[00:00:00] Speaker A: There was one. There were two really cool people actually on our cruise who aren't normally. And it was Bluey.
Blue was on the cruise.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Oh, it was Bingo too.
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
Maybe she's just Bluey. Either way, I couldn't get it. Like, people were so excited to see them.
[00:00:28] Speaker C: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's episode of the DCL Duo Podcast Podcast.
[00:00:32] Speaker D: Brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel.
[00:00:34] Speaker C: And Sam, it's. We didn't do your jingle the last time. We got so out of practice. You forgot to do your jingle. Do your jingle.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Simply the best.
Better than all the rest.
[00:00:44] Speaker C: There you go. That is the review time jingle.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: And it's not very humble. I just realized, well, I mean, sometimes.
[00:00:50] Speaker C: You gotta, you gotta be the thing you wanna be, you know, don't. You don't have to be humble. We're. We're the best. We're the best.
All right. And it's objectively so because we have a listener review to read on the air. A five star review, doing something special. Continuing. What I said we were going to do a few episodes ago, I think is we're reading some of our international listener reviews because we see the ones in Apple podcasts from the U.S. we don't see the U.S. based ones because they key the reviews to where the.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: Non US based ones.
[00:01:15] Speaker C: Yes, the non US based ones. So this one is actually in honor of this show which spoiler alert is going to be about a fantastic New Zealand itinerary on the Disney Wonder.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: New Zealand and Australia, Brian.
[00:01:26] Speaker C: And Australia on the Disney Wonderland. I didn't check to see if we had any Australia reviews. Let me see if we've got one of those. We do have a New Zealand review.
We have a couple of from Australia actually. So on this episode I'm going to read the New Zealand review because it is the one and only that we have is from December of 2023 and.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: Because I'm wearing a New Zealand Disneyland shirt that was sent by listener June. So shout out to June. Thank you. It was so sweet of her. This is such an awesome shirt.
[00:01:55] Speaker C: You're co opting my listener review segment. I was gonna give you a chance to explain your T shirt, but now you've co opted my listener review segment. Sam.
All right, this is, this is what.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: Being married is like. People for those who aren't married.
[00:02:06] Speaker C: Yes, it is. Because you keep not letting me get to the listener review.
All right, this one comes From December of 2023, five months before the first Wonder down under season, apparently. And now we are on her last probably.
We know they're not going back next year but we don't know what the future holds. But comes from Condo Condo who writes the pre cruise info and enticement everyone needs. Hello from New Zealand. Thank you so much for all your amazing episodes. I found your podcast about five months before we cruise on the Wonder in her first season down here in New Zealand. And your episode not only kept us entertained as we impatiently waited for our sailing, but it gave us so many tips and hints so we truly feel like we got the best out of our three night cruise. Thanks to your knowledgeable thanks to your knowledge I think is where that was supposed to end. And we loved the Wonder so much we booked our next cruise within a week of our disembarking next time in concierge. So there you go. We like to say trigger warning, black box label warning on this podcast. It will deplete your bank account rapidly as you book more and more cruises. But thank you so much Cando Kando for that amazing review. And we are sad that I don't know if we'll get any more listener reviews from New Zealand after this season. But if you're down, if, if you're down, if, if you're down under and you're listening and you know you're Kiwi, you're from Australia. We love to hear from our international listeners, we love having them on and we love hearing your reviews. So thank you so much for leaving us that review. As as always, as always, one of the easiest ways to help support the show, head over to Apple Podcast, hit those five stars and if you leave us a listener or sorry, a written review, we will read it on the air at the top of one of our main episodes. Go ahead Stephen. Floor is yours.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: So I was going to say that we might continue to get reviews from our Kiwi and Oz because they can just hop a plane to Singapore as opposed to flying all the way across the Pacific Ocean to the US in order to sail.
[00:04:05] Speaker C: We also have currently no reviews from Singapore that I'm seeing.
[00:04:09] Speaker B: So you know that's, that's got to change. Well, we'll figure that out. Anyway, we're super. Again, shout out to listener June who was actually just a guest on our show recently at the very beginning of this year of 2026, she came on the show to talk about is sailing in New Zealand. And I guess I had mention on the show how I was sad I might never get any New Zealand Disney cruise line merchandise because they obviously as Brian said aren't sailing there next year and at least not for the foreseeable future. And so she sent me this awesome T shirt which was just so kind and I'm so thankful for now. We've got a great show today. We've got a first time guest but longtime listener to the show who came back from a ten night sailing on the Disney Wonder that hit both New Zealand and Australia.
We're super excited to welcome to the show friend and listener, Arianne. Arianne, it's so nice to have you on. Welcome.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: Hi. I'm so excited to be here.
[00:05:14] Speaker B: So this was your second cruise, I understand, with Disney Cruise Line, but you do have some history with Disney. Tell us before we dive into talking about this cruise and even what your last cruise on Disney Cruise Line, tell us your background with Disney.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: When I was about 15 years old, I went for the first time to the Magic Kingdom in Disney World in Florida. And then I didn't go again for about 10 years and I used to do business trips down there and just had the best time and I went about 10 times with my little ones.
So that is my experience. But I was a big Disney 1990s person.
[00:05:49] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. The golden age.
[00:05:51] Speaker C: And Ariane, where are you coming to us from?
[00:05:53] Speaker A: I'm in Virginia.
[00:05:54] Speaker C: Virginia.
[00:05:55] Speaker D: Okay, great.
[00:05:55] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: But I'm still in a bit of a Australian time zone.
[00:06:01] Speaker B: You know, I mean, I, I feel like I should be on an Australian time zone.
That's for.
[00:06:07] Speaker C: Why I don't know where that comes from.
[00:06:09] Speaker B: That's just because I, I don't sleep, I don't know, I don't sleep well. So it must just be that I'm on, that I'm constantly on some other time zone. That's what I've just decided.
[00:06:17] Speaker C: Sam is a morning person who unfortunately did not marry a morning person. And so.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: Yeah, true, true. I wake up like too early.
I don't sleep through the night either. But anyway, let's dive into talking about. I want to ask you, Ariane, you went on a cruise prior to this on Disney Cruise Line in the Mediterranean. Had you sailed with any other cruise lines before or was Disney your first foray into cruising?
[00:06:43] Speaker A: I went on one cruise in 2017 and it was Seabourn and it was just my husband. Yeah, it was very luxurious.
And yep, the four kids were home with a village of people and we got to go on Seabourn and that was in 2017. That was my only other cruise.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: And then the shift to Disney Cruise Line. Now I know that this cruise was with two of your four kids. Was the Mediterranean cruise with all of the kids? The whole family?
[00:07:08] Speaker A: Three kids went to the Mediterranean. My husband stayed home. He had to work. And we have dogs and teenagers stay at home for both. But spoiler, he gets to go on a cruise. So.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: Okay, perfect. I love it. Now your Mediterranean cruise, how many nights was that?
[00:07:25] Speaker A: It was nine nights.
[00:07:26] Speaker B: Okay, so that was a longer sailing also.
Now you booked this 10 night sailing on the Wonder.
Tell us what, what made you choose? I mean, you live on the, on the East Coast. That's quite a long trip over, you know, down under.
What spurred you to purchase a cruise out of New Zealand or Australia?
[00:07:50] Speaker A: I have a best friend who moved there six years ago. And so we said, I said I'd always get there, but I didn't want to fly that far.
So we were going to see each other in Hawaii at the Aulani last summer and meet halfway. They decided they couldn't make it. So I spent that money and time in the Mediterranean and discovered Disney cruise. And I said, how about, does Disney cruise go to New Zealand? I could see my friend and do another cruise.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: And then I asked her, does she want to come with me? And she said yes.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: Oh my God, that's such a great idea. That's. You know, we actually have friends who moved during the pandemic, moved to New Zealand, and we haven't seen them in years. And so that would be actually, I mean, now, not now. I can't because unless I want to go in the next month, this ship's not going to be in New Zealand anymore. But what a cool idea. That way you get a little reunion. Now you brought two of the kids with you.
How old are the kids that you brought with you?
[00:08:46] Speaker A: 10 and 13.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: Okay, so we're talking like edge age. Well, I guess Oceaneer and edge age. Kids so close to Nathan's age.
Now that's a long trip from Virginia all the way to now. Were you flying into New Zealand or were you flying to Australia? Where did you guys start?
[00:09:06] Speaker A: We went through San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand.
[00:09:08] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, that's so long flight. So six hours to San Francisco from Virginia, probably from Dulles.
How many hours flight from San Francisco to Auckland?
[00:09:22] Speaker A: It was almost 14.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: Yeah, that's rough. How did the kids do with that?
[00:09:27] Speaker A: They did great because we've flown to Europe a lot. And these are. We've done trips, just the three of us.
So they're my two travelers. They don't bicker, they get along.
[00:09:36] Speaker B: Yeah, that's Amazing.
Now, okay, so what kind of stateroom did you guys book for this sailing? And was your friend staying in the same stateroom as you did? She booked her own.
What were the logistics behind that?
[00:09:50] Speaker A: I like the veranda. And spoiler for later, I'm gonna talk about a tip. We did a GTY room. In the end, we switched. My friend did not. She had a, an ocean. You know, a normal veranda family like deluxe. And we didn't try to even get near each other on the ship because we knew we'd find each other when we needed to.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and you're on the Wonder for this sailing, so it's not like it's a huge ship that you're. It's not like being on an icon class ship or the Disney adventure you're going to find each other. It's. You can't like go even a day without running into each other on a ship the size of the Wonder, in my opinion. Well, so, okay, so how far in advance of the cruise did you head over to Auckland?
[00:10:32] Speaker A: I went a week early.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: And that was key to really adjusting to the time zone and being halfway across the world.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, that's. I mean that.
So when we tell people don't like fly in the day before the cruise. Of course. I mean if you can fly in a week before the cruise, even better. Right? Especially if you're having to acclimate to a completely different time zone where you're. What Was it, like 20, like 20 hours difference or something like that?
[00:10:59] Speaker A: It was 19. Yeah. But we had gracious hosts. My friends greeted us with a sign at the airport, welcomed us to their home. So we had the luxury of that, you know, a week with them before the cruise.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: Awesome. All right, well how many people in your total sailing party then? The three of you and then in your friend's room, who was in, who was in their room?
[00:11:20] Speaker A: So two adults and then a 15 year old girl and an 11 year old boy.
[00:11:25] Speaker B: Okay. All right, so all kids kind of close in age, kind of the young teen and tween age. So perfect.
So tell us like in advance, what, if anything, did you book? Like you're a silver cruiser, so you obviously have not the last booking window for onboard booking, but the second to last booking window. Your friend I'm assuming was probably a first time cruiser, so she's at the very last booking window. Was there anything like, you know, drink tastings or excursions or adult diner, anything that you were trying to book in that onboard booking window?
[00:12:01] Speaker A: Yes, I Always jump for the. Always. This is my second cruise, but I try to get the Rainforest Room and that was my big tip for her. When her window opened, you know, try to get on that. And in the end she did. And so did her husband. And Palo brunch, which was never open when I was on the Fantasy. It was open when I got on. And so I booked it regardless of whether they were going to join me or not. I was like, I'm going.
And they did. They did join me.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: Ah, fantastic. Yeah, well. And on a longer sailing, you have more opportunities for Palo brunch, so you have a better chance of getting it. It. And also I will say over in Australia and New Zealand, my understanding is some of those premium experiences were actually not very oversubscribed because the price is so expensive. You know, they're paying in, you know, US dollar prices.
So for the Aussies and the Kiwis, a lot of those premium experiences are quite expensive. And so a lot of people, especially for their first cruise, opted not to book those extras. So that's awesome. Now I want to dive into a boarding experience. When we're talking about, you're in Auckland, you're getting onto the ship, you're checking in. Was that process. Well, I mean, you did it in Europe, I'm assuming in either Barcelona or Southampton or it was a.
[00:13:25] Speaker A: Yeah, it was Rome.
[00:13:26] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, the road near Rome.
[00:13:28] Speaker C: This is a family friendly podcast. Let's not use that kind of language.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: God bless you.
So was the check in process fairly, you know, similar to that what you had experienced in Italy?
[00:13:42] Speaker A: Yeah, in Italy, I just showed up after my port arrival and there was no one there. I was probably one of the last people to get on, it seemed.
But this one waited 12:30, port arrival time, and we got in line at 12:20. There are lines with signs, you know, it flowed really well. And within 30 minutes we were on the ship and then 30 minutes later, the room was ready. So 1:30, the room was ready.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: Oh, that's awesome. I love a quick room being ready. Now when you guys.
So this had been your first time getting on the Wonder? Cause you had been on the Fantasy when you sailed in Europe.
When you're welcomed in, did you come into the atrium or. Yes. Oh, that's the best. So they do your family name. They're clapping for you. What was that moment like? And what did you think of the atrium on the Disney Wonder, having only been on the Fantasy before?
They're different, but not maybe not that different or maybe not that noticeably different.
[00:14:34] Speaker A: The arrival into the atrium was really cool. And I made sure to have my friends go first because they'd never been and I wanted them to. I didn't even tell them what was gonna happen so they could enjoy that moment. When I went in with my kids, it was neat. It's a much smaller atrium, but it was bedecked for the holidays. Oh, yeah, that was really cool. And you know, there's like a tree lighting later and just how everything just lit up and sparkled as. I've never been on a maritime cruise or anything, so it was really cool.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: Oh, I love that I forgot about the decorations. Cause this was over. This was in December. And so you've got all. Everything stacked up for maritime for the holiday season. Season. Love that. Now, what did your friends think of the entrance? Like, you hadn't spoiled for them. It sounds like they probably didn't watch like YouTube videos and maybe they don't listen to our show. So what, what was their, you know, first impression or were they surprised by the welcome?
[00:15:28] Speaker A: I think they thought it was really cool.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: And I think their son had looked at some YouTube videos to like, see what the. The vibe. What the vibe? The club and the vibe of the boat or like, you know, the what the pools and things. So I think there he was excited to see in person.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: Oh, that's super fun. Well, what did you guys do first? Did you have any places that you needed to go, I don't know, to change dining or to book anything, or did you head for lunch? Like, what was the plan of attack?
And did your friends, like, latch onto you like you're the experienced cruiser, You've been on one cruise, show us around.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: We definitely went our separate ways and let them get settled in. I did a sit down lunch at Tiana's, which I didn't do last time. And after listening to your podcast, I was like, oh, I need to decide what I want to do when I get on the boat. And I love that sit down experience. It was really nice, but we said we'll meet for drinks before dinner because we had a late dining. We had the whole day just do whatever we wanted as our own family units. And we met at the French Quarter and had just the adults, espresso martinis and beignets.
[00:16:30] Speaker B: Ooh, that's the best way.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: It felt very refined. And the kids were having like a great time doing whatever they were doing.
[00:16:34] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the best way to start.
[00:16:36] Speaker A: Everyone's happy.
[00:16:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I love that you tried the sit down lunch. Having done the buffet lunch on the fantasy, did you find that you preferred one or over the other? And what did the teen and tween think about the sit down lunch experience?
[00:16:52] Speaker A: I think they like it. I think they like the air of elegance, of being having a sit down. Because we ended up doing a sit down I think three times on the ten night cruise when we would always just do cabanas or you know, something at the pool. Yeah, but we're like, oh, I mean we had the luxury of 10 days and a lot of days at sea.
So we're like, we're doing this, you know, the right way. The right way for us. As in like the luxury of time.
[00:17:15] Speaker B: Yeah. I love the sit down lunch experience. I feel like there's the chaos of embarkation day and you've just like gone through check in and boarded and you may still have your backpack with you because your room may not be ready. And so when you get to that sit down lunch, it's like, ah, I'm on vacation. I know that I feel that way. I feel like Brian feels that way. It's just a really great way to start that trip. Now you mentioned the, that you had the tree lighting the first night because this maritime cruise, did they have two tree lightings like one in between dinner and one after dinner or just, or just one?
[00:17:50] Speaker A: They had two.
And this wasn't billed as a official maritime, although it seemed very merry to me. And you know, Santa was there, we were there on Christmas Day. So yeah, it was great.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: Yeah. I think that what they did this year and they did it in previous years on the Wonder in particular is they didn't call them maritime sailings because it was their, I don't know, Australia, New Zealand sailings. And so they weren't promising to do, I think the holiday deck was party and that there's some things that are like essential to I guess a maritime sailing. And they aren't weren't going to necessarily promise that they're going to do those things I think probably because they have to load more costumes, more equipment and things like that on board. But it seems like they did quite a bit of the maritime and we, we actually, we were just talking with somebody who went on the Destiny on our live show and they had kind of a similar experience where it wasn't an official maritime because it's the Destiny's inaugural season. But they did. Sure. Quite a bit of the maritime stuff like because it was over Christmas and so Santa showed up and all of that. So really, I really love the the tree lighting, I think that's a great part of any holiday. Holiday sailing. Well, let's, let's dive in to talk about your ports because you had like a really unique itinerary. This in fact was the only one of its kind for the entire season.
And I will say they didn't in the first and second seasons that they went to Australia, New Zealand, they never did. This itinerary, 10 night itinerary is unique to this season and perhaps unique in that it may never ever happen again. So tell us what your port stops were and then we'll kind of go through them one by one.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: So we started in the north island, which is where Auckland is. That's where we embarked. And then the next day we went to Tauranga and then we're a day at sea. Then Napier, which is still the north island, and then Wellington, which is the tip of the North Island.
And then we crossed over to the south island and went to Christchurch. And then another day at sea, which was Christmas Day. And then the Fiordland park, where Milford Sound is. It was kind of a drive through. It wasn't. We were not getting off the boat.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: Right. It's kind of like Glacier Day in Alaska. Yeah.
[00:20:06] Speaker A: And then two days at sea and the next morning you woke up in Sydney, like cruising through the past, the Opera House at sunrise.
That's when we got off.
[00:20:16] Speaker B: Oh, that's amazing. So most of it really was in New Zealand with just ending in Australia, which is kind of lovely. Then did you guys spend some time in Australia touring around after?
[00:20:27] Speaker A: Yeah. So New Year's Eve was. Or New Year's Day was happening shortly after we got off the boat. So we stayed there for that.
And then so I stayed five nights in Australia after.
[00:20:37] Speaker B: That's amazing. And you basically get to be the first ones to celebrate New Year's. Like Sydney is where the first kind of big celebration for New Year's is because they are so like we said like 20 hours ahead of us here in the States. Basically.
Amazing.
[00:20:54] Speaker A: And a cool tip is, I guess they do a fireworks show at 9pm it's more family friendly. And also the midnight show that everyone sees. So we went on the harbor cruise and we're on the boat at 9pm with the families. And then we made it back to our seat.
Sweet. For the midnight, you know, from the comfort of our own like bedroom or living room to watch it as a family.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. I gotta tell you, Arian, I am a big fan of a 9pm New Year's Eve celebration. We live on the west coast, as folks know, and when we are home for New Year's, which is. Hasn't been the last couple years, but we have always celebrated New year's Eve at 9pm Pacific because Ryan and I were both born on the East Coast. And so I feel like, you know, for us, New Year's Eve is East Coast New Year's Eve. So. And then it's the excuse I can go to bed at, you know, I can go to bed by 10. So I'm getting old.
All right, well, let's dive into your first port stop to Tanaga. Is that right?
[00:21:56] Speaker A: It was Taronga.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: Taronga. Okay.
[00:21:58] Speaker A: Taronga. So I did a port excursion with Disney and I ended up. That was the 15th birthday of my friend's daughter, so they got to choose whatever she wanted to do.
And they chose a really cool port adventure, which was kayaking. But there was not room for their son to join. So when you asked what did they do? When we got on, they went to the desk and we're trying to get the fourth spot for that kayak. It did not work out. So he joined me on my tour, which was awesome.
Which was the tree walking around, like the California redwood trees.
There are these elevated platforms and you walk all up in the trees.
It was a really cool experience.
[00:22:38] Speaker B: Yeah, that sounds awesome. Was this like a full day experience or part of the day? Like did you have time to explore on your own?
[00:22:45] Speaker A: It was about a 90 minute drive each way because we're going to like Rotora, which is where the geothermal activity and the Maori tribes, they have some really neat cultural shows there. So a lot of the excursions were out there. So it kind of wasn't all day and they broke it up. And the other half was a World War II duck boat tour.
[00:23:01] Speaker B: Oh, cool.
[00:23:02] Speaker A: That's fun because the lakes there are stunning.
[00:23:05] Speaker B: Ah, yeah. Now was, was your friend like upset to have her son not on their kayak excursion or was this kind of a bonus? Because then it was great. Yeah, because then they get to focus on the birthday girl and. And you've got, you know, company for your two kids.
[00:23:22] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Everyone had a great time on both excursions.
[00:23:27] Speaker B: Oh, awesome. I love that. Yeah. All right, well, let's move to Napier. That was your second. I can't believe I remembered it off the top of my head, but Napier was your second port day.
What did you guys do for that one? Did you book a Disney excursion?
[00:23:44] Speaker A: So that one we had some back and forth because Napier has some really Neat. It's a neat Art Deco era buildings. There's a big earthquake that happened and they did a lot of rebuilding and they had these really neat like vintage classic cars all lined up next to the wonder. When we got back to get on board, it was really cool and they were dressed in like period attire. We were torn. We wanted to do a Disney port adventure, but we wanted to do wine tastings and you had to be 18 to do those.
So we went with shoreexcursions.com and did a great same kind of tour where the children were okay to be at the wineries with us. So that was a lot of fun.
[00:24:19] Speaker B: That's a really good option. You forget some. So Disney has certain age limits for its activities. And it's not like obviously you weren't going to give your 10 year old wine, but Disney won't even let you sign up for that excursion because your 10 year old obviously can't drink. But other shore excursion companies will let you bring the 10 year old with you and they'll give them, I don't know, soda or lemonade as they call it, which is their version of Sprite they call lemonade, basically.
So yeah, it's really nice to have those options. I think people forget like sometimes the Disney excursion isn't the perfect fit because they might have certain restrictions that the excursion itself doesn't impose, but that Disney imposes on them. So there's other ones. Even some of the more physical excursions, sometimes Disney has a higher age requirement than what the tour company will require. Like they might say, you know, 16 and up when the tour company says like 13 and up or something like that. So something always to kind of check and look out for.
So how long was that excursion and was it nearby to the ship or did you have a long bus ride for that one as well?
[00:25:34] Speaker A: We started out with a little bit of a city tour. There's some like a waterfall and a quarry. And they showed us kind of the destruction from the earthquake and the rebuilding that was pretty close. And then the winery's like a 20 minute drive, so everything was pretty close.
[00:25:46] Speaker B: Oh, awesome. Did you get some time on your own then to kind of explore the town and look at the architecture and.
[00:25:51] Speaker A: Stuff we did afterwards. And there is a local aquarium which I knew was one of the other options from Port of At the Port Adventures. So my friend's family went back to the boat and we stayed and had the tour driver drop us off at the aquarium.
[00:26:04] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. Yeah.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: And they just got on the Boat right before we needed to get on, you know, an hour before we got on.
[00:26:11] Speaker B: Yeah, well. And if. If everything's kind of close by, then it's nice. You don't worry about, like, getting, you know, back to the. Back to the ship.
You know, you don't have to get back to the ship three hours in advance if. If you can sort of walk and see where the ship is. That sort of a thing is really, really nice.
[00:26:26] Speaker A: And these ports were leading. We're leading up to Christmas Day when we're in this group. So, like, just the hustle and bustle and being in the towns is really cool.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: Was it weird to be over there where, like, the weather is warm? Right. Like, it's summertime there. It's not winter time and it's. But it's Christmas time and, like, is that. Was that, like, weird to, like, see, I don't know, Christmas decorations? But it's like summertime.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: It was a little weird seeing Christmas trees at a beach, but I'm not a big fan of winter, so I was happy as a clam to be there.
[00:26:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I feel you. I mean, we. We spent Christmas and New Year's at Aulani, so we're like. And we often spend it in the Caribbean, so it's like we're happy to be on a beach during Christmas. And I like the decorations, whether they're on palm trees or they're on evergreen trees. It really doesn't. Doesn't matter to me. All right, well, your next stop was Wellington, which is one of the largest cities in New Zealand, I think second only to Auckland, where you started, if either the. I'm not sure which one's bigger, actually.
[00:27:28] Speaker A: To be fair, but Wellington's the capital.
[00:27:31] Speaker B: The capital, yeah. Wellington and Auckland are the two biggest. And then. And they're both obvious, as you mentioned, on the north island. And then Christchurch is the biggest city, I think, on the south island that you also went to. But. Yeah. So let's talk about Wellington. What did you do there? It's. It's a city. It's the capital. Like, what did you walk around? I mean. Yeah. What did you get up to there?
[00:27:52] Speaker A: So I was super excited. There's a port adventure, port excursion to the Kapiti coast, which is kind of on the west side of the island. And unfortunately. So one of my. I have a tip here. Unfortunately, there only had one spot for this, and I was just trying to get three for my family. And so I ended up calling and they said, how about we put your daughter in the One spot.
So then when you're on later for me, I can go ahead and book the rest of us. But they said just make sure you cancel three days prior to the, to the cruise. But it held the spot for me to get us one. And then I was able to get online and add the other ones as they opened up.
[00:28:26] Speaker C: Oh, nice.
[00:28:27] Speaker B: Really smart. Yeah, that's awesome.
Yeah, pro.
[00:28:31] Speaker A: It worked out for us and my friends ended up getting four spots later as well because people were just kind of shifting their, their plans. And this was a longer tour, but it was beautiful to see the other side of the coast. And we went to this great lunch spot and the tour operator was amazing and just he vetted out all the places himself and he did a great job.
[00:28:54] Speaker B: That's awesome.
That's a great pro tip though. I think people don't realize, especially if they're in silver or a first time cruiser, there may not appear to be a lot available when you're looking at excursions. But people really do drop excursions, shift excursions, all the way up until a couple days before, well, three days, as you mentioned, three days before sailing. So especially in like, I would say the two weeks like prior to the sailing, like if you're online checking, you don't have to check like every minute or anything, but check a couple times a day. Things really do open up and you can snag spots for an excursion that might have been sold out from early on. With maybe a couple of exceptions where, you know, when there are excursions that are really like limited to a small number of people. Sometimes there's like fishing excursion at certain ports or like a helicopter excursion at certain ports. Really those tend to be more limited because it's about the amount of space in a helicopter, amount of space on a small fishing boat. But most of the other tours, I feel like there's so much shifting around that if you time it right like you, you usually can get lucky and get, you know, something that you like. And also a lot of people end up deciding to not book with Disney. You know, they booked something with Disney early on and then they decide to go with a private tour operator to do something different. And so I think people tend to, I mean, I'll be honest, Brian and I do this. We will book something as like a. Well, if I don't find something I like better, I'm gonna do this kind of excursion. But then we'll do some research on our own to see it through TripAdvisor or somebody else. And you know, because we're pearl status. We get that early onboard booking so we do take spots but then sometimes we end up dropping them in a first time cruiser or somebody with silver status might end up getting it. So I think it's something to, to really pay attention to.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: Yeah, I definitely always look on the app at other things because for a future cruise I actually saw a cabana on Castaway Cay was open.
I mean you never know so it's worth checking.
[00:30:56] Speaker B: Exactly. You never know. And same same happens with Paulo Brunch or with Remy or with Enchante for, you know like a lot of those things people do change their mind especially in those couple of weeks right before the three day cutoff. People tend to shift around a lot. Obviously you can't change once. Once that three days happens, everything is sort of frozen in the app. You can't actually cancel anything until you get on board and then you're at the mercy of whoever you know. How nice is the person. Are they going to let me cancel without penalty? And they usually will if there's a waiting list. If there's no waiting list, just they aren't necessarily going to be so generous.
[00:31:34] Speaker C: So are you listening to our show.
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[00:32:34] Speaker B: All right, well your next port stop was Christchurch, right down on the south island. So yeah, tell us about that. What did you get up to there?
[00:32:45] Speaker A: So Christchurch, I was poking around the shore excursions and Saw this epic trip, and it actually is the one that we ended up doing, and it was the one I was most looking forward to doing for the whole cruise. And it went to Arthur's Pass and it went past some places where Lord of the Rings was filmed down in the South Island. We went to a place where they did the working dogs, where they did the sheep shearing and rounded up the sheep. So it was a lot of fun.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[00:33:12] Speaker A: Yeah. This is like an epic time.
[00:33:14] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:33:15] Speaker B: Did you buy a sweater? Because, you know, that's their wool. No.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: 1. The one thing they were selling was possum. Possum wool or something.
It's different than possum in the U.S. but it was. It was merino wool. Merino and possum. And it was supposedly soft and amazing. I didn't get it, but you couldn't.
[00:33:33] Speaker B: Get your head around.
[00:33:34] Speaker A: I got lanolin products, like, oh, okay. Lotions and chapstick lotions and stuff.
[00:33:38] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know that I would buy a possum sweater, but I would buy a merino wool sweater.
[00:33:45] Speaker C: Well, she said it's not the same.
[00:33:46] Speaker A: But it's a different kind of possum.
[00:33:48] Speaker B: Yeah, but it's still probably in the rodent family. I'm gonna guess that it's in that rodent family. I don't know.
I don't know.
[00:33:56] Speaker A: So that that trip did live up, my friend who is from New Zealand, he'd never been to Arthur's Pass, and it's not an easy place to kind of get to. And it was like a two and a half hour drive to get to that spot. And it was totally worth it. It was amazing.
[00:34:08] Speaker B: Oh, that's awesome. So now. So this couple. So one of them is American born and the other is Kiwi born, Correct? Yeah, that's exactly. It's so funny because our friends are the same who moved. Moved back to. Well, she had never lived in.
She had never lived in New Zealand, but he grew up in New Zealand. They moved during the. During the pandemic. They decided to leave Seattle and pick up and move to New Zealand. And they live in Auckland as well. So I wonder if our friends know each other with expat couples. Right.
[00:34:42] Speaker A: It's a beautiful place to live, though. They made a great choice.
[00:34:46] Speaker B: I have to say, I get jealous at times, for sure. Especially in the wintertime when it's dark here in Seattle.
Well, Ariane, let's. Let's jump back on board and talk about some of your onboard stuff. You know, you mentioned that when you were on the fantasy, you didn't get a chance to do maybe some of the things you wanted to do on board. And that makes sense because even though you were on a nine night sailing, those European itineraries are really port intensive. And so you actually.
Did you like maybe have one or two sea days on a nine night itinerary? Yeah. Whereas this, this itinerary, even though it's a ten night, it's a ten night itinerary, you had like half of your days were sea days and half of your days were port days. So you get a lot more time to kind of explore the ship, enjoy the ship. You're also on a smaller ship so you, it's easier to get more things done, I think.
But tell us what were some of the things that you hadn't, didn't get a chance to do on the fantasy that you got a chance to do on the Wonder and that were, I don't know, worthwhile or maybe overhyped. I don't know.
[00:35:51] Speaker A: 1. I'm obsessed with bingo. I'm just gonna say that.
So we definitely did almost all the bingos you could do. I tried out the, like on my last cruise. I didn't have another adult friend to hang out with. So this cruise, after dinner I'd go to, I don't know, the D Lounge or I'd go have a drink with my friends to like the adult hour, kind of whatever shows they're into.
[00:36:14] Speaker B: Yeah, like the Cadillac Lounge or go to Azure to have like to do the game shows. Yeah, like all of that stuff. Yeah, all of the. Yeah, I think those things are really fun. Plus on those European itineraries you're like long days in the ports, you are probably exhausted. You can't even stay up past like 9:30 or 10 at night. So that's awesome. Now your husband didn't get to come on this sailing with you. He didn't get to travel to New Zealand.
You mentioned that he's gonna sail at some point. Are you guys gonna get to sail together on Disney Cruise Line or is it just, is it now you're gonna just. You have to sort of tag team parents in that way.
[00:36:57] Speaker A: We may tag team. So you may ask me later what my next cruise is. So I'll wait to answer that later.
There is another, another big Mediterranean cruise this summer that I'm tempted to do and I was like, how do I swing it? But there we have a family of six, so it gets.
This means two state rooms. If he doesn't go, then I can squeeze the family in one room. And so he'll eventually get on one and he'll see what I'm talking about. And then we can do the fine dining and all the fun things with my partner.
[00:37:25] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, Absolutely. Absolutely. No, I will say, like, I would go to Palo Brunch on my own, and I do go see, like, the shows in the theater on my own, but I'm not sure I'd go to something like Trivia. I love that there are people out there who go to Trivia, so there's no shame in going any event on your own whatsoever. And there are plenty of people who do it on Disney Cruise Line. I'm not sure I would.
I'm not sure I would want to by myself. But it's so nice when you have a friend, a spouse. You make a friend. Right. And drag somebody. But I'll go see a show by myself. So I don't know what my hang up is. I guess that's a me hang up. Because Brian doesn't go to the shows with. Well, he'll go to a new show with me, but after he's seen it, like, once, he's like, okay, I'm done.
[00:38:14] Speaker A: My friends did have a nice Palo night as they're a couple, the two of them. And I said, oh, you know, I got to go to the brunch with them. But I was like, I've never done the dinner, and I probably won't for a while.
And so it was so nice. My friend's like, let's go. Let's just the two of us ladies go. And so we got a reservation and had a really nice dinner, the two of us. And then I wanted to rush it at the end just so I can make it back to our table with the other. With the kids. Kids, you know, we're in Tiana. So I wanted to make it for dessert, which we did.
[00:38:41] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Well, and if it. If it was Mardi Gras night. You don't want to miss Mardi Gras night.
Oh, God, yeah. Yeah. That's the hard part is, like, Disney Cruise Line doesn't make it easy for us. Like, in the sense that they don't give you your dining rotation ahead of time. You can request a dining rotation, but then you have to find out what they are. And then, you know, obviously you gotta. You wanna book your adult dining in a way that, like, you don't want to miss certain restaurants. It's just. It's a very complicated. I, like, map it out When I have, like, a preference of where we're going to be, I. And let's say it's not just one adult dining that I can book on Pirate Night, then I have to, like, map it out. And it's. I'll be honest, it's quite confusing. And it's not just the shows. There are certain menus I don't want to miss, and so that makes it even. It complicates it even more. But I got to ask about the dining experience, of course, because, you know, the Fantasy only has the show elements in Animator's palette.
On the Wonder. You've got the show element in Animator's palette, but you also have the show element in Tiana's. And I'm curious what you thought of those experiences. Did you enjoy them? Are they things you look forward to on future cruises?
[00:40:00] Speaker A: So Animators was my favorite dining experience on the Fantasy, so I knew that was gonna be special on this boat. I didn't tell my friends, you know, whenever. Okay, this. The second night, I didn't tell them what it was gonna be. I'm like, don't be late for dinner. So our first night was at Tiana's, and we walked in, we had the most amazing seat. Like, the seat that we. The table we had was, like, right at a porthole. And my other cruise was not that. We were, like, tucked in the corner somewhere.
So every night we had dinner in this beautiful view at two of the restaurants.
And then Tiana started singing, and we were like, oh, my gosh. Then the alligator comes out with this trumpet, and we were just like, what is happening right now is amazing.
[00:40:39] Speaker B: Oh, I love that.
I think the entertainment during. Well, some people don't like it because of the volume, and I totally understand that, but I love the entertainment in the dining room. I think they did a great job with Tiana's. They do a great job with Rapunzel's on the magic. Like, it's just really interactive and fun.
And while it's loud, I can handle loud. It's all right.
[00:41:04] Speaker A: They did something in Animators that they didn't do in the Fantasy. And it was the third night. It was the third restaurant. And so we knew our dining team pretty well by that point. And there's just a point where they came through and, like, you just kind of applaud them. And by the time. And they wave, it was like a little parade. And by the time our dining team came, I was a little like, I'm so proud of them. I got a little cheer I'm like, oh, it's Panda and Hilda. We were so happy for them. And that was just at the beginning of our journey. We'd only met them, you know, this is our third day together. But it was really neat. Yeah, we're proud of them.
[00:41:37] Speaker B: That's so cool. Yeah, that's really fun. I love that. That's nice touches that they, you know, especially on longer cruises, they can do sort of some extra stuff that you don't necessarily do on those shorter cruises. Speaking of longer cruises, we gotta talk about the Walt Disney Theater. Because on longer sailings you get your three main stage shows, but you usually get some special performances kind of mixed in. Whether those are, you know, guest performers, like magicians, mentalists, jugglers, things like that. But sometimes I don't know if you had any like special Broadway performers or anything like that. I'm curious as to whether or not they brought on particularly because this was at longer sailing.
[00:42:22] Speaker A: They did bring on two Broadway kind of stars and it was really neat. Cause I.
It was near. Closer to the end of the cruise. Then I'd just run into them. They were also enjoying the cruise, like the behind the scenes tour. They were there and they were so gracious and so I got to see them perform. And then they also had a Q and A maybe in the French Quarter or something where they spoke.
And we had a ventriloquist and the magician. And it was really neat because now I was looking at the adult things. After that they would then perform later like in the Azure. So that was cool. You have two opportunities to see them.
[00:42:53] Speaker B: Yeah. And they do different shows. So they always do like the family show, the main theater. And then if they do an adult performance, it's. It is always a different show and it might have some adult humor involved and that's why it's an adult only. It doesn't have to be. It's not like real raunchy. It is Disney cruise line for, you know, after all. But it is definitely more sort of adult focused and same even with the magician, like. And it's of course in a smaller venue. So it's really nice to have. Yeah. Those opportunities. I love the Broadway visiting artists or the Broadway stars series they actually just announced and I posted on our Instagram today they already have out the schedule for the first half of 2026 of which stars are going to be on what ships and when. And so it's really nice. You can actually.
I didn't know this schedule existed prior to this year. I don't know if it. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. I didn't know it was public.
And so, yeah, you can see if your scheduled sailing is actually going to have Broadway stars that are doing basically concert show, which is what we're talking about.
There is also a Broadway visiting artist, typically among the cast that is a part of the main stage shows. Depending upon what ship will depend on which character they play, which character or characters they play. So what were some of the other highlights, Ariane, that you got up to on this sailing? I mean, you got, like you said, lots of days at sea, so lots of time to explore the wonder play. Bingo.
[00:44:26] Speaker A: So I was in the intuition and I was on stage and I won. So I got like a Disney cruise line hat and the sling.
[00:44:33] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:44:34] Speaker A: That was fun. But I. Had you mentioned how you try to plan it out. I had the perfect storm one day and it was. I had a wine tasting and Jack Jack's Diaper dash was at the same time, and bingo. And so I just had to say, I can't go to bingo. But I left the wine tasting and like, went and saw like five minutes of Jack Jack's because I'd never seen it before. And it was worth it. I told my friends, I was like, I'll be right back. They didn't know where I was going.
[00:45:00] Speaker B: It only takes like five minutes. The baby, I mean, you, you. When they have Jack Jack's diaper dash scheduled, I would tell people, don't go, like, if you want to do exactly as Ariane did, don't go like, right when it's scheduled to start, go like five or 10 minutes in. But like, you only the race doesn't last very long. It depends how many heats they have, too. If there's a lots of babies on board, they will have multiple heats, maybe like three, four heats, and then they'll have a finals. If they're only a couple babies on board, they may only have one heat and that may be the finals. Right. But like. But they always spend like a first few minutes, like, getting everything set up and like, announcing the babies and interviewing the babies, which is hilarious, by the way. If you've ever seen them interview a baby who does not talk or only, you know, speaks maybe a couple of words. It's actually hilarious. They'll ask them, like, what did you do to train for this event? And things like that. What did you eat today? Like, they might ask the parents, like, favorite food and things like that. Yeah, it's. And what their. What their superpower is. So really really fun event to, to watch if, if for those who don't know what I'm talking about. Jack. Jack's Diaper Dash is a, is baby racing and it's only crawling babies. You. The babies cannot walk or they get DQ'd. And so it's. So we're talking about babies who are under a year old, typically, you know, maybe nine months old. So they have. Yeah. And then one parent or adult is on one end of the course and then one, you know, person is on. Whoever is the more desirable is at the other end with like a toy, a stuffy or perhaps a sibling. Sometimes a sibling is actually the one that can coax the baby the best, but it is just, just hilarious.
[00:46:47] Speaker C: Arian, I'm curious. Did you find this cruise a good way to experience Australia and new zeal or did you feel like, you know, it would have been a better option to go on like a land trip?
[00:46:58] Speaker A: I thought this was even better for me to experience New Zealand. For me as a person going the first time, I actually was going to just go visit my friends and then separately do the Disney cruise because I was like, there's no way they're going to take a 10 night cruise with me. And they did. I was so excited because of the time involved to travel from, you know, the north island to the South Island. I got to just do a little glimmer summer of each of the places. And now I know I want to go back and see or, you know, I never got to Queenstown, so I feel like I have to go all the way back and do that. But us doing the fjordlands, like the Milford Sound, cruising through that was this phenomenal experience and it was a shared experience. Like everyone even like the crew, the captain, like they were maybe not the captain, but they were on the deck, these waterfalls and everyone was just like so excited to be there. It's like a once in a lifetime experience situation.
[00:47:46] Speaker B: Seemed. Yeah, well, and that's a really good point because they weren't sailing. It's not like they were sailing that route even throughout the season like this. Most of what they were doing throughout the season and still doing, as we're recording, they're finishing up the season over there is, you know, sort of an out and back. Right. So they might go like from, you know, Sydney to, I think they were kept going to Hobart. Right. So that was. Or Eden. Right. Like, so they were going like sort of back and forth. And that wasn't necessarily a real exciting route for either the passengers or the crew. But when they are doing this sort of repositioning cruise, as yours was, then they are, you know, getting the opportunity to kind of sail someplace differently. And to sail through. I mean, to sail through a fjord is really incredible. Fjords are basically land created by glaciers. That's what a fjord is. And so you can see fjords in Norway, you can see fjords in Alaska. Right. Like, you can see fjords, obviously, sailing between New Zealand and Australia.
But it's not something that most of us can see like every day. And it's just this gorgeous, lush green, these little sort of fingers of land that pop out into the ocean. Yeah, it's just beautiful. So it's an amazing, amazing sight and amazing place to be. Now, I've got to ask about Christmas touches because you mentioned you were on the ship for Christmas, Christmas Day. What, if anything, since it wasn't an official maritime, but it was still Christmas Day. What, if anything, did they do or did they do anything special for Christmas.
[00:49:29] Speaker A: Eve and Christmas Day, Christmas night or Christmas Day? They had Santa there, long line. You could take pictures. And I went back later, I was coming back from a mixology or something, and I came across across like Santa was there with no line. So we actually had a picture. So you should always check and see if there's maybe two times that it's shown that someone or maybe even a character is there. So you can not have to wait this long. But they had a whole spread of like hot cocoa and cookies. And then the entertainment crew had these little wrapped presents for every child. And it's just like really nice touches. It was really cute.
[00:50:02] Speaker B: I love that. I love that. I gotta say, I don't know how Santa was over there out in the Pacific, because I heard Santa was in the Caribbean at the same time.
[00:50:13] Speaker C: He's everywhere.
All the time.
[00:50:16] Speaker B: All the time. He's magic. He's magic. Yes. It's pretty cool that Disney is able to get him from ship to ship throughout Christmas Day. It's really, really quite amazing.
[00:50:30] Speaker A: There were two really cool people actually on our crew cruise who aren't normally. And it's Bluey Blue is on the cruise.
[00:50:37] Speaker B: Oh, it was bingo, too. Oh, my God.
[00:50:40] Speaker A: Maybe she's blew it. Either way, I couldn't get it. Like, people were so excited to see them. So I looked through the door.
[00:50:48] Speaker B: Did they do the meet and greet, like in D lounge or something? Lounge, yeah. Yeah. And I bet the lines were mobbed. Yeah, yeah. So they've been doing that. That they've been doing the meet and greets. With Bingo and sometimes with. Also with them. With Louie and sometimes also with Bingo, just in Australia, New Zealand. And now apparently they're gonna. They're going to be on select sailings in the US eventually, but that hasn't started yet. And they're going to have some appearances in the parks as well. But that, again, I don't think has started yet either. But I think people don't realize, like, Bingo and Bluey have been a thing in Australia and New Zealand for a lot longer than they've been a thing here in the States. Even though they're, I think, like the most watched, like, animated series now in the US or something like it, they're incredibly popular. I can only imagine that if the lines were long over there, the lines are going to be crazy over here. Yeah. Well, Arian, have we missed anything in talking about this amazing itinerary, this amazing cruise, the onboard experiences? I mean, there's. Obviously, we can't cover everything on our show that you experienced on 10 nights. It would be impossible. We'd be talking for 10 days.
But I want to make sure we've hit all sort of the highlights. And you mentioned the tips that you had sort of learned from your second sailing.
[00:52:12] Speaker A: There are just a couple, like, grassroots things that I really got more involved with because I learned. Learned briefly from the fantasy, like the Facebook community.
Someone put together a 5k at sea, so I did that. And I had a costume to wear, just pixie dusting. We didn't do a fish extender exchange, but there was an ornament exchange that was really cool because I brought a little tree. And so that was fun. Just the community. And then we did a snack exchange from different people from different places were in your group. So someone from Australia, you know, or New Zealand, like, we got some really neat things.
So the community was just really neat, I think, just because we were all so excited for this cruise.
And then, like, the WhatsApp group, like, people were. Had, like, wildlife sightings, were seeing dolphins. So it was really cool to be able to connect with other passengers that were strangers, you know, before we got on the boat. But it was a really magical kind of experience just to be together in this beautiful place for 10 days, you know, that.
[00:53:08] Speaker B: That spurs a question for me, which is, you know, most of the New Zealand and Australia sailings have been predominantly Kiwis and Aussies.
I'm curious about this sailing because it was a longer sailing. I'm curious, were there a decent number of Americans or Europeans in addition to. I'm sure it was still the majority. It was still Kiwis and. Or Kiwis or. Well, probably Kiwis, but some Aussies as well. But did you notice whether there were other Americans on board as well?
[00:53:39] Speaker A: At least 50% Americans?
I mean that's just a guess, but it seemed a lot.
[00:53:44] Speaker B: A lot. Okay. Yeah, well, it makes sense because I do think those shorter sailings are sort of less attractive to those of us from the States because we want to see a whole bunch of different places. Right. If we're going to make that long trip all the way across the Pacific, it seems like why would I take a three night cruise? I might as well just do like that only makes one stop. I might as well just do a land trip. Whereas when you've got a 10 night cruise cruise that's also a repositioning. So that means if you're, you know, go to New Zealand first, do some touring around Auckland or some other stuff, then get on the ship, go all the way to Sydney and then do some stuff around Australia that seems like, especially over Christmas, it just seems like a no brainer that that would be more attractive to Americans. So it. Yeah, definitely sounds, sounds like that makes sense.
[00:54:31] Speaker A: Brian, One more. I have one more tip I forgot. Is that okay? Yeah, speaking of, the Facebook people were really active and I wouldn't always check but basically Disney was having trouble selling out the cruise and they got some GTY guaranteed rooms that they opened up. I missed it. I paid my final deposit or whatever. I was beyond the date where I could cancel it, but the price difference was like $4,000. So I actually canceled my reservation, lost 1500 deposit, changed it over to be a guaranteed room. I ended up saving $4,000 which was, you know, so that was my tip. I found out about that on like the Facebook page. People were noticing that they were those kind of rooms came up and a lot of people switched over.
[00:55:14] Speaker B: Wow. Even though you were going to lose a decent deposit, the price difference was enough.
[00:55:20] Speaker A: If I would have looked at the Facebook page, it was before the deposit would have had happened. People were jumping and not losing deposits.
[00:55:27] Speaker B: But I. Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, here's the thing. If you can still save money, it makes sense to do it right. Because you're losing one deposit to save money.
But of course, yeah, if that's a. It's a good tip to just sort of check right. To check right before your pay in full is due. If you're open to sailing in a guaranteed category state room, which means you don't choose your Stateroom or your location. You just choose the category that you're going to stay in. So you're saying, like, I will sail in any veranda stateroom, or I will sail in any ocean view or any inside or whatnot. And then they essentially put you in whatever is the leftover stateroom that didn't get booked or if they had to move somebody around, it's a stateroom that. That is open, but you're guaranteed that category or better meaning. So if you book like a guaranteed inside, you might actually end up with an ocean view. If you book a guaranteed ocean view, you might end up with a veranda. Right. Like, it can be. Be a higher category, but they won't put you in a lower category. But you. You don't control your location on the ship or your deck. Right. You don't control if you're mid forward, aft, and you don't control what deck number you get placed on.
It's just whatever Disney, you know, puts you in. So, yeah, it's definitely a great option, though, for. For saving some pennies, especially when you are having to spend quite a bit of money on expensive plane tickets and of course, touring around Auckland and touring around Sydney at the front and the back end of your trip. Brian, have I missed anything?
[00:57:06] Speaker C: Well, only. What's next?
[00:57:08] Speaker B: Well, I haven't asked. Rapid fire, Brian.
[00:57:10] Speaker C: Well, you got to do rapid fire first. All right, well, then we have reached that point in the show where Sam is going to subject you to some arbitrary questions, some arbitrary rules, a dash of judgment of the round she calls a rapid fire. So Sam takes a.
[00:57:25] Speaker B: All right, all right, Arianne, I'm going to ask you some Disney favorites and then some Disney Cruise line favorites. For the Disney Cruise Line favorites, you have to answer with something on the fantasy or on the wonder. So only you know, something you have been to or seen with your own eyes, not something from YouTube. So I'm gonna. But I'm gonna start with who is your favorite Disney character? And Disney means anything and everything that Disney owns. So you could pick Bluey.
[00:57:49] Speaker A: Actually, Donald Duck.
[00:57:51] Speaker B: That's Brian's favorite as well.
All right, what is your favorite Disney movie?
[00:57:56] Speaker A: Beauty and the Beast.
[00:57:57] Speaker B: Ah, that's such a good one. Favorite Disney song?
[00:58:01] Speaker A: A Whole New World.
[00:58:02] Speaker B: Oh, I love it. You're picking all my 90s favorites. Love it. Okay, shifting over to Disney Cruise line again. Fantasy or wonder options.
What is your favorite Disney Cruise Line stage show? So we're talking about the main stage shows, not the ventriloquists, not the magician.
[00:58:19] Speaker A: So I did not go in the fantasy. I'm kicking myself for not doing that. Now I know better. I actually like the Golden Mickeys because that was the first show that I experienced in the Walt Disney Theater, and it was really cool.
[00:58:30] Speaker B: Brian loves. He's a huge fan of the Golden Mickeys. I find it very nostalgic. It's not my favorite, but it's really quite fun. And so excellent choice. All right, well, turning over to dining, we are gonna talk main dining. What is your favorite rotational dining restaurant and why? Is it Tiana's? No, I'm just kidding. What's your favorite rotational dining restaurant? Animators is also a good choice. Just.
[00:58:54] Speaker A: I like animators.
[00:58:55] Speaker B: Palette fair. Absolutely fair. All right, what. What about a favorite sweet food on Disney Cruise Line and a favorite savory food on Disney Cruise Line? I save savories for last because they're the best. So we're going to start with what's a favorite sweet food item on Disney Cruise?
[00:59:13] Speaker A: Do espresso martinis count?
[00:59:15] Speaker B: Absolutely. Absolutely. You are speaking my love language. Okay. All right, now turning to a savory item. Maybe a salted caramel martini. I don't know. Savory item on Disney Cruise.
[00:59:29] Speaker A: I like the prawns at Tiana's the first night.
[00:59:31] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Really good. Okay, shifting over to a favorite activity on board Disney Cruise Line. I have a feeling I know what you're going to say because you mentioned about how much you love this activity.
[00:59:46] Speaker A: You'll never guess it. I'm obsessed with tugboats.
[00:59:49] Speaker B: Tugboats. Watching the tugboats. You're right. I was gonna guess bingo. I thought you were gonna say bingo.
[00:59:54] Speaker A: I do love bingo, but I love the tugboats. And the ones in New Zealand were doing donuts after they pushed us off, and we're, like, so excited to see.
[01:00:03] Speaker B: So watching the tug. Okay. I like it. Okay, That's a great answer. Okay, well, moving on to.
[01:00:09] Speaker A: And bingo. And bingo.
[01:00:11] Speaker B: And bingo. Bingo has a close second. Okay, moving on to your. Your favorite space to relax on a Disney Cruise Line ship.
[01:00:19] Speaker A: My veranda. After a day of port excursions with a glass of bubbly, watching the tugboat.
[01:00:26] Speaker B: I love it. Perfect.
Okay, now, very important question. This is the second to last question of Rapid Fire. You have two choices. Which one is your favorite ship, the fantasy or the Wonder?
[01:00:39] Speaker A: The Wonder. Because the.
I would normally say the fantasy, but the moments that. The magical moments that I had on the wonder, like the shared experience, this point in time together makes that one so special to me.
[01:00:50] Speaker B: That's the Right answer.
I mean, it's a great itinerary. And she's a lovely ship. There's something. We always say there's something sort of warm and special about the Wonder. I. I don't know why, but she just is just wonderful. All right, well, wonderful.
What's in a name? Exactly. But a rose by any other name would smell sweet. All right, Ariane, last question.
Your Bucket list cruise. This was a bucket list cruise. I gotta say, the Med is a bucket list cruise, but a bucket list cruise that you haven't been on, you can get on any Disney ship. It can go anywhere in the world as long as it's reachable by water. Where are you going?
[01:01:31] Speaker A: I think I'd want to do Disney cruise. Ride around, like, Fiji, Indonesian islands.
[01:01:37] Speaker B: Oh, cool. I love that. Awesome.
[01:01:39] Speaker A: Or maybe around Australia, like with stops around, because it was such a big country that I could only see a little bit. That'd be cool, too.
[01:01:47] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, that sounds. I mean, that sounds like a bucket list cruise to me. Absolutely. All right, well, I know Brian already asked it, so I'm going to throw it back to him to ask it again.
[01:01:56] Speaker C: What's next?
[01:01:58] Speaker A: What's next is the two kids that didn't go on this cruise get to go on a cruise with me next month. We're going on the Wish and we're doing a double dip with the islands.
[01:02:08] Speaker B: Oh, so you're hitting. You're hitting two castaways or castaway And. And lookout.
[01:02:14] Speaker A: Castaway and lookout.
[01:02:16] Speaker B: Oh, better. Yeah. Yeah. Have you.
[01:02:18] Speaker C: You've. Have you been to Lookout before?
[01:02:19] Speaker A: No, I've never.
[01:02:20] Speaker B: She hasn't been to Cast Away either.
[01:02:21] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh.
[01:02:24] Speaker B: In the mid.
[01:02:25] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[01:02:26] Speaker B: You're gonna love it, Aran. I. I think it's. It's. Yeah, it's really.
Both islands are fantastic. And now you get to experience. Now this is your third class of ship as well. You're going to get to experience the Wish class for the first time.
So I. It'll be interesting to hear how you like that. Well, Ariane, we are so thankful you came and joined us today on this amazing episode, this amazing itinerary, and Christmas to boot. Thank you so much for joining us. We so appreciate it.
[01:02:54] Speaker A: Thanks. Thanks for having me.
[01:03:00] 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 nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern 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 DCLD Duo or email them at dclduomypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions or you'd like to connect with us, the best way to do that is to head over to DCLDuo.com it's got links to all of our things. Full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store. 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 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 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 line at 402-413-5590. That's 402-413-5590. The D DCL Duo podcast is not affiliated with Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Company or the Disney family of theme parks. The views expressed on the show are solely those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflect the views of 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 MyPath unwinding travel or Disney directly or your own travel agent. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL Duo.
[01:05:01] Speaker B: Now.
