[00:00:00] Speaker A: Our kid just ditches us.
[00:00:01] Speaker B: You know, I mean, that happens a little bit, right? And I think, you know, this is where I know I probably get made fun of by a lot of by my, my friends who are my age. And I think because I'm like, oh, you're just one of those Disney adults now. And I'm like, I don't think you understand how great this can be. Like.
[00:00:29] Speaker A: Welcome back everyone, to another episod episode of the DCL Duo Podcast, brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel. I am your host, Sam Today. As you can tell by hearing my voice, Brian is not able to join me today. He's unfortunately a little bit under the weather. And for all those ladies out there, you know, when the man cold hits, it's just painful. So.
So it's probably better that you just have me today.
But I am joined by a listener, another gentleman here instead of a Brian. I'm joined by Orion here today. So welco to the show. Ryan.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: I'm glad to be here. And the Brian Ryan thing I'm sure will get very confusing as we go on, but hopefully we can keep it straight in the podcast and everyone will can follow along.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I love it. All right, well, Ryan, you are a longtime listener, but first time guest on the show. We've got to know, of course, what is your Cruising background, your Disney background, and how did you get started with Disney Cruise Line?
[00:01:29] Speaker B: I'll start with the Disney background. I went once when I was a kid. This typical trip. I'm originally from New Jersey, so we did the ship when I was a kid. My wife went a few times when she was a kid. My daughter was 2, turning 3. My wife was trying to really talk me into going to Disney World, and I was like, do we have to blah, blah, blah. She got me there once. And her rationale was that, you know, she's only three, so she's still cheaper than if and she could eat up our plates. So we went there that one time. It was great. The way I fell in love with it was at VR Guest restaurant, where the plates talk to you, uh, where they know where you're sitting. And that saw the magic on that. This is the greatest thing ever in customer service wise and operational wise. So that was great. You've been three times with the family. My son is now 10, so he's only been once. My daughter's been twice for Cruising that story. I had a work trip scheduled for our anniversary to New Orleans, and at first we were going to take everyone in New Orleans. And then cooler heads prevailed and my wife stood in a Disney cruise and she's like, well, since we can't do that and you're traveling on anniversary, my best friend Elena and her family have been on Disney cruise and they raved about it. And I absolutely never thought I would go on a cruise. I thought I would hate every second of it. I was wrong, she was right, just like everything else in our marriage.
And I. And I'm hooked. I'm the one pressing to go more and more and more, longer, longer, longer, and probably listens to. You know, I've been listening to a podcast for a few years now, and every time I hear a different sermon. This is what we gotta do. And in fact, always try to one up her on the tips and tricks.
But it's been great. We've been four times, two times with her best friend Elena and her husband Matt. Elena sends a shout out, by the way. She loves this podcast as well.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: Oh, shout out to you, Elena.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: Yeah, so she's a big fan. Wants to make sure I said your name in this one. We've been on four, we've got one booked next February and then we are waiting for the next iterative rollout because Alaska is in our sights for summer 2027.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. You know, we, we were gonna book Alaska for 2027, but we may have to postpone that till 2028. We've just been. Because we decided we're gonna book that DVC cruise, we're gonna drop that Treasure cruise that we've got for 2027 spring break and pivot to that DVC cruise.
And we're looking at our travel budget and it's just getting a little out of control in particular for 2027 and for 2026, frankly.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: And going.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: We're planning on going to Amsterdam, Paris and Disneyland Paris. And so, yeah, so we just did. We think we gotta roll it back. And Alaska is one of those more expensive cruises for sure, because the cruise is expensive. And of course, the port excursions are generally expensive ones. I mean, there are ones that you can book that are less expensive, but that's not. Those aren't the ones that we wanted to, of course.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: So that's the same with us. We want to go all out. So we're just going to make it happen and make it work. But yeah, the dollar signs add up real quick with that trip, is what I've learned thus far.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: Yes, it is. It's one of those things where you have to budget almost as much for the excursions. As for the cruise. And actually if you're sailing on a different cruise line, I'd say you might have to budget more for the excursions than for the cruise. But because Disney price is premium already. Yeah, it's a hefty price for sure. Well, so now, which of the ships then have you. We're going to talk about your cruise on the Magic out of Galveston. It was a four night sailing or sorry, a five night sailing. But what were the, what are the other ships that you have been on in the fleet now that you've been on four times?
[00:05:12] Speaker B: We've only been on the Magic and the Wish, unfortunately. And that's, that's like my one thing I'm like almost embarrassed about in the Disney Cruise world that we don't have all the ships, but those tend to just be the itineraries that work out for us. The first one we went from San Juan to Miami on one of the turnaround cruises. The second was a Wish, that was actually a makeup trip because my wife and I went to Disney World by ourselves without kids for our 40th. Our 40th birthdays and she ran the marathon that year. So we had to get something to the kids and we went on a trip for the Wish, did the Wish again on a shorter cruise. And this one was the Magic out of Galveston. So I am dying to get out of the Elves. We have the dream in February 2027, going to Lookout, which we haven't been to yet either. So we are excited about that one. And then again, Alaska is the one beyond that.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: Yeah, awesome. Well, okay, well, so you will have all of the classes once you complete the Dream, at least because you've been on a Wish class, obviously, and you've been on a Magic class. Well, you've been on the Wish and the Magic, so you've been on those two classes of ships. So you have, you have a good overview, I think, of what the ships are like because the, I mean in particular the. I would say that the Dream classes, very similar, although bigger than the Magic class. Very similar. Their layouts are very, very similar to the Magic class, even though they have obviously more people and they're just a bigger ship. And then of course the Wish class is really more different. Right. Than, than. But, but each Wish class ship is very similar in its layout and design.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: I actually like the Wish layout in Bella because a lot of people said they didn't, but I really thought it was a good. They did a great job with that. I know. I think Just the, the shock of everyone knowing on it from the older ships of a new one was probably the biggest thing. But it was a great ship and great layout and I really want to get on the, the, the Treasure. That's the one I really want to go on for a very long itinerary. So we'll have to see after Alaska where that takes us.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. I will say I think they did a great job with the wish class as well. I think the layout is actually really good. My only complaint is still with the elevator buttons. Not all.
I, I just wish that I understand that they didn't want to spend the money on one of those elevator button systems where you tell what floor you're going on. It tells you what. Like, I get that and I'm not sure how well that actually does work on a cruise ship, but they should have separate buttons for those elevators that go up to the higher decks that, you know, the ones that go up to deck, what is it, 13 and 14, like in the aft of the ship or whatever. Because otherwise, particularly for people in, you know, mobility devices, like, it's just a pain. They have to, might have to change elevators. It's just. Yeah, it's just kind of a pain in the butt.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: So I enjoy the shared misery of all those rides, but also just the camaraderie that the elevators bring. So I think that's similarly. I think it's actually another Disney like behind the scenes trick that they've somehow figured out a way to make people socialize in the elevators. And whether or not it's true or not, I actually believe it.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: So I, I like that. I, I like that theory, Ryan. I, I think it's a great one. And even if it's not, you're right, it does create that level of camaraderie. And then the other thing, of course is just that the adult only pool area is, you know, the, the pool deck area is just too small. It's not. I actually think it's beautiful. I like, I actually like its location. It's far away from everything else. Right. But it is too small. When you have, particularly if you have a sailing that's. That's.
[00:08:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I could, I could definitely see that one or how that happens.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: Well, let's, let's dive in to talk about this, this sailing out of Galveston. Why did you choose in particular this.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: Selling, you know, just like everyone else. We've got two kids, sports, school.
I actually, actually work at a university. My wife works in education. So timelines for us are tough.
And then those summer prices sometimes are just like, I'm not going to be spending that much money. So we found a little niche. It was over Thanksgiving or around Thanksgiving. It sailed out Black Friday. We know my university was closed the entire weekend, so that was great. Kids were off. My daughter didn't have any sports going on. She's a fall spring sport, so.
And really that's the time where I think we all needed a break. So it was great. My wife and I had been to Cozumel on our honeymoon years ago that we did the same honeymoon stuff. I think all couples do at that point. You know, a lot of inclusive resorts and some of that kind of stuff. But we wanted to do something different. We'd been to Castaway every other cruise, so we're just looking for a different itinerary. And so we said, why don't just do it? We've never. Our kids have never been to Texas. My son is obsessed with Buc EE's and. Well, was obsessed. Well, before we went on this trip.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: Ryan, I was going to ask if we. When you went to Texas, did you go to BUC EE's?
[00:09:52] Speaker B: So we, we were there. We flew in on Wednesday and we sailed out on Friday. And keep in mind, Thursday was Thanksgiving Day. We went to BUC EE's three times that time.
And then on the Uber, on the way back from the ship to the airport, we, The Uber driver said, hey, have you ever been to BUC EE's? And it's like, yes, we have. He's like, well, he's like, there's sort of win, but let's stop. You know, we tipped in a little extra for that. And I offered to buy him like a coffee and a brisket sandwich. And he said, no, no good. He's like, you know, just, you know, make sure you give me the rating.
[00:10:21] Speaker A: Five star review.
[00:10:22] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: That Uber driver gets five stars, no question.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: Yeah, it was one of the better ones we've had. And the hype is real with Buc EE's. I'm. We're from the Northeast. We've always lived in Northeast. So for us it was awesome. And then to find out the one we went to was one of the smaller ones. That's like one of those oh, wow moments. Like, how big can this get? We have. My son has a. Two sweatshirts from there, a blanket. Like, we went. We went nuts with the apparel. And then we tried a little bit of everything.
[00:10:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Did you get the jerky? The jerky my friend gave me. I still haven't been to a Bucky's, but my friend Ashley, who's been on the show several times, she actually got me, like a bag of the jerky and a bag of the popcorn. I thought the jerky was really, really good.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: The jerky was awesome. I think we had four different bags. We bought a couple home, you know, with that family who sometimes just has a bag of beef jerky in the console of my car. So if anyone's hungry, I'm not going to ride. So we had that. We bought beaver nuggets back for my wife's brother. So, you know, we, we experienced Bucking's. It was great.
[00:11:21] Speaker A: Did you have a brisket sandwich, too?
[00:11:23] Speaker B: We did. We did it the traditional way where you eat it in the parking lot on the hood of your car.
So that was awesome. It just, it's. It's an experience, and that's hilarious.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: I got, I got to try the brisket sandwich. That's like one of those things where, like, I grew up eating brisket, but in the, in the Jewish tradition brisket. So a little, you know, different style of brisket, but I, I feel like I need to have a Texas style brisket sandwich.
[00:11:48] Speaker B: I know, real Texas. Okay. It's not the best one they've had, but it, it'll do. And if you're from the Northeast, that, that will definitely hit the spot for us.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Right? Yeah. I grew up in, I grew up on Long island in New York, so I did not grow up eating good barbecue, I would say. I mean, like, there's decent barbecue, but it's not like Texas barbecue. It's not like St. Louis barbecue. It's not like what people who come from areas that are known for barbecue would laugh and never call what I ate growing up barbecue. Right.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: So, yeah, definitely. I've gotten mocked before. It's always good barbecue in Connecticut.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: Yeah. But listen, Ryan, they can't compete with our pizza, okay?
[00:12:28] Speaker B: So, yeah, I, again, I grew up in New Jersey. I spent a lot of time in New York City, and then I live in Connecticut now, so. Pizza, yeah, it's the pizza capital.
[00:12:37] Speaker A: Those three. There's a tri state area. There is the pizza pizza capital of the United States. As far as I'm concerned. Nobody can compete. Nobody can compete with the bagels or the pizza.
[00:12:46] Speaker B: So that's thousand percent. Thousand percent.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: Yeah. All right, so you get, you get there on Wednesday. Do you flew into Houston, I presume?
[00:12:55] Speaker B: Yeah, we flew in the hobby Houston, hobby Southwest. You know, still, we still have the card, so we're still chasing the free bags when we can.
I know it's going by the wayside, but when the card, it definitely helps out. So we flew in the hobby Wednesday.
We just kind of. We don't typically rent cars when we go places we'd like to kind of explore and, like, walk around, but we were in a place where you really can't do that. And we stayed by the Space Center. So Wednesday, went to BUC EE's, did a few other things, drove around. We drove around Galveston, the seawall, just to check that out. We didn't really stop to go in anywhere. We just wanted to kind of get the lay of the land. And then we went to the NASA Space center in Houston that night. That was awesome. We had not planned it, but we stumbled upon their Christmas festival thing, I guess you'd call it, where they have all the lights and it's outdoor and coming from the northeast. We were outside most of the time, so it was great.
It was. It was pretty awesome to see that. And it was another thing that we stumbled upon. And we went to a previous cruise out of Port Conagle. We actually didn't know we were there for the air show, and we got to see the entire air show down at Port Canaveral for the beach, and that was awesome. Without having to pay for tickets, it was just like a mile down the road. So we kind of stumbled onto those types of things before. And, you know, again, there's a lot to do in Houston and Galveston, so we didn't really know what we wanted to do. We purposely kind of left a blank slate, and we played the game with the kids. What do you want to do next? And my daughter, you know, she's 15, she pulled out her phone, said, what about this? What about that? What about that? So we were zip it all over the place just to see as much as we could.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: That's awesome. Now, where did you guys stay? Did you stay in Houston or did you stay in Galveston?
[00:14:31] Speaker B: We stayed halfway between the Marriott property by the NASA property. We just wanted to kind of have the freedom to move around.
And my wife is also a runner, so her big thing was on Thanksgiving Day, we've been running a turkey trout, our local one in town. So she found a local one there, and it was literally a local one. It started at a local sheephouse sneaker shop, and we ran through a neighborhood in Houston. So I also did realize that Houston is so big geographically that it's. It doesn't seem like you're in a city.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: It's kind of sprawled. Right. It's not like. It's not like some cities where, like, in New York City, it's all been, like, kind of smushed together in tall buildings, but it's more of a sprawled city. Yeah.
[00:15:11] Speaker B: Yeah. So, you know, you're running through a neighborhood and, like, oh, this is still party juice. And that's. That's. That's pretty funny. So we did that, you know, picked up our race packets on that Wednesday. And then our Thanksgiving Day again, we woke up. We did. I think we did the turkey trot. Went to Bucky's after that again.
And then we had Thanksgiving dinner at Fisherman's Wharf, which is right by the port. It's. I think it's right next to it. So no one in my family, We're a family who doesn't really like Thanksgiving all that much, that we like the food to a point. None of us got Thanksgiving food that day. We all got seafood.
[00:15:43] Speaker A: None of you were like, I must have turkey breast and cranberry sauce and that sort of stuff.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll eat it when it's there. But, like, we were actually happy that we didn't have to prep anything that was just all there for the restaurant. And I think my kids have already said, hey, can we travel for Thanksgiving every year? So they've got a few cities. They've all set in there. Then Thanksgiving night, we are Ravens sweatshirt on. We're huge Baltimore Ravens fans. We watched the Ravens, unfortunately, lost on Thanksgiving night. That was a tough one to watch. But it was just us being in a hotel as a family, and that's really all we were looking for for this trip, especially just hanging out in Houston, over in the Galveston. Houston area.
Other than that, again, like, I think we just drove around, stopped at a bunch of places they wanted to stop into, even, like, a little shop we would stop in, just take a look. Thanksgiving Day, there wasn't much open. There was a lot of people in Galveston around the port, but you could tell they were. Everyone who was walking around was pretty much just getting on the magic the next day.
[00:16:36] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and it's a small port, so you don't have, like, five ships and, you know, import at a time. It's probably. I'm. I'm guessing you guys were the only one sailing out that day or maybe with maybe one other ship or something.
[00:16:49] Speaker B: We were the only one. And they were saying at that point of the year, they only have, like, couple ships, you know, a week that actually will. Will sail out from there. So Man, I don't think there's, there's a lot of tourism going on there. Oh, one of the thing my son wanted to. Or my, my son and my daughter wanted to bring up is that the Rainforest Cafe in Galveston have, has an indoor ride.
It's like the only Rainforest Cafe and in the world with an indoor ride. So like a water ride in it. They were begging to go on it, but it was closed Thanksgiving Day, so we didn't make it. But so they, they wanted to just cross it off their buckets. Keep in mind, my children have actually never even been to a Rainforest Cafe. But for some reason they thought it would be funny.
[00:17:28] Speaker A: You know, there was a time when there were a lot of rainforest cafes out there. Right. Like back in like, I want to say like the late 90s, early 2000s, like there were actually quite a few rainforest cafes. Not just like the one at, you know, Walt Disney World, right? Or yeah. Are there two at Walt. Yeah. Are there two at Walt Disney World? There's the one that. That's it. Isn't there one at Animal Kingdom and one at Disney Springs? I feel like there might be.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: So here's how my son even knows about Rainforest Cafe is there's a YouTuber who went to all of them in the country in one road trip. And then when they, we, we didn't like write it down. Like, you know, we had no memory of this video until we saw this. And so like that's the ride. He was talking about dad. And I was like, all right, we'll see what we can do.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: That's hilarious. All right, well, so you wake up Friday morning, it's embarkation day. How, how like what time did you get to the port and what was your port. Port arrival time.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: We're early arrivals. We try to get to the earliest here. We're still silver, so, you know, we try to get in. But on this sailing, it seemed like there were a lot of new newcomers to Disney Cruise Line. So I think nausea. We were looking to book anything we could. We had the pick of the litter for everything we wanted. So we got the earliest time we could for we showed up, I think it was like 11, 11:30, whatever time that was. And when I say we walked right into the ship, that was the quickest I've ever been through to just the foyer. And even like the whole check in process, it was smooth. We didn't stop at all. The only time we had to stop was to take the picture. When you, when you get on a ship, I don't know if that was just the timing, but again, I think there was just a lot of, you know, first timers on this.
[00:19:03] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and they, you know, they, because they've been sailing now from Galveston for a while, it's probably, you know, like Port Canaveral, like Fort Lauderdale, you Everglades. It's kind of a well oiled machine. There should be a well oiled machine there. But you're right. I do think Galveston does attract a lot of first time cruisers. It does attract a lot of people who live in Texas because they can drive to the port even if they have to drive, you know, several hours. But there, there are a lot of people I think who are, you know, first time cruisers willing to sail out of Galveston. And, and it does tend to have the like some of the best deals on Disney cruise Line price wise are out of Galveston and then of course some out of Port Everglades as well. But of course the best, in general, the best deals do tend to be on the older ships. Right. So you're talking about magic class and dream class with obviously some exceptions. Right. Alaska is never really a deal. So. But yeah, so I definitely think that that makes sense. Well, okay, so you have a really quick check in process. Really smooth.
You'd been on the Magic before, so it's not like a new experience to you when you walk on into the atrium. Well, or actually I should ask that. Did you walk on into the atrium? You know, sometimes that. Okay, that's really nice.
[00:20:20] Speaker B: I think our first sailing you didn't for whatever reason and that was like the kids were all hyped up about it. Yeah, the kids were all hyped up at it that it didn't happen. My wife too, and she's like telling me all this stuff like we had to walk in the atrium and then we didn't. I was like, that was backluster.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So San Juan is one of those ports and some of the other ports as well is just based on water levels. You may, it's all, it's not that uncommon that you walk in on a like a lower deck than deck than deck three or four.
I guess it's deck three on. Yeah, on. So that it tends to happen. Unfortunately, it's not uncommon for you to have to come in, in a, a, a different deck. But most of the time it, well, of course Port Canaveral, Port Everglades and probably Galveston and San Diego is pretty common that you're going to walk in on into that. The atrium. All right, well, so let's talk about embarcation day. I'd love to know if you guys now have any like embarkation day traditions. Right? Like some people like us like to go to sit down lunch. Some people are running to cabanas, some people are running to the spa to make appointments or, you know, port adventures or whatnot. What were you guys doing when. Right.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: I think our first tradition, and this is anytime we go anywhere, our first issue when we have provocation is whenever we get in the car to leave for the airport, we play Holiday Road from nationals. And that song, that song is also played the morning of, of embarcation day and that's when it's ready to go.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: I mean, I gotta tell you, Ryan, like that Brian would do that too. So like the. You're in good company. Like that is, I mean he, he played that when we were driving to Vancouver when we were going on our Alaska cruise. Like it's. That's on the regular playlist.
[00:22:02] Speaker B: So I love it. I love it. So I tried to push for a sit down lunch. I love cabanas and I love, you know, that whole, the food ride. But the past three cruises it was. I just felt like there's way too many people. We couldn't find seating right away. You know, it's especially on the wish the way it's laid out.
Excuse my name. Is that with the cabanas?
[00:22:23] Speaker A: Yeah, Marceline Market. But yeah, same, same thing, different name.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Right. So that, but I think that one's a bit tighter. So I was pushing hard to go to a sit down lunch because that's. Let's just. We've been on this, we've done it before. Let's just relax. I got voted, outvoted by three other people, said, absolutely not. This is what we're doing. I will say though, and again, it has to do with our arrival time that we sat down and we were. It was pretty easy and that was pretty comfortable. I felt like we did a really good job and you know, we were done. We had a really relaxing mail at cabanas, which I didn't think was possible.
And then our next step is to really explore the ship. Right. Get to know it. My daughter mentioned at one point she stopped and she goes. And she did like this size. What's the matter? She's like, I feel like I'm home now. I'm like, okay.
And I was like, I don't know what world this kid is living in where a Disney cruise ship is now home, but maybe we're either doing Something really right or something really wrong in that one. But the fact that she said that made me. Okay, everything is going well. So we do that. We walk around, we check the box of looking into the kids clubs and checking them in and doing all that stuff. They talked into going to one of those sales pitches for the jewelry store we got there. We won like 100 or whatever. Yeah, we got like $100 gift card we won and my kids are all excited and I was like hold a sec on a second. I don't think you understand how little, how little a hundred dollars is in that gift shop. So yeah. So you know, it's kind of a bust. But it was a good time. The host was really good. There's some technical dippies, but he was doing a really good job of just going through it and then we just kind of just walked around again. We like to settle in, we like to set into a room. We, we are the family that likes to unpack everything the first day because I mean there's four of us. I have 15 year old and a 10 year old. It gets claustrophobic in that room real quick. Even, even with the. Obviously a balcony but it's, it's still a lot. So we have to get everything away, put everything, make sure the kids know where their stuff is. And, and my wife is a very good packer at the packing cubes. Every what both my children have something for each day and all that stuff. So that's.
If you're going to take any advice, I think just call my wife and she'll tell you exactly how to pack for your kids and, and say okay, you just make the days in order then your 10 year old son doesn't go through everything. She doesn't do that. I brought out of that. I'm sorry I brought out of that. But I did pack myself and I still do that. And then I get, you know, a little. Told you you should have let me do it for you.
[00:24:40] Speaker A: I got to tell you Ryan, I pack like you do. I wish I packed like your wife does. I. Brian, he, he used to use packing cubes. He actually has, doesn't really use packing cubes anymore, but he packs more like your wife. He's much more methodical. I am kind of a big old mess when it comes to packing. And of course I'm the one who packs for Nathan. So like it doesn't make any sense. Like the organized. I gotta, I gotta put this a PSA out there. If you are the organized packer and you're A parent, like you're the one who should be packing for your children. Don't let your disorganized spouse do it because like we're, we're a mess. We don't know.
[00:25:17] Speaker B: If it was up to me, my son would have 50 pairs of under underwear and 50 T shirts, but only one sock pair of socks. I really.
So.
[00:25:24] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:25:25] Speaker B: I'm not, I'm not entrusted to do that. That's all better.
[00:25:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Brian has like lists and stuff. I'm just kind of like flying by the seat of my pants. Yeah, I'm. I'm with you. We also are fully unpackers, like the. We like to unpack fully into our stateroom. We do tend to sail on, you know, sailings longer than three or four nights. So that, that makes a difference as well. But like I feel, I feel you on like the. I mean there's only three of us and I feel like it can get crowded and, and if you have like suitcases sitting out, it's a total mess. Like it's just not. Yeah, it's just you. There's not. Those staterooms are not big enough to leave suitcases out, in my opinion. I understand for somebody who's just sailing on like a three night sailing that that's probably what you're gonna do, but it's rough when you're sailing for any like longer sailing. And when you've got three or four or five people in a, in a state room, it's hard.
[00:26:19] Speaker B: And I mean, we gotta think about the week too, right? Throughout the week, the popcorn bucket, the, the merchandise that you bought, the shops, you know, if you're doing the fish extenders or the pixie dust, all that stuff quickly, quickly adds up. And I'm the kind of person where there's a lot of stuff on a counter, it starts to stress me out a little bit. So that's. It helps with all this stuff and even like, like we start to learn a lot of that stuff. Here's a drawer, the top drawer. Just put all that stuff in it and close it and then we'll get it back at the end of the cruise. No one needs to eat more candy that they've got from the pixie dust. And we've already dialed the Reese.
[00:26:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you guys do fish extenders or pixie dust?
[00:26:54] Speaker B: We used to go all out. I think on this trip we just did the one with the kids exchange and not the parents and then my wife and we do the pixie dusting. I think that whenever we're at like Target or other stores that they find something that's cool and you know, like a couple dollars and it's easy to build it from there. It's a, it's a lot. I mean, I, I'm going to say this. I don't do anything for it. My wife does all the work and I kind of see the work and I'm like. But it's a lot of stuff to bring that we now have to prepare to also then bring home. So if you don't have the storage, I mean, it's, it's a comfort.
[00:27:26] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely. For those who don't know what I'm talking about. And it's been a while since we've talked about fish extenders or pixie dusting. So fish extender is technically the thing that you hang off the little fish or other little, I don't call it statue thingamajig that hangs outside your door. And people do gift exchanges. So when somebody's talking about participating in the fish extender or fe, they're talking about participating in a gift exchange. These are not things that are sanctioned or organized by Disney Cruise Line. These are organized fully by passengers. And so passengers will organize them through Facebook groups online and will decide, you know, how many cabins are going to participate, whether it's a kids only exchange, whether it's an adult only exchange, whether it's a family exchange, it could be a candy exchange, an ornament exchange. Right. Like, people do different themed ones depending upon who's organizing. They tend to have loose rules or no rules as far as exchanging other than like those categories. And, but you are expected to give and receive to whoever is in your group.
Pixie dust, on the other hand, is what I like to call random acts of gifting or random acts of receiving. So if you participate in pixie dust, all that really means is you may go around and put random stuff in other people's fish extender hangers. And you might have a fish extender hanger that you put outside your door because you might receive pixie dust. And so it's not, there's no guarantee of getting anything gifted back to you. It's typically people who just like your wife wants to, she sees maybe some cool Disney ducks and decides, I'm gonna buy some of those and I'm gonna just drop them in people's fish extenders. Or sometimes I have done where I like just kind of randomly see some cute kid and I'll just hand them a little, a little, you know, a sticker or a bracelet or something like that. A lot of people have now done, of course, Taylor Swift, you know, friendship bracelets. Like that's become a very big exchange type of a thing as well on, on the cruises.
[00:29:31] Speaker B: My daughter's really into it. She loves it. She, she wants to do next time the pin board and she likes when people do like the dry erase and the questions the other day. So I was like, yeah, we can do that stuff but we're gonna pack a dry erase board. But you know, something might have to give, so just be prepared for that.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: Yes, well, I will tell you though, with the pin boards, I will just say buyer beware. It's, it's. I think some people are like really love doing the pin trading. The one problem with the pin boards that I have seen is there's a lot of people who are taking and not leaving. You're supposed to take one pin and leave one pin to exchange one on the board or the other issue is there's a lot of those fake pins that are circulating and it may not be somebody purposely leaving you a fake pin, like meaning a non authentic Disney pin, but a lot of them are, the fakes are really good. And so I'll be honest, I'm sure I have some fake pins in my collection and don't even know that they're fake because I'm not. Unless you're like one of those hardcore pin collectors. I don't know, I don't know how to recognize them.
[00:30:30] Speaker B: I guarantee you there's a few fakes in our, in our Daughters and My Son's pet and therefore, you know, is no way to know. I've tried to look up this. They all look the same.
[00:30:39] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Well, let's pivot a little bit and talk about your two port stops on this cruise. You had Cozumel and Progreso, which we, we, I feel like we don't talk that much about because they aren't on your like standard Eastern Caribbean or Western Caribbean. They are in the Western Caribbean but they aren't on those standard like seven night itinerary and they're not on like for example, the, the, what is it, the, the four five, five night itinerary that like the destiny is doing. So they're really, they've gotten more limited in the sense that like they're, they're a little bit more unique of itineraries nowadays. They were quite common actually opening from the pandemic. Those two ports were really common because I think Mexico was sort of one of the first places that kind of reopened to tourism as opposed to some of the other, you know, Caribbean islands. So I'd love to talk. What did you guys get up to in Cozumel? You mentioned you had been there for your honeymoon back in the day.
[00:31:39] Speaker B: Well, we didn't do any, any of like the, you know, we went there 20 years ago. I think we were like going to bars and stuff like that. So we obviously didn't do that. We. We found Cruze Beach a new beach club, you know, similar to other. A lot of other no inclusive beach clubs. My daughter is very into cooking, so we, we also let them play a bigger part in this one that we ever had about just like, what do you guys want to do? And she's really into cooking. She. She's probably cooking dinner for some of her family, you know, two, three nights a week. And that's just what she's getting passionate about.
[00:32:09] Speaker A: So can I. Can I adopt her? Because I need somebody to cook for my family.
[00:32:15] Speaker B: Go for it if you had a chance. She loves it. You know, she's. We. We subscribe to one of those meal packages where they send you everything and they have junction. So some nights she just puts her headphones on and she's making dinner. And I think for her that's like, you know, her finding a passion. So that's been great. The curtain class was great. Who's a beach. It's not cast away. Just when it go.
It's nice, it's. It's good. It's. We wanted a beach day. We got the beach day. It rained a little bit, so that kind of put a damper on it. The food is okay. I don't, I don't know. Again, the hard part is the expectation now is we've been to Castaway and other places and it's just like, okay. So I think a little less than that. So it was going to be there. We did like it though. I mean, again, it's. It's fairly new, so there's a lot of it that's not built out yet. There's a water park that's still under construction. They're advertising zip lines and all this other stuff. But I'm curious, like, I would maybe go back there in five years or six years and see what it's like then, like, there's a lot of shade. There's. There's bars and other stuff there.
[00:33:12] Speaker A: So now did you, did you book that through Disney or would you book that separately?
[00:33:17] Speaker B: We've done all of our excursions through Disney. Just the peace of Mind of being with Disney and getting back and forth in the shuttles. You know, it's funny, you sit next to someone there on the same ship, but they didn't book the Disney and they kind of tell you, well, how much money they spent versus what you spent on. You're like, oh, well, that was. That was dumb of me. But. But I think for us, the peace of mind and especially when you're not in the US Is, for us is a little bit easier.
[00:33:40] Speaker A: Yeah. The other part is if your port stop gets canceled, you never have to worry about the getting your money back. Right. Like, if your port stop gets canceled, if you book through Disney, they refund you the money. You don't have to like, call the vendor and see if they'll refund you or anything like that. And I will say sometimes it's not super easy to figure out that it's the same excursion because there is some information on the Disney website, but they don't always have like, every. All of the information. So you would even know, like, who to contact to book that directly. So, yeah, there's some of the.
We tend to book our. Unless we do like a private charter boat or something like that. We tend to book through Disney Cruise Line as well for like the vast majority of our. Of our excursions, even though we know we can get better. Better prices elsewhere. All right, well, so it sounds like a good. A good day in Cozumel and one you'd perhaps try again in several years. But certainly, I mean, like you said, you can't really compare it to Castaway. It's just not fair. All right, well, what about Progreso? What'd you guys get up to there?
[00:34:43] Speaker B: Progreso, we did the excursion where it's a cave swim tubing, and then the Verwood visit. It's all in one. It was great. The trip was great. Our tour guides were absolutely amazing.
I didn't know this, but if you tour the ruins, you have to have a certified tour guide who, who has the historical knowledge of it. And also, and we were lucky that we were sitting up front, so we were asking a lot of questions. He was responding. I think it was. It was a great, great group, great tour.
For those who don't know Progresso, most of their stuff is far. We were, you know, the bus ride to the port, from the port to the, to the cave, sweating was probably about an hour and then hour and change on the way back. And then you get hit in traffic driving through Progresso. So that adds up on. We were Actually very like running a little later than they expected. So they were in touch with the ship the entire time, making sure that everyone got back.
Our boss unfortunately had a restroom issue. So I guess the restroom is out of service. We didn't have to take the brunt of it. We were in the front, but when I heard from some people in the back, it was tough on the way back, so. But all in all, it was a great trip. And I think that was one of the ones that really convinced us, okay, we better up our game with excursions and. No, especially with Alaska, when the kids want to do more, they want to see more. And they were absolutely enthralled with the cave, sort of. I think they're just the way they lit up. When we sweat, we're swimming in there. All of a sudden the underwater cave opens up. And it was pretty awesome to see. So we thoroughly enjoyed it.
[00:36:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's really cool when your kids get to an age where you're like, wow, like, I can really do cool stuff with them. Like, because there's a lot of years where you have like, okay, we're gonna go to a beach. Like, they'll have a good time. Like, they'll play in the sand. Right? Like, and. And maybe we could do like a bus tour of the city that's like an hour long. Right. Like, there's just. You're limited on what excursions. I feel like you can. I mean, I don't know that maybe there are some kids who are maybe more easygoing than mine. But like, I do. I feel like there has always been there, or there used to be more of a limit of what we could do with Nathan. And now that he. I mean, he's 12 now, but even for the last couple of years, I've been kind of amazed at kind of what he will not just tolerate, but also like really enjoy and participate in. And I think that for us that was really evident. Like when we went on our adventures by Disney in Europe and we like schlepped him all around Europe and did three hour tours and things like that. And so it's really. I don't know when that switch happens. And you mentioned Your son is 10. I feel like it's just so cool because you're like, oh, wow, like he can do so much more. Of course, those excursions get more expensive as you kind of preview it though.
[00:37:22] Speaker B: That's true. And I feel bad. I think, you know who's a beach? I think. I think it was no conveyment place, but I think it overshadowed by progreso for us as well as the castaway stuff. So you know, I almost wanted to do that. Another chance to see if it's give a fair shake. And I think, you know, some people were really on the course progresso for us was, was the better of the two days and it was a long day, I'm not gonna lie. So if you didn't do those trips, you know, pack snacks, pack extra stuff, they obviously feed you lunch, but that doesn't include the stuff on, you know, the, the hunger and the snacks that you made on the way back and forth.
[00:37:52] Speaker A: Yeah. And you're kind of in the jungle when you're in a lot of these places with ruins. And so don't forget like you might need, you know, bottle of water, you might need bug spray like things like that.
[00:38:02] Speaker B: Definitely pack for the trip back for the day. And to their point, you're driving through jungles or driving through local neighborhoods. So if you're seeing a lot of stuff for, for. I don't think my kids would ever get to see those environments before and they may not ever again. But we still can check that box for you.
[00:38:18] Speaker C: Are you listening to our show because you want to make the most out of your next vacation. Great news. The fabulous team over at MyPath Unwinding Travel can help guide you so you don't miss a thing. Their team of professional travel advisors are caring, knowledgeable and experienced. It's why we use them to book our own travel. Mypath Unwinding Travel is an authorized Disney vacation planner, which means they are recognized by Disney for their expertise and service. They have sailed on all the Disney ships, including in concierge, visited the theme parks, adventured with Disney, relaxed at Aulani, and so much more. Whether it's a Disney cruise, a theme park vacation or adventures by Disney, or if you are looking to expand beyond the mouse, MyPath Unwinding Travel will elevate your next vacation planning experience. Even if you have already booked, reach out for a complimentary consultation to make your vacation even more magical. Ready to talk to the experts? Head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email 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.
[00:39:16] Speaker A: Well, you had a couple of sea days on this trip as well because you had a five night sailing with only two port stops, which in my mind is honestly perfect because then you get like really two sea Days. What did you guys get up to on your. In your sort of free time? Are you running around? I don't know, bingo, trivia, all of those things, or are you guys kind of like, I'm relaxing on the pool.
[00:39:38] Speaker B: Deck, a little bit of everything. I think that the first day my wife and I did Paulo brunch, that was the first time we'd done Paulo brunch. I think we finally felt like, okay, you know, kids are old enough, but we can just go. And then our kids are hit or miss on the kids club. Like, I think the one of the trips, they really loved it. Then they weaved it off on the last one. So, you know, I think we were hesitant, but this one we went enjoyed, and they did their own thing, actually. Be. Honestly, I don't know what they did while we do Palo lunch or brunch, but when you're in the middle of Paulo brunch, for those who have done it, no one cares because it's such an amazing meal.
And we purposely did it on the first night, on the first day, just because we wanted to ensure that, you know, road stuffed at the end of our cruise. Try to get a little bit conscious there or come to read it. Other than that, we do a little bit of everything. We do, baby. I could once or twice. Trivia night. Trivia. We went to a few of those family games that, you know, I don't think we've actually ever seen. But we really liked Soul Cat Lounge. Like, we just like to sometimes hang out, listen to music. And my. My kids are both in Auburn, New Jersey. I'm a huge Springsteen fan, and my kids have both listened to a lot of music their whole lives in the car with me. So, you know, we like listening to the musicians and what they're doing.
It's just a great place for us to hang out and chill. I like the Soul Cat because it's right on the water. So I like those kind of lounges where your kids could be there with you. And, you know, honestly, my son could have the wherever, the $30 milkshake or whatever it is there, but we could hang out, just be there. It's one of those father son moments, you know, obviously not having a beer or anything, but it's. It's one of those times that him and I will sometimes just go to the lounge ourselves and just hang out.
[00:41:10] Speaker A: Yeah, I have to say, I love that space. I think it's the French Quarter lounge on the Wonder, and it's the Soul Cat Lounge on the Magic. I Think that that is like kind of my favorite lounge space as well.
And it's for that exact reason. Like, we can sit and listen to music as a family and Nathan will be drinking a soda and we'll be having a cocktail. Usually an espresso martini, to be perfectly honest.
And we might do like a family craft or something in. I feel like that space is like really well utilized for those musical performances for. Yeah, for just different activities and. And it is beautiful. You've got the porthole windows so you can see outside. So. Yeah, I think it's a really. I think it's a really great space. And. And you're right. If you like to hang out as a family, that's where you can hang out, whereas you can't. You can't take them to Cadillac lounge. That's an 18 and older venue. And same with going to. What is it? Crown, Crown and Finn on that ship. I think this. The pub. And so like, y. Just spaces that they're not allowed in that you might want to sit and have a cocktail and. Yeah, Soulcat and like I said, French Quarter Lounge on the Wonder, which is the. The equivalent location is a really, really nice one. On the Wish class. You've got the Bayou, of course.
[00:42:25] Speaker B: That is. That's our favorite. We. We love that one. And that's why the. The Wishclass just like sit there because you can. You also can look outside and see the water on their sea days and get a little bit of everything.
[00:42:35] Speaker A: Exactly. And it's. Yeah, it's the. It's the Sanctum on the Destiny. It's the Skipper Society on the Treasure. Right. And it'.
The. On the Wish. It's the Bayou on. I'm trying to think on the. The dream and fantasy really don't have an equivalent space that I can.
[00:42:51] Speaker B: Yeah, that is one thing we're worried about. But again, we're doing a shorter sailing on that one, so I think we'll probably be. And we'll be in the Kurgan most of the time. And I think the one thing that we. We realized quickly is that again, we were sailing in November on this trip.
We had a long sea day that first day. It was cold. We had our sweatshirts on the entire day. I. I think my daughter in her head thought we were going to the Caribbean right away. And in her head she was like, I'm gonna be. It's been a great time. And then when it was cold and windy, she almost had a little. Little bit of a moment there. You know, we won't Call it a full crash out. But there was. It was a moment, I think, you know, she. She was hoping for one thing that didn't happen the first day, but then when she realized, okay, just this one day and there's a thousand other things to do. And actually, for her, when that was happening, she then went to the kids. The. The.
The Tween club. Oh, you know, she's in the teen club now.
[00:43:40] Speaker A: Yeah, she's in the teen. She would be in Vibe, which is the teen club at 15.
The tween club only goes up to 14.
[00:43:47] Speaker B: Yeah. So she actually went there and she met a bunch of group. A group of kids. And we know she wasn't with them the entire time. She was kind of bouncing back and forth. So I think for her, that was a. That was a great thing and almost like one of those moments where, like, it could have turned really south really quickly, and it could have been one of those like. Like, you know, we're on a cruise, why are you upset? Kind of thing. But she bounced back a thousand percent and then went to hang out with this kid. So we did a little bit of everything. On the first C. Day, it was too cold to go out on the pool. We did the pool the last sea day, and my son did the Aqua Dunk on that at least 10 times.
Yeah. So, you know, that was an awesome thing. I like that one better than the other ships with their. With their.
[00:44:25] Speaker A: Oh, you do? Okay, so you and Brian are on the same page then. You like that drop slide. I'm not. I'm not a drop slide person. I like the regular. I like the raft water slide. I don't like the body. I don't. It's not that I don't like the body slide. I just. I don't like that the floor, you know, disappears beneath you and then you.
[00:44:41] Speaker B: I did it a few times. I don't think my wife has ever done it, but my daughter did it a few times.
[00:44:46] Speaker A: I had to. I was like, I have to do it because I, you know, I'm. I'm a. Well, I'm a completionist, of course, but I'm like, I got to do it for the fans. Like, the fans want to know.
Right? Everybody want. People want to know. And then I got to tell you know, which one's my favorite, obviously. Right. So. Yeah, but it's certainly not my favorite.
[00:45:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
I think every ship should have both of them, I think just to kind of appease everyone. I know there's not enough room on some of the Decks. But I think that would be. That would be the way to go with that one. So. Other stuff we did. We saw our first movie. I think we've always just done so many other things that we never sat down and watched a movie there.
Zootopia 2 premiered. That was interesting to see it for the first time with everyone there. You know, it's. I forgot how younger kids talked during movies the entire time. It was a flashback to when my children were younger. But it was awesome because everyone's experienced the movie at the same time. And everyone's such a huge Disney fan too, that everyone knows the characters. So it was great time.
[00:45:43] Speaker A: I love a premiere at sea. I think it's such a fun thing that they do. I'll say. I don't go see a lot of movies on the ships, but we also went and saw Zootopia 2 for the first time when it was. Was on, when we were on the Destiny. Because it was like, it's a premiere at sea. We gotta go see it. Like it's. And you're right, there's like this level of like excitement because everyone is a huge fan. They're not just like a casual Disney person who's going to see a Disney movie because that's what's in the theater. This is. Yeah, this is like people who are super duper excited about it. It was such a good movie, I have to say.
[00:46:18] Speaker B: And. And there's a Fantastic Fours playing too. And we'd seen it before, but I was like, I want to go see it. But then like, okay, well, I'm not gonna. Because I can't do an 11 o' clock movie at this point in my life anymore. Like, I, like, I think I could. I'm usually wiped out way before that, so. And then, you know, we like that. We saw the shows. We saw the Tangled show. My wife and daughter saw the Cinderella show. That was another baby. James and I were just hanging out in Soul Cat by ourselves.
And we did a little. Again, we do a little bit of everything. If it's. What do we feel on that day? There's no agenda. It's just, okay, everyone just kind of go through the day and we'll see what we want to do.
[00:46:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Did you see the Golden Mickeys?
[00:46:54] Speaker B: I did not.
I don't know if they did either. To be honest here. Personally, I have no desire to see any of those. I like the Broadway shows. I think every ship could have Aladdin on it and I'd be a happy person.
[00:47:04] Speaker A: I have to. I have to Give a plug for the Golden Mickeys. That is actually the one.
That's the one that I think is the best of. Well, I like Seize the Adventure. I think they did a really good job with that one. But I think, I think the Golden Mickeys and Seize the Adventure are the two, two best of those. I don't really like Disney Dreams or Disney Believe. Like those are the two that I could, you know, I could leave behind. I think Twice Charmed is, is. Is also very good. It's not as good as like Tangled by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a. But it's, it's fun because it's a. It is a real story. It's just created for Disney Cruise Line and it's a twist on the Cinderella story. So. Yeah, but I'm with you. I highly, highly prefer just a Disney story from start to finish. Whether that's, you know, Tangled or Aladdin or Beauty and the Beast will obviously have preferences, but, you know, obviously have strong preferences. But I prefer all of those over the sort of variety type show for sure. I want to ask about what your kids really like to do now that they're 15 and 10. You mentioned they are kind of hit and miss depending upon the sailing is to the, the teen club and the kids club. Obviously your son is going to graduate out of the Oceaneer Club here very soon. But what are the, what are the. Their favorite things to do on. On the sailing, of course you mentioned the pool was. It was kind of cold. That's kind of a. Sometimes you got to set expectations. Right. Sailing out of Galveston or sailing out of New Orleans is the same. Like you may not have a very warm start to your sailing and particularly that first sea day might be kind of cool.
[00:48:43] Speaker B: You know, I think for us. And actually we were able to get James into the.
The edge because he was. Yeah. His birthday is in April, so we signed a waiver and he popped in there a few times, I think, you know, for him and a lot of his friends now are like a year or two older than him. So he just happens to hang out with a little couple kids are older. So that was good for him. He didn't make any connections like Lily did, you know. But for us and just based on that time of year where we were, the fall was such long for us. I mean sports school again, the fact that I work at a university, it was also big for me. So we really use this time to really just hang out. We don't hang out in our cabin a lot, but there's times where in between things, we always have a Disney movie on in the background. So through the course of that cruise, I think we watched three or four, but at 10, 15 minute intervals at a time. So that was part of it. My daughter also loves to read, so she wanted to read on the balcony a few times. So she did a little bit of that. That, you know, I. The greatest thing about, I think about this trip and, and them being HR is there's not one thing that they're into. It's so many things.
So that also allows us to pivot quickly if we need to, or to always come back with each other and hang out. And, you know, my wife's big thing is that this is a family trip. As much as I want to push, hey, we should go to hang out the adult section now. Like, you know, and. And my wife loves the Coke Cafe. Absolutely loves it. And that was a big thing that we. We always do. I think this trip, she filled up three different cards, definitely at least two and maybe a third one. But she had actually really never been inside the cafe to hang out until this trip because I would always just go get her the coffee and bring it back. So for, you know, for that, like, as much as I want to do more just the belt solen stuff, you know, I think we still really just enjoy it. We're one of those. We're. Well, he really just enjoys hanging out with each other with our, you know, with our own inside jokes and stuff like that. So for us, that was it. You know, like I said, I know some families, they'll say, well, my kid's always in the kids club, or they're always doing this.
[00:50:41] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:50:41] Speaker B: That's not us. We. We do a little bit of everything, and then we just kind of keep always coming back together.
[00:50:45] Speaker A: Love that. Yeah. Listen, every family has their own style of cruising. And there's no wrong style of cruising. It's whatever works for you. All right? Like, and if. And. And whatever you all enjoy doing, and if you all enjoy spending more of your time together than separate, that's awesome. Like, our kid just ditches us. You know, I mean, that.
[00:51:07] Speaker B: That happens a little bit, right?
[00:51:08] Speaker A: And I.
[00:51:08] Speaker B: And I think, like, you know, this is why I know I probably get made fun of by a lot of. By my friends who are my age. And I think because I'm like, oh, you're just one of those Disney adults now. And I'm like, I don't think you understand how great this can be. Like, again, you can get A little bit of everything and you can make this trip what you want. It would. Wanted it. So I just told anyone who will listen, like, if you think you want to do any other thing, I'm going to just go to Disney Clues and go, thank you. And dip at.
[00:51:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. Listen, not everybody at my job, for example, understands my Disney habit. They don't understand that I have a podcast, that it's a real thing. Like, they don't. I mean, there are a few who do, but they're the non Disney ones don't really get any of this. Right. And I try to evangelize, but I think sometimes people just aren't willing to dip their toe. But then you, when you, when you hear the time after time, these stories of like, you, Ryan, your wife convincing you to do Disney and, you know, and now you're the one convincing the family to book the next Disney cruise, right? So, like, there are very clear Disney converts. I will call them. And I think there's a reason for that. And I think you're right that the, the cruise can really be whatever you kind of want it to be in terms of a vacation. It has a little bit for everyone.
[00:52:28] Speaker B: Well, Ryan, especially if you could get on like two or three, you kind of know the Keybird.
[00:52:32] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And you can really, like, kind of focus on the things that you like because you've tried some things that maybe you were like, well, that's not for me. Like, I'm. Oh, I'm not really into, like, I don't know, like, let's say you try the Rainforest Room and you're like, that's not really for me. Right. I'd been there, done that, or, oh, I'm not really a trivia person, but I am really a bingo person or vice versa. Right. So I think everybody can kind of sort of find what, what are their sort of priorities. Well, before I. I subject you to some rapid fire, Ryan, is there anything that we missed that was that like anything big or I guess small, but anything notable that I haven't asked you.
[00:53:09] Speaker B: About, I will call this. I won't call it big. I won't call it small. I'd call it one of those little weird Disney hacks, but also just. Just the glory of this community who really loves cruising.
So we were in the shops a lot. That's another big part of what they're like. The amount of time my wife and daughter spending the shops was. I don't know, I didn't see the final bill so it is what it is. But for, for me there's. I usually never see any like apparel they like. I have one mug from the Wish, however many years ago that I drink coffee out of every morning. I saw one mug here and actually I was like, oh, it's cool. And I was like, I kept picking up of that. My son actually snuck in and bought it for me and gave it to me for Christmas. But a bigger story is there was a. I. Most of the merch is just not me. There's just way too much going on. Sure.
[00:53:53] Speaker A: Too loud. I get that. I gotta, I gotta give a big shout out to James. Good job getting dad that mug that was like, that's like key kid Christmas gift. My goodness.
[00:54:04] Speaker B: And that's become the one every day now. But there was like, you know those T shirt hoodies that they have now? Like, I'm really big into those. Those are like my favorite.
[00:54:12] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:54:12] Speaker A: Roosevelt's has a lot of them.
[00:54:14] Speaker B: Yeah. So. And. And Disney, on the Disney cruise they had one and it was just a little DCL logo in the. On the front of me. They had every size but large, which is five size. And I went a few times. Like my wife kind of knows when like I'm into something because I went back and looked and talked to the manager and. Okay, is there any of the back. I. I know there's nothing in the back. I just feel like I have to ask.
[00:54:33] Speaker A: That's not true, Ryan. Sometimes there is stuff so they like. Yeah. So when. If you are looking for something merch wise and they don't have a size out, they will sometimes take down like even your. Your name and your stateroom number. And then if they, if something does pop up, it is. It's not necessarily they're going to find it, but it still is possible is all I'm saying. It's not a. It's not a hard no.
[00:54:55] Speaker B: Yeah. So we asked like two or three people. My wife asked. No another person we were back in. So I was kind of bummed. I was like, oh, you know, I've never bought a Disney shirt. You know, that's kind of. That was like the one thing I like, I thought it would be cool to have.
So come Christmas morning, I opened up that exact shirt in my size. My wife had figured out that you can go to like the Disney cruise Facebook groups. She asked you put it out there. And someone, I think they were from Washington state, which I think I believe where you're guys, where you two are from. And if it was you Great. Thank you for doing that.
[00:55:27] Speaker A: It was us.
[00:55:28] Speaker B: It wasn't us, but this woman bought it on her cruise I was sailing and then shipped it to my wife. My wife then mowed their money, and then I got to open it up and, like, I was just like, holy crap. Like, this is awesome. Like, I never thought I would actually get this. Never thought I would actually buy something on the cruise, but get me a car wasn't prepared. So that just shows you, like, one of those little. That will happen everywhere, but one of those little hacks. But more importantly, like, the people that do this time and time again, like, I think they just really support each other and it builds that community, which I think obviously you and Brian could speak to more than anyone else with the boss.
[00:56:01] Speaker A: No, you're 100% right, Ryan. I. I will tell you, while I don't. While I have firmly said I will not become like a merch hound. So, like, I can't schlep, like a million things back with me from Disney Cruises when. When I have asked friends who I know are sailing and they have. And I've had friends ask me when I'm sailing, like, if there's an item that they've wanted on board or that I've wanted on board, and we get it for each other and then either ship it or, you know, or wait till see each other in person. Like, it's so.
It's such an amazing community when people do that kind of stuff for one another. Like I said, you can't, like, do it for everyone because then you're going to be schlepping all kinds of stuff in your suitcase. Plus, we don't, like. I don't wanna. We don't want to give more business to the reseller market. I just want to put that out there because they mark up the prices. But I don't.
[00:56:48] Speaker B: I don't.
[00:56:48] Speaker A: Wouldn't mind paying. It can like, like a fee for somebody, you know, doing the work of buying it. But I don't want to pay like a 300 markup on something. Right.
[00:56:57] Speaker B: I'm with you both on that. And I. That's, you know, and I think there's the community with someone who's like, all right, Fed. She's like, I asked her, how did you make this happen? She's like. And she's like, it basically was almost instantaneous that someone responded back that says, says, hey, we'll take care of you, doctor.
[00:57:10] Speaker A: So, yeah, there's some really awesome groups that like, yeah, there's so, I mean, there's so many great Facebook groups out there that, you know, have those kinds of questions asked all the time. And oftentimes, even if there's something that's like discontinued, like somebody might have it and not want it anymore, not be using it anymore. Right. Or they're like, maybe they lost weight, maybe they gained weight. So this doesn't fit them anymore. Right. Like, so there is a lot of amazing people out there who are willing to gift sell, you know, re home, whatever. It's really. That's awesome. I love that. Well, kudos to your wife, like, really. I mean, she did a great job on Christmas. Listen, you've got like great Christmas presents too.
[00:57:50] Speaker B: Yeah, they did a great job. So. And they already knew. Hey, so when's the next cruise? That was the next question of Christmas.
[00:57:56] Speaker A: Of course. Of course. All right, Ryan. Well, we have reached that point in the show where I'm going to subject you to some arbitrary questions, some arbitrary rules and a dash of judgment or the round we like to call rapid fire. All right, so I'm going to start with your Disney favorites. We're going to meaning Disney means everything and anything Disney owns. So we interpret Disney liberally. So I'm going to start with who is your favorite Disney character?
[00:58:18] Speaker B: I'll go with the Genie. Just because he was the one that I grew up with and still the one getting on the cruise on the ships that have the Aladdin. He's the one that makes me laugh.
[00:58:27] Speaker A: So I love it. All right, moving on. Who is or what is your favorite Disney movie?
[00:58:34] Speaker B: There's a few, but I think, you know, I think Ratatouille has kind of come into like, where I just really like to put that on some as I'll just put it on, you know, every couple months just to see.
[00:58:43] Speaker A: Yeah, we love, and we love Ratatouille. It's one of the ones we have on the TV in the state room. Absolutely. And that in Zootopia, the original Zootopia. And I'm sure Zootopia 2 will now enter the rotation. And, and also, oddly enough, a lot of Disney sports movies, we like to watch those on board Disney Cruise Line. Have you ever watched the movie Miracle about the us beating the Russians in hockey?
[00:59:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I gave that speech to my son's T ball team one year, but I just changed baseball to hockey and the other coaches just were just sitting there cracking up because they knew exactly what I was doing.
[00:59:16] Speaker A: Oh, my God. Yeah, we love that movie. I don't know Disney, they have such great, very just awesome sports Movies. All right. Okay, moving on. What is your favorite Disney song?
[00:59:28] Speaker B: The one from the Jungle Book where they talk about the one Louie sings. Talks about man cub. Yeah, about man. Yeah, that one that I just, you know, wanted to be like you.
[00:59:40] Speaker A: I want to walk like you, talk like you do.
[00:59:42] Speaker B: Before James was born, I was referring to him as a man cub. A man cub Was a man cub. His first couple, his first year in life.
[00:59:48] Speaker A: So I love that. That's awesome. All right, moving on to the Disney Cruise Line ships. What is your favorite show? Main stage show in the Walt Disney Theater. And why is it Aladdin?
[01:00:01] Speaker B: It's only Aladdin. Just because I haven't seen that many of them, but I would say that I don't actually, before I saw that, I had not seen any of this, any of the shows. And no one said, just go to one, come on. And I went to it and I was like, wow, it was hilarious. Was great. And great stage production. And the Wish has the projection mapping. So again, been another one of those times where my wife was right, I was wrong, and now I'm more big than she is.
[01:00:25] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, forever. Forever, she's going to be more right than you. That's just how it works in the world.
All right, well, we're going to move over to food.
What is your favorite rotational dining restaurant? Of course, you can only choose from the Wish and from the magic.
[01:00:40] Speaker B: I would say for ambiance, animators, palette. I just like the fact that it's. I just like the color of it and. But also it's more roomy than any of the rotational dinings on the Wish. But for food, the 1923, the food was the best there.
[01:00:55] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. All right, well, moving on to food. Speaking of food, we gotta talk a favorite savory item and a favorite sweet item. We're gonna start with sweets because I think the savories are the best and I saved the best for last. So we start with. We're gonna start with dessert. What is a favorite sweet item for you on a Disney cruise Cruise?
[01:01:13] Speaker B: Like, I would have had Apollo brunch, but it was good. But. Well, I'm gonna go Mickey bar, because just the Mickey bar hits different on the. On the Disney Cruise line, it just hits different.
[01:01:23] Speaker A: That's right. It doesn't matter. It hits better than in the parks. It hits better than the ones that you couldn't get in in the grocery store and put in your freezer at home. It just hits different. Absolutely. Might put even some Mickey sprinkles on those. Even better. All right. Favorite savory item.
[01:01:37] Speaker B: I would say probably anything I eat at the Palo brunch, which is awesome. That lineup was just. Was just home runs all around. And so.
[01:01:45] Speaker A: Yeah. What were the mains that you ordered?
[01:01:47] Speaker B: Again? Growing up in North Jersey, living in Connecticut, I. My mother is Italian, and she's going to hate that. I'm going to tell her that the chicken parm at Paula was amazing and that. And I made a joke to mom, I think this is better than yours.
Like, and I. And I, again, I have a high expectation of Italian food, and it was fantastic. It was amazing. And I think this. That meal just was hit after hit after hit. The. We had the eggs Florentine or the. That thing's Benedict floor to whatever that is, and that was. That was great. So there's not many times, even on the entire cruise line, even in main dining location that I've said. I really like that, though. You know, there's been a few appetizers that have kind of been not the best in the world, but still, they're still really good, but there's definitely. That hasn't been great there.
[01:02:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I have to say, I think that Paulo's tomato sauce is just like the creme de la creme. Like, it's. And it's the same with the tomato soup. It's the quality of the tomatoes that they're using is just so good. And I think, to me, that's probably why that chicken parm is so good and why that tomato soup is so good and why that lasagna is so good is actually more about the sauce than. I mean, all the other elements are great, but I feel like it, you know, and I. And I'm, you know, a huge Italian food person, having grown up on Long island as well, so I think it's. It speaks volume that A thousand percent.
[01:03:06] Speaker B: Thousand percent.
[01:03:07] Speaker A: Yeah. All right, well, we're gonna shift over to a favorite activity on a Disney cruise line ship.
[01:03:13] Speaker B: To be honest with you, I. I'm not a heavy drinker, but sometimes just having an Old Fashioned at one of the bars there or one of the cocktails there just is what you need to just really get into dedication mode. So, you know, I think for this one of a soul cat. And you smoked old Fashioned. This was really great for us.
Other than that, I, I, again, we just really enjoy being there as a family. So I think just being around everyone and. And because there's no cell service, there's no phones, and I'm guilty As anyone else of, you know, looking at my phone during dinner time at the house. But when they're, when you're on the cruise, you get to just enjoy each other.
[01:03:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. You can actually disconnect from that. I love that. All right, well, the final two questions of Rapid Fire. We're going to start with what is your favorite or which one is your favorite Disney ship? You get to choose from the magic and from the Wish.
[01:04:01] Speaker B: I mean, I like the wishes layout better. The magic, the small but just how intimate it is. It's still great and it still holds up. I mean, it's 27, 29 years old. However it is and it still holds up. So I'm going to go a deadlock tie until I get on another ship and I can really have a third party two way in on that one.
[01:04:17] Speaker A: All right, fair enough. Okay, well, when you get on the Treasure, you're going to be, your mind's going to be blown. Okay.
[01:04:23] Speaker B: It's going to be number one. I already know it.
[01:04:25] Speaker A: I mean, well, the, the Destiny is amazing too, but you mentioned early on in the show about how you're really looking forward to the treasure. And so if you are like, like the parks theming of the treasure, then you're. Yeah, that's going to be your favorite. And of course it's a seven night itinerary. So it's. Yeah. Unless you're like a big Marvel and Villains fan, you're gonna, you know, then of course the Destiny is going to be your ship. But if you really like the wish class, which you, you know, said you, you do from being on the Wish and you're looking forward to the treasure, that's probably going to be where your, where your heart lands. Okay, now the last question of the same question I ask everybody. If you could go on a bucket list cruise, meaning you're going anywhere in the world on a Disney Cruise Line ship, it doesn't have to be someplace that Disney Cruise Line currently goes. It just has to be someplace accessible by water.
Where would you go?
[01:05:12] Speaker B: You know, I actually thought about this one. A lot happens in the podcast several times. This is, I was thinking about this on the way home today. I have this idea that you want to start in Europe, British Isles in France, transatlantic hit, castaway, lookout. And then ideally I would end up back in New York because I, I'm jealous of anyone who doesn't have to get on a plane after being on a cruise ship. So if I could just get in and go home after that, that's what I would love to do and end up in like New York or even some town by me that I don't have to get on.
[01:05:44] Speaker A: I mean, I don't think the cruise ship stock in Bridgeport, but I guess, you know, maybe if they could, they'd.
[01:05:51] Speaker B: Go to New Haven. It'd be great. We'd be right there.
[01:05:54] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I love it. All right. Well, it sounds like a, it sounds like a fantastic cruise. I like the idea of hitting some places in Europe before doing a transatlantic as well. Ryan, thank you so much for being on the show today with me. You mentioned that what's next is February, right on the Dream. And what are you eyeing next? February on the Dream. What are you eyeing beyond that?
[01:06:16] Speaker B: So we are February, the dream. That one was done. That's again another trip with Madeline, our friends. So they're moving down to Florida. So they're going to have the, the dream, so to say, of not having to fly. So we'll, we'll catch up with them there. And that goes to Lookout, which we haven't been to yet. After that is Alaska and then we are are working on at the summer. After that, Hawaii and Aani. So we might be after Alaska. Disney cruise might have to take a little bit of a breather for a little bit. But I'm sure it'll creep back if in some way if the next it random itineraries has New York in it and they start selling it in New York again, that might change where we go. But we got our next plans next few years. So, you know, life happens. We'll see where that takes us.
[01:06:56] Speaker A: Absolutely. Well, thanks again, Ryan. So enjoyable having you on the show. And with that I'll just say thanks.
[01:07:02] Speaker B: Awesome. Sam, this was great. I appreciate it. Everyone out there listening, just keep listening to this podcast. You find these little bits of treasures that we get passed on. That's how we find out a lot about stuff that we give.
[01:07:12] Speaker A: Awesome.
[01:07:17] Speaker C: Well, thanks to everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us alive, we have a live show now every week, Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want to help support the show, be sure to hit those, 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 forward/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 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 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 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 so those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflective views the Disney Company or Disney Cruise Line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or Disney vacation, please contact the great folks over at My Path Unwinding Travel or Disney directly or your own travel agent. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL Duo.
[01:09:25] Speaker A: Sam.
