[00:00:00] Speaker A: He's like, can I play this trick on her? And I was like, yes, yes you can. So he's like, I'm going to like, can you write down some things about her? And I'm going to pretend that I can read her mind.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: And I was like, I love her in.
Welcome back everyone to another episode of the DCL Duo podcast brought to you by my path Unwinding travel. And as you can tell when you hear my voice, I am solo hosting today. Brian is off with Nathan schlepping him around as parents often have to do. And so I decided to go forward with this recording on my own. I'm super excited to have our guest with us today.
She has not been on the show before but she is not a stranger to Disney cruising.
We're going to be talking about her seventh Disney cruise. So I'm going to welcome to the show Shannon. Hi.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: Thank you for having me. I'm really excited.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Well, I'm excited to have you, Shannon. You have some really cool itineraries that you've done with Disney Cruise Line. But of course we gotta start with where does the Disney love come from and what got you onto Disney Cruise Line in the first place.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Yeah. So you know, as a kid we did a couple trips to Disney. I think my first trip was when I was seven and then we went to Disney World when I was 12. Both really fun trips. When I was in high school, my freshman and sophomore year, we got to go do the Disney magic days.
Those were very memorable because as a 14, 15 year old getting to run around Disney for five days.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: Yes.
Were you band, orchestra or choir?
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Band. Flute player.
Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, it was super fun. So that just left like a really good memory. But then didn't end up going to Disney for a long time after that until my brother in law graduated and he decided to do a family trip to Disneyland and our daughter was like a week from being three.
That was a trip.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. A three year old. I mean listen, I know people who've taken their kids to Disney world at like 6 months old and more power to them. But like it's a lot. Like we went with our nephews a couple years ago. So Nathan was older but my nephews were like really, really little and it was, yeah, it was a rough, it's a rough go with toddlers.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: Yeah. And my daughter has ADHD and staying in lines was not her jam. So you know, even with six family members to entertain her. So you know, we're like, she's not.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: Quite old enough to do the heads up game. Right, the heads up game I have.
Yeah, that's like a good line to. For a lot of. For a lot of families. Like, if you have kids that are a little bit, like, maybe don't necessarily qualify for the DAS pass, but need some distraction in line if they're old enough to play heads up in line, that's like a pretty good distraction.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: No, that was perfect. Yeah. Yeah. So. So we put the brakes on, you know, anything like that until she was in first grade. So she was seven. And we decided to take a big trip. We hadn't taken just like a. Just the three of us trip for a long time. And I was like, we gotta. We gotta redo Disney. And so we decided to go to Disney World. And I was a super planner. I had like, my touring plans, I had my fast passes, and we waited a line longer than 15 minutes for anything. It was like, we're like, nope, nope. This is what we're doing. We're going here. We're going here. You know, so it worked out really well.
But kind of like the way that we looped in the Disney cruising was we had been talking about going to an Alaska cruise. We also live in Seattle, and so you're our neighbors. We're in Woodinville, so.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Oh, my God. You're like, like, we should be doing this in person. Shannon, you're like, you were like 15 minutes away from us.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: No kidding. Oh, my gosh. That's so funny. I had no idea.
I know you're in seatt, but I didn't know you were that close.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: No, no, we're on the east side too.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: Oh, that is so funny.
Yeah. So we had been, you know, being close by. We're like, oh, you know, Alaska cruise would be cool, but we're like, oh, are we cruise people? I don't know. I don't know.
So we're like, well, we're over there. And, you know, the Caribbean cruises are pretty, like, fairly inexpensive, all things considered. So maybe we do like a little short cruise and kind of see how it goes. And we actually didn't set out to do a Disney cruise, but the timing just worked out for us, like, as far as, like, the day that we wanted to go, how many days it was. And so we're like, well, I guess we're doing a Disney cruise.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: What was the other cruise line or cruise lines that you were considering at the time?
[00:04:51] Speaker A: We were considering, I think Royal Caribbean.
I think Royal Caribbean was like the main one that we were considering because we were looking at like kid things. Right. Like what's going to be really kid friendly for her and you know how.
[00:05:05] Speaker B: And that's what I. Yeah, that's what I tend to tell people. Like if you are looking for like a family friendly cruise, like the two main brands you should be looking at and obviously some of this is budget dependent. Right. Are. Is going to be of course, Disney or Royal, I think. I mean that's. And those are the two as a, you know, family. We will sail on. I mean that's. To be perfectly blunt about it.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Yeah, Yeah, I know I'm younger, right?
[00:05:33] Speaker B: Yeah. And there are people who love Carnival and Carnival is also family friendly. But I, I just know I'm not going to be a carnival person. I just already know that.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: Yeah, Sorry.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Sorry. For those out there who love it.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's kind of me too. I'm not.
Yeah, that was kind of the.
You know, when you think about cruising, I'm like one, can I be stuck in like one place for a really long time?
And then two, kind of what's the vibe of the boat? We're not big partiers. We do not care about a casino, you know, so.
And you know, it needs to be like stuff that we can kind of send the kiddo off to do but then also like stuff that all three, all three of us would want to do together.
So the one that we did was the Bahama Cruise. So it went to Nassau and went to Castaway Key and it was so fun. Like we had a great time. We met a family and they had a. They. This was when. So this was in 2000.
So they were still like placing families together and they picked out like this great family. We had the best time with them and they had a girl who was one year older than Kaylee and they became like instant best friends. It was so cute. Like they, they still like keep in touch a little bit now and then.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: Oh, it's so good. Like when, when you get well matched at dinner. And they still, they still do this now nowadays. They did, they stopped doing it of course, during the restart after the pandemic because of. They were trying to, you know, keep people separate so that you didn't, you know, spread Covid.
But like, you know, now they are back to particularly smaller families and couples. If you're a large group, you're probably not going to be seated with other people, but if you're just a couple, you'll be seated with other couples. If you are a single parent Single child pair. You'll likely be seated with others, like, similarly situated. And same for families of three, especially pretty like us. You know, often we are. We often know people on our sailings and make a request to sit with people, but, like, if we don't, then we. We have, you know, we'll get paired with another family of three, typically. Or a family of four.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: Yeah. And, you know, we. We like that. Like, we're, you know, I would say we're like, extroverts, but we like chatting with people and, you know, meeting new people from different areas. And it's kind of fun to, like, chat with somebody about your day, you know, like, oh, what'd you guys do today? And, yeah, so it was really cool, and it was just.
[00:07:54] Speaker B: There's only so much you can. Your own family, right? Oh, my gosh.
[00:07:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:57] Speaker B: Right. Yeah. No, it's.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: It's true. Yeah. Some of the later cruises we went on with my mom, it was kind of. The four of us were all kind of, like, staring at each other during dinner. So, you know, so I told. Yeah, exactly.
So we're like, okay, well, yeah, we love this cruise. So we booked for a year and a half out. We booked the Alaska cruise. Like, right when the itinerary came out, we were on it. And funny enough, I ended up getting diagnosed with cancer, breast cancer. During that time, that interval between the two, and throughout my whole treatment, I was like, we have a Disney cruise. And so I have to be done with treatment.
Everything has to go.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: I'm going like a goal. This is when I have to ring that bell before the cruise.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: And so in all my paperwork, it says, like, has a Disney cruise on August 23rd.
And we made it. I think I finished my radiation, so I had, you know, I had surgery, chemo, radiation. I finished my radiation the day before we left.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Well, first of all, congratulations.
You know, beating that and ringing that bell and all of that. Oh, my God. Yeah, so you got to go.
[00:09:08] Speaker A: Yeah, so it was so fun because, you know, it was, like, a real celebration, and in Alaska was beautiful. We had a great time.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Oh, and you didn't even have to fly. You just had to drive up to Vancouver. Yeah.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: So easy. Yeah.
And, yeah, so it was a great time. And so that was 2019.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: Okay, so right before the pandemic.
[00:09:31] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And.
Yeah, well. And then, you know, we're like, oh, yeah, in a couple of years, we'll go on another one. Well, then we had the pandemic, so nobody went anywhere. And so, you know, Fast forward a few years. Unfortunately, my dad had passed away.
And, you know, my mom really enjoys traveling. My dad really enjoyed traveling. They liked going little places. You know, they go down to spring training and all this. So my mom's like, I really want to go somewhere with you guys. Let's plan a trip. You know, she's like, we have this. My dad was very, very good at, like, planning financial planning for himself. And so he had a lot of kind of money scrolled away. And she's like, we have this one death annuity, and we don't have to take a tax hit on it. And she's like, I really think this is what dad would have wanted. And I was like, you know what? I totally agree with you. So she's like, let's do something together. And now I will say, I love my mother very much. I don't love doing logistics with her.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: Some people are great at it, and others not so much.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: She gets anxious, and then it makes me anxious.
And we are much more laid back in our approach to things than she is, and that can drive her crazy.
So I told my husband. I was like, I totally want to take a trip with my mom, but it has to be something that is.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, it's fairly easy, but also not.
[00:10:56] Speaker A: Where we have to, like, hit trains at a lot of certain time, or we have to be a lot of places at a certain time, or have to get to a lot of places at a certain time. And so we're kind of like, you know, going through all these different ideas. And I was like, you know what we should do? We should go on a Disney cruise with her.
So we kind of. She was also like, oh, I don't know if I'm a cruise person. And I was like, no, mom, it's totally different because.
So when we just as a little, like, side. So you kind of understand the I. You know, how our family dynamic here is. When I used to travel with my parents when I was younger, we did something every day. Like, you have something planned every day. You do not sit around the hotel room. We don't, like, lounge on the beach.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: Like, oh, there was no, like, pool day.
[00:11:34] Speaker A: Like, if you went to Disney, you're like, you can do a pool for an hour in the evening kind of thing. Right. And, like, I liked it because, you know, I.
[00:11:43] Speaker B: You do a lot of things.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, they're like, we spent a lot of downtime at home. Like, we're here to see things. Like, that was the big thing. You're here to see things, right?
So a few times that we've gone to, like, these big inclusive resorts. If we. With other people, they're like, well, we just kind of want a day to relax. We're like, what is this? You know, we gotta get out.
So that was kind of part of my thing is like, oh, when you're on a boat, you know, this big boat, I'm like, is it gonna be like being at a resort and you're kind of like trapped there, you know? Totally different. We found out, right? Very, very different feel.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: Plenty to do, but also plenty to relax. Depending upon. It's like the. We like to call it a choose your own adventure vacation.
Because, like, one person in the family can, like, if you're the person like me who wants to do, like 12 million different activities, you can bounce from, you know, D Lounge to, you know, Azure, to the theater to wherever, right? Or if you're a Brian, you can like, sit in Cove Cafe doing puzzles and drinking coffee, or sit. Or if it's nice out, sit reading a magazine or a book on a lounge chair on the pool deck.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And, you know, the other thing too is, like, there's a lot of stuff going on on the boat, but then you're also like, you have days that you're getting off and doing things, you know, so it's.
It's not like you're kind of trapped at a place. It's a very different feel, you know, and so we.
I'm saying this so that, you know, we had a talk bomb into it. She's like, ooh, I don't know. Cruise. Oh, I don't know. She's like, I guess, guys, if that's what you really want.
And so we ended up picking the San Diego. The San Diego Mexican Riviera itinerary because again, being on the west coast, that made it pretty easy. We went over Thanksgiving, that week of Thanksgiving because we don't have a lot of family in town. And, you know, so we're like, well, and that's.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: You get the itinerary. That's the seven night that goes further down south. You get the warmer weather if you go to Puerto Vallarta or Mazatlan. Yeah, we've done that itinerary too.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:13:49] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a much better itinerary than like the typical four or five night that just goes to Ensenada and Cabo. Because you don't. Depending on time of year, you don't really get much warm weather when you're on the west coast, you know, and obviously in the. This is. We're talking, you know, around Thanksgiving time. So November, it's not that warm in San Diego. And so when you're only going to Ensenada and Cabo, it's not much warmer than San Diego.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: No, it was perfect weather. It was.
Cabo was beautiful. Like, I had never been to Cabo. So I went to Cabo Puerto Vallarta and Mat Salon, and all those were beautiful. We did really fun things.
And my mom, by the end of it, she cried the day that we had to get off.
And she literally was like, okay, when are we booking the next one? Like, she was in 100% in. And she's like, when are we going this summer? Are we going this summer? Can we go this summer? And we're like, oh, oh, okay. You know, so this is. This is where things start picking up really rapidly for us. So that summer, we booked a 10 Southern Caribbean cruise. Because my. One of my mom's bucket list was Aruba.
And that was. That was such a cool itinerary. We went to Bonaire for the first time, the cruise did. And Bonaire is such a lovely, lovely island. So if they ever go there and people could go on that one, I highly recommend Bonaire. They went to St. Thomas. They went to St. John, I believe, and day Castaway. So my mom got experience Castaway. So that was. That was amazing. Great, great trip. And then she's like, when's the next one?
So then we did a 5.5night out of new Orleans, and that one went to Cozumel. And then.
Oh, I am totally blanking.
It's about two hours from Cancun at the top of the peninsula. They don't always go there, but it was a. Like, it'll come to me probably at the end. But what was neat about that one is there's a lot of bus trips that take you to different ruins.
[00:16:08] Speaker B: Oh, it's Costa Maya then, for sure.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. It wasn't Costa Maya. It wasn't Costa Maya. It wasn't Costa Maya. I'm gonna have to look it up, but okay. Yeah, but it is kind of near that area near there.
[00:16:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Because there's a bunch of different Mayan ruins in that area of the peninsula. So, yeah, there's a couple different locations you can go to, and they'll bus you to those Chichen Itza and other. Other.
Yeah, yeah. Which is really, really cool.
[00:16:34] Speaker A: So I think, like, the port itself wasn't very exciting, but there was just a lot of excursions. To do, which was cool. So anywhere along there would be neat. We had been to Cancun a few times, so we weren't too interested in like Cancun, but we went to a different ruins that we hadn't been to and the underground river. And that was very fun. Yeah. So that was a neat trip. But my. We were all like, five nights isn't long enough. My mom's like, five nights? What is this? You know, like, my gosh.
[00:17:05] Speaker B: Yeah. After a seven night and a ten.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: Night, you were like, exactly. She's like, so then we decided to do an itinerary out of Houston, which was a six night.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: Yeah, the Galveston one.
[00:17:19] Speaker A: Yeah, the Galveston one. Yeah. And that one went to Grand Caymans and Cozumel.
And when we got on the New Orleans one, we. It just downpour, downpour, downpour in Cozumel. And so like, all the excursions got canceled. So we're like, it's a do over. So we did the coral restoration one, which was really cool. Doesn't cost a lot of money. The guy's very passionate about it. But it's really. It does kind of give you some perspective on cruise ships and the impact and like how you can help, you know. So it was. We felt good about it. And so. So, right. We did that one over Christmas. So that was a maritime one, so that was a lot of fun. And again, my mom's like, you know, when are we booking the next one? When are we booking the next one? So while we were on. But it was really neat is while we were on this Galveston one, my husband and I like to go to the, you know, like the little adult shows like Meet yout Match or Match yout Maid or whatever it is.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: Yeah, Match youm Mate and Pop and all like all those like 80s music trivia, all the different.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: Yes, yes, all those.
[00:18:28] Speaker B: Right.
[00:18:29] Speaker A: You know, the ones right after dinner but before you go to bed kind of thing. And there was a couple that was there that had always kind of been there. And our entertainment director was from the uk and at this point, we had booked this Norwegian cruise that we're talking about today. And we overheard them talking to this guy about, you know, what should we do in London? You know, and we're like, oh, that's interesting. You're going to London, So do we. And then, you know, we had kind of been getting friendly with them and we started to like, you know, pair up for trivia and things like that.
And then we found out we're going. We were going to be on the same cruise.
And so we're like, oh, that's so cool. You know, and we're like, we should like meet up and stuff. And so they're like the funnest people. They live in Wisconsin and he's a elementary school gym teacher and she is a traffic person on the radio and just like, just super fun people. And so we kept in contact.
So that plays a lot into our Norwegian trip because he's like, hey, do you want to sit together at dinner? And we're like, yes, let's do it. You know, and then we ended up spending like a ton of time with him. We met up, you know, we met up a few times and stuff. So. And that kind of comes into play like after the cruise too. I have kind of a funny story about that. But so that kind of brings us to like our Norway cruise now, so. And my mom finally made gold status now too, so.
[00:19:53] Speaker B: Oh, nice. Yeah, because she didn't, she wasn't on your first couple of cruises. So you're all, you're all gold. She's at five. You guys are at seven now. So let's, let's talk about your Norway cruise. You're traveling, of course, from. So you're traveling to London basically from the Seattle area.
I'm sure you have to fly into Heathrow. There's really no.
[00:20:14] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: There's no other choice unless you're flying through somewhere to fly into Gatwick. But you're still flying through somewhere. But you know, potentially, obviously you're not getting in the day of the cruise. That's just not even possible with, with that long of a flight. But where did you guys stay in? I know you spent some time in London, but where did you guys stay? Did you stay in London or did you stay in Southampton before the cruise or both?
[00:20:37] Speaker A: Yeah, we went back and forth on kind of. We knew we wanted to spend some time in the uk. We went back and forth a lot about where to go. I mean, the possibilities are truly endless. I had been to London about 30 years ago.
No, 20 years ago. My husband had been when he was 10 and my daughter had never been. And she had some real thoughts on London, of what she wanted to do. So she's very, very into Broadway and so West End was a must for us. And so we.
So we ultimately landed on staying about a week in London prior to our cruise. So we stayed in the Kensington area at a cute little boutique hotel called the Hucks Hotel.
And it was kind of perfect because it was a two bedroom suite essentially. It had, like, a living room, a kitchenette, two bedrooms. And so that was kind of perfect that we could just share a space but still kind of have our own areas. And then we just kind of bopped around London from there. We did the British Museum.
We did a tour at the Globe Theater. My dad was really into Shakespeare and introduced me.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: Oh, and your daughter likes theater, even though, you know, it's Broadway, it's Shakespeare, but it is like, it's an iconic theater.
[00:21:52] Speaker A: So, like, I was like, this is something you need to know. So we did, and we went and saw Twelfth Night there, and she really wanted to go to the Great Gatsby because Corbin Blue was in it.
So we went and did that. We saw the new Hercules show has a lot.
[00:22:12] Speaker B: I have been hearing. It's too long. That's what I have been hearing. But it's that it's. I. We don't need to do the deep dive into it because we're gonna see. I think they had to add songs to it and add length to it, obviously, from the movie to make it a full Broadway show. Right. But I think the DCL version's gonna end up being better.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: I am really, really excited to see that because I think they kind of can take some takeaways from the West End show and improve some of the areas.
And then, by the way, by the.
[00:22:42] Speaker B: Time this episode comes out, we will have already seen the Hercules musical on the destination.
[00:22:47] Speaker A: You have to do, like, a little add on on the end and be like, as a side note, I was right. Sam was right.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: I was gonna put that in right now.
[00:23:00] Speaker A: We did. Oh, the other kind of fun thing in London was when my husband was 10, they went as a work trip, so my. His stepdad worked for Boeing. And so they went for three weeks over to Lincoln.
And so they stayed mostly in Lincoln, spent some time in London, but so it's kind of like this nostalgia thing for him. And he's like, I'd really like to go to Lincoln and see it again. So we took a train out for the day. Lincoln. It ended up being one of our most fun days. And everybody's like, why do you want to go to Lincoln? And I was like, because.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: Because this is where it was.
[00:23:31] Speaker A: And so, you know, we went to the cathedral and the castle and.
And another little funny part about that, too, is my mom follows this woman who lives in Lincoln, and she has this disabled dog that they bought, like, little, like, dog wheelchair for. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, little wheels for your dog that can't Use their back legs, you know? And this dog is like the most adorable little Westie named Pumpkin. And they had just opened up a charity shop because what they do now is they help provide wheels for other disabled dogs. And they.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: So dogs that are like, either, like. Like partially paralyzed, essentially. Partially paralyzed or don't have or are missing limbs. Yeah.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. And they do.
They've own dogs. They had pictures of a rabbit that they did.
Yeah, it was. And so my mom was like, is there any way we can go to the charity shop? And I was like, absolutely. So we gotta go. And my mom made a donation. She bought, like, she purchased some wheels, you know, for a dog, for somebody that.
[00:24:35] Speaker B: For a disabled animal. Yeah.
[00:24:37] Speaker A: And they weren't planning on bringing Pumpkin down, but they knew my mom was such a fan that they brought the dog. And so we have this picture of my mom holding the dog. It was like such a cool thing. It was like really, really, like, you know, kind of like me like an Internet celebrity, you know, and so.
But they were just. They were so sweet. And so it was just a really fun day there.
[00:24:57] Speaker B: Sounds like an amazing, amazing trip. I'm gonna. I'm gonna have to skip ahead because we don't.
Yeah.
[00:25:05] Speaker A: So. So from there, we. We went a day early.
[00:25:09] Speaker B: Okay. Oh, down to Southampton. Oh, perfect.
Yeah.
[00:25:12] Speaker A: Because we're like, we don't want to deal with a day of.
And so we ended up staying at the Leonardo Royal Harbor Hotel.
[00:25:20] Speaker B: How close is that from the port?
[00:25:23] Speaker A: I think it was from our. It's close to some of the ports, but for our port, it was like a half mile.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:25:28] Speaker A: You could walk it.
[00:25:29] Speaker B: You could walk it. But it's always hard to get into the port. Some of the ports, they don't let you walk in with your luggage and stuff, and you have to take a taxi or whatnot.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: Yeah. My mom has a little bit of mobility issues, so we're like. So we did a lot of Ubers, and so we just ubered it. And it was super easy. And so the embarkation process was easy.
You know, we just. We got there. I think we're like boarding group four.
[00:26:08] Speaker B: I think as long as it's not the first sailing of the season out of a particular port or a brand new port. Right. Like, there can be bumps in the road at the very beginning of a season. Right. Because they're sort of just getting their protocols in place and they're just sort of training the staff. But for you, you're going at the end of the European season, and you're going out of Southampton. If you're going out of, I would say, like, Southampton or Barcelona, it's going to be pretty smooth sailing because that's the majority of the sailings go out of. In Europe. Go out of those two cities or two. Those two ports. And so, yeah, by the end of the season, it's like. It's like Port Canaveral. Well oiled machine.
Yeah, that. So had you been on the Fantasy before or was.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: Yes. So our ten night. Our ten nights on the South Caribbean.
[00:26:56] Speaker B: Yeah, that makes sense because they've done Southern Caribbean on Fantasy and occasionally the magic is done. Well, now the Magic seems to be doing more of the Southern Caribbean itineraries. But, yeah, the fantasy. When we did the Southern Caribbean, it was on the Fantasy as well. We did it, I think, the year.
A couple years before. You did well. Okay, so let's dive into your ports. This was a Norwegian cruise itinerary. You had four planned ports, although I think you had a one port change. We did have one port change.
[00:27:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:28] Speaker B: Yeah. So let's start there. Let's start with your first port of call and what you guys did there.
[00:27:35] Speaker A: Yeah, so our first protocol was actually the next day it was the Bruges. And I'm going to apologize to any Norwegian or Belgian. Belgian listeners now that if I mispronounce the cities, I'm very sorry.
But so from there, we had been to both Belgium and Bruges previously.
We love Belgium.
I just can't even say enough about how cool that country is. And so we wanted my mom and Kaylee to experience Bruges. So it was a little confusing getting there. We had booked, like a transfer not through Disney, but separately. We didn't realize it didn't drop you off, like, in the middle of the city. It kind of drops you off as a little transportation center. And then it's kind of a bit of a walk from there into, you know, like the. The main part of Bruges. With my mom, that was kind of tricky because then we had to get another Uber. So it was a little bit of a.
Like, I kind of wish I knew a little bit more about that going into it.
But once we got there, we had booked a private tour to do like a Belgian tasting tour, like a. They called the Ten Tastings of Bruges because, you know, I'm all about the food in Belgium and I like using a company called. With locals. And so they.
Especially for, like, those, like, European countries because it's, you know, usually somebody that lives there and then so they know all the good places and they make make friends with a lot of people.
And we had a really nice guy named Martin, and so we got to try waffles, beer, chocolate frites, you know, the whole shebang and a little bit of the history, and it was just really fun. It was a good day.
[00:29:25] Speaker B: I love a food tour. I feel like. I feel like one of the best ways to see a new place, be it a city or a town, is through their food. Right. Like the. Like what, What. You know, that's how you experience culture. I mean, that's how we experience family. That's how we experience holidays. Right. It's all through food. It's. Yeah, it's.
You can learn a lot about a. About a place by, like, what kinds of things do they produce? What kinds of things do they, you know, farm. Right. Like, it's.
[00:29:52] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. That's one thing that when we go to new places, we try to do is find, like a food tour. Because I agree with you. Like, that's just. It is.
It's a nice thing. Cause it's like you walk a little bit, you hear some stuff, you sit down and you eat, you walk. And then you get a chance to really get to know your tour guide, too, which is a lot of fun.
[00:30:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And the pace is, I feel like, generally easier than a tour that's like all museums, right? Like a tour that's all, like, sites and museums. Well, that can be wonderful. That can be a lot of go, go, go, go, go, and then maybe wait in a line standing. Right. That sort of thing. Whereas if, especially if you've got someone who has a little bit of mobility issues, like having those sort of. I don't want to call them rest breaks. Eating breaks.
[00:30:38] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:30:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Kind of breaks up the, you know, the walking part of the.
[00:30:43] Speaker A: Absolutely, yeah, yeah. Highly recommend that. So.
[00:30:47] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, sounds like a good. A good day in Belgium. What was the next port of call?
[00:30:55] Speaker A: So then we had a sea day, and so then the day after that, we were in Haageson.
We were supposed to be in Hogasen. This is the one that got changed. So at 6am the captain came on and let us know that there was going to be a change. Apparently Haageson has a floating dock. And so with the wind expected, they couldn't safely use their thrusters to keep towards the dock because the dock would just move too much. So they're like, hey, we're going to Olden instead. And we're all like, okay, sure.
[00:31:27] Speaker B: We don't have a choice.
This is actually, this is, this is a great like PSA for, you know, for those who are listening who have not been on a cruise before and maybe don't know this.
Yeah. Just because you have a stated itinerary doesn't mean you're going on that stated itinerary. If weather or land conditions or sea conditions or natural disasters. Right. Like any of those things can like act. We'll call them acts of nature or God, depending upon what your belief system is like, um, that can alter your itinerary. And guess what? The cruise line owes you zero compensation for a change in itinerary.
[00:32:09] Speaker A: Part of life. Yeah.
[00:32:10] Speaker B: Yeah. So the only thing that will happen if you booked an, if you booked a, an excursion through Disney Cruise Line and that your itinerary changes, you will automatically get refunded that excursion. If you will go booked an excursion through a third party, the terms of cancellation will be determined by whatever your contract was with that third party. So no guarantees you'll get your money back. You may have to, you know, that might be a sunk cost, especially dependent upon when the cancellation happens like yours at 6 o' clock in the morning if somebody's got an excursion booked that day. You don't really have enough time to give adequate notice to your tour provider if it's a third party not through Disney. So that's why, that is the main reason why we, you know, why we book Disney excursions even though they cost more. It's just for that peace of mind of getting back to the ship, you know. And then also if there's a cancellation or port change, then you're kind of, you're covered. So it's not that other tour providers aren't great. Obviously you guys went with a different one for, for Belgium. It's really just a matter of like taking on some of the risk yourself when, when those kinds of things happen. Okay, so Olden, so tell us what you ended up doing in Olden.
[00:33:27] Speaker A: And I realized I, I mixed it up. So we, we did go to Hageson.
[00:33:31] Speaker B: Oh, you did go to Haggison.
[00:33:32] Speaker A: Okay, we did go to the one after that. So we'll backtrack a little bit and talk about.
[00:33:38] Speaker B: No problem.
[00:33:39] Speaker A: So Hoggisson, we, we did book through Disney. So usually when we, we look at Disney first, that's usually our, you know, kind of our go to is Disney. And then if it doesn't quite have what we want to do, like sometimes we'll look at like how much time we have a port. All that kind of stuff. This one, we booked a trip that took us out to the Fisherman's Memorial and to this little place called Studehaven.
So kind of a funny thing about this one, too, is my mom's neighbor. Well, two of our neighbors are Norwegian twins, and they.
[00:34:16] Speaker B: This is a thing in the Seattle area, folks.
[00:34:18] Speaker A: If you're like, Norwegians.
[00:34:20] Speaker B: There's Norwegians and Swedes, like, people of, you know, Norwegian and Swedish descent here in the Seattle area.
[00:34:26] Speaker A: There's, like, a lot of them. Yeah, yeah. Lots of movies. Yeah, they're related to the Hanson family of Deadliest Catch. So that's funny. But so we. So my mom's pretty good friends with them, and they're from the island that Stuhaven is on, and Eldred was actually going to be there while we were there. And so she's like, let us know where you're going to be and we'll come say hi. And so she ended up meeting us at the Fisherman's Memorial, and it was just like. It was just so fun to, like, see her in Norway and get pictures with her. Like, I don't know. It was just. It was a cool little thing.
[00:35:08] Speaker B: What a fun coincidence.
[00:35:09] Speaker A: Yeah, it was a really fun coincidence. We had a lot of, like, kind of fun stuff like that Stude Haven was cute. It's kind of known for, like, these little, like, you know, cute little white houses and stuff. The tour wasn't quite what we were expecting. We didn't have a lot of, like, on our own time. It was very guided. And, you know, again with my mom, there's a lot of, like, hills. And so my mom was, like, kind of falling behind.
And, you know, she was getting frustrated because, like, as soon as she would, like, rest and they'd be waiting for her and she'll. She kind of felt bad, and then they'd start again, and she's like. But I just. Oh, okay.
So we. So, you know, it was okay. But, you know, getting to see Eldred was definitely the highlight. We spent a little time walking around a port, just kind of, you know, poking around, and then went back to the ship. So it was a successful day. So the next day is when we were supposed to go to North Fjord died, and that's the one that got changed to olden. And I actually think we lucked out because I do feel for the people that had some tours booked. One of the big things in North Fjord died is the troll cars. And I know our friend. So our friends, the Marx's that were on this cruise with us, they had had like, that was the one thing that his dad wanted him to do. So we had like very multi generation. We had like, you know, 80s, 70s, 50s, 40s and 15. So but, you know, that was like the one thing they want to do. And there's just not a lot of troll cars for the amount of people that want to go on them. And I know that they ended up getting booked on something else. And they basically sounded like they just kind of said like, you know, we don't have enough troll cars, so nobody gets troll cars kind of thing. So I could see that being really frustrating for some people. We hadn't planned for that anyways. And we were going to go do like a farm visit and stuff and so anyways. But so when we got there for Olden, Olden's small, it's like teeny town. I think we tripled the population by being there. But it is so gorgeous. I mean, when you think like Norwegian Fjord Town, like, this is what you think of. And then on our Facebook group for the cruise, you know, we're kind of like, ah, we don't really know what to do. I guess we'll just kind of go poke around in town. Whatever. Call it easy day. Someone had mentioned this little farm.
It was like two miles. You could actually like see it from the, from the boat. But so we're like, ah, we like farm animals. Sure. It was like the super cutest little day. It was like so fun. Like this farm had been in their family for like 500 years and they were just kind of getting going with like inviting tourists there. So it was just like this other family that had mentioned it and us there at the time.
[00:37:48] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:37:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And he gave us like a little tour of the, you know, their outhouses, you know, where they like did the cooking. So it had like the old, like really big fireplace, like all the old farming equipment.
They had like the world's most friendliest ghosts that literally wanted to cuddle with you. They had, you know, and it was just such a sweet little experience and it was just beautiful from their, from their place. They're kind of like up on the hill, you know, you probably get great pictures of pork. Oh, just gorgeous. It was just like, like we. Everybody said like, olden was a great switch. Like go to Olden. Like if you, if it's on the itinerary, I think it's totally worth it. Like even going, like leaving and coming in there was cool. And the really, really neat thing is there's a. There's A pub that has like a deck that is built out over the water. Like right. Like kitty corner to the dock. And I guess a tradition for them is they play music when the cruise ships are leaving and they come out and they wave flags and like wave you off and it was like fun.
My mom and I were both like getting a little verklempt. Like we were like.
Yeah, just like, you know, you could just tell that they were happy to share.
[00:39:08] Speaker B: They're happy to have.
[00:39:09] Speaker A: Yeah, happy to share it with you.
[00:39:10] Speaker B: Happy to be on board and happy to show their town off. I have to say we had such a. I mean we went to Norway a couple years ago and just Brian and I and we just had such an amazing time. We felt like the, the. It was such a beautiful place and the people were so lovely and it was just. Yeah, it's. And the only thing that I can compare it to is Alaska. That's. Honestly, I mean those are like. Like the similar vibes are not identical. Right. And of course, but like they have similar vibes like obviously because of the fjords in particular and glaciers and all of that and wildlife.
But yeah, really just a fantastic location. I will tell you. We. We had some friends who I think were on. I think they might have been on your. Your cruise. It was in September, right?
[00:39:58] Speaker A: Oh, we were in August.
[00:40:00] Speaker B: Oh, you were in August. Okay. So they. We had some friends who went to Olden on their. On the September itinerary.
[00:40:05] Speaker A: Oh, were they the ones that got changed from the British Isles?
[00:40:09] Speaker B: No, not. They were actually on the one the week after. So they were the ones who were supposed to go to North. It was. It was the crews that got added in when they moved the dry dock. One of those cruises.
[00:40:19] Speaker A: Gotcha. Gotcha.
[00:40:20] Speaker B: And so they had a nor. Yeah, so I. I guess there was. There's wasn't the same as yours, but they went to Olden as a planned port, I think. I don't think it was a change. And they said that they absolutely. That was their favorite port stop as well. Although they didn't have great weather. But they said it was a lovely, lovely place.
[00:40:38] Speaker C: Are you listening to our show because you want to make the most out of your next vacation. Great news. The fabulous team over at my path Unwinding Travel can help guide you so you don't miss a few thing. Their team of professional travel advisors are caring, knowledgeable and experienced. It's why we use them to book our own travel. Mypath Unwinding Travel is an authorized Disney vacation planner which means they are recognized by Disney for their expertise and service. They have sailed on all the Disney ships, including in concierge, visited the theme parks, adventured with Disney, relaxed at Aulani, and so much more. Whether it's a Disney cruise, a theme park, vacation, or adventures by Disney, or if you are looking to expand beyond the mouse, my 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.
[00:41:37] Speaker B: All right, what was your, I guess, last port of call?
[00:41:42] Speaker A: I think actually we had two more. We had four more.
[00:41:44] Speaker B: Oh, two more. Okay.
[00:41:45] Speaker A: Yeah. So the next one was Stavanger.
[00:41:49] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Which is a bigger city. Much bigger city.
[00:41:51] Speaker A: Much bigger city. And we did a rib tour, one of those rib boats that went up to the Lysa Ford, Lisa Ford. And we booked outside of Disney for that one. But we found out that our friends the Marxists had also booked it it without us knowing. And so we were all together and that was really fun. That was just. If you can do a road tour, like that's such a good time. If you like fast boats, like, we had a good time and you get.
[00:42:17] Speaker B: Great views of like the cliffs and the fjords and it's. Yeah, it's really. Did they take you over to Pulpit Rock so you could see from below?
[00:42:25] Speaker A: Yeah, we, we, we went to Pulpit Rock. It's a lot. But we couldn't see Pulpit Rock. There was a lot of. It was very cloudy that day. So we felt bad for the Pulpit Rock Rock people that were.
[00:42:35] Speaker B: Yes. The folks who were hiking Pulpit probably.
[00:42:38] Speaker A: Didn'T see much, but.
[00:42:39] Speaker B: Yeah, you probably wouldn't see much if it's cloud, if it's a. If it's a real foggy, cloudy day, you won't. Yeah, that's obviously the whole point of climbing. It is just get these great views. And those rim boat tourists typically go up to Pulpit. Up is the wrong word. They go to Pulpit Rock, but you're down in the water below. So you're looking up at Pulpit Rock. And what the cool part is, if you have a good view, it's. It's the cliff that's in one of the Mission Impossible movies that Tom Cruise is hanging off of. I can't remember which movie it is, but it's that big cliff and that. It was actually filmed.
[00:43:11] Speaker A: That one. Okay.
[00:43:13] Speaker B: Yeah. They actually. And they did even a screening of the movie up on Pulpit Rocks. They had all the people who worked on the movie like did the hike up and they did like a private screening.
[00:43:23] Speaker A: Oh, that's cool.
[00:43:24] Speaker B: Yeah, that's cool.
[00:43:25] Speaker A: I didn't realize that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We had.
[00:43:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:43:29] Speaker A: And then our last one was Christensen.
[00:43:33] Speaker B: Okay. How was that?
[00:43:34] Speaker A: That was kind of like a medium sized port.
We did a guided bus tour and moose park experience.
[00:43:43] Speaker B: Oh, moose park.
[00:43:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:45] Speaker B: That's fun.
[00:43:45] Speaker A: We like animals.
[00:43:46] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean you're guaranteed. You're. You're. That's probably the only way you're guaranteed to see moose. Right?
[00:43:51] Speaker A: Like close to them. Yeah.
[00:43:53] Speaker B: Yeah. We saw no moose in Norway. We saw no moose in Alaska. I don't.
Yes. I don't know that I've. I probably have seen a moose in captivity, but I don't know that I've seen a moose other. Like, I've never seen a moose in the wild.
[00:44:06] Speaker A: I, I saw a moose once when we were in Banff national park in Canada.
But we stayed a healthy, healthy, healthy distance away from it. So. But this was a neat little place. This guy is really into his moose.
I mean that nicely. Not weirdly, but.
But he's just very.
But he just loves his moose and he's very like, you can just.
I don't know, he just exudes excitement about his moose. He tells us their names are Anna and Sven.
You know, I don't know if that's true or not, but I'll take it.
But he has mama moose and then she's had two sets of babies and then there's big daddy moose and you get to go and feed them. So that's kind of fun. Yeah. And was just there. It was just cute, you know, like, just small. Like sometimes we just really like those, like smaller, you know, especially with people that have small tours or experiences that they want to share with you. You know, I just find that those are usually so much fun and then you get more of a chance to really like talk to them as opposed to kind of like the factory cookie cutter kind of thing. Like those have their place too, but. But we tend to seek out kind of more of those like smaller experiences. We like smaller ports.
[00:45:31] Speaker B: Well, and if you're going to a. If you're going to like a very large city, most of the tour options are going to be those sort of big Ones that you're going to see these sort of big sites that are going to have those cookie cutter, you know, tours. But you're right, if you're going to these smaller cities, you are going to have more of an opportunity to have these sort of small group, you know, sort of curated tour with a local who's going to tell you all about their interests and all about what they love about their town. And, and, and that is just like such an invaluable thing. It's. I mean one of the best things about travel is getting to meet the new people and hear their stories. Right. I mean whether you're on, you're on land, I think that is the same.
[00:46:10] Speaker A: Right.
[00:46:10] Speaker B: Is on the, on the ship you just get to do that with all of the different crew members, you know, because they're all from over the world and so. Well, sounds like some really lovely port days that you, you have.
[00:46:23] Speaker A: I mean, absolutely. Do Norway again. Yeah.
[00:46:25] Speaker B: Yeah. What a great itinerary. I have to say. I want to go back to Norway myself and we, we of course want to bring Nathan to Norway because he hasn't gone. So maybe, I mean it'll probably be several years from now because we're now wanting to do Alaska like immediately again in two years.
[00:46:41] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:46:42] Speaker B: And like you, it's so easy, you know, like it's just driving.
[00:46:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:48] Speaker B: We can even go, we can go the same day.
[00:46:50] Speaker A: We don't.
[00:46:51] Speaker B: I, we did go a couple nights before because we love Vancouver but like we can go the same day and I wouldn't, I wouldn't tell people you're crazy to do that because it's only a three hour drive. Yeah. So I absolutely love that. Well, let's jump back onto the beautiful Disney fantasy and talk about some of the experiences you enjoyed doing on board. You had been on the fantasy for 10 nights before, so there was like not much probably that was new that you had an experience. But what were some of like the favorite things that you guys did on board the ship?
[00:47:21] Speaker A: Ship. Yeah, absolutely.
So kind of our go to things that we like to do is we like to.
We're really into the trivias and we actually managed to win some this time.
[00:47:34] Speaker B: Yay. Yeah.
[00:47:35] Speaker A: So that was pretty exciting. We won. The one that we're most proud of is we won European Trivia, so.
[00:47:42] Speaker B: Wow. I know that's impressive. Like you have to know like a lot of, a lot of different European history in order to.
[00:47:49] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I mean it helps that we have the market. Texas with us, so.
[00:47:52] Speaker B: Ah, okay. Yeah.
[00:47:54] Speaker A: You know, like, we had. We had a pretty good, like, powerhouse team.
[00:47:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:57] Speaker A: But we. Yeah, I was like, we just need to go and show that Americans do know things sometimes. So, you know.
[00:48:05] Speaker B: We. We're not all very proud of that. We know you're very proud of that one. Yeah, well, you had Europeans on your. Like, that's. This is actually something you should be super proud of. Yeah. Like, because you're on your cruise leaving out of Southampton, you have, like, a mix of folks from the UK you have a mix of European folks. Many, many more folks from the. The European continents than you have on a typical cruise out of Florida or Galveston or New Orleans or. Or California, of course. So, I mean, the Americans might still be the majority on certain European itineraries, but. But not nearly by the percentage that they are, you know, in cruises out of the.
[00:48:45] Speaker A: Yeah, and actually, that was really cool for us. Like, we, you know, we, like, we said we like meeting new people and learning about new places and things. So that was definitely fun to, you know, meet a lot of different people from around the world.
We also. So cruise is like, our trivia is like, you know, number one. My mom also is like, well, we got trivia this time. This time, this time. This time.
[00:49:06] Speaker B: She's favoring all of them in the app.
[00:49:10] Speaker A: We also really, like.
The other big things that we like to do are some of the, like, the drink workshops.
[00:49:18] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, the drink.
[00:49:20] Speaker A: Yeah. The tastings, because usually the bartenders are just really fun.
And we did. This time we did mixology, which is one of our favorites, and we did a tequila and margarita tasting.
And I think we just did those two. We've done most of them before.
[00:49:41] Speaker B: They're always, like, a good way of trying different liquors or different drinks, like, for. Just to warn people. Mixology does not mean you're mixing your own drinks, that there's no mixing of your own drinks on the Disney cruise line. It used to be, I think, when they first did mixology, they would give you the ingredients and let you put them together. But now it's not like that. They make all your drinks at the bar, and then they give you your little small glasses.
[00:50:07] Speaker A: Although this time we did what. Yeah, but what was kind of neat about it is he would have, like, five people come up, and then everybody would have, like, a different part to it. And so you didn't mix it for everybody, but you got to mix some of your own. So you kind of saw the process of, like, how to make it. And then he would, like, have the People do the shaking, you know, so you had, like, five different shakers kind of going at the same time. So it, like, did a lot of people.
[00:50:33] Speaker B: That's nice. I will. I will say that is not the typical anymore.
[00:50:38] Speaker A: So I don't know if it's. Because it was Europe too. That could have been.
[00:50:42] Speaker B: It could be.
Yeah. It could be based on the laws there, or it could just be the bartenders.
Right. Like, whoever's teaching the class might have. But that's not the typical. At least not anymore. I think that.
[00:50:54] Speaker A: Yeah, we've had it. Yeah. Most of the time has been, like, kind of made for us. And they might have, like, one person come up and do it. When we did the. We've done the mojito one before, and that one is a little bit like, you get to do some of your own, like, muddling and stuff, but a little more interactive. But mixology is just a fun one because it's always different.
Always different cocktails and things. So. And then we didn't see all of the shows because we've seen a fair amount of them before, but we did get a meet. They had a guest Broadway artist. And so we went to his talk. So, like I said, my daughter's. Really.
[00:51:32] Speaker B: So he was Jafar. Right. In.
[00:51:34] Speaker A: He was. Yeah.
And then he played the dad in.
[00:51:37] Speaker B: Oh, yes. In Belize Believe.
[00:51:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
And so we didn't see him in Aladdin, but we went to his little talk that he did, which was really kind of fun. And then we went and saw him in Believe. And so that was neat to kind of put a face with a name. And we did a lot of, like, the evening, you know, entertainment, kind of why we mentioned we like doing those and ate. Ate a lot.
[00:52:02] Speaker B: I mean, that's what one does. Now, does your daughter enjoy the teen club?
Is she into vodka? But she more into hanging with you all? What? Yeah. Do you see her at all on the cruise other. No.
[00:52:18] Speaker A: I think after a week of London, we are all kind of ready to, like, have our own spaces.
[00:52:22] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:52:25] Speaker A: No. She basically disappears on us and we're like, what kid? What kid do we have? We don't know.
[00:52:31] Speaker B: We have a teenager.
[00:52:33] Speaker A: We make her come to dinner with us, and she usually is kind of like, you know, starts like an hour in, kind of like trying to get out of the chair. You know, very rarely does she make it through to dessert. And so usually the. You know, which just upsets our waiters so much. They're just like, how could. How could she not want dessert? And so Shannon, I feel your pain.
[00:52:51] Speaker B: Because Nathan leaves us now as soon as he, like. As soon as he, like, scarves down his Mickey's Mac and cheese and French fries.
[00:52:58] Speaker A: I feel like Nathan and Kaylee would get along very well with this. Yeah.
[00:53:01] Speaker B: Yeah. He just eats his. His stuff. And then it is the very rare occasion that he will eat dessert and he's getting his main meal while we're eating our appetizers. So, like, like, he's done. Like, we're not even halfway through dinner, and he's like, can I go? And we're like, okay. And he's. If he's getting dessert, he's getting soft serve on the pool deck on his way to the. In his way to edge.
[00:53:23] Speaker A: Yeah, 100%. They're like the same kid, apparently.
Yeah. But our waiters are always, like, so distraught that they don't say, so we make her stay. We have her pick, like, one day that she's going to stay for dessert. I'm like, just for your waiters.
[00:53:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, you got to do it like animator's palette night. Right. Because then you could do animation magic. You see Huftus. If you want to see animation magic.
[00:53:42] Speaker A: So this is like, I'll stay for that one.
[00:53:44] Speaker B: Yes. Pro tip, if your kid does not like to stick around for the long dinner, the one to stick around for, if you're on a ship, if you're on one of the original four and you're on a seven night Cruiser longer, you will have animation magic, which is where your drawing comes to life. Spoiler. But that's. That's a. That's just a minor spoiler. Because what I mean by that is you might not understand if you haven't seen it, but that's the one where you have to wait until dessert. That's, like, when it happens. Like, they.
They don't do the stuff on the screen. Well, there's other stuff that happens on the screens that is sort of the lead up to the main show, but you have to stay for really the full dinner in order to see animation magic. And so if you're gonna make your kids stay, at least do it on the night.
[00:54:27] Speaker A: Yeah, do it. That's a good one.
Yeah. And it's a really cute. Like, what they do is just. It's really fun to watch. Like, it never really gets old. And. Yeah. So what was. So our waiter was kind of great. We really loved him. He.
He's like, can I play this trick on her? And I was like, yes, yes, you can. So he's like, I'm gonna, like, can you write down some things about her? And I'm gonna pretend that I can read her mind.
[00:54:53] Speaker B: I love that.
[00:54:54] Speaker A: But she kept escaping, and so we had to, like, figure out a way to get her to, like, stay long enough so he could do it, you know? And so we wrote down some funny things, and he did it. And I don't know how he kept a straight space doing this. He's like, I'm picturing. I'm getting this vision. And, like, she was just, like, bright red laughing. I mean, she. She has a good sense of humor, so she was like, what is happening? But then we. I want to fold it on here, because she'll probably kill me. But we. She had a very unorthodox crush when she was, like, a toddler.
And so we.
We said that, and she had had a couple of her friends with Vibe with her, and so it was like she was, like. Like just dying. She was like, oh, my God, what is happening? And she's a very. She's a skeptic anyway, so she didn't, like, believe that he actually knew this, but she was. She went along with it. Like, she. But it was funny. Like, we were. We all were cracking up and having a good time with that one, so.
[00:55:50] Speaker B: Oh, I love that.
[00:55:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:55:52] Speaker B: Does she. Does she disappear from day one? Like, is it, like when you're embarcation day, she goes to Vibe and does make friends and. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:56:03] Speaker A: Especially since the last one, when we were out of Galveston, she had met some people that she's still friends with actually from, like, Croatia and stuff. And so, yeah, so she. Yeah, she just goes and starts checking things out and makes friends, and then we don't see her until we get off the ship.
[00:56:26] Speaker B: Well, except I assume she comes on the excursions with you that you've booked.
[00:56:30] Speaker A: She does.
[00:56:31] Speaker B: She does.
[00:56:32] Speaker A: She does come on excursions. And then pretty much as soon as we get back, she escapes.
[00:56:36] Speaker B: Then she's just.
Yes, that's our exact same situation. In fact, even in Alaska, like, Brian and I wanted to, you know, go and walk around after each of our excursions, like, kind of check out the shops and, you know, near the port. And so Nathan would go back onto the ship by himself and go back to Edge while we were off the ship, you know, And, I mean, he's got a phone, and we were in the United States. It was super easy and all of that, but we would do that even in a European city, you know, as long as he's got his phone. He can reach us. We're comfortable is if he's on the ship. Wouldn't leave him out on his own.
[00:57:13] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And especially like, especially in Norway where some of the, you know, you're just right there. So, you know, we, we did the same thing. You know, when she starts getting antsy, we were like, okay, we see it, bye. You know, and so, yeah, we also have something we call mandatory family time. And so if we want her to like, come help us out with a trivia or something, we'll just text her like MFT at 2pm and so she knows.
Yeah. So, yeah, she's. She's funny. She. She loves it though. Like, she made some friends on this last one and she talks to them like several times a week.
And so, yeah, I think, I think.
[00:57:51] Speaker B: It'S really awesome how, I mean, not every kid is like, has the personality that they feel confident to go off on their own and all that, and that's totally fine. But one of the things I just love about cruising, especially with Disney, is I feel like it's such a safe environment that I feel totally comfortable having Nathan off on his own on the ship. You know, obviously there are certain rules that he knows that if he violates, then there's going to be consequences and there won't be that kind of independence. But, like, it's just really nice to be able to give them a sense of independence that we just can't do in, like, we live in the suburbs. You live in the suburbs, like there you have to be able to drive to get, be have any independence. And so it's really, you know, it's just not a thing you can really have at home, but you can have it on the ship and that's awesome. I gotta ask your mom, how did she enjoy the cruise? It sounds like this one would have been a little bit tougher for her, just from a mobility standpoint, because there was a lot of, you know, when you're touring, touring in Europe, there's a lot of walking, obviously on the London side of things, but also on, in, in Norway. It's a very outdoorsy place. It's hilly. It's, you know, it's. It's a little bit harder. Like, was she, you know, did she still enjoy the cruise? Do you think that maybe she prefers Caribbean cruises or how. What would you, what would you sort of say her reaction to the cruise would, would have been or is.
[00:59:14] Speaker A: I mean, in all, like, honesty, London was tough for her. One thing that we learned, and this is just good for Anybody that has some, you know, mobility issues or some disabilities, we realized that they don't always, always offer it. It's not as upfront as you might be here in America, but they are always willing to provide it if you ask. So, for example, when we went to the British Museum, there was a long line to get in, and we had to walk all the way down and then back in and snake around. And my mom just had this look of panic on her face. And so I went up to one of the people there, and I was like, is there a place my mom can sit? Sit and wait? And then we could call her over when it's our turn. And they're like, oh, does she have trouble walking? I was like, yeah. So they undid one of the, you know, ropes for us, and then we just got to go right in. So. And that happened at the Tower of London, too. They took us up, like, this backside because the elevator didn't go to that area, and kind of was like, here, do this, this, and this. So it's there, but you have to ask for it. So it's not. Like I said, it's not as obvious, you know, but they were incredibly accommodating. Anytime we asked, and they just.
They didn't even question it. They were just like, oh, you need this? Okay, let's give this to you. So just a plug for anybody that goes to Europe, like, ask if you need something. Because we did find them very, very accommodating. And, you know, and it's a little, like, for my mom, you know, she's dealing a lot with the idea of, you know, she's frustrated with herself and her body.
So, you know, she's like, why is this happening? Why is this so hard? And. And she. So, you know, that. That made it hard, too. Like, she just couldn't do as much as she wanted to do.
[01:00:57] Speaker B: Did she consider using, like, a scooter or wheelchair or anything like that?
[01:01:02] Speaker A: No, she's just kind of of that generation, you know, unless she, like, absolutely has.
[01:01:07] Speaker B: Not ready.
[01:01:07] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, not ready. You know, she didn't even bring her cane with her. And I was like, mom, what are you doing? You know, like, that's too easy. Yeah, we had to get her a cane in. In New Orleans. Um, but, yeah, just really is how, like, struggling with that idea of, like, just can't do as much as she used to. It's kind of part of her personality. But once we got on the ship, it was a lot easier, right? Like, because, you know, sometimes she would have to going down those really long hauls, she'd have to like pause, you know, for a minute and stuff. And so she. It was better once we're on the cruise. Some of the excursions were a little rough and I think if we had known that it would have impacted her as much. We maybe would. Would have changed some of the excursions we did to be more of the ones that are.
Can accommodate wheelchairs because then you know that there's going to be less uphill or things like that. So. So that is a consideration. Like I do think especially in Europe, like it is a lot more walking. Uneven walking.
[01:02:07] Speaker B: Right. Sometimes cobble stairs. Stairs. Yeah, absolutely. Not every place is accessible with elevators. Right. A lot of the older buildings, things like that cuts are not a thing in a lot of places. That's a really good point. I will say the Disney excursions do have a designation of whether they are sort of, I think mild, moderate or hard in terms of.
I can't remember what the term they use, but as far as the level of strenuousness on the excursion. But I don't always think they're the most accurate in their descriptions either. And, and it's. There's a big range of what that moderate is also. Right. Like it will tell you if it's a hike. Right. Like, and so like Pulpit Rock hike suits to longer clearly not going to be one that your mom is going to do. But like beyond that level, it's. There's so much variation as to what is a moderate or what is a mild in terms of strenuousness. So that's definitely one something. And one of the ways I, I think people can try and find out some of that information is like a lot of the Facebook groups, like if you can find somebody who's been on the excursion before, you know, you can always call Disney Cruise Line and ask. But they don't. They don't necessarily.
[01:03:25] Speaker A: They don't always know.
[01:03:26] Speaker B: Yeah, they don't exactly. And so that, that's, you know, or, or do research online and see if you can find, you know, the same excursion and the vendor might give a better description about what the excursion's about. But sometimes it's hard to even figure out which vendors are they're using ahead of time. You can find it out. Right? Right. Once you're booked on them, you can. It will typically have it listed in the description in the Disney Cruise Line app, I believe, but I'm not sure that it has that when you're first booking the excursions. Yeah.
[01:03:58] Speaker A: And I think.
Oh, just really quick, I just want to say, and I think to a moderate strenuous level in Europe is different than a moderate strenuous level in the Caribbean. Right. So I think like that also you kind of need to know where you're going a little bit because Europeans walk a lot more and so their idea of what's moderate is different sometimes than ours. And so, you know, like Studevaven was a good example of had we known that's how that would have been organized, we probably would have done something different.
But it didn't really mention anything. It's like, oh, just a stroll around town, you know, so we're just kind of imagining strolling around on our own. So yeah, like if you, if you have any mobility issues and you're not, you know, like a wheelchair user where, you know, you have very obvious limitations, you know, if, if walking is a consideration for you to just really do your research on that.
[01:04:55] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and, and that is one also area where you can book a private excursion that you might pay more for. But if you do like a private tour, as long as it's not a walking tour, you know, if you do one that's got a car that's going to take you from site, that's, that's a good way to see, you know, a new city. Like I said, it's probably going to be the more expensive option, but it is definitely a good, a better option I think for when you have those mobility concerns. Well, Shannon, before I subject you to rapid fire, I gotta ask, is there anything that we've missed, Anything really notable, either good, bad or just unusual that we have haven't talked about at this point?
[01:05:38] Speaker A: The only thing I think, you know, when we, when we travel with my mom, we like to get connecting rooms. And so we book my daughter and my mom in one room for the price and then us in the other room and then we just tell our room attendant that she's sleeping in our room and we do the connecting room so we don't have to like try to get like another key card and all that kind of stuff. So, so she just, we just kind of keep the door propped open between us, but then we still have our own spaces so she can kind of come and go as she pleases.
[01:06:11] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the way to do it for sure though, because you each room you are going to pay for double occupancy for on Disney cruise line. Other. There's other cruise lines that have single occupancy rooms. Disney doesn't have that.
So you're going to have to pay for two. Even if you're a single, you're going to have to pay for two people. So if you were to assign her to your room, your mom's room would still be two people and then your room would be three people. And so you'd be paying for five people, technically. And so if you assign her to your mom's room, regardless of where she's sleeping, you know, then her room is assigned with two people, your room is assigned with two people, and you're only paying for the four people. We've done that before when we sailed with my mom on the Disney Dream several years ago. We put Nathan in her room and we had our room. And then that way, yeah, we. We still have to pay the adult price for Nathan instead of the third passenger price. Right. But it. And same with your daughter. You're still, you're paying a, you know, the second passenger price instead of a third passenger price, which the third and fourth passenger is lower price, but it's still, you're not paying for an entire extra person.
[01:07:17] Speaker A: It still is cheaper.
[01:07:20] Speaker B: Yeah. So if you're a party of four and you're going to have two rooms, you need to assign two in each room. And if there are two that are kids, then you have to assign one adult in each room and one in each room. So just the pro tip out there, don't pay for five people. When you're only sailing with four people.
[01:07:37] Speaker A: It'S very easy to like, just have them set up and you can get like an additional key card, a guest services that is assigned to your room. You can also, when you set up, you can assign your credit card if you want to give them purchasing privileges. So it doesn't all have to go under, you know, the other person's room. So, you know, you can set it up so they're pretty much like just all under you. So that was kind of nice. And then the other thing that I just think people should think about too is verandas.
So we've done a mix of inside and outside verandas. Loved having the veranda when we were in on our summer Caribbean cruise. And it was really fun to like, watch it. The sailway, you know, in Norway, we didn't get. We got a little bit like, we kind of prioritized using it, but I think we would have been fine without it. You know, that's a good point.
[01:08:24] Speaker B: You're getting off the ship so much in Norway, so it's not like you're sitting on the veranda while you're at port, you're going to be going out to the port.
[01:08:33] Speaker A: So.
[01:08:33] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a, that's a good point. I always think it's a, it is definitely a consideration of if there's a lot cheaper to not have a veranda. And it's a difference between able to take. Being able to take that cruise and not take that cruise. Like you don't need the veranda. I mean there are some people who are like it's a must. It's not a must for us. We usually, we actually we've never stayed in, in an inside cabin though. We tend to choose those.
[01:09:01] Speaker C: The.
[01:09:01] Speaker B: The window. Yeah, exactly. The ocean view. So we like the natural light. Yeah, same. That's. We like. It's like the, the way to wake up in the morning is I think we would have a very hard time waking up without natural sunlight. And so I think we would, we would, we would oversleep every day and probably miss our excursions if we were in an inside cabin. At least we have. Even with those blackout curtains, you still can have a little bit of slit of light that sort of peeks through in the morning and that helps at least wake me up. Yeah, we, we definitely in fact our next.
However many cruises we have booked. It's funny all we're on the Destiny several times and we are literally booked in the same room and.
[01:09:40] Speaker A: Oh my God.
[01:09:41] Speaker B: Yeah, we. And it's all a, it's all ocean view. It's a. You know, and it's, it's, it's just hilarious. We, we have a, we have a preferred side of the ship. We have a preferred deck of the ship and we have a preferred room category and that is an ocean view, ocean view state room.
[01:09:56] Speaker A: So I think we ended up stay the same. The exact same rooms on the fantasy this time that we had. Yeah. So like we, like, we were like, oh, this is familiar.
[01:10:04] Speaker B: Yeah, we, we. It's so funny. We just tend to. We're like creatures of habit. We like us. And it's even on. Even across the different ships. We tend to choose the same location.
[01:10:15] Speaker A: We're the same way.
[01:10:16] Speaker B: Yeah. And it doesn't have to be the same floor because obviously there's different number of floors depending upon which ship you're on. But we tend to choose sort of the highest non concierge floor forward, starboard. That's like our preferred.
[01:10:30] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome. We. Yeah, we're like floor two for like magic and Wonder because it's Nice and chill down there and close by to everything. And then if we do veranda we did floor six on and we kind of like, you know, you know, like somewhere kind of mid shipish. But we're not like, we're not super picky, but.
But yeah, kind of the same thing where we're like, it's funny.
[01:10:52] Speaker B: I just think it's funny. We all like have our. Like, it's. It's not. It's not. I want to tell people there's not. It's not one location is better than the other. It's just what you like to be close to. Do you like to be close to the adult only areas? Do you like to be close to the buffet? And when I say close, I mean on the same elevator bank as, you know, do you like to be close to one of the restaurants or the kids club or what? You know, like it's just a matter of where you. Where you have a preference. And of course, then of course, with what motion sickness and things like that, people have preferred locations as well. All right, Shannon. Well, we've come to that point in the show where it's time for me to subject you to some arbitrary rules, some arbitrary questions and a dash of judgment or the round we like to call rapid fire.
All right, you're ready for this. And so I'm going to get right started. We're going to start with your favorite Disney stuff and then we'll go to Disney Cruise Line, of course. So who is your favorite Disney character? And Disney means everything and anything that Disney owns.
[01:11:55] Speaker A: Heihei is one the of my favorites.
[01:11:57] Speaker B: Love that.
[01:11:58] Speaker A: I love the derpy characters a lot. Also. Robin Hood. Yeah. Like my Archers and Figment. Oh, love.
[01:12:09] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Favorite park. I mean, who wouldn't love Figment? That's a favorite parks character. Absolutely. Yeah. All right. What is your favorite Disney movie? Same rule applies to the word Disney.
[01:12:20] Speaker A: At person who groove.
Yeah, one of my. Oh, my friend. My best friend. And I quote it constantly to each other.
And then also probably Aladdin. That was like my Aladdin and Little Mermaid were my favorite growing up. So.
[01:12:34] Speaker B: Yeah, it's that golden age of Disney. Absolutely.
[01:12:37] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[01:12:37] Speaker B: I got to ask. Do you have. Do you have the poison sipper cup? Did you get that one from.
[01:12:42] Speaker A: I did it, but I wanted it. But I do have like the little poison, like. Oh, the little one stickers. I have like little stickers of it and stuff. Yeah, I love it. Love it all the time. Constantly quoting it. Yeah.
[01:12:54] Speaker B: All right. Favorite Disney song.
[01:12:58] Speaker A: I'm going to say, I mean, part of your world, like, oh, I don't know.
[01:13:05] Speaker B: And Jodi Benson.
[01:13:06] Speaker A: Right. And it's just one that I've memorized since I was a little kid, so I'll go with that one. I mean, I love a lot of them, but that one, I always get really excited when it comes on, so.
[01:13:16] Speaker B: Yes, that's an awesome one. All right, well, let's jump onto the ships. And you're allowed to choose from any of the ships that you have been on when I asked the question. So it doesn't have to be Norway cruise specific or fantasy specific. So we're going to start with favorite Disney State Disney Cruise Line stage show. So I'm talking about the shows in the Walt Disney Theater. We're not talking about the ventriloquist. We're talking about the Disney ones. And it could be one of the ones that they've created, like Believe, or could be one of the ones like classics like, I don't know, Beauty and the Beast, Tangled, whatnot. All right, which one is your. Your personal favorite, Shannon? Not your daughter's favorite?
[01:13:53] Speaker A: I know, I know.
[01:13:53] Speaker B: Right?
[01:13:54] Speaker A: So we've been on the Wonder, Magic and Fantastic Fantasy. So I haven't seen Beauty and the Beast, but.
[01:14:02] Speaker B: Because, you know that's the right answer.
[01:14:04] Speaker A: I know that's the right answer.
I was very impressed with Frozen, and we got to see it, like, right after right when they put it on the Wonder.
And so that was. That was really cool. I'm impressed with how they did it. So I'll go with Frozen. Like I would. That's one that I would see over and over.
[01:14:21] Speaker B: So, yes, I go and see that over and over again on either the Fantasy or on or not the Fantasy.
What is the second ship? It's on. It's on.
Or is it on the Fantasy?
I can't remember.
And it's going to be on the. The Destiny. It's going to be the third show on the. On the Destiny. Yeah, it's. Well, it's on the Wonder and it's on.
I think it's on the Fantasy. Gosh, I'm blanking for a second. Yeah, I know. It's on two ships. It's going to be on three ships. Yeah. Fantastic show. All right, well, moving on to. Let's move over to activity activities.
Favorite onboard activity. Is it trivia?
[01:14:59] Speaker A: It's trivia. I mean, who does a lot of good trivia?
I do find Match youh Mate hilarious, though. That's one of my. One of my favorites. And Especially if you have, like, the. The really cool thing about doing those, like, late night ones is if you consistently go to them, you see the same people and you get to know your entertainment director directors, and then it kind of like becomes inside jokes, like, as they build through.
[01:15:28] Speaker B: So, like, especially from Match youh Mate, like, and those. Especially from Match youh Mate, those people become celebrities. The. The couples are celebrities, at least amongst the people who saw Match youh Mate.
[01:15:40] Speaker A: Yes. So trivia probably first for like every, you know, just everything and then like mixology probably second. And then from there, like the, you know, the evening entertainment is always, always a good time.
[01:15:51] Speaker B: Love it. All right, favorite bar space on Disney Cruise Line.
[01:15:55] Speaker A: The tube is fun, you know, and I like. That's a bigger space and there's a lot of different seating in there. But I also like the.
[01:16:03] Speaker B: Ooh La La Champagne bar. Yeah. There's Ulalala Champagne Bar on the Fantasy.
[01:16:09] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. That one's a nice, like, really chill space and you feel kind of like closed in and kind of away from all the hubbub. So that one's really cute. Yeah. So I think those are. Those are a good time. I'm very excited for the Haunted Mansion one, though. So that'll be February for us.
[01:16:26] Speaker B: It's very, very cool.
Fantasy or. Sorry? Fantasy. Treasure or Destiny?
[01:16:32] Speaker A: Treasure.
[01:16:33] Speaker B: Oh, nice. Very nice. Yeah, you're going to love it. You're going to love it. It's amazing. All right, moving on to food. We gotta go to rotational dining, which is your favorite of the. Of all the restaurants you've been to, which is. Yeah. Which is your favorite rotational dining restaurant. And it doesn't have to be because of the food. It can be the atmosphere, the show, whatever sort of however you judge the quality of restaurants.
[01:16:59] Speaker A: I really like Enchanted Garden. I think it's just. It's so.
[01:17:02] Speaker B: That's a hot take.
Well, no, it's. It's not. It's not that I don't like it. I just feel like it could be more. It's very pretty. But it. It could be. To me, I want more theming. I want Enchanted Garden to be like Mary Poppins themed. Right. You know, I want it.
[01:17:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't be mad at that. I wouldn't be mad at that. Yeah, it kind of. Yeah.
[01:17:26] Speaker B: It doesn't have to be. It can still be understated theming. It's. But I just want more. Yeah. It's the one that I feel like is lacking in the theming department. You're right.
[01:17:35] Speaker A: It doesn't really have any theming.
[01:17:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Other than the garden? Yeah.
[01:17:40] Speaker A: Yeah. I do think it's. I just think it's cute and pretty, and it's like this. It. It feels comfortable in there. And I like how they, like, change at night. Like, I think that's cute.
[01:17:49] Speaker B: Although.
[01:17:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
I do kind of expect, like, you know, the white rabbit to, like, pop up and run around, so I could totally see, like, something like that. So I think. I think you're onto something there.
[01:17:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, either, like, Alice in Wonderland, theming would be great there. Mary Poppins. Theming would be great there. Like, there's a ways for it to be themed that wouldn't completely change its character, but I feel like it just needs. Yeah. Just needs some. They might.
[01:18:12] Speaker A: They might have been on to you, though, because they did have a parade of the cavalcade, I heard. Yeah. Which I didn't even know that was a new. I didn't even know that was a thing. So it's.
[01:18:22] Speaker B: So it's not. It has not been a thing. But I have. You're not the first person I've heard this from. I have heard that. And I don't know if it was for the entire European season or if it was just towards the end of the European season, but we heard that they did a character cavalcade, which they did that with the pandemic restart when they couldn't. You know, they did that because they couldn't do character interactions. Right. And so they wanted to have a way for you to see the characters. And so they did like they did at the parks. You could have a sort of a distance character, so the character could be up on a balcony, you could be down below and take a selfie.
But they did the cavalcades on the cruise line for a little while before they sort of started restarted character interactions.
And so I heard that they had them. And I.
I don't know the answer to this, but I'm surmising or guessing that they may have done this because character lines, from what we've heard, are very, very long on the European sailings, because obviously folks in Europe don't have the same access to the characters as we have in the U.S. you know, going to the Walt Disney World or Disneyland. And so we heard that the lines were particularly long. And so I'm wondering if that was sort of the. They're like this. We want people to not complain that they didn't get any character interaction. So we're going to give them this semi character interaction. I don't know, that's just my guess.
[01:19:44] Speaker A: That might be true.
I felt like there was less characters.
Oh, interesting, too. So I think that might have contributed to the lines. Like, they're just. There wasn't as much variety of the characters, and so that might be part of it too. But I find the characters in the restaurants to be a little awkward because the little kids always run up and then they have to, like, body block them, and it's just like, oh, it's awkward, so.
[01:20:10] Speaker B: Especially because they're usually doing, like, a dance or a parade.
[01:20:13] Speaker A: Turn around.
[01:20:13] Speaker B: And so.
[01:20:14] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[01:20:16] Speaker B: Can't really have the kids underfoot because they're gonna get stuck.
[01:20:18] Speaker A: Oh, gosh, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[01:20:21] Speaker B: Not a great circumstance. Well, I gotta ask. We're sticking with. In the food category.
I love to ask. Favorite sweet item. Favorite savory item. And as I always say, I save the best for last.
Me is savory. I don't care that dessert comes at the end of the meal. In my mind, a Mickey pretzel should come at the end of every meal. So.
[01:20:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:20:40] Speaker B: Yeah. So favorite, favorite sweet item on board a Disney cruise.
[01:20:46] Speaker A: I'm basic, kind of. I really. Well, for desserts, I really like their lava cake. The lava cake, I just love lava cakes in general. But Mickey bars, like, half the time, I'll just ask for a Mickey bar instead of the dessert.
[01:20:59] Speaker B: You can always get one that's.
[01:21:01] Speaker A: Always get one.
[01:21:02] Speaker B: Yeah. People. For people who don't know, you can always get a Mickey bar for dessert if you don't want anything that's on the dessert menu. Or you could just get ice cream with or without Mickey sprinkles as well. All right, what's a. What's a favorite savory item on a Disney cruise for you?
[01:21:16] Speaker A: You know, I don't have anything that really sticks out in my mind. I do like the lobster. That's always kind of fun because it's not something that we do very often.
I do like, you know, their pastas are generally pretty good.
Especially, like, their portobello pasta is pretty tasty. It's all, like. It's all good, right? Like, but there's nothing that, like, stands out to me where I was like, oh, my God, I can't wait to have this again.
[01:21:39] Speaker B: Have you done any of the adult dining on Disney cruise line?
[01:21:43] Speaker A: Yes, we did it this time, but we've done. We've done Paulo brunches a couple times, and then we did the dessert at Remy's. And the dessert. The dessert one was really fun.
[01:21:53] Speaker B: I think that's where, for me, that's where the biggest standouts come. I mean, you can have, like, a. You know, occasionally there's a dish in main dining that really hits really well. But I would say most of my. Most of my favorites come from the adult dining restaurants.
[01:22:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Fair. Totally fair. Yeah. Yeah. One of these days, we'll end up doing a palo dinner, so.
[01:22:14] Speaker B: Yeah. All right, well, I've got to ask you probably the most important question, which is which one is your favorite ship you've been on? The Magic, the Wonder, and the Fantasy. You're soon to go on the Treasure, but which one of those three is your favorite?
[01:22:28] Speaker A: I think as far as. Is, like, theming the Fantasy, like, that atrium is just so gorgeous, and I love art deco anyways. And so that. That chandelier, just like, every time I take, like, a thousand pictures of it. I love that Wonder was our first. Our first one. And, you know, I'm. I'm a big fan of New Orleans, so I like the little where I can get my beignets.
[01:22:50] Speaker B: Yeah. The French Quarter Lounge.
[01:22:51] Speaker A: The French Quarter Lounge.
[01:22:52] Speaker B: And then Ifiana's right there. It's. Yeah, yeah. The whole New Orleans theme. Yeah.
[01:22:57] Speaker A: But, you know, as far from beyond that, like, Magic and the Wonder, like, fairly similar to me, so. So I say probably the Fantasy is my favorite.
[01:23:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:23:05] Speaker A: But I mean, whatever ship I'm on is my favorite, you know, that is.
[01:23:10] Speaker B: Truly the right answer. The right answer is whichever one I can get on tomorrow. Yeah.
[01:23:15] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:23:16] Speaker B: All right, Shannon, my last question, of course, is your bucket list cruise. If you can go anywhere in the world on a Disney ship, it doesn't have to be someplace that Disney currently sails. Where are you. You going?
[01:23:26] Speaker A: We, like. I would love to do, like, a longer Australian, you know, like, one that, like, started at the top and really went down and went to, like, Tasmania and stuff. And it wants to be, like, all animals all the time.
I want, like, a Disney animal excursion craziness. I want, like, the. The people to come on and bring me koalas and, you know, like, I want, like, naturalists on there to, like, you know, I want to go, like, save koalas in the wild or something. I don't know. Like, I want to just all be, like, National Geographic and the Irwins. I want the Irwins there, you know? Yeah, yeah. I mean, we're in Australia, so we might as well, right?
[01:24:09] Speaker B: Yeah. You can have whatever you want.
[01:24:11] Speaker A: I'd be like, sign me up. And it's like, you know, not. It's Something I can afford. That would be the other part of it.
[01:24:16] Speaker B: Right, right, right. Price is not an option.
[01:24:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:24:19] Speaker B: All right. Well, well, Shannon, thank you for playing.
You have. You know, Brian always asks what's next. You already gave us a preview. You've got the Treasure booked for coming up. Do you have anything booked on the Destiny?
[01:24:32] Speaker A: No. So we do want to go on the Destiny because I want to see that Hercules show. So we're doing the Treasure in February, and that's going to St. Thomas or the U.S. virgin Islands. British Virgin Islands. And Castaway.
[01:24:47] Speaker B: Yes. Caribbean. Nice.
[01:24:48] Speaker A: Yeah. So we're pretty. We're pretty excited to try out the Treasure. And I want to see the Moana show. I'm very excited about that one, too. And then. And funny enough, after we got off with our friends, we're like, oh, my God, we had such a good time. We should definitely book something. And then he's like, okay, when? And I was like, well, we're kind of playing around with this summer, maybe. He's like, okay, when? And so we ended up. They ended up booking with us an Alaska cruise, so.
[01:25:13] Speaker B: Oh, awesome.
[01:25:15] Speaker A: Yeah. On the Magic. And it's going to go to Ward Cove and Icy Straight Point, which are two.
[01:25:21] Speaker B: Oh, cool. Two new ones.
[01:25:22] Speaker A: Two new parts that we haven't done.
Um, and so we're really excited about that. And so it'll be really fun to do that with them. And.
And Kaylee, you know, she was so, like, you know, is.
[01:25:35] Speaker B: She's much younger. Yeah, much younger.
[01:25:37] Speaker A: And my mom hasn't. Hasn't done Alaska cruise and, you know, hasn't been to Alaska since the 70s, so I think she's going to get a kick out of it. Yeah. So I'm excited about that.
[01:25:46] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, Shannon, thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate it. And we'll definitely have to have you back to talk about those other great cruises.
[01:25:55] Speaker A: Yeah, perfect. Thank you so much.
[01:26:02] Speaker C: Well, thanks to everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us 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 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 the show each and every month, just head over to the website or patreon.com DCLDUO also has a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here at least, and a few blog articles that we've written, so DCLDuo.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also of course email
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