[00:00:00] Speaker A: She was a little bit nervous at first because it was the first time like she, she'd met a Disney character and the first character that we met was Pluto. And she came up there and she turned around to me and she said, mommy, why is he just licked me? I said, because he's a dog. She was like, oh. Okay.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Welcome back everybody to this week's episode of the DCL DU podcast. Brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel. And Sam, do your jingle because it's review time.
[00:00:37] Speaker C: All right. Simply the best.
Better than all the rest.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:00:43] Speaker C: All right, this time I didn't crack. I feel like last week when I, when we recorded I, my voice cracked. So sorry guys, I need to do warm ups from now on.
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, we'll, we'll record that. All right. This week's review comes from Sarah.
777-788-888-7877. So there we go. We're just gonna call you Sarah going forward. Cause that's easier. This week's review comes from Sarah, who writes a nice mental vacay while in the car. I always enjoy listening to Sam and Brian discuss the variables of Disney Cruise line. But my favorite is when their guests come on to compare their experiences with other cruise lines. I've enjoyed listening to them expand past DCL into Royal, but I know their heart will always be for Disney. This is a well organized podcast with great interviewing and flow. Thanks in part to their other.
[00:01:29] Speaker C: Sure.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: And a must add to any cruise fans podcast playlist. Well, thank you for that lovely review, Sarah. We really appreciate it.
[00:01:37] Speaker C: Yeah, I love that. I think, I think that was a nod to us being lawyers, Brian. I think that's, that's what that was about.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: Yeah, probably.
But thank you again, Sarah for that review and for all of you out there listening, please remember that one of the easiest ways to help support the show is to head over to Apple Podcasts, hit those five stars, and if you leave us a written review, we'll read it on the air at the top of one of our main episodes. All right, Sam got a guest coming to us all the way from across the Atlantic, across the pond as they like to call it.
You want to introduce our guests?
[00:02:10] Speaker C: Absolutely. I am super excited. We are joined by a first time cruiser, longtime listener and we are super excited to be joined all the way from York in the UK by Nicola. Welcome to the show.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: Hi. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.
[00:02:27] Speaker C: We're excited to have you. Nicola, we gotta talk Disney. I know you have not done a Disney cruise prior to this one. You also haven't taken trips to the Disney parks, if I'm correct about that.
[00:02:41] Speaker A: I've been to Florida, so, yes, I have. Yeah, I've been to Florida a few times. Yeah. Yeah. So I started first time we went when I was 11 and we've been a few times since then, but that's the only park I've been to.
[00:02:54] Speaker C: Wow, you haven't been to Paris, Disneyland or Disneyland Paris?
[00:02:59] Speaker A: No, embarrassingly not when it's so close.
But we were due to go to Paris, which is how we ended up on the cruise, actually. But we haven't actually been there yet.
[00:03:07] Speaker C: Oh, wow. Okay. So you are a longtime Disney person. The rest of your family, have they done Disney parks or anything like that?
[00:03:16] Speaker A: No. So my husband has never been to any Disney park. And then we have a daughter who's five who has not been to any Disney parks either. So, yeah, we're all really fresh to it. And I was really keen to get my husband into Disney, like, show him the wonder of Disney vacationed. So, yeah, there was a lot kind of riding on the cruise, but it was a success. Spoiler. It was a success. You loved it? Yeah.
[00:03:38] Speaker C: Oh, fantastic. You know what? Like, I think those non Disney people, I actually think the cruise line is like the best introduction for those non Disney people because the parks can be so, like, overwhelming.
It's not super relaxing of a vacation.
And it is like, I don't know, the parks are a little bit more in your face with all the character stuff, whereas the cruise line, not to say it isn't in your. Like, Disney is everywhere. But because they're such beautiful, classically designed ships, it's a little bit more of a muted feel than like walking down Main street and having the big castle and all the, you know, sort of theming around you. Well, let. Let's start with the why, Nicola, why did you guys. I mean, you had never taken any cruise before.
Your daughter and your husband had never been to a Disney park. Why did you choose to jump in headfirst with Disney Cruise Line?
[00:04:33] Speaker A: So we were originally supposed to be going to Disneyland Paris. That was the original plan. We'd booked to go to Disneyland Paris, just the three of us, my husband and my and daughter and I. And then our daughter, she's not diagnosed neurodivergent, but we think she has aspects that mean that she may be. And we'd booked Paris and then we had a weekend away up in Northumberland in the north of England with her. And it was really hard work. She really struggled. Been away from home, being out of routine. Even though we were in like a really kind of calm rural setting, she really struggled. And after that we kind of, on the way home, we were sort of saying, I don't think she's gonna cope with Disneyland Paris. It would just be too much, too much queuing, too much noise, too much overwhelm. We had to go back to the drawing board. We canceled our Paris trip, which was devastating.
And then kind of, I think like a week after that, I was just kind of driving along and I suddenly like, Disney Cruise Line just popped into my head. And I was like, I know that they're sailing from the UK because I'd kind of seen when they first started coming over here at the beginning of the pandemic. But that wasn't an option for us back then, so we hadn't sort of considered it. So one of the things that my daughter really struggles with is sort of that lack of routine and being away from like a kind of safe home environment. And so I was like, this could be perfect because the ship moved with us.
She will have, you know, the room which will be comfortable and familiar to her. It will always be there, it will always be accessible. But we get to get our Disney experience, we get to travel. You know, it just felt like a bit of a no brainer. So came home, kind of suggested it to my husband, thinking it might be, you know, a hard sell. And it wasn't. He was very much up for it. And. Yeah. And so I think within another week we booked the cruise and off we went.
[00:06:16] Speaker C: That's awesome. I think that's a really smart pivot. Like, I do think the parks can be really overwhelming. It's also a really long day. And even if you're staying on property at Disneyland Paris or at any of the other, you know, Disney parks, whether Florida or California, you do have a bit of a travel between the parks and like your hotel. So if you need a midday break, I mean, California is probably the best for this. I hear. Disneyland Paris, there's a couple of hotels that are real close, but it's still quite a bit of back and forth to like take a midday break. Whereas on a Disney cruise, your room, as you said, is, is right there on the ship. It's just a couple floors away. Right. Depending upon where you are, you know, sort of doing stuff on the ship. So it is very easy to get that sort of downtime if you need it. And if you're, especially if your child is Having a bit of a sensory overload. So I think it's a super smart pivot.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: Wait, how old did you say your daughter was again? One more time.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: She's five.
[00:07:15] Speaker B: Five. Okay.
[00:07:16] Speaker C: All right. So, yeah. So super young and so. Yeah. And like. And still figuring out, you know, still figuring things out. We were in the same position as you, Nicola, at. When Nathan was 5, he was not yet diagnosed as autistic or with ADHD. And.
But he strived on routines and it was very. Going to, I want to call it a vacation, quote, unquote. Right. Like, going on vacation was not actually a vacation. I actually think when they're like younger and especially with a neurodivergent kid like ours, like, it was actually much more work being away from home than it was being at home and away from like sort of his safe spaces and routines. So I completely understand. I think Disney Cruise Line is a better option.
I will put in one plug. I don't know anything about Disneyland Paris and their disability access services, but I know at like the US Parks there is. You can do a disability access service call ahead of time to try and get qualified for that pass. That helps you with the, with the queuing. Right. The lines. And that's one thing for us that has really worked, although I know it's much more difficult to get nowadays since they've changed the rules, at least at the US Parks. I'm not, like I said, I'm not sure what's available at Disneyland Paris, but I want to put a plug in for parents or adults, either adults with disabilities or parents of kids with disabilities. Like that is an option if you can, you know, qualify through their, through those programs. So, but let's dive into the planning, Nicola, because especially with your 5 year old, I'm curious, did you guys like, you know, watch YouTube videos to kind of introduce her to the ship and what the state room would look like and things like that? Because I do think for kiddos who strive on routine, that can be a really good way to prepare them. Unless they're like Nathan, who says, I want to be surprised, Which I think is crazy, but, you know, it is what it is.
[00:09:18] Speaker A: We dove straight first into YouTube and I think it was a really helpful resource. So as much as, you know, you kind of oscillate between, like you want a bit of surprise for yourself, but equally, I. I wanted her to be prepared. So we'd watched like the Sail Away Party probably, you know, 50 times before we went. We'd had tours of the ship, you know, we'd looked at the stateroom. We did like a social story with her. Like we went to tell her kind of what was going to happen and what the ship would be like and all those kind of things. And yeah, just, just did a lot of preparation. And then I drove down the podcast Rabbit Hole which is where I find you guys and yeah, just yeah, I really enjoyed the planning process actually like for me that's almost as much fun as the, as the cruise. So yeah, so just involved her in that and, and yeah, I think it really, really helped.
[00:10:03] Speaker C: Oh, I love that Brian's big on the planning side of things as well. I think some, I think there are a lot of people who just find so much joy in that process. I want to I folks what a social story is because I think that's a great idea. A social story kind of looks like a comic strip. That's the best way I can describe it. Where you basically create, you can create them with AI actually nowadays is pretty easy. Or you can find clip art on you know and put together like exactly like a comic strip. And it tells your child like sort of what the different things they might experience along the course of the cruise. And they're used very often in teaching and working with kids with autism but other disabilities as well to sort of prepare them for new experiences. We used them a lot with Nathan when he was younger.
Now we just kind of talk through the whatever new experience. But I think they're a great tool and I'm so glad you brought that up Nicola because I don't know how many people know about that. I think it's a great and I think Disney even has some kind of disability booklet that has some social story stuff even maybe in it. I'm not sure if they have it for all the parks but I've seen at least one before so it's a very good option. Well, let's talk a little bit more about the planning process. Were you, when you're of course you're a first time cruiser, when your booking window open, you're the last group to book onboard experiences whether that excursions or adult activities like Palo or Remy or drink tastings and of course there's a royal, the Royal, what is it called? The Royal Tea Party that's on board on the Disney fantasy. Were you looking to book any of those things or were you more looking to wing it on board?
[00:11:51] Speaker A: So definitely wanted the Bibbidi Bobidi booty. I was up at 5 to 5 that morning because obviously, you know, Florida time is Ahead of ours. So, yeah, and I got it. But within 50 minutes it had sold out by quarter past five because I was kind of questioning, like, do I need to get up this early? I absolutely did need to get up that early. But we got her a slot and she absolutely loved it, so that was, that was our big thing. And then we got the Princess Gathering as well, which is the free one, isn't it? Yeah, which she enjoyed too. So, yeah, I was up at 5 twice.
[00:12:19] Speaker C: Right. So midnight Eastern time. So 5am in the UK, depending upon day, how daylight savings falls. Right.
But yeah, I mean, it's. Yeah, there's two different booking times. One is your, your. What is it, 90 or days or 75 days? I can't remember at this point. And then one is 30 days. And so, yeah, the, the, the first one you were booking the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique when you were booking the Royal gathering, which is, as Nicola mentioned, it's a princess meet and greet and it's a free, but it's a reserve activity, so you do have to reserve it at midnight Eastern, 30 days in advance of your.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: I'm just realizing too, we're falling in that weird period right now. I'm surprised we actually all made it onto the phone at the right time today because we fell back last night. But Nicola, you don't. For a couple more weeks.
[00:13:09] Speaker C: Last weekend, a week before.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: Yeah, we're still adjusting. I'm still not going to bed and waking up at the right time, it takes me age.
[00:13:15] Speaker C: But yeah, yeah, ours was just last night. So as we're recording, it's November 2nd, so we just, we just gained an hour last night. And so, yeah, that's why I mentioned because the. Depending upon when daylight savings, you know, because we move our clocks at different times than, than you all do in the UK and so the hours can be. It's. It's actually very confusing to figure it all out.
Yeah, especially when you're doing those, those booking windows either, you know, however many days in advance of your cruise.
All right, so you get Bibbidi bobbidi. I will say Bibbidi bobbidi is something that if you don't get ahead of time, you can get on board. They do hold some spots back for onboard booking.
What were your port stops that you guys had and were you planning on booking any excursions for those?
[00:14:04] Speaker A: Yes, we only had one. It was La Crina and we chose not to because we didn't know whether we'd be getting off the ship. We. And we, we didn't get off the ship. We very much left that up to kind of how our daughter was doing that day. She was very tired that day. So we just decided to enjoy the ship. You know, it was a bit quieter. So no, we didn't book anything for that.
[00:14:22] Speaker C: Yeah, well, and that's smart I think one with young kids, but two with kids who are neurodivergent. Like you just never know how the day is gonna go and you don't know if they're gonna be up for an excursion and you don't wanna have to have paid, you know, $100 a person for an excursion that you then have to last minute cancel and perhaps have to pay for the entire amount. So yeah, I think a very, a very smart strategy. You also didn't know, I'm sure whether or not she was going to take to the kids club.
And, and so you didn't book any adult dining or adult drink takings at tastings, I take it?
[00:14:57] Speaker A: No, we decided not to. It was only a four night cruise as well. So we kind of thought this, this time we. In my head we were already going again, to be honest.
We, this one I was like, well, just experience it as it is and next time we'll look at Paolo and Remy and those kind of things.
[00:15:13] Speaker C: Yes, listen, that's what we always recommend to people because there's so much to do on board the ship and you really don't want to miss main dining your first time on board a Disney cruise because it really is a fun experience and you're going to get different menus every night and you're going to, you know, have at least one show on, you know, one of your dinners and you just don't. Also, as I said, you don't know how your child is going to adjust for that first cruise as well. Well, let's talk about embarkation day.
How did you guys get down to Southampton and how far away like did you go the same day? I don't know how many hours of a drive it would be between York and Southampton.
[00:15:50] Speaker A: So it's about five hours, which to us Brits feels like a really long drive. But I know to you guys that's probably like just up the road. But that feels like quite a trek for us. So we went the night before, stayed in a hotel in Southampton and yeah, it all went really smoothly. I was very excited to wake up the next day and we went home to the hotel car park and there was the fantasy. I was just, yeah, just after all the planning, it was Just so exciting to like see the ship in the flesh.
So, yeah, it was. Southampton was absolutely fine. Yeah, yeah, it went really well.
[00:16:21] Speaker C: Nice. Now I got to ask the logistics of parking for the cruise because most of the time when we're talking to folks sailing out of Southampton, it's most of the time we're talking to Americans who are, you know, don't have a car with, with them that they need to park. But does Southampton have a parking option available, like right at the port or how do you get, you know, how do you deal with that?
[00:16:39] Speaker A: Yeah, you can just drive straight up to the port. I mean, you know, I haven't been on any other cruise. I can't compare the port itself, but to me it seemed really good, really efficient. We drove up, we drove into the parking lot, we dropped our cases off, they took them from the car park onto the ship so we didn't have to carry those ourselves. And yeah, it was really smooth. Readysmith just walked from the parking lot to the ship and we were on board.
[00:17:05] Speaker C: Awesome. Love it. Now, how long did it take you to get through the whole security and check in process? Was it like, are we talking 20 minutes? Are we talking an hour and a half?
How long is that process there?
[00:17:19] Speaker A: Oh, it was very quick, but with the caveat that we were a little bit late because it's much to my disappointment. So I did all this planning. My husband is a comic book collector. And just as we were, we had a bit of time to kill before we got on the ship. And he was like, oh, I've just, there's a comic store in Southampton. So he went off to the comic book shop, got lost. And so I'm sat in the car panicking. Anyway, we were a little bit late, but I think that on reflection was actually quite helpful because we got put through the concierge line, which was quite nice to experience that we were straight through, straight to the desk. And I'd say within kind of 10 minutes we were kind of sat in the lounge. Probably another 10 minutes after that we were called onto the ship. So yeah, even though it's quite stressful, it actually was very smooth and very quick. And I think we were only about 10 minutes late overall in the end, really well.
[00:18:07] Speaker C: And honestly, I think that if you're worried about how your child does with cues. Right, with longer, with longer lines. Sorry, I know you guys call them cues in the U.S. we call them, we call them lines. So I, I actually like the word, I like using the term cue. Cause I actually think line is it doesn't make any sense. But cue makes much more sense. But I keep alternating between the two. But I think if you've got a kid who has a bit of a tough time waiting in long cues, that it's much better to show up a little bit on the later side because then you will move through everything very quickly rather than waiting like standing in the line. I think if that's the hardest part, standing in the line is much more difficult than just like sort of sitting in a comfortable chair in a lounge.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: Right.
[00:18:52] Speaker C: So like, I. I think that's a good recommendation anyway. All right, well, you get through your check in process. Your boarding group is called. You're walking across the gangway, and you walk right into the beautiful art deco atrium of the Disney fantasy. Your family name is announced. Nicola, what was your first impression of the beautiful Disney fantasy?
[00:19:14] Speaker A: It was just incredible. I was really emotional. I actually did shed a few tears, I think with all the planning. I was just like, wow, she's here and we're getting on her and you know, as you say, you step in and it's. It's just phenomenal. They call your name. It was, it was, it was just. Yeah, it was absolutely wonderful. And you get the smell and.
Yeah, it would. It was just beyond my expectations and my expectations were very high. So. Yeah, it was great. It was really great.
[00:19:42] Speaker C: I love that, I love that you mentioned the smell because Disney Cruise line ships have. Have a distinct smell. And there, there are now you can buy some like, scented things in the shop pops, like the infusers and whatnot. But they do. Like, there is like a scent. And I actually think that the Wish class ships even has its own scent. But they. There is a scent that is like a Disney Cruise line smell. And it's not like a perfumey, overwhelming. It's like, like a subtle. But it's.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: It just.
[00:20:11] Speaker C: They do have a lovely smell.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:13] Speaker C: I don't know what it is.
Yeah, magical. I love that. All right, well, what was your, your, your first plan of business when you got on the ship? After, of course, like looking around and looking up there is to see in the atrium. But like, where were you headed at that point? Were you headed to get lunch? Did you have to take care of stuff at guest services or anything? Like, what was your plan of action?
[00:20:34] Speaker A: We were straight up to cabanas, which was incredibly busy. I think that was slightly overwhelming, to be honest. We. We didn't get a seat in the actual cabanas. We were kind of sat outside on the Pool deck. Eventually we got our food and that was, that was great. And, and yeah, that was kind of our first, our first introduction to the ship.
[00:20:50] Speaker C: Nice. Nice. Yeah. Cabanas is. And same with Marceline Market. Pretty crazy on EMB day and that I will say that's part of the reason why we like to do the sit down lunch. Although I understand the sit down lunch can be a little bit slow for the little ones. And so there's it, it's, it's kind of a catch 22 type of situation when you're choosing between the sit down lunch that's kind of slow versus the chaos of the buffet where you can get the kids food very quickly. But it's just you're like balancing, you know, carrying your, you still got your backpack or your day bag, whatever you've got with you and you're trying to find a table and it, yeah, it can be a little bit, bit chaotic. So that's why, like I said, I recommend the sit down lunch only because it lacks the chaos. But I also understand if your kid's really hungry, you probably don't want to take them to the sit down lunch. So did you guys take some time to explore the Oceaneers Club for your daughter?
[00:21:46] Speaker A: We did, yeah. And she absolutely loved it. Absolutely loved it down there. We loved it down there, to be honest. It's just so engrossing, isn't it? And there's just so many different parts to it. And she was hula hooping and.
Yeah, it was, it was fantastic. Yeah.
[00:22:01] Speaker C: Oh good. Yeah, I feel like it's a good, if you have a good introduction to the kids club on that first day in the open house, I feel like that helps smooth the way for your child to actually go and get checked into the Oceaneers Club later in the day or the next day to have some time when they're insecure programming. But without that good introduction, it can be a little bit harder. Let's talk about some of the stuff you guys got up, up to on board.
Of course, you know your first experience with everything like with, you know, trivias and game shows and stage shows and pool deck. Like what were, what were you guys like? Were there things you were focused on? Okay, this is the thing that we want to do as a family. We know or we know our daughter's going to want to do X, Y and Z. Like what were the, the things that you were like we have to do these things.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: So I think the main one was the aqueduct. So we're big like water people. And it was the queue. The queue for the aqueduct was very long. So we did only end up doing it once because our daughter just struggled to queue. But just that once was phenomenal. And, yeah, me and my daughter shared the raft and we were just smiling and screaming the whole way around. It was just. It's just so incredible. You're, like, hanging off the ship and it just. It's unlike anything I'd ever been on before.
So that was a real, real high spot for us.
And then the other thing is the shows, so we're big theater people. So Aurora, our daughter, she goes to theater school, so she just loved all that kind of. All that kind of stuff. And she was enthralled. And I think because they are at like, kind of like that hour mark as well, it was really good for her attention span. And we were just blown away, blown away by all the shows. So, yeah, I really enjoyed those. And then I think the other high spot for us was something I mentioned. My husband's a comic book collector, so we did the Marvel Superfan Face off and he won. He won that one.
[00:23:56] Speaker C: Oh, my God. Like, that's so. Because that's that. So that's like the different level. Yeah, like, there's like, the Marvel trivias that. That you do as a group, and then there's the Marvel Superfan Face off, which is, like, individual challenge, and it eventually gets cut, culled down to two people who face off in the end. And you have to know, like, every obscure. This. We're not talking about knowing, like, who Iron man is. We're talking about knowing, like, like, that Iron man became Doomsday. That became whoever. Like, we're talking about, like, like the minutiae of the comic stuff. Yeah, that's incredible. So, yeah, yeah, it was.
[00:24:37] Speaker A: And I think he was slightly thrown by it because he's quite introverted and comicy and. And he went in thinking it was the trivia. And then when it got down to, like, he was pulled upon and he was like, oh, my goodness. But he just knows it all. And as they were going through at the end, you have a bit where they flash up the characters on the screen and you have to name them. Yeah. There was, like, gasps from the audience because he knew every single one.
He just has an encyclopedic knowledge of the Marvel universe. So, yeah, he did well.
[00:25:06] Speaker B: You got to get him on one of the Wish class ships so he can see Marvel, the Marvel restaurant. Why is this Worlds of Marvel? But you also. You need to look at a Marvel Day at Sea now. He would love that.
[00:25:18] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:25:19] Speaker C: Yeah. And those are of course, out of. I mean, all of these are out of Florida.
[00:25:23] Speaker D: Yeah, unfortunately.
[00:25:24] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:25:25] Speaker C: Although we know. Yeah, exactly. You'll have to make a trip to Florida. But although the Wish is going to be coming over to Europe for the summer season, not this coming year, so not in 2026, but in 2027. They haven't. Disney hasn't announced it yet, but it's obvious from the schedule. And so that will be. I mean, if you don't want to travel across the pond and sail out of Florida, that that's an opportunity to get on a Wish Class ship at least. Although it won't be Marvel Dead Sea. Yeah, I love that. I think that's amazing, Nicola. I mean, all those Marvel trivias I think are really hard. And Brian and I, where I will call us, I have.
[00:26:04] Speaker B: We are Marvel tourists. We are not Marvel super fans.
[00:26:07] Speaker C: Correct.
We are casual. Like we are casual Star wars fans. We are also casual Marvel fans. Right. So we like, like we've watched all of the movies, but we don't necessarily watch them the day that they come out. And neither of us have read any of the comic books, so we don't know if it's like hardcore deep Marvel lore. We don't know any of it. But you also. It's not just knowing the characters, right? Like in that Marvel super Fan face off, it's also just being able to spit it out. It's like kind of with Jeopardy. If you think about like watching Jeopardy. Right. Like there are people who might know the answers, but you also have to be fast and be able to, to spit it out when asked and that takes skill. So I'm going to give him a little, a little clap and kudos to your husband. Wow, that's pretty amazing. Now we've got to talk about some of the food experiences, of course, on the ship, because you mentioned cabanas. You went there for your first day lunch, but of course you have your three rotational restaurants. You also have pool deck food on the fantasy.
Listen, it's not Wish Class level food, but it's good food. And I say that because the pool deck food on the Wish class is the best. We've talked about it a lot. Although the Fantasy just got upgraded to have Ramon's Cantina, similar to Donald's Cantina. But what did you guys think of the food overall? I mean, you know, were you surprised, impressed, let down? And also I want, I'm curious how your daughter did with the food on board?
Yeah.
[00:27:36] Speaker A: No, overall, we thought it was fantastic. Again, high expectations, but they were absolutely met. My parents were traveling with us as well, and I. And I think, you know, my dad was. I don't think his expectations were quite as high, and he was blown away like, that. He had. I think it was a duck confit. He said it was like the. Some of the best duckies ever eaten. It was, you know, it's really good quality food, isn't it? And it's just, you know, presented so well and our servers were great and the atmosphere of the restaurants.
Yeah, we absolutely loved it. It was. It. It was really good. Yeah.
[00:28:07] Speaker C: Now, had your parents been on a cruise before?
[00:28:10] Speaker A: Yes, they have. So they've done several.
I don't know all the different ones, but I know they've done, like, celebrity and they've done piano and things like that. So.
[00:28:18] Speaker C: Yeah, so they had a good basis for comparison, I think, with food then, because, you know, I mean, I don't know about P and O because we've never sailed on it, but celebrity is known for having very good food as well. And we always think that Disney has very good food. And we've been on, you know, a few other cruise lines at this point. Is every dish a star? No, but everything is edible. And some of it's really good, and some of it's just okay. Right. Like, there's. What about your daughter? I mean, how did. How did she do? Is she.
Was she into the kids menu or is she more adventurous than our son?
[00:28:54] Speaker A: She. She did. She stuck mainly to the kids menu. She did order one, and she was a bit disgruntled because she didn't get a starter. So when they were bringing the food out, we all got a starter and she was kind of like, where's my starter? So then they started kind of like bringing her a little bit of her food earlier. And then one time, she did actually order a starter off the adult menu as well, just because I think she wanted to kind of feel grown up. But no, she did really, really good with the food. Lots of chips. You know, we were on holiday, so it's fine. And she actually loves vegetables, so they would bring her the vegetables on the side and she'd really enjoy those. She didn't like the macaroni cheese, which I found quite surprising because I loved the macaroni cheese. But, yeah, that wasn't. That wasn't her thing, but she loved the chicken tenders. And. And, yeah, she. She definitely ate plenty and didn't Go hungry.
[00:29:37] Speaker C: Well, that's good. Yeah, we, I mean, listen, we let Nathan eat like as many french fries as he wants when we're on vacation and as much Mac and cheese as he wants when we're on vacation. It's just, I mean, and he loves vegetables too, so you always have to bring him extra vegetables because they give you on the kids plate, they literally give you one piece of carrot, one piece of broccoli, and one piece of cauliflower. It's the weirdest thing. We' like, it's like the minimum.
[00:30:01] Speaker B: It's like the minimum that Mickey can do to make you eat healthy. Yeah, like, like, here's a cucumber slice. Now get into those french fries. Yeah, yeah.
[00:30:08] Speaker C: Well, it's funny because some of our friends like their kids won't eat the vegetables and so they like you have to eat at least one of those vegetables before you can eat the rest of your french fries. And Nathan always goes for the broccoli first. Right? Like, he's all about the broccoli.
[00:30:23] Speaker B: So yeah, I mean, last night we were out at dinner and I had to give him a couple pieces of broccoli. Yeah, yeah.
[00:30:27] Speaker C: Ryan gave him broccoli from his own plate because Nathan was like, want broccoli? And his plate, his kids plate didn't come with broccoli at the restaurant we were at. So yeah, it's always funny.
[00:30:39] Speaker D: 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 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 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 my mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email DCLDUO mypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. Thanks My Path Unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
[00:31:38] Speaker C: Well, what about character interactions? I'm curious about, about that. Whether. Well one, whether or not you guys waited in, in. In the queues for them because there are lines for. That's the kind of. That and the water slide are kind of the things that typically have, you know, wait times for.
And they're not as bad as in the parks, but I will say especially over in Europe, they're not as short as on some of the sailings we see in the Caribbean. And I'll be honest, there's times where there are long lines even in, you know, even for characters in the Caribbean. Especially if there's like a special outfit or if it's, you know, the last opportunity to see that character or something like that. So I'm curious how that went.
[00:32:20] Speaker A: Yeah, so we actually did meet a lot of characters. That was one of our priorities. But the cues were very long. But we found it was quite helpful because we were, you know, four adults with one child.
A couple of us could wait in the queue and the other one could take Aurora off to kind of wander around the deck. So it wasn't really that problematic. It was just kind of fitting it in more than anything. Just because we only did the four nights. It was just making sure we had time to see all the characters. But we did. Aurora has an autograph book and I was looking at it earlier and she has so many. We put all the photographs in so many autographs, so many pictures and that was definitely a highlight. She was a little bit nervous at first because it was the first time like she, she'd met a Disney character and the first character that we met was Pluto. And she came up there and she turned around to me and she said, mummy, why is. He just licked me? I said, because he's a dog. She was like, oh, okay.
But after that, yeah, she was, she was fine.
[00:33:12] Speaker C: Mommy wipes. And she's like, oh my God, I love that. That's so cute. What a five year old thing to say. I mean. But she's right. I mean he does like lick you. He's at least he's not, not, you know, drooly. He's. And his tongue isn't wet. So. But that's so cute.
That's a great idea though. I, that is one area where I wish there was some kind of, you know, disability access pass. I don't think they could do it like realistically because they're. Well one, they'd have too many. They'd have a lot of people Faking. Unfortunately, that's one of the issues that has happened in the parks with the Disability access pass. But also there are a lot of people who sail with disabilities who have issues with cues. And so they would have. It would probably make the lines worse, not better, in order, you know, if they had some kind of pass. But I do think your solution is the one that is the best one, which is if you've got someone who can't wait in the lines for very long, you. You know, one parent takes that child to do other things while the other parent. Parent stays in the. In the line. And you can always, you know, message each other either in the app or through imessage to say, hey, we're getting close to the front of the line. Come back. We're ready, you know, come back for a picture. Something like that. That. That's, like, probably the most helpful thing. Did you find people lining up for the theater as well on the early side?
[00:34:35] Speaker A: We queued for everything. We were typical Brits. We just queued for everything, which was. It was. Yeah, with the theater, I was quite shocked, like, how long the queue was and how early the cues were. But it kind of was what it was. I mean, the first night was Aladdin, and we almost didn't get a seat for that because we sort of rocked up, I don't know, 10 minutes before, thinking that was plenty of time. And a cast member outside was kind of saying, you know, we're running out of seats. So there was this kind of panic. But we did all get stuck together. We were very high. But, you know, every seat's a good seat, isn't it, if you can see the stage. So for the next night for Frozen, we were one of the people that queued. We got there early because, you know, we love Frozen, so we. We. We got fantastic seats. We did queue up, but, yeah, there was queues everywhere the whole. The whole cruise.
[00:35:18] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, that is.
It's not just a British thing. It's also a Disney thing. But you're right, it is also culturally a British thing.
Speaking of that. Yeah. Did you find that the sailing was quite full, Meaning, like, you know, full capacity? And also, did you, like. Like, who was the average guest? Are we talking mostly Brits? Are we talking a mix of folks from mainland Europe?
[00:35:43] Speaker A: Or.
[00:35:44] Speaker C: We talk, were there Americans on board? Like, what did it. What did the guest profile kind of look like?
[00:35:49] Speaker A: So I would say it was mainly Brits. I think I spoke to two Americans, and everyone else appeared to be British. And it was mainly Families with young children. There was a lot of children on the sailing. We heard from someone else that there were no spare rooms. So I think it was at absolute capacity.
So yeah, it was a very busy cruise. But we went into it knowing that like I think these Southamptons cruises are a bit notorious of being very busy and very chaotic and you know, with been shorter as well. So we were prepared and having been to the Disney parks, you know, I like, I think I in particular was just kind of like, well it's Disney, this is kind of how it goes. And it was fine.
[00:36:27] Speaker C: Well and the vast majority are then also going to be first time cruisers. That's the other part that's going to be a little bit different on you know, sailings out of Southampton, Southampton in particular because you do have some shorter sailings like, like you said than the one you were on was a four night, it wasn't a seven night. So you got a little bit more affordability for people. So you're going to have a little bit more first time cruiser. Not that it's affordable, it's just more affordable than a seven night, let's be honest. But also you know that the Brits aren't able to jump on a cruise out of Florida as easily as, you know, someone who lives on the east coast of the United States. So it's just you're going to have a lot more first time cruisers on of the sailings in Europe but especially those shorter sailings out of Southampton. So yeah. I'm curious about your parents you mentioned. I think it was your mom who has some mobility issues, is that right? I was gonna say how did she do with navigating the ship and does she use any like, does she use a scooter or a walker or anything like that to assist her in getting around?
[00:37:28] Speaker A: Yeah. So if he doesn't actually. So she doesn't use a wheelchair but she just struggles to stand up for a long period of time. And I feel this is, this is the one thing where I would feed back to Disney that I think they could make improve with this because I feel if she had been using a wheelchair it would have been a lot easier to obtain like support for her. But I had actually called up before we set sail to sort of highlight with them that she does have some mobility issues. And my concerns were mainly the muster drill because we were allocated a muster drill on deck and I'd heard that they could be very long and I was concerned about that. And then the other one was kind of the deck parties because she would struggle to kind of stand up for long periods in, you know, busy places. So I'd called up and they weren't able to help me on the phone. I waited for a long time and they couldn't, couldn't. Just couldn't help me. And they said to go to Guest Services when I got on board. So I did. And they just felt like they didn't really know what to suggest either. So I was waiting around quite a bit and then they said with the mustard drill, they said, well, if you go up early enough, there'll be a bench. But there wasn't, because where we were there, there wasn't. So. Exactly. So, you know, so she just had to kind of struggle through that. And then we went up for the Sail Away party and it was a bit of a disaster, to be honest, because we had to get the lift because you can't go all the way up the stairs. Obviously, the lifts were very busy. So by the time we'd got in the lift and got up to deck 11, it already started.
Which then cue a meltdown from our daughter because she was desperate to see the Sail Away party.
And they'd said to us at Guest Services, like, there will be a seated area that she can go into, that will be fine. And so we kind of walked, you know, towards the Sail Away party. Found it was very busy, very crowded. Found the seated area. The caf Members were great, right? Said, yep, you can come in, but it's only two people, which I completely understand. But because we hadn't been given that information, we hadn't mentally decided what we were doing. So I had, you know, my mom needed to sit down, I had my daughter crying. So. And this was. This was my fault. But I thought, oh, I'll send my daughter in with my mum because then she can sit down and see.
And as soon as I did that, I thought that, why have I done that? Because then my daughter proceeded. She was okay for a little bit, but then she proceeded to have a huge meltdown in the middle of the. So, yeah, so I had to. The cast members were great. They let me in to go and retrieve her. But the whole thing was very stressful and I feel that if they had just given me some more information and if they'd said it was two people, I completely understand that. But we could have decided who was going in. You know, we could have raced up the stairs, my mum and dad could have followed, but it just felt a little bit disorganized.
So, yeah, that. That's one Area that I, I wasn't, I wasn't particularly impressed with, to be honest.
[00:40:03] Speaker C: I think you're, I mean your complaints are a hundred percent valid. Like that is the one area that I feel like they, you know, there, there's not great communication between the shore side folks and the onboard folks and even the onboard folks aren't like you have to basically demand what you, the solution and you don't even know what solutions are available.
[00:40:24] Speaker A: Right.
[00:40:24] Speaker C: And so it's very. Yeah, it's qu.
I mean it's good to share this information with folks. I did know it was two people. So it's basically the person with the disability plus one person are allowed to go in sort of that seating area for the deck parties. But that doesn't obviously always.
It's not a great solution when you're a group that's a little bit bigger. My best advice would be have mom and dad wait for the lift and go to the, that area that, you know, the handicap accessible area and you all run race to the deck party to get there on time. If I could, you know, if I could rewind and give you advice, that's probably what I would have said to you. But it's, it's really, you know, of course that's, that's a hindsight recommendation, but that's what I would give to other folks in your situation. That's probably your, your best bet. Yeah. And because it, it is hard. It's. It's just hard and sometimes your kid's going to melt down and you're just gonna have to go with the flow. Right. The other thing I would say is though, you know those, have you ever seen those, those canes that have a little seat thing, that kind of. The cane.
[00:41:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:41:34] Speaker C: Yeah. So that's something I would recommend for someone who is not maybe, you know, need. Doesn't need a wheelchair, but does need a way to rest every once in a while when we don't know if there's going to be a seat available.
Those canes that turn into kind of a seat. I think that's a good option for onboard a cruise because it would give you a, to be able to, you know, they open up into like a little trifold stool. That's. I don't know how to describe it otherwise, but, but that, that would be probably only the only other option. But I, I will say there, there used to be. I. We have heard that there are alternatives for the muster drill and we've never actually seen it in place like we've, we had asked for that when Nathan was younger and had a harder time with the mustard drill. Now that he's gotten used to it, he can. He can do it just fine. Although we do prefer that virtual that they did during the pand.
That would be great if they brought that back. I don't think that's coming back, but, yeah, it is. There are definitely some things I think that Disney could do to make the cruise line more accessible, particularly for physical disabilities, that unfortunately, Disney's not maybe listening to me.
[00:42:45] Speaker B: Well. But I'd also say they do for folks with physical disabilities, they do a pretty decent job of accommodating them for the muster trail.
[00:42:54] Speaker C: If you've got. But only if you've got, like, a. No, they. But they don't. They don't have a bench available.
To Nicola's point, they didn't have a seat or a bench available for her mom or let her mom, like, leave the muster drill early. Right. Like, that could have been an option. Was okay.
[00:43:10] Speaker B: They usually do that for the theater folks. They always let them go first out of the theater.
[00:43:14] Speaker C: They do, yeah. So for the. Yes, for the theater, they're good. But if you end up with an outside deck, you don't really have a great option. I mean, they do better if you have. Frankly, like you said, if you have a whee, you're actually better because it's more obvious that you have a disability, and then it's easier for them to, like, make accommodations. Right. So that's the one thing. That's the other probably piece of advice is to bring a wheelchair, even if she doesn't need it all the time.
But, you know, that's convincing parents to actually use a wheelchair, and that's sometimes a bit of a harder battle.
[00:43:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:53] Speaker C: Well, Nicola, what have we missed? I mean, you guys decided to stay on board for the one day that you had a port day.
What did you guys get up to on that day? Anything in particular? I'm sure the ship was quite empty, comparatively to the other days.
[00:44:08] Speaker A: Yes, we did the Midship Detective Agency, which we. Absolutely. That was a definite highlight as well. And it was nice because it was so quiet. So, yeah, I think that was the main.
That we spent the morning of that day, and then in the afternoon, we had to get Aurora to nap, which was a challenge. But it was pirate night that night, and she wasn't gonna make it. We had late dine in, which was a little bit late for her, so she was just getting progressively more and more tired. So, yeah, we did midship and then we had a bit of a rest, which.
It was a nice day.
[00:44:38] Speaker B: I want to hear how Bibbidi Boppidi Boutique went, since that was such an important part. Yeah, how did that go?
[00:44:43] Speaker A: Yeah, it was fantastic. Aurora absolutely loved it.
You know, we kind of went in and she was off already picking her dress. And, you know, she had the full work, so she had the makeup and the nails and the hair. She had this kind of, you know, big, long purple and blue hair. And she chose to be Jasmine, which.
[00:45:02] Speaker C: Yeah, she didn't want to be Princess Aurora. She's Aurora.
[00:45:06] Speaker A: She already had the Aurora dress.
She went in as Aurora and then she had the. Yeah, she had to pick a new dress. So, yeah, it was a really magical experience because when I. When I first started going to the parks, I was 11, and I don't even know if they did it then, but by the time I was aware of it, I was too old to do it. So it was a little bit nice for me as well to kind of go along with her and like, you know, get to experience that with her as well. So, yeah, it was. It was really good fun.
[00:45:31] Speaker C: Oh, nice. I think they do such a wonderful job, I have to say. I. You know, Nathan's not interested in dress up in general. Like, he. That would not be his thing. I know there's a lot of boys who go and do either the pirate makeover, the prince makeover, or the night makeover. Now, they don't have the prince one. I think it's just the night one. But Nathan's just. That's just not him. It's not his jam. But I got a chance to go in with my friend Ashley when her daughter Catherine was doing. I mean, she's done Bibbidi bobbidi, like, on every sailing, and they've been. They're like gold. So her daughter's done it a bunch of times, and they've done it at the parks as well.
And I went in to just watch because I had never seen the transformation process.
And I got to say, those fairy godmothers in training are so good. Like, the way they interact with those kids, the way that they pamper them, the way they're just like, they're just royalty. Right. Like, the kids are. They're the star. Right? Like, it's. Yeah. And it's just. It. It is pretty magical. I mean, it's an expensive experience, but it's. But it's pretty magical.
Now, you. You also mentioned you had booked the royal gathering, which is the princess meet, and Greet did she do that? Was that the same day as she had her Bibbidi bobbidi or was it a different day or how'd it work out?
[00:46:47] Speaker A: It was the same day, but it was before, unfortunately, which is why she was in her Aurora dress. So she went to the princess gathering as Aurora and yeah, that was fantastic. Again, quite a long queue actually for that, which we didn't expect. But all the princesses were amazing. You know, we saw they were out so much of the day that day because I think there was two princess gatherings and they were, you know, they were out for a long time.
Yeah, Tiana in particular was fantastic. She was kind of twirling around and. Yeah, it was really lovely.
[00:47:15] Speaker C: Oh, I love that. Well, are you guys, like planning the next one? You said you had sort of gone in with the mindset of, you know, this is not gonna be the last or the only Disney cruise we ever go on.
And obviously now you mentioned your husband was maybe not all in, but now he's all in. Is that right?
[00:47:38] Speaker A: Absolutely, absolutely. We, when we got to. Because we didn't have any of like the WI FI package or anything, but when we got to La Carina, I could connect to the Internet on land and as soon as I did, one of the first things I was looking up was like 2026 to see what sailing we could do next year.
So, yeah, we, we knew from very early on that this wasn't like a one off and we were going to come back because I think for us, you know, both my husband and I said this is the first time since our daughter was born that we felt like we've actually had a holiday. Because previously, I think, as you said earlier, like, you know, going away with a potentially neurodivergent child, you don't. It's harder than being at home. But this experience, I think because it just worked so well for Aurora and that meant that it worked for us because she was happy. So we were happy. And you just feel so looked after.
You know, there's someone looking after your room twice a day. You're getting this amazing food. It's just. You're just so, so catered for. So, yeah, it was, it was phenomenal. And we, we can't not do that again.
[00:48:43] Speaker C: Oh, you're. I'm tearing up, Nicola, because the way you feel is the way that I feel about it too. It's just. And we didn't have as. I mean, you had a great experience for your first sailing. Our first sailing with Nathan was a four night Cruise and I was a Halloween sailing and it wasn' but we kind of learned from it and we kind of adjusted and sort of were able to like make it great eventually when we got our expectations realistic, I think. But I do think when your child is having a great time and everything else is taken care of, like you said, the food, your room is like, clean, your bed is made for you, all of like, it can really allow you to just enjoy that quality time as a family and to enjoy maybe a little bit of adult time. Were you and your husband able to get any time to yourselves on board either because of the kids club or because of your, you know, parents helping out?
[00:49:39] Speaker A: Yeah, so we, we didn't really. And it was just one of those things that there just wasn't really time, I think.
So. Yeah. So Aurora only went to the kids club once, but that wasn't because she didn't want to go. It's just because we didn't have time. And she went because Stitch was in the kids club. So we had to make sure she went, make basically with him. So we had about 45 minutes when she went to C Stitch. We got up to the adult only area. I opened my book, I read about two pages and then we got the text to say that she was done. And then we were, we were back down to the kids club. But, you know, it was still nice just to have that, you know, that, that little moment. But yeah, it was, it was just, it was just so busy. So we did, we were, we were together a lot. But that was nice. That was nice as well. Like to spend time together as a family.
[00:50:24] Speaker B: Nice. Well, Nicola, it sounds like an amazing trip. Is there anything we missed? Anything that you wanted to be sure to share that we didn't talk about?
[00:50:34] Speaker A: No, I don't think so. I think we've covered most of it. Yeah.
[00:50:36] Speaker B: All right, well, in that case, I think we have reached that point in the show where I need to hand you back over to Sam for some arbitrary questions, some arbitrary rules and a dash of judgment are the round we know as rapid fire. So, Sam, take it away.
[00:50:50] Speaker C: All right. You knew this was coming. Nicola, we're going to start with some Disney favorites, then we'll talk some Disney Cruise Line favorites. Of course, the one question I don't need to ask you is which one is your favorite ship? Because the answer is, of course, the Disney fantasy. So we will start, though, with your favorite Disney character. And when I say Disney, you can choose anything and everything that Disney owns. So lots of stuff that Isn't we don't even think of as classically Disney. But. Yeah. Who's your favorite character?
[00:51:19] Speaker A: I have agonized over this question because there's so many. So I've got one and then two special mentions, if that's okay. So Donald Duck is the absolute classic for me. He's been my favorite my whole life. So, yeah, it would be Donald. We were still excited. He's also my husband's favorite. So when we met Donald, it was just. It was just so exciting. But the special mention. Yes. So special mention also to Baymax and to sadness as well. I feel like they're like my spirit characters. I really identify with them.
[00:51:47] Speaker C: So I see you've got sadness right behind you, just over your head. Yeah.
[00:51:52] Speaker A: I love that.
[00:51:53] Speaker C: I love it.
[00:51:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:51:54] Speaker C: Awesome. Well, this household is big fans of Big Hero 6.
Big fans of Inside out and Inside out too. I mean, we are. You know, we loved that. The movie. We saw that on board a Disney ship. Yeah. Fantastic. All right. What is your favorite Disney movie?
[00:52:11] Speaker A: So my favorite Disney movie is Inside Out. Because I feel that that film taught me in, like, you know, an hour and a half more than years of expensive therapy. Like, I think that that film is ingenious. It taught me so much about my emotions. So hats off to Inside Out.
[00:52:26] Speaker C: Absolutely. And I have to tell you, I think it taught n a ton about emotions as well. Like, I.
Now, I'm not saying that, like, emotions are not easily identifiable by all autistic people, but some autistic people have a harder time identifying their own emotions and the emotions of other people. It's not that they don't feel them. They just aren't able to always articulate what they are. And I think that that movie does such a good job of sort of demonstrating, in of course, an exaggerated way, but demonstrating all the different emotions.
And then as we get older in the second movie, how those emotions get even more complicated with different sort of variations, like, just not. We don't just have discuss. We also have ennui.
[00:53:12] Speaker A: Right.
[00:53:12] Speaker C: Like, so I love. I love all the variation. Fantastic. Love that movie. All right. Favorite Disney song.
[00:53:20] Speaker A: So this one's Circle of Life. Gone. Very classic.
[00:53:23] Speaker C: So good. So good. Okay, speaking of songs, what was your favorite musical that you saw on the Disney Fantasy Walt Disney Theater stage?
[00:53:34] Speaker A: It was Frozen.
I cried so many times in Frozen.
I thought it was just so moving and so overwhelming.
[00:53:42] Speaker C: So, yeah, it's just a fantastic production. It really is. I mean, all of the ships have at least one production that I gotta say Kind of blows me away, but I just. There's something about the puppetry in Frozen that I'm always, like, just in awe of. So, yeah. Fantastic. All right, moving over to activities, what was your favorite onboard activity?
[00:54:08] Speaker A: I think it would be the aqueduct, because it was just. Yeah. So unusual. Yeah. So much fun.
[00:54:14] Speaker C: All right, Favorite rotational dining animator's palette.
[00:54:18] Speaker A: Just loved all the theming. We did turtle talk with Crush, and he spoke to us, which was. Which was obviously great. But. Yeah, and we got to go there twice because we had Pirate Night there as well.
[00:54:29] Speaker C: Very nice. I love having Pirate Night at Animators. I think if you've got a choice, people ask all the time, actually, in our Facebook group, oh, what rotation should I, you know, request or whatever for dining? If you are on a ship that has animators and you've got a Pirate Night, you should request to be an animators on Pirate Night. So that way you get two knights in Animators, because at least you get the pirate pictures on the screens. Then you don't get that in any of the other restaurants, because there are no screens. Ye. So I love that. Awesome.
Did Crush talk to Aurora then?
[00:55:01] Speaker A: Yes, yes. Mainly to Chris. Mainly to my husband. But, yeah, he did speak to Aurora, which was just magical.
[00:55:07] Speaker C: I love that. Yeah. Nathan. Actually, the first and only time Crush has talked to Nathan on the ship was on the Fantasy last New Year's. We were just lucky.
We had never been at the right table before, and this time, we were at the right table, and they chose Nathan, of all people, to talk to. It was really, really fun.
All right, well, we gotta stick with food. I'm gonna ask you a favorite sweet item and a favorite savory item on board your Disney cruise. So we're gonna start with the sweets, because the savories are the best. So we saved the best for last.
What was a favorite sweet item on your cruise?
[00:55:44] Speaker A: The banana soft serve. So nostalgic. Because you don't seem to get banana ice cream nowadays. So, yeah, I. I absolutely love, loved the soft serve.
[00:55:53] Speaker C: It also reminds me of the banana runt candies that we used to eat when we were kids. At least we used to eat these.
So good. But, yeah, I love Brian and I both love the banana soft serve as well. All right. What was a favorite savory item?
[00:56:08] Speaker A: So I am a huge fan of truffle. So it was the truffle preset? Yes, absolutely. Yeah, yeah.
[00:56:14] Speaker C: Yes.
Eat your heart out, Josh Wilson, the DCL villain.
Those truffle presets keep winning. We get the lots of people give me that answer. So. I love that. Nicola. That's awesome. All right. It mentioned your favorite chip was already.
[00:56:27] Speaker B: I think they're just pandering to you, Sam, just to be fair.
[00:56:30] Speaker C: No, I. I don't think so.
[00:56:32] Speaker A: I.
[00:56:32] Speaker C: That seemed like a genuine answer to me, Brad. Yeah.
[00:56:34] Speaker A: I love truffle.
[00:56:35] Speaker C: There you go. Yeah, I love truffle, too. I mean, truffle popcorn, truffle on french fries. Like it's just. Yeah. Yeah. Especially with something a little salty. Yeah. All right, my last question is, what is your bucket list? Cruise. Nicola, if you could go anywhere in the world on a Disney cruise line ship and it doesn't have to be someplace that Disney cruise line currently sails, it just has to be someplace close to water, where would you go?
[00:57:00] Speaker A: So I'm going to New Zealand and I'm also coming back from New Zealand, so I guess it's kind of around the world, but for two reasons. One, because then I'm maximizing my time. I'm getting a nice long sailing. But secondly, my uncle lives in New Zealand and Aurora's not ready for long, long haul flights. But I think she could do several weeks on a Disney cruise line. So, yeah, we're kind of killing two birds with one stone. So if I could, that's where I would sail to.
[00:57:24] Speaker C: I love it. All right, you're gonna have to take a transatlantic first and then drive across the US and then take a trans Pacific.
It's gonna be a long vacation. Nicola, I don't know if your job may let you go, but, you know, but it sounds like an amazing vacation. Yeah, I love it. All right, well. Well, congratulations. A flying colors, no judgment. All great answers. And I'm giving you bonus points for picking like three of the best characters in the Disney universe as your favorite character. So I love that.
[00:58:00] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you.
[00:58:01] Speaker C: You're welcome.
[00:58:02] Speaker B: Well, Nicola, you know, I know you mentioned you got the placeholder on board, I believe you said, but are you eyeing a specific sailing at this point? Point.
[00:58:10] Speaker A: So we have already booked. We had been back on dry land for 48 hours and I'd already booked the next one.
So we are going next year. We're actually going to cruise out of Barcelona and cruise back to Southampton. So fly over, have a few days of Barcelona and then pick up the ship and fly and cruise. Sorry, cruise back round.
[00:58:30] Speaker C: Oh, that's so smart. What a good idea. Yeah. Because then you'll have one flight that's not super long and then no flight really, on the way back. Back. That's yeah. Very, very smart. So you'll just have to take transportation home then from.
[00:58:44] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, we'll hire a car, I think and just drive back up.
[00:58:47] Speaker C: Awesome. Well, Nicola, you'll have to come back to talk to us about that sailing because that sounds fantastic. You'll of course be on the sister ship of the Disney fantasy, the Disney Dream, so you'll have another ship to compare to. I'm going to give you a spoiler. They're really, really, really similar. So there's not going to be a whole lot of differences.
There will be.
Well, the dry dock happened on the. On the Dream first and then of course just happened on the Fantasy. So you may notice some differences between the two but not a whole lot. I'll be totally honest.
[00:59:24] Speaker A: That'll be good for Aurora.
[00:59:25] Speaker B: Is a fantasy back at a dry dock yet, Sam? I thought that they were but I haven't seen much. I haven't seen much.
[00:59:31] Speaker C: So I believe that they actually sail today out of Southampton on the transatlantic. So I believe. Well, so that's. That means they're leaving probably around now as we're recording because it' swell. It's 1:11 in the afternoon Pacific time, so we're. Oh gosh. So we're like eight hours though they probably already sailed out of Southampton depending.
[00:59:51] Speaker A: Upon just gone ten past nine here.
[00:59:53] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah, so they must have. Yeah, they probably left Southampton a couple of hours ago to start their journey back across because I think it's today that they were leaving because I think the dry dock just ended. They were doing some sea trials a couple of days ago following because, you know, they had to. They retrofitted that. I forget what they call. But that bulbous thing on the front of the ship that's underwater. They actually changed the shape of that because the technology has changed over the years and so they. That's kind of a. A big, you know, retrofit. And so they do have to do sea trials when they do make that, you know, that big of a change. So they did that a couple days ago. So yeah, I think it's today that they're leaving. If not it's within the next day or two.
[01:00:36] Speaker B: Just like waiting to see if actually there was all the rumors swirling about stuff that they hadn't really announced yet for the Enchanted Garden and things like that. So just curious.
Have to hop on Threads I guess here and see if people are posting photos.
[01:00:52] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm sure we'll start seeing stuff on social media and then we'll of course be posting about it. But Nicola, as we said, we'd love to have you come back. So come back next year.
We'll book you a recording for your Disney dream sailing out of Barcelona. And with that we'll just say thanks so much for coming on show the the show.
[01:01:09] Speaker A: Thank you very much for having me. It's been, yeah, it's been fantastic.
[01:01:17] Speaker D: Well, thanks everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us alive, we have a live show now every week, Monday night, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you wanna 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 my path unwinding.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 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 as a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here at least, and a few blog articles that we've written. So DCLDUO.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also of course email
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