Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Bluey in Australia.
[00:00:00] Speaker B: Well, yeah, Bluey in Australia. New Zealand for sure.
[00:00:04] Speaker C: I think actually.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: Same same. I would have stood in line an hour or more.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: 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. Do jingle.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Simply the best.
Better than all the rest.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: That's right. It is review time here on the show now that Sam's got her jingle going. I don't know if we've actually put out an episode yet that has that jingle, so we'll. We will.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: There's a lot of episodes coming with that jingle.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: We will be soliciting listener fee, but we still got to get through the early days of the jingle where it was just you humming something. I don't remember what, but here we go. All right, this review comes from Lucy in Tennessee or it's it's Lucy ntn. So I'm going to assume that's Lucy in Tennessee who writes the Go to Disney Cruise podcast. Amazing podcast. When we booked our first Cruise back in January 2023 for March 2024, I was searching for anything and everything on Disney Cruise Line. I tried listening to a few different DCL podcasts, but none kept my attention quite like the DCL Duo. The host and the guests are entertaining and informative. The podcast is the best way to plan and get you excited for your upcoming cruise. Well, there you go, Sam. You are the best way to get people excited for their upcoming cruise. Apparently.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. That makes me feel so good. Thank you. Thank you, Lucy. In maybe in Tennessee or in some place that is also tn.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: Yes, we don't know. We don't know. Yes, thank you for that review, Lucy. As always to all of you out there listening, one of the easiest ways to help support the show is head over to Apple Podcasts, hit those five stars and if you leave us a written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. Sam, over to you for our guest. Our topic all things for the podcast.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: All right, well I'm super excited. We've got another first time cruiser episode on tap for today and this time a first time cruiser episode that happened all the way across the pond in Europe.
We are talking to an American cruiser today. She's a first time guest to the show and as I said, a first time cruiser, but is no stranger to the Disney parks. So welcome to the show. Elena, welcome.
[00:02:22] Speaker C: Thank you for having me. I'm super excited.
[00:02:24] Speaker B: We're super excited to have you. Thanks for reaching out to us to be on the show. We're going to be talking with Elena today about her cruise. We're also going to bring over her son to talk a little bit later in the episode and hear his thoughts in the cruise about the cruise. Because as I understand, he was intimately involved with the planning of this vacation, which I love. I love when the kiddos get involved. That's amazing.
You guys have a very intense Disney background. I mean, lots of parks trips tell us like how old your kiddos are and how many times have you guys been to the parks together. I know you have a history of going to the parks before you had kids as well.
[00:03:04] Speaker C: Yes, I grew up as a parks kid. Actually my parents took their honeymoon to Disney World. Neither of them had been before and did their honeymoon there. So I grew up as a parks kid and luckily married someone who loved the parks as much as I did, even though he had never been.
But now he's fallen in love with it. And we have three kids. We have two eight year olds and a four year old. And we've been to the Disney park several times, probably at least a dozen times. We've been to Disneyland a handful of times, and even last fall we went to Disneyland Paris. So we are no stranger to going to the parks, but we had just never dove into the cruise line yet.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: Awesome. Now, speaking of that, what made you guys decide to dive in and book a Disney cruise? And what made you book a Disney cruise over in Europe rather than, you know, just booking one out of Florida, one, you know, closer to home?
[00:03:58] Speaker C: Kind of two reasons. I have a brother and sister who are also very involved in Disney and they both have been on several cruises and have spoke highly of them. And so I decided, well, it's time for, for me to do that. And we've been to the Caribbean a lot with our kids. Not on cruises, just kind of vacation there. We frequent Grand Cayman. That's kind of our family vacation spot for the kids and I. So I wanted to do something a little bit different that felt different. We love Europe. So I thought, you know what, let's try that. I'm also super into credit card points and credit card miles. And at the time when I booked this, which was last summer, I actually was able to find flights where it was less expensive in miles to go direct into London than it would for me to even get to Florida. So we found amazing flights with an amazing transfer bonus. And I thought, hey, why not? Let's just, let's do it this way.
[00:04:51] Speaker B: That is crazy. Aline. Now you actually have a business that has something to do with miles and stuff?
[00:05:00] Speaker C: Yeah. So I am a dentist by trade and I do practice dentistry. But about three years ago, someone just kind of encouraged me to start a business, mostly because I had been helping dental friends along the way. But I own a business called Molars and Miles and I actually help other dentists and small business owners combine both their personal and their business spend to maximize card points and to optimize travel. So I do kind of two different things. One, I make sure that they're earning the maximum amount of points that they can be earning on groceries or supplies, whatever the case may be. And then I will also help them book their travel using the miles that they've earned. So I do that when I'm not practicing at the office.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: That is so cool. Okay, we have a friend we need to introduce you to. We're going to do this after the show is over, but Brian knows exactly what I'm talking about. So we have a friend who is Chad Pennycuff y friend who runs the MyDBC Points podcast. He's actually been, I think he's starting a new podcast that's focused on how to use like points to book travel. And he does it. He's like an expert in this and, and maximizing like which credit cards to use and all that kind of stuff. And I feel like you would get along like a house on fire. And if he's starting that show, he's got to have you as a guest to talk about this because I love the idea of pairing the small business with your home expenses to be able to maximize your earning of points. That's just like a fantastic concept. I love that.
[00:06:26] Speaker C: Yeah, amazing. And we're, we're able to do a lot of trips because of it. So it's been super fun.
[00:06:32] Speaker B: I love that. Well, okay, so you decide to book this cruise over in your in Europe, leaving out of Southampton. You book your flights using points, which is so awesome. I'm super jealous because those flights to, to London are super expensive. How long of the cruise did you book and how much time did you spend over in Europe or in the uk but prior to the cruise and sort of what was sort of the game plan?
[00:06:57] Speaker C: Yeah, so it was a five night cruise and when I booked the cruise originally, which was almost a year ago, we were just going to go into London for a couple of days and spend some time in London before the cruise. But at the last minute I switched it. I found some really good Point Redemption flights into Naples, Italy, direct here from the US So we actually did the Amalfi coast for four days and then we spent about a day in London before heading down to Southampton. So we'd been in Europe for about, about five days prior to getting on the cruise, which did allow us to like fully adjust to the time. And so when we got on the cruise it felt like we were totally on our time zone.
[00:07:36] Speaker B: Well, and especially with two 8 year olds and a 4 year old, like, it's probably more enjoyment of that cruise if they're already adjusted than if you're dealing with, you know, everyone wants to go to sleep at like, you know, three in the afternoon or stay up until three in the morning or however, you know, the time zone challenges, work with your family. So yeah, very, very smart. Well, let's, let's talk about where you stayed in London and how you got down to the port of Southampton.
[00:08:04] Speaker C: Yeah, so we stayed in London, kind of near downtown. And initially I had booked a transfer, a private transfer. I used the travel agent, actually my pass unwinding, I used Andy and she had helped me book transportation. And then I decided, well, maybe I could find something a little bit less expensive on my own, which I did. I used just. They were called Central Transport, I think was the name of their company, super rich, Original. And they picked us up at the airport that morning and took us to Southampton. I used Viator and I had a 25% like cash back code from Capital One. So I earned a little bit while spending. It was pricey. It was just around $400 for the private transfer, but it worked well.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: So yeah, I will tell you, like, that's not out of the ordinary as far as private transfers. We were, I was talking to our friend Ashley, who she's actually over in Europe right now. She just got off, I believe of the, of the fantasy for a European cruise this season as well. And she was looking at private transfers and for their family it was three adults and one child. It was like about $500 for each, each way. Right. And we're talking because it is a couple hour drive and that's for a private transfer, not, you know, getting on the Disney bus, but even the Disney bus was, I think close to that as well.
[00:09:23] Speaker C: Yeah. I'll tell you a little trick coming back. So I actually didn't have a private transfer booked coming back. We had a lot of time between getting off the cruise and the flight and I thought, I'm just going to figure this out whether we use public transportation Or a bus or something. I don't really want to spend the extra $400. And so when we got off of the cruise, there were tons of cabs just waiting there. And it was £196 for a private cab that took us right to the airport. So considerably cheaper than the private transfer that we took there and actually cheaper than the Disney bus. The Disney bus was $75 a person. I have five family. So if I did the math, I'm like, there was a cab sitting right there, air conditioned cab. We, it was perfect. So probably if we did it again, I wouldn't worry so much about transportation back to the airport. There's going to be hundreds of cabs waiting there.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a really good point. It's probably best to arrange transportation to Southampton because regular cab is probably not going to take you from London, but from Southampton they are there knowing that you're probably going back to London or to the, you know, or to the airport at which would be Heathrow or gas.
So like, yeah, they're, they're prepared for, for taking you on that longer, longer drive. Well, let's talk about some of the logistics of planning. You, you mentioned you worked with Angie of my path unwinding travel for. Did you kind of plan out your itinerary with her, like excursions, that sort of thing? Did you do more of that on your own? I think everyone has their own sort of style of travel. You're obviously a very well traveled person. So I imagine, you know, using Viator and things like that are a lot of the resources you might use for this kind of trip. What did you find were the most sort of resources?
[00:11:08] Speaker C: So I really just wanted Angie for more of the cruise things, to be honest. The day that the booking window opened up for Apollo and for Royal Gathering and things like that, I was actually going to be in Switzerland that day.
And so I just needed someone to kind of take over that for me because I wasn't sure if we were going to be on a train or what that was going to be like, which oddly enough we were. So she was able to book like Apollo dinner for us that we later canceled. I'll get to that in a minute. But she KE of just help with more of like the onboard things. I didn't really want or expect her to do any of the, any of the other things, so. And it was just nice to have someone to ask questions for. I wouldn't say that she did a majority of the planning. She definitely would have if I had asked she was fantastic and she was super great. Every time I needed something, she always emailed right back.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: But yeah, and I think we always talk about that when you have, when you book through a ta, it's great to have a good conversation with them about what your expectations are and what you'd like them to do versus what you want to do on your own. Because there are a lot of, well, I'm going to say us, but I really mean Brian, who are type a planner traveler people. And so like Brian wants to do all of that stuff himself.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: Did we develop a spreadsheet for our two weeks in Hawaii the other night? Yes, we did.
[00:12:29] Speaker B: Yes, we did.
So like that. You know, we don't, we don't necessarily use our TA for that, but if we have questions or if we want somebody to have to, who needs to change something with Disney Cruise Line and sit on, on hold. Yeah, we're not doing that. We'll let our DA do that. And I'll even say most of the time we do our own onboard booking when the, that opens. Because for us it's 9pm it's not midnight. So it's not, it's not like we're staying up till midnight. It's. And we'd, we'd actually like to do that ourselves. So I think as long as you have a good conversation about what you want to do and what you want to have them do. And if you're in Europe, absolutely have them do it. Because you don't want to be on a train or in the middle of the night. Because actually it would be like depending upon where you are, it might be four in the morning, five in the morning.
[00:13:15] Speaker C: Yeah, it was going to be a crazy time.
[00:13:17] Speaker B: I knew.
[00:13:18] Speaker C: And I was just like, I'm gonna let her handle that.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Well, okay. So you take the private transfer from London to Southampton. I imagine you do that in the morning of the cruise. Right? Embarcation.
[00:13:31] Speaker C: Yeah, we did it in the morning. We had a port arrival time of 1:15, so we allowed ourselves plenty of time, about three hours. So I had the private transfer come around 10:15 and luckily we did allow extra time because our private transfer had a flat tire when they arrived.
[00:13:50] Speaker B: Oh no.
[00:13:51] Speaker C: So they were able to get it all fixed. It was fixed so quickly, actually, like they fixed it within a matter of minutes. So that was perfect. But I was, I was super glad that we allowed ourselves some extra time for that. So, yeah, they picked us up that morning, took us and honestly, right when we got there, we were already our Time was ready. So perfect. Couldn't have been more smooth. We went right in. I got a video like when we saw the ship. Submit. Two sons hugging. It was adorable. So, yeah, that process was extremely easy. Extremely smooth.
[00:14:22] Speaker B: Your sons hugged when they saw the ship?
[00:14:25] Speaker C: Yeah. So they got a video of it. It was super cute. It was so cool.
[00:14:29] Speaker B: Yeah, they started hugging.
[00:14:30] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:14:31] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. Remind me, what was the hotel you stayed at in London, and is it one you would recommend?
[00:14:36] Speaker C: Yeah, I've actually stayed there before. It was called the On Daz, part of the Hyatt footprint. It's fantastic. It's super close to a tube station. Like, you could see the tube station, one of the main tube stations, the Liverpool station from the hotel. So the day before, we did tons of stuff in London. I mean, we spent 12 hours. We must have been on that tube 20 times. But the location couldn't have been better. Fantastic breakfast before we left. So highly, highly recommend. We actually saw one other family there in the lobby as we were getting ready to leave.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: Oh, perfect. Yeah.
[00:15:08] Speaker C: And they have nice family rooms, which are hard to find in London.
[00:15:11] Speaker B: Oh, yes. I feel like in Europe in general, it's kind of hard to find hotels, hotels that are at all sort of similar to what we've come to expect in the us like, size wise, number of beds, all of that. And you're a family of five, so that's even more of an issue for you guys, which is really probably why Disney Cruise Line is the best solution, because you can get a room for five.
[00:15:32] Speaker C: For five. Yeah.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, let's dive into your boarding.
I know that you and your son Pierce have listened to a ton of our shows, and you mentioned that you listened to a ton of them in preparation for this cruise. Did you show the kiddos any sort of like YouTube videos or pictures of what the ship would look like inside or outside, or did you let them sort of see it all for the first time in Southampton?
[00:16:00] Speaker C: I didn't really show them any YouTube videos. The day that I think it was the Treasure was being premiered on Disney plus or something like that. We watched that as a family, which obviously this was the fantasy, not the treasure, so not the same thing, but didn't see a lot of YouTube videos. So Pierce and I had listened to. I think we've listened to almost all of your podcast. He's actually a twin and his twin is in gymnastics. And it's about 30 minutes in each direction to take her to practice. She practices four times a week, so this was just kind of our thing. So he actually knew everything going in.
So I, I think that, you know, not much surprised him, to be fair.
[00:16:39] Speaker A: He knew what we knew, which is entirely inaccurate and wrong mistake number one.
[00:16:48] Speaker C: So, yeah, no YouTube videos, but yeah, it was super special walking in with the name being called and everything.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. And the kids, did they enjoy, you know, did they enjoy that entry as well? I mean, obviously you enjoyed it, but did the kids enjoy it?
[00:17:04] Speaker C: Yes. Yep, they enjoyed it. We immediately just kind of went to our room to drop our bags and just started running around the ship just checking everything out. We ran right up to deck 11 and started looking around. We didn't even go straight to Gabbanas. Just kind of did a tour of everything, took a lot of photos and had fun.
[00:17:22] Speaker B: Awesome. I love it. Well, that's one of the benefits of that. Later boarding time. Your room is ready. Right. So you could drop off your stuff and kind of not instead of schlepping your backpack or bags around the ship. It's kind of nice to be able to do that. All right, so you check out the ship. Did you check out the youth clubs for the kiddos?
[00:17:42] Speaker C: Yes, we went straight to the open houses and kind of checked out all those areas. They were having a blast class playing around in there, which would later be be one of the older kids favorite things.
So we checked that out and then we did go to cabanas and do kind of the mad. The mad dash, if you will. We were able to find the table outside, which was really nice. But we did do the cabanas lunch. I was gonna do the sit down, but everyone was just kind of too in the moment, having too much fun and just running around and wanted to do that.
[00:18:12] Speaker B: So yeah, I. I do think, you know, as much as I like the sit down dinner, I do think it. Or sit down dinner. I was said sit down lunch. It is what. It doesn't have that frenetic energy that you get in cabanas or Marceline Market on that first day. And I know there's so many people who are just like anxious to do and see everything and you're going to have a faster lunch typically if you're going to to the buffet instead of the sit down. Well, I'd love to talk. I don't know, Brian, if you think I'd love to jump to the ports, because I think we should. I think I want to talk about the ports and then I do want to pierce on to talk more about some of the onboard stuff and talk a Little bit about London.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: Talk about state room, though, Sam.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: Oh, no, we didn't. Let's do that. Great. A great thought there. Yeah. What, what kind of state room? Well, you had to book a family deluxe, right?
[00:19:00] Speaker C: Yes, we had a veranda. I think it was category 4C, if I believe our stateroom number was 6122.
So I don't really know. But yeah, we had a stateroom. It was fantastic. I actually heard from one of your guests that for the stateroom host, when you see them the first day, they ask if we could do anything. And I did just say, you know, if there are any character sheets, I, you know, I would love that. And so they did character sheets and that was fantastic. For the kids. I have two boys and a girl and my youngest boy, one of the girl sheets. So we kind of made a swap around. It seemed to work out fine. Wasn't what we planned, but, you know, you can't predict kids. But I would highly recommend if other people can ask their stay at home host for that on the first day. It made getting into bed super fun that night for sure.
[00:19:48] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. They love that, you know, and, and they can't. There is a limited number of them. So if you ask, they can't always make that kind of magic happen, just an FYI. But you can always ask. And if they can't make it, if they can't find them, you know, because there aren't enough, then, you know, it's all right. But it is kind of a nice little, little touch of magic for the estate room. Just for folks listening out there, stateroom 4, 5. What it kind of looks like is you've got the, the master bed that fits the two adults. You've got the couch that opens up to a sideways bed. Then you have a bunk bed that's right above that couch bed. And then you have a Murphy bed that is in the room as well. So those are the three single beds for each of the kids. If you're in concierge, there are some. There are arrangements that have sort of a pull out couch and there would be like two kids sleeping in a pullout couch and then you'd have probably a Murphy bed.
You don't usually have a bunk bed, but occasionally you might in some of those concierge rooms. So just an FYI, Disney is like the, I think the only cruise line that actually has rooms that fit a family of five where you don't have to book two rooms or outside of like suite class, there are some you know, there are some suites on some of the other cruise lines, like the, I think the ultimate family suite in royal fits like nine people or something. Crazy. So awesome. Glad that the state room was a, was a good fit for you guys. Guys, let's, let's jump to the ports. You guys went from Southampton to several ports in Spain, am I right?
[00:21:19] Speaker C: Yeah. So we, our first day was a sea day and then our first port was La Cornuna, Spain. And it was beautiful. It was just one of those kind of like Spanish towns that you imagine, like the tiny little alleys. It was so convenient when we got off at the port that morning. I was up on deck four walking that morning as we were coming in. It was just beautiful. I got of pictures of like going into port and the sun rising and everything, but you were just right there. There was no bus or anything that you needed to take. So we got off and there was just some high end shopping and just tiny little alleys with cute little boutiques and coffee shops. So we took the kids off initially at the port and we really kind of went with no plans, which was kind of my plan. I'm like, you don't really need plans in Europe necessarily.
There, there is the oldest working lighthous.
A lot of people do that as an excursion, but we didn't, we didn't do that. We got off. And one of the things that we always do when we have our kids in Europe is like, let's find some amazing pastries.
So I did a quick Google search, like best pastries, best coffee. We went down this alley and we had what we think were the best brownies of all time. They were like these ooey gooey, like all kinds of like caramel fudge and all these different brownies. So we got tons of brownies. My husband and I both got iced Americanos with a bit of a language language barrier, of course, like you know me using Google Translate, saying this, that, doing a little bit of pantomime, a lot of that. We're in this tiny little alley. It just was so magical. And we're sitting there eating and I looked at my husband, I was like, how much do you think all this is? As I'm holding like these homemade brownies and these pastries that are still hot. Two iced coffees. It was €13. I'm like, that would be at Starbucks, like just for the drinks alone. $13.
Oh my gosh. So we had a great time. The kids, we were going up and down these alleys and they, we went into Some toy stores, they got some souvenirs. My son wanted some Italian trading cards or something. They're like getting stuff from street vendors. So they had a great morning and then around probably noon, we took them back on the ship.
Couldn't have been easier to get them back on into the kids club. My husband and I went right back out and just kind of had the best day. We said we kind of went like tapas hopping, if you will.
Just we're going down tiny little side alleys. The weather was amazing. Probably like high 70s, maybe 80, perfectly sunny. Just going down all these little alleys, just getting calamari and we got scallops and just kind of going like hopping around. So we did that for the afternoon and it was, it was perfect.
[00:24:01] Speaker B: What a great idea. I love that. I think a lot of people don't realize that you can actually leave your kids on the ship in the kids clubs. You can't like just leave them, you know, like running around wild. But you can leave them in the kids clubs on the ship if you're off, if you're off in port.
Of course, if you're doing like a far away excursion, you shouldn't do that. But if you're just going into town, doing some drinking, shopping, eating, walking around, what a lovely way to spend an afternoon.
[00:24:32] Speaker C: Yeah, that's exactly what we did. We're like, we're five minutes away, like we won't go far. We kind of hit the first couple side alleys that we could. We knew that we had just basically fed them. We had kind of brunch on the street, if we will, so we know they weren't hungry and they had a great afternoon. So love that.
[00:24:48] Speaker B: Now did they ask you for, for like, did they ask you for your phone number or anything like that when you sort of checked them in and told them you're going on shore or.
[00:24:56] Speaker C: No, they didn't. No, we said, we're going back out. Is that okay? And they were like, yeah, that's fine.
I was shocked at how I'd never been on a cruise. I was just shocked at how fast getting off and getting on was, you know, just having like that, the Yeriki the world card. Like there was no line when we got off initially with the kids, there was no line when we got off the second time with just us, there was no line. So it is just the cutest European town. It just, it was really magical. If you, if you Google pictures of it, there's just boats right on the water right when you get off and Just a cute little town. So awesome.
[00:25:33] Speaker B: I love that. I will say, depending upon where you're porting, like, sometimes you.
[00:25:37] Speaker C: And.
[00:25:38] Speaker B: And if you're. Especially if you're on a big excursion and everyone's coming back from excursions at the same time, you can run into lines getting back onto the ship. I'd say not so much getting off the ship, but getting onto the ship. And it can also depend on the port and port security whether or not you have to go through some ports. You have to go through metal detectors on land, right? Like, and put your stuff through a conveyor belt and then you have to do it again on the ship, which is kind of annoying since obviously why would. You know? Why do you have to do it twice? But other ports, it's like you, they, you flash your car, they. They let you in, you go up and then of course you have to do security on the ship. But yeah, it's. Other ports are super easy.
[00:26:18] Speaker C: Yeah. One thing that I had never heard on any of the podcasts, and maybe I've just missed it, but one thing I wish I would have done is just get like a $10 ph from Amazon that had like, the credit card slot in it, if you will. Because I felt like during that process of like, onto the ship, back off, onto the ship, back off that day, I was just like, getting that key, the world card out like a thousand times. So I was like, oh, this would have been super easy if I just had it back there. So that's probably one thing I kind of made a note of, like, things I would do differently. So that was one. One thing I would do a little bit differently.
[00:26:47] Speaker A: I do take. So I don't like to wear the lanyards on the ship. I just find they, like, fly around and flop around and stuff. But, you know, so I did used to wear the lanyards. Lanyards.
Now I'll just throw my key, the world card in my pocket. Because I hate using the magic band to. Sam knows. I just. I don't know. I don't like it as much.
[00:27:03] Speaker B: I'm a magic band wearer. I will say that I need something.
[00:27:07] Speaker A: More along the lines of what Virgin Voyages provides. If I'm going to wear something on my wrist, because it's just not. It's just very bulky. But I do grab. If you have an iPhone, I do grab one of those, like, mag safe wallet sleeves that can just attach right to the back of the phone. And I love to take that on board. And I throw my key the world card in there and usually the two to three coffee cards we've accumulated between cruises. And then I have a beer, the beer token for the beer mug deal that they have that at the end they'll either give you the mug or card. I always just take the card off the ship and bring the card back. That way I don't have to carry the mug.
[00:27:39] Speaker B: And for those listening, the coffee card Brian is talking about is for the COVID Cafe for the specialty coffees. For every, I think five that you purchase, you get one free. And so they'll punch your card and we inevitably end up going to Cove Cafe.
[00:27:53] Speaker A: And neither of us have coffee cards.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: Yeah, neither of us have brought one of the cards with us. And so we end up, they'll give you a new, you'll start a new card and then you can combine them.
[00:28:01] Speaker A: If you end your cruise and you only have a couple punches, just take the card off with you. Next cruise you're on, bring it back and they will just keep punching that card. So, yeah, yeah, start off ahead of the game.
[00:28:11] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah. So I was just going to recommend, and maybe other people do this and I've never heard, but my son is really into Moana and he was super disappointed that Moana wasn't going to be on the cruise. He did ask Belle about it.
So every morning or in the afternoons, I even, I would go to either Cove Cafe or to Vista Cafe and I would get him a hot chocolate and get it stamped with Moana. I would also get my other kids like Donald Duck or Stitch. And so I was using the coffee card for those as well. So it can serve for both adults and kids.
[00:28:45] Speaker B: Yes, you can get free hot chocolate on the deck at the machines just by mixing hot water with the pouches of cocoa. But it's one, it's not stamped to the character and two, it's not the good hot chocolate that they sell in cocoa of cafe. So, but it will be free as opposed to costing you, you know, $4 for a cup of hot chocolate. Just, just, just putting that out there.
[00:29:08] Speaker C: Kind of how we settled on Moana not actually being on the cruise. So we, we went for the four dollar hot chocolate instead. But we were stamping our card thanks to the advice from, from previous guests.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: Well, and you know, $4 a day is well worth it if you're talking about keeping your kid from being really upset that Moana is not on board. So I totally understand.
What was your second port of call?
[00:29:29] Speaker C: Our second quarter port of call was Bilbao, Spain, so that port was A little different because you had to take a bus to the actual town. It was about a 20 minute bus ride. I will say if anyone happens to repeat this itinerary that I didn't learn until coming back that immediately off the port there is a really nice beach. So if your kids are into like city exploration or anything like that, you could probably actually just walk to the beach from, from the port itself and not jump on the bus. But we did jump on the bus and we went into town and we took the kids with us. And again, just kind of no plans. Yeah, we just kind of walked around by the Guggenheim Museum. There were some really nice parks. So we just kind of stopped at some parks and played and did kind of our pastry exploration again. That morning we did a funicular ride, which was really fun where we kind of went to the top of the city and looked around, rode up the funicular and back down and then just kind of in the afternoon almost did a repeat of the tapas tour. But with our kids, they're really known for these really small little like they're €1 and they're just like cups of fries or calamari. So we just picked, you know, like half a dozen of them up at a couple different places and just kind of walked around the city and did that. I think we stopped in some candy stores. My kids are into the water bottle stickers. So, you know, I found the water bottle stickers to get them started for the school year with some new stickers and went back to port a little or back to the boat a little bit early that day.
[00:31:07] Speaker A: 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 their expertise and service. They have sailed on all the disposal 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, MyPath Unwinding Travel will elevate your next vacation planning experience. Even if you have already booked, reach out for a complimentary consultation to make your vacation even more magical. Ready to talk to the experts? Head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email DCLDUOYpathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. Thanks. My path unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
[00:32:06] Speaker B: Now, this one was different because you couldn't really kind of go back and forth because of that 20 minute bus ride. But did you enjoy this port as much as. I mean, obviously this is a slightly bigger city. Well, it's a little bit bigger city than the previous one as well, right?
[00:32:20] Speaker C: Yeah, it was a bigger city. I wouldn't. I wouldn't say that I enjoyed this port as much. I definitely enjoyed La Cruina a little bit more.
This was fantastic. And they're known for, like a really amazing food market that I was super excited about. But unfortunately this was a Sunday and the food market was not open that day. So the port was still nice, but I would say it wasn't quite as enjoyable as the one before.
[00:32:47] Speaker B: All right, Elena, so you had two really nice, very relaxing port days. We got to talk some of the onboard experiences.
What kind of stuff did you guys get up to on board? Talk to me about, you know, deck parties, theater, family game shows, trivia. Like what kinds of things did you find that you all enjoyed either together or, you know, just as a couple? That sort of thing.
[00:33:12] Speaker C: Yeah. So I'll kind of start with deck party. Our. Unfortunately, our sail away party was rained out. So our first deck party was actually at 10:10 that evening on the sail away day.
[00:33:24] Speaker B: Oh, funny.
[00:33:25] Speaker C: It was absolutely freezing. They gave away fleece blankets. But that was still super fun. Kind of started us out after that. Probably one of the most enjoyable things for everyone to do was the midship detective. We had actually heard that from some of your listeners and they highly recommended it. And we absolutely loved doing that as a family. We felt like it was something enjoyable for all the kids to do and kind of the parents and we all got involved. So that was one of our favorite things. Something else that we did was we made.
Well, I should. I'm going to start over really quick.
Something that was a really big hit was the pixie dust on our cruise. It was. Maybe that's how it is on all Disney cruises. I think so, because I've kind of picked that up from your podcast. But our WhatsApp group was super active. Our Facebook group had been really active before the cruise. And a day before we took off, somebody made a WhatsApp group and we joined it and everyone was having a lot of fun with Pixie dusting in there. And I had actually made custom water bottle stickers that had. They said cruising on the Disney fantasy. And it was kind of like a vintage picture of the Disney fantasy. It had the dates on it. It said July 31st to August 5th, Southampton to Spain.
And on the WhatsApp group, I took a photo of them and said, hey, who wants pixie dusted? I have 70 of these waterproof water bottle stickers.
And within five minutes, people were like, yeah, you know, I would love one. Like, this is my room number. So we as a family, we wrote down all the room numbers and kind of had our own game, if you will, dropping off our pixie dust. And that was just really fun. Cause we were just all over that ship, kind of up and down and side to side.
[00:35:21] Speaker B: I love that I do very similar pixie dusting where I usually post a picture of one of our magnets, like our ship magnets, and say, hey, I've got, you know, however many of these to deliver. Like, yeah, message or put in the. In the comments if you know what your room number is. And then I create a spreadsheet so that I can go floor by floor to deliver rather than zig. I mean, you're still zigzagging, but a little bit more efficient zigzagging. But I love the idea of getting the kids involved with it. Did they really. Did they enjoy being the little, you know, I don't know, Santa's elves?
[00:35:58] Speaker C: I should say, yes, they did. And I don't know if this is how it is on every cruise, but the fish extenders and the pixie dust on this cruise was amazing. I mean, people were so involved and the gifts were so intricate. And I would say that that was probably, honestly one of the best parts of the cruise was, you know, we would come back from breakfast or from lunch, and everyone would check their little basket and see what they got. So that was super fun.
One thing I will say is we didn't really do any of seeing the characters. And I don't know if this is how it always is or if this is just because the cruise was out of Europe, but I've heard from the podcast that the character lines kind of die down as the week goes on, and we just never found that to be the case. Now, that wasn't our main goal for the cruise. We've been to the parks a lot, and we don't really have any of the kids that are super into the character, but we didn't do much of that.
[00:36:59] Speaker B: Yeah, this is A Europe thing. This is like.
[00:37:01] Speaker C: And I kind of thought maybe that was the case.
[00:37:04] Speaker B: Yes, this is a Europe thing. We've been hearing that, especially this. This season. I don't know. I don't think it's unique every season, but we've been hearing the lines have been particularly long this season in Europe. On the fantasy. I don't know if that it's just because there's, you know, maybe the ships are fuller or whatnot. You know, they don't have. I guess they have Disneyland Paris over there, but they don't have as much.
Like, the folks over there are not like regular parks goers like we have over here in the States typically. And so for them, seeing the characters is a lot more novel. You've got a lot more Europeans on. A lot more folks from the UK on board those ships. And so, yeah, you have a lot longer character lines, I think, over in Europe. I think that's also the case when, you know, you get. When Disney sails out eventually any place sort of more unique, like the Australia, New Zealand, you know, sailings and whatnot, as well. Like really long character lines. That can also happen when you have a. Even in the States when you have like a really unique.
Like the. Like Mini Daisy and Clarabel dressed as the witches from Hocus Pocus. Right. So like a unique costume that can bring that out, but more. I definitely think it's more of a Europe issue as a general matter. So that.
[00:38:18] Speaker A: Bluey. Bluey in Australia?
[00:38:19] Speaker B: Well, yeah, Bluey in Australia, New Zealand for sure.
[00:38:21] Speaker A: Right.
[00:38:23] Speaker C: I think actually.
Same, same.
[00:38:25] Speaker B: I would have stood in line an hour or more.
[00:38:28] Speaker C: Yeah, we love Bluey.
[00:38:31] Speaker A: Wonder what's going to happen to Bluey after next season because they won't be on Australian museum.
[00:38:36] Speaker C: Not happening anymore. Right. I know, I.
[00:38:40] Speaker B: So sad.
[00:38:40] Speaker C: But.
[00:38:40] Speaker B: Well, maybe they'll, you know, but maybe there's hope for them bringing Bluey over here. Let's just cross our fingers about that.
[00:38:48] Speaker A: They're going to burn the costume and throw it over the side. I'm sorry, it's not a costume. That is really Bluey on the ship. For all the kids listening out there.
[00:38:55] Speaker B: Elena, did you all go see the shows in the Walt Disney Theater?
[00:38:59] Speaker C: We did, and we loved the shows. We were late dining. That wasn't by choice. That's what we got. And at first I was disappointed, but that was okay because then we saw the shows earlier.
[00:39:11] Speaker B: Earlier.
[00:39:12] Speaker C: And I kind of heard from the podcast, you know, get there early and bring like a little game or something. So every night we got to the show pretty early. And I had made little kind of velcro bags, if you will, with their names. And I called them like their fun bags. And each kid had like a crossword puzzle or like foam art and all these things. So we got to the show like 20 minutes. I early. I just gave them their little bag to keep them entertained.
There are booster seats for the kids for shows which are nice. I didn't realize that. So we did that. And we found that if we were at the show early enough, if we got to the show 20 minutes early, that the servers were going up and down the aisle taking drink and snack orders. So that was another advantage of being early.
So we love the shows. I'm sure that it's probably the same genie that you guys have seen in the past, but the genie from Aladdin and then both in Believe as well. He was just fantastic.
[00:40:12] Speaker B: Awesome. I love that they do just. I mean, Disney does live entertainment. I've said this a million times. Disney does live entertainment better than anybody else. I don't care what Brian says. So I want to ask about dining. Dining's obviously.
[00:40:27] Speaker A: Wait a second. I never said they didn't do it better than everyone else. I just. I'm just saying that there is other good entertainment on cruise line, so. Yes.
[00:40:33] Speaker B: All right, well, let's. Let's shift to dining. Dining's of course, a big part of any cruising experience, but especially on Disney Cruise Line.
You guys were on the fantasy. So you had Royal Court Palace. I can never remember which one. Enchanted Garden. And of course animators palette. And in animator's palette you got. I'm assuming. Well, I don't know. Did you get the Crush show or did you get the animation magic? I think Crush.
[00:41:01] Speaker C: We got the Crush. So we were a little crushed that we got the Crush.
[00:41:05] Speaker B: Less than seven nights is a crush.
[00:41:08] Speaker C: Yeah, he's super into art. And we were really hoping that we got the. The anim. When we got the Crush show, that was okay. We had animators palette twice. And then we actually were supposed to have Enchanted Garden twice as well. But one of those were on our day where we did the tapas tasting around the world, if you will.
[00:41:33] Speaker B: So you weren't hungry anymore?
[00:41:35] Speaker C: We were not hungry. We went to the pool deck and fed the kids pizza that evening. And we did Midship Detective as a family and did karaoke as a family family that night instead.
So.
Which was super fun. My daughter was super into karaoke. And we had a lady on our ship and she was just amazing. And she did Karaoke every night. So she was fun just to watch her.
But that was kind of our. Our nightly activity was going to karaoke and doing midship detective. So we skipped dinner one night. But one of the. Of the things that I liked the most about dining was. And I never heard anyone else say this, maybe everyone does this. I figured out the second day that with room service in the morning, I could at least just get coffee before the day started. So every night. Every night we were. My husband and I were at least occasionally, if it was a port day, we were getting the kids just cereal and pastries as well on the room service for breakfast, but every morning at least just starting with coffee. And it was so nice not having to run up to deck 11 or go to Cove Cafe or anything like that. So that was probably one of my favorite parts about dining.
[00:42:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it is a very smart move. I think room service. You can't get hot breakfast this way unless you're staying in a one bedroom or higher category of suite on Disney cruise line. But you can always get continental breakfast, which is pastries, cereals, coffee, even juices delivered to your room. The only problem I have with it, Elena, is that I can't drink that coffee because I. It's just not good. I can't drink that stuff. It's not.
[00:43:15] Speaker A: It's not up to Sam's sensitive palate. Can't stomach the Joffrey's on board.
[00:43:19] Speaker B: I can't stomach that Joffrey stuff. It's. It's just. Yeah, it's just not. It's not okay with me. Sorry.
[00:43:26] Speaker C: I need the real deal.
[00:43:26] Speaker B: Right? I need the real deal stuff from COVID Cafe. It's just. Yeah, not up. Not up.
[00:43:30] Speaker A: To be fair, you consider Keurig the real deal. So let's not get ahead of ourselves in terms of your coffee taste here.
[00:43:37] Speaker B: No, I can drink drip coffee at home if it's a. If it's a decent coffee. I just really don't like Joffrey. It doesn't have to be fancy. I don't actually. I think I. I'm a little. I know I'm bougie, but I. I'm not actually that bougie about coffee. Like, I can actually, I can drink like, Dunkin Donuts coffee. I just really don't like.
[00:43:53] Speaker A: Personally reminded me to pick up a bag of the blonde espresso roast from Starbucks this morning.
[00:43:59] Speaker B: Did do that yesterday morning. That's. That's absolutely true. Well, Elena, you know, I think this would be a great time for us to, to bring your son Pierce, your 8 year old son Pierce, who helped plan this trip onto the show with you so that we can hear maybe some of his highlights from this cruise and maybe if he's got some tips out there for either adults or for kids about how to have a great cruise on Disney Cruise Line.
[00:44:24] Speaker C: Perfect. Yes. I'll bring him on. All right, Pierce, are you ready? He's ready.
[00:44:30] Speaker B: Pierce, how old are you? And I understand from your mom that you and she were the proud primary people in your family who actually planned this Disney cruise vacation. Is that right?
[00:44:41] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:44:42] Speaker B: Yeah. What was, what was the thing that you were looking forward to the most when you were planning before you ever got on the fantasy? What was the thing you were. You were looking forward to the most about this cruise?
[00:44:53] Speaker D: Jack Jack Baby Race.
[00:44:56] Speaker B: Jack Jack's baby race. Did you get to see it on board?
[00:44:59] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:45:00] Speaker B: And what did you. What did you think? Tell me, tell me. Why don't you tell. Actually tell our listeners what Jack Jack's Diaper dad Dash is?
[00:45:08] Speaker D: It's where a bunch of babies line up on a carpet and they try to get to the other side. That has to be babies that can't walk yet.
[00:45:16] Speaker B: Right. So crawl babies. Right. And how many babies competed in in Jack Jack's Diaper Dash when you were watching it properly?
[00:45:25] Speaker C: 11.
[00:45:26] Speaker B: 11. So did they have two or three different heats before they did the finals? Two. Okay, so then, so did they have like five and then six racing against. Against each other?
[00:45:36] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:45:37] Speaker B: And then what did they do? The top two, the first winner and the second winner got to race each other.
[00:45:42] Speaker D: Oh, it's actually babies that won the last rounds.
[00:45:47] Speaker B: Gotcha. So the baby that won the first round got to go against the baby that won the second round.
[00:45:52] Speaker D: Yeah. But then two other babies that they thought would win would go in there too.
[00:45:56] Speaker B: Oh, okay. So they bring in some other ones. Oh, wow. Okay. And was it real? Did they go super fast or was it super, super slow?
[00:46:03] Speaker D: Extremely slow.
[00:46:05] Speaker B: Yes. Really? Was it I. Did you. Was it as funny as you were expecting it to be?
[00:46:10] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:46:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a pretty humorous thing. I don't think I've ever seen baby races on any other cruise line. So I think it's pretty unique to Disney Cruise Line. What were some other things on board that you got to do that you really, really liked?
[00:46:25] Speaker D: The aqueduct.
[00:46:27] Speaker B: Oh, the aqueduct. We didn't talk to your mom about the aqueduct. Are you a water slide kid in general? Like, do you like water slides? Rides at like Disney Resorts or at like Typhoon Lagoon?
[00:46:37] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:46:38] Speaker B: Yeah. And what did you think about the aqueduct as compared to the ones you've been on at Disney World?
[00:46:44] Speaker D: Probably the best.
[00:46:45] Speaker B: The best one. Yes. Fantastic. Now, who did you go with on the aqueduct? Did you go like, I imagine you didn't go by yourself in that raft?
[00:46:54] Speaker C: My mom.
[00:46:55] Speaker B: With your mom. Okay. Was she scared or was she. Was she a cool about it?
[00:47:00] Speaker C: She was happy.
[00:47:01] Speaker B: Yeah, she was happy. I love that. Awesome. All right, well, did you like the shows in the Walt Disney Theater?
[00:47:08] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:47:09] Speaker B: What was your favorite show?
[00:47:10] Speaker D: Believe.
[00:47:11] Speaker B: Oh, you liked Believe. What did you like about it?
[00:47:14] Speaker D: The genie.
[00:47:15] Speaker B: Oh, okay. That's. Why. Was the genie really funny on your ship?
[00:47:19] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:47:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And was he really funny in the Aladdin show as well?
[00:47:23] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:47:24] Speaker B: Did he make of a lot, lot of jokes?
[00:47:25] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:47:26] Speaker B: Yeah. All right. I love that. Awesome. Tell me, did you enjoy going to the kids club?
[00:47:33] Speaker D: Yes, I played Mario Kart every time I was there.
[00:47:36] Speaker B: Every you. You know, our son Nathan, that's what he likes to do. He likes to play video games at the, at the kids club. Did you do any of like the activities at the kids club, like maybe like Stitches, Space Goo or.
[00:47:47] Speaker D: Yeah, we did that one.
[00:47:48] Speaker B: Yeah. And what about your. Your sister and your brother, did they enjoy. Enjoy the kids club?
[00:47:54] Speaker D: Yeah, my sister did, but my brother hated it.
[00:47:58] Speaker B: Oh, tell me, why did he hate it? He's four. Right.
[00:48:01] Speaker D: Because he wasn't allowed to do what we were allowed to do. He had to stay in the baby.
[00:48:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
Yeah. So he had to stay with like the three and the four year olds in a separate. In one of the rooms rather than go around and do anything he wanted like you and your sister could do. Yeah. That's kind of a bummer. Yeah. What, what did you think about the food on board the cruise?
[00:48:25] Speaker D: Really, really good.
[00:48:26] Speaker B: Yeah. What was your favorite thing to eat?
[00:48:28] Speaker D: Ice cream on deck 11.
[00:48:31] Speaker B: And which flavor was your favorite ice cream?
[00:48:34] Speaker D: Banana.
[00:48:35] Speaker B: Banana. Yes. That's our favorite. That's well my favorite, I think. Brian, which one's your favorite?
[00:48:40] Speaker A: Banana. I like banana.
[00:48:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:41] Speaker A: I especially love when they have banana strawberry, because you can do banana strawberry swirl.
[00:48:45] Speaker B: Yeah. And I just like the banana by itself.
[00:48:47] Speaker A: I mean, to be fair, banana strawberry swirl just tastes like banana.
[00:48:49] Speaker D: Anyways, of course, strawberry Elm replaced it with mango.
[00:48:53] Speaker B: Oh, I. I like the mango. Did you try the mango?
[00:48:57] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:48:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Did you like that one too?
[00:48:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:49:00] Speaker B: But not as much as banana.
[00:49:01] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:49:02] Speaker B: Okay. Now, I understand from your mom that you also wanted to plan some stuff in London. You had a real interest in A particular bear.
[00:49:12] Speaker D: Paddington.
[00:49:13] Speaker B: Paddington. Tell me why you love Paddington.
[00:49:16] Speaker D: His movies are just really good. He's really, really, really funny.
[00:49:20] Speaker B: He is really, really funny. What kind of stuff in London did you get to do, or were you looking forward to doing that was maybe Paddington related?
[00:49:31] Speaker D: My mom surprised me with a trip to the Paddington Experience, which was really fun, really interactive.
[00:49:38] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. I have never been to the Paddington Experience. Can you tell us about it?
[00:49:42] Speaker D: Well, first, I mean, you get in this, like, tiny train and, like, try to get oranges for marmalade. Really interactive, really fun.
[00:49:52] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. That's awesome. Did you get to buy any cool souvenirs there?
[00:49:57] Speaker D: I tried to get something, but I ended up saving my money for the cruise.
[00:50:02] Speaker B: Wow. That's very responsible of you, Pierce.
What did you end up. Did you buy something on the cruise?
[00:50:09] Speaker D: No.
[00:50:10] Speaker B: No. You ended up not getting any souvenir souvenirs? Nope.
So did you save your money for some future purchase?
[00:50:17] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:50:18] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe.
[00:50:19] Speaker C: Maybe.
[00:50:19] Speaker B: Mario Kart is in your feature.
[00:50:21] Speaker D: Nintendo Switch 2.
[00:50:22] Speaker B: Oh, Nintendo Switch 2. So you're saving your pennies. I understand that that's what our son Nathan, who's 11, he would do the same. He would probably choose video games over a souvenir on a Disney cruise or at the Paddington Experience. But, you know, his favorite animal is also a bear, and he has his stuffed bear that he takes with him on every trip that we take.
So his bear has been on many, many, many cruises with us.
Pierce, tell me, what was your favorite thing about going on this cruise with your family?
[00:50:57] Speaker D: Riding the aqueduct.
[00:50:59] Speaker B: Riding the aqueduct. I think that's perfect. Now, I got to ask you, have you convinced mom and dad to book another cruise?
[00:51:07] Speaker D: Yes. Yes, I did.
[00:51:08] Speaker B: You did. Do you know what cruise that they've booked?
[00:51:12] Speaker D: No, they haven't done it yet.
[00:51:13] Speaker B: Not yet. Okay. Okay. So it's in the plans. Are you going to plan the next cruise?
[00:51:18] Speaker D: I hope so.
[00:51:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Do you have a ship that you want it to be on? Is there a particular ship you'd really like to get on?
[00:51:24] Speaker D: The Treasure.
[00:51:25] Speaker B: The Treasure? Why? Why do you want to go on the Treasure?
[00:51:28] Speaker D: It's just the newest one.
[00:51:30] Speaker B: Yeah, well. And you know what's great about the Treasure is it has a lot of their spaces are themed, like, stuff in the parks, so it's really cool. Plus, I heard that your brother is really into Moana.
[00:51:44] Speaker D: Yes, very much. He's definitely into Moana.
[00:51:47] Speaker B: Yeah, well. And you know what the best stage show on the Disney Treasure is? Besides Beauty and the Beast, it's Moana. It's Moana. Exactly.
[00:51:54] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah, I knew that.
[00:51:56] Speaker B: Yeah. So I think.
[00:51:58] Speaker C: I think that.
[00:51:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's perfect. That's perfect. A ship for you guys to get on next. All right, well, can you hand me. Actually, I'm gonna not have you hand us back to your mom because we'll get disconnected probably if we hand back to your mom. Brian, do you want to.
Do you want to close out the show?
[00:52:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, why don't we try the handoff one more time?
[00:52:19] Speaker B: Okay, we'll try again. Okay. All right, Pierce, we're going to have you hand off your. The earbuds back to your mom. But we'll just say thank you so much for joining us today.
[00:52:27] Speaker D: You're welcome.
[00:52:29] Speaker A: There we go. All right, Sam.
[00:52:30] Speaker B: All right, Elena, thanks so much for letting us talk to Pierce. He sounds just like an awesome kid and sounds like he's really convincing you guys to book the treasure next. What are you all thinking in terms of your next Disney cruise? Cause it sounds like he's already convinced you that you're gonna go on one.
It's just a matter of what you're gonna book.
[00:52:50] Speaker C: You would love that.
Right now we have nothing booked. We are going to do Aulani next summer. We've done it before and we enjoy it. So we're just waiting until December 7th when we can book it. We're DVC members, so we're waiting for that seven month mark, but that's the plan as of now.
[00:53:09] Speaker B: Nice. Nice. Well, Elena, we'd love to have you back. So next time you are booking a Disney cruise, please, of course, reach out to us. I want to ask you to let people know where they can find you if they're interested in your business.
Miles for Molars. Is that what it's called? I think I gave it the wrong name.
[00:53:29] Speaker C: Yeah, no, the website is just Molars and Miles.
So just Molars, like the tooth. M O L M O L A R S A N D M I L E S dot com. Molars and Miles dot com. And then my personal Instagram as well is just my first name, which is Elena A L A I N A and my middle name is Lauren L A U R E N where I host a lot of just trips. My youngest son's only four. He's been to eight countries so far, so we're always out and about. So somewhere.
[00:54:03] Speaker B: That's awesome. We. I will say we did not start our travel journey with Nathan nearly as young.
So I am super impressed by anyone who starts their travel journeys. With their younger kiddos because they know how hard it is to just, you know, just lots of schlepping things and and children. So but thanks so much. We we so appreciate you coming on to chat with us. We are going to connect you with our friend over at the My DVC Points podcast because I think think that like I said, you guys with your with your miles, affinity and tips and tricks would get on like a house on fire. But with that I just say thank you so much for joining us and we'll see you real soon.
[00:54:44] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:54:50] Speaker A: Well, thanks everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us alive, we have a live show now every week Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want help support the show, be sure to hit those five stars on Apple Podcasts. And if you leave us a written review, a five star written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. Of course you can also help support the show by supporting our fabulous show sponsor, My Path Unwinding Travel. You want to book your next Disney vacation? Head over to mypathunwinding.com forward/dclduo or email them at dclduomypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions or you'd like to connect with us, the best way to do that is to head over to DCLDuo.com it's got links to all of our things, full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store 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 on a few blog articles that we've written. So DCLDUO.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also of course email us at infoCLduo.com, 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 reflect the views of the Disney Company or Disney Cruise Line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or a 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.
[00:56:52] Speaker C: Good night.
Wall.
