[00:00:00] Speaker A: And Andrew's saying, Michael, for your benefit, you're never too old. I agree, I agree, I agree. If they actually serve tea sandwiches at these teas on board.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: Frankly, said too old. I said I didn't want to take a spot from a little kid.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: Welcome back everybody to this week's episode of the DCL Duo podcast brought to you by my Path Unwind Travel. I got totally in my head of my script. This week's live episode of the DCL Duo podcast brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel. And before we bring in our first guest, just want to send a big thank you to all the folks over at DCL Magazine for sponsoring these live shows and these bonus shows. If you can't tell, my background is the. What are they called?
[00:00:51] Speaker C: The Emotional Motion Balls.
[00:00:52] Speaker A: The Core Memory balls from Core Memories.
[00:00:54] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: Talking a little Pixar dance C. But I just want to send a big thank you to the D.C.
yes, the DCL magazine folks. If you have not already subscribed, head to dcl-magazine.com that's DCL D magazine.com use code DCLDUO all caps DCLDUO and you can take 10% off everything in the WDW magazine store including your subscription to the DCL magazine. And if you are curious about the DCL magazine, we had Stephanie, Stephanie and Danny on not too long ago, a couple episodes ago now I think it was talking about the all new forthcoming DCL magazine. But it is fabulous. Great photos. You got a calendar coming out. There's a way you can subscribe and get a bundle and so yeah, and another article from yours truly will be in the the first edition of the full blown DCL magazine all about our hike up Pulpit Rock. So head over there, subscribe today. Remember, showing love to our sponsors is showing love to the show.
And so head over support them today. We love everyone over there at the DCL magazine. And with that we're going to bring in another one of our fabulous show sponsors.
Welcome Karen, how are you?
[00:02:06] Speaker E: Hello.
[00:02:07] Speaker F: Good to see you guys. I feel like it's been a bit since I've been on with you.
[00:02:10] Speaker E: I know, I know. We had to have Chelsea on for our itinerary release show this time around. Actually she's been on. We realized that for the last three itinerary releases you just are traveling. Every time an itinerary DCL itinerary release comes out, you're traveling.
[00:02:26] Speaker F: It's. It seems to be the case this time it was some family travel so takes priority of course. But Chelsea always does such a great job and it's been a really great itinerary release.
A lot of excitement about these itineraries.
[00:02:44] Speaker E: Yeah, absolutely. Well, and listen, you are a travel advisor. You own a travel advising company. I feel like you should be traveling. So there, you know, nothing wrong with that.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: And does that mean as lawyers are supposed to be suing people all the time, is that.
[00:02:59] Speaker E: Well, no, we are supposed to be lawyering. That doesn't always mean suing people.
Lawyer. That's right. Well, and speaking of the itinerary release, one of the pieces of news that I wanted to hit today is that today all of the 2027, the summer 2027 itineraries are available for booking for all of the ships or at least all of the ships that we know of. Currently, we don't know When Wish Class 4 is coming out, but to the general public. So today, last week was all of the Castaway club members. So that was your, your, you know, your pearls, your platinums, your golds, your silvers. But today it opened to the general public.
And so if you are interested in booking something in that itinerary release or booking something in a previous itinerary release, of course, Karen and her team are ready and available to help you at My Path Unwinding Travel. And as we've mentioned before, you can reach them at our unique link, My Path Unwinding Travel or no MyPathUnwinding.com DCLDUO or DCLDUomypathunwinding.com and then I want to hit on some other pieces of news. And then we're going to get some advice from Karen about using a travel advisor when maybe things are going a little wrong or crazy in the world.
So but let's hit on this. There's two more pieces of news. So besides the itinerary release, of course we've got news that the adventure is ported in Tokyo. She is there.
She's just there for like a, I think a short stop or refuel. I don't know if she's just there for 24 hours or if it's any more than that, but I'm sure there's some executives probably from OLC who are going to get to tour her and whatnot. Like they some executives got from the US got to tour her when she was in port in la, but I believe it's a very short stop. And then she's going to be heading across, of course further across the Pacific to, to hit up her new port of call, Singapore. So that's pretty exciting news.
The other piece of news that dropped
[00:05:07] Speaker A: today and less exciting news, and less
[00:05:10] Speaker E: exciting news, there is a point chart out for the Disney Cruise Line DVC member cruise, the 2027 April cruise out of San Diego that Brian and I've been talking about on the show when
[00:05:24] Speaker A: Sam came home, the first one of, the first words out of her mouth is like Disney Cruise Line has lost his damn mind. That's what she's. I don't know if it's Disney Cruise Line. I think it's, I think it's Disney Vacation Club. So let's put the blame Club has
[00:05:34] Speaker E: lost their damn mind. Okay, so the, the, the points chart at the price every, it's, it's premium. It's like Christmas prices is basically what we. And I know it's Spring break.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: So Treasure pricing. It's Treasure pricing on the second oldest ship in the fleet. That's what.
[00:05:52] Speaker E: Yeah, so that's. So it was a little bit disappointing
[00:05:56] Speaker A: by the way, Nathan saying in the chat and related news, does anyone want a kidney so I can do the dvc.
[00:06:00] Speaker E: That's right, that's right, that's right. Well anyway, but the other thing though, that was kind of buried on the points sheet, I don't know if people read to the bottom of the points sheet, there's actually an exclusive DVC member ABD short Escape that they're offering. Now we can't do it because it's, it's right before the cruise. If there had been one scheduled right after the cruise, we could do it, but we just can't pull Nathan out for more of school because that doesn't fall over our spring break.
Only the second half of the cruise falls on our spring break. But it is, it's the same itinerary as the Short Escape that you can currently book for Southern California. It's the three night version. There's two versions that they have for ABD that are Southern California that you know, hit up some, some places in sort of LA and Hollywood and then they go into Disneyland for some portion of the trip and you get to see Walt's apartment and they do some, you know, some exclusive things.
There's a five night version, there's a three night version, both are available to book on ABD's website.
But the three night that they're doing the Short Escape, I believe it's only going to be bookable through, through Disney Vacation Club. So I'm guessing they haven't said anything, but I'm guessing that goes on sale the same time as the member cruise does. Meaning when you call in. So that, that's the, that's the news. Holly's asking, are we still planning on booking the member cruise? The answ.
Yes, we are still planning on booking the member cruise, but we are not sure what category of state room that we are booking.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: Likely not in the category of stateroom. I had hoped I'll just put it that way.
Yeah. And I just, I also want to say like I have not seen CT and tinfoil mouse ears pop up in our chat in a while. So I just, I want to send a little special shout out. Hey, ct, I hope you're doing well, man. We haven't seen you in a while. So great to see you on here.
Karen.
[00:07:55] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:07:55] Speaker A: You wanted to walk us through all the reasons why amidst blizzards and civil unrest down in Mexico, you know, and someone actually mentioned in the chat been sitting on hold for, I think it was Linda said, been sitting on hold for two. Was it an hour or an hour on hold trying to book for dc,
[00:08:14] Speaker E: use the travel agency.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: All problems that can be solved if you use a good travel agent.
[00:08:19] Speaker F: It has been a crazy 10 days or so for, you know, really the entire travel industry, especially, you know, those of us that focus a lot on Disney Cruise Line because we had, you know, our usual excitement for a Disney Cruise Line release and we, we're kind of a well oiled machine at my path unwinding travel.
You know, people kind of wonder like, how do you make sure that everybody gets what they want? And that's because we're not like lone wolves here. We're not like just individual agents that do our own thing under an umbrella of a host agency. We are constantly working together behind the scenes and dividing and conquering and you know, kind of like what are you seeing who can pitch in?
And so we had all that excitement, which is great. We had a fantastic, a fantastic release week. And you know that we helped a lot of folks who, you know, were getting frustrated with those call lines and figuring out the technology.
You know, sometimes it didn't open at the time that we thought it would and the phone lines were messed up. And you know, we help folks navigate that. But then the weather has happened and you know, we've had, it feels like there's been like snowstorm after snowstorm, especially in the northeast New England area. And you know, this one that, you know, started yesterday into today was just a doozy.
And so, you know, one of our important functions as travel advisors is to work with our clients, clients in problem solving on these things and Figuring out, okay, is this going to affect you, Is this going to affect your flight? Can we be proactive just in case?
How do we do that? How do we adjust your schedule? Because it's not snowing in Florida, so, you know, the ship is still going to sail.
So, you know, how, how do we navigate that?
So, you know, there's been a lot of energy, you know, just making sure that all of our clients that are, depart, you know, that have departed or needing to depart, taking care of all of that. That's part of what we look at proactively.
You know, we're not meteorologists, but, you know, we, we track our favorite ones and, and try to stay ahead of all that.
[00:10:47] Speaker E: And not to mention, you know, TSA pre check and things like that being, you know, potentially shut down. Right. Like, we, we have to be aware there's a lot to sort of keep track of. And so having your trusted advisor to give you advice on like, how early should I get to the airport, Should I maybe book a backup flight like that? I could. That's refundable.
[00:11:09] Speaker F: Exactly. That's exactly right. And you know, we've, we've done it for all kinds of clients. And then yesterday, you know, we, the, the news out of Mexico came, came out and you know, Mexico is a massive country and it is a country that I actually love and have so much admiration for. I've spent so much time in, especially the Riviera Maya area.
I'm what's lovingly referred to as a Mexpert.
And you know, this, this chaos in the Puerto Vallarta area just really, you know, understandably raised so much concern for anybody planning travel from next week to this summer and beyond. Like, should we, you know, should we go? You know, can we go? What are our options?
And you know, we can never make a safety decision for our clients. Right. That's such a personal decision. And we obviously can't guarantee anything in the world. But you know, a lot of what we spent yesterday, today, and I'm sure, you know, ahead this week doing is advising our clients on what are their options, what are the trusted sources of information? Because there is so much misinformation, you know, AI generated fake videos out there that are not reflecting the reality. So where are the trusted sources of information to really find out what's going on and then how does that impact your specific reservation? Do you have flexibility?
Are you in final payment? Are you in penalty? Will they waive penalties under the circumstances?
And hint, they are doing that for some resorts, like in Puerto Vallarta, but not in Cancun, because Cancun in that area is running business as usual.
So it's these kinds of things that we think through. And I'm glad to have the opportunity to kind of give it a shot. Give a shot. Shout out to our entire team at MyPath unwinding, because I can't tell you, like, how much care that they're putting into every one of their clients that are potentially impacted by all of the situation and really, like, doing the research and figuring it all out and being there so that nobody feels that they're going through this by themselves, because that's overwhelming too.
So I'm just happy to have the opportunity to talk about the importance of working with travel professionals.
Travel insurance.
I'll send you guys a link. Maybe you can put it in the show notes. Even if you're not working with us or with any travel advisor, you can still book travel insurance through us. We can guide you. We can point you in the right direction. We can give you some kind of tips about how to do it to make the most out of your policy.
And we're not travel insurance, you know, licensed insurance agents. We have to say that, but we can kind of point you in the right directions there. So anyway, thanks for having me on to talk about all that.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: Well, thanks, Karen.
[00:14:32] Speaker E: Yeah, thank you so much, Karen. One thing I just wanted to tell folks, like, even if you've already booked your cruise, Karen and her team will offer a free consultation to give you advice about your cruise and, you know, and maybe you'll decide to book with them the next time. So just something to think about that even if you've got something booked, if you want some professional advice from people in the know, you can always reach out to her team as well. Thank you so much, Karen, for coming on.
[00:14:58] Speaker F: Just along those lines. Along those lines real quick. If you've booked within the last 30 days without using a travel advisor, it can be transferred to us. So another reason just to reach out, we can talk through your options. So thank you for having me.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: Thanks so much, Karen. Always good to see you.
[00:15:15] Speaker E: Always appreciate you.
[00:15:15] Speaker F: Have a great show.
[00:15:17] Speaker A: See you.
[00:15:17] Speaker E: Thank you. Bye.
All right, we're gonna bring on Tracy and Michael, the DCL duo, senior also known as Adrift. Together they are at. They are down in Florida right now.
They are snow.
That's right. They're snowboarding down in Florida this year for a little bit. And they just got back from a Disney cruise on the Fantasy a Pixar Day at Sea cruise. You guys, Brian, you want to bring up the PowerPoint and let's get started and. Yeah, and why don't you guys tell us why. Why'd you book this Pixar day at Sea cruise? First, let's start there.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: Because we were in Florida, it cut the budget quite a bit not to have to travel down.
[00:16:08] Speaker D: Well, it really was that, like, we were looking at our schedule and I saw that there was this five night on the Fantasy and it was a Pixar day at sea.
And I was like, we're already in Florida. We can just drive to Port Canaveral and hop on the boat. Like, let's go. And so it worked out that we could do that.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: There's several through the season. This one fell over a weekend that I referee volleyball, so I was working weekends, but I took that one off so we could do the cruise.
And as far as the, the theming, our kids kind of grew up with, with Pixar movies, with the original Toy Stories and then cars and everything that's come along.
So it's, it's definitely something we're, we're very familiar with and enjoy.
[00:16:58] Speaker E: So, yeah, you got your Pixar shirts. What. What's on your shirt?
[00:17:03] Speaker D: So this was the actual shirt. Let's see if I can stand up and not fall over. This was the shirt that they sold at the gift shop.
[00:17:10] Speaker E: Oh, I see now.
[00:17:12] Speaker D: Have a ton of merch. I will say I was a little disappointed in the amount of Pixar merch that they didn't have on the cruise ship. But they did have a shirt, a water bottle, an ornament, a pin maybe, but there wasn't. I expected there to be like more, and this was really the only option. So it's like this new one was
[00:17:35] Speaker B: lined up at the gift shop for. To get eevee anyway.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, it sounds like the standard compliments of Disney Cruise line merchandise. The plussed up compliments usually includes a spirit jersey, I feel like, so.
[00:17:47] Speaker B: Yeah, well, we had spirit jerseys.
[00:17:51] Speaker E: Right?
[00:17:52] Speaker B: You had Jesse, so.
[00:17:53] Speaker E: Right. You had your Woody and Jesse, but they didn't have a Pixar Day at Sea Spirit jersey.
[00:17:58] Speaker F: No.
[00:17:58] Speaker B: No.
[00:17:59] Speaker E: Okay, well. And I'm wearing my Pouches Posse shirt that actually Tracy had made for, for me and Brian and some friends as well. Because we are Pouchy's posse. That's what we like to call ourselves. Our sort of our little cruise group.
We all saw inside out too, on the ship together. So we love.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: Apparently we all carry dynamite everywhere, I guess, solution to every problem. Stick a Dynamite.
[00:18:27] Speaker E: That's right. Okay, so this cruise is always one option. That's right. There's always one option. So this was a five night sailing on the Disney Fantasy. We got some, some cruise stats. Tell us what we're looking at.
[00:18:40] Speaker D: Well, basically about a week before we took a look to see because we've never sailed concierge and there were 16 concierge rooms available a week before we got on the ship. So we were pumped up. We were going to get there early because we were driving. We were going to check it out when we, we were one of the first people in the terminal. By the time we got up to the counter, they only had four rooms left in concierge. And, and it was $2,800 to upgrade to that room. Needless to say, we are still not ever sailed concierge, but that was about
[00:19:15] Speaker B: twice what we wanted to pay. Yeah, thank you, but no thanks.
[00:19:19] Speaker D: Yeah, thanks but no thanks. And they were delightful about it. So this was the third Pixar cruise of the season. The first two, the crew kind of told us the first two were like pretty full, but this one was not. This one only had about 3,200 passengers on it. And I will say it was heavily multi generational and heavily families with young kids. There were not a ton of just adult traveler. I mean there were some, but you know, just like, like us, just two adults traveling with no kids. There was a lot of smaller kids on this cruise.
And when we got on the cruise ship, pretty much anything you wanted to book, whether it was Palo or Remy or mixologies tastings, any of that stuff, it was still available to book when we got on the ship. Like it wasn't like one of the cruises, like a maiden voyage where everything is sold out. It seemed like you could pretty much do anything you wanted, which was nice if you wanted to do a lot of different activities. If there were things that we did meet a couple who had their grand. The grandparents were with them and they ended up getting to go to Palo and they got to do like a mixology class with us. And so they were, you know, they were like, oh, we're so glad that this was available because, you know, sometimes you get on the cruise ships and they're not.
[00:20:43] Speaker A: So this was a four night or a five night?
[00:20:45] Speaker E: Five night.
[00:20:46] Speaker A: Five night. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so yeah, that was over a weekend.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: So even young kids had to possibly miss some school. But I'd say most of the kids on there were probably from second or third grade down.
[00:21:00] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah. So young elementary and preschoolers more than older elementary schoolers. And this was about a week before the President's Day holiday. So it was not over like the holiday. It was a weekend. Like you mentioned. It was a weekend partially. But the weekend before President stays, I suspect before.
[00:21:20] Speaker A: I suspect those earlier ceilings may have been a bit fuller because we were hitting midwinter break for some parts of the country. So. So people would. Yeah, so people would travel for that. Just a note here. If you are listening to this after the fact, you are missing a fabulous PowerPoint with all the photos and stats from Tracy and Michael. So just a reminder, you can head over to YouTube to watch the video versions of these episodes so you can take part in all of the visual learning aids that you need to help make your trip so much better. And then.
[00:21:47] Speaker E: That's right. And blue skies and sunshine. Guaranteed. Loves the PowerPoint.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: So just one quick announcement out there to our. The folks watching on YouTube and elsewhere.
For some reason, it looks like our account is not posting back. So I will try to watch the comp comments and if I see something that I think we need to say something about, I'll throw it in the. We'll just discuss it in the show. But when I post a comment, it just says unknowingly. So, you know, the joys of technology. All right, with that, let's keep going.
What is next on the. The PowerPoint here, Tracy?
[00:22:17] Speaker D: So I think the next picture is.
[00:22:20] Speaker E: Okay, so.
[00:22:20] Speaker D: Yeah, the Pixar. So when I heard. Yes, so when I heard, you know, as a Pixar cruise in my head, because I had never. We've never done a specific one like this.
I didn't realize it was like one day. Now there are things that happen throughout the whole five days, but then there's like one day that's like hot and heavy, you know, it's. It's all the things.
[00:22:41] Speaker A: So for ours, it was.
[00:22:43] Speaker B: It was day two, our day at sea before Lookout Castaway, which were the only two ports we went to.
[00:22:51] Speaker D: So the deck. The deck party in the afternoon was Crush's totally awesome pool party.
And so they had kids up on.
Exactly. Sweet, dude.
So they had Crush up on the funnel vision and he would swim up and there were kids up on the stage with the crew members. And he was telling them different things. The ocean. And he was teaching them, you know, by game, by different kinds of games.
So then they would play the game for a while and then they. Then Crush would come back and tell them something else, and then he would tell them another game. To play.
So it was fun to watch. Then they had a little dance party.
So I would say there was a lot of fun.
[00:23:33] Speaker E: Of course, everything ends. Everything ends in a deck party. Let me just be clear. Or dance party.
[00:23:38] Speaker D: Yeah, I gotta put some music on. And then later that night, and it was really weird, they had the Pixar Pal celebration. They had it at 6pm oh, interesting.
[00:23:52] Speaker B: During early dinner service, which.
[00:23:54] Speaker D: So imagine a cruise ship full of preschoolers who are eating early dinner and then they had this Pixar PAL thing at like 6 o' clock at night.
They didn't have a late version again.
[00:24:07] Speaker A: Yeah, they have a late version.
[00:24:09] Speaker E: Weird.
[00:24:10] Speaker A: Yeah, that is.
[00:24:12] Speaker D: It was so weird, but it was so good.
So it was obviously the crew members came out, they did some dancing and then they introduced 14 different Pixar characters that came out and was on the stage and up the stairs. And if you look at the pictures, you can see there's stairs with sadness and joy. And I think Remy was on the stairs.
And then Rex came out. He was. I mean, like there were 14 characters out here just dancing and living their best life.
[00:24:46] Speaker E: Is that Bullseye I see from.
[00:24:49] Speaker B: And this was the only time we saw Bullseye.
[00:24:52] Speaker D: Yeah, there was no meeting Bullseye, which we thought was odd too, because there was no meeting Bullseye. There was no meeting Doug and Russell and they were also up there.
So it was interesting what, you know,
[00:25:07] Speaker E: that can happen though. Like they. It is not atypical for them to have more characters in like the deck party than they have available for meet and GRE on various, you know, days at sea themed cruises or holiday type cruises. That's not completely unusual for them to have some different offerings. But I. It's 14 characters in different time at one time is. Is a whole heck of a lot of characters. Now was there any like, plot or storyline to this show that they did the deck party or was it more just like a celebration?
[00:25:44] Speaker D: It was like a dance party. It was like a dance party.
They'd bring out like Woody, Jesse and then Buzz and then, you know, Rex and then Bullseye and then they would like move on the stage and then they'd bring out, you know, Sully and Mike and then they'd move somewhere and then Joy and sadness and then they'd go up the stairs and it was. They were just all out there just dancing and they just had jamming music and, you know, everybody that was out there was just dancing and having a great time.
[00:26:12] Speaker B: Andrew asked about a special breakfast and we didn't go to It. We decided to leave that for the little kids because it was a breakfast with Woody and friends.
So I guess there. I mean, it's possible Bullseye showed up, but I don't know.
[00:26:27] Speaker E: We got there.
[00:26:29] Speaker B: I don't know who showed up.
[00:26:30] Speaker E: Yeah, it's possible that leaf would have gone around for that.
[00:26:34] Speaker B: That was something. I mean, it was free, but you had to schedule it. But we did meet Rex that way and the Incredibles.
So those, those were things that showed up in. In the app that you could. Could sign up for. They gave you a 15 minute window and you did your meet and greet with those characters.
[00:26:56] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:26:57] Speaker A: Kristen. Kristen calling Kristen in the chat saying Bullseye is at the hey, howdy breakfast with Woody and Jesse.
[00:27:02] Speaker B: Okay, There you go.
[00:27:03] Speaker E: Okay, nice. That makes sense.
[00:27:05] Speaker D: We decided we were maybe too old.
[00:27:07] Speaker E: Yeah, that's okay. I gotta ask. So the breakfast and some of these ticketed character meets, were you able to book them at the 30 day mark in the app or did you have to wait to book them on board? Because I know with Marvel Day at Sea, I believe you could book them the 30 days in advance. What was available for you guys?
[00:27:28] Speaker B: I didn't see them 30 days in advance. They showed up once we were on board.
[00:27:33] Speaker E: Okay. All right, and how many.
[00:27:37] Speaker F: One of the.
[00:27:37] Speaker B: I think the breakfast may have shown up, but not the special character meet and greets.
[00:27:43] Speaker A: Yeah. And Andrew's saying, Michael, for your benefit, you're never too old.
[00:27:46] Speaker E: Never too old.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: I agree. I agree. If they actually serve tea sandwiches at these teas on board.
[00:27:51] Speaker B: I actually said too old. I said I didn't want to take a spot from a little kid.
[00:27:58] Speaker A: Fair enough.
[00:27:58] Speaker E: I mean,
[00:28:01] Speaker A: let's talk about some of the other. We've got a slide up now with some themed activities from Pixar Day at Sea. So, like walk us through some of these activities and did you do all of these and what did you think about them?
[00:28:12] Speaker D: We didn't do trivia because we didn't have our trivia people, our buddies that help us win trivia. So we did not do trivia.
Although I think we might have been decent. We'd have been better than we were at 90s music that one time we were texting you from the cruise ship and literally getting slaughtered.
But that. So we did not do the trivia. We did do crafts though. I have a lovely 14 minute video of Michael and I building forky because we were in the. We were in the.
Was it. We were in gills and they gave you all the pieces and then the guy was on the microphone and people were making forky into all sorts of things. And one of the things that was going on the television was skiing from the Olympics. So my forky was, was red, white and blue and he was skiing. He was, he was an Olympic. I even made him a little gold medal necklace.
[00:29:02] Speaker A: So didn't, Didn't Nathan make a forky on one of the ships? Sam? I feel like we brought home a forky from somewhere.
[00:29:09] Speaker E: We, we did make a forky, and I believe it was on one of the ships. I believe it was when Toy Story. What is that? Toy Story 4. That that Forky was introduced. I think, I think it was around the time that forky was introduced through the movie. And so one of the crafts. It wasn't a Pixar Day at Sea cruise, but it was.
It might have even been in the kids club that he made forky. I can't remember if it was at. I can't remember if it was at like one of the craft activities in one of the lounge spaces or if it was a craft activity that he did in the kids club because it was. This was several years ago now. But yeah, so forky has been something available previously to craft, but I think being brought back specifically for Pixar Day at sea, that's. I mean, that's a really fun craft. Now the drawing, the drawing lessons they had across. Now all of these things, some of these are on Pixar day, but some of these are on other days. If I'm, if I'm remembering correctly with the day it sees. Is that right?
[00:30:07] Speaker A: Can I just pass along a comment in the chat? This is high praise because CT puts together some quality PowerPoints and he says this slide is the best collection and well put together together description of any special dancy on a podcast ever. Bravo. So thank you.
Kudos. All right, all right, walk us through, Walk us through.
[00:30:25] Speaker D: Okay, so they drawing the drawing they actually did in the Buena Vista Theater. So they must have. We didn't actually do that either. We looked in, but we didn't actually.
Because I can't draw.
But that was. They did that throughout the entire five night group.
And then one of the things that we watched. I'm gonna skip the style on parade. Cause I know Sam and I will go on into that one pretty deep. But the sarge says was like Simon says, they had the little green men, which we also didn't get to meet.
[00:30:57] Speaker B: Green army men.
[00:30:58] Speaker D: Green army men. They were on the stage in like the D Lounge. Is that what it's called? All the ships, they all have different names.
And there were all these little kids on the dance floor. And then Sarge was just doing like. Like, sarge says touch your head. Sarge says touch your ears. You know, and he's yelling stuff, and then he's got two other green army men, and they have no idea what they're doing. They're, like, all over the place. It was hilarious. We stood there for a long time just to watch it. That was really fun.
The Wilderness Explorer ship shape adventure.
We didn't do that either. We did a lot of characters. Okay. We had, like, 200 photos, so it was hard to get everything in.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: Do you know what the Wilderness Explorers thing was? Was it like a scavenger hunt?
[00:31:42] Speaker D: Like, it was like a scavenger hunt.
And I don't even know where people went with it. I saw that towards the end of the cruise was the first I had seen it, and I was like, oh, I don't even know what this is.
So. And then they had Pixar movies and Pixar music 24 7. Like, on funnel vision, in the theater, in the elevator, you know, everywhere. So. Yeah, but style on parade with Edna, Moses. Think Cruella's fashion show, but with a twist. But no capes.
No capes. Absolutely no capes.
So basically what it was was everybody.
We were the only ones, I swear, on the first day that were dressed up. And then after that, like, everybody was dressed up. So they basically. If you were dressed up, you would go down to the lobby and they put them in four different categories. One was like a hero category, and one was like a family category.
And I forget what the third one was. And then the fourth one was all little kids, and they had them in different sections. And then they had Elastigirl, Mr. Incredible, Frozone, and Edna Mode. And they all came out, and then they took time with each group. So each one of them had picked a group, and then in five minutes, they switched groups, and in five minutes they switched. And they were just talking to them about how to walk on the Runway and. And how to present yourself.
And the groups were really quite large, like, bigger than what they had at Cruella's fashion show. Love that.
[00:33:17] Speaker B: Lovely.
[00:33:17] Speaker A: Like 20.
[00:33:18] Speaker D: Oh, there was at least 20 plus in each group.
And so then at the end, the whole goal was they were supposed to be showing Edna so she would be inspired to create a new hero, superhero costume, superhero suit.
And, you know, one of these groups was gonna win and who was gonna be the winner. And, you know, as it Turns out the little kids won, of course.
[00:33:43] Speaker E: Right? I mean like, you know, spoiler alert. Right.
If you're on a. Yeah. If you're on a Pixar themed cruise, this is focus on families. Yeah. The littles are gonna win. If you're on a Cruella themed. If you're on a of the Destiny, you go to the Cruella themed fashion show. If you're dressed in Cruella wear, I'll just give you a hint that's your best chance of winning.
[00:34:07] Speaker A: Are you listening to our show?
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[00:35:05] Speaker A: So we have a comment in the chat. Breaking news apparently being reported by Scott Gustin, one of our favorite independent reporters out there on theme parks. Robert Downey Jr. Named godparent of the Disney adventure.
[00:35:19] Speaker E: I kind of love that. You know, this is the first. This is the first male godparent that's not a group of people. Right. You had the wish, they had the wish kids, the make a wish kids. And then you had the treasure was the cast of the of Disney.
But all the other godparents have been female and so that's interesting. I kind of love that. Yeah. And there is a lot of Marvel theming on that ship and that Marvel's big over in Asia too. So it's not a bad fit. I love that. Yeah.
[00:35:52] Speaker A: Although now I'm disappointed we are not going to be. I'm disappointed we're not going to Be on the Maiden because we would have got to see ROBERT DOWNEY jr.
Well,
[00:36:00] Speaker E: sometimes they're on the Maiden or. But sometimes they're not. Remember, he'll be at like, a christening ceremony, but he might not be actually on the maiden voyage. He may just be there for a preview or. Or for a ceremony he might not be there for. Yeah, for the actual thing.
Well, okay. Well, back, back to the Pixar themed activities. So I'm imagining that a lot of these were happening on Pixar Day, but that the trivia and maybe the crafts and the learn to draw. Were those the things that were across. And of course the movies.
[00:36:28] Speaker D: And the movies. Yeah. And I think. Think the. The Wilderness Explorer. Like I said, I didn't see it in the app until, like the last day at sea, so I don't know whether I just missed it or whether the sarge says that was the only day I saw it was on the Pixar Day at sea.
[00:36:43] Speaker A: So.
Yeah, yeah, that's from what we're saying.
[00:36:48] Speaker B: There were things we, we didn't get to.
[00:36:52] Speaker D: Sorry.
[00:36:53] Speaker B: They're saying there, there's things.
[00:36:54] Speaker E: Go ahead, go ahead.
[00:36:55] Speaker B: We didn't do. It's not because we, we didn't. Didn't want to do them or were not doing anything. It's like we were busy doing the things we wanted to do, which was meet the characters, interact with them, get. Get the photos. So there, there was just a lot going on all at the same time that, I mean, so something was going on no matter what you want to do. And the pools were always packed.
[00:37:22] Speaker E: Yeah. I mean, it's impossible. I think on any of these, any of these, like, themed sailings, it is impossible to be able to do everything. And Vanessa saying in the chat on their Pixar Day at Sea cruise, they had a character recovery day, so it was easier to meet all the Pixar characters, meaning that, like, they're probably their last C day a lot. Not they don't necessarily guarantee they'll be out again, but you might get to hit up the characters you didn't get to hit up on the actual themed day. And I know for the ticketed events, they sort of spread those across the sailing, but again, you don't know which, you know, beyond the ticketed ones that you have reserved, you don't know who's going to be available when necessarily unless it's in the app. And if it's not in the app, you know, if it's only showing that Rex is available on this one day and you don't know if he's going to be available any other day. That's might be your priority. Because a lot of these characters are actually really difficult to even meet in the parks. Right. Like, there's a few that you can meet in the parks, but not this array of them. Well, we see in these pictures. The picture on the right is from that fashion show. Right. And you see that these are all. These are all face characters. These are not head characters. Right. So these are all.
I love that.
[00:38:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Because they instructed their group so they had to be able to speak the talk.
[00:38:48] Speaker D: Right? Yeah, yeah. And the other thing which was kind of fun was after each group walked down the red carpet, so to speak, they stood where the stairway is, like where the little kids are, and got a picture with the characters. So each group got to be all together on the stairs with the character. So that was kind of fun, too.
[00:39:10] Speaker A: Now I like that.
[00:39:10] Speaker D: And then at the top left there, you can see the popcorn stuff.
[00:39:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I like. I've seen the alien one before. I've seen the scream canister before. I think I've even seen the slinky dog one before, but I have not seen that. It looks like. Is that Coco's guitar back there? It's like a popcorn bucket. That's pretty cool. Yeah.
[00:39:29] Speaker D: You open up the top of it and you eat out of it.
[00:39:34] Speaker A: Or you get the popcorn bucket, and then you get the popcorn in a paper container, and then you take it off.
[00:39:37] Speaker E: Well, and some of those popcorn buckets have been at the parks, but not for years. I think that that. In fact, I think that slinky dog sipper, I think that's from like three years ago at the parks. But. But it hasn't been available since somebody
[00:39:52] Speaker A: cleaned out the closet.
[00:39:55] Speaker E: I mean, maybe, but it's cool. It's just cool to have this array. I mean, there's a lot so in there. There's. I mean, there's. Yeah, I think that's cool. And there's your two forkies that you guys made. That's very, very easier.
[00:40:05] Speaker B: That's all that remains.
[00:40:06] Speaker D: We.
[00:40:06] Speaker B: We did leave them behind.
[00:40:08] Speaker D: Yeah. We left them for our stateroom attendant.
[00:40:13] Speaker E: I'm sure they appreciated that.
[00:40:14] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:40:15] Speaker E: Or the garbage did.
Yeah.
All.
So let's move to the. Okay, so we've got menus and treats. Tell us what was available and what we're looking at.
[00:40:27] Speaker D: So basically, what I'll say about the Pixar menu and I. Big old Tracy fail Sam would be not proud of me. I forgot to Take a picture of the actual menu.
I don't know how it happened, but it did.
The menu. The only thing on the menu.
I know, right? Yeah, the only thing that was Pixar, really, truly Pixar themed is the dessert that's all the way on the right side there, the ball, and it was a lemon cheesecake with blueberry in the middle.
Yeah. And so everything else was just, was, you know, it was a, it was a filet but it was named, you know, a Pixar name. So there really wasn't anything else on the menu. The only reason we even got that was because it was like the only thing that was Pixar themed. I'm like, we don't have to get that.
[00:41:19] Speaker E: That. Yeah, yeah. Even if it, even if it's a terrible description.
Yeah.
[00:41:23] Speaker D: The one next to that is the, the outdoor bar menu they had. I mean like everything had Pixar on it, but there wasn't really anything that was different, you know. And then we took a picture, a couple pictures of some of the sweet treats in the sweet shop that were Pixar related. So like the cars, like Lightning McQueen car and the Andes Block. So again there wasn't any real food that was different per se. It was just renamed. So that was, you know, it is what it is.
[00:41:57] Speaker A: It's, it's interesting. They don't do like a separate dinner menu like bring in some of like the stuff from like they have Andy's lunchbox in, in Hollywood studios, you know, like, I don't know, it could be fun to like just add a little touch of that. And it's very unique. You only get it on these sailings. So. So yeah, I wish I would do something like that. Yeah.
[00:42:17] Speaker D: So yeah, there just wasn't that much, you know, that was different.
[00:42:23] Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah. FYI, the Disney Cruise Line Singapore account 13 minutes ago did in fact post a reel with Robert Downey Jr. And Marvel and Disney Parks and Disney Cruise Line and just the Disney account and they have confirmed the official godparent. So that is not just. I mean Scott Gustin obviously probably broke it first, knowing Scott, but it is officially announced, so just FYI. Awesome. Nice. All right, breaking news, breaking news. I love it.
Right in the middle of our live show. So I gotta thank Nathan, not, not our son Nathan, but Nathan Novak from Adventures and Mascapades for calling that out to us during the show.
[00:43:13] Speaker A: See, we, we could do a 24 hour channel on Disney Cruise Line.
[00:43:16] Speaker E: Right?
I mean especially based off with the ship in Singapore because we're, I Feel like we're constantly asleep and waking up to things because they're, like, you know, completely off. They're like 14 hours off from where we are. Something like that.
[00:43:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:32] Speaker B: DCL Telethon.
[00:43:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:36] Speaker E: Oh, yeah, that's next. Need to raise money. We'll do that.
[00:43:40] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:43:41] Speaker E: Vanessa. Saying on their cruise, they had the little Pixar characters and animators, they have secret doors that slide to reveal them.
Huh.
I wonder.
[00:43:52] Speaker D: No idea what you're talking about, Vanessa. But I believe it's not. Not that I don't believe you. I didn't see any secret doors.
[00:43:58] Speaker E: Okay.
[00:43:59] Speaker C: Interesting.
[00:43:59] Speaker D: All right, interesting.
[00:44:01] Speaker E: We've got Pixar themed photo ops. So Pixar themed backdrops. This is not the characters necessarily, but these are all backdrop.
Did they have, you know, the most important question, Tracy? Did they have magic photos, too?
[00:44:18] Speaker D: Yes, of course they did.
It was awesome. And they also had. Which is not Pixar related, but they had a Percy Jackson backdrop the very last night with.
It looked like a lightsaber, but it was like a sword. I don't know anything about Percy Jackson. Please don't.
[00:44:34] Speaker A: Please.
[00:44:35] Speaker D: I don't know anything about it.
But, I mean.
[00:44:38] Speaker A: But we have the photos.
[00:44:38] Speaker D: But we have the picture.
[00:44:40] Speaker E: Of course you have the photo. Because, listen, you guys love a photo. And. And, like, now that you're Pearl, you're like, the photo package is free. We're gonna take advantage of it. But you, Tracy, used to get the photo package, regardless of even.
[00:44:54] Speaker D: Yes, I've always wanted the photo package, and it's always been worth it to me. Always. When the kids were little. And now that it's just the two of us, I mean, we always get the photo package. But, yeah, there were a ton of backdrops and the. And the. The photographers. I cannot shout out the photographers on this cruise enough. Denzel, my buddy, my pal, he was. He was. Oh, he was so good. But all of them were fantastic. And they had different. You know, they usually pose you in the same five ways. Put your hand on his chest, hold your hand out, show off the ring. You know, prom photos.
[00:45:30] Speaker A: Prom photos, I like to call them,
[00:45:34] Speaker D: but, like, the one that's like, looks like animation, like somebody was drawing.
[00:45:38] Speaker E: Oh, yeah, Go back to that one, Brian.
[00:45:41] Speaker A: I will try. Keep going.
[00:45:42] Speaker D: Yeah, they had us, like, turn around and participate.
Drawing.
[00:45:47] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:45:48] Speaker D: You know, and then they had like a. Then, like, another night was like, wrong way.
[00:45:52] Speaker E: There you go.
[00:45:53] Speaker D: There you go. So the one on the bottom left there, it's like, turn around and pretend like you're drawing and Then like, a couple nights later, it was colored.
So then the one next to it.
Yeah. So it's kind of fun. The big one with the ball that we did multiple times was out in the lobby, in the atrium the entire
[00:46:11] Speaker B: cruise, so you could use it to take your own pictures. And then I'd say two or three nights they had a photographer out take pictures at her.
[00:46:20] Speaker A: That is a big backdrop to have out the entire cruise.
[00:46:24] Speaker D: Giant.
[00:46:24] Speaker B: And we noticed as we were disembarking, they had different pictures in the small circles.
[00:46:30] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:46:31] Speaker B: And we were already in line, walking off. We're like,
[00:46:36] Speaker A: Nathan had a question in the chat that I wanted to be sure to ask because we actually. We recorded with Nathan and Alicia over the weekend. Their episode will be coming out soon on Marvel Day at Sea. That they did. But Nathan mentioned when we were talking to him that they had these special announcements during the day where it was like, Dr. Strange, come to the spa because your cloak of levitation is refusing to leave the treatment room kind of thing. Did they do special announcements, announcements on the Pixar sailing?
[00:47:01] Speaker D: Yes, I can remember them. Like, I was in an elevator once and like, you know, it was like Rex was calling for Mr. Potato Head or something, like. So, yeah, they definitely did.
It was really cute. But they were.
What it was was, it was so short that if you weren't really listening, if you didn't catch it at the beginning, it was done before you went like, what was that?
That wasn't the captain. That wasn't any of the other people that normally talk.
Yeah, it wasn't the cruise director. It wasn't the person that tells you, you know, you're going to blow the horn. I was like, what was that? So then I started listening. And, yeah, it was different characters throughout the whole cruise. You'd hear them over the loudspeaker. So. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:47:43] Speaker E: All right. Brian, you just skipped past Woody and Jesse. You're going the wrong direction again.
[00:47:49] Speaker A: I had this one up for a bit, so I was going to the next one.
[00:47:50] Speaker E: But. Yeah, so, but let's. This is a great.
Yeah. So Toy Story backdrop. You got to meet Buzz, Jesse, Bo Peep and W. All in front of the same. It looks like the same backdrop.
[00:48:04] Speaker A: Is that right Andy's door in Preludes?
[00:48:06] Speaker D: Yeah, that was out in that area right before the theater.
[00:48:10] Speaker A: Yeah, it's Andy's door. You can see the hinge in the sort of middle of the photo there. Yeah.
[00:48:14] Speaker D: And if you look at the ones that we had with Mike and Sully, the hanging door Is there. So the backdrops were fire. They were so good.
The inside out one was really good, too. Bo Peep had a little moment. Well, Michael had a moment with. With Woody first where they did a little hooplala. If you check out our Instagram, I just posted the video of all the characters. I had them kind of show me their outfits and give me a little dance or whatever. So. But then after this picture, then I had to step away because, you know, Bo Peep wanted a picture with just Michael.
[00:48:50] Speaker E: Wow.
[00:48:51] Speaker D: With Woody, you know.
[00:48:53] Speaker A: So somebody's asking, did they do a Shh, Andy's coming kind of routine at all?
[00:48:58] Speaker B: No.
The only thing close to that was when we met Rex.
I kind of mentioned. It's like, wait, there are people here. Shouldn't we drop to the floor?
[00:49:12] Speaker E: I love it. Right? Because you were dressed as well.
[00:49:13] Speaker D: That would have been funny, though, Brian.
[00:49:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:15] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:49:16] Speaker A: All right, we got Mike and Sully and Joy and Sadness here. I love Sully. He's such a fun character. And Sadness is really great. I haven't seen, like, I've seen her around, but I've never seen a photo with her. That's great.
[00:49:28] Speaker B: Oh, and when she came out and when she left the photo booth, she was good.
[00:49:36] Speaker D: Little baby steps, like, when she was coming down the hallway for the picture op, she had her hands in front of her, shoulders forward. She was taking these little baby steps, like, she had little slippers on. And then she'd stop. And if you go to our Instagram, you can see the video of her. She stops, and then she goes.
[00:49:56] Speaker B: The handler is having to encourage her to keep going.
[00:50:00] Speaker D: It was so good. And I went up to her and I said, said, I just want to let you know that I really appreciate you for letting us know that it's okay to have all sorts of feelings. And she, like, wiped a tear. Like, she was crying. I mean, it was. She was so good.
[00:50:16] Speaker A: Now, did you tell a bad joke to Mike?
Because I feel like that's necessary. When you meet Mike, you got to tell him a bad joke.
[00:50:23] Speaker B: No, I didn't think of that. I was going to say, sully gives the best hugs.
[00:50:28] Speaker A: Chewbacca's pretty dang good. I'll tell you what, I think Sully
[00:50:32] Speaker B: beats him out because we did Chewbacca recently, too.
[00:50:35] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, Sully was. Yeah, Sully was good. But, yeah, Joy and Sadness were.
They were so good as the character. Like, they. It was. I mean, the video that I have of Joy, she's, like, dancing as we're walking up. She was just having a great time and then sadness was just. And I like as she walked away I was like, I feel so sad for her. Like she was so in character.
[00:50:59] Speaker A: Oh. So you know there's one element we've been missing throughout this photo discussion and in fact I'm going to go back here because you guys clearly for a five night cruise packed quite a few bespoke outfits for these photos. I've got the, we've got. I know we spotted the, the, the Jesse and Woody spirit jerseys but you've
[00:51:19] Speaker E: got great by the way.
[00:51:20] Speaker A: Yeah. You've got Mike and Sully T shirts here. I can't see what they say but those are fantastic if you have to look out key matching shirts too. But you guys put some thought into like making sure matchy matchy for all these photos.
[00:51:31] Speaker D: So we did the, the Mike. Yeah the Mike and Sully shirts actually we picked it. We got down here to Florida and we went to Uniqlo. Uniqlo, however you say it. And they had a whole, they had a whole stand of Pixar shirts.
So we picked up. I have one with the, the claw and the, the little green alien, you know and like the, and so I have, I have one of those as well. So we, yeah, we definitely played up the outfits for this character.
[00:52:03] Speaker A: Edna mode.
[00:52:04] Speaker E: Yes, that's what I was saying, Brian, because it. All of those incredibles characters that they did the fashion show with were all face characters.
[00:52:11] Speaker A: I've never seen, I've never seen a face. Edna mode.
[00:52:14] Speaker E: Yeah, they have, they have only done it rarely. They've done it where again where she's going to give you like instruction. Right. Where she's going to talk. That's the only time they. So Pixar Day at Sea I think is, is really one of the few if not only times there probably have been others but where you can see her as a base character. Yeah. So. And you've got Elastigirl and Edna mode in that one. In the bigger picture we've got Miguel from Coco.
We've got Remy of course from, from Ratatouille. And then there's Rex. I love that you guys happen to be still wearing your. Now were were these on different.
[00:52:51] Speaker B: We put them back on specifically for that picture.
[00:52:53] Speaker E: Okay. That's.
[00:52:54] Speaker B: I was wondering with Rex mentioning, you know what went on on off Pixar Day at Sea. We actually met Rex on castaway day.
[00:53:03] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:53:04] Speaker B: So our appointment was like ten o' clock in the morning. So we did that before which was fine because it was Cold on the islands in the morning.
[00:53:13] Speaker A: It is so cruel to have a backdrop for Rex that shows a gigantic asteroid getting ready to sleep.
That's dark, Disney. That's getting dark.
[00:53:25] Speaker E: I gotta say, I love the Incredibles backdrop because it's like a cruise line incredible specific, you know, backdrop. I really like that they did it. Like you mentioned, they did a really creative job with these backdrops. They're really, really nice. I love them. All right.
[00:53:40] Speaker D: And both the Incredibles and Rex were the make an appointment.
Those were not just in line and
[00:53:47] Speaker B: wait, Rex was in animators and Incredibles were in the tube.
[00:53:51] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:53:52] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:53:52] Speaker A: All right. Well, you have helpfully prepared a slide of tips and tricks to make the most out of your sailing. Here, here. Tracy, you want to walk us through some of these?
[00:54:02] Speaker D: Sure. So the number one tip that I would give on any of these specialty cruises would be to refresh your app frequently. The ticketed photo ops that we did were not originally on the app when we were at the terminal or even when we got on the ship because we went through right away, went through the whole app and we hearted all of the carriers characters so we knew when we were gonna go and see them.
[00:54:29] Speaker B: And luckily, on the first day when we were getting the other Toy Story, we. We mentioned, oh, you know, other characters, Rex and. And the photographer is like, oh, Rex will be out. It's just at a scheduled event, you have to go into the app.
[00:54:44] Speaker D: And so you go on the app and you hit that plus sign for my plans, like add plans. And then it magically came up and it was like, that one came up and then later in the week the other one came up.
So it's unfortunate that they do it that. I mean, I understand why they do it that. Because I bet there were three quarters of the people on that cruise that did not know that that was available.
I really do. Because if you're not searching that. And I don't necessarily want to be on my phone the whole time, but if you're not checking that frequently, they're adding stuff all the time.
Like that Sarge thing wasn't originally on the app either. And then it was like all of a sudden I was like, oh, what is this? You know, so that is one thing. You just, you know, somebody. Somebody needs to be the app person who's just going to check and check and check.
[00:55:30] Speaker A: So we have a question.
[00:55:31] Speaker B: I know we've heard the cruise director on other cruises say, you know, make sure you're refreshing the app to get the latest.
This is the first one, I think that was really important to do.
[00:55:42] Speaker A: So there's a question in the chat or kind of a comment in the chat says you see the characters only if you take the photo package. Question mark. Because we can only book one between. I think they mean the Incredibles or Rex. I don't think the photo package has anything to do with your ability to see the characters. It's just if you want the photos that they take with you of the characters, then you're going to need to buy them in some way. So.
[00:56:00] Speaker E: Right.
[00:56:01] Speaker B: Like any crews, they have no trouble taking pictures with your phone or your camera.
[00:56:07] Speaker E: Right? Right. So now if you book the photo package, just to be clear there, for those who haven't maybe sailed before or not familiar with the photo package, you can purchase prior to your cruise. You can purchase the unlimited photo package at a slightly discounted price. On board, you can book the unlimited photo package or you can book specific number of photo packages, like 10 photos, 20 photos, 30 photos, that sort of a thing.
The best price you're going to get is for the unlimited. And of course before the cruise, that's the best option price wise.
But of course, if you're somebody who's not going to take a lot of photos, then it might not be worth it. If you're on a sailing like this where there's a lot of character opportunities, I think the photo package is well worth the money, you know, to book that in advance.
Unless you are a family who really, really does not take photos, but you're having a photo package has no impact on your ability to meet the characters. You can meet all of the characters either in the characters that have just lines where you line up for them, or as Tracy and Michael have mentioned, these ticketed events that you reserve through the app. And they're free. You just have to reserve a spot. And so, and they do fill up fast. So they might, you know, there might be a limited availability to see certain characters, like Rex, for example. So they are something you, you have to book either on the cruise or sometimes Disney will, will open up bookings for those 30 days in advance. Just depends on the type of sailing.
Okay, so, and I now.
[00:57:46] Speaker D: Just real quick with the photos. If they take your picture and you zap your magic band or your card or whatever, you don't have to buy them like that. At the end, if you said you only wanted 10 pictures, you can have 200 pictures taken. You'll just have to sort through and pick your 10 out.
Like for us, it's always Bit the unlikage and then I just download them all before I get off the boat.
[00:58:08] Speaker E: So.
[00:58:10] Speaker A: And Vanessa making a good point, which is they now offer.
They now offer. You can buy the package after the cruise for US Citizens only for a period of time. They. They. Yes, we covered that as a news item a few weeks ago. Yeah, 45 days.
[00:58:22] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:58:23] Speaker A: Now, Eevee has been all the rage. I think we talked about. We talked about merch up front. Evie has been all the rage on these ships. Someone's saying on the. The.
Was it the dream?
The dream. They were limiting to one EV per stateroom. We had heard two EVs per stateroom on some of the early sailings.
[00:58:41] Speaker D: It said two.
But I will tell you, from the minute they open that door, the shelf was empty. Within minutes, they were putting more out.
We walked into the store and I heard a guy, one of the crew members, say to one of the women, and there's one more bag in the back, but we're not going to put it out now.
I mean, they went quick.
So, you know, and I don't know if there was somebody that had a giant bag and had multiples in it. I don't know if he had multiple people with him and they bought two each and that's why he had this giant bag of them. But there was a sign that said two per se.
[00:59:26] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:59:26] Speaker A: So just. Just for listeners out there who may not know what the heck we're talking about, Eevee is a towel animal plushie.
It is a towel animal plushie dog. And if you want to know what Evie looks like, there's plenty of photos out there. But she was featured or he. I guess she. Evie is a she?
[00:59:45] Speaker C: Yeah, she.
[00:59:45] Speaker A: She was featured in a Disney Cruise line ad that came out about nine months to a year ago now. That is just so heartwarming. You should go find it and watch it. And so at the time, we had said if they don't turn this into a. A product, a stuffy, we would be shocked. It took them a year to get it done, but here she is. And of course released three others first.
[01:00:05] Speaker E: Yeah, they released two others first.
[01:00:07] Speaker A: Two others. Two others.
[01:00:08] Speaker E: Two others. It's the monkey and the elephant that are up on my.
[01:00:12] Speaker A: Here she is flying off the shelves. So, yeah, so I'm sure that they have enough.
[01:00:18] Speaker E: My Eevee is down in Florida.
She's being fostered by our friends the Morals temporarily until I can get to
[01:00:27] Speaker A: her and get your second EV on our upcoming sailing so that you can have one to travel with. Right. So there you go.
[01:00:33] Speaker E: One to rock and one to stock.
[01:00:34] Speaker A: And one to stock.
[01:00:36] Speaker E: There you go. That's right. All right, now, no funnel blind boxes. So Tracy and I had been talking separately.
[01:00:44] Speaker A: What is this? I have no idea what a funnel blind box is.
[01:00:46] Speaker E: Okay, so you know these blind boxes where you open something like a trash can or whatever, and you don't know what, like, design is going to be in it? Well, they created a vinyl funnels, and there's a bunch of them that are all different, like, character themed. There's maybe six of them or eight.
[01:01:04] Speaker D: I think they're one for each ship.
[01:01:06] Speaker E: Oh, maybe. I can't remember. Anyway, I saw. I've seen pictures of them only. And I had told Tracy about them because I saw it on, you know, the interwebs on somebody's Instagram. And Tracy, of course, had to go looking for them because Tracy is loving blind boxes now. We did our first blind boxes together.
[01:01:26] Speaker A: This is like Disney slot machines. I feel like this is exact.
[01:01:30] Speaker E: I know, I know. Listen. We don't really collect any of the blind box stuff. It's just if we like them, we'll buy a couple.
[01:01:38] Speaker A: Right. It's like my parents coming out to the bar and getting pull tabs when I was a kid and just sitting there and playing pull tabs.
[01:01:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:01:44] Speaker E: So apparently they're only on the treasure right now. Interesting.
[01:01:49] Speaker D: Apparently, I specifically asked a cast member because we looked around, and they said, right, now that's a treasure thing in the chat.
[01:01:56] Speaker C: Blind box.
[01:01:57] Speaker A: Blind boxes are a slippery slope. Could not agree more. Based on the behavior that I watched from my. My own wife and Tracy when we were at Disney Springs with. Was it. It was trash cans, right? Trash can blind boxes.
[01:02:10] Speaker E: The little trash can blind boxes.
[01:02:12] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh.
[01:02:12] Speaker E: And I got two Main street ones. I. I still have. No, not McDonald's. I have two.
[01:02:18] Speaker A: No, we have those two. Michael, she's bought out McDonald's toys, too. Yeah, yeah. What am I going to do with this stuff?
[01:02:23] Speaker E: But, yeah, be quiet. All right. Okay.
This is why friends should not be on the show together.
We're going to kick Ryan and Michael off of the show and just continue with Tracy.
[01:02:37] Speaker A: I'm not going anywhere because I'm the producer.
[01:02:41] Speaker E: He's got the button.
All right, well, before this devolves any further. Okay.
On. Oh, it's. Somebody say. Oh, Thomas is saying Singapore is actually trying to regulate the sale of blind boxes. Yeah, they should.
Well, they have a lot of them in. In. In. In Tokyo. They have all those Machines that are basically, you know, those toy machines that are basically blind boxes. And so they have them all over the place and they're all over Japan, but especially in Tokyo. I think they have vending machines everywhere. Okay, on C days.
Tell us about this. On C days.
[01:03:17] Speaker D: So my, my friend, photographer Denzel from St. Lucia was. Every night we would see him, we would chat him up and he, I told him that I had run the Disneyland 10K and that I had brought my medal with me on the cruise ship. I wanted to do some photos with it. And he's like, oh, there's, there's a, there'll be a guy out on the deck, you know, on sea days, on Deck 4. And he like told me like, you know, between like 10 and 2.
And so on our last sea day, I went hunting for him and I found the photographer. And I've seen photographers on the pool deck occasionally. It's never been consistent on cruises. Sometimes when we had little kids, we got pictures, but otherwise I don't usually see him. But I found this guy and he was fantastic. So if you want some, like, there was no line. There was nobody out there. He was literally standing out there with his camera. Camera, like just standing there waiting. And so if, if you have something special that you want to have a picture of, check with the photographers at shutters and ask them if that is something that's available. I did not pay for this other than, I mean, you know, we get our pictures for free. So he was a photopass photographer. So he took our, my picture. It came on with all the rest of our photos. But it was an opportunity that I guess I, even after 29 cruises, I didn't really realize, you know, that this guy's just out here hanging out and if nobody knows he's out here, you can get like a kind of a free photo op. And so he did probably 12, 13 pictures.
[01:04:47] Speaker A: I suspect this is a more recent thing from when Disney changed over to doing its own photography in house because we started to see photographers kind of in more places and doing more stuff. So I have a feeling it's not across your 20 year full 29 cruise history. I think this is probably within the last two years when they made the switch that now they've got more roaming photographers to take more candid photos of people throughout the ship. So it's been great, it's been a great change.
[01:05:13] Speaker E: So I, I think one of the great things about this is you get the beautiful sea as your backdrop, right? And so if you wanted to take let's say family photos, but you don't want to wait in line to get the atrium photo in the evening. Maybe your family isn't really into waiting in lines like my, like our kiddo isn't.
I think that's a great option to get some nice family photos with just like in. You could be in your casual clothes and you got a, the, the beautiful ocean behind you. Right. So yeah, I think that's a great, a great tip.
[01:05:44] Speaker A: So two quick comments. I wanted to call out one Ed saying baseball cards, the original OG blind,000% if I'd saved all my money from baseball cards. And then Jen is saying on the Fantasy last week it was 2 per stateroom for EVS. You could line up before the store opened and leave your name and state room and how many you wanted. Then you could come back later to put pick them up. Amazing.
[01:06:07] Speaker B: It was on the Fantasy there wasn't that big of mad rush that they were taking names. It was, people went in. There wasn't a separate entrance, the doors open. They weren't directing you in one and out another.
[01:06:22] Speaker D: It was, it was rope drop mentality. It was mad. It was like, you know, they just rushed in and took them off the shelves and they were gone.
[01:06:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I just, I just want to send kudos to the Fantasies merchandising team for doing that because that's exactly the kind of thing I love to see where it's like, you don't need to stand in this line. We'll take your name, we'll make sure you get, you know, the number you want allotted. Go have a drink. Go spend some money in the bar.
[01:06:45] Speaker E: Well, and this is probably so for Jen sailing, we're probably talking about over, over the holiday over President's Day. So they probably had a more full ship and so they knew that it was going to be even more chaos than what yours was. And so Vanessa saying that no EVs on the Destiny until week, there were none on their February 9th sailing a few weeks ago. So yeah, we, we've heard sporadic report. I feel like we've heard from most of the ships that people have seen them, but they have been sporadic in their availability because not every ship is getting restocked at the same time. Right. So I think our friends when they were on the Wish for like the one of the first sailings that EVS became available, we heard from people who were on the sailing right after theirs that there were no EVS available. So it's just a matter of, you know, supply and demand. Right. Now the demand is very high. I'm sure that the supply is not fast enough to keep up with it right now, but I'm sure eventually it will.
[01:07:45] Speaker A: One has to wonder how many bags of EVs are sitting on the Disney Adventure in Tokyo right now. But with that we got to, we got to wrap up here, Sam, because we're well over an hour now.
[01:07:54] Speaker E: Oh yeah.
[01:07:55] Speaker A: I want to first thank Tracy Michael for joining us. But then I want to pass the mic over to, to Tracy. If you want to let folks know you've got an Instagram account where folks can along on all of your fabulous Disney adventures. Do you want to let folks know where they can find you?
[01:08:09] Speaker D: Absolutely. It's called Adrift Together. So basically we're just drifting. We're empty nesters. So adrift together on Instagram and check it out. And I'm doing kind of our Snowbird adventures down here in Florida. Some of the things that are not Disney related that we are doing, some of the things that that are Disney related.
And I did just post today the Pixar video of all of the characters that we kind of got pictures with and danced with and stuff. So it was kind of fun.
So yeah, if you would like to join us on our travels, come along.
[01:08:47] Speaker E: Nice.
[01:08:49] Speaker A: And for everyone out there watching and listening, thanks for hanging in this evening. A big thank you. And actually Sam, as we were sitting here just to continue the theme of the news here, we got the official Disney Cruise Line announcement and godparent photo for Robert Downey Jr. In our inboxes. So.
[01:09:04] Speaker E: Oh nice. So the media release, media release has come.
[01:09:08] Speaker A: I am so sad we're not going to be Robert Downey Jr. I would have, I would have killed for that one. Oh well, all right.
[01:09:16] Speaker E: Well let's talk about next week.
[01:09:17] Speaker A: That's what we'll do. We will be back.
[01:09:19] Speaker E: Yeah, we have a great show next week.
Our usual time, just like tonight will be on at 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern. We've got Magic Leave a Net Nessa and Accessible Adventures with Andrew joining us. They just returned from a side to side sailing out of Fort Lauderdale. So I believe that was on the Dream and the Destiny but I don't remember what order they sailed if it was the Destiny and then the dream of the dream. The Destiny. But they're going to come and talk about that experience and about how the logistics work for the side to side and also just give us, you know, how the Destiny is doing now that she's been sailing for several months.
[01:09:58] Speaker A: She's so old now. It's all news. It's trash. Like let's move on to the next ship.
No, no, we love the Destiny. All right, so with that we will be back next week at our regular time Monday, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern. And thank you to everyone out there for listening and watching. I will channel Sam, Remember to like and subscribe to the YouTube channel. Head over to Instagram, follow us if you don't already. That's where we post most of our stuff these days.
If you're not a member of our Facebook group, you should over and check that out. It's such a great group of people.
Almost every question gets answered and love it.
[01:10:33] Speaker E: Often not even by us. It's so great.
[01:10:35] Speaker D: I love it.
[01:10:36] Speaker A: And so far we have not had any of the please go Google this replies. So appreciate that from our community over there. Appreciate all of you out there for watching and listening and Tracy, Michael, thank you as always the DCL Duo Senior for coming on. And with that I think we will say see you next time.
[01:10:54] Speaker E: See you next time.
[01:11:00] Speaker C: Well, thanks everybody 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 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. If you want to book your next Disney vacation, head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email them at DCLDUO mypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions or you'd like to come 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 has a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start reading. 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 solely those of the American individuals on the podcast and in no way reflective. Use the Disney Company or Disney Cruise Line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or Disney Vacation, please contact the great folks over at My Path Unwinding Travel or Disney directly or your own travel agent.
[01:12:56] Speaker A: Thanks again for listening and we'll see
[01:12:58] Speaker C: you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL Duo.
[01:13:08] Speaker E: Sam.
