honestly looked great. And that was something I really looked at because I knew this was a little bit older ship. When I had sailed on its sister in 2018. I thought it was wonderful. A little bit more experience of looking at things. I was like, okay, how are we doing?
One of the best things about these ships is that there are so many nooks and crannies to just sit and relax and just stare out into everything.
And that is what I loved. And everything has been slightly redone. They have. Holland America has changed a lot about focusing on who exactly is their core audience. Now it is still the 55 and up crew. That's. That's who they love.
But at the same time, they are trying to bring in just a little bit younger, a little bit more multigenerational folks because of the fact that not everybody starts out at 55 and wanting to cruise. They need to figure out how to grab other folks. I know that from a fact.
When I did an event with Holland America in Alaska several years ago and they brought that up and I really thought about that like this entire trip. I really looked around.
They've got a world stage, multi level. I want to say it was either two or three stories that you could go into. I think two. But I'd have to look at the deck plan.
Crow's nest up on the top, which great area for art. Studio, board, game room. Just sitting and staring out at the sea shore excursion desk. The coffee bar that everybody loved.
Kids club. Up on the top deck they had sport court, which was very popular because that's the only place you could find my child for the entire ship.
[00:25:43] Speaker B: I was gonna ask whether or not he was at the sports court or whether or he was at the kids club, but you answered that question.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: He was. He did a little bit of kids club, but he wanted to. My child, you can't pull a basketball out of his hand. And he was. And he wasn't doing that he was destroying all the adults in Pickleball. So that's, that's what he did.
Other things on the ship, you know they're, you know, unlike Disney, there is a one, there's one main dining room but like multi level depending on which dining time you have. If you have late dining, early dining, just walk up it. Just going to depend on which level. It's beautiful. It honestly is. It has like that wonderful stairway in the middle and just looks.
[00:26:22] Speaker B: You can take the formal pictures on formal night on the staircase.
[00:26:26] Speaker A: Not that one because it's inside. But they have another stairway you could do. They actually have like a whole studio if you want to go take the formal photos.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:34] Speaker A: It has the Lido market which is their buffet which honestly my favorite place. That's where I eat pretty much all of my meals. I just, I love it. I love walking in.
It's always my complaint with Disney Cruise line is like sometimes I just, I really just want to just do whatever and not have to be in a certain place at a certain time. But sure, you know they're not going to listen to me. So.
[00:26:55] Speaker B: Yeah, they've decided rotational dining is here to stay and there's no dinner buffet. That's, I mean that's their model at least, you know, at least now post. Well there wasn't a buffet but at least you go in the buffet to get a sit down dinner. That was a little less formal than in the main dining rooms but whatever, they gave that up.
[00:27:13] Speaker A: So it is what it is. There are a couple pools. There's a pool on the open back deck and then there's a pool in the middle. And the interesting thing about Holland America ships because they can and do go all over the world. So the middle deck, the Lido pool always has a cover and so half the time it'll be covered. Half the time it might be partially covered or full covered. So it doesn't matter. You will always have something that you can go swimming in no matter what. And those pools get deep.
[00:27:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:41] Speaker A: I will say as a heads up, they do not have lifeguard station. So it's. And it's very prominent. Like there are, there's lifeguard like equipment. Everything else, please swim at your own risk. But the pools, the back pool got to approximately six feet. The inside pool got to five something because I was checking, I have never been in a pool. I sit next to them. I've been in the hot tub cubs. I just never get myself into the pool and every single time I'm like yes. And Then I don't. Yeah, but lots of people, lots of people loved them of all ages. They don't have slides. It's not really a thing for them. But you know, they're always. There's a polar bear and her cub decorating the middle, the middle pool, the sea view pool that is always looking over the aft of the ship. It's uncovered and it has like a little decoration thing in there, but beautiful views. Honestly, that, that's where I like to hang out the most.
Any other places there's a library. If you forgot books, you can go get physical books. You can even get a free Audible subscription with your reservation if you want to have a couple books that way. My mother likes to complain that the libraries just aren't as good as they used to be.
[00:28:48] Speaker B: I thought it was fun.
[00:28:50] Speaker A: I love that.
[00:28:50] Speaker B: I, I, that sounds like a mom thing to say. Like an older mom thing to say. Like, the libraries just aren't what they used to be.
[00:28:59] Speaker C: I remember getting on the ship and they had the, the, the video library, the book library, and then the game library. And they'd be emptied out, like in like an hour. Like, everything would be off the shelf because everyone would have gone and gotten their stuff and taking it back to their stateroom for the curtain. Sounds like this is crazy, but.
[00:29:13] Speaker A: Yeah, it was, it was just. I went through and there was, you know, modern books. I found a couple. There were some things that I found, like some of my favorite, like, you know, current, like, romance books. But then, like, other things that I was like, oh, you know, I'm gonna snap a picture of this. I'm gonna look this one up when I get home. There's a whole variety just walk off. They're like, please just bring it back by the end of the cruise. That's all we ask.
You know, shows, there's tons of live music, but that's one thing that Holland America is really focused on is lots of live music options.
There was a Celtic drummer who was multiple times I. It is not my cup of tea, but I did walk by several times and I was like, that man is looking like he's doing a great job. And I'm very proud.
[00:29:53] Speaker B: He's super talented, but I'm not gonna hang out and listen to him that crike.
[00:30:00] Speaker C: So can I ask about, about activities for your son?
[00:30:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:04] Speaker C: Like, do they have a, do they have like a.
Well, on Disney, he'd be in the Tweens club and Edge, but on Holland, I'm not sure that they have the same age restrictions. But like, what kinds of club space did they have? Kids activities did they have. I mean, if we asked him, did you have a good time? Like, what would he say?
[00:30:25] Speaker A: He would say, actually he did.
He and I, I asked him several times. One of the big things I was curious about was actually taking Max on this cruise because I knew my parents would want to take him even without me.
But I know my kid. I was like, well, you know, I know how you are with guided activities as a background. Max just aged out of child care this past summer and he had complained for the past year of fifth grade that he still had to go.
So he is no longer like a guided activities person anymore.
Their club, Club Hal, has two sections. It's three to six and it's seven to 11.
And then they have. And those are all inside the kids club. You need to sign in. It is. They don't have like all day. Like how Disney, you kind of like go drop your kid off. You have specific hours. There's more availability on sea days, port days, more like afternoon and evening. Although they'd really like you to be on the ship. You have to give contact info or wherever you're going to be.
Unlike Disney, while they'll message you through the app, they're going to call you so you. They need to be able to find you.
But it was good. Like I actually walked around, took a little videos. He was temporarily excited about the kids club because there were a bunch of video games and he really thought he was going to be able to video game it up. They had PS, they had a PS5. They had a switch. They had like several other things. But free play on video Games was from 7 to 8pm each night. And then after that it was going to be guided things. So you're not going to go and veg out. I did watch. Yeah. He was like, oh yeah.
[00:31:56] Speaker B: He's like, oh. I could only play for an hour. That's.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: He did it a couple of times. And he was like, okay, I'm fine.
But the kids club, I watched them and they were having a great. Now granted, as a parent, I can only walk so far. Like during open house on the first day, you can go in. I took a couple picture videos, just more for my own reference. But it's nicely decorated, lots of hands on, lots of guests. I did activities, crafts. The most of the kids who were on it, like I saw the sign in, were probably between three and eight. They looked like they were having a blast. I think Max was right. At that age, they had Teen activities for the 12, 13 and up group. And he could not age up into that. Like he was six months off. If he had been six months older, he would have been running. He still ran around like a bunch on the ship. I himself, but I think he would have had fun going and doing because there was a lot of game nights. I saw a lot of those kids, especially the teens. And I will say on this shift, it was incredibly multi generational. There were tons of people my age, I'm in my early 40s, there were tons of people in their 30s, in their 20s, and then kids a variety of ages, and then the parents, grandparents.
You know, the majority was still the parents grandparents, but the under 50 population had definitely increased from the last time I sailed them. And I really paid attention to that and I jumped just like something else. The music choices this trip. I remember thinking the past couple times, like, oh, you know, I really like this. I appreciate the music of all decades, but sometimes it is nice to hear something that I also like and grew up with that is not as old as me.
I heard lots of stuff across the board.
They do lots of live music, but also, you know, Billboard on board, so they've got their live piano. They have a house band that does a lot of theme nights. There was a 70s night, there was an 80s night, all kinds of things, 50s, 60s. But they brought it into like 90s and current stuff.
There was, if you wanted to hear classical music, they had live chamber music that honestly sounded amazing. Like, I. I sat like a couple times, like, oh, I'm gonna watch like five minutes of this and I'm going to go do something else.
But it was. They had a variety of stuff, but the kids stuff, I think had improved a bit. And I was really excited about that. But honestly, Max spent his entire time. Once he learned how to find our room, which is a funny story because I lost my child within an hour and a half of being on the ship for approximately an hour.
[00:34:26] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[00:34:27] Speaker A: Yeah, that was.
Oh, that was. That was not fun. I. I checked my apple watch by I think 4pm I had done 37 flights of stairs looking. Yeah, he had. He had gotten ahead of me. We had gone to check in for the kids club, you know, and what we needed, we were heading back to the room, which he had already been to once. He had his room key and he got two floors ahead of me because we were taking the stairs and he turned one way, I turned the other way and I couldn't find him. And to his credit, to his credit, because he's 11. I knew he wasn't going to leave the ship. He wasn't going to do anything silly. But I still. I was like, this is the time.
He ended up trying to break into every single room that he could find. That started with a five with his key. Just trying to figure out one by one, as I'm going through hours.
[00:35:14] Speaker B: Oh, yes.
[00:35:15] Speaker A: He did it for about an hour. But here's the thing that I was really proud of him.
So with Holland America, we had spent some time in the room because we went and did the video mustard drill. And then he had to go check in at a certain time.
So we had actually gone. I thought we could do it a little bit earlier. They weren't ready for us yet. So we had come back, and he heard them call out, I need you to do the mustard drill. And he went to the mustard spot, and he ran into my mom. And my mom texted me. She's like, I have him. And I was like, okay.
Yeah, exactly. But that was. That was really, honestly, the only hiccup. He had so much more independence on the ship. I think that's something that he really loved. And. And because it was a nice, small ship, he could run upstairs and just go pickleball for approximately six hours. I think that's what he did. Like, during all the sea days, he was just there, and then he would come back down and that. That's. Yeah, pickleball and basketball. He would come down.
[00:36:04] Speaker B: You needed to find him. Once the cruise was going, he was up on the sports deck. You knew where to go. Yeah, yeah.
[00:36:10] Speaker A: He didn't even want to swim. I had to beg him to bring a swimsuit. He did not bring a swimsuit, and he did not swim. He played basketball. That's what he wanted to do. And then he would come down and eat at the Lido deck, and he would go get sushi for lunch every single day. That was his favorite thing. And then he'd go. He'd just go get his own food. And then he knew how to use his card. And he would just get his stuff, and he'd go back upstairs and play. So he. Because of those three things, Max will tell you that this was a fantastic. Oh, and the movie selection in our room was really good. And so we watched tons of movies. We played basketball, played pickleball, ate all the sushi he could want. He said it was the best cruise he's ever done. He's only done two, but it was the best cruise.
[00:36:45] Speaker B: But it was the best One I.
[00:36:46] Speaker C: Love that we know that people trust.
[00:36:49] Speaker D: Disney for their vacations and it can sometimes be a little nerve wracking to think about trying something new. Right, Sam?
[00:36:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Whether you're considering branching out to a new cruise line, an all inclusive resort, or exploring Europe, the team at MyPath Unwinding Travel has the expertise and connections across the globe to plan almost any vacation. They can even help with the Universal Parks. They've helped us plan our vacations beyond Disney and including Royal Caribbean Princess Cruise Line and Virgin Voyages.
[00:37:12] Speaker D: Their team of travel professionals all understand the needs of a Disney traveler, can help you decide if another option is right for you, and then guide you through every step of your new vacation experience. Whether you are dreaming of a fun getaway to an all inclusive resort, a river cruise in Europe, or an adventure in Costa Rica, the folks at My Path Unwinding are ready to help. Even if you have already booked, reach out for a complimentary consultation to make your next vacation even more amazing.
[00:37:33] Speaker B: If you want to learn more and take advantage of the amazing team at My Path Unwinding Travel, then head over to mypathunwinding.com dclduo or email dclduoypathunwinding.com to let them know we sent you their way. Thanks My Path Unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode I want to Speaking of food, I'd love to talk about food you mentioned. Obviously you've got main dining, you've got the Lido, which is the buffet.
What, what other specialty dining was available? You mentioned sushi. Was that in the the buffet or was that a separate location? Like what, what's available on this, on this ship? Obviously every ship's going to be a little bit different and this is one of their smaller ships. So I imagine you aren't going to have 10 specialty restaurants, but I'm curious as to what what was on this one.
[00:38:21] Speaker A: So on this ship they had main dining room, they had Lido Market, they had the dive in Cafe which is over by the middle pool, the Lido Pool which was burger, you know, burgers, hot dogs and French fries. Very good actually.
And then the specialty restaurants, they had Pinnacle Grill, which is its own section that's always the steakhouse. That's always on every single ship.
They also have Canaletto. Canaletto, Canaletto. I never pronounce anything correctly.
That is actually an Italian restaurant that is its own section of the the Lido Market buffet area. It's all wild off you walk over to there and they have their own Section that just like preps all of their food for them and they'll do different things. There's also some pop ups. They'll do Morimoto by the sea, so some different options.
[00:39:10] Speaker B: Chef. I love chef Morimoto. Oh my God, his ribs.
[00:39:14] Speaker A: I've never done it, but I, I know. I always think of his spot over at Disney Springs. I've been there a couple times. I've never done it on a ship. Ship. I never think you have to, you know, register in advance because usually it's one or two nights depending on the length of the ship. And then the also day, because we were in New England, they did Maine lobster, seafood boil. You could register for that and they would come find you. So there was a spot like there was one night where this whole section was marked off. And so it was like, oh, everybody who had registered, that's where they're going to go and get all of their lobster for the night.
But for me, you know, I'm a lido deck person. I just want to roll in, grab food and I like to show up late and just, just, you know, go stare out and just, you know, do whatever. But one of the things I really love about their buffet is that there are multiple stations that are all different. So it's not the same thing on each side. So it is wise to find a spot, get a table and then just do a walkabout because some things are always going to be the same. You're always going to have, you know, the carved meat section. You're going to have like a great salad section. During lunchtime there was one spot that had a lot of Asian dishes, so we had lots of sushi. But then we also had a lot of, of Southeast Asian dishes, so lots of like various little noodle things. There was one day that was just focused all on various, like Indian cuisine.
I just remember seeing all that. I'd just be like, I'm going to get my sushi for lunch and I'm going to get like some noodles and I'm going to be very happy.
But it would, everything would rotate. There was one day they had two days where we had mussels and I completely forgot to hit that up both times. Just a pile of. I took a picture of it.
But there would always be different options that would always rotate. The ice creams and the desserts would change every single day or even every single meal. The pineapple ice cream is the closest ice cream I've had to a dole whip at a non Disney location that wasn't yes, we have the exact like this is that. And I was just, I was stunned. I was like, I could go and have another one. I took a picture.
[00:41:10] Speaker B: I could eat three dole whips for lunch.
[00:41:12] Speaker A: Oh, it was, it was so good.
And they had, there was a banana that was really good. They just had different options like every single day. But really the food variety was really good. And that was something I remember always really liking Marceline Market. And this I always feel is that, but probably a little bit better. You do half the things you can serve yourself, half the things are already portioned out. So a little bit of time saving, a little bit of sanitation. There's hand washing station at like each side. Please go wash your hands.
But you can just go and go get a section. You know, I never tried to do like the whole entire line. I go figure out whatever I would like and then I might go back and get some more.
But food's always good. You know. A couple of things, you know, sometimes are I missed, but that's like everything. But Probably I would say 88 to like 94% of the things that I had I really liked. I'm also type of person, I'm like, oh, you know, if I didn't like it as much as something else, I'm like, oh, it's fine. Like I. I don't really care. But I was happy. I was always really happy.
[00:42:09] Speaker C: So, Sarah, let's shift gears and talk about ports for a few minutes here because this is going to a pretty unique itinerary and one that Disney kind of used to do but doesn't do so much anymore. Although hope springs eternal with new ships coming. Talk to us about. So remind me, your first port of call was. Was it Halifax?
[00:42:28] Speaker A: Did you say it was? Portland, Maine.
[00:42:30] Speaker C: Portland, Maine. Okay, so walk us through kind of what you got up to in Portland.
[00:42:35] Speaker A: Portland was going to be a short stop. I think we had, I think 7:00am arrival, 1:00pm departure. So there wasn't a lot of time.
There were excursions. My excursion was there is a donut shop that is probably a half mile mile away from the port called the Holy Donut. So I'm assuming if we have any Portland, Maine people here, they're probably going like, yeah, yes or like, no, don't tell people. But it does potato flour, which I did not realize was such a big thing in Maine. They do potato flour donuts. There was a line out the door, but the line moved quick. I could have made it quicker if I realized I could have ordered ahead and Just picked up. But we went and got some donuts. And that was my excursion and that was delightful. My dad saw a small train that left right there from the cruise port. I think it was a 40 minute out and back. And my dad loves trains. He will absolutely hop on any single train possible. And so he went and did that. He was like, does anybody else want to do trains? And we're like, we're good.
We're going to go do donuts. And we just wandered around town, got back on the ship.
[00:43:39] Speaker C: So I got to say, holy donuts. Giving me like the Monty Python vibes. The holy hand grenade. But so what does potato flour do to a donut? I gotta know.
[00:43:49] Speaker A: It's so I am really like the yeast flavored, like not yeast flavored but like the yeast like rise donuts are really more of my thing. And I'm not a big cake donut person, but I was like, I'm going to try this. It had a really pleasing texture.
It doesn't really taste like potato. If you've had potato bread and you're like, okay, potato donut.
[00:44:11] Speaker B: But it was like a fluffy bread. I love potato bread.
[00:44:14] Speaker A: Yeah, it was a good, it was a good solid donut that filled me up. And mine was key lime flavored and I was happy. Everybody. My son had one, my mom had one, I had one. All three of us, thumbs up, up.
So that was, that was our thing. And then I ran back onto the ship so I could catch the second half of the Formula one race and my driver won. So had started the ship off like correctly.
[00:44:36] Speaker C: Now you're speaking Sam's sporting language because she loves the Formula One.
[00:44:39] Speaker B: So yeah, I'm a big F1 fan myself as well. Drive to survive on Netflix is what got me into it. I was not into it before, I have to confess, but yeah, love that.
[00:44:49] Speaker C: All right, next up on port of call here, Sarah, where are we headed?
[00:44:54] Speaker A: We went to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
We have now jumped into Canada and we're going to remain in Canada.
The one thing about this cruise is that when we boarded in Boston, we actually did have to do our Canadian embarkation papers on arrival.
So if people haven't done that before, because I actually hadn't done a one way cruise, my parents have and they were like, oh, yeah, we have to do this. We had to set our departure date a little differently since we were staying after the cruise.
[00:45:20] Speaker C: Cruise.
[00:45:21] Speaker A: But that means that once you walk off the ship, there's no line for customs. You just walk off the ship, which was fantastic. But, you know, we hopped into Halifax. We didn't have any particular excursion. I think my parents probably wandered around and did something.
When you arrive at the cruise port, there is a massive boardwalk that probably goes a couple miles. And my big focus that day was that morning.
This is going to sound like we were pressing our luck, but my son had never watched Titanic before. So we watched Titanic while on the cruise ship. And then, yes, yes, the cruise was docked. But then in Halifax, that is, the folks who did not survive the Titanic, their bodies went to Halifax. Everybody who survived, they went to New York City. So there is a massive graveyard that you can go visit the Titanic. Like people who did not make it. And there's all kinds of other things. People go to Peggy's Cove, there's lots of lighthouses. But we walked over to the Maritime Museum, which was probably about a mile and a half walk, very easy wander down the boardwalk, and they have a permanent Titanic exhibit. So my son became obsessed with Titanic, which made me really happy because I also love Titanic. And we got to go see and just, like, learn even more about the ship. And I learned more things that I didn't realize, I didn't know. And then it was great. The pricing was children were free this summer, and then adults were $9 Canadian, nine something. So it was. It was great. I think, like, adults 65 and older were also free. So if you're going to Halifax in the next month and a half, I recommend going to the Maritime Museum. It is wonderful.
I finally got to read things in French, and that was very exciting. I know I'm just hearing people. I took French in high school, and finally I've got to use my French. And it made me really excited.
But they had lots of different, you know, if you're into ship things or just like maritimes or museums, it was a very nice museum.
They has an amateur radio station, and you could get a certificate for learning how to type your name in Morse code. And I actually have an amateur radio license. So when they asked me if I knew what this was, I was like, I gotcha. And so because of that, I got to sign the extra book and get like a URL card. So that was pretty cool for being my first international amateur radio experience.
But that was. It was just. It was a beautiful day. The boardwalk was gorgeous. There's lots of sculptures. There's lots of food vendors. There's so many things you can do. So if you want to do a port adventure, you can. Or if you just want to go wander around, incredibly Easy just to walk around. It was a massive harbor and it was beautiful. Like I, I loved it was. It was a perfect day.
[00:47:59] Speaker B: I am fascinated by the Titanic. So I like, I don't. I'm not a huge movie fan of the Titanic movie, but I'm fascinated by the ship and sort of all the lore around it. And so I, I feel like that would be a fun.
[00:48:14] Speaker C: I don't know the superstitious Kentuckian in me. Don't watch a movie about the Titanic.
[00:48:19] Speaker B: While you're on a cruise ship. I know, I, I understand that, Brian. I get that your next port of call was also in Nova Scotia, if I'm correct. What was that? Which city was that? Or port I should say was that.
[00:48:31] Speaker A: We went to Sydney, Nova Scotia, which is a much smaller town. I think Halifax is maybe around a half million. Sydney is about 30,000.
The downtown, they have another boardwalk. They have a small port with like various shopping that you can do. But that's really a cruise port that if you're going to go there, if you don't want to do anything, stay on the ship. But if you want to go explore, that is a place.
I didn't do any excursions. We just kind of wandered about. We watched. It was a, A disaster themed trip because we watched Jaws as well and my son was like, I love Jaws.
[00:49:04] Speaker B: Jaws too. Don't go in the water. Come on.
[00:49:08] Speaker A: I didn't go in the water.
[00:49:09] Speaker B: Yeah, but it was. Neither of you went in the pool.
[00:49:12] Speaker C: Just throw in Miracle on the Hudson.
[00:49:14] Speaker B: Or.
[00:49:17] Speaker A: All the movies that you definitely want to watch on a ship. We did.
It was a little overcast that day, a little bit sprinkly rain, the big thing. My dad has been trying for ages to go see puffins in real life.
He has sailed, you know, he's done the travels where you go from New England and you go to Greenland, you go all around Iceland. He's been to Svalbard, you know, all the places and he's never been able to see a puffin. And that's really like one of his life bucket list things was can I just see some puffins in real life? And there was. He had been trying to get onto an excursion and there ended up being. He was fifth on the wait list. I don't know how he knew. I think he was just like right there and everybody else turned it down because there was one spot they didn't want to break up the couples. He got on there and they saw puffins and all kinds of other birds and he Was so happy.
So that was. Dad had the big success.
[00:50:09] Speaker B: I love that for dad. Oh, I. Well, I mean, puffins are adorable, so even better that he got to do that. That sounds lovely. Now did you guys just kind of walk around in a explore since it. You mentioned it? It is a smaller port but, but a pretty, you know, place to, to sort of hang out.
[00:50:27] Speaker A: Yeah. We ended up, we walked down probably about halfway through the boardwalk, then cut upwards, came back through town. We could have done a little bit more exploring, but I was kind of just like, well, you know, this is a nice place, but this is not like the focus of my trip, you know. The next day was going to be the focus.
Got ice cream. My son got some cotton candy ice cream from a local food truck that was parked right there at the port that was, I think manned by local college students. So, you know, supported the. Supported the youth and made a youth very happy at the same time. So he thought it was a success.
[00:51:01] Speaker B: Awesome. All right, well, your next port was the highlight, right? This is the Anne of Green Gables musical. Tell us the name of the port again. I already forgot it.
[00:51:13] Speaker A: We were in Charlottetown. Prince Edward Island.
[00:51:16] Speaker B: That's what it is. Prince Edward Island. Yes. Okay.
[00:51:19] Speaker A: And that was the cruise port that we had the most time. You know, everybody else, you know, I think Portland was 7am to 1pm I think Halifax was probably 10 to 5. I think probably about the same thing for Sydney, but This one was 10:30am to 10:30pm so you had so much time.
[00:51:41] Speaker B: I love a full day.
Yeah.
[00:51:43] Speaker A: And it was wonderful. It was a beautiful day. The weather was perfect.
Our actual, this was like the actual excursion that we booked through the cruise line. It was the only thing we really cared. But we had booked it probably a couple weeks after we actually booked the cruise. Making sure that we had set up. We used our cruise excursion credit, got everything done and it was. You met up at the cruise port, they put a little sticker on you. And this was actually a walk. It was about probably a two mile walk. It was about 30 minutes and somebody gathered us up and just walked us over because not only was this Holland America line, but this show was done at Holland College.
[00:52:21] Speaker B: Ah, it's your college.
[00:52:23] Speaker A: It's my college.
[00:52:28] Speaker B: That's really fun. That's really fun. Now what time was the show? Was it like a midday show or is this an evening show? I mean, and is this show being done just for the cruise passengers or is this something they're doing for just visitors to the town?
[00:52:43] Speaker A: This show apparently has existed since either 2005 or 2015. It is one of the two. I don't remember. I want to say 2005. And it is based off of. If you're familiar with the Anna Green Gables novels, it's based off of, I think a couple of the later ones after Anne has graduated high school.
If you're not familiar with Anna Green Gables, that is the iconic book series about a young orphan who goes to live with older brother and sister who are, you know, in their 60s or so. And let's see, where is it is.
I think it's based in Prince Edward island somewhere. I think it's like on the north coast. But it is a charming, charming, wonderful story. And I hadn't read them in years, but I had read all of them. And the music, I thought it was a play, but the musical was non stop. It was basically Les Mis. How Les Mis, like does not stop. It's just song. Song songs.
[00:53:37] Speaker B: Yeah. An operetta and stuff. Oh, yeah, yeah. So what you tend to call a musical that has some talking but is mostly singing is an operetta as opposed to an opera, which is, you know, all singing, no actual talking. And so Les Mis is the perfect example of a. It is a musical, but it is an operetta because there's only some handful of dialogue that's done outside of singing. Yeah, a lot of the dialogue is part of the song. Yeah.
[00:54:11] Speaker A: Awesome. Yeah, it was wonderful. It was casted with primarily folks from the island, but also from Toronto and then other parts of Quebec.
It runs from June to October every year. I'm not sure if they do multiple showings or if it's just one out. It was long. I feel that it started at 1 o' clock and it finished around 3, because I think the actual excursion was 12 to 4.
And you got your money's worth. And it's a small theater. Like this is not Halton College is a small school, but they have a very nice little theater. And there are probably maybe 500, I don't know, 500 seats, 300 seats maybe. And it was full. It was completely sold out. And this was just a random day in July and it was completely sold out, like during the week. So this isn't, you know, the locals coming in and be like, oh, let's go see.
And it was, it was so good.
I was actually surprised how good it was, how catchy the songs were. The acting, the staging, the choreography. It's. It's a simple stage, but they used every single space and There were several songs I can just think of right now that just stuck with you. And the girl who played Ann, I had to immediately look. I was like, are you like, do you have, like a. An Instagram, or do you have something I can follow? She doesn't even have that. And I was like, how. How am I supposed to find out if you make it to Broadway? Because she just. She just embodied somebody. And it's. You know, when you see somebody actually act like that, you're like, wow, that is impressive. But everybody. Everybody was good.
Multiple people played two roles, like first act, second act, and they did such a great job. And I had.
I guess there was a family member of the show that was sitting behind me and was talking on the phone during intermission, like, wow, they're better than last year. And I was like, oh, how was last year? She's like, well, did you go catch it? I'm like, I have never been here before, ma', am, so I have no idea. But she said that it. She just felt that everybody just knew that there were a lot of newer people last year. So I guess this is something that people do over and over and over again. And they just do it for four or five months. Months. That's just. That's just what they do. And it was great. It was. It was absolutely well worth the cost. Afterwards, they would walk you back. We ditched everybody. I bought a Holland. I bought a much better Holland College sweatshirt. My parents had been there before and tried to get me one that didn't quite fit me and was not really a design choice that I personally.
[00:56:35] Speaker B: Sometimes parents aren't great at picking out clothes for their adult children. Let's put it out that way.
[00:56:42] Speaker A: Sorry, mom and dad, but I now have a really, really gorgeous one. And I immediately put it on because it was a perfect day.
And I got my nice little shirt. We went walking around. There's a great food hall. Just, you know, it's all locals. They're right there, probably within a quarter, half mile of the cruise port. The downtown is so walkable. There are streets. Victoria Row is just nothing but pedestrian. It's all blocked off pedestrians, and it's just nothing but live music and outdoor dining. They have an art walk that tells a story, like, one page at a time. And you can go travel around town, and it's geared more towards kids, but there's like a large art piece and you can go find everything. My son was half interested. I ended up getting lost because I wasn't paying attention, because I was too Busy taking pictures, but it was nice just to wander around. Beautiful day. Lots of people went and did big excursions that day. I think if you really wanted to geek out on Ann, you could actually go visit the homestead and you could go do a couple other things. So you got probably like an eight hour trip out of it.
But it was gorgeous. It was. I just remember being there and thinking I was like, I can't wait to come back here. Probably the best port day I've ever had. And, you know, come back, have dinner and just watch an absolutely gorgeous sunset.
And, you know, took the pictures of the Dutch flag flapping with the sun and everything else. But the other really cool thing that happened that had nothing to do with the cruise port is that, as we all know, cruise ships have to practice their evacuation stuff, you know, once a week. Everything else. I finally caught it, and they were taking the lifeboats off. And as I was getting ready that morning, I missed the announcement that we were about to do a massive evacuation drill.
Apparently I was in the shower and I missed that key part because I got out and I was listening, going, like, am I supposed to be doing something like, right now? I was like, no, now we are tied up. And then I realized, oh, okay. But they were actually. I opened the door and I saw that I had been evacuated. So they put like a little key tag notice saying, like, your room has been evacuated. They have gone through and checked the whole entire thing, watched the lifeboats all drop off, go do a drive around and everything. They only did half of them, but it was cool just to watch and see how they do everything. You feel very confident, like, yes, these folks practice this every single week. They are ready to go. And they looked very professional. They knew what was up.
So it's always, always kind of relaxing. But in addition to the lifeboats sailing around, we also had tons of just regular sailboats just going up and down the bay, just sparkling. It was wonderful. It was really, really good.
[00:59:15] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, New England is such a beautiful part of the country, part of the world, obviously, both in Canada and the US and the sights are probably just, you know, gorgeous from the ship and being able to see. See all the sailboats. So there's tons of sailboats in that area. So, yeah, f. Fantastic, fantastic sailing. Well, Sarah, I. I gotta ask, is there. Are there any other highlights or lowlights that perhaps that we've missed that we haven't asked you about?
As we sort of wrap up here talking about this amazing sailing, I would.
[00:59:49] Speaker A: Say last couple of things, the last two days were just sea days, but we sailed the St. Lawrence Seaway. So that was actually really cool to see. Just you could see the land. And it was just off about 20, 30 miles. And it slowly got closer and closer. And because of that, we actually had whales swim next to the ship, which I didn't even think about the fact that we could have whales up there. But apparently it's a huge thing. Saw whales both days. I saw beluga whales. I saw some dolphins just kind of chasing after us. And that was first time I've ever seen that. And that was wonderful.
Just a relaxing day. Hit up the spa, like, a couple times in a row. So I always recommend go to the spa, go do a thermal day.
Their spa was a little.
Not as grand as their bigger ships, but it was still. I spent like three, four hours, so I was happy.
And then after that, hopped off the ship, you know, had to pack up everything. We took the train from Quebec City to Montreal, which was very delightful. It's about three and a half hours. And that was fun just to hop on, you know, hear everything in French and in English.
Landed in Montreal.
We stayed at the Marriott, Montreal Champlain. I feel it's probably about a block and a half down from the main train station. Checked in, did a lot of wandering around Montreal. My mom confused an Uber driver that she demanded that we could actually drive to the very tippy top of Mont Royale, because she had done that 40 some years ago, and she was convinced that, yes, we can still do that. That. And I'm trying so hard, along with this very nice driver, to convince her that, no, we really can't do that. There's no. She's like, but we could. I did it. I was like, we can't. And then we proved to her that, no, we could not just standing up there looking. Looking over the beautiful scenery like, well, we used to just drive right here.
So that was kind of a little bit below. Legs like, mother, please, come on, let's. We are here. Let's just. We are here. We have made. She. She was very demanding that, like, Max had to go see this. And my child's like, I could care less.
[01:01:50] Speaker B: Us.
[01:01:52] Speaker A: But we ended up coming back down. We wandered around downtown.
Tons of just different options. Beautiful place, super easy to walk around. Ended up stopping at Poutineville, which is a local poutine chain. And I, you know, love all different.
[01:02:07] Speaker B: Why don't we have Poutineville everywhere? Why is that not a thing? We should have Poutineville everywhere in the world.
[01:02:14] Speaker C: Oh, stop trying to make. Fetch a thing, Sam.
[01:02:16] Speaker A: We can't.
It was, it was so good. I sat there, I was just eating poutine, watching Canadian football, drinking Canadian beer and I was like, this is it. This is the experience that I wanted.
[01:02:26] Speaker B: That sounds, I mean, that sounds like perfection. I mean maybe minus the Canadian football, but yeah, and maybe mine. Maybe I'll. I'd do an iced tea and some poutine.
[01:02:39] Speaker A: There was one, one other thing that we did that was last minute and it was because the hotel concierge had told us us the Basilica de Montreal Notre Dame. I feel it is in that order. That might not be the correct order. They're doing a massive refurb. It's gorgeous. Gorgeous, gorgeous. Like old church.
And every night, most nights they are doing an illuminated.
I sat there and watched this thing. It was beautiful. It was about $30 a person.
And it is, this is the right population that I can say this to. It was like combining Disney's Happily Ever after minus the fireworks and characters, but adding Hogwarts Great hall, but in a church. And just imagine that combination.
[01:03:25] Speaker B: Add Hunchback of Notre Dame in there then.
[01:03:28] Speaker A: Yes, but there are no characters because this is Mantria. Beautiful.
They illuminated various places around the church and it was with music and light, lights and lasers. And there was, I think one particular part where it felt like there was an ocean about to crash down on us. And it was gorgeous. And everybody was completely silent. Everybody kept their phones and cameras down the entire time because they yelled at us right before like, you will not.
[01:03:55] Speaker B: You will not take photographs. You will not take video. Oh my God, I love that.
[01:03:59] Speaker A: You can do it. You can do it after. You could do it after. You could do it before. And they recommitted, they had like little light things they recommended come in. They had the Stations of the Cross illuminated and various things and they. And it was, they made the statues come alive. It truly was gorgeous and it was very relaxing. It was about 30, 40 minutes total. And you know, could we have walked from our hotel? No, we took an Uber. We took Uber everywhere because that's the only option that we had in Canada. But it was great. It was honestly a perfect highlight. And I'm really. Even my son, the surly pre teen, thought it was really awesome. And so that is, I feel the.
[01:04:34] Speaker B: You know, that's the best review. Yeah, I mean if, if the, if an 11 year old boy will tolerate it, it's got to be pretty, pretty good.
[01:04:43] Speaker A: He just sat there like perfectly silent, just Watching the entire time. So it was impressive.
[01:04:50] Speaker B: Well, Sarah, you've got a year of cruising in front of you. I gotta ask, what's the cruise you got? You mentioned five, you know, five different. Well, four cruises.
Five including this one. Four yet to come. Already sort of planned. What's the one that you're looking forward to the most and why is it the Destiny?
[01:05:12] Speaker A: I mean, because there's a Cruella de Vilbar, obviously that's what I care about there. There's a different reason why I'm looking forward to each one.
Excited to go on the Mardi Gras, mainly because I haven't done Carnival yet. I get some requests for Carnival, but not a ton of.
But I'm excited to go to a new private island and it's going to be going to Celebration Key, which just opened up. So I'm excited to see something different. I've been following the reports.
I know a couple other friends that have already been there. So I'm excited to go to a new place. It's also going to Amber Cove and Grand Turk and I like the spots. It is very chill and that's what I plan to do. You know, going on the Wish again in November. I'm going, I'm boarding the Wish on my birthday. So I mean, there you go. With my friends I haven't seen in two years. So I'm, you know, that's kind of. I'm really excited. Destiny again, sailing with all of my friends. We have a big huge group of us. I'm super excited for that, to see everything.
And then next summer for the Wonder. Just getting my sorority back together.
I belong to a local sorority. We've been around for 60 years. And I got everybody on a cruise last year and got everybody together. We did one of the smaller Royal Caribbean ships and had an absolute blast. And so now we're doing, instead of a Friday to Monday, we're doing. Doing it Monday to Friday. So it'll be a little bit more wild than the other ones, but it's still going to be just like an incredible time. I. I can't wait. So all of them will be good?
[01:06:35] Speaker B: Yeah, they sound fantastic. Sarah, we hope you have a wonderful time on all of those cruises, but especially the Disney ones, of course.
Sarah, why don't you tell folks how they can follow along in your journey and reach out to you if they would like to book a cruise vacation with you.
[01:06:52] Speaker A: Whale, I have a couple different things that you can do. If you like to do Facebook type things, you can always find me at Sarah Holland Magical Moments Vacations.
My dog is oh no, my dog's trying to jump in. That's usually where I do a lot of like basic stuff. You can also find me on Instagram at Sarah Holland mmv. I like to, I'm not a creator. I like to more just like make pretty things and then chat with people and I like, like to be in stories and then every now and then I will post more stuff. If you really want to find me on threads, it's the same username but if you want to just the easiest way to grab me is always through email, which is s.holland mvagent.com but all those things. I have a substack that I sometimes put out but this past month has been busy so I have not ever posted my writings on Alaska and a couple other things yet. But I'll get back into it in August.
So that is, I think it's Sarah Holland Travel Advisor at Alicon Substack.
And that's it. Those are all the things.
[01:07:56] Speaker B: Well Sarah, thank you so much for joining us. We of course hope that you will reach out and join us again to talk about maybe one of your fabulous upcoming cruises. But we just really appreciate you.
[01:08:07] Speaker A: I appreciate you guys. Thank you so much for having me back. I've been looking forward to this for so long.
[01:08:16] Speaker D: Well, thanks to 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 followers 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 dclduomypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions or you like 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 has a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here at least, 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.
[01:10:24] Speaker B: SA.
