[00:00:00] Speaker A: The water bottles were Disney branded. They were. They had Disney characters on them. So there was like six different Disney characters on these metal water bottles that were sourced from New Zealand and they said New Zealand water on them.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: Those are on ebay. Those are on ebay right now.
[00:00:31] Speaker C: Welco.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Welcome everybody to this week's live episode of the DCL Duo Podcast. Brought to you by my path Unwinding travel and also our good friends over at the DCL Magazine. If you have not already subscribed, please head over, show the DCL magazine some love. Just browse over to dcl-magazine.com that's dcl-magazine.com and you can subscribe to the DCL magazine. You can also subscribe to the WWDW magazine, the DLR magazine.
So many great magazines over there in print and digital format. They've got a great calendar, some other stuff that they sell in their store and you can take 10% off all of it by using code DCLDUO. That's all caps DCLO DCLDUO over at the dcl-magazine.com store. So welcome back everybody. We're a little delayed this week, a little discombobulated. This is the first live show we've done in three weeks and we're fresh off of being back from Aulani. This has been a re entry unlike any other into the real world after spending two weeks in paradise.
And I suspect you know who we're missing tonight is fan number one. And the number one fan, she's watching.
[00:01:43] Speaker D: She's in a hotel in your Cincinnati and she's watching. So hi Tracy. I know you're watching.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Yes, we spent two weeks with Tracy and Michael at Elani and had a fabulous time. So aloha to them. They are on their way down to Florida for like several months. So move into the magic. I mean not moving permanently to the Magic, but temporarily relocating to the Magic. That doesn't sound as fun. But anyway, we want to start off tonight's show with a bit of news coming out of Adventures by Disney.
They made some pretty significant announcements this week. On Monday we have them over on our Instagram account too. And you can find more information about these over on the Parks blog. But briefly, uh, they are revamping or, or adding to their Rhine river cruise itinerary. And for those of you who don't know, Adventures by Disney is kind of the luxury land, you know, guided travel product from Disney. Uh, they do some river cruises in partnership with AMA Waterways, which is a higher end river cruise line over in Europe. Uh, you may recall from prior shows, we've done a river cruise.
And of course, podcast version 2.0 cruise is coming up this summer on AMA waterways with adventures by Disney. We're going to be sailing Holland and Belgium itinerary. But Adventures by Disney has added some.
[00:03:07] Speaker D: Adventures and there's still room. There's still room on that itinerary.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: Reach out to My Path Unwinding Travel. Yes, Reach out to My Path Unwinding Travel. I think we got like 10 rooms on board currently. So if you've been looking to branch out, try river cruising for the first time. Come with us. We can't claim to be experts, but we have at least done it before.
But onto the news from Adventure by Disney. So they're adding some. I don't know if it's a new port stop or just new adventures from an existing port stop or new things you can do off the ship from an existing port stop. But they are talking about. Or they've added stops in Colmar. And I'm going to butcher this and I apologize to the French. I took 12 years of French and I'm still going to butcher it.
Which both of these stops are just picturesque stuff. Cities in France, I believe, both of which then inspired Beauty and the Beast. So they are kind of giving you this fairy tale moment off of your river cruise to see some of the cities and sites that inspired Beauty and the Beast.
There's also an opportunity to explore Lucerne in Switzerland, which is a UNESCO heritage site. It's protected by, um. And so all three of these stops will be available on Rhine River Cruises with Adventures by Disney on AMA waterways starting in 2027.
Come on, Abd. One year after the DCL duo podcast cruise version 2.0. Like just, you know, we want to go to Lucerne, we want to see Colmar and Eggersheim. Um, unfortunately it wouldn't have been a part of our itinerary anyway. But if you're interested in these, you can head over to the Initials by Disney website, take a look or reach out to my path on Whining Travel.
I think the bigger news here, though, to bury the lead a bit, you know, ABD has actually been scaling back some of these short escapes that they have over the last several years. Well, they've added a new one to give you sort of even more flexibility. So these short escapes are great little two, three day escapes that you can typically add on beginning of a river cruise, sometimes the beginning of an ocean cruise for Disney when they're over there in Europe.
This one is a Munich Escape, which pairs nicely with the adventures by Disney Danube Cruise that I think that they tend to do if they've timed it right. We went to Munich to board in Vilshofen for our Christmas markets river cruise. Munich is a fabulous city, but they're adding a brand new Munich Escape they're calling it. It's a little bit of a Bavarian appetizer. Two nights, hands on culinary fun and the big finale is a trip to this one. I'm really going to butcher. Neuschwanstein Castle, the literal inspiration for Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland. A bucket list for any true Disney fan out there. So again, that is a new ABD Short Escape add on will be available and starting in 2027.
[00:05:57] Speaker D: And the 2027, I believe river cruise and Short Escape itineraries actually I believe went on sale yesterday for ABD insiders who have done three or more adventures and then today they were bookable for those who are adventure insiders who have been on one or more prior adventures and then they open on Monday for booking for pretty much anyone who has some Disney affiliation. If you have sailed on Disney Cruise Line once, have any castaway club status, meaning if you are a DVC member, if you happen to live in Golden Oak or are a Club 33 member, then you can book on Monday any of these itineraries, the general public, meaning you don't have any of those Disney affiliations that I mentioned, can book on Tuesday.
So these itineraries are bookable right now for some people and soon to be bookable starting on Monday and Tuesday.
I have one other piece of news that I just found out from our travel advisor, Kayleigh from my Path Unwinding Travel said it was coffee related.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: Starbucks on board.
[00:07:13] Speaker D: It's coffee related. And so this is actually, this is actually Brian's specific news. I feel like this Brian is the target audience for this news. It's not Starbucks, Brian, but on the Disney Treasure, which means which class ships there is cold brew available in the concierge lounge. You just have to ask.
[00:07:38] Speaker B: I'm not going to upgrade to concierge just to get cold brew when I can just buy it for five bucks.
[00:07:43] Speaker D: I'm not saying you're going to upgrade to get cold brew. I'm just saying if you're sailing in concierge, you have cold brew available now in addition to the coffee that comes in those latte machines.
[00:07:54] Speaker B: The bar on this show for news has really lowered just now. I just want to say that cold brew available in concierge. Well, good for you, yay. All right, we're gonna get onto the show now. Sam, do you wanna welcome in our guest.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:08:09] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:08:10] Speaker D: I'm super excited to welcome today's guest June to the show. June has not been on our show before, but we have been in contact for several months now through our friend Ashley, who June is friends with as.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: Well and who is watching eagerly from the chat.
[00:08:26] Speaker D: I think so, yeah. Who's watching it in the chat? Who told us you have to have June on originally were going to have June on the show to talk about the Disney Adventure because June was booked on, what was it, the maiden or the second voyage? June.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: It was like the third voyage. It was in December.
[00:08:43] Speaker D: So she was booked. Yeah, booked on one of the early voyages for the Disney Adventure. Now, of course, June, you had to pivot. So we're going to talk today about what you pivoted to. But before we do that, we got to talk about your Disney background, your Disney cruising background. You've got a blog and an Instagram and a website, all the vacation mouse dedicated to, of course, all things Disney.
Tell us like how, when did you start like vacationing with Disney? When did you start the blog? Like how did you get into this?
[00:09:19] Speaker A: Yeah, so I've been vacationing with Disney most of my life. The first vacation I had in Disney was 1975 or 76.
And grew up with my parents going every few years and went with friends. Pretty much been going my whole life, but really took off with my daughter after she was born. I have one daughter, she's now 19 and she shares my Disney fandom. And she once we started going to Disney, that's all she wanted to do. She is a die hard Disney fan.
So all in all, I think now I've been on about 50 Disney vacations.
I've also been to over 40 countries.
So my blog is about Disney, but it's also focused internationally on international parks, international vacations.
That's one of the great things about Disney is that it kind of grows with you. When my daughter was little, she just wanted to go to the parks until she did the cruises and then she wanted to go on cruises too. In Aulani. Aulani vacation was like famous because she cried the day we had to leave Aulani because she, she did not want to get want to go.
But then as a teenager she got really interested in international travel. And so then we really, I had done a lot of international travel before. I had her kind of paused that and did what she wanted to do for many years. And then when she wanted to do that, we started exploring, you know, venturing out to ABD and to Disney cruises internationally and going to the parks internationally. So that's, you know, there's always to explore in the world and more ways to explore it with Disney.
[00:11:01] Speaker D: Love that. Love that. Well, tell us, you, you originally had booked the adventure. Obviously that got delayed. Did you rebook the adventure at all or did you just say, oh, you did. Okay, nice.
[00:11:14] Speaker A: And I so excited about my rebooking now.
[00:11:19] Speaker D: You got that 50% off. Did you use the 50% off? I gotta ask because this is important strategy stuff, you guys. Did you use that 50% off on your new adventure booking or did you use that 50% off on something different?
[00:11:35] Speaker A: I used it on the new adventure booking. I used it to book concierge for the first time.
And our room plus balcony for my daughter and I on our adventure sailing is over 1200 square feet. So I am very excited. If you, if you flash up a picture of adventure, I could show you our room on the back of the boat. One of these, like wraparound balcony boot rooms on the back of the boat.
But that 50% off because honestly, the adventure is not an expensive ship to sail on.
It's expensive, but the rooms themselves are not expensive. So upgrading to concierge with the 50% off and yeah, getting this room, it was just a great opportunity. So I'm super, super excited about that sailing. We will sail out of Singapore on New Year's Eve this coming year.
[00:12:30] Speaker D: Awesome. Awesome. Well, that's a great strategy. The reason I asked that question is because of exactly what you said, the adventure. The sailings are actually not that expensive. If you comp them to most of the sailings on the newer ships, for example, out of Port Canaveral or Fort Lauderdale, the Treasure and the Destiny, they're really like per night sailing, the adventure is actually cheaper, but of course it's costly to get over to Singapore and costly for hotels, of course, in Singapore. So it's not a cheap trip. It's just the cruise portion is not as expensive. But that's actually a really smart strategy to if you're going to try concierge or, you know, pivot to a concierge sailing and you don't have the restriction, meaning the 50% off for the adventure did not have a restriction that you could not book concierge. That's a really, a really smart way to go. So, yeah, don't use, we try to tell people if you have one of those future cruise credits, don't use it on like A three night regular wish sailing. Like use it on the more expensive sailing, whether that's Alaska or Europe or concierge booking or whatever. Like think of it strategically because you want to get the most for your money. Well, tell us you decided to over the holidays or really in was earlier mid December, it wasn't over Christmas. But tell us why you decided to go. I mean you'd originally planned on going to Singapore.
Why did you pivot to New Zealand?
[00:14:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
So when the delay happened with Adventure, that was September, so we didn't have a lot of time to figure out what we were going to do instead in December.
And we priced out actually the Destiny, which would have been on a very early sailing of the Destiny and actually had booked that and then switched to New Zealand. The reason we switched to New Zealand was one, we actually got some money back from the New Zealand sailing because again it was such it was less expensive. Just that region is less expensive, the dollar's stronger in region so it's less expensive sailing. But also we had heard that this was Disney's Farewell for now tour, which is really sad. I'm hoping that's temporary and they'll come back to New Zealand. But so it just seemed like an opportunity that we may not have again for a while if we didn't take this opportunity to sail in New Zealand. So someplace we haven't been and just was a unique and a unique opportunity though. So we, we grabbed a hold of the chance to do that.
[00:15:08] Speaker D: Awesome. Well, it's a really long trip from North Carolina all the way to New Zealand. Did you guys. Obviously there isn't a direct flight, but where did you all have to fly through and did you spend any time in New Zealand or perhaps Australia on the front or back end of the trip?
[00:15:28] Speaker A: Yep. So we flew from North Carolina to LA and then LA direct to Auckland, New Zealand.
It really wasn't. It was about the same distance as flying to Japan. We went to Japan this past April and it was basically the same flight from LA to Japan versus New Zealand. So a 12 hour flight from LA direct.
And I actually don't mind those flights. I think it's easier than flying honestly from east coast to Europe because when you go east coast to Europe you have about a six, seven hour flight and you really can only get a couple hours of sleep. But if you have a 12 hour flight you actually have a chance to sleep. And we landed and hit the ground running with the little bit of time that we had before. The day before the cruise in New Zealand Awesome.
[00:16:16] Speaker D: Now you flew into Auckland, which is of course a major city in New Zealand. Now your sailing was starting out of Auckland. Where did you all stay the night before your cruise?
[00:16:30] Speaker A: We stayed at the Hilton Auckland, which is immediately adjacent to the, the port. So it's like the, it's almost like the, the cruise ship is pulled up to the hotel. Like, it's like, so it's like Vancouver.
[00:16:44] Speaker D: It's like when you're sailing to Alaska from the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver, it's like right downstairs basically.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: Yeah, like if I, if your windows open, you could reach out and like touch the cruise ship. It was that close. It was like really, really close. So most, I mean most everybody, it seemed like in that hotel were, were sailing on the, on the cruise ship that day.
[00:17:04] Speaker D: That's awesome. Now this is a five night itinerary out of New Zealand. So you had some, and you had some port stops. This is not one of the sailings to nowhere, which we know there are some, some of the sailings had just sort of one stop, but not really a great stop, but yours significant stops.
Let's, let's start with the boarding process out of, out of Auckland.
You'd been on Disney Cruise Line before. Had you been on the Wonder before?
[00:17:35] Speaker A: Yes, this was my third time on the Wonder.
[00:17:38] Speaker D: Okay, okay, so your experience with all of this. Well, was it any different, the check in process in New Zealand than it had been, let's say, sailing somewhere out of the States?
[00:17:51] Speaker A: It was very efficient actually and, and I know it can vary a lot, you know, port to port, but we, we boarded very quickly. We, we had, we were like group three for boarding, but we arrived a little bit late because we decided to go to brunch nearby before we boarded the ship. And so we showed up, I don't know, maybe 15, 20 minutes later than our boarding time and just got in line with everybody else and we were through the line and I don't know, 15, 20 minutes. It was really, really quick.
[00:18:21] Speaker D: That's awesome. Did you find that the other passengers were mostly Kiwis, mostly Aussies. Were there any Europeans, Americans mixed in? Like what was the demographics of the folks, nationality wise who were on your sailing?
[00:18:39] Speaker A: It was very much primarily Kiwis and I'd say 80 plus percent Kiwi and then maybe 10% Aussie. I mean that combination was, it was 90%. And this is just going by applause like they did a poll in the, in theater.
So very, very heavily Kiwis and then Aussies and then I'd say the last 10% was everybody else in the world from, you know, Asians, Europeans and US and predominantly first time cruisers as well from the applause oh, interesting.
[00:19:18] Speaker D: Yeah, I think a lot of those sailings over in Australia, New Zealand end up being first time cruisers and also predominantly Aussies and Kiwis, depending upon where they're sailing out of of course, because they've only had the ship there for, you know, this is its, you know, third season, but still only for a few months. And it is as you mentioned, the US dollar is strong over there, but that means that their dollar is weak in comparison. And so this is an expensive proposition for most folks over there. I do think that also has something to do with maybe why they're not earning there immediately.
[00:19:53] Speaker B: And air travel from the US right now is very expensive generally. So even if the dollar is strong, like you can book a cruise someplace else and save a ton of airfare money. So yeah, it's a hard market for them I think right now. So.
[00:20:06] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, let's talk about how full this sailing was. Like was it. I mean this is December, so it's holiday time. It's their summertime which is obviously a unique thing for, because for us here in the States it's winter time and we, they do barbecues for Christmas, not, not snow.
But yeah. How full was the sailing?
[00:20:32] Speaker A: It actually I think it was pretty full from the theater and the dining rooms and the pool. It seemed full now was. There was a lot of availability when I booked though and we didn't book that far out. So I do think there was a lot of last minute bookings. I don't know how much it was discounted later because to your point, the, the New Zealand dollar is only about 60 cents to the US dollar. So it was very expensive. And what was empty was like Palo. We went to Palo for lunch and dinner and There was maybe 10 and Paulo @ both of those meals.
Also we, we got it. We were offered a discount at the spa that I've never been offered before.
I think that the, even the, the merchandise, like I was showing off my spirit jersey that I got unique to the, to the cruise and I lined up with a lot of other people when the stores opened wanting unique New Zealand merchandise. And there was a lot of it.
But most of the, the Kiwis left the store not buying merchandise. And I heard, I'm saying and talked actually to our table mates at dinner who were Kiwis about that. They just were really shocked by how expensive things were. So I mean being first Time cruisers, mostly first time cruisers, though they're going to be less likely to do upgrades as well. Right. They want to do all the rotational dining. They don't want to miss out on all those experiences. So I'm sure that played into it as well. But they're definitely, there definitely is an aspect of the cost of the Disney cruise in a country that has a lower currency.
[00:22:05] Speaker D: Rate.
Yeah, well, and that's an interesting point. Even Paulo brunch, if you think about it, I mean, we love it, obviously you love it, you did it. But it's one of those things where it does take a big chunk of your day, right. It's going to be at least an hour and a half to two and a half hours of brunch depending upon how leisurely you like to take it. And for kiwis who maybe this is their only opportunity to sail on Disney Cruise Line, maybe they're more interested in hitting up trivia and bingo and the water slides and the pool deck and you know, all the different activities on board and aren't going to want to take a two hour plus you know, chunk out of their day specifically to do brunch, even if that means they're not going to miss a rotational dining. And I will tell you, that's what I tell people who are first time cruisers in general, right. Like if you're a first time cruiser and you are not sure if you're going to do this again and you know, you want to experience a ton of the ship, especially on a shorter sailing, which five nights I'd say is a medium length sailing. It's, I wouldn't call it a shorter length sailing, but I, I tell people, don't book these extra things. Don't book the spa appointment, don't book the Paulo brunch or the Paulo dinner or rental.
[00:23:20] Speaker B: Dinner. There's always time to spa, Sam. There's always time to.
[00:23:23] Speaker D: Spa. Well, I mean, listen, some for people who love the spa, book the spa. But if you're like on the fence about booking these extras that cost extra money, like drink tastings and things like that, especially for first timers, I say, like hold off, don't book these things. You'll, if you do a second or a third cruise, maybe book.
[00:23:45] Speaker B: Them. Then there's also like Palo brunches, like Jell O, you know, there's always room for Palo brunches.
That's actually the most inept analogy I could make because I don't, I don't think palo brunches at all. Like Jell o because there is usually not enough room for Palo brunch but yes, yeah, yeah. I'm curious June, sorry if you, you mentioned this up front but I was trying to see if I could fix this technical issue that people seem to be having with our YouTube feed tonight. Did you, did you just go for the cruise or were you there pre post cruise for a while.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: Too?
We did a full day pre cruise and then we did three and a half days post cruise which really thankful for because kind of spoiler alert we had two major stops on our cruise and one of those didn't happen because weather Disney could not dock at the port.
So we spent a lot of time on the boat longingly looking at the country of New Zealand and the Disney.
So we were initially like, oh these you know these fat sea days are gonna be really good because they're gonna force us to like relax and take a vacation in between like all our excursions and you know, days before and after and all the travel that we were doing to go there and back in 10 days and but yeah, we got a lot of.
[00:25:01] Speaker B: Rel.
Did the weather end up impacting the sea days as well or was it generally good weather for the sea.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: Days? Yeah, I mean there were people on the pool deck every day though to us it was a bit chilly for being on deck so we got the rainforest length of stay package which I loved and the sailing was only about worked out to about $20 a day which was like a no brainer.
So so that was, that was great. We made good use of that but people were out in the pool. But the, the climate in New Zealand is interesting because the two islands, there's a north and south island and about the size of Colorado but the climate's very different between the north and south island. So the island is the warmer island. That's where we sailed out of an Auckland and it was averaging about 75 degrees a day while we were there.
The south island would be this time of year typically closer to 60 degrees. It's more Rocky Mountains so it's a higher altitude and plus it's further south.
But there was some weather conditions going on at the time that brought it to more like the 50s when we were.
[00:26:16] Speaker D: There.
That's a bit of a bummer because you've left winter to go to summer and then you end up experiencing, I don't know, fall instead of summer I guess.
I don't think of 50s is the winter but yeah, I think it's definitely all like conditions now. Let's let's talk about the, the port that you. The ports you were. The two ports you were supposed to go to. And then which one did you actually get to go to? Which one was the one that was.
[00:26:43] Speaker A: Canceled?
Yeah. The two stops were Wellington, which is at the bottom of the north island, and then Christchurch and the South Island.
So we were able to stop in Wellington and there we did an excursion to do Sealcoast Safari is what it's called. It's offered through Disney. But we did book it outside of Disney because we saved, we saved a good bit of money by doing so. And I always caution people, like, if you're going to take that risk, make sure there's a lot of time between the. Your return time to the port and the time that the ship sails. And this was just a morning excursion, so there was like lots of time and so little risk with that.
So we did get to do that excursion in.
[00:27:28] Speaker D: Wellington.
Awesome. What did that.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: Entail?
So it entailed a couple stops actually. So they took us across Wellington and we stopped at a natural park area where we got a tour of the foliage and got to see some different birds. So we saw a couple different bird species that are native to New Zealand. New Zealand has a lot of endemic species that are only. Can be found in New Zealand.
Really, really interesting.
We'll talk later about the kiwi birds, which we fell in love with. But this, we didn't see any in the wild. They're very hard to spot. But we did see this. We saw, we saw, I think it was called kaka. And a karoo one is like basically a wood pig. A wood pigeon. It's like, it's like a large pigeon, but it's more colorful than our pigeons and like, I don't know, like four times the size of a city pigeon.
[00:28:26] Speaker D: So.
[00:28:28] Speaker A: Wow.
And then the, the other is like a parrot, but it's predominantly black. So it's like black and different muted colors and, and large. More like, more like the size of, oh, I don't know, a cockatoo or something. Like much larger than you would think of a parrot being. So we got to see those in the wild just by plants and also like learned about the native plants and things.
And then we went on to, to see the seals. And that was interesting because it was a sheep farm.
So New Zealand has a lot of agriculture, a lot about agriculture as a result. The food there is phenomenal too. Everything is local, like, like only within, basically. If you lived in Colorado and all of your, all of your meat and vegetables came from Colorado. Like that's the kind of food you eat in New Zealand. It was amazing.
So tons of it was, you know, hilly with tons of sheep and we saw, you know, dogs herding sheep and, and on our way to, to this like this coastal area where we could see the fur seals in their natural habitat.
Yeah. In the ocean and they're big, they're like seven, eight foot fur seals.
[00:29:53] Speaker D: Community.
That's so cool. I'm jealous. That sounds amazing. Now with the sheep, did they have like, I don't know, sweaters and stuff you could buy in that.
[00:30:04] Speaker A: Area?
The Murano wool is, is sold there everywhere. That's the Murano sheep is predominantly what they raise in New Zealand and they mentioned a brand of wool and it's escaping me right now, but a large portion of it comes just from, from New Zealand.
So yes, many, many, many sheep which they're.
[00:30:30] Speaker B: Adorable. They also love lamb in New Zealand. They.
[00:30:33] Speaker A: Love.
[00:30:33] Speaker B: Yes. I just actually saw served up like a New Zealand lamb producers commercial the other day. That was a riot. But yeah, they love to eat lamb in New.
[00:30:43] Speaker A: Zealand. So yeah, yeah, it's exported widely from New Zealand as well. And there's also a lot of cattle and even deer there.
Paddocks full that they raise for meat. And some one of somebody I met on a tour said that they had had venison there and it was absolutely delicious. And I said, I guess it tastes different when it's grass fed than living off of McDonald's trash.
So true. So.
[00:31:10] Speaker C: True.
Are you listening to our show because you want to make the most out of your next.
[00:31:15] Speaker B: Vacation. Great.
[00:31:16] Speaker C: 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. 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 Path Unwinding Travel with 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 MyPath Unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the.
[00:32:07] Speaker D: Episode.
Did, did, did they get to have any like New Zealand specific food on the cruise? Like did they try and so on Disney Cruise Line when they're sailing in certain regions, right. They try to bring in like in Alaska they'll be like, oh, we're going to have some Alaskan.
[00:32:30] Speaker B: Halloween. Some Atlantic salmon.
[00:32:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:34] Speaker B: Yes.
They probably had beef Wellington on the menu even though I don't think that comes from New Zealand. But yeah.
[00:32:41] Speaker D: Yeah. I don't know. But did they have anything that they were like trying to bring sort of the theming or like at least inspiration from New Zealand on.
[00:32:50] Speaker A: Board?
Yes. So not as much in the like the meat and I was expecting that. I was actually looking on the menu to see if they called it. They did serve lamb and beef but they didn't call out if it came locally from New Zealand. Though I do think they source a lot just, you know, logistically they source a lot in. In region when you know where, wherever they are. But they did really highlight the new zeal Australian wine. So New Zealand, Australia has a lot of wine territories and on the main dining menu they had one page of all New Zealand wines and two pages of Australian.
[00:33:28] Speaker D: Wines.
[00:33:29] Speaker A: Wow.
They had a really good selection.
So that was really nice. And they also had New Zealand water and it was, I think it's Rydal or Riddle. It's R I D D E L is the brand of the water and I have some photos on my blog if anybody goes there. But it. The water bottles were Disney branded. They were. They would had Disney characters on them. So there was like six different Disney characters on these metal water bottles that were sourced from New Zealand and I said New Zealand water on.
[00:34:06] Speaker B: Them.
Those are on ebay. Those are on ebay right.
[00:34:09] Speaker A: Now.
Well, here's the.
[00:34:12] Speaker D: Thing. In the US they've got Dasani metal water bottles or sometimes cans depending upon what's available. Usually the bottles. And that's what you can purchase if you're purchasing a water package on board or if you happen to be sailing in concierge. They'll just be grab water bottles you can grab from the coolers.
But that's, I mean they've got to have bottled water because some people want to buy bottled water. I will give a plug for Disney.
Like their water filtration systems are actually really amazing. And so Mickey water on Disney cruise line is not like Mickey water At Walt Disney World. Mickey water at Walt Disney World is disgusting. It tastes gross.
I do not recommend drinking it at any of the restaurants. Like, when you get served in ice water, it is not good. Disneyland is fine. Disney World. I don't know what's up with that water. It's gross.
But Disney Cruise Line has some of the best water. It's like really, really good. But I mean, if you want a bottle of water, it's kind of fun. More fun to have one with a Disney.
[00:35:15] Speaker B: Character. What's the most impressive about the. So back in the catalog, not too many episodes ago, we did a whole show about the engineering space and all of the water reclamation stuff they do. They produce 99% of their own water on board from.
[00:35:28] Speaker D: Seawater. So, yeah, yeah, it's really good. But that's so fun. I kind of love that they. But you're right, they have to source the stuff locally because once they cross the Pacific to get to, you know, to New Zealand and Australia for the season, they're there for four months. They are not flying all their food and water and other things like to, you know, across the Pacific Ocean. They are sourcing locally. So things like Mickey ice cream bars, they do not tend to have them on these New Zealand, Australia sailings after the crossing. They run out of them either on the crossing or shortly after.
You know, they'll have Magnum bars, those ice cream bars instead. Right. The chicken tenders are going to be different. The soda flavors and syrups might be a little bit different. Right. So there's going to be some things that are different. Now, I assume you experienced that on board June, where you the. Did the soda. I don't know if you're a soda drinker, but were the soda options different or taste different on.
[00:36:30] Speaker A: Board?
Drinker. I'm sorry, I was drinking all my big case of bottled water that came with the free cooler.
There you.
[00:36:39] Speaker B: Go. You gotta collect all the characters. I mean, I mean, there's no.
[00:36:42] Speaker D: Doubt.
I mean, I would be probably drinking some Malbec because, like, Australia is really well known for Malbec, which is a red wine that's phenomenal. New Zealand has wonderful Malbec as well. But yeah, it's. Those are the things. But did you hear rumblings from anybody else about the fact that, I don't know, the chicken fingers tasted differently or that there were different people complaining about.
[00:37:11] Speaker A: Cruisers? So they didn't. They didn't know the. The difference, honestly.
Maybe one other American family on the cruise ship. There was really nobody else.
Yeah.
[00:37:25] Speaker D: Wow. All Right, well, so you had a great, great excursion, it sounds like in Wellington. It kind of cool that you got to go to Auckland and Wellington because those are the two biggest.
[00:37:35] Speaker B: Cities. Sorry Sam, hold on. I have to share this comment from. From Ashley. What is the point of a Disney cruise without Mickey ice cream bars? Preach.
Although. Although I have discovered I vastly prefer the Mickey Head ice cream sandwich to the Mickey.
[00:37:50] Speaker D: Bar.
Sorry, Mickey ice cream sandwich. Yes, always beats the Mickey ice cream bar. Magnum ice cream bars are delicious though, you guys. So there's nothing wrong with a Magnum ice cream.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: Bar. My mom always keeps the Magnum Minis parked at home. So there you.
[00:38:05] Speaker A: Go.
[00:38:05] Speaker D: Yes. So, but you got to go to the two, the two largest cities in New Zealand as your embarkation debarkation port being Auckland and then getting to go to Wellington. You missed Christchurch because of the weather situation, but we got to talk about stuff on.
[00:38:20] Speaker B: Board. Actually, can I ask, can I ask real fast? Did you have an excursion booked in Christchurch? And if so, if so, what, what was.
[00:38:26] Speaker D: It? Oh yeah. And what happened to.
[00:38:27] Speaker A: It?
Yeah, so it was Crater Rim Walk. So it was a hike around, you know, the top of a cr.
Really wish we could have, could have done it.
And it was the only stop on the South Island.
We were kind of lucky that things didn't work out how we originally planned. I'd actually called Disney and asked them if we could disembark in Christchurch and not go back to Auckland because we wanted to see more of the South Island. And I've done that on other cruises but I always called Ask because they don't allow you to do it everywhere. But they told us that we couldn't do that on any New Zealand. New Zealand cruises you couldn't get off anywhere other than the embarkation debarkation point.
But that was probably for the best because if we had planned everything around disembarking in Christchurch and then couldn't port there, that would have been a much bigger problem missing our.
[00:39:20] Speaker D: Excursion. So that's a really good point. I will say, I think in general that Disney Cruise Line doesn't let you. I know other cruise lines will let you disembark at other ports sort of partway through a cruise. I think Disney Cruise Line is, is generally very strict about that, not letting people do that unless of course there's an emergency. Right. Like somebody gets sick and has to emergency debark or whatnot. But a lot of it is just like the logistics of like immigration.
[00:39:48] Speaker B: And things like that on these cruises, New Zealand and Australia are extremely strict with their immigration so I could imagine that was like a no go from a. We can't just let you off here because the immigration and customs won't allow for it. So. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:40:02] Speaker A: Yeah. We did it with Disney Cruise Line on the, at Le Havre which was the, the port to go to Paris before we did that instead of going on to back to Southport, England because we wanted to spend time in Paris and they allowed us to do it for that sailing. But yeah, always call and check.
[00:40:24] Speaker D: And. Yeah, absolutely. Well, let's, let's talk about some of the onboard stuff because this was a maritime sailing as I mentioned at the top of show. So you get to have the layer of all the Christmas stuff on top of being in New Zealand in the summer, their summertime, our winter time.
Was it, well one. Was it odd first of all to be have all this Christmasy stuff yet being in sort of a summertime environment? I'll start with that.
[00:40:52] Speaker A: Question.
Yeah, not too much.
It. Well and we go down to the, to the Florida parks near Christmas a lot. I mean I love a palm tree with Christmas lights on it.
So yeah, it didn't feel too odd I have to say. Like in New Zealand in general things were decorated but not like to the US standard, right. You would see a tree here or there or you know, a decoration here or there, but it wasn't, you know, adorned for Christmas like what we're used to in the US by any means. And that's what the, the Kiwis that we met on the ship said. You know, it's not quite as big of a deal, you know, in New Zealand as it is in America. So but, but for Disney it was, was, you know, it was full court press. Like the Wonder was absolutely decked out and the. I think the Wonder is gorgeous at Christmas.
I've, I've been on maritime cruise on the Wish, which is beautiful, all white and gold like the style of the Wish. But the Wonder in, in the, when you enter the Wonder, the. What's it called? The Grand. The grand for.
[00:42:01] Speaker D: What? The.
[00:42:02] Speaker A: Atrium.
Yes. When you enter the atrium and on the Wonder the colors just really lend themselves to Christmas. I mean the, the light fixture in the ceiling of the atrium looks like a red poinsettia. Like it looks like, it looks like they could have changed it out for Christmas intentionally. Like it's so perfect for Christmas and then they match the decorations, you know, whereas the Wish is the white and gold, the Wonder is, you know, the reds and greens and you know Traditional, you know, colors. And being that the atrium is a little bit compact, it's just like completely, you know, covered in garland and with the tree and. And everything. So it was, it was absolutely beautifully decorated. And they did have a lot of Christmas activities that they fit in. So you had the light. Tree lighting the first night, which they do on every, you know, mar. Maritime cruise they did there in the atrium. You know, the whole, whole big show for that with, with the Fab Five and then the surprise Santa visit. And so they did that the first night as they do on the, on all the maritime cruises.
And then Mickey and Minnie's holiday party on another night, which they moved. This was. I guess originally it's on. It's on deck, or typically it's on deck, but they moved it inside also for the, for the weather.
And so that was in the atrium as well.
And then they still had Pirate Night.
[00:43:26] Speaker D: Too. So there was.
[00:43:28] Speaker A: A.
So there was a lot of entertainment for the. This short cruise that they, they built into to those, to those nights that we were.
[00:43:39] Speaker B: Sailing. I'm assuming no fireworks, though, in Australia, New Zealand. Oh, there.
[00:43:43] Speaker A: Were.
[00:43:43] Speaker B: Okay. All.
[00:43:44] Speaker A: Right.
[00:43:44] Speaker B: Yeah. All right.
[00:43:45] Speaker D: Cool.
[00:43:45] Speaker A: Yeah, we missed them and I love fireworks, but I kind of did not expect there to be fireworks. But our, our table mates told us that they did. Did shoot off fireworks. That they were. Yeah, they were.
[00:43:59] Speaker D: Great. Yeah. I think for the, I think for Pirate Night, they have been able to do the fireworks. And then when they've done the, the Marvel show, the Heroes, what is called Heroes Unite, they've also done some pyrotechnic stuff up on deck. And so they've been allowed to do them in Australia, New Zealand sailings.
It's not like in, you know, Northern Europe or Alaska where they can't do the fireworks. So that's been, I think a. I, I think on these maritime sailings because they've got the Mickey, Minnie holiday party, deck party thing, which obviously you mentioned was in the atrium instead.
They don't do the. They haven't been doing, obviously the Heroes Unite when they're doing a maritime sailing because they. There's only so many deck shows that they can do on one sailing because they've got to do the main stage shows. And a lot of the cast members, you know, of course, are doing all of those things. Things, I'm curious, were those events like the deck parties or atrium parties, I'll call atrium slash deck parties.
And, you know, other entertainment like the Christmas tree lighting and the, the shows in the theater were these things Heavily subscribed. Were they packed full, I'm guessing?
[00:45:14] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely packed full. As just as packed as, as any Disney cruise. Even, even the Jack Jack Diaper Dash, you know, you wouldn't. And they kind of promoted that a little bit. They, they, they gave that a little press before it happened. But you know, being so many first time, you know, sailors on the cruise, you wouldn't, you wouldn't know if, you know, if they would know about how popular that is and everything. But, and, and decorations on door. I mean there was tons of, I mean mo, you know, the majority of the doors had decorations on them. A lot of fish extenders. I mean all of that. There was, there was that on the cruise ship, which was I guess a testament to social media that everybody knew like what to.
[00:46:01] Speaker D: Do.
Absolutely. I was going to ask, did you join a Facebook group for this sailing and if so, like, how active was.
[00:46:09] Speaker A: It?
Yeah, I didn't find one for this particular sailing, but I did, I was on a, like a wonder, you know, New Zealand, Australia Facebook group and it was, it was fairly active. Yes. So yeah, it's funny that I, I did try to find some YouTube videos ahead of, and, and those were pretty sparse of, of any YouTube videos on, on these sailings from prior years. But there, there was a Facebook.
[00:46:38] Speaker B: Group, fewer burgeoning careers as a YouTuber in the New Zealand Australia market or, or you know, an underserved market. So move over there, get a camera and you're good to.
[00:46:48] Speaker D: Go.
Well, it's, I think it's just the, they have only had a couple of seasons over there. Right?
Honest. Like the YouTube market is mostly an American market. Right. I'm not saying there's there are other, there are other folks on YouTube as well, but I think the Disney YouTube market is more American focused and so it's not super surprising that there's not a ton out there. But there might be, I wouldn't be surprised if there's more sort of amateur YouTube and amateur kind of, you know, influencer type stuff that you could probably find if you dig deep, deep enough. But it's interesting, you know, I have noticed from some of the Facebook groups that, that I'm in folks really asking, you know, folks from New Zealand and Australia, especially because of the ships being over there for the last three or the wonder being over there for the last three seasons, you know, asking a lot of questions about, you know, tipping, asking a lot of questions about entertainment, about fish extend, about door decorations, all those things. So I think you're right. I Think social media has really allowed for people who are first time cruisers to do things that you probably wouldn't expect like decorating or is and participating in fish extenders and things like that and finding out maybe a bit more about the activities as well.
You know, I think what's really nice is when you've got a good, you know, cruise director and assistant cruise director that really, really explain and promote those activities on the morning show or on the various announcements throughout the day. And I'm guessing that those were probably a little bit more explanatory. Yeah. And more, yeah. Sort of giving more explanation of what the events were so that first time cruisers could actually know what they were getting into before they decided whether to attend. And for example, Jack, Jack's Diaper dash is a great one. So, so I love that Ashley's asking a question that I would love to ask.
Did when you talk to the crew members, the cast on board, did they comment about how they liked being in Australia, New Zealand, like either negative or positive? I mean my guess is they're probably going to, to most guests speak positively about the experience. But of course we know that from talking to cast in the US we know that their tips are not as good when they're exactly in those.
[00:49:17] Speaker A: Place.
[00:49:18] Speaker D: Curious. Did you talk to any of the cast members and get any, a feel for any of.
[00:49:22] Speaker B: That? But, but if the cruise is primarily Australia, New Zealanders, they're not going to tell them, well, we don't like.
[00:49:26] Speaker D: Being here because, you know, but they might call it American. They might call it American. The.
[00:49:30] Speaker A: Truth. Yeah, I didn't, because I didn't ask that. But it's a really good point. And I, I do think that they, they definitely were not, you know, they definitely were taking a pay cut because it's not a typical.
Sure. And you know, and I think, I mean, I think that's hard for, because it's Disney's model. Right. So for those employees that's very difficult because Disney's model is based upon tipping. But we researched when we went to a restaurant, I looked up, you know, what was appropriate for me to tip at the restaurant. And they, I read that the average waiter at a restaurant in New Zealand makes over $23 an hour so that everybody in New Zealand makes a living wage and they do not, not expect tipping.
And so if you give a tip, it's, it's really because somebody went totally, you know, above and beyond. And whenever I, wherever I did tip, people were extremely gracious and you know, and thankful, you know, they definitely weren't expecting it. Nobody turned around an iPad for selling you a soda. Like, Didn't happen anywhere. In fact, we had a really interesting experience in an Uber that I think kind of speaks to a very different culture in New Zealand.
Or we took a Uber a short distance to shopping area, and our Uber driver stopped when he saw somebody on the side of the road holding a sign that they were wanting a ride to Hamilton, a nearby, you know, city. And he stopped and rolled down his window and offered money to the person who was looking for a ride to Hamilton.
And the person looking for the ride said, oh, thank you, but no, I don't want your money. I'm just waiting for a ride to Hamilton and refused the money. Money and didn't take it. So we were like, I've never been in an Uber where my driver stopped and offered somebody money. And I've never, you know, seen an American say, no, no, please keep your money.
Used to take it. Like, we left without giving him any. Any.
[00:51:35] Speaker B: Money. I thought. I thought you were going to say he pulled over and said, get in, I'll take you right after I drop these folks off. Like, yeah.
[00:51:42] Speaker A: Yeah, it was. But it was, I mean, uniformly, like, probably. And as I mentioned, I've been to over 40 countries. I think it was probably the safest place I've ever been. The most trusting. Like, you know, when we flew domestically, nobody ever checked our id, both directions. We flew round trip. We never had an ID check. We went through security, and they pulled my bag for security check. And I remember that had one of those metal water bottles, like, half.
And I said, oh, I'm so sorry. I forgot that I had a water bottle in there. And. And the. The TSA checker said, oh, love, you can have a. You can have a water bottle on domestic flight. They pulled my bag because of my binoculars, which were very compact and couldn't be, like, anything.
So, yeah, it was in our luggage. We. We left our luggage at our hotel during the day. We were flying out at night. We went back, get our phone chargers because our phones were dying. So we go to the hotel and we're like, we just. Can you pull our luggage? We just need to grab our phone chargers. They said, oh, here, you can go into the luggage room. And they opened up the room, let us in. And they said, let me close the door and give you some privacy. We were with everybody's.
[00:53:03] Speaker D: Luggage.
You could have taken stuff out of other people's.
[00:53:08] Speaker A: Luggage.
Luggage if we wanted to, but this is just like, there is Literally. Literally. Like, no crime. Clearly, like, nobody is suspicious of any.
And coming from. You guys live in a city. I live in a city. Like.
[00:53:23] Speaker B: It'S.
[00:53:24] Speaker A: It's. We were just stunned.
But it was lovely. I kept telling. I kept telling everybody I met there. You are so lucky. You're isolated. You would be completely overcrowded, because this place, beautiful and clean, and everyone is so kind, and it's affordable and, like, it's. It's. It's really. Really an amazing country. I can't say enough about how. How lovely it.
[00:53:46] Speaker D: Was.
Oh, that's awesome, June. I'm very jealous.
I gotta ask. As we're winding things down here, I gotta ask. Now, your daughter's 19, and she was your. She was your. Your travel companion on this trip. What would she say was her favorite part of the trip? And then what would you say was your favorite part of the. The.
[00:54:06] Speaker A: Trip?
Yeah, I think.
I mean, as much as we loved the cruise and was amazing, and we're huge Disney Fans. It's our 10th Disney Cruise. We made platinum with this cruise. And we always. We always incorporate a Disney component of every vacation in some way.
I think that our. Our time in the south island went. After the cruise, we went back to. Down to the south island in Queenstown and spent a few days, and it was just stunningly beautiful. And the most amazing thing we did there is we did a scenic flight from Queenstown to Milford Sound. Milford Sound is a fjord. Technically, it was created by a glacier, which is something I learned. The reason something's a fjord is because it was created by a glacier.
And we flew over four mountain passes and flew over the tallest waterfall in New Zealand, which is over 2,000ft tall. And it's inaccessible from a car and difficult to get to by foot. But we were able to see it from the airplane and then went to the sound and did a little cruise all around, all the waterfalls and the sound, and it was just stunningly beautiful. And it's just an amazing country because you have sort of the south island with those Rocky Mountains and those fjords, and then the north island looks like Scotland or Ireland with just rolling green hills and pastures.
So, again, the state of Colorado. But it feels like you can see an entire world in that state of.
[00:55:44] Speaker D: Colorado.
That's amazing. That's.
[00:55:47] Speaker B: Incredible. Ashley is teeing up the softball question, and I think foreshadowing the answer here in our chat, which is, what is your next Disney.
[00:55:56] Speaker A: Adventure?
Yeah. Oh, Ashley and I are doing both doing South Africa abd this year.
We're going to are going in May and Ashley's going in July and a little bit mine. Ours is an adult only trip and we Ashley's going early I think a couple days before her trip. We're not going early but we're staying after our trip to go to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. So so we're super excited about that in May and then obviously the adventure to close out the.
[00:56:34] Speaker C: Year.
[00:56:35] Speaker D: Nice. Amazing June. Well, we can't wait to follow along on your adventures.
Why don't you tell folks where they can follow along? I know you're the Vacation Mouse but tell folks if they want to follow you, follow your adventures, Disney and otherwise.
Where are the best places they can do.
[00:56:55] Speaker A: That?
Yes. So I am the Vacation Mouse. The V part's important because there's some similar names out there. So the Vacation Mouse on Twitter. I'm sorry On Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram and on the Internet. My website is the Vacation Mouse and my blog is on the website on@thevacation mouse.com.
[00:57:19] Speaker B: Excellent.
[00:57:20] Speaker A: Excellent.
Well me be our next.
[00:57:23] Speaker B: Adventure. Well we definitely will if we're not already ICM.
[00:57:28] Speaker D: Controls on.
[00:57:31] Speaker B: Instagram.
Chief Marketing Officer.
So June, it has been fabulous to have you on the show. I I actually would love to have you back to hear about your adventures by Disney so we can compare and contrast your experience with that of the Ashley Norton.
Yeah. So would would love to hang.
[00:57:50] Speaker D: Out because we'll do an the adult only version and the family ver and find out the differences between the.
[00:57:56] Speaker B: Two. Yeah, yeah. So we'll have to have you back for that. For everyone out there who hung with us despite some technical difficulties with the stream over on on YouTube, thank you for hanging out with us. Of course this is also going to be available out on the podcast channel. I may also see if I can like upload the video from this over to YouTube so there's a better quality video out there for folks to watch.
But in the meantime we will be back on Monday night our regular time slot, 5 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern with the Abneys talking about taking their kids on their first Disney cruise. If I understood Sam's notes.
[00:58:31] Speaker D: Correctly. And for those who don't remember, they are both former cast members from Disneyland and Robbie was friends with Captain America and smoldering Flynn Rider. And so you will get to hear from that. They've been on cruises of course before and Ro Robbie was a cast member on cruises on cruise line but you will get to hear about their kids first experience. They have two little ones with a Third one on the.
[00:59:02] Speaker B: Way. I know we had someone on. Did, did Robbie give us a smolder? I feel like we asked him. Yes. Okay. All.
[00:59:08] Speaker D: Right.
We have, there is a video or a picture actually, I don't know if we were doing video at that time, but there is a picture of him giving us the smolder and it's.
[00:59:19] Speaker B: Hilarious. We might have to bring that to bring that live next.
[00:59:22] Speaker D: Week. I gotta remind f also, if you see like promotional materials from Disney Cruise Line with Captain America on it, odds are that that's our friend Robbie because.
[00:59:34] Speaker B: His. He is like, that's Captain America, Sam. It's Captain America. Do.
[00:59:38] Speaker D: Not.
[00:59:38] Speaker B: Okay. Do not spoil it. It's Captain America. All right, well, thanks everyone again for hanging out with us. Thank you, June, so much for spending some time with us this evening and sharing your fabulous experience with with our audience out there. There. We will be back, as I said, and for now we will just say see you real soon and Happy New Year. Happy New.
[00:59:58] Speaker C: Year.
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.
[01:00:15] Speaker B: Episodes.
[01:00:15] Speaker C: 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 DCLDUO mypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions or you'd like to connect with us, the best way to do that is to head over to DCLDuo.com it's got links to all of our things. Full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast. Links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store where we sell some fun fan inspired magnets. Link to our Patreon if you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month. Just head over to the website or patreon.com DCLDUO also has a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here, at least on a few blog articles that we've written. So DCLDUO.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also, of course, email
[email protected] or reach out to us on our voicemail link 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. Use 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 Direct directly or your own travel agent. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL.
