[00:00:00] Speaker A: And my wife, who's sitting next to me, looks at me and goes, honey, where's your mom?
I was like, what?
She goes, where's your mom's ashes?
Oh, you've got to be kissing me right now.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: This is like the comedy of errors.
[00:00:19] Speaker A: Listen, I said, this is a National Lampoons movie is what this is. I'm not Clark Griswold, right?
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Foreign.
Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of the DCL Duo podcast, brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel. I am your host today, Sam. I am solo. You always know that if you hear my voice doing the show intro, of course, because Brian usually does the show intro. But never fear, I am not alone. I have a fabulous guest with me. In fact, so fabulous that even though his sailing is a little bit older than I typically would like to talk about on. On the show, I was like, I gotta talk to this guy. Because he has such a cool backstory, such a cool itinerary that we're gonna talk about today. Lots of really cool stuff that happened on this itinerary. Unique and different. There was, you know, some celebrations, so there's just a lot to talk about. I'm super excited to welcome to the show, Virgil. Welcome, Virgil.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: Well, thank you very much, Sam. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Super excited to have you. First, I gotta say thank you for your service. You are a retired Marine. Semper F.
Gotta, you know, acknowledge that. Yeah. Thank you for everything that you and all of our service members have done and currently do for our country. It's something that should be acknowledged.
Let's jump right in. Virgil, you have, like, one of the coolest Disney backgrounds ever. I'm gonna say you're also a former Washingtonian. So excited to have somebody else from the Seattle area on with me. Although you don't live here in this area anymore, but let's start with where your love for Disney comes from, because you've had a long history with the Walt Disney Company now.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: We did. Thank you so much, Sam. I appreciate that. So I grew up outside of Tampa, sort of north of Tampa. And we obviously, growing up in central Florida, had a connection with the parks and, you know, Disney Afternoon after school, back when Disney cartoons were awesome.
And then I got to live through. Or we got to live through through the renaissance of Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid and Aladdin and going through the real Lion King. A Lion King, of course.
And just really, there was something about the storytelling of Disney that always was really interesting to me. But the parks obviously kind of being a little less than an hour away. We'd go over there every now and then as well. And so then after I graduated high school, I he worked a couple random jobs like most people do post high school and ended up.
We went to the parks one day and we're headed back over to at the time, downtown Disney. And I thought, we kept passing that casting building and I thought, well, now wait a minute. This, this me thinking it was just this is where they cast for the TV shows. I thought, well, I'm gonna go end up on a Disney TV show. Just I was being, I was being stupid more than anything else and walked in. Now granted, I've been in the parks all day, sweaty, wearing shorts and a shirt and you know, like Nike Huarachi sandals and a hat and just walked in is like, hey, I want to see what's going on in here. And they said, well, this is actually where we hire people to work in the parks. I was like, oh, I'd love to work at Disney World. How can I work at Disney World? It's just completely naive and idiotic as a 18 year old kid.
And the lady behind the counter, actually I think she probably just thought I was either an idiot or hilarious or maybe both. So she said, all right, look, go up there, fill out the thing.
And I did that. And then they passed me to the next guy who passed me to the next guy. Long story short, two and a half hours later, I walked out of the casting building with a full time attractions host job.
[00:04:23] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: Just completely on a whim, had no fourth, just whatever, we'll just show up. So I ended up started off working for the esteemed Dr. Nigel Channing at the Imagination Institute.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: Oh my God. With Figment as your co worker.
[00:04:41] Speaker A: Yep. Shrinking audiences multiple times per day and also hanging out with Dreamfinder. And Figment did that for a while.
At one point, just again on a whim, said, hey, so I kind of want to work in guest relations. And they're like, okay, good luck with that. Right? Like that's. Calm down. Right?
So we had the opportunity, a few of us, to sort of laterally train in guest relations because Animal Kingdom was getting ready to open.
So we weren't really actually guest relations people necessarily, but we got to work during the ramp up to help people during that process and that, like telling
[00:05:23] Speaker B: people like, oh, go this way to get to Asia, go this way to get to Africa, that sort of thing. Yeah, yeah, right.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: Pay no attention to the dinosaur up there because that makes absolutely no sense. But it's fine. Just. Just go in. It's. It's way cooler when you get.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: It's a really cool. And. And don't forget, McDonald's was in the park back then.
[00:05:41] Speaker A: Right. McDonald's french fries. That's, you know, the. The ketchup and mustard and.
[00:05:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: Dinosaur rest in peace. So that the.
[00:05:49] Speaker B: The.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: The entire opening, it was so funny because I. During one of our Trips back in 2020, I was talking to a gentleman who works at Wilderness Lodge, and we were just kind of joking and laughing about he had been there for a while. And he said, so you worked. You were guest relations float during Animal Kingdom opus? Like, yeah. He's like, do you know your costumes are still, like, immortalized on the back wall and backstage? And I was like, what are you talking about? He's like, the khakis with the maroon polo shirts that looked like bank tellers because they didn't have enough costumes for us. The actual guest relations costumes. So we looked like chase bank tellers in our maroon Disney polo shirts and khakis. And they still got a photo of those in the backstage Animal Kingdom area as of 2020. I don't know if they're still there or not.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: That's so cool. Oh, my goodness. I mean, I remember when Animal Kingdom opened because I went to.
So I went to Walt Disney world in both 1996 and 1998 for different trips. One was a choir. Well, one was my. My 16th birthday trip, and then the other was, like, my choir trip, my high school choir trip. So I was. Yeah, so I was down there, you know, multiple times. Like, when Blizzard beach was, like, brand new, right? Like, when Animal Kingdom was brand new, right? Like, so. So I remember that. I remember the. I remember the. The. The castle was a cake in 1996 as well. So, like, you know, this is, like,
[00:07:22] Speaker A: horrible, horrible birthday cake.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: No, I love that birthday cake.
Love it. I don't care what anyone else says. I know most people think it was so ugly. I loved it. I thought it was so fun. Like, I thought it was just because to me, like, I don't know, it was just, like, fun 25th anniversary, like, thing, right? Like, I just thought that was so cool. And of course, now we're past, like, the 50th anniversary. They were aging ourselves, Virgil. But it. Yeah, I. I kind of love that time. I think the. The late 90s in Walt Disney World was, like, so great. The paper fast passes introduced, like, oh,
[00:07:55] Speaker A: a thousand percent, you know, like getting your fast friend to do the past sprint. The Rope drop. And then. Okay, yes, you're on the fastest. So you're gonna go. You're gonna run and pull the tickets.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I remember, like. Yeah, I remember rope dropping, like the Tower of Terror back then. Like, it was just. Yeah. And you could go like a bunch of times at once if you got there. Right. At rope drop. Right. So it was just a great time in. In Disney. In Disney history. Well, okay, so you worked at Walt Disney World. You worked primarily in Epcot, I think you said. Right. And so in Attractions, which attractions did Epcot? I gotta know. Besides imagination, of course, you said.
[00:08:34] Speaker A: Yeah, honey, I shrunk. The audience was the. Was the main.
And then, you know, journey into Imagination.
Back at that point, it was called Seas. Image was the. Was the unit the. Because it was the living seas and Journey into Imagination.
So I think may, like, less than half a dozen times would float over to the living with the land. I'm sorry, the seas. But it was just so rare. Mostly it was almost entirely. Honey, I shrunk the audience. Theater and then Figment.
[00:09:06] Speaker B: And that was a good 3D show. I remember that. Yeah, that was a good.
[00:09:10] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:11] Speaker A: I may or may not still have one of the rat tails tied to my park backpack, you know, 30 something years later.
[00:09:18] Speaker B: That was the one. I will tell you. That was the one part of the show I could not stand. Like, I had to always, like, I would put, like, a sweatshirt or something and cover the seat.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: Because even the dog sneezing on you, the rat killed and then getting sneezed on by the dog.
[00:09:32] Speaker B: Yes. So for those who don't know, there was, you know, There was this 3D. It was 4D actually, I guess, because they do like, some, you know, they blow air on your neck and things like that. But there's this one part where you. There's like a rat that comes out and it's thousands of rats. Thousands of, like, lots of. Yeah, lots of rats.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: They go running through the theater.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: Running through the theater is what they're telling. Making you believe. And then out of your. The middle of the bottom of your seat comes this little, like, string thing. And it, like, flings against your legs to make you. Or your. Against your thighs to make you feel like they're. The rats are running beneath, like, your seat. And it's the mo. It was like the. For me, like, the most terrifying thing, the idea of, like, actual rats, like, running under me. And so, like, I knew the. I knew it wasn't real, but it didn't matter. I had to cover it.
[00:10:21] Speaker A: It was real to you, Sam.
[00:10:22] Speaker B: It was real in my head.
It was real in my head.
Yeah. And that was actually, like. That was the. The one part of the. Yeah. And today, to this day, there are certain parts of 3D/4D films where I have to, like, take off the glasses because I get very sucked into it. I feel like it's real, Virgil. I don't know what it. I'm. I'm. My imagination. It's actually why I don't watch scary movies. And even when there's, like, a commercial for a scary movie, I literally have to, like, either mute it or change the channel. And it's not because necessarily what I'm seeing is so scary. But I have, like, a very vivid imagination. And if I see, like, a piece of a scary movie, I'm gonna, like, take that, and my imagination is gonna run with it. I'm gonna fall asleep, and my. My subconscious is gonna create a scarier story than whatever that movie was. And I'm. And I'm gonna.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: Then you loved Alien Encounter, then Alien Encounter was your favorite ride in the park.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Like, I loved Skippy, but Alien Encounter was. Scare the bejesus out of me. I kid you not. I. You know, I used to. Not as a kid. I would not go in, like, even I. You're going to think this is crazy. I. I go now. I love it. But I did not go in the Haunted Mansion because I was. I was afraid of any haunted houses. I didn't understand that the Haunted Mansion was not scary.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: Not a haunted house.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: So, yeah. So anyway, it's. I still, to this day, don't go in any haunted houses.
And I like any. I didn't go on that monsters ride. In an epic universe, the. The big, like, Monsters Unleashed. Yes. Monsters Unleashed or Unchained or I guess the. Whatever it's called. Anyway, I w. I went through the queue with Brian and I. But then I did not actually go on the ride because I was like, nope, I'm out. Like, I don't want.
I don't need Frankenstein and Dracula and I guess Frankenstein's monster and Dracula and whoever the other one is. But I don't need them anyway. I don't need them in my life. I don't need that kind of mess.
But. Okay, so let's. Sorry. Back to Disney. Okay. So you have this awesome history couple of years working at Disney. You go into the Marines. You've moved around quite a bit. You continued going to Walt Disney World for years. Right. As family vacations. But when did you dive into my love, meaning Disney Cruise Line?
[00:12:47] Speaker A: Yeah. So as one does, the normal career path of going from working for Disney World to joining the US Marine Corps, that's a very typical career progression for many people.
Yeah, lots, right? Yeah, just many people. Of course.
So we started, my wife and I, we've been together since high school. And when we got married, really early in my Marine Corps career, we.
We moved. So we lived in South Carolina. And one of the first dates we went on before.
Gosh, I gotta make sure I get the timing right. Pretty soon it was after boot camp, but before some of my other training is I had taken her to the area kind of right out. Right by where flying fish is. I don't think flying fish was there at the time, but, like, right in that area. And we had a. We would. Our dream was to stay at the boardwalk. And at the time, that was just absolutely financially way beyond anything that was possible.
But we went there and that's where I had asked her to officially be my girlfriend. And like, just. That's kind of where we decided, hey, look, we're going to do this thing and you're going to be together. So Disney World for us, as opposed to just for each individual, me and her individually, for us collectively, is a really special place. And so then we wanted to take our kids back, right? And so we did that a little bit.
But once we started moving west, because my career, for some reason, just we kept moving further and further west. We went from Virginia to South Carolina to Louisiana to Texas, and then we ended up out in Seattle.
It was a lot harder to get to Disney world. But in 2014, actually in 2012, rather, we took our kids for the first time. And My oldest was 11.
And so we had like 11 and 8, and not quite. I think she was just 3 or 4. I don't remember exactly how old she was. We had three at the time. And it was our first trip. We surprised them. We didn't tell them they thought they were going to Nana's. We kind of did the whole thing where we're like, instead of going to Nana's, why don't we get on a plane and fly to Disney World? And so we did the whole Disney surprise thing. And that trip was where, honestly, we kind of fell in love with the idea of the whole planning part of it. Right? Because then you decide, well, you know, these dates we could save a little on the resort so we could spend more money on this. And then kind of. And so we had spreadsheets and I had like, you know, calling. The best thing about living on west coast is that your booking window opens at 9pm not at midnight. So back when you had to call Disney dining right at 9pm to try to get those reservations, back when Victoria and Al Albert was on the dining plane, if you can even believe that.
[00:15:37] Speaker B: Now it's like 3 o' clock in the morning online. But 6 o' clock in the morning online in the east coast is horrible. But we were for cruise line because onboard booking is still at 9:00pm oh, oh, my God.
[00:15:50] Speaker A: It's so wonderful. And check in for sure. But in 2014, so in the Marine Corps, I had been training for a marathon. I got injured. Me and my training partner had. Because we're on active duty, he and I had like, Marine Corps marathon is really hard to get into. It's one of those that has like a lottery. But we had guaranteed bibs because we were active duty.
Well, we had gotten bibs. We were training.
But I had to back out because I ended up having to have foot surgeries and wasn't going to be able to do it. And he didn't want to run it by himself. So we both backed out. So several years later, I still really wanted to check the box of running a marathon. So I decided, hey, I'm going to do the. The Disney Marathon because it's Disney World and it's an excuse to drag my kids and my wife back to Disney world. This is two years after our big first, you know, trip in 2012.
So then we thought, you know, we're flying five people all the way over there.
We've kind of. I think it was actually my wife, really. Honestly, if I think back, I think she was the one who initially said, you know, I really want to try a cruise. I was like, yeah, that'd be cool one day, right? And then I was like, well, they have this new ship and we're already going to be there. And, you know, we'll just. We'll be saving on airfare because we're not flying all the. It would be rude not to.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: It's Disney, Virgil.
[00:17:10] Speaker A: Disney, 100%.
[00:17:12] Speaker B: This is the fan that was.
[00:17:14] Speaker A: Right?
[00:17:14] Speaker B: New at that time.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: Yeah, newish. Right? So we think. I think we went on one of like, that there are like six or seven more, you know, inaugural sailings or whatever. They saw the inaugural sailing stuff up on the ship. And I'd really, at that point, we had no idea what any of that meant because it was our first cruise, but we did that. And after, especially after having been at the parks for five days with the marathon and the Expo and the marathon weekend and all that.
When we got there it was, it was like, I, I, I don't know, I don't want to be too romantic about it, but it was like this is, this is everything like this, this is Disney without all of the other chaotic nonsense that we just went through. Dragging our kids to rope drop, to fireworks for five days, plus the expo, plus the cruise, plus Illuminations. And it was just.
[00:18:03] Speaker B: You're a spiking my love language.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: Oh my God.
[00:18:06] Speaker B: It was that we felt about our first cruise on the Fantasy. And actually we didn't even have Nathan with us. It was so magical.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: It was glorious. And you know, the Midship Detective Agency like all just everything about the Fantasy and everything about that experience.
I was hopelessly hooked. So that was January 2014, the next 2014 rather the next summer, we did Alaska on the Wonder with my dad and stepmother.
And by that time we had four kids. We had welcomed our 11 year old. Now the one in Kirkland, the one born in Kirkland.
So he was itty bitty, I think it's like 10 months old on that cruise. But again we loved just, it was a completely different, there's, there is not a different Disney cruise line experience than going fantasy Eastern Caribbean to Alaska on the Wonder. That is the biggest yin yang of Disney cruising. But we loved it every bit as much, if not more. And so at that point we were kind of hooked. But again, we were still in Seattle, so it's still kind of hard to fly way back over and then, you know, to be careful and to be respectful of everyone's opinions, even the ones that are maybe wrong.
We noticed a serious decline in the Disney Parks and Resorts experience under the other Bob and we just.
[00:19:32] Speaker B: You mean, you mean the one who bought that ginormous cruise ship from, you know, that other company?
Well, to see. Listen, I'm holding out, I'm crossing my fingers and toes. We are, are currently recording this. It's January 16th. Those who are listening, just to give people context, the adventure is in Port Canaveral right now, but has of course delayed several months. And, and, and from what we've heard, and I don't know, you know, I don't think she's going to be delayed anymore, but she's still behind schedule. And so I'm a little bit worried for the people who are going to be on those first several months of sailings, to be perfectly honest. Yeah, but that was, that was that was the other Bob who decided to do that, too.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: I affectionately call him Umbrella Bob because of the. The.
The hilarious photo of him at the wish christening when he's standing there holding the Disney wish umbrella, and he just looks absolutely miserable, and he's standing there doom and gloom under the umbrella, and I'm like, yep, that's all of us, buddy. That's the way all of us feel.
Anyway, under. Under that, we. We still kept going. We went several times, but it was. It was getting harder and harder. The cast member interaction stayed consistent. Cast was exceptional. You know, we noticed that maybe during a couple of our Covid trips, it was a little rough, but how could it not be based on what those poor people were going through on a daily basis, for crying out loudly.
[00:21:00] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:21:01] Speaker A: But just. It got to where the value wasn't there and the experiences weren't there. And so my wife and I were like, well, let's. Let's try a cruise. Let's just. Let's go back. So we went on the Wonder.
We did four cruises on the Wonder in a row. Not because we love the Wonder, just because that's the way it worked out. So we did San Diego, New Orleans, and these were. It was like just the two of us and thought, this is. This is incredible. Like, we.
This is the value.
[00:21:33] Speaker B: Yeah. The Wonder's also a great ship. I know. Like, yes. Is she older? Yes. Does she have some of the amenities that the newer ships have? No, but she's such a great ship, and, And I think they've done such a good job with upkeep in particular on the Wonder, even more so than even on. On the Magic.
So, yeah, I, I, I mean, if I never. If I could only go on the Wonder for the rest of my life, like, and not be able to go on new ships on Disney Cruise Line, I. I'd still be okay with that. I'll be perfectly honest. It's such a great one.
Now, how many. How many sailings have you been on now? You. You. The, the one we're going to talk about today, and we're gonna. We're gonna talk about. We're not gonna go into, like, every detail. We're kind of. I feel like some of this is storytelling your story, Virgil, rather than the story of this particular sailing. Although we'll. We'll hit some of the things from this sailing, because, like I said, there's some unique stuff to talk about. But, like, how many sailings have you been on now with. With Disney Cruise Line, including this one, which was a Halloween on the high seas. So this was a fall sailing, right?
[00:22:39] Speaker A: So that was number seven.
So we did one and two in 14 and 15 and then none until oh gosh, I think it's 22. And then in 20 we, so now since 2022, you know, here in the beginning of 2026, we, oh, we were flying because we again it's we, we have, you know, we've mixed in Disneyland a few times in there, we've mixed Aulani a few times in there. But honestly, for our vacation dollars, Sam, and you know, we're, we're fortunate in a lot of ways but we're not, you know, independently wealthy people for whom money is no issue. That's not us. So if we're going to drop, you know, six, eight, ten, twelve thousand dollars on a vacation, we want it to be worth six, eight, ten, twelve thousand dollars. And so for us it's harder and harder to look at a week. And what we're also finding is now that 11 year old, you know, got his Hogwarts letter, so to speak, and he's now a Gryffindor.
[00:23:35] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:23:36] Speaker A: So, and so it's hard for us not to do that.
[00:23:38] Speaker B: And he's full price too. He's a full price, he's an adult in Disney, so, so in Disney dollars, he's, if you're over 9 years old in Disney dollars, you're an adult. So now you're paying full price for his ticket, you're paying full price for his meal. If I will say that they sometimes will let us fudge because. Yeah, they'll let you because Nathan just turned 12 and there are like at Aulani they didn't care. They let us order off the kids menu. But at, at the parks it depends who you get and, but you know, this portion is certainly kind of small for the parks at least.
But you know, it just kind of depends. They might let you fudge for a meal but they don't let you fudge for the ticket at all. The ticket is, yeah, and I have to say like one of those things when you think about budgeting. I, I think a lot of people have sticker shock from the price of the cruise, but I think people forget that the cruise, it's not quite all inclusive but I'll call it mostly inclusive. Like it's, you know, you've got perhaps a night of a hotel on the front end and of course flights if you're traveling from out of town.
But like if you're a non drinker, meaning no alcohol Pretty much everything is included. And you don't have to do the add on stuff. Like the add on stuff is add on, but it's not necessary. Whereas at the parks, you've got your flights in your hotel, you've got park tickets which are so, so expensive. You've, you've got lightning lanes, let's not forget, and individual lightning lanes, you've got.
And then food. And food is insane. That's the other thing that I think is really. And then if you decide to do like add on, like, I don't know, dessert parties and things like that. Right.
[00:25:25] Speaker A: So there's after hours events.
[00:25:26] Speaker B: After hours events.
[00:25:28] Speaker A: And if you don't. And I, you know, as I say that my wife and I are less than a month away from our first ever sweetheart night at Disneyland. So like, you know, we still do, but, but I'm not saying that we're going.
[00:25:38] Speaker B: I'm just saying. Yeah.
[00:25:39] Speaker A: I'm just saying we're not taking five kids with us.
[00:25:41] Speaker B: Right.
[00:25:42] Speaker A: To sweetheart night.
[00:25:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Right. And so I actually think it's, I'm not saying that people shouldn't do parks. I just think if you're comparing them, you got to compare all of the costs together.
And sometimes, because especially with food and especially with kids who eat a lot or adults who eat a lot, the cruise line will save you money on that for sure.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: Oh, my God. And you know what's wild is especially with the, our 17 year old who is on socials, you know, she sees, she falls into the trap that all the adults fall into is, oh, I want to try the viral churro and I want to try the viral this. And I want to, I want to get the, the Mickey Mouse macaron. And I want to get. And so now it's like, I need that.
[00:26:23] Speaker B: So we have too.
[00:26:25] Speaker A: Yeah, the popcorn buckets. Oh, my Lord, I see your Doug.
[00:26:28] Speaker B: So we got like, I don't have that many, but there's a rule one, if, if a new one comes in, an old one has. The old one goes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: We, the first day on this cruise, we were at a little gift shop and they have the Mickey Mouse one. I don't know if you've seen it yet, but it's, it's classic Mickey standing with his hands kind of out. And if you say, hey, Mickey, he's like, like, hi, pal, and he'll start talking to you. I was like, oh, my God, that's going home with us. And I, I still don't know how we managed to not buy it. But we didn't buy it. It was like a huge victory to not buy the talking Mickey Mouse popcorn bucket.
[00:26:59] Speaker B: That is a victory. That's awesome. All right, well, let's. Let's dive in a little bit on. On this cruise that you took that back in. Back in the fall. Now, you went on. It's a cool itinerary. You went in a southern Caribbean out of San Juan, Puerto Rico. I see you're wearing a Puerto Rico hat.
I love it. Yeah, I love it. Now, was there any particular reason why you decided to sail out of San Juan as opposed to take, you know, doing a sailing out of, I don't know, Galveston? You live in Texas, right? Or out of Florida?
[00:27:31] Speaker A: Well, Galveston until the wish ends up in Galveston. Wink, wink. In about a year and a half, I think we're probably like, we don't want to keep. As much as we love the wonder, we're a little wondered out. Just that many wonders in a row because we went, wonder, wonder, wonder, wish, wish.
And so then we did the, you know, the magic, but, like, variety, but also, you know, I know when people see my pasty white skin, my freckles and my red hair, they immediately think, that guy must be Puerto Rican.
And they would be right, because I. I am. But my mother and all of her family are from Puerto Rico. So we've been talking for years. We've had two near misses with trips to Puerto Rico that we planned, and it didn't work out for one reason or another.
So this year, when we saw this itinerary, the itinerary was southern Caribbean, which we were super excited for.
The magic, which we were super excited for, and the fact that it was round trip in and out of San Juan, we're like, we. We kind of have to. This is, you know, every year, when you look at the release on the schedule, like, you're like, well, you know, I want to go on the treasure, but I don't love the itinerary. Or I wanted to do the, you know, Europe, but I've already been on the fantasy. And, like, see, you're kind of doing the. But this was a ship. We haven't been on a port that we would love to go to place we want to go. And we were like, this. This is it. And the itinerary, you know, the island.
[00:28:48] Speaker B: The stars align. Yeah. This. When the stars.
And you have this. This perfect itinerary, the timing works, the places you want to go, the ship you want to be on, and it all converges. It's like, I must Book that cruise. I totally. I have been in that place. In fact, I'm in that place right now.
We, we have, if we have a 20, 27 spring break cruise already booked on the Treasure.
We were perfectly happy with that booking on the Treasure. And then literally yesterday, I think it was, or the day before, DVC drops a big bomb and says, hey, you want to go on the Wonder out of San Diego and go on a West coast cruise that goes to up to San Francisco and spends an overnight in San Francisco?
[00:29:36] Speaker A: Oh, no.
[00:29:37] Speaker B: And also goes to Catalina and also goes to Ensen. And guess what, it's a DVC member crew. So you get all the swag and all the special performances.
[00:29:44] Speaker A: Oh, no.
[00:29:45] Speaker B: So.
And I guarantee there's going to be a Virgil. So.
[00:29:49] Speaker A: And there's a, there's going to be a shore excursion to Pixar or to order to Skywalker Ranch. I guarantee there will be one of those, too. So. Oh, that's.
[00:29:59] Speaker B: They haven't said what, but there's going to be some kind of special excursions offered. And I was thinking my, my initial thought was Skywalker Ranch.
Another friend said to me, disney Family Museum is an option.
Right? So, like, there's, yeah, there's multiple options that could be. And so I'm like, like, so the stars are aligning and so now we're gonna have to pivot.
[00:30:21] Speaker A: But anyway, what you're saying is me and my wife need to buy DVC tonight so that we can qualify to book that cruise tomorrow.
[00:30:27] Speaker B: Yeah, it was not tomorrow. It's February 28th is when bookings open. I think this episode will come out before that. So I'm announcing it now.
We're probably booking that on February 20A.
It's going to, it's a free for all. It's. You don't. They don't tier, so they don't tier bookings based on cast status when it's a DVC member cruise or a DVC member charter. And so everybody has to call at 7am Pacific, 8, 8am Eastern or, sorry, 8am 10am Eastern. So, yeah, it's just a free for all. You just got to get through that, like, phone tree fast enough, the pressing the buttons, you know, anyway. But, but yeah, stars align sometimes and it tells you. And it's the universe telling you that's the cruise or vacation or whatever it is like, that you need to do. And so I'm not like a big believer in, I don't know, a lot of spiritual stuff, but sometimes I do think that, like, there's like some kind of karma going on that's leading me on a particular path, and it's the path I need to then take, so. Okay, well, you had a special experience, I want to say, in San Juan.
Your mom passed away, and I'm really sorry about that, Virgil, but this gave you the opportunity to do something really special for her, too.
[00:31:45] Speaker A: It did. And honestly, you know, I've listened to you guys from. I think episode three was the first one that I listened to. And then I got back and listened to one again. I know, I know.
[00:31:58] Speaker B: Those were not. Not great episodes. Original. That's okay.
[00:32:01] Speaker A: It's fine. It's fine. They're great now.
But I. So I've heard you guys talk a lot and, you know, I, I joked in the, the email to you guys, you know, we'll sing a couple verses in the chorus of everyone's favorite song. Only fools fly in on embarkation day.
[00:32:17] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:32:18] Speaker A: And this, this cruise.
Was that.
So. Yeah, my mom had passed and so we'd been meaning for a while to memorialize her. So again, all of her family is in Puerto Rico. It's not feasible for them to come here. She died in Florida and so we wanted to go. We were just going to go there and take her ashes and kind of have a memorial and more of a, like a celebration than anything because, you know, a bunch of us dressing up in stodgy clothes and going to a church and sitting there and, you know, that would have pissed her off. So.
[00:32:51] Speaker B: Yeah, she wouldn't want that.
[00:32:52] Speaker A: Furious.
[00:32:53] Speaker B: I wouldn't want that either. I'm, I, I'm like, I don't want anybody. I want it.
Have a party. Celebrate me.
[00:32:58] Speaker A: Don't fun back in funeral. Let's, let's, let's just get it. Yeah, right.
[00:33:02] Speaker B: So let's turn up some music, some good food. Right?
[00:33:06] Speaker A: Oh, the food. Oh, my God.
[00:33:07] Speaker B: I'm. I'm really jealous because, you know, I, I'm obsessed with plantain, so.
[00:33:12] Speaker A: Oh, God.
So we, we were going to go down there and the, the purpose was we're going to fly in essentially a day and a half early, just kind of see Viejo San Juan and do that. The touristy area with the fortaleza and all the stuff right there around the, you know, down old town, you know, Old San Juan, and then do the cruise and then afterwards spend it with family and during that time, memorializer. So we're all packing up and we're getting everything in the car. We're going to drive to the airport. So we are about an hour from Love Field here in the Dallas area where Southwest flies out. So we're driving to the airport and, you know, know we've done all of our due diligence. Hey, everybody have anything? Does everybody have their medicine? Everybody have what they need. But in fairness, we were running a little bit late and doing the. Not quite doing the McAllister shuffle out the front door, but it. It was something in that, you know, in that. To that end. And we get everything in the. The truck and we're driving and we get about a third of the. And we're pushing it to get to the airport on time at this point, but we're going to make it. You know, the way it says, we're fine, we're good, we got it going on, we're gonna be all right. And for anybody who's ever flown out of Love, if you time it well and you don't cut your. Cut yourself too short, it's. It's almost like a private airport, especially because we have free. I'm sorry. We have a clear plus TSA pre.
So basically, we have our own private security line out Love Field. There's like, our family and, like, three other people, but you got to get there, right? So we're looking at it. We're like, oh, man, this is going to be tight even with that, but we're going to be okay. And we're kind of coming down off the rush and getting out the door, and my 17 year old in the back says, hey, I think I left my medication at home. And you're like, oh, God, here we go. So now we're like calling the pharmacy, calling the insurance company. We're gonna call it into a. Like, okay, what, you know, what pharmacies do they have? CVS or Walgreens? Do they have, like. So we're just trying to figure out what, like, what's there, what's near our. Our Airbnb that we had booked.
We're working through that. We're kind of going through there, and as we're calling them and trying to, you know, get the prescription called in and everything, and she's working out like, okay, we're. It's going to be all right. And then my wife says, I. I think I left my meds at home, too.
And we're like, okay, this is not. It's like, all right. So now, same thing. We're go. It's okay. This is fine. This is fine. This is fine.
[00:35:36] Speaker B: We're fine, right? It's still. This is the thing about it, Puerto Rico, it's still the United States.
So you're not. Your doctors are not sending medications out of country, which a lot of police or something. Right, Exactly. Either won't do. So. Yeah.
[00:35:49] Speaker A: Right. So we're good. We're like, okay, we'll be all right. So we're driving, and I think. I don't remember exactly, Sam, but I think I was holding with either the hotel or. I'm sorry, the. Like, the holding with a tr. With. I was talking to somebody. It might have been the insurance company.
And my wife, who's sitting next to me, looks at me and goes, honey, where's your mom? I was like, what?
She goes, where. Where's your mom's ashes?
Oh, you've got to be kidding me, right?
[00:36:21] Speaker B: This is like the comedy of errors.
[00:36:24] Speaker A: Listen, I. We have. I said, this is a National Lampoons movie is what this is. I'm not. I'm not Clark Griswold. Right?
So then I'm calling now, and I'm hanging up with the pharmacy right now. I'm calling Southwest. And now we're all the way to the point, Sam. We're, like, at the exit for the airport. Like, we're literally getting off the ramp, and we're talking to her, and I kind of explained to her. I said, so I left my mom's ashes at the house or something, you know, a weird, like. And she's like, oh, my God. Are you serious? Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. So to Southwest's undying credit, she's like, look, this is, like, again, the number might not be exact, but I think it's like, 13 or $1,500 to change the flights or something like that. She's like, under the circumstances, we have the seats. We'll just move you to the later flight.
And it was a major, like, you know.
[00:37:15] Speaker B: Yeah. Because now you can go back home. You get the ashes, you get the meds. You don't have to worry about all the pharmacy stuff on the other end of things. Oh, my goodness, Virgil. Wow.
[00:37:25] Speaker A: Such a blessing. And I really appreciated her. Her name was Andrea. She's amazing. Andrea, we love you.
[00:37:32] Speaker C: Listen.
[00:37:33] Speaker B: A lot of people listen. Why wouldn't she?
[00:37:37] Speaker A: So we. We turned around and came home and got the stuff, and then we're driving back. And then while we're doing all that again now, it starts getting just absurd. But we get a message from the Airbnb that we had booked that says, hey, so a water main burst in Old San Juan, and we have no. No one in Old San Juan has water. And I'm like, what in the heck? So very long story short, we could be here all day, blah, blah. So they. They canceled that reservation. So now I'm on the Hilton honors app finding a hotel. We found an Embassy Suites with a. I think it's called like Embassy Suites resort casino or something because they had a casino in the lobby that was like 10 minutes from the cruise port. We booked it, but people, I would be. I'd be pounding the desk if Sam hadn't told me not to tap on the desk.
Do not fly in on embarkation day. Just don't do it. Because what ended up happening is we ended up landing after the southwest flights changed far later than our connection departed. So we missed the connection.
So we were going to overnight in the airport, but we ended up getting a room at the highest it there in mco, which they had a room, which was lucky because there was. There was no wish embarkation the following day. So we got lucky there and we ended up getting a room. We went up, we slept for like three and a half hours. DoorDash, some food, passed out, woke up, went back down the escalator right into security, and then got the flight to Puerto Rico the next day. If we had not allowed ourselves that lag time, at best, we would have arrived in San Juan just in time to go straight to the ship for embarkation, having essentially not slept with three kids.
[00:39:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:14] Speaker A: Which is not good for anybody.
[00:39:16] Speaker B: Not good for anybody.
[00:39:18] Speaker A: If at all possible people for the love, just give yourself extra time on the front end because we use that extra time. And we had that extra day in San Juan. We just, you know, we ran to, like, Walmart, grabbed a couple extra things we needed and like, went to Ross or something. We just kind of hung out and enjoyed the day. We did end up eating some insanely good Puerto Rican food. And of course, we had a few pina coladas and.
Because it would be rude. It would be rude not to.
[00:39:41] Speaker B: It would be rude. I mean, you have to have. Yeah, you have to try the local rum if you're in Puerto Rico. So that's really, really, really important.
[00:39:50] 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 My Path Unwinding Travel can help guide you so you don't miss a thing. Their team of professional travel advisors are caring, knowledgeable, and experienced. It's why we use them to book our own travel. My Path Unwinding Travel is an authorized Disney vacation Planner, which means they are to ready recognized by Disney for their expertise and service. They have sailed on all the Disney ships, including in concierge, visited the theme parks, adventured with Disney, relaxed at Aulani, and so much more. Whether it's a Disney cruise, a theme park, vacation, or adventures by Disney, or if you are looking to expand beyond the mouse, My Path Unwinding Travel 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 extra experts? Head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email DCLDUOYpathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. Thanks my Path Unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
[00:40:49] Speaker B: All right, well, I want to rewind because months before your cruise, you get, you got some random call.
[00:40:57] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:41:00] Speaker B: Tell the audience about this random call you receive. You happen to be in Washington at the time.
[00:41:04] Speaker A: Time we did, we were like, if we would have stood on a really tall building, we could have waved at you guys and like, hey, we were sitting on a dock on a lake in Redmond.
I was accompanying my wife on a business trip because we, we lived there for 10 years and we still have lots of family and friends there. So we were, you know, I say family, there are friend family, but we were visiting and we're sitting there on the dock and on this lake and just kind of having this sweet moment and I get a phone call. I'm like, I'm not going to answer that right now. It'd be weird to answer the call, right?
A few minutes later, I look down, you can see the voicemail transcribing and it's like, hi, this is Stephanie from Shoreside Concierge Services of Disney Cruise Line. And we're calling to offer you a complimentary upgrade at no cost to you to concierge if you'd be interested in this. So if you are, please give us a call back. No rush, but if we don't hear from you, we will call other people. Just want to let you know, you know, just give us a call back if you're interested.
I was like, hey, I'm going to make a phone call real quick.
To be candid, I thought it was, I thought it was a scam. I. I was like, there's no way this is real. This kind of thing doesn't happen.
But it was real. It did happen. And so we went from a Category 4 Alpha Deluxe Ocean View. A deluxe family ocean view stateroom with veranda to a concierge. Deluxe family ocean view state room with the veranda. Funny enough, you know, they didn't, they moved us, they put us in the room. They, they didn't say, so what room do you want? They said this is the room. It was three doors down from the room we had booked.
[00:42:34] Speaker B: Oh yeah, yeah. Because on literally on deck eight there are regular non concierge rooms interspersed with the concierge rooms on the, on the Wonder and the Magic. Not on the, on the other ships they are more isolated. Yes. Or I mean there, there are on the Wish class ships there's a spot on deck 10 where there's some concierge or. No, sorry, not deck 10. Deck 11 where there's some concierge rooms. And then next to them are non. But the other decks, 12 and 13. It's. They're only the sort of concierge rooms in those hallways. So. But yeah, Wonder and Magic have. On deck eight because in fact they have converted some of the regular rooms and basically what you get with concierge in your circumstances, you got the same room type. It's the same, I mean I know it has a different category but it's the exact same size room as the same room with, with upgraded fixtures and upgraded, you know, linen. So like you have some like wood looking cabinetry, you have some like nicer linens and then you of course have the Elemis products instead of the regular Disney now Disney cruise line.
Yeah, the H2O former H2O products.
So yeah. And but you, but the real thing you get is the concierge perks which is the access to the lounge, the seating in the theater, things like that. So you know, free popcorn. So there's, there are some, some perks you get with concierge that you of course don't get when you're in the regular stateroom category. Now you did mention, and I wanted, when we were talking pre show, one of the things that you do have to think about though is even though you're not paying for a concierge, when Disney offers you an upgrade, you are going to pay a higher amount in your gratuities because the team for concierge is bigger. Right. You've got more people that are going to be your sort of, I'll call them servers, bartenders, whatnot, because you have all the folks in the lounge in addition to like your stateroom attendant and your servers at dinner. And so it will increase your gratuities so it is something. Something to make note of. I. I would say unless you absolutely can't afford that difference in gratuities, I can't imagine turning down an offer to go to concierge. And it is. It's going to be, you know, probably still, you know, it could be in the hundreds of dollars, particularly when you have, like a family of five, because each day and each person, of course, there's gratuities attached to that person, but. Yeah, well, well worth it.
[00:45:08] Speaker A: Oh, my God. It really was.
[00:45:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Just fantastic. Now we. We got to talk a little bit about the cruise because this was your first time on the Magic. What did you think about Disney's original ship? Did you like it as much as the wonder, the fantasy, and the wish ships you've been on?
[00:45:25] Speaker A: It's. You know, I know you. You and Brian have Nathan, so this is a little bit of a strange analogy for. For your. For your context, but we have five kids, and if someone said, who's your favorite?
That's a very, very touchy question, because you could definitely answer it. But it's going to offend a bunch of people. Right? But honestly, it. You know, there's. There's a different. Each of your kids has such unique personality that if I. The grocery store, real quick, I have the one that I would prefer to take with me. If I'm going on a weekend vacation, I have the one I prefer to take with me. You know, it's in different contexts.
[00:46:03] Speaker B: Right.
[00:46:04] Speaker A: The magic. I don't think. I don't think there was anything about the magic that was my favorite, except for the concierge experience, because that's the only concierge experience we've had. The MDRs, the gift shop, the spa, the embarkation experience, the debark. None of that with the atrium. None of that was my favorite favorite.
But, you know, when you look at the. The sum total of all the parts as a whole, collectively, it was a fantastic experience that I would put absolutely on par with all the other cruise experiences that we've had. It was. I wouldn't rank it number one at anything, but I probably wouldn't rank it last in anything either. It's just. It was in great shape. The fact that it's almost 30 years old. Like what? You know, like, they're unbelievably well maintained.
And it was just a fantastic overall cruise experience.
[00:46:54] Speaker B: I have to say, I really love the show offerings on the Disney Magic. I love Tangled. I think it's a fabulous. I mean, I love the movie. But I think the stage show is just a fabulous production. I love Twice Charmed on that ship as well.
So like there's. It has some really great entertainment. And then of course, you know, you gotta love Rapunzel's royal table. That's a fantastic main dining room. And then you also get animation magic if you're on, you know, a longer cruise in Animator's palette. There's so much to offer. I think on, as you mentioned on any of the ships, there's a lot to offer. But there are some things I have to like, agree with exactly what you said. I'm not sure, like it takes the number one spot in any individual category, but the sum total of its parts definitely make it a fantastic ship and a fantastic, you know, vacation to be on, despite her age.
[00:47:51] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it was, it was. It was fantastic.
[00:47:54] Speaker B: We know it did fall down in. In one area in Animator's palette in particular that you mentioned to me in the show notes that I. I be remiss if I didn't mention this for our favorite villain. Everyone's favorite villain.
[00:48:08] Speaker A: I'm gonna. You know what? I'm gonna beat on him twice just since. Since you're bringing him up, I'm gonna hit him in the face twice.
Once is the pasta presets are fantastic. And anybody who says otherwise, just stop it. Those things are wonderful. I don't like truffles at all, but those things are fantastic. But on this sailing the pasta, I took one bite and didn't eat the.
They came out cold. The pasta was really thick and chewy, like gummy. It was just. They were really, really bad. And the funny thing is, when I ate, I was like, I cannot wait to tell Sam and Brian. These are horrible. They need to make a phone call and get this fixed immediately.
[00:48:48] Speaker B: Virgil, I already called dcl.
[00:48:50] Speaker A: Okay. Absolutely.
[00:48:52] Speaker B: I've already been, you know, I. I talked to Mr. Shot. He's the, you know, he's the new head of for experiences and Tommy, as
[00:49:01] Speaker A: we like to call it.
[00:49:02] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly, Tommy. Tommy and I chatted and he's assured me that he's gonna get in the kitchen and make sure that those things are cooked correctly and hot served hot. Because that's really important's going to roll. Someone's head's gonna out. Yeah, somebody works in the kitchen on the Disney magic is out.
[00:49:21] Speaker A: Send them, just send them to the fantasy where they belong.
I don't know what that means.
[00:49:25] Speaker B: Or send them. Send them to the wish class where they don't have truffle. Presets so you can't screw them up.
Just gonna send him someplace else.
[00:49:34] Speaker A: The other thing that I want to ruthlessly eviscerate DCL villain Josh with is there is nothing better than the onboard greeting. I don't. How can you not just.
[00:49:47] Speaker B: I know that.
[00:49:48] Speaker A: Tell me you're miserable without telling me you're miserable.
[00:49:51] Speaker B: Right.
But.
[00:49:54] Speaker A: But I will say, to his credit,
[00:49:56] Speaker B: he's a man of God. Okay. You gotta be nice to him.
[00:50:01] Speaker A: Okay, fine.
But in his defense on this. And we'll probably touch it here in a little bit, I would imagine, but the embarkation experience on this was deck one forward.
So the way this went, it's because
[00:50:16] Speaker B: of the water levels and stuff in San Juan. Yeah.
[00:50:19] Speaker A: But the ramp was super steep. And I remember thinking, I'm glad we're not doing this in a. In a non motorized wheelchair, because that would be. Or even with a heavy stroller, like that would have been. So then you get up there and they're like, okay, can I have your family name? And my 7 year old was really interested in giving the name, so she gave the name and they're like, all right.
[00:50:36] Speaker B: Right.
[00:50:37] Speaker A: Disney magic, please welcome aboard. And they announce us and we walk in and they're like, yay. And all the cast members are within, like 3ft of each other, shoulder to shoulder. And you take four steps and then you're at the elevator bank. And it was so awkward. It was just so awkward.
[00:50:55] Speaker B: And then they're like, everybody's crowded. Because you're waiting for the elevators. Because you can't.
[00:50:59] Speaker A: Right?
[00:50:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Because you can't walk. Like, definitely.
There's no way to walk. Yeah, you can't walk to like, just
[00:51:05] Speaker A: take everybody into the health. Go. Everybody go into the health center and get some grand on the. Or something.
[00:51:09] Speaker B: Take the stairs up to deck three and then walk. Or you have to. For the elevator. Yeah. That. It's not a. That's not as magical of an embarcation experience.
Well, you. You also had something else I thought that was interesting to mention on this show, which is Hurricane Melissa was happening not too far away from where you all were. Right. I mean, she had hit Jamaica at that point.
[00:51:36] Speaker A: So the week that we're getting. So, like Monday, Tuesday, that we're flying out Wednesday night, or as it turned out Thursday morning, that the week that we're leaving, we're watching the news and we're like, I don't know, like, my wife literally had me like, googling, is it too late to buy cruise insurance? Because, like, we're looking at it going, there is no shot that this hurricane doesn't on some level mess up this cruise because they're talking about how it's going to like go south of Puerto Rico, which thank God because there's nothing that my family needs less than another hurricane like that, but didn't just sit right there in the middle of, of the southern Caribbean and just hang out. Exactly. Like if you look at the map projected trap, it was all of our port stops in a triangle around where Melissa was. And we're like, okay, great. So but eventually it did move, you know, slowly, it meandered slowly west. So really the only like appreciable disruption to, to our particular experience was the sail away party was in the atrium.
But it really, it gave us an opportunity to kind of talk with our kids a little bit about like the real life scenario that was going on around us because our assistant server was from Jamaica.
So night one is when it was making landfall. So day, you know, the morning, like the afternoon we saw on day two were like, hey, she's like, I, I haven't heard from my family, you know, like, and she, and she was, you know, again, if we wouldn't have asked her, you never would have known. She was fantastic. Very professional, very smiley, happy interacting with our kids. But we, we knew because you heard song name tag, right? And we're like, like you, what kind of human being knows that you're, you know, on a cruise with your servers from Jamaica and Jamaica is getting crushed and you're not gonna be like, hey, is everything okay?
And then on, I think, I think it was, it was one of our port stops. And maybe Aruba or not Aruba, maybe Bonaire. We saw her off the ship and said, hey, you know, we don't want to keep bugging you about it, but like, are you. And she's like, no, everybody's good, you know, but we heard from my grandma that was the last one we hadn't heard from. And everybody's fine. But like, it really just, it's a good reminder that like these people that are there to make your experience magical, who do such a great job doing so, they are real people with real lives. Lives. And whether or not your pasta for sets are edible could really kind of not possibly matter less in the grand scheme of things, right? Like this is a, a plate of pasta. This is a person who hasn't heard from her mother and grandmother, right? And so, you know, we, especially my, my 11 year old, you know, he, he asked like, why, you know, what are you talking to her about her family? Like, do you know her? I was like, no, we just. The hurricane. We saw that she's from Jamaica, and it just. It was a good opportunity to get to touch base with our kids and kind of say, hey, there's other stuff happening, and you know it. But. But she. Like I said, she, if. If we wouldn't have asked her, it wouldn't have even come up. She was unbelievable.
[00:54:26] Speaker B: Yeah. I have to say, like, I think it's wonderful when you can teach your kids that lesson of empathy and of caring and asking about others. And, like, especially when it's. I don't know what the right word to use is, but people who are kind of serving you, I hate to say, you know, like, could. Because as you said, I mean, these are people who. They have a job on the ship. They're making their wages that way and probably sending money home to their families, as many of the crew members do. And, like, I think it's always wonderful when you can actually get to know those people and create a relationship. And I. Listen, I know it's somewhat transactional relationship. I'm not delusional to say, like, this person is going to be my best friend, you know, know, for the rest of my life now. No, I know, like, this person is my server. I might. I may never see them again after this cruise. Maybe I will, and maybe I'll see them on future cruises. But, like, I think it's really important to teach your kids, like, hey, this is a human being. This is someone who we should, like, show our care for and ask them about their lives and who they are, whether or not there's a hurricane going on or, you know, I think it's a great opportunity when not. Hopefully there won't be a hurricane, but it's a good opportunity to have something to ask them about and to really demonstrate your care and understanding for that person. But I also just think it's, like, wonderful when you make a connection and are able to learn something about a different culture, a different place. And when you show that to your children and you're modeling that for them, I think it's so, so powerful because you will then see them doing it. And I just. I think that the cruise gives a great opportunity for that because our kids in the United States are often quite sheltered and don't necessarily. Yeah. And don't necessarily have those opportunities to meet people who are very different from them, who come from a very different background than them. And so for them to be able to Interact with that person also is just. Yeah, it's just really wonderful. So I commend you for, for doing that and for modeling that for your kids. I think, I think it's really impactful. And I do think.
I honestly do think that the cast, the crew, they appreciate that as well, because they see that you're acknowledging them as a person, as a human being, and is more than somebody who is just there to serve them.
[00:56:49] Speaker A: Now, Virgil, if you're going on the magic. Lacy. Her name is Lacy.
She's out of this world. Great.
If anybody's wanting the magic, soon ask to be sat at one of her tables. Nata was our. Was our server. He was great too. But Lacy, our assistant, you know, it's weird. It's basically every cruise we've been on with our kids, the assistant server really makes the magic. The servers are great, but every single. Like the, the fantasy, the wonder, the wish, and now the magic, it's that assistant server that really spends the time joking with the kids and interacting with them and playing with them. And, you know, I, I know that our. If you asked our kids about the server, they, they think that Ms. Lacey was their server. They don't understand that. Mr. You know what I mean? Like, that's not, it's not their. She was the one that was.
[00:57:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:57:37] Speaker A: And she was incredible. So we can't recommend her enough. She was great.
[00:57:40] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. That's so funny because I, I think it. It depends on the team, but we often.
We've just. I guess the last few times, we've had a lot of very new assistant servers and the newer assistant servers, some of them may be wonderful, but I, you know, when they're still learning, they often time don't chit chat as much because they're like out of the weeds. And we've had. We've been lucky where we've had some experienced servers where the. But the server makes that personal connection because they are. Even though they're juggling a million plates and a million things, they're just so good at it that they can do that and still socialize a little bit with you. But it is, you know, it's just, I think sometimes just unique to whoever that person is. Right. If that person is just a warm person who loves making those personal connections, it doesn't matter. It could be somebody at guest services. It could be, you know, a performer. But there's. There's always. I find on every cruise there's always at least a few. Right. I might, I might not I might not make a connection with every cast member that I come into contact with, but you can bet that there's at least a couple that we make a connection with. It's just. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I. I would.
Oh, go ahead.
[00:58:51] Speaker A: I was just gonna say 12 years ago tomorrow was our embarkation day on our first cruise. Cruise. And I can still tell you our assistant server's name was Val and she was framed St. Lucia. And she's the best cruise cast member we've ever had. So if. If 12 years later we still remember the name of our assistant server from the fantasy all those years ago, like, that's. And it's not because she was great to me or my wife, which she was, but she was great to my children, which to me. That is. That's the important piece.
[00:59:19] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Our. I don't remember our first servers, I'll be honest, on the fantasy, but I sure remember our second servers on the fantasy.
That was Pete and Alex. Pete from Jamaica and Alex from France. And Alex is now a server himself. He was an assistant server back then. Yeah. But, yeah, there's people who just. You'll always remember, they impacted your cruise so, so, so much. Virgil, I would be remiss if I didn't at least ask you what your favorite port of call was. And I. And we have to exclude San Juan, Puerto Rico, because obviously that's. That was your embarcation. Debarcation port. And of course you have family there and you had a celebration for your mom's life. I love that. So. And you had all the. The foods that you probably grew up eating and love. So there. There's nothing that's going to beat San Juan. But what. What of the other ports that you went to? What was your favorite and what did you do there?
[01:00:13] Speaker A: Oh, man. So I, I'll work backwards, I guess. Aruba was great, but honestly, Aruba was my least favorite.
It's just. It was a nice. You know, I grew up in Florida, so I, I've been to nice beaches. Aruba felt like a really nice beach and it just wasn't. Yeah, it was. It was okay.
And, And Bonaire was. Was great because my 7 year old is obsessed with flamingos. So, you know, know, flamingos getting to get her, getting to see actual, like flamingos in the wild was great.
And I guess I. I'd split it up 50. 50 between Antigua and St. Kitts. Antigua, because my wife and I went and made rum. We.
[01:00:59] Speaker B: We.
[01:00:59] Speaker A: We are now prestigious graduates of Rum University. Or what did I write that yeah. Rum University. The Academy of Rumors.
[01:01:07] Speaker B: Rum.
You are now sellers, right?
[01:01:11] Speaker A: We are. We are professional rum makers. So that was amazing. And the beach that it was at is not real. It literally looked like a Pirates of the Caribbean filming location. It was the prettiest beach I've ever seen in my life. Including, you know, Maui, Big Island. Like, it was unbelievably beautiful. And we were sad that we didn't get to hang out at that beach because after the excursion, we had to go back to the ship. But that beach next, if we ever go back to Antigua, we're just going to stay at that beach.
[01:01:38] Speaker B: Beach.
[01:01:39] Speaker A: And then St. Kitts was great because we, we did a beach day out at Frigate Bay. We did not book that through South Frigate Bay. Excuse me. We didn't book that through Disney Cruise Line. We just booked it at the port.
But really, you know, you get off the port, you go into a little area there, or you have to ship in the port and go a little area there. And there are the guys with the damn monkeys. And we're like, okay, we're not doing the monkeys. We're not doing the monkey photos. But we walked around the whole time and our kids kept saying, I want to go see the monkeys, I want to go see them. I was like, okay, fine.
Honestly, I think if you ask the 17, 11 and 7 year old individually, give me your top three experiences on that cruise. All three of them would have the monkey photo in the top three.
It was just the cutest little photos of the monkey eating the cucumber sitting on their shoulder. And they loved it. So the fact that they loved it.
[01:02:26] Speaker B: 20 bucks a piece worth it. Something like that.
[01:02:30] Speaker A: Yeah, it was well worth the money. It was great.
[01:02:33] Speaker B: All right.
Okay, well, Virgil, we have reached that point in the show where I'm going to ask you some arbitrary questions, impose some arbitrary rules, and impose a dash of judgment, or the round that we like to call Rapid Fire. So I'm going to ask you some Disney favorites and some Disney Cruise Line favorites. For Cruise Line, of course, you can only answer with ships that you've been on. So sorry, you can't answer the destiny, even if that was the right answer to the question.
But we're gonna. Yeah, but we're gonna start with who is your favorite Disney character? And of course, the rule with Rapid Fire is there really are no rules. Disney means everything Disney owns. So. Or the only rules that matter are the ones I arbitrarily decide to impose at any given moment. So. Yeah. Who's your Favorite Disney character.
[01:03:20] Speaker A: Oh, man.
I.
It's gonna be. Depending on the day. It's either Tigger or Jack Sparrow, depending on my mood. Mood.
[01:03:28] Speaker B: Okay. I like it. All right. What's your favorite Disney movie?
[01:03:33] Speaker A: I think overall, for the sum total of all of its parts would probably have to be Aladdin, I think.
[01:03:42] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, that's a good one. All right, now, it was super important.
Favorite Disney song.
[01:03:50] Speaker A: I don't know if it's my favorite. The one that I find myself singing in my head and. And quoting to my children in a sarcastic way is you're welcome. So we'll go with that one.
[01:04:00] Speaker B: I love. That has nothing to do with Lin
[01:04:02] Speaker A: Manuel Miranda, of course. It's just. It's all.
[01:04:05] Speaker B: You know, I think it's a great song. Brian actually sing. We kind of just sing. You're welcome to each other all the time as well.
I did think you might cite your song, which is what is Only fools fly in on Embarkation day.
[01:04:19] Speaker A: Only fools fly in on Embarkation Day. Yeah, that's patent pending. Trademark.
[01:04:23] Speaker B: You know, you're copywriting that one. It's a song, so we're. You're going to copy that one. Okay, Virgil? I love it.
Okay, we're going to shift over Disney. Disney Cruise Line, Walt Disney Theater. Tell me, what is your favorite Disney stage show? And of course, it has to be one you've seen, so you can't choose the right answer, which is typically Beauty and the Beast, but. Yeah, what's. What's. Or Moana or. Or of course, Hercules. But, you know, it's okay. You can't top the best ones. But give me your favorite.
[01:04:53] Speaker A: Well, thanks for rubbing those in, Sam. Appreciate that, man. Probably Aladdin. Actually, we had a couple technical difficulties during our attempt to see it. They had to stop the show twice. But just the way that they utilize the entirety of the theater was really impressive to me, which makes me even more excited to see, you know, Moana and.
[01:05:15] Speaker B: Yeah, the projection mapping.
[01:05:16] Speaker A: Future sailings.
[01:05:17] Speaker B: Yeah, the projection mapping that they've added in, like it's next level on the wish class, but they've even. They've added it in on the old ships as well.
It just doesn't work quite as well because it wasn't designed in that way. The theaters weren't designed necessarily for the projection mapping, but they do a really nice job with it. Absolutely. Okay, well, we're going to shift gears over to food, which is, of course, one of the most important parts of a Disney cruise with. Which is your favorite main dining. Rotational Restaurant.
[01:05:49] Speaker A: Certainly not Worlds of Marvel, probably.
You know what? I think it's animator's palette.
I think that it's just the nostalgia, plus the fact that it's on the dream class and the magic class.
Yeah, I think it's probably animators palette.
[01:06:08] Speaker B: Overall, I love animators palette.
It's probably my favorite, to be perfectly honest. As well, as much as I love some of the theming in Tiana's and Rapunzel's, and I still. I mean, I love the, you know, pride lands, I love Coco, but I still. I probably would pick animators now too. And I don't think I've been asked that question in a long time. But I'm. I'm gonna. I'm gonna agree with you there, Virgil. I. I think animators, it's just. It's just so good. Okay, now, staying in the category of food, I have to ask you a favorite savory and a favorite sweet item. We start with the sweets because I save the savories. The best for last.
So a favorite sweet item on a Disney cruise.
[01:06:49] Speaker A: Miki. Churro waffles. That one's easy.
[01:06:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I love it.
[01:06:52] Speaker A: All right, that one's not even a thought. Mickey.
[01:06:54] Speaker B: Churro waffles.
[01:06:55] Speaker A: Those are fantastic.
[01:06:56] Speaker B: Okay, switching over to the savories. Is it truffle presets or does something else beat the truffle sets? That's not a. Listen, I'm not saying you have to answer truffle presets, because I actually think the chicken parm and Paulo is better than the truffle presets. But, like, I'm curious as your thoughts, Virgil.
[01:07:12] Speaker A: So this is a really, really weird, random niche one, but our amuse. The amuse bouche. The first time we went to Remy on the fantasy. Okay, so we got these little croutons. I still don't know, like, what in the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Violet getting turned into a blueberry voodoo magic. It was, but it was this little breadcrumb square that was a perfect fried breadcrumb. But when you bite into it, it explodes tomatoes. So soup.
That's top five things I've ever had in my life. That was Virgil.
[01:07:45] Speaker B: They don't make it anymore.
[01:07:47] Speaker A: I know.
[01:07:48] Speaker B: And it's wrong. It's wrong.
I swear. It must have been a Bob Chapek thing. It.
[01:07:53] Speaker A: Call Tommy back.
[01:07:54] Speaker B: I'm gonna call Tommy back.
[01:07:56] Speaker A: I'm gonna call him, tell him I. I have this. I have. If I could somehow monetize the amount of time I've spent on the Internet searching for how to make those at home, and found literally not nothing. I'd be a rich man. But I, I, I can't. There's. There's no nothing.
[01:08:13] Speaker B: It's so good. And it's like, as you said, it's like voodoo magic. I don't know. And it's like the, you know, the tomato soup in Palo brunch. It's that, it's, it's that tomato soup, I think, but it's in this, like, just delicious little shell, as you said. I, I.
[01:08:29] Speaker A: Anyway, your brain can't figure out how to process the fact that you're essentially eating a crouton.
[01:08:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:08:35] Speaker A: That's full of, like, super delicious, very hot soup.
That should have made the breadcrumbs or the, the, the, the croutons.
[01:08:44] Speaker B: Soggart. Yeah, no, it's, it's. Yeah, okay. It's. Yeah. Voodoo magic. I, I, I.
[01:08:52] Speaker A: Please. Thank you.
[01:08:52] Speaker B: Yes, Virgil, I, that is the perfect answer. I, I, you already have won, like, forever. You, you have already won rapid fire.
[01:09:02] Speaker A: Take that, Josh.
[01:09:03] Speaker B: Take that, Josh. Okay, now, I still couple more questions, though, because we, we have a couple of questions we haven't hit, which is a favorite activity on a Disney cruise line ship.
[01:09:15] Speaker A: This is such a cheesy, like, dad coded answer. But honestly, my favorite activity is watching my kids have their minds blown. You know, like, whatever we're talking about, whether it's random princess interaction or the unlimited ice cream, you know, oh, my God, that was Belle and her, you know, her village peasant outfit, holding a book, walking through the corridor. Just bells on my vacation. Like, the stuff that, first of all, does not happen in the parks at all. And secondly is the kind of thing that it's like, it's so immersive and so incredibly like, you know, your kids walk away thinking that that was for me. And, you know, every kid thinks that, but those are the moments I think that are the most most memorable for me.
[01:10:03] Speaker B: Yeah, I love that. Okay, only two questions left. Virgil, we're nearing the end here.
This is the most controversial of the questions, which is which one is your favorite ship? You, of course, can choose magic, wonder, fantasy, or wish.
[01:10:21] Speaker A: I'm gonna cheat. Even though every time one of your guests does this, I roll my eyes. Now that it's me in the seat, I'm gonna do it.
[01:10:27] Speaker B: It.
[01:10:28] Speaker A: If it's me. If it's me and my wife, I'll take a wish class ship. If it's my family, I'll take a dream class ship.
I, I think that we really, really Enjoyed. You know, things that like hooks Barbary, all the different opportunities to get a coffee or a cocktail.
Like someone finally woke up and realized people like coffee.
When they designed the Wish class ships, it's like, thank you for putting somewhere other than Cove. I'd prefer they didn't hide the COVID Cafe as a real result.
[01:10:57] Speaker B: Yes, agreed.
[01:10:58] Speaker A: But I'll take that. Right?
[01:11:00] Speaker B: Yeah, but you have like four different places you can get coffee. It's okay. Yeah.
[01:11:04] Speaker A: But for kids, I cannot wait to take the two that are in the prime Disney age. The 7 and 11 year old on the Dream or the fantasy to do all those things. Like the, the better Edge and Vibe, the better Oceaneer Club Lab, you know, the midship detective. All the stuff that's in that prime age, that's. I'm looking forward to taking them and letting them do that stuff. Because my now 24 and 21 year old old, you know, they, they did that when they were way back in that prime.
[01:11:31] Speaker B: God, you are like, you're like have these like two generations of kids like.
[01:11:37] Speaker A: And then my poor 17 year old in the middle. Yeah. She's been around for both, for both phases. Yes.
Right.
[01:11:44] Speaker B: That's.
[01:11:44] Speaker A: She's gonna hit gold on our next cruise. She'll hit gold and she's like, I just been around from the beginning.
[01:11:49] Speaker B: Awesome. I love that. I love that. All right, well the last question of course is your bucket list cruise. Virgil, if you could go anywhere in the world on a Disney Cruise Line ship, it doesn't even have to be someplace that Disney Cruise Line currently goes. Where would you go?
[01:12:05] Speaker A: I would like to take a Wish class ship on a repositioning anywhere, whether it's Panama Canal, eastbound transatlantic, westbound transatlantic, you know, Vancouver to Honolulu, Honolulu to Australia, whatever. Because I just want an obscene amount of sea days on a Wish class ship to feel like. Because I've been on the Wish twice for four days each and feel like there's so much that I haven't seen that I want to sit, you know, on a Wish class ship for 10, 14, 16 days and be able to just do all of the things.
[01:12:45] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to tell you for you, I would pick the Destiny. I think you'd really like the immersiveness of the entertainment experiences. I think you'd. Although you also are a Parks person, so maybe the treasure, I mean it's kind of toss up between the Destiny and the Treasure. I'd say for you. Because I think you'd like some of the immersive more immersiveness of the Destiny even more than on the treasure. But you probably would like the parks theming on the treasure, so. But you got cask and cannon. You love Jack Sparrow. Yeah, so. So, yeah, that's why. Again, toss up. Toss up between the two there.
I guess you'll just have to do both. Now, Virgil, as we're. We're at the end of the show and I. Ryan's not here, but I would be remiss if I didn't ask you the important question, which is what's next? Did you get that placeholder? Do you have something booked or what? Or what's on the horizon for Virgil plus five kids and wife.
[01:13:41] Speaker A: Did we get the placeholder?
[01:13:43] Speaker B: Come on.
[01:13:44] Speaker A: On, like, we're not new. Of course we got the placeholder.
[01:13:47] Speaker B: We're already singing that song. Of course we got the place. That's the. That is. That is the. It's. It's by the same, you know, same music and lyrics as. As Only Fools playing on embarcation today.
[01:13:59] Speaker A: Right, of course. Although I, I got to give a shout out to my wife. We were literally, you know, we're doing the express exit concierge where they take you down and whisk you right off. We were literally like four or five people behind. Find the little security where you. You tap off the ship for the last time. And she goes, oh, my God. We didn't buy the deposit. So we literally got out of line to stand right out there on deck one. Forward to get the deposit on the app before we lost the ship. Wi Fi. So.
So yeah, it's shout out to my. My amazing wife for getting that cruise deposit. So what's next is we are doing Europe this year. If we get a good military rate, we may do it on Disney. Otherwise, we'll do it on Royal Caribbean. Caribbean. And then after that, for our 25th anniversary cruise in February of next year, you know, January, February, ish. We're either going to do Treasure Destiny. We were totally sold on the Treasure until we started seeing the stuff come out of the Destiny. And now we're just kind of like. I think we're still leaning Treasure, but Destiny is right in there as well.
[01:14:57] Speaker B: So they're both. I. I don't think you can make a wrong decision between the two. Except if we do the Destiny, I would highly recommend the 5 night over the 4 night just because it's so much to do on that ship. Right. And especially if you're not going to do like you may if you're going to do a back to back. You can do a four night. But like if you're going to do just one cruise on the Destiny, it's yeah, I'd highly recommend a five night. And of course the Treasure is doing seven nights so that's perfect. So either, you can't go wrong with either decision. But Virgil, you'll have to keep us posted. We'd love to have you. Well, I'd love to have you come back on the show. And I make the rules, as everybody knows, on, you know, from this show.
But with that I'll just say thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for sharing your story with me and with our audience. I just really, really appreciate it.
[01:15:45] Speaker A: My pleasure. And thank you so much Sam. I, I really appreciate you guys or you and you know, Brian, I guess also the other guy. Thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate it. It was a lot of fun.
[01:16:02] Speaker C: 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 live, we have a live show now every week, Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want help support the show, be sure to hit those five stars on Apple Podcasts. And if you leave us a written review, a five star written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. Of course you can also help support the show by supporting our fabulous show sponsor, My Path Unwinding Travel. You want to book your next Disney vacation? Head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email them at DCLDUO mypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions, questions or you'd like to connect with us, the best way to do that is to head over to DCLDuo.com it's got links to all of our things. Full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast. Links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store where we sell some fun fan inspired magnets. Link to our Patreon. If you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month, just head over to the website or patreon.com DCLDUO also as a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here at least, and a few blog articles that we've written. So DCLDUO.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also, of course, email
[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 solely those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflective views the Disney Company or Disney Cruise Line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or Disney Vacation, please contact the great folks over at My Path Unwinding Travel or Disney directly or your own travel agent. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL Duo.
[01:18:10] Speaker B: Sam.
