[00:00:00] Speaker A: I don't think my daughter's ever stayed up to midnight before, but she was up partying, you know, with the ABD guides and all the kids, until midnight. And then we're on the river and the fireworks are going off all on the river. The whole Danube is just glowing with fireworks. That was, like, really sealed the deal. Everyone was like, can we be on a river cruise every year for New Year's?
[00:00:33] Speaker B: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's episode of the DCL Duo Podcast, brought to you by My Path Unwinding Travel. And, Sam, we can't let this recording go unacknowledged. As it is Super Bowl Sunday.
This will sound ridiculous.
Hopefully we don't feel it's like, six weeks from now when we. When we lose, so.
[00:00:51] Speaker C: But we're not gonna lose. We're not gonna lose. Don't. Don't jinx it, Ryan. We're gonna win. We're gonna win. Listen, we. We said that we would make it to the super bowl, and I know this sounds crazy, but there's apparently, like, this.
There's a new Pope. The Seahawks make it to the super bowl, and one time we won, and one time we lost. And so I. We're. We're due for a win. So that's what I say.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: There you go. All right, well, if there's an abrupt editing like cliff here, it's because the Seahawks did not win, and I asked our editor to take this piece of it out. But if they win, Go Hawks. Great job. All right, so we're going to start, as we usually do, with a listener review. Sam, we've gone through the uk We're, I think, done with Australia, New Zealand, but we. We might have one or two left there, but I've headed back over to Canada.
[00:01:36] Speaker C: Okay, but first you gotta. I have to do simply the best. Better than all the rest. Much better than I was yesterday when
[00:01:44] Speaker B: we recorded kissing in the shower.
[00:01:46] Speaker C: I've been. I've been doing my. My vocal exercises. Yeah.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Unique New York. Unique New York.
All right, so this review this week comes from Canadian DCL fan who writes reliable, fair, and objective. If your name is DCL Duo, it is implied that you are a fan of dcl. I genuinely appreciate how. I genuinely appreciate how the show shares timely information about dcl, yet doesn't shy away from trying different offerings and bringing counterpoints to balance those views. I find the podcast useful for getting the most out of the DCL experience. All right, well, so we aim to do Canadian DCL fans, so thank you for that review. We do love to let listeners know what other options are out there, which we will be also doing on this episode of the show.
[00:02:32] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, we're not really venturing that far. We're only venturing like two steps away from Disney Cruise.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, yeah, fair enough. We're still within the Disney portfolio of experiences.
I also love the use of the word counterpoint here because, Sam, I keep thinking we should bring back point counterpoint. We did that really early on in the show.
[00:02:50] Speaker C: Or we would fight about a particular topic.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: Yeah, it was like a Patreon exclusive for a while and then we would publish it out. But maybe we could get our Patreons involved in giving us topics, topics that they want us to debate and then we could go off and do that. That could be their contribution.
[00:03:04] Speaker C: Okay, as long as they don't make us debate like the Seahawks versus the Patriots, because we're on the same side of that debate.
[00:03:09] Speaker B: Well, and that. And we know nothing beyond that. There's a sports ball game happening this weekend and our home team is expected to rouse the visiting team. So, yes, we are not big sports fans. We're just, you know, big local fans. So.
All right, well, with that, I just want to remind folks out there listening, one of the easiest ways to help support the show. Head over to Apple Podcasts or frankly, you can also do this on Spotify. I have been checking. Our reviews have been going up on Spotify. They like doubled in the last year. So you can also head over to Spotify, but head over to Apple Podcasts. Leave us a five star review. Just hit those five stars. If you want to, you can leave a written review and we will read it on the air at the top of one of our main episodes.
[00:03:48] Speaker C: And don't forget to subscribe to us on YouTube because we do want to get those subscriber numbers up. We are putting out all of our episodes with the exception of, you know, if we have, have. If the video is really terrible. We put out all our episodes on YouTube as well as on the sort of standard podcast channel. So please follow us if you're not already following us or subscribe to us on YouTube. All right, well, with that we've got to introduce our wonderful, lovely guest to the show for the first time on our show. Not a first time cruiser episode, although kind of a first time cruiser episode. I'll just leave it at that until I give the show topic. But welcome, Lauren. We are outnumbering Brian Long Islanders to one on this show.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: I think any in Kentuckian is going to be automatically outnumbered by New Yorkers.
[00:04:38] Speaker C: Well, I mean that. That is true. That is true. Well, welcome Lauren. We're excited to have you on. We're excited to talk about your first experience on a river cruise with Adventures by Disney. But before we get to today's show topic, we have to go into your Disney background, your Disney cruising background. I know you're a travel advisor. How did you get started though with Disney? Was it like before becoming a travel advisor or did being a travel advisor get you into Disney?
[00:05:07] Speaker A: No, it definitely was before I was a travel advisor. I'd say Disney brought me to being a travel agent more than the other way around.
My very first cruise was in the Big Red boat, which is not technically Disney. Years ago I tried to ask them if I got Castwick status for it. But you do.
And then my dad really liked cruising, so we did a bit of that when I was a kid.
Different cruise lines. And then I would say I had a very long time where I did not cruise at all. I did other kinds of travel and now with my own children. So I have a 11 year old and a 6 year old and they are perfect ages for cruises. So we've done quite a few cruises more recently and it is my favorite way to travel these days. And then maybe when they're bigger we'll do some other kinds of trips as well. So the river cruise was a nice bridge from ocean cruising over to kind of more of like cultural cruising and seeing the places more.
[00:06:04] Speaker C: Yeah, well. And you've done some interesting itineraries with your kids even prior to doing river cruise. Now have those. I know you, you mentioned you've done like Norway and, and I can't remember where else but like Alaska. That's right. So have you done all of those on Disney Cruise line or have you done those in other. Okay, yeah. So you, you. So your, your kids are familiar with travel that is a little bit further away from like the Caribbean.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: So we've been working towards that. So when we did Alaska, I would say my daughter was a little young for Alaska, but it was multi generational. My mom came with us. She really, that was on her bucket list.
And we want to do the travel when she can enjoy it with the grandkids and still do all of the things.
And Disney was the perfect way to do that for us. We're going to have to go back. I have to go to Glacier Bay and some of the excursions we couldn't do because at the time My daughter was 4. I want to say, maybe she was 5, but she was too young for some of the excursions. Then we did Norway last summer, so that was much more recent. And I have worked very hard with. I have two kids that are very good travelers. So that was also like, our test. We spent, you know, a little bit more than a week in London and England beforehand doing more things that I wanted to see. Like, can you go visit the Roman baths and enjoy it and listen to the audio and get something out of it? Or are you complaining?
Like, I want everyone to have a good time. And, you know, I really try to cue them up beforehand. Right. So we get them excited about the destinations. And so anyway, they did great in Norway. And then this Adventures by Disney River Cruise kind of came together about a month beforehand, and it just seemed to be perfect for everyone. And it was also a little bit of a test for us, and they. Everyone had a great time. So. Spoiler.
[00:07:49] Speaker B: But what piqued your interest with ABD and river cruising? Was it the. It sounds like maybe shifting over toward this more cultural aspect of. Of cruising. But I'm curious, like, why ebd? Why a river cruise?
[00:08:02] Speaker A: So, yes, you already kind of nailed it. So one thing is that we almost always travel with my mother, and she does not like crowds or lines or, you know, some of the components. You know, she does love a Disney cruise, but. But she loved the idea of the smaller ship. Again, we're trying to do all of these things while she's very fit and, you know, she turned 76 while we were on this cruise, but she can still do everything and walk everywhere. And we want to do all of that while she's still, you know, healthy and can enjoy that.
[00:08:33] Speaker C: Oh, happy birthday, Grandma.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: We also celebrated my son's birthday on it as well. And they gave pins on the, you know, birthday pins. And that made his day because that's one of his favorite parts.
[00:08:44] Speaker C: Oh, happy birthday to him, too.
Happy 11th.
[00:08:47] Speaker A: Yes, yes, 11th. Yes. They're a little bit far apart, but so I also thought that it offers something for everyone. So I love. Like, I backpacked around Europe. I studied abroad in Luxembourg. A lot of the places that we visit on this cruise I had already been to, but I didn't think my children were quite ready for the, like, pack your bags, get on a train, travel somewhere else. I have to figure out the food. I have to do all that executive functioning constantly for everyone. So I wanted a vacation I. That everyone could really enjoy. And for us, the adventure guys were perfect also, like, we would go back on AMAL Waterways in a heartbeat. But children have to be eight for at least all the itineraries that were interesting for my family. So my daughter is not yet old enough for Animal Waterways. If it's not Adventures by Disney.
[00:09:31] Speaker C: Oh, interesting. I didn't realize that they had that age limit. I mean we were aware that the sort of room availability, like the three person room availability, that's not a thing, I think outside of booking on abd. But I wasn't aware that they had a minimum that is higher than Disney's minimum because Disney has also an age minimum. I can't remember if it's five or
[00:09:54] Speaker A: six, but it was six for this. She was the youngest passenger on the ship. She was six, although for next year it's five. So maybe because she did so well.
But AMA Waterways for similar itineraries because we did we. When we came home, everybody was like, can we do this again next year? And so of course I looked into it right away and we're very restricted because I don't like to pull the kids from school and the ABD dates didn't work for us so well. And that's when I started investigating and sadly my daughter has to get a little bit older.
[00:10:29] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. Because ABD charters a certain number of AMA Waterways river cruises for the season and it's not, it's only certain weeks. Right. And so if you've got other things that you're already planning on, whether that's like camps or work or whatever, like even in the summertime. Right. Like you, you aren't necessarily going to have all of the options that are available through amma. But of course with AMA you have this age restriction which that I didn't realize. So that. Yeah. Thank you for educating us, Lauren. I mean our, our son is 12, so we don't have that, you know, that age restriction wouldn't apply to us. But it's still good to know what's out there and with the community. Of course.
Now you guys are traveling from the east coast of the us how far in advance did you travel over to Munich? We're talking about. Sorry, I should mention we're going to talk about a Danube cruise after Christmas. So.
So it was a wintertime cruise on the Danube that goes from Munich to Budapest. So the same itinerary that we did, except ours was the Christmas markets themed one because ours was probably a week or two before your sailing. Yeah. So how far in advance did you guys head to Munich?
[00:11:40] Speaker A: So ours was the magic holidays, which is what they Call it when all the Christmas markets are closed.
And the way the school calendar worked this year, we had school through December 23rd and the cruise. Yes. Wait, you heard that right.
[00:11:56] Speaker C: You had school through December 23rd. You didn't start your Christmas break until. Wow. You had Christmas break starting on Christmas Eve. Wow.
That's the.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: We do get the Jewish holidays right. So we'll get off Passover, but yeah.
[00:12:13] Speaker C: So this is Long island, folks.
No place else gets the Jewish holidays off.
[00:12:21] Speaker A: So this is also like, it's always tight. That's why the dates didn't work for us for next year. Otherwise this would have been the family tradition. Every, like the well way Disney ushers in the new year was exactly our level of like celebrating December 31st.
But so my children really want to be home on Christmas Day. They think that I travel with them maybe a little too much sometimes.
So we flew out on the evening of Christmas so they got to be home in the morning. And then we headed and we landed and we arrived in munich on the 26th. And then the ABD gathered on the 27th. So that was our first day. So we did not have any time. So usually that's not how I would do it. I always like to come in earlier adjustments, the time change, have a couple of days. When we did Norway, we did like a week beforehand. We did Alaska, we did Vancouver, you know, we do all those things, but we were restricted. We were tired on the 26th for sure.
[00:13:18] Speaker C: Yeah. Your first day was. Is probably a little rough.
[00:13:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I would say I had been to Munich before. I would not say my family really got to experience much of Munich. We arrived, we got to the hotel, we looked at a kind of closed down Christmas market. We had a great meal and then the vacation really started the next day when we met with adventure guides and headed towards the ship.
[00:13:37] Speaker C: Awesome. All right, well, I mean, you.
[00:13:39] Speaker B: Did you stay at the Disney recommended hotel in Munich the night before?
[00:13:42] Speaker A: Yes.
I mean, it was so again, I wanted a frictionless trip. Right. I didn't want to have to move our bags more than one time or anything like that.
It was a little further from the heart of Munich than I would prefer if we were actually really exploring Munich. But you go down in the morning, they take your luggage, you see it again in your cabin. I mean, that couldn't be any easier.
And they were very, you know, they were nice and it's all good.
[00:14:10] Speaker C: That's one of the great things about adventures by Disney, I would say, is there's a perfect description, frictionless travel. Right. Like they pick you up from, you know, they arrange your pickup from the airport, they arrange your, you know, your transport from. If you're staying at the ABD Hotel or whatever designated hotel that Disney designates. They, they have your, you know, your transfers to the ship is taken care of, all of those things. And like every, every transfer to every excursion is taken care of. Right. Like, you don't have to do any of that. Like you mentioned executive planning and, you know, arranging for everyone, everything.
And then you can just worry about, like, keeping your kids entertained and enjoying things and maybe a little bit on the food side of things, worrying about what they're going to eat at certain places. Just because if you're, if your kids aren't very adventurous eaters, obviously just eating in Europe is going to be different.
But yeah, it is really frictionless travel. So now it was. Is it your family of four and your mom that were traveling or.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: It was my two children, my mother and myself.
And so, and again, so I will say we did book this very last minute, literally when I, I was like, do we want to do this? And my mother was like, yes, actually, let's do this right now. And I was like, are you sure? And she's like, yes. And I called and there were two cabins left on the ship. So it was a completely sold out ship.
They were not on the same deck and they were not really near each other and they each only held two people.
So one was on the top deck with the nice French doors out to the balcony, and the other was on the bottom deck, which was perfectly adequate. I might have taken the top.
[00:15:46] Speaker C: I was gonna say who got, who got what room? Yeah, and, and which kid did you bunk? Each bunk with was like, did you have to arrange like. Or did you have to kind of swap and things?
[00:15:56] Speaker A: So the children had their own ideas. I assumed son would want to stay with me just because my. I don't know, I just assumed he would and that my daughter would stay with my mother. And my son told me that he wanted to be on the bottom. He liked being close to the river level. He wanted to look out of those windows. And so we were actually assigned to the incorrect rooms, but it didn't really matter at all.
And both rooms were lovely and it totally worked. And we ended up having to change ships and every time they gave us the exact same rooms. So, you know, whatever room number you were, that's where your luggage was. Even if you actually were on a second or a third trip on this,
[00:16:34] Speaker C: we'll get to that in just a second. But I have to say, it's funny when you think about that, but AMA Waterways, and the same is true for, I think, Viking and a lot of the other river cruising, like every ship is in that brand is exactly the same. Like, there might be some slight differences in decor, but the layout and the rooms are identical across their fleet. So it's not like you're comparing a wonder to a wish or anything like that, as you're literally like, the Amaviola is the same as the ama whatever. You know, like all the different. Well, you probably, you know, three different ship names. But let's actually get to that first, since. Since you mentioned it.
So normally on a river cruise you are in one place. Like on an ocean cruise, you're in one room, state room. You never have to change staterooms unless there's like a problem with your stateroom. Right. And you don't change ships. But.
Sorry, but you had to change ships twice. And sometimes that can happen because of river, like, water levels. I'm curious, like, you had two changes. Where did those happen and why did those happen?
[00:17:46] Speaker A: So, I mean, and I had sold this to my family as a floating hotel. And you don't have to pack up.
So on our embarkation day, you know, you get on the ship that was all extremely smooth. The ship was beautiful. It was all still decorated. For Christmas. We go to our rooms. And then you have your first kind of meeting in the lounge. Everyone's there. And you meet the cruise director. We had Luige. He was fabulous. You meet the ABD guides. We had six of them because we had a full ship.
And you meet the captain. And so everyone's doing the things. And then in retrospect, I realized the ABD Guides all started kind of looking at their phones a little bit.
And maybe somebody got pulled for a second, but you're not really paying attention. Everyone's just so excited to be there. And it's just gorgeous. And then the captain broke the news to us that one of the locks out of Passau, Germany, was broken. And so we couldn't get through it, but that they had a basically identical ship on the other side of the lock. And so our first day would be the same. And then on day three, I want to check my notes. It could have been day two. I have to look at it. But they would take us to our activities and then they would bus us to the next ship. And it didn't add much time. I have to say. It was very, very smooth. The only thing was. And you Kind of looked around the room. Everyone had just unpacked, right. Like we had gotten there. You had a little time before dinner.
I used packing cubes, so it wasn't so bad. I was like, I'll just shove them back in the suitcase.
So that was the first change. And I would say the only thing that went wrong for that, which was my own fault.
You know, I'm packing for the kids who are in two different rooms and it was cold because it's December in Europe and I did not pack my like thermals for the day that we. And I realized it, but I'd already zip up to the suitcase. I was like, oh, it'll be fine. And that was the only day that it was cold. So that was my own fault. I should have just unzipped the suitcase. I had them for the kids. They were fine.
So that was really very smooth. The second change was water levels. And that was for our sailing from Vienna into Budapest.
And that was a little bit more disappointing because that's a longer sailing.
So time that you really thought you'd be on the river and kind of just looking at the scenery and enjoying that.
[00:20:06] Speaker C: Yeah. And sailing into Budapest is like a beautiful sail in.
Yeah, I totally understand because we actually we got to do that and.
And we did not ever sail out of Passau because their water. Because the water levels were too high. So you had the issue of the Loc lock was fine when we were there, but we couldn't sail out of Paso because the water levels were too high then. So these things do happen with river cruising. So I think it's good to know.
But yeah, I can totally understand being disappointed. Not just from the standpoint of you've got to move a second time so you have to pack up again and unpack again. But for just that like last night or whatnot. But also you're missing that sail into Budapest. And so you end up just getting bused into Budapest.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: Right. And it's a long. That's actually a longer distance. So the first was really almost no distance different. Maybe we were on the bus an extra 20 minutes. It was nothing.
This was longer. I will say so. I know I'm going all out of order on the trip, but so it was, I think over a three hour bus ride we ended up having to take to get into Hungary. And originally we were. The only day that we had different excursions was that last day my son and I were going to do the Buddha caves, which I have been past, but I had never been to that. And that sounded fascinating.
And we were again, the last people to book. So that was the only excursion that they didn't have four spots for that we wanted to do.
So my daughter and my mother were doing, like, a city tour of Buda in the area.
When they wanted us to change ships, you had to get on the bus that was going to your excursion.
And, you know, you're also. Hungary is quasi in the eu. It's like, not the same. So I was like, I have everyone's passports now. My daughter doesn't have the same last name as my mother. Are they going to be on another bus? You know, what's going to happen with the. So I will say I spoke to, you know, one of the guides, and we all ended up on the same bus, even though we're going to different excursions. And so that was totally fine. But I did have a little bit of just, you know, when you're traveling across countries, I just want that all to be smooth.
However, they added an excursion for us in Vienna that was fabulous because we ended up having extra time in Vienna. And so we ended up going to the Spanish riding school there, which was not part of our original itinerary. And it was one of everyone's favorite excursions. Although I say that about almost every excursion as we did it, so, but, so that was a nice addition. So they did really try to kind of balance it out.
And then I'm going to spoil the end, too, which is that there was like a major storm at the beginning of January in the Netherlands.
And so we ended up having an extra weekend in Budapest when our flights were canceled and we couldn't leave for, like, three days.
[00:22:58] Speaker C: Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
[00:23:01] Speaker A: So there were, there were, you know, things. I, I kind of booked this as, like, I'm always planning everyone's trips and trying to, like, figure out all the details. And I wanted to just go and be a person who other people directed around and then a lot of moving parts anyway, but it was all right.
[00:23:16] Speaker C: Oh, my God. Wow. All right.
[00:23:18] Speaker A: Sorry, I, I didn't go chronologically.
[00:23:20] Speaker C: No, no, it's, that's totally fine.
I forgot. We forgot to ask you about rooms.
[00:23:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I kind of want to know the stateroom you got on board. I mean, one of the benefits of ABD is you can put three people in a room. But, like, I, I, I'm curious, like, what was your stateroom set up? And, you know, how'd you find it compared to being on an ocean cruise?
[00:23:41] Speaker A: Sorry, I'm thinking about it because there's Such pluses and minuses. I mean, we actually. We loved everything about everything, really.
My stateroom was nicer than my mother's stateroom and my son's stateroom.
Yeah. Which we didn't really use too much. I don't tend to sleep on vacation because I have, like, FOMO at every moment. So, you know, I'm stepping out on the balcony while we're going through the locks, not touching anything. They tell you not to touch anything, but the wall is right there. Like, you could. I'm trying to film it, but it's like a gray, wet wall. It doesn't look like anything in the dark. I was like, no one could tell what I'm looking at right here.
But the room was beautiful. Everything was super clean. The showers. I know this is weird, but, like, the shower was fabulous, which is not my general experience on an ocean cruise.
So we really loved all that. I would say the three ships.
Our third ship is the ship that is going to become the ABD ship for 2026 and was very clearly the newest, most wonderful of the three ships.
[00:24:45] Speaker C: Ooh, that's good to know because we're going to be on that ship this summer.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: Phenomenal. The first ship was fabulous. Fabulous as well. The middle ship was very nice and had the very nicest staff, but was maybe, you know. You know how they have tiers of their kind of ships. They all look the same, but really all the rooms are basically the same.
The first two had the Mac. That's like your computer and tv. And then there was an actual TV in the last one. But the changes are very minor.
It's hard for me to compare between, like, a dcl, just because we often squish four people in a DCL stateroom and there were only two. So you couldn't fit your suitcases under the beds. You did have to put them in the closet.
[00:25:30] Speaker B: We managed to wedge ours under there.
[00:25:32] Speaker C: We wedged one underneath the bed.
[00:25:34] Speaker B: I think we got two under there. I think we got like.
[00:25:36] Speaker C: Well, maybe. No, I think we only got one under the bed. The other one, I remember standing up in the closet also. We have, like, these big trunks and we were able to wedge one of them, like, but it had to be open in order to wedge it. And it was like, we really wedged it good under there.
[00:25:51] Speaker B: I think they would fit under if you. If you had, like, a stand. Because ours are trunks.
[00:25:55] Speaker C: Right.
[00:25:55] Speaker B: Like you said suitcase. You opened it all the way up.
[00:25:58] Speaker C: Yeah. Then you could. Yeah. I just don't know if you could fit Two large ones. I think you could fit one large one, but maybe. But yeah.
[00:26:04] Speaker B: I don't know if you got more than one under there, but I. Yeah.
[00:26:07] Speaker A: Anyway, I mean, I didn't try that hard. I will say, because again, we're packing queue people, so I wasn't really hanging stuff in the closets. And, you know, I'll say this is minor, but not for me because I'm a coffee drinker. My stateroom was pretty close to where they had their, like, cappuccino machine station. And I loved being able to just go there in the morning.
[00:26:28] Speaker C: Morning.
[00:26:28] Speaker A: And make my own cup of coffee and bring it back to the room, you know?
[00:26:33] Speaker C: Yeah, we liked the coffee machine, too. We felt like that. I mean, that was ours. We were. We were on, I think, further away from it. But like, I. We loved going. Yeah, we loved going. Getting up and getting our coffee.
[00:26:45] Speaker B: I also wanted to say, I agree with your comment on the bat. Like, we had a room that had a balcony. But, like, when you're docked. Right. Like, you're frequently just up against another ship, so you're not going to be. Or a wall.
[00:26:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:26:54] Speaker B: Or a wall or so. So, like. Yeah, I, Like, I didn't see a ton of like, I. Our room had like a.
It was like there was the outdoor little balcony and then next to it was like.
This is going to sound more grandiose than it is. It's like the. There was like the enclosed sunroom. It was just a little alcove. Like, that ended up being where.
Because.
[00:27:12] Speaker C: Yeah, that was the chair that Nathan slept in. Yeah. Because we had the room for three people. Yeah.
[00:27:16] Speaker B: I actually wonder why they don't just, like, make it all enclosed. You have a little bit more space in the room because you're probably not using the balcony. I don't understand what you're thinking.
[00:27:25] Speaker A: A lot of the rooms on this ship had the.
[00:27:27] Speaker C: The.
[00:27:29] Speaker A: Where you can close that. So it is, you know, the.
[00:27:32] Speaker C: The.
[00:27:33] Speaker A: It can be a veranda, but it can also just be an extension.
So I didn't have that. Although, again, I had no choice.
[00:27:39] Speaker C: Right, right. You were the last two rooms on the ship.
[00:27:42] Speaker A: Both rooms were totally fine. Nice. You know, I would say the only thing I didn't like about the room that was down was that on one of the ships. And again, we were on three. The spiral staircase to go down was, I thought, a little treacherous. I mean.
And again, I'm also thinking about my mother. And, you know.
[00:28:02] Speaker C: Well, that's. That's one thing. Like, these ships are there Are elevators that go to certain levels, but they don't go to all the levels. Right. Or do they go to all their own?
[00:28:13] Speaker A: The elevator did go to all the levels.
[00:28:15] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: But.
[00:28:16] Speaker C: But they're not a. Like, these are not ADA accessible ships. So, like, they are. They're not.
They are. Like you can't really be in a wheelchair. Like, if you're like a full wheelchair user. Like, this is not the ship for you. Like, these are. I don't know if there are river cruises that have accessible rooms and whatnot, but the ones. At least the ones that AMA that we were. The one we were on, the one newer on, not 88, not accessible for.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: There was a family with a child who needed.
She could walk as well, but she was definitely in like a wheelchair stroller kind of vehicle. And she did. Okay. We did several excursions with them.
Where I think it's very tricky is often actually the ramp to get up when you know, depending on where you're docked, because that can be very, very steep.
And so that's a lot of physical strength. You need really to push someone up one of those. I was.
They definitely need. I mean, they did it beautifully, but it was. It was work.
[00:29:15] Speaker C: Right. Well, I'm probably easier with like a small child in a wheelchair than like a fully grown adult in a wheelchair, for sure. So I. Yeah.
[00:29:23] Speaker D: Are you listening to our show because you want to make the most out of your next vacation. Great news. The fabulous team over at MyPath Unwinding Travel can help guide you so you don't miss a thing. Their team of professional travel advisors are caring, knowledgeable and experienced. It's why we use them to book our own travel. Mypath Unwinding Travel is an authorized Disney vacation planner, which means they are recognized by Disney for their expertise and service. They have sailed on all the Disney ships, including in concierge, visited the theme parks, adventured with Disney, relaxed at Aulani, and so much more. Whether it's a Disney cruise, a theme park vacation, or adventures by Disney, or if you are looking to expand beyond the mouse, My Path Unwinding Travel will elevate your next vacation planning experience. Even if you have already booked, reach out for a complimentary consultation to make your vacation even more magical. Ready to talk to the experts? Head over to 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.
[00:30:21] Speaker C: Well, let's Talk about your, your, your, your excursions because I think that's like the, the big thing about traveling in Europe is, you know, and traveling on a river cruise. The excursions are included with your river cruise on abd, on ama, if you book, book directly with Alma. A lot of river cruises have. Not every single river cruising company includes all the excursions, but most of them do. I think I can say that from what we, from what we know. Tell us, like, how many choices did you have for excursions? Typically, I think for us, I feel like it was two. Like we had. And sometimes there would be a morning and an afternoon one because they were half day ones. But generally we felt like every day we were given like two choices. It was that similar for you?
[00:31:03] Speaker A: Yes, that was definitely similar. I. Some days we had three. Again, I think we probably had a more full ship than you might have had. I loved that it was all inclusive. Honestly, at the end of that, if we're going to compare on your last day, when you get your bill from dcl and I always do the Rainforest Room and you know, I do all the things on the last day I get a zero bill from, you know, my abd, which is just a beautiful thing.
And that's, you know, your drinks and your food and everything there. But so we have.
[00:31:32] Speaker C: Unless you're buying cocktails outside of the, what do they call it, sip and sale hour. Right? Like, that's the only, that would be the only thing, I guess, if you did spa appointments or gym appointments. Right. But most people, you don't even have time for that. I'm like, I don't know.
[00:31:46] Speaker A: I don't know how you would get a drink outside of the hours. Honestly, I felt like they were always giving me drinks. I mean, I'm not a huge drinker. So I mean, but you know, and at dinner I was like, how many classes did I have? I have no idea. It's always full.
You know, we also were there for New Year's Eve, so they had the New Year's Eve party, you know, like, I mean, I'm sure you could spend money if you were determined, but it was really not necessary for our. We had some great excursions. I do think, because I did listen to your cruise, you know, I went back in the podcast to kind of, you know, get some ideas as well because I knew it was a similar itinerary before we went. So I think we did some of the same things. But so Passau in Germany, just, you know, it's a walking tour of the town. The Kids really liked that. It was a nice way to start my. So aside from me, nobody in my family had been to Germany, Austria, or Hungary. So these were all new countries for them. And I had not been to any of the smaller places, but I had been to all of the big cities that we visited.
So that was our first day. And then in Austria, we did the salt mines, which was phenomenal. And everybody loved that. And that was also our day on abd. They give a family like Minnie, and you bring Minnie around all day long, and you take pictures of Minnie in all the different places. And so my daughter was gifted Minnie for the day. And so Minnie went to the salt mines. And when we walked across between the Austria and Germany border, we have a picture of the family with Minnie walking across, and Minnie went down the slides. And so that was, like, the perfect day to have Minnie.
[00:33:21] Speaker C: That is the best day to have Minnie. I am. I'm jealous. We got Minnie once, but we got her in Vienna at the. The Palace. So we got her for the palace day, and it was wonderful. But, like, having Minnie at the salt mines would have been awesome. Like, I love that. Oh, the salt mines is the best excursion, though. That's, like, so good. For those who don't know, it's, like, on the border between Austria and Germany, and you. It's like. It's educational, but you get to go down slides. You get a small little boat ride. It's like. Like, just. It's like everything in one. It's. It's. And you get to cross an international border underground and not go through customs because you go right back through.
[00:34:03] Speaker A: At my Disney heart, I kept being like, okay, so we're gonna go on a very slow version of Seven Dwarves Mine Train. Now, little, like, train at the beginning.
[00:34:12] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:34:13] Speaker A: Straddle this little log thing. And then, you know, and then there's a boat part. And I was like, it's a small world. And there's a little light show, you know, so we did all the things.
[00:34:22] Speaker C: And.
[00:34:23] Speaker A: Because the thing about doing it with ABD is that I will say this is probably true on lots of river cruises. But everyone we talked to on this cruise was lovely, right? Like, we. All of the other guests, we didn't know, besides our family, the kids made friends. We talked to people.
It was just a very lovely gathering of people, which could be random, but it felt to me like there was just a little magic there in the whole thing. So we had done that. I think that was also the day that we, the kids, did some of these junior Adventure tours, which they really loved. So like we. If this is the day we toured a monastery and so the adults went on one tour and then the kids got to do all these behind the scenes things and they had a great time as well. In fact, I was maybe a little jealous of their tour. They got to go places that we did not get to go. They were like opened up this secret door in the wall and we went in and, you know, so that helped them bond with the other kids. And also again, why we picked abd that my mother and I could go and have kind of this cultural historical experience. And I'm very much a nerd for those things. I think I'm going to remember everything the tour guide tells me. I want to be right up front. I don't retain any of it. I can't even give you the details now. I should be taking notes, but I'm very into it when I'm there.
And then the kids are also doing something where they're learning something and they're having cultural experience, but they're having a lot of fun too.
And the guides would do things like there was still a Christmas market outside of that first monastery, I believe. And so then the guides bought all the kids hot chocolate and the mugs from the Christmas market and got to keep the mugs, you know. So they're also doing these things that are just like these nice little touches for everybody. We loved. Although I think that I. You guys did this one as well.
We did the apricot farm. I don't know. Did you do this one?
[00:36:11] Speaker C: We did.
We made apricot jam at a.
[00:36:16] Speaker B: It was like a chateau. And there was like four or five different experiences.
[00:36:19] Speaker C: Yeah, we like that as well.
[00:36:20] Speaker A: Like the dancing and the.
[00:36:22] Speaker C: Yes, it was that one.
[00:36:23] Speaker B: And the fish, like they had like a.
[00:36:25] Speaker C: We didn't go to a farm.
[00:36:26] Speaker A: Yeah, we went to an apricot farm. If you're not seeing it, I would 100% recommend this. It was fabulous.
It was cold, so we weren't outside at all. We were inside. But it was a family run apricot farm in Austria. Apricots are really important to the region.
The guide was also the owner, right. And he was incredibly passionate, this young guy working with his father and stuff. And we tried apricot wine there, which was delicious. It was like white wine that they do not export to the US because everybody was asking them. It was so good. And we had apricot horseradish, which was phenomenal. I bought multiple jars because that will make it to my Holiday table.
[00:37:14] Speaker C: And I know exactly what holiday you're speaking of.
[00:37:19] Speaker A: We celebrate them all over here.
And it was just his passion and his interest. The kids were interested. Everyone was really interested.
So that was, like, a really nice excursion as well.
We did that when other people were going to the Durnstein Castle, which I think the Durinstein Castle is probably great in the summer, but it was cold and it's a ruin, and it was snowy. I don't know. I was happy to be on the farm.
[00:37:46] Speaker B: Was Durnstein Castle was that that stop that we had, Sam, where we could. You could either go to the castle or we. We ended up walking into town, which
[00:37:53] Speaker C: was like, no, we didn't have. So I think because ours was Christmas markets focused that, like, some of the excursions that you had, you had more excursions than we had because we had all, like, we had market stops in every place that.
And so we had.
Yeah, we had, like, half days that were where we went or several hours where we went to, you know, a set of Christmas markets. And so that. I think that's where.
[00:38:18] Speaker A: Where.
[00:38:19] Speaker C: So it. It sounds to me like maybe half or maybe a little bit more than half of your excursions were, like, the same as ours. But then we had, like, sort of less excursions because ours had all the Christmas markets that were.
[00:38:30] Speaker A: Oh, that would make sense, right? Cause we had. We didn't have a lot. I mean, you could have opted to do places on your own, but. But I didn't really do that. So even, like the day that we did pretty much every day, if it was a morning excursion, there was something else in the afternoon, so there was, like a brewery tour that we looked at then. I'm trying to go in order, but I'm. I'm looking at my notes because it does all start to blend. The Schonbrunn palace was another one where they did the junior tour for the junior adventurers. And my kids loved that as well. And we did our tour, and that was the marionette show. And my son was like, like, can I become a marionette person? Like, can I do this? I thought.
[00:39:08] Speaker B: I thought you were saying, can I become a marionette? I was like, sure,
[00:39:12] Speaker C: yeah. Yeah.
[00:39:13] Speaker A: He convinced me to buy him one of the things at the gift shop. And then that was. You know, he played with that for the entire rest of the trip that made appearances, you know, they loved that. That was.
[00:39:22] Speaker C: Did your daughter enjoy it as much? I mean, Your son is 11, your daughter's 6. Like, did. Did your daughter enjoy it as Much as your son did. Like, did you find, like, she was the youngest, as you mentioned, the youngest person on the ship. Like, was. Was there enough to entertain her?
[00:39:37] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:39:37] Speaker C: Yeah. Because she can hang. I like it.
[00:39:39] Speaker A: All right. She.
She loved all the junior adventure things. She. There was a girl who was like a year older than her and then another little girl who was actually closer to my son's age. But they all just kind of bonded together. She had a great time. Even, like, when we were in the lounge, you know, when they gather you every day to kind of talk about what is coming up for. You know, the children would play games. They'd play chess or at some of the ships, depending on the ship, the kind of games that they had. They were playing life. You remember life with little cars?
[00:40:06] Speaker C: Yeah. The game of life with the cars. Yeah.
[00:40:09] Speaker A: So they were really great. She is. My daughter is like me. She wants to be in the front. She wants to hear everything the tour guide says. That was at times a little scary. So in Strasbourg was our busiest place that we visited. It felt like, to me. And that was our one guide. It wasn't an adventure guide. It was, you know, their guide that.
He just walked really fast. I felt like you couldn't take a picture. You couldn't really see anything. And my daughter is determined to be in the front. And she's tiny, so she's. And I can't get up. I'm like, hold on. Where is she? This is like a real city with people around.
And they. I will say my kids have this sense of, like, they're. They have no fear of anything. Like, they just live in this world that is. I wish we could all live in the world that they live in.
And so. So that was a little bit stressful, but for everything. Even. So, we were on the cruise for New Year's Eve.
I don't think my daughter's ever stayed up to midnight before, but she was up partying with the ABD guides and all the kids until midnight. And then we're on the river and the fireworks are going off all on the river. The whole Danube is just glowing with fireworks. That was really sealed the deal. Everyone was like, can we be on a river cruise every year for New Year's?
[00:41:23] Speaker C: That sounds amazing. Yeah.
We were already gone back. Well, to the States by the time New Year's came around. But that. I think it would be.
I honestly, I mean, we. We had Christmas or. No, we were traveling on Christmas, I think. Right, Brian? Didn't we travel? We were making the dumb decision to Fly to Hawaii.
[00:41:43] Speaker B: Hawaii Decision I ever made.
[00:41:46] Speaker C: Yeah, well, do not recommend at all. But, yeah. So we were like, we were on the ship basically the week leading up to Christmas and then. But, yeah, I feel like the Danube. I feel like any of the rivers, like, you could be on the Seine, you could be on the Rhine. You could. You know, you'd get, like, great fireworks shows from whatever city you're sort of right outside of.
[00:42:07] Speaker A: It was. I mean, and they were all over the place. It was just beautiful. So we're in Vienna. I mean, how could you not love it? So we had extra time in Vienna again because we were going to change the ships. And that's when they added the Spanish writing school.
There were so many excursions. I'm telling you, I write it. I try to, like, every day. I.
I record on, like, you know, socials. And I'm like, this is what we did today, and here are all the pictures. And I was looking at it all before talking to you guys, and it still does, because you're never stopped moving, like. And because we are the family that says yes to basically everything.
We were always doing everything.
[00:42:41] Speaker C: You're the fomo. Like me.
You can't, like, sit down and skip something because you're like, no, I have to go. Like, they offer these excursions. I have to go to an excursion. Like, I can't go to both, like, because it can't be two places at once. But if there's a morning and an afternoon excursion, answer is, yes, I'm going to one each.
[00:42:59] Speaker A: Right.
And I did ask the kids, because I knew I was doing this, obviously, what was their favorite excursions? Yeah, well, first, my son was just like, everything, and he was totally serious.
And that's, you know, just how he 100% felt. And then. But the salt mine, I would say, was a hit. I really love the Apricot Farm a huge amount. When we were in Budapest, so my son and I did the Buddha Caves tour. So you'd go into the. These caves underneath Budapest that they focus a lot on how people evacuated into those during World War II.
And kind of the conditions of that at that time, which was really fascinating. And it's just such an interesting way to see the city.
So that was another really big hit. But I would also say all the ones that had junior adventure tours were.
They loved it. The marionette thing was another huge one. And then they are kids, right? So I had told them when I went to Austria, I remember getting really delicious hot chocolate. So every time we had any, we Were ever off the boat, they were like, can we get hot chocolate? Can we get hot chocolate? And they do have better hot chocolate. I don't know why. So.
[00:44:08] Speaker C: Because it's like real chocolate. They don't use that powder stuff. Like, they actually melt chocolate and put milk and, you know, they're actually making it, like, in a pot or something. Like, they're not. It's not. It's just not the fake powder stuff that we use.
[00:44:20] Speaker A: And the Spanish writing school, I mean, they were all. Everything we did was fabulous. And then on board was fabulous too. So because they had the junior adventure, they junior adventure dinner. So, like, the adults, we went to the chef's table and we had an amazing meal, right? And the kids are totally happy. They could have, I will say on abd, they told us we could bring the kids to the chef's table.
That I asked them. I showed them the menu. They were both like, you know, so they didn't do that. We.
[00:44:47] Speaker C: We did the same as you, Lauren. It was like we. We showed Nathan, like. Like, here's what the menu is at the. At the chef's table. And we're like. But there. But it happened to be one of the nights that it was a junior adventure dinner, which is, I think, the greatest thing if you can, like, arrange your chef's table on a night that's a junior. Because not every night is a junior adventure dinner. But it was perfect because then he had, like, his hamburger and french fries or whatever with the. With the ABD guides. And we had this, like. I mean, it was a fast chef's table meal for us, like, compared to what we've done on land.
But it was a really nice meal and a really nice experience to do. And you get to do it once when you're on the river cruise. Like, everyone is entitled to go to the chef's table once if you. You don't have to go. You can just eat in the regular dining room. But I feel like most people take advantage of that opportunity just because it's something different.
Speaking of food, I gotta ask, like, what did your kids think of the food? And what did you think of the food and your mom also on. On board the ship? Cause obviously, you know, Disney has less control over the food outside and more control on the food on the ship.
[00:45:53] Speaker A: We actually really loved the food on the ship. I would say that it was better almost every single night than what you would get at any kind of, you know, standard dining on a Disney cruise. Unless you're doing, you know, palo or something. Like that the kids liked the food almost all the time.
You know, there's sometimes there were some misses. I liked the food basically every single night. There were certain dishes that I wish that you could get again, but that isn't how it works on that. We had a fair number of lunches on board as well, and we liked the breakfast. Every day we had one miss, which was a day that everybody had.
There was an excursion that everyone was doing in the morning, and then there were, like, different excursions after that. But it was a buffet. Like, Bavarian buffet.
The food was fine, but we were a full ship. And that buffet. So that wasn't on the ship. Right. That was at a restaurant.
The lines were tremendous. I personally hate a buffet. I know that if my son picks out his food on the buffet himself, even though he's old enough to do it, he's not making good choices. So I like to go with him. My daughter really can't do it. I thought she could hold her plate. She dropped the plate. All the food went everywhere. It was like. That was our one. That was like, the lowest point of the whole thing, where the food was
[00:47:10] Speaker B: like, was this the salt mine tourist day by chance?
[00:47:13] Speaker A: I think it might have been the salt. Yeah.
[00:47:15] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:47:16] Speaker B: I remember that buffet.
[00:47:17] Speaker C: We remember it because it was in this, like, big restaurant hall, like, kind of like a beer hall, but it's a big, you know, very, very large. And the food was fine. It wasn't. It wasn't bad. It wasn't great. But I. It was probably our least favorite meal also. And we actually were seated with a couple. The woman had very significant food allergies, actually, and it was the hardest day for her. Like, there was a struggle with getting.
The guides were on it the best they could be, but they had to, like. She had to, like, talk to the chef about, like, what she could eat. And basically she ended up with, like, a plate of potatoes and a plate of, like, chicken. Like, it was. It was. It was.
[00:47:58] Speaker A: I think they may have made that better. Although I don't know if it was her particular allergies, because we were seated with a woman who had a severe gluten allergy.
And that was the only day that I was kind of jealous of her because her food came, was delivered, and, like, we waited. The line was so big. And then when my daughter dropped her whole plate, like, she didn't drop it. She tilted it forward and everything.
[00:48:19] Speaker C: And everything fested off. Yeah,
[00:48:23] Speaker A: but that was. But if I. Then I'm thinking, like, if this is the worst Part of our entire vacation. It's one meal. That's fine because everything else was phenomenal that I really. How am I complaining?
[00:48:36] Speaker C: No, absolutely. And we, we felt the same as you about the food on board. We felt like, like most of it was really good and most of it higher quality than what you get in like main dining on dcl, because it's of course on much smaller scale. You're talking about like a couple hundred people, not a couple thousand people. Right.
But like there were a couple of misses and like the hamburgers kind of were weird. I'll be perfectly honest. Like, the hamburgers did not taste like regular hamburgers. They just had like a weird spice about them. I don't know. But everything else was delicious. And they had a fantastic Mac and cheese. That was only at lunchtime, but it was awesome. It was like really, really good Mac and cheese. Nathan. Like it? We liked it. Yeah. So yeah, I had to, had to give props to that. Well, one of the things you mentioned was the Junior Adventure activities, whether Junior Adventure Tours. I just want to explain to people what that is. Really quick for folks who haven't listened to one of our prior episodes about maybe our ABD or other ABDs. But basically that's a.
What they call the kids, right? The kids that are not teenagers. So it's usually like the 12 and under crowd, although you could be 13, 14 and still participate in these activities. But it's. They're sort of geared towards the younger, the younger sailors on an ABD river cruise or an ABD land tour. And they'll do like special activities that might be a movie night in the lounge, that might be dinner in the lounge while the adults are in the dining room. And it might be a special tour, like a dress up tour at the Schonbrunn palace where they get to put on like period costumes and things like that. So they're just trying to keep the kids entertained while the adults are doing something that might be a little bit more serious, cultural that the kids might not enjoy. And that's one of the wonderful things about adventures by Disney. And the adventure guides are the ones who are with your kids.
[00:50:23] Speaker B: I'm curious, like, just to cut to a chase for a second, like, what were, what was your kids overall review of this cruise? Were they, did they have such a good time that they like want to go back or were they like, get
[00:50:36] Speaker C: me on a Disney Cruise Line ship as fast as possible?
[00:50:39] Speaker B: Like, what was their overall review?
[00:50:40] Speaker A: My son absolutely wanted to go back so we could have actually done the exact Same itinerary next year. That did work with the school calendar. I didn't want to do the exact same APDX year. And he was like, I don't know, why not? Like, why don't we do this? Like. Like he would do the exact same cruise the exact same week next year. Hands down. My daughter really liked it, but she's also.
She's very easygoing. Like, she likes to travel, she likes to spend time with the family. She.
She's.
I mean. I mean, she's my kid, but she's great.
My son is great too, but he'll have more opinions about things, right? Like, there'll be activities that we do. And he's like, I don't want to do this anymore. Like, I want to. So he did also have a major sacrifice. We're not really a screen family. I try not to be a screen family.
But Santa did get him a Nintendo Switch 2 for Christmas, which he had to leave in New York because Santa made sure that he knew that he had to spend time with the family. And he couldn't be asking to go back to the cabin to play on that.
So he had a really great time. But on our last night on the cruise, we had a very early. The cruise ended on a Friday. Saturday morning we were supposed to fly out with the idea that it's a long flight back to New York and everyone's going back to school on Monday.
And our flight was at 6:00 in the morning, so we were like gonna leave the ship at 3am Some horrible thing like that that. We have our dinner, we say goodbye to everybody, go up to the room, I check my email, and our flight has been canceled because of weather in Amsterdam.
And I go to. And now it's the weekend after New Year, so it's like the crazy busy weekend to fly out of Europe. And it's already kind of challenging to fly out of Budapest because there's not that many options.
And I start looking and I'm like, huh, we're not getting out of here tomorrow. And then my son just broke down and he was like, my Switch is in New York.
[00:52:34] Speaker C: He just wanted to go home.
[00:52:35] Speaker A: He'd been waiting.
[00:52:36] Speaker C: He moves ready even after that.
[00:52:38] Speaker A: And then we ended up not flying out until Monday because that was when we could rebook. And so we had these kind of unexpected days. And so for him, my daughter again, just kind of goes with it. But my son likes to know the plan. He goes over the itinerary with me beforehand. We talk about some of the Things I tried to make a teachable moment. But he also, like, like, he doesn't love a surprise. He wants to know what the routine is. It's part of why I thought the river cruise would be so good for him because, like, he wants to go and do his things, but then he also wants, like, time to just, like, be in the room and play with his whatever, write in his. Make a drawing, whatever he wants to do. That's like in his safe space where he can, like, stop peopling with everybody else and sounds very much like Nathan.
[00:53:19] Speaker C: Although we let him have screens, I'll
[00:53:22] Speaker A: be honest, which is, you know, everyone has, you know, I just know, I know that he would be asking to go back to the room to do that. And I, I, that wasn't, you know, so he had a great time. And then he did get that, you know, but on the flight back. So now we're delayed. We're flying back on Monday. And I'm answering the survey from ABD about how we, how the experience was. And he's sitting next to me, so I'm like. And it's like, what's your favorite thing? And he was like, everything.
Do you want to do another abd? He's like, absolutely. You know, so even with those hiccups and even with changing the ships and, you know, having to spend. Having to spend. It was wonderful spending two extra days in Budapest. What, once it was sorted.
[00:53:58] Speaker C: Right. Once you had a place to sleep and a flight home booked. Right. Of course, just the logistical night.
[00:54:04] Speaker A: Let work know that I can't get back.
Once all that was sorted, he still had a fabulous time. So we did pivot. We have a Disney cruise booked next year for New Year's instead of. Because just the dates weren't going to work the other way. And they'll have a great time.
[00:54:21] Speaker C: What ship are you on for New Year's?
[00:54:24] Speaker A: Well, for New Year's, we're on the Dream.
The dates worked. I don't know, my daughter might be too old, but right now she's so excited that Bluey and Bingo are going to be on the dream.
So we'll see. We're doing the Treasure for April break, so we're kind of. And they've done the wonder and they've done the fantasy. So the kids will have now done all four classes. But I will say that we generally have wonderful vacations.
They all travel really well. So after every vacation, I feel like the kids are always like, this is the best one.
But that's okay.
[00:55:00] Speaker C: Nathan's similar in that way it's like the recency bias is real. Right. Like we'll ask him like what's your favorite ship? Or what's your favorite vacation? And then like often it's whatever the most recent one was, unless the most recent one was a total bust and then it would be probably the one before that.
[00:55:17] Speaker A: Right.
[00:55:17] Speaker C: So there's definitely. Kids have that recency bias.
[00:55:20] Speaker B: I'll be curious to see because I mean, how old was he when we did that river cruise? What was he, nine? Ten?
[00:55:26] Speaker C: Yeah, he was nine, I believe.
[00:55:28] Speaker B: Nine.
So I'll be curious now that we're headed back after he's turned 12, if he has like more interest in it because he.
[00:55:35] Speaker C: Oh no, he was 10. I think he just turned 10.
[00:55:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I, yeah, I probably just turned 10 because it was December. Right. So. Yeah. And but his review of it for from his side of things was like there were some fun things but can't wait to be in Hawaii, which is the whole review.
We were flying to Hawaii at the end of the cruise. So yeah, I'll be sure to see if this changes.
[00:55:55] Speaker A: Were there many kids? So I will say there were lots of teenagers on this cruise, well behaved teenagers, you know, lots. There was one very large family group. I think there might have been 40 people together in that group. Like it was, it was very large and they had done. They must do all of their vacations as ABDs or a good number of them because it might have been like their 11th abd or something like that. So there were, for him, there were many more girls in his age group than boys.
[00:56:24] Speaker C: Yeah, Nathan had the same experience.
Nathan did not leave our ABD with any like real long term friendships or anything. And it was really because like there were a few kids younger and then there were a couple kids close in age to him, but mostly girls. There was one other boy that was close in age to him, but he was with cousins and so he was spent his time with his cousins who were older. Right. So like while Nathan had other kids that he played with on board and had a really good time, he didn't leave the ship with any like long lasting relationship, but long, you know, friendship. And so I, I think, and I think you're right, like it did skew a little older. Like he was a little bit still, even though he wasn't the youngest, he still was on the younger side. It would have, I think right now at 12, that would be actually really. He would have been right in kind of in the.
[00:57:17] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that seems like for me and honestly for My daughter being the youngest, I feel like in some ways, like, the girls that bonded with her loved that she was the youngest, right?
[00:57:26] Speaker C: Yeah, they were like, loved to take care of her in a way. Yeah. And she was so cute, Right.
[00:57:30] Speaker A: She thrives in that, you know.
And I don't know, it was fabulous. We got to see so much. I feel like the kids were exposed to different languages. So before this, although we did Norway, honestly, I loved Norway.
But how much Norwegian did my family here?
Very long.
Yeah, we went to the zoo in Norway and everything was written in Norwegian there. And I was like, oh, this is very different. I was trying to order food and I was like, I don't know if I'm getting French fries or I'm gonna get a soda. I'm gonna get a cup of coffee or an ice cream. Like, I had no idea.
[00:58:05] Speaker C: Or some kind of fish.
[00:58:09] Speaker A: So for me, I felt like, like with the adventure guides, it made it so easy for the kids and for us, right. That you're going through all these different languages.
One of our guides was, oh, I don't even know how many languages she spoke, but she just could fluently go between all of these different languages. She'd had all of these experiences. I thought, as my son's going to go into middle school and decide if he's going to stick with his language or change a different language. Like, you can see all these things the world has to offer if you are going to these different places and like, don't get me wrong, like, take me to Castaway or I'll, like, I'll have a great time.
But it was so nice for them, I thought, to kind of see this wider world in an environment that was very comfortable for them. And I mean, our guides were the best. Like the ice cream. The ice cream day, sorry, the ice skating day in Vienna where you skate around. Like, the bathrooms were all pay bathrooms there.
They were like, oh, we have currency. The ABD guides are giving everyone the coins to go to the bathroom. Like, they just made everything so seamless that such a good first way to experience these things. And then I kind of like, I'm always teaching them. Like I try to, you know, we, I. They have a little journal for every day with some facts about the countries or where we're going to visit. And for my daughter, there's like a little word search or, you know, just I try to make little activities so that they kind of know what they're experiencing because then they're probably like, man, it all mushes in their brain afterwards. But we try to.
[00:59:34] Speaker B: Well, Lauren, I mean, this sounds like it was a fabulous experience for the family. It sounds like you're already looking at trying to book the next one.
Yeah, I mean, like this, I will say ABD is like. It is addicting. It's. I think it's the price tag makes it a little less addicting than Disney Cruise Line. Although they're, they're not far off these days in some ways. But I wanted to ask one last question, actually, before we switch over to, to rapid fire here, which is just. Would you ever consider doing a river cruise that's not an abduction?
[01:00:02] Speaker A: I would. We might have talked about this before we started. I would do an Amalata raise cruise in a heartbeat. But my daughter has to be eight.
[01:00:11] Speaker B: I remember that.
[01:00:11] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
And if I was not going with the kids, I would do a Viking, you know, I would definitely. I loved the river cruise. I would do river cruises in Europe. And honestly, I think there are certain other parts of the world that might be really great to explore on a river cruise as well. I'm fairly well traveled in Europe. I've done a little bit of SAP. South America and obviously North America. But like, I haven't done Asia yet. I haven't done, you know, so. But the kids need to get a little bit bigger because their palates are not that advanced. At the end of this, my son was like, is there an ABD to Japan? I was like, not until you're willing to eat a lot more food, child.
[01:00:47] Speaker C: Like, yeah, yeah, absolutely. We're. We're in the same boat as you, Lauren. It's. We. Nathan needs to be a little bit more adventurous in his eating, perhaps. And he's not a bad eater. He's just not, you know, And I'll be fair, I'm not that adventurous either. But I'll find, I'll figure out something. Right. So.
[01:01:07] Speaker B: And I, I have heard nothing but good things about river cruising as a way to experience Asia. Unfortunately. I was just checking the site. It looks like ABD has eliminated, which we had. We had heard they might do. Eliminated their river cruises in Asia. So now they only do them in Europe, which is unfortunate. Although I wonder.
[01:01:26] Speaker C: They had like one that was supposed to be great in Cambodia. I think it was.
[01:01:30] Speaker B: I wonder if Nat Geo might have picked up some of the slack on their end. I haven't, I haven't checked it. I didn't know Jet Nat Geo does the small ship expedition cruising. I don't know if they have any river cruising, but they might have picked Something up.
[01:01:42] Speaker A: Well, and some of the Nat Geo is adults only or the ages.
No, I've been exploring.
[01:01:49] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Love it.
[01:01:51] Speaker B: All right, well, all right, well, we have reached that point in the show, Lauren, where I need to hand you back over to Sam, but this time for some arbitrary questions, some arbitrary rules, and probably a bit more than a dash of judgment or the round we know as rapid fire. Full disclosure, our listeners, Lauren said if she had to undergo Sam's regular rapid fire, she might, she might incur a little bit too much judgment.
[01:02:14] Speaker C: So I'm gonna do a, I'm gonna do a verses because I, I, I would really like, like, Lauren, we have to have you back to talk about a Disney cruise.
[01:02:23] Speaker B: So she wants to give you a good experience. Leave you alone.
[01:02:26] Speaker C: I want to give you a good experience first. I want, I want you to do
[01:02:29] Speaker B: that for anyone else. Lawrence.
[01:02:30] Speaker C: Yeah, listen, it's, it's the, it's the Long Islander in me. I have a, we have a kinship, Lauren and I. We have the same type of upbringing. So I'm going to give you a versus rapid fire. And then when you come back on our show, because I'm telling you, you have to come back on our show, you're a fabulous guest, and then we'll do. I promise, we'll do a standard rapid fire.
[01:02:49] Speaker B: So does this mean. Does this mean people from New Jersey should be especially wary of coming on this one?
[01:02:56] Speaker C: As long as they don't. As long as they don't act superior, will be just fine.
[01:03:00] Speaker B: Oh, gosh, I apologize to everyone out there for that comment right now.
[01:03:05] Speaker A: Listen.
[01:03:05] Speaker C: No, it's okay. It's all right. We have. It's the same culture in the same pizza and the same bagels because it's the same water. So let's, let's be honest. All right, well, okay, so we're gonna do Disney Cruise Line vs Adventures by Disney River Cruising. So those are. Your two options are Disney or abd, right? Or like, dcl abd. Okay, so I'm going to start with ease of booking. And that includes, like, booking the cruise, but also booking the activities, like excursions, onboard activities, that sort of a thing. Which is better, DCL or abd?
[01:03:38] Speaker A: You know, I realize I'm such a Libra, it's hard to answer, so.
[01:03:42] Speaker C: Oh, my God, you're a Libra also, Lauren. I'm a Libra also. That's kind of crazy.
[01:03:48] Speaker A: I would say ABD is ease of booking for sure, in terms of, like, it's all laid out for you, and they've thought of really creative excursions that you wouldn't have thought of.
However, you have to call it in. You can't just do it in the phone or the app. So if they make that into AN app, then ABD 100%.
[01:04:06] Speaker C: Okay. All right. Okay. Activities. So let's. Let's do onboard activities. Like, who's got. I mean, this is an easy. Sorry. Yeah.
[01:04:16] Speaker A: I mean, they do some onboarding. They added like a ginger. Gingerbread cookie decorating thing once, you know, But I. That is. It was great on board, but it's definitely Disney Cruise Line.
[01:04:29] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's more like relaxing time or sailing time when you're on board, because they are. You're really exhausted, frankly. You wouldn't want like a million activities on board, but they're not doing like big trivias and things like that. They just don't have. Yeah, that's just not what it.
[01:04:44] Speaker A: We did trivia on the bus. If you have to change the ship one more time, they'll do some Disney trivia on the bus.
[01:04:49] Speaker C: All right.
All right. We're going to talk food. Who was doing it better on the ship? Of course, Disney Cruise Line or abd. And we'll talk main dining because as you mentioned, like Paulo Remy. Enchante. That's not a really a fair comparison.
[01:05:04] Speaker A: It's definitely abd. We loved the food.
[01:05:06] Speaker C: Awesome. All right. Kids activities, of course. On dcl, you've got kids clubs. On abd, you have the Junior Adventurer activities and tours.
Who's doing it better?
[01:05:18] Speaker A: This is really hard because the smaller size, the Junior Adventure things were so wonderful. If you want some adult time or more adult free time, then Disney Cruise Line, because my kids love the kids club and that can be like hours.
So different offerings. They both were great. I don't know. I'm sorry. It's hard to.
[01:05:38] Speaker C: No, that's okay. I think that's a fair toss up because it really is. They're different experiences, like you said, sort of really great relationships they form with the guides and these cool cultural experiences versus, like, more adult free time. Those are like the balance. Okay. Cleanliness of the ship. ABD versus dcl.
[01:06:00] Speaker A: I don't want to ding dcl because I think their ships are really clean, but the ABD was.
And we were on three ships and they were all spectacular. And the staff was fabulous. Fabulous. And we had three different staffs. Our cruise director came for each ship, but we had different.
They were.
They won.
[01:06:17] Speaker C: Yeah. Wow. And what I was going to ask you. Service. I think you kind of answered this, but like cleanliness. Avd was a little bit better than dcl, even though both are great.
But service, what would you say?
[01:06:28] Speaker A: The service was great. Now, we didn't get to like really get to know our servers because we were switching and you wouldn't necessarily have the same dining server every night, depending on where you sat.
But. And my kids did miss the towel animals. So there were no towel animals on the river cruise.
Actually my son dinged them for that. But like we were. It was a holiday cruise. One day they left us all like large chocolate Santas and things like that in the rooms. That just really made it special. The service was. I mean, it was unbeatable, I would say. On abd.
[01:07:04] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. All right. Cabins. Now, the cabins are smaller, but you had two people in each cabin as opposed to, you know, a larger cabin with four people is stuffed into a room. But which did you like better between DCL and abd?
[01:07:19] Speaker A: I think this is hard and I think it's ship dependent. So like I've been on the Treasure. I think that I would take a Treasure room over my river cruise room. The kids haven't yet, so I can ask them when they've done it, but I don't know. We loved the small size.
We would give up space to be on a ship with fewer people.
Everyone's very familiar.
There's like a friendliness to it.
But if I had three people in that room, then I would have to pick dcl. So I only had two people and I didn't. Yeah. And there are very few connecting rooms or rooms that fit larger people. So, you know, larger groups of people. So depending on how your room configuration is, but if you're two, I would say abd.
[01:08:02] Speaker C: Awesome. All right, now the ultimate question. Let's say tomorrow you are getting on a ship and it can be any ship. Are you getting on a Disney Cruise Line ship or are you getting on a ABD river cruise on ama?
[01:08:17] Speaker A: Well, I have three Disney Cruise Line ships booked, so I guess that's the answer.
But I would get on another river cruise in a heartbeat. It's more the timing, the dates that are challenging for us and I would love them to have additional itineraries. Like even like we would have booked maybe the same exact Danube river cruise if it was going to be different excursions the next time around or something like that. We might do it in the summer. I think that would be very different what they do in the summer.
[01:08:46] Speaker C: Yes, the excursions. I think there will be more diff if you book it around the same time of year. It'll be Very similar or the same excursions. If you book it at a different time of year, there, there might be some overlap in excursions, but there will be less overlap than obviously at the same season. I think that that totally makes sense. All right, Lauren, my last question of rapid. I'm going to ask you the question I ask everyone, which is bucket list cruise. If you can go anywhere in the world and let's just say on a ship, it doesn't even. It could be an ama, it could be a river cruise, it could be an ocean cruise. Where is your bucket list cruise?
[01:09:22] Speaker A: I would love more European offerings. Iceland even, they have that one really interesting itinerary that's happening at the end of June into July. That's Mediterranean.
More of those kind of itineraries for me. Me, I'll take a river cruise. I'll take an ocean liner.
For me, I love both the ship portion of our time, but I love seeing new places. So, you know, that would be places.
[01:09:49] Speaker C: Yeah, I love it. I love it.
[01:09:50] Speaker A: Longer itineraries. I need longer.
[01:09:53] Speaker C: Yes, absolutely. All right, well, you get an A for this rapid fire.
[01:09:59] Speaker B: So, you know, on the midterm you did fine, but we still got to see how the final shakes, so. Yeah. Well, Lauren, it has been fabulous having you on the show. You mentioned at the top or Sam did that you are a travel agent. We always like to let our travel agent guests let people know where they can find them in case they want to book travel with them. So go ahead.
[01:10:19] Speaker A: So I'm a travel agent with ET Family Travel. We are a platinum earmarked Disney agency and you can reach me at Lauren, but I spell it funny. L A U R Y n e t familytravelmail.com or if you went to the ET Family Travel website, you can find us. But there's a lot of Lauren's on there.
[01:10:36] Speaker C: I'm the one with Lauren spelled differently with a Y and Fisher with an sch in the middle.
[01:10:43] Speaker A: Yes. Yes. Oh, yes. Yeah, but that's not in my email. But yes.
[01:10:46] Speaker C: Fisher with a yes. But if they want to go to ET Family Travel. Yes.
[01:10:50] Speaker B: I will try to remember to link to that in the show notes. If I don't, Lauren can also remind me and I will update them with that information.
But Lauren, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your family's fabulous adventures by Disney Trip with us and our listeners. We super appreciate you. Appreciate it.
[01:11:03] Speaker A: Thank you for having me. This was so much fun. I love listening and it's nice to be a guest.
[01:11:12] Speaker D: Well, thanks everyone. Out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows so be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us live, we have a live show now every week 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 dclduomypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions or you'd like to connect with us, the best way to do that is to head over to DCLDuo.com it's got links to all of our things. Full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast. Links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store. We sell some fun fan inspired magnets link to our pattern 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 really pumping out monthly here, at least on a few blog articles that we've written. So DCLDUO.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also of course email
[email protected] or reach out to us on our voicemail line at 402-413-5590. That's 402-413-5590. The DCL Duo podcast is not affiliated with Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Company or the Disney Family of theme parks. The views expressed on the show are solely those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflect the views of the Disney Company or Disney Cruise Line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or Disney vacation, please contact the great folks over at My Path Unwinding Travel or Disney directly or your own travel agent. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see. See you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL duo.
