Ep. 615 - Why the Southern Caribbean Hits Different: Disney Magic Sailing from San Juan

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Gail, let's start with St. Kitts. [00:00:02] Speaker B: So the sailing sloths booked two separate port adventures on this island. [00:00:21] Speaker C: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's episode of the DCL Duo podcast, brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel. And Sam, we're going to skip the review today because we want to get right into this conversation because we have a little time constraint on our end with Nathan's birthday party this weekend. So Sam, you want to introduce our guests? [00:00:38] Speaker A: Yes. We're so excited. We've got two of our favorite guests, the sailing sloths, back with us today. Welcome back to the show. Gail and Kara. Welcome, guys. [00:00:50] Speaker D: Thank you. Hi. [00:00:51] Speaker A: It's so good to see you both. It's funny, on the screen it says Kara and Gail, but I'm going to just tell people if you're looking at the screen, if you're watching on YouTube, it's reverse. Gail is on the left and Kara is on the right. Now, ladies, it's been a little while since we've had you on the show. I think the last time we were on was to talk about the adventures by Disney that you guys did to Belgium and Amsterdam or the Netherlands. And that was such a great show. But let's remind folks of your, you know, your sailing credentials. We know you've both been, you know, going to Disney for a while now. You've been sailing for a while now. But give, give us some of the highlights. Gail, why don't we start with you? Give us some of the highlights of the sailings you guys have been on. [00:01:39] Speaker B: Yeah, we started in 2006 and that was a choice by Cara and wanted to just try out Disney Cruise Line. We'd had one prior cruise that was not a good experience. So I was very hesitant and just completely changed how the, the besties vacation with each other. So we've been on almost all the ships and eastern, western Bahamas, the west coast, Cara did the inaugural Alaska, and we've been to the med, Northern Europe and this trip finally checked another box for us which was the Southern Caribbean. [00:02:20] Speaker A: Fantastic. Now which ships have you not been on yet? I'm guessing Destiny, since that's brand new as we're recording. [00:02:27] Speaker B: Yes. [00:02:27] Speaker D: And the treasure, we haven't been on the treasure yet. [00:02:29] Speaker A: You guys, you gotta get in the deal. [00:02:32] Speaker D: We have the Destiny booked, but we haven't found one on the treasure yet. [00:02:36] Speaker A: Okay, fair enough. All right, well tell us, why did you choose this itinerary which was the Southern Caribbean? It was the seven night out of San Juan on the Disney Magic. Kara. I'M going to throw this question to you. [00:02:48] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. So two things we have wanted to do southern Caribbean for a long time. And so that had been one we had been looking at. And then we have a sort of a relationship relationship with San Juan as a port. We kept trying to book San Juan as a destination port. We'd sailed in there as a just a stop port. But we wanted to actually embark and disembark from San Juan. And so this was the. I think this was the fourth try that we finally got to actually take the cruise. A couple of got. A couple got canceled during COVID and then one get canceled because of my cancer treatment. So we are, we luckily got to check off San Juan. [00:03:31] Speaker A: Now let's talk about the different ports that this itinerary went to. What were the ports that you guys. Because you hadn't been to any of the ports that you went to other than being at San Juan. You had been to San Juan before just for the day, but as you mentioned, hadn't disembarked or embarked out of San Juan. But what were the other ports that you were looking forward to on this itinerary? [00:03:54] Speaker B: So four stops besides San Juan. Saint Kitts, Bonaire, Antigua, Aruba. [00:04:01] Speaker C: You only miss Curacao out of the ABCs. [00:04:04] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:04:05] Speaker A: Ah, that's such a great itinerary. We, you know, it's similar to when we did the Southern Caribbean, although we did it 11 night because it came from Florida, so it had further to travel. But I think the southern Caribbean itineraries are just really awesome. They're super unique because they are not the typical ports that Disney cruise line goes to. Other cruise lines go to those ports more often. Disney usually only has one to three itineraries a year that hit some of those southern Caribbean ports. It seems lately it's been on the magic. It used to be quite a bit on the fantasy. It seems like now they've kind of shifted and the magic is doing the itineraries that go down there most of the time, I should say, then that can change in the future. If you're listening to this at some later point. Who knows? Disney's constantly, you know, moving things around bit. But such a great, such a great itinerary. Tell us, did you guys decide to go down to San Juan and spend some time before or after kind of exploring since you were going to, you know, obviously have to embark out of there, or did you not really have time in the schedule for something like that? [00:05:15] Speaker B: We really didn't have time. And that was because of my work schedule. This was a Friday to Friday sailing. So of course we had to go down Thursday. And every day earlier was going to take more vacation days, which just really wasn't viable for me. So we were only in the one night prior. [00:05:32] Speaker A: That happens. I mean, you can't always. Can't always make time for exploring beforehand. But of course you went in the night before because nobody goes in the day of their cruise unless you live driving distance to the port. Yeah. All right, well, let's talk about where you stayed. Let's start with that on the logistical side of things. And Carol, I'll throw that one to you. [00:05:55] Speaker D: Yeah. We stayed at an AC by Marriott in the downtown area of San Juan. We have an interesting relationship with the ac, actually with ports with the magic. Um, we had booked an AC for the first time in Barcelona and that was our med cruise where our luggage didn't get there until a day after we did after a little trauma. [00:06:17] Speaker B: And we had to go through Paris to get to Barcelona, which was also not scheduled. So it was interesting. We were in the central area of San Juan, Puerto Rico, actually, not in old San Juan, and quite frankly would not recommend. [00:06:36] Speaker A: Oh, well, that's. Listen, this. That's helpful to know. I think we like to ask people what hotel they went to to help recommend. But it's also helpful to say maybe this is not the best place to stay because of the location or the hotel. Was it just the location that was not the greatest? [00:06:52] Speaker D: Yeah, it was mostly the location. We had done good research beforehand, so we found a nice place to eat. And of course, being San Juan, there was a pharmacy on every corner, so we were able to pick up water and stuff before we left. But it just wasn't a fantastic location in terms of that. There was also an interesting. We were there at the end of like a three or four day period where there'd been a water main break. So there were just a lot of water issues in San Juan that day. And actually the first room we got put in, I think this was actually an air conditioning issue, but there was water just streaming down the walls when we walked in. So obviously we went down to the lobby and they got that changed. The staff was great and the hotel wasn't a problem. It just was not the best area to stay in. [00:07:39] Speaker A: Yeah, well. And I gotta say, unfortunately, you know, our friends down in Puerto Rico have a lot of infrastructure issues, whether it's flooding or electric or. And then storms, of course, that if they get hit by a hurricane, I mean, there is A lot of issues that they deal with on a regular basis. And. Yeah, and so it can be really hard, obviously, if you're coming in in the middle of one of those sort of natural disaster, going to deal with that probably regardless of where you stay. But I think one of the things that I think most people should look at when they're sailing out of San Juan is where. Which port are you sailing out of? Because there's two different ports, and if you want to be close to that, you know, to where your port is, you got to look at, you know, which neighborhood that is and whether that's Old Town or whether that's more the central business district and that sort of a thing. So definitely take note if you're and. And Disney sails out of both of those ports. It's not like Disney always sails out of one and not the other. They. It really depends on who else is sailing out of San Juan. Well, let's talk embarkation day. What time did you. Did you all head to the port and did you take Uber, Lyft, prearranged transportation, Disney transportation, or what? [00:09:01] Speaker B: So we booked this late. I did take advantage of a travel agent offer in full transparency. And so we had boarding group six. And knowing that it was a smaller port and having gone through some hijinks at Fort Lauderdale in May, when they had the technology issue, we said, this is the first time we're not going to the port obnoxiously early. And so we rolled in. I think our port arrival was like, I don't know, 1240, 1230. We probably rolled in at like 1215. And we just got ushered straight through everything. It was nonstop through security. Of course. We'd done online check in. We were going to stop and get our picture taken. And we could tell that they were about to call boarding group seven. And we're like, no, no, no, no, no. And so we have never done this before. We walked from our Uber. [00:10:05] Speaker D: Yep. [00:10:05] Speaker B: Which was fine and good and efficient right onto the ship. There were some pros and cons about that. Initially, we were super excited because we had no sitting around and waiting. But it also took away our time to jump into the app and start seeing everything that was going on. So I'm two minds about that. [00:10:28] Speaker D: Yeah. Gail was bothered by that a lot more than I was. I was just very happy after the debacle in May that we walked straight on and weren't standing in a parking lot when it was 90 degrees outside. Outside and hot and sweaty and gross and fun fact. [00:10:43] Speaker B: We boarded on Deck one? [00:10:46] Speaker D: Yes. [00:10:47] Speaker A: Oh, interesting. Okay, so that has to do with obviously the, the port and the water levels. And, and so we've talked about this before on the show, but it's been a while since we've had anybody who's boarded on anything other than Deck 4. Most of the time you're, we are boarding on deck four, which is right into the atrium or the grand hall, depending upon which ship class you're on. But occasionally because of the water level or, and the, the board is set up, and particularly in ports outside of the US you might end up boarding on a different deck, which is very strange because you walk in and you're in a stairwell or, you know, an elevator. Well, instead of walking in to the grand hall or, or the atrium. Well, I, I've got to say, I gotta remind folks, back in May when they sailed, basically all the computer systems were completely down. And this was in Fort Lauderdale. And so everybody had to redo check in at the port, even though they had done their check in 30 plus, you know, 30 days or more in advance. So that means everyone having to go through with their passports, having pictures taken, all the documents needs to be verified. It's a time consuming process. If they have to do it for every passenger, it's not a big deal if they've got to do it for a handful of families who, you know, their documents didn't scan properly or something like that. But what a pain that was back in May for Gayle and Kara to experience, I gotta say. I mean, we tell people all the time, like, don't show up too early for your port arrival time. And if you show up on the later end or even later than your port arrival time, odds are you're going to have an experience similar to what you guys experienced in San Juan, which is just literally walk through security, go through very, very fast, check in and walk onto the ship because there's no lines. All of the, all of the hurry up and waiting tends to happen towards the very beginning port arrival time. So group one, group two, you know, once they're, once they're at like three or group four, it's kind of smooth sailing and really fast. Except if their computers are down. Yeah. Yeah. All right, well, where did you guys head? Once on board the beautiful Disney Magic. [00:12:59] Speaker D: We went to lunch in Rapunzel's. So Gail's favorite restaurant is Rapunzel's across, I think the entire fleet. Yeah. And so when we have the opportunity to have lunch in there, plus we like that menu for lunch. We will do that and it's not often that we get to do it. So that was an absolute treat. And of course, you know, did the thing that professional cruisers like us do and sat there and ignored each other most of the time while we connected to the app and started to build our plans of what we wanted to do and all of those things for anything that we weren't sure of. But also enjoyed a nice lunch. [00:13:34] Speaker B: And I'm an optimizer. So finally seeing that dining rotation and saying, oh, do we want to move? Paolo this. So I was in and out of that restaurant three times, going to talk with the dining team who was luckily around the corner in Scat Cat. But I think our servers were like, is she actually finally going to sit down and eat? But we did get everything moved around and felt great about having the opportunity to make a couple of changes. Even though this was a sailing that Disney Cruise Line did a lot of offers and discounts in the fall and this was one of them. And so our ship was certainly far more full than what it would have normally been for an October Southern Caribbean. [00:14:24] Speaker A: Oh, interesting. Interesting because it was on specials and travel agent offers and things like that. Oh, interesting, yeah, that makes sense because a lot of these unique itineraries, if they happen to be at a time of year where school is in session here in the US Then they do tend to be kind of under subscribed. Right. So you don't necessarily have a full ship, but in your situation, that's interesting. I wonder though, was it easy to do pre booking of activities? Because a lot of people like yourselves had probably booked to this cruise late. [00:14:57] Speaker D: We didn't have any trouble getting activities that we wanted. [00:15:01] Speaker B: Now keep in mind, you're talking to the sloths. So we had very few things that we were trying to book, but yeah, we got, we got everything we wanted. [00:15:11] Speaker D: We booked a couple of fun things. [00:15:12] Speaker C: And there's, there's spa treatments, rainforest room passes. I mean, all of that good stuff. [00:15:17] Speaker D: We didn't do any of that. I do most of my. Gail's not a spa person and I do most of my spa going on land before I go on a cruise. So not a big, big usual spot, although I always check and there was still plenty of availability even on the cruise. So I'm always looking around just to see what's. [00:15:36] Speaker A: Yeah, but you did book some adult dining, obviously you mentioned Paulo. So you were able to book that in advance and then even adjust it on board to fit whatever your schedule was. I do think that's A I want to call out a great tip though that you mentioned is while you're in the port, you can connect to the ship's wi fi and you can get on that Navigator app and start favoriting activities in the app. So you put a little heart and then that way you'll get a reminder 15 minutes before that activity is happening. And it just helps you plan out. If you're somebody who has FOMO and you want to do everything on the ship, you want to do all the different activities, that's the only way you're going to be able to keep track of them. If you're somebody who's just going to be relaxing on the pool deck, you don't need to worry about that. But like you can connect while you're still in the port or if you haven't had time to connect while you're in the port, it's a great opportunity to do that at lunch. You would just ignore your, your dining partner and do that. And that's, that's what we end up doing most of the time. On our first, you know, embarkation day lunch, we're always like in the app trying to favorite different activities. And I also have to give a big plug for that embarkation day menu. In the sit down restaurants. It's the same across the fleet. So it doesn't matter whether you're in Rapunzel's or you're in Tiana's or you're in Coco. It's the same menu. But that the beef empanada appetizer, spot on. Really good appetizer. And if you're on one of the classic ships, that's where my Oreo cheesecake is. Our cookies and cream cheesecake. Only on the classic ships. The one that's on the wish class is not the same. It's an imposter and it's not good. That's all I'm gonna say about that. Yeah. Anyway, but it's a good menu. All right, so you take care of all your dining changes. You take care of having a wonderfully relaxing lunch where you ignore each other so you can favorite activities. Let's talk about some of the highlights onboard experience before we jump over to talking about the ports. What were some of the your favorite things that you guys got to do on this sailing? [00:17:40] Speaker B: So the weather so that we can contextualize this. Our sail out, it was raining such that they moved the sail away into the atrium, which you know, is not the easiest thing to do on a classic size ship. We, we sort of caught it almost by accident coming out of our muster station. So that was fun. But other than that, every single day was sunny upper 80s, low 90s consistently day after day. And so one of the things that we do just very hit or miss is we actually went to the pool twice. Again, that is not common for us at all. And got some great loungers up on 10 away from everybody, but still in the adult area. [00:18:35] Speaker A: But the. [00:18:36] Speaker B: The thing about this sailing for the first time ever, again, 21 cruises and you still find some firsts. We went on the Yellow Curly Slide. Woohoo. [00:18:49] Speaker D: So much fun. And it was so cute because we went up the stairs the very first time to do it. And we were like, oh, you know, are we doing this right? What do we do? And a couple of youngins in front of us explained it to us beautifully. Like you stay behind this line. You don't touch anything until they tell the light. And so it was really, really cute and we had fun. I did it. I think I did it twice, but you did it several times. [00:19:14] Speaker B: I did, but it was so hot. Could not walk barefoot on that deck. And also learned that the bottom of the Yellow Curly Slide is a whole little set of boxes where you can store your flip flops or your swim shoes as you go up and take the slide. So Disney really does think of everything. [00:19:36] Speaker A: Oh yeah. Great cubbies. They're all of the water sl have cubbies usually before you climb the stairs. Right. So at the bottom I say usually because the Aqua Mouse is the only exception. The Aquamouse, it's right before you get in the line, which is a little bit different because you don't actually climb. You climb the stairs first and then you get into the line and so it's just outside of that. But yeah, that yellow water slide. We call it the Yellow Mickey Slide just cause it's held by a Mickey hand. I don't know if that's what it's called, but that's what we call. I think it's called the Twist and Spout actually. But yeah, it's on the. It's on the Wonder and the magic. It is. It's the only water slide on the Wonder. The Magic has the Aqua Dunk, which is the. [00:20:21] Speaker D: The. [00:20:22] Speaker A: Sorry, Brian, that's all you, man. Very one that shoots you. That the floor drops out from under you. But yeah, the people don't realize that Yellow Mickey Slide of Twist and Spout is for all ages. It is. You definitely tend to see the younger cruisers using it more. But it is, it's not intense. It's a really nice water slide for all ages. I will contrast that to the wish class, which has the Slidosaurus Rex. That one technically, I think is also all ages, but that one is not intended for all ages. That one is really. If you're an adult, even a normal sized adult like myself, you will get stuck in that thing. And I don't mean stuck like where you can't get out, but you'll like stop in the middle and then they have to like force yourself to keep going. It's not. Yeah. So I highly recommend twisting spout and I will put a do not recommend for adults, not for kids. Kids is fine for the Slidosaurus Rex on the, on the wish class, but yeah, I love that, you guys. [00:21:20] Speaker C: I call it the butt scoot slide. [00:21:21] Speaker A: But the butt scoot slide. Exactly. [00:21:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:23] Speaker A: You really do. You have to like, you get like part way and then you're like, oh, okay, I need to scoot my butt so that I can get all the way down. But that doesn't happen on the twist and spout. The twist and spout is wonderful. I love that. So you guys spent a couple of days relaxing on the pool deck, back some time in the water slides. Did you guys do any of the game shows trivia, those sorts of things as well? [00:21:44] Speaker D: We did a couple of trivias just for fun. Like, we didn't. We didn't necessarily intend to do them. We were pretty chill. Like, we didn't do a ton of that. [00:21:54] Speaker B: We did, but we, we took. We actually partook in Halloween on the high seas this time. [00:22:00] Speaker D: That's true. We did. We, we took. We had planned costumes which we had never done before. [00:22:09] Speaker B: I was Joy and she was Princess Vanellope von Schweetz. [00:22:15] Speaker A: Love it. I love it. Both great characters. [00:22:19] Speaker D: So we went trick or treating. We did all the costume stuff. We did some of the Halloween party. So it was ton of fun. [00:22:25] Speaker B: And we know that Halloween has worked differently on different ships from the trick or treating standpoint. [00:22:31] Speaker A: Yeah. How did it work on this one? [00:22:32] Speaker B: Yeah, so for this one, they had four different. Different stations all across deck four. So D lounge fathoms right outside the theater. Preludes. We could never remember the name of it. Preludes are outside the theater and they gave us a bag at the first station and they would just handfuls into those bags. So it was much more like trick or treating. I heard on the other ships sometimes they just give you bags, but this was fine. It was incredibly efficient. [00:23:06] Speaker A: Oh, love that. Yeah. We've experienced I think it both ways. Where they've given you a bag of candy versus where they've given you a bag and you go to a couple different stations. And I think you're right. It depends on the ship. And I think Disney must give them a lot of autonomy in deciding how they're going to execute trick or treating on the ship. And probably matters who's in charge at that point. Awesome. Well, did you guys enjoy the deck party, the Halloween on the High Seas deck party as well? Did you go to that? [00:23:39] Speaker B: We did not. I mean, again, slothing. [00:23:44] Speaker A: I love it. [00:23:45] Speaker B: Plus, it was just so crowded. We were very choosy about what we were going to. That we knew was going to draw a lot of crowd. And we took a different approach for the first time ever. For Pirate Night as well. [00:24:04] Speaker D: Yeah, for Pirate Night, we decided to. We skipped the party part and went down to Deck 4 and had grabbed a couple of loungers and just chilled out down there. And then almost thought we were gonna. We'd missed it. Almost thought that, well, you know, maybe they didn't do the fireworks because we were moving or something like that. And then just as we were about ready to go inside for the evening, the fireworks started and the music came on Deck 4. So that was really, for us, who were more introverted, it was a great way to watch the fireworks because we still got the music, we still got the fireworks, but zero crowd. [00:24:42] Speaker B: Like, there were maybe eight people on that whole deck with us. [00:24:46] Speaker D: So that may be a way that we do fireworks in the future. [00:24:49] Speaker B: And it could be for. For anyone who has any sort of crowd. Sound sensitivity, highly recommend. [00:24:59] Speaker A: Yeah. And you've got to be on starboard side in order to see the fireworks. Just as a. Yeah, just as a psa, if you want to. If you're on the port side, you're not going to see any fireworks because they're on the other side of the ship because you're not on the top deck. Obviously the ship's going to be in the way. But, yeah, I think that's a great place to watch fireworks if you have any sensory sensitivity or you really don't like being amongst the crowds that are up on the pool deck. Especially on a fuller sailing. It's a great. Take it. All right, well, the star of the Southern Caribbean, of course, is her ports. So we gotta talk about those ports. Let's start. We started the beginning, right. So let's start with Saint Kitts. Of course. You got to tell us, did you book anything through Disney? If so, what if you didn't let us know what you ended up doing. Yeah, but let's. Yeah, let's start, Gail. Let's start with Saint Kitts. [00:25:47] Speaker B: So the sailing sloths booked two separate port adventures on this island. Do you want to start with yours? [00:25:56] Speaker D: Yeah. So I booked zip lining and took the. The bus, the little bus that came to get us and went through the island and up to this old plantation area and got our little. Got our harnesses on and got our little tutorial. [00:26:15] Speaker A: We did this exact excursion. Sorry, I got. I gotta interrupt you. We did this exact excursion. Excursion in 2019. As soon as you said the plantation, I was like, yep, that's the same one. [00:26:24] Speaker B: Okay, continue. [00:26:25] Speaker A: Sorry. [00:26:26] Speaker D: No, that's okay. So I. I and I had never ziplined before. I've always wanted to, but had never done it. And so we did our little test and I was like, okay, I can do this. And what you don't realize is the test is like a foot off the ground and then they actually just send you out over, like an open valley the first time. So a little bit. Bit scary, but it was tons of fun. I loved it. And by the last one, I was, you know, trying to shoot a little bit of video as I was going, although it was terrible video, but tons of fun. And then waited and hopped on our bus to go back down. That was the. I think one of the draws of St. Kitts are the little monkeys that are everywhere. And as we were driving, riding up to the top of the. The mountains before we came down, they're like, oh, there's monkeys there and there's monkeys there. We were in the back of a truck, so, like, to turn and see them fast enough. And I'm looking for something big. And these are actually very little monkeys. I didn't see them, but we did get to see them. Like just, you know, one of the peddlers that was just there holding them, but they were super cute, so it was fun to see them from a distance. So that was fun. It was a great excursion. I enjoyed it more. [00:27:36] Speaker B: An adventure. [00:27:37] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it is a great. It's definitely a great excursion. Brian and I did that. Nathan wasn't with us on that sailing, so he has not done that zip. He's done different zip lining up in Vancouver. But yeah, we loved that. It was super fun. I was terrified at the beginning, and then by the last one, I was not brave enough to use my phone and try and video because I'm always afraid I'm gonna, like, drop my phone and it's gonna be gone forever. But they didn't have to, like, push me off like they did the first couple. The first couple I like, actually would jump myself versus them having to shove me. [00:28:13] Speaker D: And I have my phone in a thing around my neck. So a little less anxiety about dropping it because otherwise, safe. [00:28:20] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. All right, Gail, what was excursion number two? [00:28:24] Speaker B: So I booked atv, and I grew up with an atv, so anytime that I can book one of these, I will. We did it in Hawaii and had two different options on this sailing, either St. Kitts or. I think it was. Yeah. And I chose Saint Kitts because it tended to be more green and lush, like Hawaii, quite frankly, versus the other island that it was very much more desert, like. And there were only eight of us on this port adventure. And so again, walked to the bus, got taken to a different plantation esque area. And Saint Kiss has some mountains to it, as you will, for a Caribbean island, consider a mountain. And so we went a little bit ways up there. Like I said, there were eight of us. There was a group of five, There was a couple, and then there was me. And so we get up there and we have the ATVs. And please, this is my PSA. Please read the description fully of your port adventure before you book it. Because the group of five, they got up there and they're looking at the ATVs, which are all single seat. And one of the gentlemen says, well, the woman with me needs to ride with me. And the guy said, no, no, that's not how this works here. And started giving us instruction. And about five minutes later, the woman then goes to the guide and says, I will pay you $10 to ride with you. And he says, no, no, that is not how it works works. And of course, the best practices, you put your most novice driver up front of the group. And so we set out. The path that we took was a little bit of cement, but it was mostly sort of some dirt roads. And because we were traversing up the incline, it was very clear that this is a place that gets some significant rain. And there were a lot of sort of trenches and guts into the road. And so you had to be choosy about your. Your path on the road to avoid those types of things. Well, I don't know how far we were going up, but during our incline, the lead woman tipped over her atv. So we had a full stop. She was fine. She did scratch up her elbow. Everything got righted. We continued along our way. And then this is a single path road. There was A group of jeeps coming down and one of the jeeps broke down. So again, we came to a full and complete stop. We finally get to a point where they were going to take the pictures of us and the ship in the background. I think we were supposed to keep going up, but because we'd been delayed, they said, no, no, we're going to turn and we're going to start coming down. So we're coming down, a different woman gets her ATV stuck in one of the trenches. And so we stop again. So it was definitely an adventure, part of the Port adventure. And it was very clear when they got back that they were on the phone clearly with Disney. We went to the Port Adventure desk when we got back just to relay the story. No complaint. Didn't. It was still a great port adventure. It was definitely worth my money. I'm glad that I went. But it was. It was quite the day. [00:32:06] Speaker A: Yeah. I wonder if they need to put a better warning language, maybe about like. Because I'll be honest, I. That's not an excursion I would choose. Brian would probably be all about that, but he's like expert level driver. And I'm like, not like, I've never driven an atv. [00:32:25] Speaker D: So the warning language was very clear because it's why we didn't choose the same thing. I don't like writing. I don't like driving an atv. I would consider writing one that Gail was driving if it was two person. [00:32:41] Speaker B: But I would like side by side, not front, back. [00:32:43] Speaker D: Yeah, but I would. I specifically didn't choose it because it said they were single person only. You had to. So it was very, very clear. And I, I will say, to add on to Gail's psa, this is the third or fourth time in all of our sailings with Disney and one of them was on my inaugural Alaskan where the details of the port adventure were very, very clear. The people went in with expectations that didn't meet the guidelines that were in that and they complained about that. [00:33:13] Speaker A: I hate that. [00:33:14] Speaker D: I know. [00:33:16] Speaker C: What do you think they were hoping for? I guess so. [00:33:18] Speaker B: I don't know. But my recommendation when we got back to Port Adventure was when we checked in for that port adventure. I think there should have been a reaffirmation of what the experience was going to be like. [00:33:33] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:33:33] Speaker B: But I do think that they thought it was going to be like a front and back pair that could be on one vehicle. But there was nothing in the description that should have made you think that. [00:33:44] Speaker A: Yeah. And I would say I, like Kara would go on one, if Brian was driving it and I didn't have to do the driving. [00:33:52] Speaker C: I don't even think you'd do that. You wouldn't ride on the back of my motorcycle. [00:33:55] Speaker A: That's true. I didn't. I would never. When he had. He doesn't have one anymore. But he did have a motorcycle for. [00:34:00] Speaker C: That, you know, about. [00:34:00] Speaker A: But yeah, yeah, he did have a motorcycle for a few years. And I never got on the back of that thing and never. Yeah, never. I. I'm. Yeah, I'm definitely not adventurous in that way. Even though I will zip line, you know, I will do other things. But. Yeah, I'm never jumping out of an airplane. Let's also put that out there. [00:34:22] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm not saying that either. [00:34:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:25] Speaker E: Are you listening to our show because you want to make the most out of your next vacation. Great news. The fabulous team over at My Path Unwinding Travel can help guide you so you don't miss a thing. Their team of professional travel advisors are caring, knowledgeable, and experienced. It's why we use them to book our own travel. My Path Unwinding Travel is an authorized Disney vacation planner, which means they are recognized by Disney for their expertise and service. They have sailed on all the Disney ships, including in concierge, visited the theme parks, adventured with Disney, Disney relaxed at Aulani, and so much more. Whether it's a Disney cruise, a theme park vacation, or adventures by Disney, or if you are looking to expand beyond the mouse, MyPath Unwinding Travel will elevate your next vacation planning experience. Even if you have already booked, reach out for a complimentary consultation to make your vacation even more magical. Ready to talk to the experts? Head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email DCLDUOYpathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. Thanks, My Path Unwinding, for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode. [00:35:24] Speaker C: Well, what's. What's next up? Are we in Bonaire now? At this point? [00:35:27] Speaker B: Yes. [00:35:27] Speaker D: Yes, we're in Bonaire. I fell in love with Bonaire. We did the most tame board adventure because we did the little train, which is the little tour train. The guys were the trolley tour. The trolley tour. [00:35:40] Speaker B: Excuse me. [00:35:41] Speaker D: The two gentlemen, the driver and the narrator, were super sweet and told funny stories and things, but I just fell in love with everything about Bonaire. The diversity of the island, the plant life, and then the beautiful. I don't usually like desert climates, but I find that I do like a desert. When it's on an island surrounded by some of the most beautiful water I've ever seen. I definitely want to go back to Bonaire again. I loved it. [00:36:10] Speaker B: We got told that it's basically the number two diving spot in the world and so a lot of people will go specifically to do diving, which clearly is not our jam. [00:36:21] Speaker D: I went snorkel, though. I would go snorkeling. [00:36:24] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:36:24] Speaker B: So we got to see both destitute areas, but also there was a lot of new construction and asked about that. And apparently Bonaire is a place where foreigners can actually buy and build fairly easily. So again, you would see something that was destitute next to a two or three floor new build that was going up. The port area was really great. It was. It's specifically made for cruisers, but it did not, at least the parts we were walking, it did not have that sort of marketplace of everybody's trying to be like, hey, buy this, get your hair braided. There was none of that. It was actually all retail establishments. We went in and. And did buy a few things. I was super excited in the Netherlands that we got real stroopwafel. And here, because they do have a Dutch influence, I got packaged stroopwafel. So, you know, it's what you make of it. But we both agreed that that was a great stop. [00:37:30] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. [00:37:31] Speaker C: You just wandered around. You didn't do a Disney excursion. [00:37:34] Speaker B: The trolley tour. [00:37:35] Speaker C: The trolley was the trolley tour. [00:37:36] Speaker B: We booked that through Disney. [00:37:37] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:37:38] Speaker C: Okay. [00:37:38] Speaker D: Then wandered around on our own until we got back up ship. [00:37:40] Speaker A: Right? Yeah. [00:37:41] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:37:41] Speaker C: How was the weather overall? [00:37:43] Speaker B: It was close enough to a beach like right beside. You could have just gotten off and, and gone to the beach too. [00:37:50] Speaker C: And how was the weather overall on the cruise? [00:37:52] Speaker B: Same thing. Hot and sunny. In fact, on the trolley tour, if there hadn't been a breeze, we would have been completely melted. But just beautiful everywhere. [00:38:02] Speaker A: Yeah. You got really lucky then. So other than that first embarkation, that embarkation day, sounds like you. We were super lucky. Well, and people should know in if it's not raining, you're generally going to have really beautiful weather in the southern Caribbean. It's just, it's going to be much warmer than, you know, the, the Bahamas, for example. Overall. Yeah. All right, well, next port of call, which was it? Antigua or Aruba? [00:38:31] Speaker B: Honestly, I'm not sure that we remember. [00:38:34] Speaker D: I think it was Antigua. [00:38:35] Speaker B: Antigua. We had never planned to get off the ship. As the sailing sauce, do we always choose one port where we're going to stay on the Ship for Aruba, talked about how didn't book the ATV tour. And we had always planned Aruba as on our own and every time we, we sort of looked at something we're like, ah, we don't know. We have looked at going to the butterfly garden and then went. Don't know that that's enough value for the time that it was going to take to get there. We were going to get off the ship and just, just walk around the port area. It was actually quite a bit of a walk. [00:39:13] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:39:14] Speaker B: From the ship to that area because it was just so hot and sunny. We decided we didn't get off the ship. And if you told me going into Southern Caribbean, going to Aruba that we weren't getting off the ship, I would have told you you're crazy. But here we are. [00:39:31] Speaker D: Yep. We did the. The benefit of Aruba was It was a 9:45pm Sail out and it's rare to get a nighttime sale out of anywh. So we loved the nighttime sail. [00:39:43] Speaker B: A lot of people obviously took advantage of that. [00:39:45] Speaker D: Yeah, it was very, very pretty too. [00:39:47] Speaker A: Yeah, probably a lot of people actually like stayed to have dinner on the island instead of coming back for dinner and sort of, you can have a more full day of excursion or experience on the island, which is. [00:39:59] Speaker B: And we were, when we did sail out, I think it was, was it Serenade of the Seas parked in front of us. They were still there. I don't know what time or if they were overnighting or what they were doing. And so it was, it was one of those cruising community moments that you can't make happen. As we're sailing by, everybody from our ship is out looking on their ship. They're looking. And then of course, being an obnoxious Disney cruise ship, they have to blow all the horns. [00:40:31] Speaker A: They have to do a horn battle. Right. They have to, they have to. They have to put Royal in their place by playing. By playing when you Wish Upon a Star. [00:40:40] Speaker B: That's right. [00:40:41] Speaker A: I love that. As only Disney can do. Now, of course, you don't have. [00:40:45] Speaker C: Well, I don't do it on all the ships. There's some captains who are known for being rather stingy with the horns. [00:40:50] Speaker A: That's true. But on the magic, you also only have the. When you Wish upon a Star, you don't have like, you have on the wish class. You've got like 20 different songs. Right. You don't have that on the original ships. You still have the original when youn Wish Upon a Star horn, which is really. [00:41:06] Speaker B: I Do think that they set it off, like, three times, though. [00:41:08] Speaker D: Yeah, they did that. Everybody heard it. [00:41:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Because they're like, in your face, royal. I love it. [00:41:16] Speaker C: Although Princess does have the Love Boat song now. [00:41:18] Speaker A: That's true. They have the Love Boat. Oh, I think only on the newer ships do they have that horn, though. I don't think they've retrofitted the old ships for it. All right, well, we got. I got to talk about food because, you know, what would a cruise be without the. All the food on board? You guys have been on most of the ships and you. And multiple times on. On the Magic. Of course. I got to ask. Ask. You know, servers, food quality, all that good stuff. Let's talk main dining and. And. And quick serve. And then, of course, we'll jump over to Paulo. [00:41:51] Speaker D: So this. So we. We did Palo on the first night. [00:41:55] Speaker B: Give him the headline, and went in. [00:41:58] Speaker D: To say hello to our servers, as we always do when we have Palo on the first night. That was probably the most positive interaction we had with our servers the entire cruise. [00:42:06] Speaker A: Oh, no. [00:42:07] Speaker D: We had the worst service we have ever had. [00:42:11] Speaker B: I and I can't. [00:42:12] Speaker A: We. [00:42:12] Speaker D: We've talked about it ad nauseam and we. We had a couple at our table with us. We talked about it with them ad nauseam about what is happening here. [00:42:21] Speaker B: Well, this was only their, like, third cruise or something. Right. [00:42:24] Speaker D: But she also was a. Was a travel agent. So I'm sitting at a table. We're sitting at a table with two travel agents, two travel professionals who are talking about this. And I can't pinpoint for you what went so terribly and completely wrong long all the way through the cruise, but it just was awful. We had always planned to skip one night in main dining room and go to the. [00:42:48] Speaker B: The pub. [00:42:49] Speaker D: The pub. And order food off the menu because we'd never done that before and thought that would be fun. We were honestly very glad we had that planned for this cruise since the dining experience was so bad in ter. Like, and they. I think the worst part of it was the head server tried to redeem it. [00:43:10] Speaker B: So we were in Lumiere's. Yeah. And I had the worst table we've ever had, which. Fine. We've been on so many. That's bound to happen. [00:43:20] Speaker A: And there's no show in Lumiere. So it's not like. It's not like you're missing out on something visually, really, even if you haven't not. [00:43:27] Speaker B: We know the menu and our table. Table orders. It was a good third. 25 to 30 minutes, nothing had come to our table. And so. And it was Halloween night because we were in our obnoxious costumes and brought over the head server. And of course, head server is now freaked out. And then you would tell about how they tried to redeem this. [00:43:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:53] Speaker D: So the next. It was actually the next two nights because we were at the pub the next night, and then it was the following night in those restaurants, the head server sends over champagne. [00:44:03] Speaker B: Prosecco. [00:44:03] Speaker D: Prosecco. To a table where none of the adult. Nobody had ordered alcohol. [00:44:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:10] Speaker D: So. Ever. [00:44:12] Speaker A: And you guys don't drink, right? Yeah. Yeah. [00:44:15] Speaker D: And so we just were like, what are you doing? Like, pay attention to what's happening here. And I get. It's. It's. This is one experience. I mean, I will. I will be the first one to say to anybody listening, this is not normal. We don't know what happened. Something went wrong. [00:44:31] Speaker B: It's also not going to stop us from taking more dizzy cruises, because it's. [00:44:36] Speaker D: It. And it's one of those moments where you stop and you go. The privilege that we have that we've gotten to do this so many times and that we get to do this and enjoy it. And, you know, it didn't change us from, you know, making sure we still tipped appropriately and made sure that our crew staff was taken care of. So. So I want to make sure that we're good stewards of the cruise community to do that. But it was definitely the worst. The worst main dining experience we've ever had. [00:45:01] Speaker B: And I don't. We have seen. And you have talked about it as well. You know, some of the ships are taking a hit from moving crew onto the new ships. I don't know that that was the case for our servers and our table at all. [00:45:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Well. And I got to tell you, the worst servers we ever had were on the Treasure Maiden Voy. And we, in that experience, they were not brand new either, actually. Well, I should say the assistant server was new, but the main server was not new. And so I think there are just some servers out there who really aren't great new or not, frankly, we've had servers or assistant servers who've been brand new who've been wonderful, and others who've not been wonderful. Right. There's definitely a range. I'd say on the whole. Most of the time, I feel like we have good service, and then then every once in a while, we have either mediocre or bad service. I would say most of the time, if it's not great, it's just kind of mediocre, not necessarily bad. [00:46:04] Speaker C: I do think that the cruise line right now is expanding at such a rate that, like, I think it has downstream impacts on the service quality. I mean, I noticed it a little bit on the Destiny, and we talked about that in our review. But I think that they have so many new crew to hire and so many people, even if they've been with the company for a long time, like, they're mining some of their best crew to send to their newest ships. And so, like, you know, I think it's. I think it's getting tricky from them from a service quality standpoint. I just hope that they keep, like, sort of upping the. The training and, you know, take the guest feedback and, like, bring the quality back up to the level it was that we're all used to. Because I'm just hearing more complaints. I'm hearing more instances of, like, not great dining room service. So. [00:46:47] Speaker A: Yeah, Yeah. I think also in, like, the post Covid era, I feel like they stopped. Not all, but a lot of the servers stopped with some of the entertainment stuff that they would do, particularly with the kids. Right. With, like, magic tricks and puzzles and things like that. That used to be more common, and I'm finding it's less common. And I don't know if it's the. The dining experience, particularly on the Wish class being so show intensive that they really don't have time to do that, or if. If it's less of a focus in their training or if they have more tables, frankly, to service more people that they're having to serve. I'm not sure exactly where that disconnect is happening. And we have, you know, had some experience. In fact, on the last sailing, we just did on the Destiny, we had great servers. Our assistant server was new or newish, and he was actually doing the crayon puzzles the last couple of nights. He didn't do them the whole cruise, but the last couple of nights, he started bringing them out. So I think as he got more comfortable with us with probably his job, he felt like he could do some of that stuff. But it's been a while since we've seen a lot of those things that used to be more. More commonplace. [00:47:58] Speaker B: All right, well, this was probably. I don't know if this is probably true. On the other ships, this is the first time we noticed it. The menu included the dessert menu. It used to be you got a dessert menu separate. Now it's clearly all integrated into one. [00:48:12] Speaker C: I noticed that they wanted to take the dessert order up front. They didn't, like, like, come at the end. And, I mean, they would, but, like, their preference was get me your whole order up front. I also noticed that, like, on the menu we had in Pride Lands, they didn't call out a signature dessert any longer, even though there is a signature dessert. So. [00:48:27] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, they just didn't label it that way. Yeah. All right, well, we gotta contrast, you know, some bad service with what I would imagine was some really good service over in Paulo. Now, you went the first night to Pa. Did you go twice to Paulo or just once to Paulo? [00:48:42] Speaker D: Just once. [00:48:42] Speaker A: Okay, tell us. You gotta tell me. The service and the food has gotta be great in Paula, right? Please say. Please say. Okay, go ahead. [00:48:51] Speaker B: Service was great. I will say a reminder to anybody who's listening. Paolo, Remy, Ashante, they all have a dress code, and it is being enforced. At least it was on the magic. We saw two couples in front of us. One did not have any attire to change into and got turned away. The other one was given borrowed pants to go put on. So that was just an interesting situation to watch. But the food was great, as always. Our server was wonderful. I won't say that she was the best we have ever had. She was clearly a very chatty extrovert, which was kind of a lot for us to take. But we were just as happy and full as we are every time we go to Palo. Very good. [00:49:37] Speaker A: Love that. Love that. I gotta say, you know, the dress code isn't what it used to be in Paulo or Remy. It is definitely. They've relaxed it quite a bit. So you can. You can be in shoes that have rubber soles. [00:49:51] Speaker B: You can be in jeans. [00:49:52] Speaker A: Right. But they do not let you go in. In shorts. Like, it is not. You cannot wear shorts in Paulo. So a lot of time you see men showing up in shorts, and they might be even, you know, nice sort of chino shorts, but that is not the dress code. You have to have pants. And I have seen them loaned out pants before, so that's not completely out of the ordinary. But you can't show up in a T shirt and shorts to Paulo. You should not be wearing a T shirt at all. Impala. At all. You should be wearing a polo shirt, a sweater, a button down, you know, a blouse, you know, just. Yeah, just step it up, people. It's not that hard. Just a little bit, you know? Yeah, it's not. It's not dressy, I would say it's not dressy dress. It's just not pool casual. Right. No bathing Suits. [00:50:39] Speaker D: I hadn't thought about it until we recorded this, but the, the theme of this seems to be read and follow the directions. People read and follow the directions all the way across this cruise. [00:50:49] Speaker A: I love that. And I love that you say that, Kara, because I think the minimum expectation is read and follow directions. Right. Like. And I get annoyed when people in cruise groups, for example, will ask the question of, can I bring a vacuum? Can I bring a blender? Can I just. I mean, it's very easy to find on the website. What are. What's on the do not bring list? I. There. I can understand when people ask the questions of which kind of plug thing. Right. Can I use like that. I understand because it's a little bit confusing on the website. You can't bring a surge protector, but you can bring. Let's it call it a splitter, but only the splitter that splits into USBs, not a splitter that splits. Plugs. Right. Anyway, so I, I can understand there being a little bit of confusion with that. But like, no, you can't bring a steam. [00:51:40] Speaker C: No underwater. No underwater scuba apparatus. [00:51:44] Speaker A: Right? [00:51:44] Speaker E: Yeah, apparatus. [00:51:45] Speaker C: Like, yeah, the. I saw one of those confiscated. No drones. No drones. For anyone out there listening, no drones. [00:51:50] Speaker A: Right. Like, it's not. It's not that hard. Like, no major appliances. You can't. Right. [00:51:56] Speaker C: No rice cookers. [00:51:57] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:51:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:58] Speaker D: It's why I almost never get in the cruise groups. Gail almost always does. And then almost every night as we're building up characters, she's like, oh, my gosh, this is so stupid. [00:52:09] Speaker C: All you have to do is search for Disney Cruise Line prohibited items and there is a full and complete list available. Or you can, you know, if you're using AI these days, you can just ask what items are prohibited on Disney Cruise Line. It will turn the items on that page. [00:52:21] Speaker A: So, yeah, and there are. There are. [00:52:23] Speaker D: Or use a good travel agent. [00:52:24] Speaker A: Yes. Or use a good travel agent. [00:52:26] Speaker D: Like, I take mine with me on every trip that I go on. But use a good, good travel agent and they will prepare you for these things. [00:52:32] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:52:33] Speaker D: Was not a good travel agent. [00:52:35] Speaker B: Agreed. [00:52:35] Speaker A: Agreed. And you can ask all your questions to your travel advisor instead of outsourcing them to a Facebook group who you don't know how good the information you're. You're getting is. All right, you guys. Okay, well, we're going to do a very abbreviated rapid fire today because we've done rapid fire with you guys. [00:52:57] Speaker C: Let's just ask the, the anything we missed, anything we missed at all that you wanted to be sure to highlight. [00:53:02] Speaker B: I'm gonna say no. [00:53:03] Speaker A: I messed up the shows. [00:53:04] Speaker B: We only went this. This ship had frozen, which we don't go to. [00:53:16] Speaker D: Rapunzel. [00:53:17] Speaker B: Oh, we went to Rapunzel and we went to Dreams. Usually love both of those. [00:53:24] Speaker A: Twice Charmed. No, Twice Charmed, Right? Yes. [00:53:27] Speaker B: Twice Charmed. Twice Charmed. This cast was lacking the it factor is the only way I can describe that. [00:53:34] Speaker D: Yeah, shows were good, but they weren't amazing. [00:53:37] Speaker A: That's a bummer. That's a bummer. I love the production of Tangled on. On the Magic. So that's a. That's a must not miss for me when. Whenever we're on the Magic. I actually really like the Frozen production on. On dcl, so I tend to go to that one as well. But. [00:53:54] Speaker C: Well, since Sam tried to unceremoniously get past my transition here, I am going to give it now, which is we have reached that point in the show. We're going to hand you back over to Sam for some arbitrary questions, some arbitrary rules, and a dash of judgment of the round we know as rapid fire. So, Sam, take it away. [00:54:10] Speaker A: All right, I'm going to do an abbreviated rapid fire because we've done this before, but we got to update. It's been a while since we've done a rapid fire with you guys, and so we've got a. I gotta get back to some ship favorites to figure out if these have changed over the last couple of years of sailing. Because, you know, ship favorite might change. Dining favorites might change. You know, sweet and savory items might change. We know there's. We know there's a little bit of a sweet and savory rivalry amongst the two of you, as there is amongst Brian and I as well. All right, so we're gonna start with your favorite port of call. Now, now that you've been to, you know, you've been to the Met, you've been to Alaska, you've been to the southern Caribbean, and you. You've. I mean, you've been so many places. You guys, what's your favorite port of call? Kara? [00:54:59] Speaker D: The one that takes you to Stockholm. [00:55:01] Speaker A: Oh, love it. All right. Oh, wow. [00:55:05] Speaker D: Go to. [00:55:05] Speaker A: Anymore. [00:55:07] Speaker D: Stockholm was amazing. We got. [00:55:08] Speaker B: Hear that, Disney. [00:55:09] Speaker D: No. [00:55:10] Speaker A: All right. Okay. What is your favorite itinerary now? And Gail, we're going to start with you. [00:55:17] Speaker B: Oh. [00:55:18] Speaker A: Oh. [00:55:18] Speaker B: Oh, dear. I don't even know where to start with this. Both of these don't exist anymore. So it's either that northern Europe that hit Denmark and in Stockholm, or it is the Pacific coast that Actually stops down the coast and doesn't just bump from Vancouver down to San Diego. [00:55:43] Speaker A: All right. Love it. Awesome. Kara, what about you? [00:55:45] Speaker D: That Pacific coast was one of my favorites ever. And I would do that one again again, if Disney brought it back. [00:55:51] Speaker A: Okay, favorite excursion now. So, Kara, we're gonna start with you. [00:55:58] Speaker D: So on our Mediterranean cruise, we did into Rome, we did the Vatican Gardens tour, and that is still one of my favorite port adventures we've ever done. [00:56:10] Speaker B: I thought you were gonna say the pasta making in Florence. [00:56:13] Speaker D: That was also amazing. [00:56:14] Speaker B: Okay. [00:56:16] Speaker A: All right, Gail, which one's you? [00:56:18] Speaker B: Yours, because it is rapid. I'm gonna say when we stopped in Astoria, only because we did glassblowing there and we still have those ornaments. [00:56:32] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:56:32] Speaker A: Oh, I love that. Well, you listen. When in the Pacific Northwest, you've got to do glassblowing. It's kind of a local pastime here. [00:56:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I wouldn't go so far as called a pastime. [00:56:43] Speaker A: Well, it's one of those, like, you're. [00:56:44] Speaker C: Well known because of Dale Chihuly. [00:56:46] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, but that's the North. There's multiple places you can do glassblowing across Oregon and Washington, and all of them really, really great. [00:56:55] Speaker C: And much harder than it looks. [00:56:56] Speaker A: It is much harder than it looks. Absolutely love that. All right, we got to talk favorite ship. You guys, it's been a while, so, yeah, we'll. We'll hit. Let's just hit favorite ship and then we're going to do. Then we're going to move on to bucket list. So, Gail, which one is your favorite ship? Now, you've been on all of them except for Destiny and Treasure. So those are the only two you. [00:57:16] Speaker B: Can'T choose going into this cruise. It had been for me a long term coin flip between the fantasy and the magic. And I still cannot fathom the day when the magic goes to retirement. So we don't speak about that. But this, this cruise bumped it down and it's coming down. Not that the Fantasy is going up, but I think that's where I still am. [00:57:41] Speaker A: All right, Tara. [00:57:43] Speaker D: Yeah, same. We're holding out a lot of hope for the Destiny. So the Destiny may vault up there. And I, unlike a lot of people, I loved the Wish. So I actually, there were a lot of elements of the wish that I really enjoyed and I'm looking forward to getting back on Wish that shit again. [00:57:58] Speaker C: You got to get on the treasure. The Destiny is great. I love the Destiny, but I really feel like it's keyed to, like, heroes and villains, people. So if you Are heroes and villains people. You're going to love it. [00:58:06] Speaker D: I think that's why we're going to like that one so much. [00:58:09] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. It's a great. It is a great, great ship. And I mean, the Treasure is great for parks fans. The Destiny is great for Marvel fans and hero slash villain fans. I'd say more villain fans, actually, than hero fans, unless you're Marvel hero fans specifically. But yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. Fantastic ship. All right. Bucket list cruise. So now you have lots of things you've checked off the bucket list, but I gotta know what. What is on the bucket list? Meaning you have not hit it yet. You can cruise anywhere in the world on a Disney ship. It doesn't even have to be someplace that Disney Cruise Line currently sails. Kara, if you're choosing, where are you going? [00:58:49] Speaker D: I want to go around the world. If I get to make up my own cruise, I want to hit like 30 places and go around the world. [00:58:57] Speaker A: I love it. I'll be there, too. All right, Gail, what about you? [00:59:01] Speaker B: I think I am coming up with a new answer, and that is I am holding out hope that the next class of ship is going to take us places we haven't been before. [00:59:11] Speaker A: Yeah, nice. Yeah, absolutely. I think we will see some new places once the meridian class, as we're calling it, ship comes out. We're hoping for some new ports and maybe some ports they just haven't hit in a while. Maybe those Canadian ports on the east coast would be nice to have hit. Maybe we could get some more west coast cruises as well. Yeah, I think it would be really nice if we get some of these kind of smaller New England and Canadian ports. Well, ladies a, you both, you know, pass with flying colors as usual. We love having you on the show, Gail. We got to give you an opportunity to tell folks if they would like to book a cruise or Disney vacation or other vacation with you, how you can make that magic happen, happen. [01:00:00] Speaker B: Thank you. My name is Gail Hardelroad. I am with off to Neverland Travel, and it's Gail with a Y. [01:00:08] Speaker A: Awesome. Well, thanks so much, you guys. We so appreciate having the sailing sloths on our show. You, of course, you know, you're welcome to come back anytime you sail, whether that's with Disney or adventures by Disney, of course. But thanks so much. [01:00:23] Speaker B: Thanks. [01:00:23] Speaker A: Bye. [01:00:29] Speaker E: Well, thanks everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. 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If you've got questions or you'd to 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. We sell some fun fan inspired magnets link to our Patreon. If you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month, just head over to the website or patreon.com dc duo also as a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to support, start really pumping out monthly here at least and a few blog articles that we've written. So DCLDUO.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also of course email [email protected] or reach out to us on our voicemail line at 402-413-5590. That's 402-413-5590. The DCL Duo podcast is not affiliated with Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Company or the Disney family of theme parks. The views expressed on the show are solely those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflective views the Disney Company or Disney Cruise Line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or Disney vacation, please contact the great folks over at My Path Unwinding Travel or Disney directly or your own travel agent. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL Duo. [01:02:30] Speaker D: Midnight. [01:02:37] Speaker A: Sa.