[00:00:00] Speaker A: So in terms of some feedback, friends tell each other the truth. And so Disney Cruise Line, now we know you're probably out there at least watching a little bit.
So I think I would divide this up into two things. One was the experiences on board and one was the crew.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: Welcome back everyone. Welcome everybody to this week's live episode of the DCL Duo podcast, brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel and also our good friends over at WDW magazine, the DCL magazine which will be coming soon from what we heard from Stephanie the last time she was on. And so we're really excited for that. Be sure to head over to dcl-magazine.com to subscribe today. And if you use code DCLDUO, that's all caps, DC DCL DUO in their store, you'll get 10 off everything over there at the WDW magazine store, including the magazine subscriptions, the calendars, you name it, you get the 10 off. So head over to dcl-magazine.com today to subscribe. So, Sam, we got an exciting show this evening.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Yes, we do. Super excited to talk to everybody about the maiden voyage and the second voyage of the Disney Destiny. Now before we jump right in to talk about our two eight, well, our two four night voyages. So eight nights on the Destiny, I gotta give a shout out because we met and ran into a bunch of friends and listeners on board both the cruises.
I'm definitely this is not a complete list but I tried to put a list together of a bunch of different people that we met or saw who you know, already had met previously before. So I'm going to give a shout outs to our friend over at the DCL dude podcast, our friend Wes. Of course I got to give a shout out to our friends at Rope Drop on Deck and Rope Drop Radio. Doug and Michelle gotta give big shout out to Karen Shelton at My Path Unwinding. Of course our show sponsor. She was on board for the maiden voyage. We got to have dinner every night with with her and her husband Harv, which was really, really fun. Also got to see and meet for the first time in person a couple of the agents from My Path Unwinding travel that we had interacted with before on the show or online. Angie Gargaro and Amy Moyer, of course. Kelly Morrell was also on the on the sailings with with us of course, traveling as a part of our party and also got to give shout outs to Wesley Davenport who's been on the show. He's version 5571 on all the socials.
Great listener and become a great friend. And of course, his son hung out with our son on one of the voyages.
Huge shout out to Vanessa and Andrew Prince, of course, who is magically Vanessa and accessible Adventures with Andrew, always in the comments, in our chat. We absolutely just adore them. It's such a great time, you know, catching up with them on board.
Of course, our listener and friend Steve Elsis, who has been a longtime friend of Brian as well, and and his son, who also hung out with Nathan on the second voyage.
We met listener, or I met listener. Dan Koster's on board. Super nice to interact with him.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: Don't forget fan number one and number one fan.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: Well, of course.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: Yeah, Tracy and Michael were with us as. As I mentioned, the moral family was with us as well. But yeah, with us the whole time.
We met a listener named Melinda in the Haunted Mansion Parlor on, like, the last night of the cruise. She said she had seen us a couple times on the second cruise, and she finally came up to us and said hi, and we took a picture with her. Lovely woman.
Also, Drew Tyler, who we had met on the maiden voyage of the Treasure. He makes magnets that are awesome. Shout out to you, Drew. And then, of course, two travel agents from other agencies that we've interacted with a ton online. One is Luciana with Amo Cruzeiro Disney. And then Jamie Didiwick with We do travel. Right. So there's so many more people that we met or talked to on board.
And so I'm sorry if I didn't write down your names and I didn't remember them right now when I'm trying to recover from jet lag. Brian and I are both dealing with some. Some colds as well. Nathan was actually homesick from school today, so just a warning, we're a little under the weather, but we are here for you because we're here to talk destiny and eight nights.
[00:04:43] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: So, Sam, let's start with the maiden voyage, because that is the unique and the special voyage. And I think a lot of people love to understand what's happening on a maiden voyage of a Disney ship and what's unique and special. I would preface this all by saying we're also going to talk about the second voyage because that one was back to a sort of more normal crew crowd. Not crew as in Disney crew, but a crowd on board.
All of the entertainment was there, so we'll compare and contrast the two. But we know that there's always a lot of, like, should I do a maiden Voyage. They always seem to have, you know, issues and problems. And, you know, look, I think the lines. Well, I think the wish maiden voyage sort of set up this new modern version of ships. And not a great way for. For maiden voyages.
I think the Treasure maiden went off as almost, you know, just silky smooth. Everything seemed to be working, or most things were working on board. And then the crew was just doing a really fantastic job.
I will just say I love doing the maiden voyages, but you have to go into them with the right mindset, which is that not everything is going to be perfect. We will talk about some of the imperfections this evening. As I said, when we did our preview cruise video, that was the unboxing, that was the facts. That's what was on board. That was what Disney was talking to us about.
What we got to see. It was the Disney story around the ship. And now we have paid to be on these two sailings. And so we want to give you our, you know, real world impressions of the ship when she's full with all the stuff running, all that sort of stuff. But these maiden voyages, if you go into them with the right set of expectations, not everything is going to be a thousand percent perfect or a hundred percent perfect. But Disney kind of makes up for that with some special little treats, some stateroom gifts, some special guests on board, some special shows. We definitely got one of those.
And so there's these, like, great special moments on board. And I think if you go in with that mindset, the maiden voyage can be just a great, you know, plussed up Disney cruise line experience. And that's certainly my impression of the maiden voyage. But Sam, why don't you talk about some of your impressions of the maiden voyage, some of the special things that happened on board?
[00:06:56] Speaker B: Yeah, okay. Well, the big thing, as Brian mentioned, is gifts. On the maiden voyage, you get gifts that are different than you'll get at any other time. You get, of course, your castaway club gifts depending upon what your status is, but they will say maiden voyage on them. And you're the only ones who get the castaway club gifts that say maiden voyage. On the next sailing, those gifts will be turned over to inaugural sailings gifts. So they have different labels even though they're the exact same gifts. And then you also get extra gifts. So every night on the maiden voyage, there is some kind of gift that arrives in your seat room. I should say not the first night, because the first night, embarkation day, you will get your castaway club gifts, but every night thereafter, you will get Gifts in your stateroom. So some of these gifts included while champagne glasses on embarkation day, we got nice.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: They were metal. They were metal flutes. And actually, I want to say I really appreciate them putting those in our stateroom because on the past few maiden voyages.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: Well, on. No. And the wish. So on the treasure, they put them in our state room. But you're right on the wish, they didn't put them in our stateroom. They handed them out on deck. And so people were like hoarding them instead of just taking one per person, which is what you're supposed to do. So in the treasure and on the destiny, they put the amount of champagne flutes that are the number of people in your stateroom in your room. And so. And then they gave you on the deck plastic flutes of champagne or non alcoholic cider. Right. So that was really nice.
There is, you know, you get a kill coin usually on the last night.
We got. There's a print.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: We got a print in our stateroom.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: Right. A special print for the maiden voyage.
I'm trying to think. What else? Oh, we got some special magnets that came for the maiden voyage as well.
Yeah, really nice stuff. Oh, we got passport holders for everyone. So little passport wallets and so. Yeah. One of the things that's really important on a maiden voyage is when you look at your navigator app at the beginning of the cruise, you will notice that there's maybe one night that has no entertainment loaded in it for that evening. And you think, oh, maybe that's a movie night or that's pirate night.
No, keep refreshing that app throughout the cruise because usually on a maiden voyage there's some kind of special performance. And ours was no exception. There was a special Heroes and villains in concert, let's call it. And it was all actual Broadway veteran performers who had been in various Disney musicals. So it was the guy who originated the genie in Aladdin, it was Susan Egan who originated Belle in Beauty and the Beast, it was Jordan Fisher who sings, of course, the song Happily Ever after that plays in the theme parks. Right. Like.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: And sang that on stage.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: And sang that on stage. I mean, there's Olivia Donaldson was one of the other performers. And then. I'm forgetting the other two names off the top of my head, but fantastic Broadway performers. So one night they performed in the theater and they did a series of hero songs, a series of villain songs. Some I'd call ambiguous whether they're heroes or villain songs. And then at the end, they all actually. Jordan Fisher was singing Happily Ever after. And then everybody else Joined him on stage to sing portions of it as well. And then I believe it was the next day or the day after they actually did a Q and A in the Walt Disney Theater as well. I happened to miss it because that was the day I was really not feeling well. And it just kind of loaded in the app, not fast. And I didn't notice that it had loaded into the app. So there are special events that will show up in the app that don't necessarily show up on day one. So you have to keep checking the app.
Yeah. James Monroe Englehart, Linda. She is. That's the name of the genie in Aladdin. But anyway, there are those. Those are kind of the special events that happen on the maiden voyage of the Treasure. We had a Muppets event and Joey Fatone was. Was involved in it. So we had Muppeteers on board. So there's always a.
A special.
Some kind of special performance, and it will be different from Made Into Maiden.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: And I just want to comment, as not the Broadway fan of this duo. I mean, I enjoy Broadway shows, don't get me wrong, but I am not as into it as Sam was. The performance that they did on stage on the maiden voyage with, you know, all of these Broadway stars coming out, each of them getting to sort of reprise a song that they made famous.
It was, you know, choreographed. There was animation, there was, you know, dancing dialogue.
It was.
It was very well done. And it was an emotional show for a lot of people, including me. And, you know, hearing they ended the show, the finale of the show was Jordan Fisher singing Happily Ever after on stage with all of these other Broadway stars.
It just brought down the house. So what an amazing experience. And, you know, Sam has said, like, this stuff just kind of shows up on the maiden voyage after you're at sea and you got to pay attention for it. But there's always going to be, like, some really special show on board. And this. This was just no exception.
And the guys in our party were all in Cask and Cannon that night. The. The. The women were down in deville's doing Troublemakers, and the entire Broadway cast, except with the exception of James Monroe. James. Yeah, James showed up to Cask and Cannon to get a drink and were just immediately mobbed and getting selfies. And one of the fun, most fun moments we had on board actually, was we kind of sauntered over to Jordan Fisher just to say what a great show it was and we'd love to get a selfie. And he handed his phone to one of the other stars, Olivia, and said, hey, can you take a selfie? And she.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: And she took the phone from us and she was like, oh, no problem. And, like, turned it. Turned the camera around and, like, took a selfie of herself and, oh, you met. Of you guys. And, like, took a photo. So afterwards I was like, you know what? I want a selfie with you too. Because my wife will be.
Will be. Will be super jealous and probably mad at me if I didn't take this opportunity.
[00:13:04] Speaker B: I will say I did come down or come up to Casket Canon after troublemaking with Cruella. And they were still there. Now, I didn't want to mob them because they had been mobbed for a while at that point, but Susan Egan was still there. And I went and said hi to her and took another picture with her. So I had to, you know, I was like, you don't. You only get. Usually in your life you might get one opportunity to, like, meet a hero. But I was like, if I got two opportunities, I'm going to take full advantage of those two opportunities. And so I went and said hi and told her how much I enjoyed the show. And she actually introduced me to the folks who put the show together who, like, had, you know, who had decided what music and sort of produced the show and directed the show. And they were fantastic as well, so super nice. You might get to meet some celebrities on board a maiden is basically the point. Sometimes those celebrities are on previews, but there are almost always a couple of celebrities on.
On the maiden voyage of a new ship. The other thing that is very big to know about a maiden voyage is depending upon what time of year the maiden voyage is, there may or may not be a lot of children. So it's going to be a lot of Pearl cruisers and platinum cruisers, right? So people with very high status who also have very high expectations, who also are going to rope drop pretty much everything. So what does that mean? That means long lines for every.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: They needed the signs from the parks on the maiden voyage. Because I will just say there is a fantastic Dr. Facilier greet and play opportunity that I think we discussed on the first episode we did where he does a little card trick in his parlor. No film, no photos allowed.
Michael and I lined up to do that about an hour and a half before the meet and greet. And it took us that hour and a half plus an hour to get in to do the actual meet and greet. But it was all told about two or two and a half hours of us waiting in line. Same. You joined Us a little bit later. So. So, yeah, so it was, it was a long line. And I actually made the joke to the cast member. I'm like, you need the sign that says line ends here. And they were coming down going, oh, you're about 35 minutes from the, the meet. The meet and play opportunity now. And I was like, well, you just need the sign with the time on it.
But, but it was, it was long lines all over the ship. Everyone trying to get, and, and you know, get all the opportunities, do everything. We couldn't get into deville's hardly at all.
[00:15:31] Speaker B: Yes. On the maiden, one of the things that Karen is mentioning in the comments is that they only had one child in their entire muster station. And that is like not necessarily every maiden voyage, but maiden voyages that do not correlate to school vacations. And this one technically didn't, even though we pulled Nathan out of school and some friends of ours pulled their kids out of school. But technically this was a week before Thanksgiving. Right. So that meant kids were missing school if they were on board. So there were actually very few kids on the maiden voyage. There were kids. Not as few as on the previews, but much fewer than on a normal sailing and much fewer than on the second sailing, which of course went over the Thanksgiving holiday. So that also means the lines are going to be longer because you don't have. If some of the guests are our kids, they're in the kids club. Right. And the rest of the guests are the adults. But if you've got, you know, let's say you have 3,000 passengers and 3,000 of them are adults, you have a lot more waiting for these adult experience.
[00:16:36] Speaker A: So I want to, I wanted to say, to Linda's point, saw the videos aligned for Hercules. We wanted to comment on that because on the main voyage and on the second voyage they ran a matinee at two and then they ran the regular.
[00:16:49] Speaker B: But two on the maiden, 1:30 on the second voyage.
[00:16:52] Speaker A: But yeah, yeah, I don't know that the time is all that important because it will adjust in future means. But. But they ran a matinee and then they ran both dinner shows opposite the dinner times. And I will say, I think tons of people piled into the matinee because Hercules was on the last night of both cruises, which I will say I think is a huge mistake because people are trying to pack on that last night and get to dinner.
And so the matinee was over subscribed and so it was really long lines for that matinee on the Maiden voyage. But I actually peeked my head in the theater on this on that night for the late show, which would have been opposite early dinner and there were seats in the audience or plenty of seats in the audience. I could have walked in, sat down and watched the show, you know, even a few minutes after it had started. So it was no problem getting seating.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: So I think PM show were both like very heavily subscribed. It seemed like the 8 or 8:30 show was much less subscribed which would have been the families more with young children who probably were packing and going to bed on the early side.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: And so the bar spaces were oversubscribed because it was a lot of adults sailing. I wanted to say. Yeah.
On this comment. Wow. So sounds like maybe not great option to take kids on the main. I, I don't, I wouldn't say Nathan had a fabulous time. I mean there were plenty of kids, he made friends, he had fun.
You know, he, he had a lot of fun. I think it was more of a pain for us as adults because it was like didn't get a lot of pool time because we were trying to like, you know, get to all of these things and see some of the things we didn't see on the preview cruise. We try to experience a lot on the Maiden knowing that maybe then we could relax a bit on the second sailing. But that Hercules line I think was a bit of an anomaly. It was. There was still a line for the matinee on the second voyage, but it was not like the line on the.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: Maiden.
[00:18:43] Speaker B: A big line. And, and the theater did fill up. So there were people probably turned away. If you showed up at, at Showtime, there were people turned away, but if you showed up in advance.
[00:18:53] Speaker A: I also, I also think that the like on the Maidens, it's like die hard Disney cruise line fans. So they are going to try and see and do everything. Whereas on the Thanksgiving cruise people were trying to see and do stuff, don't get me wrong, but they were a little bit more relaxed about it. I think there were some things that people, you know, who didn't watch all the YouTube videos before they got on but didn't even know were happening and you know, they'll do them the next time they're on board, that sort of thing. But did not see to the point in the comments about lines like did not see the same level of lines on the second voyage.
On the first voyage I would have said, wow, this is not what I sign up for when I cruise to be able to have to Stand in these really long lines for things. On the second voyage, I still felt like, I will say this, I still felt like the lines were too long for some of these experiences. Less than what were on the Maiden, but still too long.
And I, I, I suspect my, my reaction was, why don't they, you know, dust off that virtual cues setup that they had for Hyperspace Lounge on the Wish, and do that for some of these unique experiences? Because every minute I'm standing in line is a minute I'm not buying a drink. Shopping, sitting by the pool, buying a drink, like you're, you're kind of losing the revenue. I suspect what Disney is looking at is like, well, Haunted Mansion was like that for the first, you know, three to six months when the Treasure sailed and we walked into Haunted Mansion on the, on the Destiny, no problem. We've walked into the Treasure now. You know, Haunted Mansion, no problem. Set there for an hour or more, you know, no issue.
I suspect what Disney's looking at is going, yeah, everyone's going to experience all these things and then it will start to die down and people will have their favorites and they'll go back and do them, but they'll say, I don't need to do, do that. You know, the Maleficent Meet and Play, because they did it once, it was fine.
So anyway, I suspect Disney's going to just kind of let this ride out for a little bit and see how the experience is going. I think the one experience that is really going to be hard for them to solve operationally is this. Troublemakers in deville's.
[00:20:47] Speaker B: Troublemaking.
[00:20:48] Speaker A: Troublemaking because, because one, deville's is a fantastic bar. It has some really great drinks. It's a small space. It's got piano music in it, great piano music in it. And then they've got this experience layered in. And so what we were seeing is like, lots of people going in there and just like, sitting and staying and not leaving. And so I do worry a little bit that deville's is going to remain high, remain highly oversubscribed. I'm going to be very curious in April when we're on the Treasure to see what it's like in Scat Cat, because Scat Cat was a little oversubscribed at times as well.
If it's died down, then I might expect the same trend for Devilles.
[00:21:27] Speaker B: But yeah, yeah, well, and they could make them like reserved events, right? Like what Brian's talking about, what they did with Hyperspace Lounge was you made a reservation in the app it wasn't a virtual queue exactly. It was just a reservation system. But you could only make like one reservation or whatnot. And Karen's saying, yeah, make. You can make the Dr. Facilier parlor and the troublemaking experience. You can make those ticketed reservations.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: I don't know if you gave Karen a shout out, but lovely.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Karen and Malcolm, we met on board as well.
[00:21:56] Speaker A: Lovely to meet them both.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. We've been interacting with Karen for years online. She's been listening to us since either the very beginning or almost the very beginning. And we finally got to meet her in person. She was on both voyages. She and Malcolm were on both voyages. So super wonderful and lovely to meet them. Now, now, there was a question about the. Sorry, there was.
[00:22:14] Speaker A: Can I just answer this question so I have it up? So, yes, Hercules. Hercules was on the last night of the cruise. That is not always a sea day.
[00:22:23] Speaker B: A sea day, Our voyages, it was a sea day, but it's not always a sea day. And from what I gather, it will typically be on the last night of the cruise, whether that's a sea day or not. So it might be your castaway or lookout day, depending upon what your. Your voyage, what you're sailing is itinerary. Now, one thing Tracy mentioned in the comments is that she waited 45 minutes for the photo op. Dr. Facilier. And that was typical. Whether you on the first voyage or the second voyages, the meet and greets with the villains in particular and also with some of the heroes were, I would say those are also longer lines. And that's probably because a lot of those characters, so Cruella, Maleficent, Loki, Dr. Facilier, these are not characters that you can regularly meet at the parks. Now, I'm not saying you can't meet them at the parks. There are opportunities sometimes, you know, some special events that they show up, but they're not typically characters you can meet in the parks or on the cruise line. So these are for most people, the first time or one of maybe the only times that they'll get to meet and get a picture with one of these villains. And so those lines, I think are going to continue to be longer than average or long. And at least for the inaugural season. Right. We're going to. We'll see. Maybe they'll die down, you know, six months from now, a year from now. But those lines you're going to continue to see on the longer side for character meet and greets, as opposed to, you know, just your regular line for maybe Donald or Daisy, Superhero Minnie also, and even t' Challa and Spider man seem to have slightly longer lines than maybe your regular Fab Fives.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: And just know because this came up on the Treasure, they don't advertise what costume the character is going to be in when they're out. So they will just say it's a mini greeting.
If, if you're really nice to a cast member sometimes, not all the time because they sometimes don't even know.
Sometimes they will clue you in. They did clue Sam in. Oh, you're going to want to be, you know, tonight, 7:00pm or whatever it was up on deck for Hero Mini will be there. So it's not always they will not advertise a specific, they won't guarantee a specific costume for the character. So if you ask you, you might be able to find out. But if not, you just kind of got to pay attention and roll by the meet and greets to see if it's, you know, superhero Mini or not.
[00:24:46] Speaker B: The. The other clue I would say is on day one is usually a decent opportunity to find Hero Minnie out and about Pirate Night. You will not see Hero Minnie out and about. So those are two clues that you can pretty much guarantee. Hero Mini will be out sometime on night one, but will not be out on Pirate night because Pirate Night, everybody will be in their pirate costumes that whole day. Because you'll see, you'll, you know, usually be on one of the islands during the day and then at night you'll have Pirate night. So yeah, so we, we were able to get a hint that, which there were too many appearances. One was at like 7:30 and one was at like 9:45. And a cast member was like, you're more likely to find Hero Minnie at 9:45 than you are at 7:30.
[00:25:34] Speaker C: Are you listening to our show because.
[00:25:35] Speaker A: You want to make the most out.
[00:25:36] Speaker C: Of your next vacation.
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[00:26:28] Speaker A: Now back to the episode.
[00:26:33] Speaker A: So, Sam, let's talk about.
[00:26:34] Speaker B: About.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: I don't want to use the inappropriate version of this, but let's. We got, we got to do the liverwurst sandwich, we're going to call it, and so time to eat our liverwurst.
And I think we do both have some feedback about the Destiny right now.
I'm going to start by saying I think ship spaces are all fine. Like, there's nothing that I saw or. No, everything was finished. Signage was all up. This was not the wish by any means. This was the treasure.
Everything seemed to be working just fine. The Happy Haunts game was running.
I had, I had a bit of what I thought was a technical glitch with it turned out not to be. So everything seemed to be running and working fine. I will say just side note, tangent. If you want to play the Happy Haunts game on board, that requires the Disney Band plus and be sure to update the software on the Disney Band plus before you get on board because it requires the updated band software in order for it to run.
But. So everything seemed to be working from a space standpoint.
[00:27:36] Speaker B: Yes. And the Happy Hunt, they didn't like start it until, I think after we embarked or maybe it was the next morning. I feel like Embarkation Day afternoon, it wasn't up and running, but it was up and running later that evening. And then they also shut it down.
[00:27:52] Speaker B: Before disembarkation, like halfway through the day on the last day. So we didn't. I didn't get to finish the Happy Hunt.
[00:28:00] Speaker A: They did not.
We did not see a final uncharted adventure show schedule. So unlike on the Treasure.
Yeah, we did not see the finale show in like a saga. We did not see that on the schedule. I don't know if they've just kind of abandoned that all together or if they've kept it as a special and unique opportunity on the other ships, but we did not see that.
[00:28:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:25] Speaker A: So in terms of some feedback, friends tell each other the truth. And so Disney Cruise Line, now we know you're probably out there at least watching a little bit.
So I think I would divide this up into two things. One was the experiences on board and one was the crew on board.
And I think I've said this before on the show, but my rubric for Disney in terms of my feedback, is this an. Is this an architectural. Is. Sorry about that. Is this an architectural problem with the experience or is this an operational problem with the experience? And so by way of example there, the pier at Lookout Point is an architectural problem. They. That's just that they're not. They agreed with the Bahamian government. They were going to build a pier. It had to be the length that they made it because of the coral reef there.
Could they have made it wider? Sure. But it is a concrete poured pad, it is permanent and it is not going to get changed anytime soon. And so if you don't like walking down a long pier without a tram, then Lookout Key is not for you. They can't fix that problem operationally. They can fix the heat. Like they can put Sun Sales on that pier. So operationally they could fix it. The flies on the food. P.S. hold on, hold on. P.S. at Lookout, they were completely gone. But that was an operational issue on board. I would say I did not see any strong architectural problems with the experience. I think the experiences where we had long lines, long waits, whatever it was, those are operational challenges that the cruise line I am sure will fix over time. So Sam, I don't know if you have any other feedback about the experiences on board.
[00:30:08] Speaker B: Well, I think the only operation or the only experiential issue with deville's is just that it's so small. Right. Like that space. So they did have the, the show a bunch of different times. So troublemaking with Cruella is such a great experience. It's an adult only experience. We talked about what it was on, on the previous show, but it's. It's an experience, interactive experience where you help create a new song for Cruella De Vil. Let's just put it out there like that. And it's hosted by Ziya and Gamble and of course Cruella makes several appearances and you have a. A special involvement by who? Whichever piano player happens to be in the bar at the time. So it's usually either Matt Grinke or, or his colleague Christina who are both incredible. But I will say it's. They do it a bunch of different times, but so many people want to do it and it's such a small room.
They've got to figure out a way to get. Turn over the folks in, in the bar. And so what I think they need to do is actually clear out the bar every time before the experience if they're going to let people line up so that those people who've been waiting can actually get in the.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: Although. Although that is not a great experience either for everyone in the bar.
[00:31:17] Speaker B: So I don't know how to fix it, is what I'm saying. There's got to be some kind of fix to it. I'm just not sure what it is other than I think.
[00:31:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I think if there's going to be a. If there's going to be a imposed fix, it will be some kind of a reservation or a ticketed system for those meets and greets.
It's possible to. P.S. that they might look at doing like. So we said on the first show they had an exec from Star Cruiser. Remember you got into experiences on Star Cruiser not because they were published in an app, but because people were sort of telling you. Right. And so. And so it's possible they could move to something more like that, where you have a really fun interaction with a character and somebody hands you a card and says, come to deville's at, you know, this time. And it's a time when the bar isn't normally open. Right?
[00:32:02] Speaker B: Yeah, but the other problem is, as Vanessa says in the chat, is that people would get there and then they camp there all night. And so then they'd be there for multiple experiences, but that meant they were taking up seats so somebody else couldn't be there even for one experience. So they've got to figure out a way operationally to make that work. A challenge that I saw, and this is not. This is an operational one, was just like, the bathrooms weren't as clean as they usually are.
[00:32:26] Speaker A: At least I'd put that in the crew. I'd put that in the crew side, not the experience side.
[00:32:30] Speaker B: But, yeah, agreed. There's a lot of new crew on. Right. We saw lots of people with. Earning their ears ribbons on their name tags, some of whom were amazing, some of whom were still learning. Right. And so with new ships, of course, and new cast coming on board, they're just challenges in training and getting people up to speed. And so we had some challenges with our stateroom hosts, like being. And he wasn't earning his ears, but not being, you know, the. Maybe the most efficient at getting our room ready for us at. During. During the two, you know, times where they have to service our room and multiple times, like not putting out the ladder for Nathan's bunk bed and then when he did Put out the ladder. He kept putting it in the wrong place. Like where the rail was, not where the opening for the rail was.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: These were. I want to say these are these, like. I think the overall thing, I would.
[00:33:18] Speaker B: Say these are minor things. These are minor things, but it's just, you know, little bits of growing pain. So I want to, like, just be clear, like, there are things that are not, like, 100% perfect, but, like, we. We were lucky. We had fantastic servers in the dining room. We had great crew member interactions and experiences on board. So, like, there are growing pains, but, you know, hopefully as the ship is, you know, out for more and more months, the folks who are just learning will kind of get up to speed with Disney standards.
[00:33:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I want to say that I want to step back. I don't want to talk about specific crew member. I just want to say I don't think that this crew is fully gelled yet. So when we were on the fantasy for New Year's Eve last year, it was a oiled machine, smiles all around. Everything was working perfectly. This was not that. And I think, you know, in a few months to six months, they will gel and it will start working. I think this is also an artifact of Disney's growing rapidly.
Lots of new crew on board. And so, you know, I think they will learn the ropes and they will get there. And, like, the things we experienced are stateroom hosts, minor inconvenience. Right? I knew where the ladder was. I went and got it. I put it out, right? So it. It will get better over time. But just right now, I would just not expect that, you know, like, another challenge I had, frankly, was on the maiden voyage on the last night. It was dumb. I went to Guest Services because I wanted to get a tip form to kind of up the tips across the. The crew. And, you know, there's this long line of guest services. It's the last night of a sailing, the. The time when you would absolutely expect there to be a long line of Guest Services. And they had exactly two people, actually had three people. When I walked up manning, like, nine desks at Guest Services with a long line, one desk was fully occupied with an officer, a dining area manager, and a guest Services representative. And I'm watching this go on for 20 minutes, and I'm like, why would the officer not step them away to another podium and work with them to free up the Guest Services person for the more routine tasks? There was no officer at the front of the line, as there typically is kind of going up the line and Saying, what do you need? What do you need? Oh, you're quick. Let me help you. You're more involved. Let me move you along. And then at some point, the third person out there took a break and left. And there's two officers out there, two guest services people. And I'm like, why isn't one of the officers on the phone saying, I need all hands on deck right now to clear this line on the last night of the sailing. So it's like, it's that kind of stuff that you don't. I don't see when I'm on the treasure or when I'm on the wish or on the fancy of the other ships. It just didn't feel like it was as a well oiled machine as I would like to see, to jump back to the experience side of things.
So we have now done Pride Lands three times.
[00:36:01] Speaker A: The show is good.
[00:36:06] Speaker A: It's great. It's a great show.
I want to put a pin in something. I want to get your opinion on Sam, which is the Experience for kids and some of Nathan's feedback.
But that show is tough for the servers.
[00:36:19] Speaker B: So tough.
[00:36:20] Speaker A: It is a lot of show without a lot of breaks for them on the main or. Sorry. On the preview cruise, it seemed to be divided into four acts. And when we got on the Maiden and the Next cruise, it looked like they had taken Acts 2 and 3 and munged them together into one gigantic act.
And so there was some pretty consistent commentary. It was very loud. Nathan had to, you know, Nathan has, you know, some sensory stuff, but normally these days he's not putting headphones on much. In that show, he had to have his headphones on because it was very, very loud. I think it's a show where if you've got kids with sensory stuff, maybe you don't want the table up by the stage because frankly there's. There's not a. There is visual stuff going on. But this isn't Olaf out on a cart right where you need to be up there to see him. You're listening to the story and you're hearing the music and it's fabulous. You can see what's going on on stage. That's great. We were right up against the stage on both ceilings, which was nice, but it was very loud and we did hear feedback that it was very loud throughout the restaurant. So I, I mean, I don't know how much my tip of maybe not sitting right up front is going to help you, but it was a very loud show.
[00:37:27] Speaker B: So. Okay, so I will say about the. The volume. I felt like when we were on the preview and we were towards the front of the restaurant, so we were quite far away from the stage. It was overall loud, but it wasn't.
It wasn't disturbingly loud, let's put it like that.
When we were right next to the stage and we had Nathan with us, it was the bongo drums and the drum set that were both really, like. They were all really, really, really close to us. And that's what was so loud, to the point where Nathan needed his headphones. Now, we'll say I have kind of sensitive hearing and I was enjoying it and I was rocking out to the drums and having such a great time that I was not bothered by it. Although I will say it was very loud. But Nathan definitely needed to wear his headphones the entire time. In fact, on the first night that we were there, I ran back to the stateroom during one of the segments to go get his. Like, I literally ran through the halls of the ship to go get his headphones and bring them back to the table, because I could tell he was having to hold. He was putting his hands over his ears because he could not take how loud it was. So I will say, like, if you have a kid, even one without very sensitive sensory issues, if you have a table or you want to have a table that's near the stage, bring headphones for them or earplugs for them because it's quite loud, think if you're further away from the stage, you could do without the headphones, but it's still going to be on the loud side.
[00:38:55] Speaker A: I would just say, I would cap it at this.
If you're the family that uses dinner as an opportunity to reconnect after a long day and have a conversation that ain't happening, that's not happening in Pride Lands.
My other concern, kind of across the board, and we did hear some feedback from some under 18 folks, was that a lot of the special experiences on board are geared to adults and adults only. Right. And so the Marvel show, the troublemaking.
[00:39:27] Speaker A: Some of the other stuff that happens on the Cruise are all 18 plus now. By no means is that everything. There's lots of opportunities for stuff in the grand hall that's happening. There's stuff throughout the day in Saga and other things.
Sam, I'm curious.
We would love to have had Nathan on. As we said, he's under the weather, I'm coming under the weather. And now Sam is emerging from the weather, so we didn't want to drag him on the show tonight, what did you think of the kids experience on board? Because it felt like a very. To me, it felt like a very bifurcated cruise. Meaning he was in the kids club a lot and he.
[00:40:02] Speaker B: He was. But that's big. But he's not a show kid. I think I actually did drag him to Hercules on the second cruise. Drag is a, is a probably a more extreme term. I. I told him that he was coming with us, with me to see Hercules on the last cruise. He actually really enjoyed Hercules. He did bring his headphones and I'm glad he did because we sat up close and so it was a little bit louder as well. But he actually really enjoyed it. There's a ton of events that happen in Saga during the day and a ton of events that happen in the grand hall that are all kid friendly. They do have some of them have a bit of a villain focus, but not all of them. So there's the Sleeping Beauty storytelling that the. That Z and Gamble do. And then we found out on the maiden voyage and then on second voyage which didn't happen on the preview. There's also a retelling of the Princess and the Frog done by Ziya and Gamble and both of those really fun, super interactive for the kids, really fun for adults. You also have the Legend of Loki and Celebration of a King which are Loki and and t' Challa storytelling type events that happen in the Grand Hall. Also family friendly, not scary. Although of course Loki is a villain in the both storylines, but not scary at all.
Then of course there is a Maleficent show and encounter called Under Her Spell that might be a little bit creepy for some of the younger kids unless they really like Maleficent, but that's family friendly that happens in Saga. And then of course there's a ton of other like kid friendly events that are similar to across the other Ship. Other ships. There's, you know, the Villains Tonight game show I think or Villains Game Night or something like that. I can't remember the name of it. There's also the Encanto Celebration where Mirabel and Bruno come out. There's character meet and greets with the Fab Five. Of course, as I mentioned, the other character meet and greets with with Heroes and plenty to do in the kids club. I would say for us it's different because Nathan is not interested in like the show type of events but for like our friends, the morals, their girls went to a lot of those interactive events and seemed to enjoy it. But for other families that I saw around the ship. Their kids seem to enjoy those other interactive events. I, I will say it, it is different experience than some of the other ships and that there is more of a villain focus on this ship than on others. So if your kids are really afraid of villains, this might not be the ship for you.
But I do think if your kids have any affinity for Marvel and if they maybe like Dr. Facilier or Maleficent or Cruella, who of course you have the wretched Runway show I forgot to mention as well, which is a fashion show, which I would highly encourage people for that event to dress up either as their favorite villain as Cruella or as a hero and participate because it's really, really fun. So I think there's actually plenty to do for families with young children on board. At least that was my impression.
As long as your kids are not really terrified of like Loki, Maleficent, Cruella or Zach.
[00:43:11] Speaker A: I did see, I think Disney actually did a really nice job with the villains and kids because, like when they did the wretched Runway with Cruella, she caught a little girl up and like spun her around and was like, fabulous, fabulous. You know, like all this sort of stuff.
[00:43:25] Speaker B: She was great.
[00:43:26] Speaker A: Yeah, they were really good at making the villains a little bit more approachable than I've seen in the past. And so I think that they are able to calibrate that experience to kids. As I said on our preview cruise show, like, I'm just going to be really curious as families sail on this ship, what the experience is like for kids. I 100% agree with Sam that if your kids are into Marvel, they're going to lose their minds.
It's fabulous. If they're, if they're into some of the villain characters, they're going to, they're going to, they're going to love it.
If they're into like princesses and stuff, you know, or just a fab five. I mean, they're there, but they are not the stars of the show on board. It is really about these villains and hero characters on board.
[00:44:08] Speaker C: So.
[00:44:09] Speaker B: And you still have the royal gathering and you also have adventure tea with royal tea. Now, royal gathering, of course, is a reservation free, but reservation event where you meet the princesses and then the adventure tea with royal tea is a kind of expensive, we'll call it tea experience. There's actually no tea but dessert kind of tea experience with a bunch of the princess characters. So there are princess opportunities on board, but they are more reservation based or reservation and pay based, just depending upon. So that yeah, that might. If you're really a princess, if your kids are only into princesses, then maybe the wish or, or different ship is just a better fit.
[00:44:50] Speaker A: But I'll say as we round out our liverwurst portion of the sandwich here, I will just say I, I, I have two kind of missed opportunities that I saw on the ship. One is, I cannot believe they don't have a heroes and villains makeover in the Bibbidi Boppity Boutique.
It was hero Mickey.
[00:45:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
Captain Mickey. Yeah.
[00:45:15] Speaker A: Yeah. It's just mind blowing to me.
I also think that so finally got to experience some of the drinks on board which we really did not get to do on the preview and the maiden. It was actually very difficult to get into Deville as we really want to experience some of those drinks. I do think that the drinks on board, as I suspected and as we heard when we were on the preview cruise, like in most of the venues, with a notable exception, trend toward the sweet side of things. Now my suspicion and my like pro tip going forward is going to be if I order one of those specialty drinks, I'm going to ask them to give me a double of the alcohol and leave everything else the same so that you can kind of get. I don't think the drink is well balanced as it's made on that sweet side of things. I think it might come out more well balanced if you just up the alcohol a little bit to try and get that to come through.
[00:46:04] Speaker B: Although I will say this, I actually tried two drinks, one was yours and one was mine at the Haunted Mansion Parlor on this last sailing.
And because I realized of course the menu is, the drink menu is different even though there's some similarities.
But from one Honda Mansion Parlor to the other, I actually really liked both drinks that I, I ended up drinking mine and drinking Brian's because Brian didn't.
[00:46:26] Speaker A: Like his and I didn't like either of them. So yeah.
[00:46:29] Speaker B: And I but I really liked both of them and they weren't too sweet. They were on the sweeter side but they weren't too sweet for me.
And so I like my drinks so sweeter but not super sweet and sweeter than Bryant does, I should say. So. Yeah. So I would say yeah. I actually really enjoyed enjoying a mansion parlor. I will say Linda's asking about their non alcoholic drink game. I would, I think across the fleet they have.
I know that our good friend Wesley Davenport, who is version 5571 on the socials, he tries like a ton of non alcoholic beverages on the Fleet and he has really I think a lot.
[00:47:11] Speaker A: And I want to give a notable exception which is Cask and Cannon.
[00:47:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:15] Speaker A: It has my new favorite drink on Disney Cruise Line. It's. It's the Shiver Me Timbers or the Shiver Me Timbers.
[00:47:21] Speaker B: I can't remember Shiver Shiver Me Timbers.
[00:47:22] Speaker A: I can't if they did the bees in the menu or not but anyway.
[00:47:24] Speaker B: No I think they did it.
[00:47:26] Speaker A: It was it. We had many of those on board.
It's a. It's a drink you did not me. They have a barrel stave with like plexiglass either side to make like a bottle and they pour rum into the you know the, the smoke stave and they let it sit for four days and then they use it to make these drinks. It is like a rum old fashioned basically but without all of the. They will do. They have like a candied orange slice they put on top. It's not got like cherries and stuff in it. It was fabulous new favorite drink on on board the cruise line. Second only to the old fashions and hooks. So fabulous drink. And we tried many other drinks in Cask and Cannon and they were all really good. So I say casting Cannon has. I know people don't like that they have to pay for the. The bites. The. The. The bar bites in casking can.
It's good food and it's good drinks and the games were on that. That venue was you know always packed and I think there's a good reason for it. It's just really nice now and I don't want to downplay but by the way the sanctum fabulous bar. I just wish the drinks were a little less sweet. Deville's just impossible to get into for. For us most of the time all of the bar venues on board are really good but Cask and Cannon really stands out to me for the kind of drink I'm looking for when it's you know after dinner and we're going to go out and sit down have a couple drinks and you know have some fun. So I thought, I thought that was great.
[00:48:49] Speaker B: I will say I got a better chance also to. To really focus in on the theming in Cask and Cannon on. On this sailing. I feel like I had a better or more time in Deville's on the preview sailing and I had more time in Cask and Cannon on these last two sailings and I just.
I think they did a phenomenal job with that space. And that's where it's funny because it's not the park ship Right. The treasure is the park ship. This is the heroes and villains ship. But they did a really nice job with that nod to Parks fans in Kask and canon. So I really, really love that.
[00:49:23] Speaker A: The other piece of feedback and slash opportunity that I want to give Disney and I know we've probably said this in other contexts and other people said it too.
Thanksgiving dinner doesn't require a PhD to figure out how to make.
There is an American plate of Thanksgiving dinner that most of us have and.
[00:49:40] Speaker B: They make, they do a Thanksgiving menu but it's.
[00:49:42] Speaker A: They make some really odd choices for, you know, they could just serve traditional Thanksgiving dinner and I think everyone would be happy. But they make some just kind of odd choices for some of the stuff, you know, at that meal that sort.
[00:49:55] Speaker B: Of like pumpkin cheesecake. No pumpkin pie. It's just. Yeah, they, they. It's. It is a weird. It. Listen, it's pretty much the same as the Christmas menu. So they, you know, they've got it sort of. They have a formula to it and it's fine. It's not a bad menu. It's just not the best of. Of Thanksgiving dinners.
[00:50:13] Speaker A: For the last 10 minutes here, Sam. Because we're going to try to end on time tonight.
For the last 10 minutes here, Sam. First, did you have any other feedback from Nathan? Because I think people would love to hear what he thought about the show. He had a fabulous time.
[00:50:24] Speaker B: Seemed like he had a great time. He loved Edge. He talked about, he was, he talked my ear off about an experience that they did that was.
It was some kind of Emperor's new groove themed experience that happened in Edge. I can't remember if it was like a trivia or something, but basically he was telling us about how they have like the regular staff that's in Edge, like they have regular staff that's in kids club club and in Vibe. But then entertainment staff comes in and does specific programming where they do sort of game show or theme type events and maybe a character comes in and so he really, really seemed to enjoy those experiences. But he wanted to do them with his peers. He didn't really want to do them with us. So he wasn't interested in going to the Princess and Frog show or the Sleeping Beauty show or you know, even Destiny Discovered which is the final night show which by the way was really fantastic. In the, in the grand hall or atrium. They Zion Gamble hosts. The Destiny discovered on the last night which was I thought really, really well done. So yeah.
[00:51:28] Speaker A: Did he like that he rode the Aqua mouse with you?
[00:51:30] Speaker B: He Loved the Aquamouse. All the sprayers were working. We did the new show. So there is a new show. I don't think we talked about this because we hadn't actually done it ourselves on the preview, but there's a new. It's called Sing a Silly Song.
And it's something at Villains Mountain is that, you know, they always have a colon. Every Disney name has a title and then a colon and some description. But he. He really, really. We really both liked it. We got, of course, soaked. Right before you go into the. The tube part, they have sprayers coming at you from every which direction. And I feel like on the other ships, that's not always working, but. Yeah, so we're totally soaked even before we go into the sort of the water slide portion of it. But we both really, really enjoyed it. We did take a 360 video at some point. That'll be up on our YouTube. But, yeah, I thought he thought it was fantastic. I thought it was fantastic. He seemed to really like the food, and he didn't just eat Mickey's Mac and cheese on every night. He did have steak one night off the adult menu. He actually had the Berber chicken and Pride Lands that he really seemed to enjoy, in addition to having the kids Mac and cheese.
Yeah, he seemed to have just a great time.
[00:52:39] Speaker A: That's one thing I want to spend just a couple minutes on, is the food in Pride Lands, because The Menus in 1923 and World of Marvel are the same as on the rest of the fleet, so there's not much to comment on there.
Pride Land. So we did finally get a chance to experience some of the other dishes that we didn't get on the main. So, yeah, I tried the Berber chicken. I thought it was fantastic. It was. It was moist.
You know, the skin was crispy. The chicken was moist. The rice was yummy. Yeah, the. The tomato rice, which, by the way, is like the chef's, like, childhood dish.
[00:53:11] Speaker B: Like mom or grandma's recipe.
[00:53:13] Speaker A: Yeah, great. That was great.
I found the green papaya salad. The time I tried it to be basically just eating shredded carrots and whatever else, you know, then the shredded papaya or whatever. There was, like, no seasoning to it to speak of, so, you know, I was, like, dumping salt on it to try and give it some flavor, but it was not a winner for me.
I think the soups are not the best.
[00:53:34] Speaker B: The soups are both a miss from what. I didn't try them, but our friends had tried them, and I had heard from another cast member Friend that the soups in Pride Lands are both a mission, but that chicken skewer with apricot is amazing.
The Peri. Peri shrimp appetizer is a solid one as well.
I had that shrimp curry every time we were in Pride Lands, though, and I'm still dreaming about that shrimp curry.
[00:53:58] Speaker A: The one thing I didn't get to try that I heard good things about was the. Was a lamb shank that they had on the menu. And so I just. The night I was going to order it, I just wasn't feeling it. So I got the shrimp curry, which is delicious. The chicken was delicious.
I am really excited we're going back on the. Our next time on the Destiny is like a year away. It's next Christmas and New year's. We're doing 10 nights instead of eight. And I'm. I'm hoping that we're going to request the rotation to get into Pride Lands three times, because I really want to see some of the stuff on the other menu.
[00:54:25] Speaker B: Not three times, but.
[00:54:27] Speaker A: Well, whatever. It's. You gotta. You can't be in there. You can't be in there. You can't be in there the second night for pirates, so, like, you gotta be in there.
[00:54:34] Speaker B: A third night where you get in there a second night, but it's not pirate night. So there is another menu. So we. We know there's a second menu. We've seen the dishes. We've seen. You know, we saw the dishes on the preview when we got to do sort of a panel in Pride Lands. We didn't get to eat any of them. They just sort of talked about them and showed us them.
But we've seen the other dishes, and so there. We know there's another menu, and it looks really good.
[00:54:58] Speaker A: I heard good things about the. It was like a black bean, like hummus or something like that. That's supposed to. That. That was. I didn't get a chance to try it this time. I'm going to try it next time.
Yeah, it was really good.
[00:55:08] Speaker B: So I think Amy Moyers in the comments saying she enjoyed the lamb shank and had it on both. She was on the Maiden and the second voyage with us, and she had it both nights and said it's great.
[00:55:17] Speaker A: So I think. I think overall, Pride Lands is a hit.
Yeah, I think it's a great addition to the fleet. I think some of the food on that menu is really great, and I have no doubt that some of these other dishes they'll continue to play with, you know, to try and make them better. And so, you know, I think overall that menu will only get better with time. And it's really exciting to see them bringing some of those flavors into the, you know, into the fleet, you know. So overall I think fantastic sailing. I have to spend a minute because we posted about this.
So we did. When we disembarked the cruise, we did travel north to Orlando. We were staying a night, two nights at Riviera and we spent one day at Epic Universe. We're not going to talk about Epic Universe on our show.
Plenty of people cover it. I will just, you know, say Nathan loved it. I loved it. I thought all the rides were.
[00:56:08] Speaker B: Were Donkey Kong.
[00:56:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Or all the rides were top notch. It is for me, like about, you know, it's it with, with an Express Pass you can get the whole thing done and have plenty of time to spare to do wand tricks in Harry Potter Land and more stuff in Nintendo World. Like it. It was a great experience overall at Epic. Some really great theme park food. But that's kind of the encapsulated review. What I want to talk about for a second is how we got to Orlando. And so we, which we don't have a great review of, we opted to take the Bright Line. Now I have done the Bright Line before to Orlando, but I did it off of the preview cruise that we did to Lookout Key and I had like a carry on bag. I didn't have a ton of luggage. I'll just put it that way. Actually, I think I had a bigger bag, but I was able to check it that time.
[00:56:52] Speaker B: No, well, I brought your bigger bag.
[00:56:54] Speaker A: You had a small bag so it was easy for me to get. So you know, if you're going on a three, four night cruise and you're just going to carry on a piece of luggage in a backpack, disregard what I'm about to say.
But we paid for three premium tickets on Bright Line. That was my first mistake because those tickets are really expensive now. I paid for them because they came with one checked bag per person. And so it's like that that's going to help us out because we're going to have, you know, quite a bit of luggage across the eight nights and then the stay at the park and all the stuff we got to drag off the ship from the maiden voyage and the merchandise we preordered.
So we show up to the Bright Line station, an hour and a half. We actually changed our train from a 9:30 to a 10:30 because they closed luggage collection on Bright Line about a half hour before departure. So we were like, well, we're not going to make that more than likely.
So we showed up 90 minutes early for a 10:30 departure.
Rolled into the station, I had prepaid. I found out that our two larger suitcases were not considered free standard size. So I paid the $80 each. You heard that right, $80 each. After dropping nearly $300 a person or more than $300 a person on tickets to get those checked, I registered to bring one, you know, standard size checked bag for each of us. And then we were going to, you know, bring on our backpacks in like one of our carry on suitcases roll in and they're, they go to check in and they're like, we don't have any room for, for luggage. Check luggage.
[00:58:15] Speaker B: Our luggage is full?
[00:58:16] Speaker A: Yeah, our luggage is full. And I said, are you kidding me?
Because I just shelled out like a thousand dollars.
[00:58:23] Speaker B: Let us pay for them.
[00:58:24] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:58:25] Speaker A: Now they, they, they did refund us, but PS On Bright Line, a refund is a credit to use on Bright Line. So, so I have this money sitting with Brightline that I can't get back. Now I am going to call them to see what they do.
Basically, I think what happened is that train going to Orlando, if you're coming out of Fort Lauderdale, starts in Miami. And all the cruise passengers got off on in Miami that day, disembarked, filled the luggage carts. They were left with one luggage cart coming out of Fort Lauderdale, which was already full by the time we got there. And so they ended up making us drag two trunks, a medium suitcase, three carry ons and all of our backpacks onto the train car with us.
And there were tons of people in that situation and ended up being that one end of the car was just completely packed and unmanageable.
They had some racks, but this is like not, this is like commuter rail. This is not like Amtrak like it, there's not enough space for all of the luggage.
[00:59:24] Speaker B: There are for small bags because you could put small bags above you. So like small roller bags that fit like above, you know, in the airplane, that's fine. But bigger suitcases is, you know, there's only a limited amount of space at the end of each car. So our stuff all got on the train.
[00:59:40] Speaker A: We did make it, but we had to drag it up and down escalators and you know, and it was a.
[00:59:45] Speaker B: Pain in the butt both getting on and off the train with that luggage. So, you know, zero stars do not recommend. Hold on if you were on.
[00:59:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:59:55] Speaker B: If you're A lot of luggage.
[00:59:56] Speaker A: Just a couple other quick points. One, our friends who took the Bright Line said that they got to the other end of it and had to wait for 20 to 40 minutes for their luggage to even come up, which is insane.
And then the other thing I wanted to say was, you know that I priced out a one way rental using Enterprise from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando, having the car for the whole weekend so that we could use it to get to Epic Universe. And it was less expensive, far less expensive than being on the Brightline. And I have had to deal with Brightline customer service in the past. It is not great. It is, it is not great. And so I did, I want to be very transparent. I did reach out to Brightline's media relations team to ask them about this situation because it is mind blowing to me that they did not plan ahead for these. I mean this is supposed to be basically a regional Amtrak high speed up to Orlando serving a major cruise terminals, two of them.
They did get back to me today saying they were looking into the situation. And so if they do provide a more substantive response, we will be sure to share that with you in a future show. But for now, I do not recommend the Bright Line train. I did not find it to be at all worth what we paid in relation to the hassle of having to. I mean, we had to put our trunks on an airport scanner to get into the train. Like I was, I was afraid they were going to get stuck in there because they were, they were too big for the scanner.
[01:01:20] Speaker B: So just fit through the scanner. I will say it was a comfortable ride and none of us had to drive. So that was the one. That's the, the one positive, I will say is that it was a comfortable ride. None of us had to drive. They did have snacks and food on board as well.
[01:01:34] Speaker A: The lounge, the coffee machine was broken.
[01:01:39] Speaker B: I would only recommend it if you are, if you are, carry on only that's the only time I would recommend it. And I probably say don't even, don't even.
[01:01:46] Speaker A: And I agree with Andrew's comment here. I think it's far easier to go from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale or Miami on the Bright Line than it is to go the opposite direction for all the reasons I just mentioned. So anyway, I won't be using Brightline again. But I will share with you if they offer some kind of response to us, I will share that with you as is appropriate.
[01:02:06] Speaker B: Okay, but we got to give the verdict, Brian.
People want to know. I mean like two thumbs up.
Okay, so you know, but people ask us, okay, was the Destiny just awesome because you were on a preview that you didn't have to pay for and because you got some sort of.
[01:02:20] Speaker A: The Destiny is just awesome.
[01:02:22] Speaker B: Right? Created experiences, you know, you got to do the troublemaking in a. Without as many people on board. You got to do, you know, you got to go on the engine room tour. Brian, Sam, you got to interview Susan Egan. All of that was amazing. No joke. All of that was amazing. Got it. Like get a hand at the Disney Cruise Line. They treated us real good on that preview sailing. But bottom line is the Destiny is incredible because the entertainment on board is incredible. The new food in Pride Lands is incredible. The storyteller Ziya and Gamble, this main stage cast, the entertainment cast in general, all incredible. Does she have some operational challenges just being a new ship? Yes. Will those all get smoothed out though, over time? I think yes. I think Brian and I both agree. Yes. But if you at all like Marvel, if you want the most hilarious show, adult only show across the fleet, you got to go to Saga and see with great power the most hilarious and surprising that Disney let this show on the ship. Let's just say that because it's got a lot of adult humor involved in it, but like this show is just hands down incredible. It's still, I have to still put it above the Treasure. The only, like I mentioned on our pre about our preview sailing, like, there's a few things on the Treasure I like better than the Destiny. And of course I like a seven night sailing as opposed to a four or five night sailing. But I still have to give the Destiny the number one spot right now. I mean, it is just on entertainment alone. It is just so freaking incredible. And of course, hero mini.
[01:04:05] Speaker A: I will say my final, my final verdict is the Destiny is an amazing ship. It is the Treasure dialed up to 11 in terms of entertainment. We keep hearing, wait for the next one. I'm like, I don't know where you're going from here, but it was, it was really good.
I think for me, the one thing is this ship, because it's dialed up to 11, should be doing the seven night sailings and the treasure should be doing the four or five, five rotations. Because you can't see it all in four nights. Five nights is a stretch.
And I will also say this, this vacation did not feel as much Disney cruise line as I would call a sailing and Eastern Caribbean sailing on the Treasure. Yeah, because those sailings, there's stuff to do, but then there's Plenty of time to relax. This really felt like, oh, my gosh, the next thing's happening here. We gotta go get in line for that. The next thing's happening here.
[01:04:57] Speaker B: It felt a little more like a Parks vacation.
[01:05:00] Speaker A: Yeah. Which.
[01:05:01] Speaker B: Which, even though it's not a Parks themed ship, it felt a little bit more like a Parks vacation, which I'm.
[01:05:04] Speaker A: Hoping, operationally, they find a way to dial this back into a Disney Cruise Line experience, because I don't want to pay Disney Cruise Line prices to go to a park. Right. So. So I think. I think I will absolutely sail a Destiny again. I will recommend it to anyone.
I think it is great. I think the entertainment experiences alone make it a phenomenal ship.
But right now, it does feel a little less relaxed than some of the other ships in the fleet in terms of the overall vacation experience, and I think that that's tough.
[01:05:36] Speaker B: That might calm down, though, like, the next time we're on it, because we'll have seen a lot of things. We might not feel like we have to. We. We want to, of course, see everything, in part because we want to tell you, but also in part because we're completionists at heart, and so we want to see and do everything. Now, there is a question in the chat, and Linda. I'm refusing to answer.
So she's asked, team Sage and Coriander or Team Gamble and Zaya? And I will refuse to answer that because that's like choosing which child. If you have more than one child, which one is your favorite? I cannot answer because they're both so incredible, especially when you're looking at, like, Destiny 1 and Treasure 1, like the original Inception, which are, in my opinion, generally the best of those characters. So, yeah, I refuse to answer. I can't.
[01:06:23] Speaker A: All right, with that, we will wrap it up here.
We will probably have much more Destiny coverage over the course of the next several months as people begin to sail. And if you're out there listening to this and you go on the Destiny and you want to come on the show, reach out. We'd love to hear from you.
As a public service announcement, please reach out to us about 30 to 60 days in advance of your sailing. Preferably 60 days. Our recording schedule is now fully booked, you know, almost into January, and we're releasing shows about 30 or about 60 to 90 days after they record. So we love to get you in the schedule so we can get the show recorded. We can get it out close in time to your sailing so it's more real time information. So reach out to us, I want to put a special plug out. If you are sailing with kids who are Oceaneers club age on this ship, we want to hear from you because we are really interested in understanding what the young child experience is like on board these ships and whether this whole concept of heroes and villains is really resonating with them and they're having fun or if they're like skipping all of that stuff and just doing kind of like the normal Disney Cruise Line activity. So please reach out. We want to hear from you.
[01:07:29] Speaker B: And the other part of that I would put a plug for if you're sailing on the adventure and you've got sailing dates in March, April, May reach out to us in, let's say, February, because we'll want to be hearing from you since we will not be headed out to the adventure for her Maiden, and we're not sure that she's going to be doing any US Previews or anything like that. We have not had any indication from Disney that we'll be invited to anything for the adventure.
And from our understanding is they're really not focusing on American media outlets. So if you're sailing on the adventure, especially in her early months, please reach out to us early in the new year, as we'd love to get you on our show.
[01:08:13] Speaker A: Yep. And with that, we will be back next week for our final live show of the year.
It will be with our friends Hayley and Drew talking about a new fantasy, sailing a Very Merry Time sailing on the Disney Fantasy. We always love to cover those this time of year, so they will be on live next. We talked about Very Merry Time. I should say we did not get a chance to see any decorations on board the Destiny. She was not decorated for the holidays yet. We suspect that that's happening here in a couple of days, that they will actually load in some decorations. The islands were decorated, but the ship was not. But we'll be back next week, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern, for our last live show of the year. And I should say we gotta take a second. We hit 600 episodes, folks.
So 600 episodes.
[01:08:58] Speaker B: There is one piece of news I don't think Brian is aware of, but my our friend Linda told us and sent us an article from Attractions magazine that actually quoted an article in Time magazine that there may be some Muppet experiences coming to Disney Cruise Line. So you're welcome, folks. We were the ones who told you Muppet Day at Sea should be a thing. I can't say Muppet Day at Sea is going to be a thing, but.
[01:09:20] Speaker A: Not just a hat rack, my friend.
[01:09:22] Speaker B: Yeah, Brian.
[01:09:25] Speaker B: There may be some Muppets coming to Disney Cruise Line. We don't know what that means or when, but there's at least a teaser out there that Muppets may be coming to Disney Cruise Line.
[01:09:35] Speaker A: We're also hearing a rumor. I don't know if this is true. I'm gonna put this in the true, true, true rumor categories. Total speculation. We're hearing a rumor that that precious little dog, a towel animal, might be being made into something you can buy on board. If that happens, sign me up for six.
[01:09:54] Speaker B: Literally. I would literally book a cruise just to buy that thing. Yeah.
[01:09:58] Speaker A: So all right with that. We'll see you next week. Thanks for hanging in with us. Hope you enjoyed the show this evening and we'll see you real soon.
[01:10:05] Speaker B: We'll see you next week.
[01:10:11] Speaker C: Well, thanks everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us 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 and at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. Of course you can also help support the show by supporting our fabulous show sponsor, My Path Unwinding Travel. You want to book your next Disney vacation? Head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email them at DCLDUOYpathunwinding.com so they know we 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 all of our things. Full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store. We sell some fun fan inspired magnets link to our Patreon. If you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month, just head over to the website or patreon.com DCLDUO also has a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here, at least on a.
[01:11:30] Speaker A: Few blog articles that we've written.
[01:11:32] Speaker C: So DCL Duo 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 reflect the views the Disney Company or Disney Cruise Line view 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.
[01:12:24] Speaker B: Sa.
