[00:00:00] Speaker A: That's a great question and one that we've wrestled with on our on our way off the ship. We were like, we're done. Like, we came, we saw, we conquered, we're good.
We hadn't even taken off yet. My wife were talking about again, like our trip in December, coming back with the kids, experiencing it again.
[00:00:28] 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, it's jingle time. Do the jingle.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:38] Speaker C: Simply the best.
Better than all the rest.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: All right, this week's listener review. And I've got to apologize because I lost track of where we were in the US when we detoured off, why we detoured off into the international reviews. So I have picked a review and this is just where we will start up. We will pick up where we hopefully left off or close to it. If you don't hear your review at the top of one of our shows, you can always reach out if you think we've gone by it and we will make sure to get to it. But for now, this week's review comes from jbaud, who writes my favorite podcast, exclamation point. I am a big Disney Cruise Line fan. We've used DCL to see the world as a family. Listening to these podcasts reminds me of why I love DCL so much, but it has also given me tremendous insight into the other options available. I do agree with many of the points discussed on the podcast. I so appreciate hearing about other cruise lines, different ports and different views all at around. The show is a perfect blend of the love of Disney, the cruising lifestyle, and the vast array of options out there. I appreciate the cruise reviews. Everyone they interview has such an interesting point of view. I hope that in the future I can meet up with Sam and Brian on a cruise. So far I have listened to at least 45 episodes. I can't wait for the day that I have successfully listened to them all. Thank you for creating a forum to talk, discuss, enjoy, critique, and share a love of Disney cruise line. Please keep it up. Maybe one day you'll interview me. So there you go.
[00:02:04] Speaker D: There's our listener review.
[00:02:05] Speaker C: I love that.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: That was two years ago, so hopefully JB has made it through a few more episodes.
[00:02:10] Speaker C: A few more than 45. Yeah, we got a few more in the catalog for you than 45. What are you up to, Brian?
[00:02:16] Speaker B: 600. And we'll hit 640 something this week. So yes, tons of them, tons of episodes. And so actually Working through, trying to build an app for everybody out there. I'll just say that take advantage of all the transcripts of the great guests that we've had. So with that, I will just rem remind people one of the easiest ways to help support the show. Head over to Apple Podcasts, hit those five stars. If you leave us a written review along with your five star review, we will read it on the air at the top of one of our main episodes. And as I've taken to saying these days, you know, if you're on Spotify, if you're on one of the other podcast platforms, they all have rating systems. Yeah, they, they just all have rating systems. Just, just max out whatever rating they give you. Thumbs up stars, popcorn buckets, I don't know what, but max those out. It helps us across the board. If you're not listening to us on
[00:03:06] Speaker C: Apple podcasts, extra fresh tomatoes are certified fresh. Certified fresh. Yeah.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: All right, Sam, over to you because we got one doozy of a topic and a guest today, and I'm super excited to talk about it.
[00:03:18] Speaker C: We have a great show planned for today. We are so lucky to be able to have listeners who are sailing on the Disney Adventure. Since we did not sail on the Disney Adventure for her Maiden weren't invited on a preview, as we understand it, American media in general was not really invited. So anyone who went over there from any American media source spent their own money to go do it, which I totally understand and respect. But it's a big trip and, you know, school's in session, so it wasn't workable for us. But I'm super excited because one of those guests is joining us today who got to sail on the Disney Adventure maiden voyage. Welcome to the show, Rich.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Awesome. Thank you, guys. I'm a big fan of the show and really appreciate you having me on. Thank you.
[00:04:02] Speaker C: Yeah, we're so excited that you reached out to us.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: I'm jealous, Rich. You're wearing the pullover that I would love to own because they don't make the Nike ones here in the US Like Disney seems to have ended it with Nike here in the US for most things.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: I think the treasure is the last Nike one that I have. The destiny wasn't Nike. And yeah, they've got, they've got these as on the adventure Now, Dear Disney
[00:04:24] Speaker B: Cruise Line, bring back the Nike here.
I'm a reliable Nike pullover anytime you have one. So you go.
[00:04:30] Speaker C: Absolutely. Now, Rich, before we dive into talking about the adventure, traveling over to Singapore, all of those things, we Always have to ask our guests, where did your love of Disney come from? When did you start Disney cruising? Like give us your background. I know you are a travel advisor as well and so I'm wondering if those things are connected or what. So why don't you give us a little bit of your story.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: Yeah, the love came first. Before we became a travel advisor, I grew up in Southern California and as a kid we made trips to Disneyland. And it's just that nostalgic feeling.
When I was, I don't know, eight or nine years old, I think we took our first Disney cruise. At the time it was the big Red boat. I don't remember a ton of it, but I think that was technically my first day's Disney sailing. Doesn't count towards my Castaway club membership. But nonetheless, my wife and I ended up taking our kids in 2017 on our first real Disney cruise. Our kids at the time had been to the parks.
Again, we thought we were park people.
My son got his first haircut at Disney World.
[00:05:38] Speaker C: He cut the classic haircut in the salon or the barbershop.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: At the barbershop he did. And it's one of his first words. We had the Savannah view at Animal Kingdom Lodge and he just kept saying wow over and over again. And so we thought we were just Disney people, Disney park people. At the time, as our kids got a little bit older, they wanted to do. They still liked the Disney, but they wanted to do something that was more beach incorporated. And so we weren't sure how a cruise would work. So we lived in Georgia, we drove down and we just did a three night on the Dream in 2017 and that was our first experience.
We really loved it.
Everything from the ketchup, Mickey Mouse ears, you know those little touches that them cutting up the steak.
Our kids even got pulled up and the Golden Mickeys during the Snow White and the seven Dwarfs portion, we just
[00:06:30] Speaker C: thought, oh, they were this dwarves.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: They were the dwarves. And we thought all of this Disney magic, like we have to figure out a way to continue this. So 2018 we did another cruise. We jumped onto a seven night Western Caribbean. Absolutely loved it. It was a magical experience.
And then obviously with COVID we took a pause.
We had some booked for 2020 that just never happened.
And then December of 22, it's been a ride. We've gone on I think 10 since that time. So we've been moving.
[00:07:06] Speaker C: Nice. So you've hit your platinum status. Getting closer to Pearl it sounds.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: We have Pearl.
We can see it off in the Distance A little bit, Yes.
[00:07:16] Speaker C: I love it. Now, what made you decide to book the adventure in Singapore? And was it the whole family? Was it just you, like, who went on this adventure? This adventure. Pun intended.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I think we'll end up saying that quite a bit on this episode.
Yeah. So we have done all of the ships.
Our cruise prior to this was the Maiden of the Destiny.
[00:07:41] Speaker C: Oh, so we were on together.
[00:07:43] Speaker A: We were on. I know we've probably been on similar sailings. We just never bumped into each other.
But after. After doing that again, kind of a completionist at heart. We.
We have multiple Disney lists that we were trying to accomplish. And we saw this. We'd actually booked December of this year, a fortnight with the family.
But we kept watching the Maiden. And as the Maiden slipped, we weren't able to make it on the original sailing. But as we saw it move to March, it became kind of within our window of possibilities. So we weren't able to bring our kids, as you had mentioned, school commitments. It was. It was difficult to pull them. So this was our first cruise with just my wife and I. We actually, we went with two friends of ours that we'd met on other Disney cruise and they joined us from Minnesota. We met in Korea and.
Yeah, but that's.
[00:08:37] Speaker C: That's amazing. I always say cruise friends are the best friends. You know, several great friends through sailing on Disney Cruise Line. I love that you guys went all the way to Singapore together.
That and now. So. So the three night Maiden ended up sort of fitting in your schedule, but obviously not in the kids schedule.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: Correct. And then we kept watching the prices too because logistically getting over to Singapore it can be really expensive and time consuming to get over there.
So we ended up. My wife found tickets for an inside cabin. We. We haven't done that before, but we found one. It was less than $2,000 for the two of us.
And then it was on me to figure out how we can get over there logistically for a reasonable price.
And I ended up finding tickets. We use points to get from. I live in Utah to get from Utah to Korea for 70,000 points round trip. And then from Korea we booked tickets non stop to Singapore and back.
So we ended up buying. Ended up three different tickets. We flew Singapore air from Korea down to Singapore and then Korea and air back from Singapore to Korea and then back to Utah.
[00:09:55] Speaker C: Wow, that's a complicated. Because you're not booking it all through one airline. So you don't have like, you gotta get your bags and transfer and all of that kind of stuff. But it is probably a much cheaper way to do things if you can find good prices.
[00:10:11] Speaker B: I'm going to be giving you a call, Rich, because we've been toying around with trying to do the adventure. And I've been going back and forth with an extensive conversation with Claude about my best strategy and it is getting complicated.
[00:10:25] Speaker C: Claude is AI for those who don't know what Brian's talking about.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: Claude's my new best friend. He always listens to me.
Yeah. So I'm going to be giving you a call, Rich, because I am struggling to figure out the right strategy here.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: Yeah, it's, it's, it's hard. And as I'm looking right now planning our December trip, I'm doing similar things. It's, it's kind of a mix and match. If you look directly at flights from your hometown to Singapore, you're probably going to experience a little sticker shock. But I think if you mix and match points.
It was less than $1,000 for my wife and I to, to, to fly. That was our out of pocket cost.
[00:10:59] Speaker C: Wow, that's fantastic. Now did you spend any time in Korea first or was it just kind of a stopover to change flights or, or, or on the back end?
[00:11:07] Speaker A: It was really a stopover. We did stay one night.
So the way the flight ended up working is we landed in Seoul, I believe around 4:30pm so we stayed the night in Seoul. There's a hotel very close to the airport there. And then we got up the next morning and took like a 9:30, 10 o' clock flight from Seoul down to Singapore, getting us to Singapore in the afternoon.
[00:11:28] Speaker B: What was the total travel for you? Like, like how many hours? Yeah, it was. Plus two days, regardless of how you do it.
[00:11:35] Speaker A: But yeah, yeah, yeah. So we, so I think it was 14 hours from Utah to Korea and then it's 6 hours from Korea to Singapore.
[00:11:46] Speaker C: You know, that's not that bad. I mean, I, I know. I mean it's still a day of like being flying. Plus of course you had an overnight in Korea. But that's actually, if you think about it, think about how far away it is, it's actually not terrible.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: It's pretty doable. And depending on where you live in the US I think there's a, there's a lot of those options.
I'm picking on Korea because it's a, a Korean Air Delta hub and that's, that's the most convenient for us. Getting home was even easier.
We had about an hour and a half Two hours layover in Korea. You get through. You go through security again. And we just did carry ons. So it was very simple for us. So by the time you're.
[00:12:28] Speaker C: You're blowing my mind carry ons, like to a Disney cruise, period. But all the way in Singapore. Oh, my God.
[00:12:36] Speaker A: We were, we were nervous, especially with the maiden voyage, getting all of the, all the stuff, the gifts. The gifts and things. Being able to get that home. We had to get creative with it on the way back, but we were able to make it happen.
[00:12:46] Speaker C: And yeah, you just throw away all your underwear. Right. And you're.
[00:12:49] Speaker D: That's right.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: We had that conversation. We're like, what can I re. What can I re. Buy back in the States to make room for some of this stuff?
[00:12:56] Speaker B: I have intentionally in the past packed, going this. These are the oldest pairs of underwear that I have. So if I need room, they're going in the garbage.
[00:13:06] Speaker C: I mean, these are the things that we. These are the things that we do for, like, the good Disney merch.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. That's right.
[00:13:13] Speaker C: All right, well, let's. Let's talk about Singapore.
So obviously, you know, Singapore is a metropolitan place.
How did you sort of do research on where you were going to stay and like, where you wanted to eat and things like that before, for before and after the sailing? Because obviously you've got to get in at least a day in advance, maybe more, because you've got this huge time adjustment that you've got to make. It's really like.
It's like from the east coast, it's like 12 hours. So for you, it's like 14 hours. For us, it's like 15 hours.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: I had the benefit. I've been to Singapore for work before, so I was familiar with the area we stayed. There's kind of this central marina Bay area that the Sands Hotel is located at. There's gardens by the bay. There's a lot of things right there in this main area. So we ended up picking a hotel. Again, I used points to cash in. So we didn't end up paying for anything from a hotel perspective, but with all within walking distance. And I think that's one of the nice things about Singapore is it's very, very convenient. It's very condensed and you can get around either by walking or. Uber doesn't work there, but they have an app called Grab, and utilizing Grab, it's. It's same thing as Uber or Lyft. You can get anywhere within about 30 minutes, roughly.
[00:14:34] Speaker C: It's pretty convenient now I know that Disney Cruise Line has this special. I'm gonna call it a scavenger hunt. It's not really a scavenger hunt, but you could go around to a bunch of different stations that were all in like hotels around this marina area to get these medallions. I got asked, did you go around and do this little medallion hunt? I think there was like seven or eight of them. They're still going until I think like April 20th or something. I saw one of their.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: While supplies last.
[00:15:02] Speaker C: Yeah, of course. While supplies last. Yeah, but. But Rich, did you go this little, you know, I mean, we all, you know, we're a sucker for, for a Disney Cruise Line medallion or, you know, or. Or a challenge coin. That's what they kind of look like. I'm curious.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: I wish I would have known that going into it. We actually cross a couple of them and so when we saw our first one, we had no idea what it was. Googled it and then found some other ones kind of as we were walking around the city. But no, I wish I would have been more aware of that, that challenge and those milestones around the city prior to. But that would have been really cool.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: I gotta ask Rich. Real fat is the hat from the adventure too. That is a sweet looking hat.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: Oh, thanks. No, it is not.
It's a golf hat, actually.
[00:15:46] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:15:48] Speaker C: I couldn't tell what the logo was.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: Yeah, Disney loves the white on white, so.
[00:15:51] Speaker C: Yeah, white on white. Yeah, that's true. It's true. It goes very well with the.
[00:15:56] Speaker A: So I thought it went well with it and.
[00:15:57] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. I gotta say, I only found out about the medallion thing. Literally, I think two days ago I saw something about it on. I think it's the Disney Cruise Line sg, which is the Singapore, you know, Instagram account, and they had posted something about it with pictures of all of the different sort of locations. And they're. They basically look like a little display with a funnel and a character. Now it's not a character or person in a character suit. It's not like that. But there's like, you know, one of them is like Toy Story themed and one of them was like, you know, Marvel themed and you know, so you could go. And each coin had a different theming. Of course. Today I'm wearing my ears in Baymax and Mochi in honor of San Fransokyo on board the Disney Adventure, which is like the one land that I gotta say is the most attractive, I think for Brian and I. We both love Big Hero 6, so.
But let's dive into talking about the actual cruise.
This is a three night Maiden, so it's got to be jam packed with stuff. I don't know if there were, you know, special things other than. Of course they always give you special gifts, but sometimes there are special performances. This is kind of a hard thing to do though in a three night cruise. So Rich, what, like what time of what time did you get on board? I know like port arrival times, we sort of know what they look like in the US But I'm curious as to what they were in Singapore.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: Yeah, we had a 11:45am boarding time.
I was a little bit nervous. I wasn't sure what to expect going to the port for the first time. So we actually got there at 10:45 and again our experience with the Destiny Maiden, you were waiting outside in that kind of that parking little garage area. It was hot and Singapore is quite warm as well. But the process of getting in and through was really smooth. I think, I think it was really well organized. Again with 11:45, we walked right into the building and about 11:15 they started moving us through the security line to start checking in.
And then around there was a little bit of a delay boarding, but we ended up boarding probably right around noon.
[00:18:08] Speaker C: Awesome. Now I gotta say, like when you get on board, you don't walk into like a grand hall or atrium like you do on the other ships. Of course, depending upon the port, sometimes you can't walk into the grand hall or atrium, but typically that's what you do. What's the welcome like or what was it like for you all on that Maiden?
[00:18:28] Speaker A: Yeah, it's unique and maybe that's a word that we'll use, you know, throughout this discussion too.
So first when you, when you, you get called your typical boarding experience, you'll. You'll stop for like the pre boarding pictures. You, you, as you mentioned, you go to the atrium, you get your name called.
This is very, very different. You go in and you actually leave immigration, which I haven't experienced on a cruise before. But you actually scan your passport, you leave immigration and you start going up the ramps and you get scanned in kind of on the deck level. So you board on the decks, the outside decks, there's people guiding you and you walk in and really your first steps into the ship for us it was on deck seven, the elevator banks and there were four or five cast members there just clapping, which was great. It was very welcoming. But there was definitely no, you know, the Disney adventure welcomes, blah, blah, blah. Family.
There was not that experience.
So that was a little different. The whole time I kept wondering where we're supposed to go, what we're supposed to do. Again, we were guided, but it just felt like a very different boarding experience than what we've had in the past.
[00:19:45] Speaker C: Now, where did you go first? Like, are you checking the app immediately to figure out, like, okay, where's lunch being offered? What time is the sail away party? Like, where's guest services?
Did you find that you needed to check the app a lot to figure out where you were going to go next?
[00:20:03] Speaker A: The app wasn't working initially.
[00:20:05] Speaker C: Oh, no.
[00:20:07] Speaker A: So our first stop was our room.
So we went up. We were on deck 15.
So we. We went from 7 to 15, which sounds like a lot. But again, there's something that that's interesting is the number four is not used on the ship anywhere. Number four for those aren't familiar in Asia, especially Korea, Japan, China.
It sounds the word for death in number four.
Similar.
Yeah, exactly.
[00:20:35] Speaker C: It's like unlucky. Yeah.
[00:20:37] Speaker A: So you won't find staterooms with number four. You won't find decks four or 14.
So navigating the ship, that was a little different. But we got up to our room, we got our gifts, and then after kind of exploring the room, we beeline up to deck 17, I believe it was, which is where the Pixar area was with the slides and the pools. We wanted to really check out that outside space. And I really wanted to check out on deck 18 is the roller coaster and kind of the Avengers area.
[00:21:10] Speaker C: Yeah, you've got the Iron Cycle, you've got that Groot spin, you've got the cars. I don't know remember the name of the cars, but yeah, tell us about. Well, tell us about the. The Pixar area with the water slides and the pools and whatnot. Like, where was anybody? Probably nobody using it yet because you're. Or maybe just people starting to kind of gather.
[00:21:30] Speaker A: Just people starting to gather in that area. One thing that really stuck out and I think the adventure did really, really well. My initial impression was how green it was. There's a lot of outside greenery. If you've seen the pictures. There's bushes and trees and things that were incorporated throughout the outside space of the ship that I thought were really, really well done. I'd love to see that on other ships. Honestly.
It was very welcoming and just kind of really brought that outdoor space and made it feel a little bit more alive. But, yeah, there wasn't a lot of people at the time. So it was a great opportunity. We were at some point some pictures of the outdoor space with very few or no people at all in them. And then kind of explored. The pizza shop was already working. So we were able to swing by and kind of grab that customary slice of pizza up on the pool deck. And then. Yeah, from there we were just walking around.
[00:22:19] Speaker C: Now what about the Marvel area that's got the coaster, the spin thing and the cars? Right. I know that the iron cycle coaster was not up for the maiden. So I already know that. And so you get to see it, but not actually. Actually ride on it. Did you get to ride the other two rides and were they up and running the whole time?
[00:22:42] Speaker A: We. We did not. So the. The. What was referred to a lot on the ship was the dumbo Groot. Because the Groot ride looks. It's. It's very similar to like a baby dumbo ride. We didn't. That wasn't running. And neither were the. The go karts on the first day. We didn't end up doing it just after we watched it. It just didn't seem like something that we would have wanted to do.
[00:23:06] Speaker C: But not very adventurous, right?
[00:23:08] Speaker A: Not very adventurous. But the iron cycle.
The iron cycle we were looking forward to. And we were hoping throughout the cruise that it was going to open up. They were doing some testing on it.
We didn't personally see it.
We talked to some other people that saw them running it, Doing some test cycles. But that would have been something that I really would have enjoyed doing.
[00:23:30] Speaker B: Yeah, it's pretty disappointing that that's not working on a maiden.
Because it was a major attraction on board.
[00:23:36] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And in our compensation, if you will, for that, we did get $100 credit, which, you know.
Sure, but.
But it would have. To your point, Brian, it really would have been nice. Especially since the initial maiden was pushed out.
Getting kind of those bugs worked prior to this one. You would have thought there. There might have been a more opportunity to get that. That worked out prior to the sailing.
[00:24:02] Speaker C: Yeah. Well. And the other. The other thing is, I mean, the $100 is actually pretty nice give back. Because let's be honest, with that number of passengers, Even when that thing is running, not every passenger is going to be able to get on it. Not every able bodied passenger, I should say. Because obviously it's not going to be. You probably have to be a certain height. Probably have to be frankly under a certain weight. Maybe even under a certain height. You know, it's probably got some size restrictions on it. And of course, people who have mobility issues, probably just looking at what the ride vehicle looks like, I'm not sure somebody with mobility issues even going to be able to get on that thing.
But yeah, so the, I mean that's, that's not a bad consolation. Even though obviously, of course you want to get on it. I, I'd love to shift over and talk about some of the, the deck. I'm going to call them deck parties because that's what we call them on the other ships. Right. But on the Disney adventure, they all happen in that Imagination Garden space. One of the things you mentioned up front was, was all the greenery. I think the Imagination Garden is a, is a wonderful example of that. It actually, as Brian has referenced on, on our, a couple of our other shows, it reminds us a lot of the sort of the Central park feature on royals, Oasis class ships and Icon class ships. And so they have a lot of greenery and it's really nice to see Disney bringing on some greenery in, in all the open spaces. But I'm curious, did you go to the Sail Away party? I know you were in an inside state room, so you didn't have one of those garden view rooms, which I think, by the way, like, if you have a garden view room that sees the stage like, you're going to get amazing views of that like Avengers show and the Duffy show and all of that. But I'm curious, did you go to that show and did you go, did you go to the Sail Away party and did you go to the other shows in that space?
[00:25:51] Speaker A: We did. We hit most of them. So the Sail Away Party was actually offered. I might get this wrong, but I believe three, maybe four times.
So it was, yeah, throughout the day, it was all in that space.
We stopped. One of our first places, we stopped at Mowgli's and had lunch there. And then after going to Mowgli's, they were just starting the Sail Away party in that space. So we walked out of the restaurant essentially and experienced the Sail Away Party. And it was, it was very similar to all the other ones. Again, you're in that space so you don't see the ship leaving. And we were in one of the earlier ones, so the ship actually hadn't even left at that time. People were still boarding when they had the sale, the first Sail Away party and maybe the first couple sail Away parties. But it was good. They didn't hand out the typical, you know, the champagne or the.
My daughter was calling the sparkly drinks.
Yeah, yeah.
Sometimes you get those on on the sail away parties. We didn't experience any of that, but again, it was, it was, I thought it was really well done and, and kind of the entertainment throughout all the other shows.
This was up there with any of the other ships, in my opinion. They did a really, really great job.
[00:27:05] Speaker C: Yeah, I've been hearing great things about the Duffy show and about, of course, the Avengers show. What did you think about those two specific. I'm assuming you saw those two.
[00:27:16] Speaker A: I didn't make it to the Duffys.
[00:27:18] Speaker C: Oh my God.
[00:27:19] Speaker A: I know. And I'm so sorry. I hope we can be friends after this.
[00:27:23] Speaker B: Thanks for joining us, Rich.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: We'll go ahead and wrap it up right here.
But we made it. We made it to the Avengers. We made it to Baymax.
[00:27:33] Speaker C: His workout show.
[00:27:34] Speaker A: The workout show. And again, those were really well done. I think the, the Avengers one might be one of the, the best open shows that, that Disney offers.
Some of the, the stunts and things that were done in there were, were pretty incredible to be able to, to think about logistically how they do that on a ship that could be rocking in waves and other things. Like, it really, really is well done.
[00:27:57] Speaker C: Yeah. Those cable lifts are just, I mean, I have to say I gotta give a shout out to Disney for releasing that. We call it imagineering episode on YouTube on their Walt Disney Imagineering. YouTube. Because that explains sort of the, the difficulty of making, creating those rigs and for, for these crazy, you know, tricks that people are doing. They're, you know, hanging over the audience. And we, we see that at its sort of first inception on the other ships where you've got the cable that goes across and you, you know, either either Jack Sparrow or Mickey Mouse go across and they're on the pirate night. But this is at another, another level. It's, it's like a 3D, right? Because it's like they can put them in any different place, not just a straight line. And it's really, really cool.
[00:28:46] Speaker A: Yeah. And the choreography to that point, the aerial choreography, also what was going on on the stage and something else that I didn't know going into this but really came to appreciate was in that stage area, the whole back area is a screen. And that screen changes throughout the sailing to whatever show it is. But the quality of the pictures and I would say that throughout the, the entire ship, all of the screens, it might have just been my lack of sleep or I don't know what, but it was, it was incredible. They were, they were really high def and even looked 3D at some points. They were. They were awesome.
[00:29:21] Speaker C: That's fantastic. All right, I gotta ask. I gotta shift over to food. You mentioned Mowgli's. I want to talk quick service food specifically because there's some new quick service options on board this ship and of course, new specialty dining options as well.
What food outside of main dining, what food were you able to experience on your sailing?
[00:29:43] Speaker A: Yes, we did. Did Mowglis to start.
We did cosmic kebabs. Both were.
They were exceptional, especially if you like. If you like Indian food. If you like that Mediterranean style with the kebabs. It was. It was fantastic. We went to. What was it called?
The Ohana Grill.
And I wasn't able to eat there. We had a wine tasting in a 30 minute window. We could eat.
My burger took more than 30 minutes to come out, so we had to miss it to go to the wine tasting, but we did. So I was able to experience two out of the four kind of quick service meals.
I did room service one day just to try out.
[00:30:24] Speaker C: You gotta try and see if it's as good.
[00:30:26] Speaker A: Gotta see what it is.
[00:30:28] Speaker C: You gotta see if they've got the all hands on deck cheese platter.
[00:30:31] Speaker A: You know, all hands on deck cheese platter. The burgers were different.
It was interesting. No French fries. You get vegetable chips instead.
So healthy options, I guess, are out there. No, I gotta.
[00:30:42] Speaker C: I gotta boo the chips.
Buffalo wings. That's a good one. Yeah.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: But then we did for. As a special meal, we did do on Night One. Night.
Yeah, Night One we did the omakaze dinner at Mike and Sully's, which might have been my favorite meal ever on a Disney ship.
It was incredible. We've done Remy and Paolo and Enchanted.
This was really a special experience.
[00:31:12] Speaker C: Oh, cool. I have to say, you know, I was thinking it was just gonna be like omakase sushi. And it's not. It's more of like a chef tasting menu, like an Enchante or Remy from. Is that. I mean, that's what I've seen from pictures.
[00:31:26] Speaker B: It's not just sushi, it's teppanyaki.
[00:31:28] Speaker C: Yeah, well, that's what I mean. But it's not. It's not. It's not the teppanyaki, Brian. The teppanyaki is. You can. That's the separate. You can choose, right? You can do sushi, you can do teppanyaki, or you can do the Ama Makassi. But omakase is more akin to an enchante tasting menu. Is. Is that how the best Way to describe it, Rich.
[00:31:47] Speaker A: I think so with, with the. The difference being it's more like a chef's table.
So you have the chef and the sous. The sous chef. We had eight people at our dinner, so our party of four and then two other parties of two, they could have sat another four people. So a max of 12 is what I believe they can hold.
And this is again the chef, the sous chef. They're making all your food right there. So you get to watch this incredible presentation of food as they. They. They dish up, there's. And they serve you, you know, your, your different courses.
They explain what you're eating, where the food came from, why it's significant, why they chose, you know, this ingredient or that ingredient.
And I believe there was nine.
Nine courses, nine different tastings through that.
So it was, it was great.
[00:32:39] Speaker C: That's. It's. Yeah. More like than a chef's tasting at a restaurant. Like a, like a Napa Rose as a chef's counter. And other, you know, other restaurants do that as well. That. That sounds amazing.
[00:32:53] Speaker B: Are you listening to our show because
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[00:33:51] Speaker C: we got. Shift over and ask about main dining. Of course, because main dining, you have rotational restaurants. You typically get to go to three. You skipped one because you went for the omakase. Which of which did you skip and what were the two? Main dining. Because you do. There's six restaurants on board and I know, they're not. They're very similar, but not quite identical. You know, there's sort of like two animators palette, but after that they're slightly different. So which ones did you get to go to, Rich?
[00:34:21] Speaker A: So we did skip animators. That was our first night, so we didn't get to experience that. The second night we went to Pixar Market and that was really interesting too. And I would say again, throughout, the food on this ship is incredible, especially if you're an adventurous eater. If you want to kind of jump outside of your comfort zone of, of chicken nuggets or, or whatever it might be, they really, I think, did a good job of catering to the different cultures that are coming to experience this ship.
So we did Pixar Market and I ended up having a ramen dish that night, which was fantastic. And then the last night we did Navigators and that was pretty neat too. This space is set up for those who don't know. There's a performance that happens throughout the show with some special guests and we were kind of front and center of that and really had a.
An awesome table to kind of experience that whole show.
[00:35:23] Speaker C: Yeah, I've seen some video clips here and there and I know it's like Fab 5 folks that appear during dinner and do some dancing and whatnot. I don't know obviously if there's a storyline or anything like that and I don't want to spoil it for people, but yeah, I definitely could.
I think that'll be a crowd pleaser for the ship and an animator's palette from what I understand is doing animation magic. And so that's. But you've experience that because you've been on all four of the classic ships which all have that built in. As long as you're in a longer sailing, you'll experience that on the other ships.
[00:35:59] Speaker A: Strategically, we thought that that would probably be the best one to miss. But we did go into the other restaurants too. And I will say the Hollywood spotlight, although we didn't eat there, if I going back, that's going to be one that I'm going to choose to do. You have these massive windows, similar show. And from what I understand, the menus are pretty similar from restauran to restaurant, but just the space and kind of walking into that, that restaurant is kind of a treat in itself too. So you really feel like you're part of that Hollywood glitz and glamour. It really puts you in that environment. It's great.
[00:36:37] Speaker C: I love that, I have to say.
[00:36:38] Speaker B: Is it like. Is it like 1923 in a way or like. How would you describe the decor?
[00:36:43] Speaker A: You know, in a way. But it's also two stories. So depending on where you're sitting, you have this. These big open ceilings. So you don't feel like, you know, sometimes depending on the restaurant, you might, you know, the ceilings are a little bit lower. You are on a cruise ship. But this was. Again, you. You have the two stories. It felt nice and open and the. The windows went up full two stories.
The decor very much that old Hollywood kind of theme.
As you're walking into the restaurant, you walk through this corridor of lights.
So you have kind of that red carpet feel as you're. As you're walking in. I just thought it was. It was really, really well done.
[00:37:22] Speaker C: Yeah. And you can actually see those windows if you're looking of the ship. If you are from, you know, sort of outside, you know, on the dock, for example, watching the ship either pull in or pull out, you can see those windows from the outside to see where that dining room is. It's a. I imagine it to be a very cool place to eat as well. Now, Rich, we've got to talk about some other things on board.
We've got to talk about the shows. I know there's two shows that they're showing, Seize the Adventure, which has a slight difference from. They've got Rapunzel instead of Merida. Is that right in Seize the Adventure.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: So we were not able to see. Sees the adventure.
Yeah.
Not for lack of effort. So something that I think people should know going into this, there is a bug, whether it's your phone or the Disney app app. The time changed on our phone and was different than the Disney app. Even though we didn't cross any time zones, we didn't do anything. We were. We thought we were still on Singapore time.
The. The app was an hour difference. And so we showed up at first, seven o'. Clock.
It actually ended up being in. We were there at 8 o' clock and we had missed the show.
We missed the show. Cast member kind of heard us talking and trying to figure out what was going on. Came over and said, yeah, unfortunately, they knew that that wasn't kind of a bug that other people had experienced as well, is being off by an hour. So just kind of a word of caution to those going on. It's never been my experience on other sailings, but make sure your phone is synced up to the Disney Cruise app.
And the Disney Cruise app there is the one you should definitely go off of.
[00:39:11] Speaker C: So I wonder if this is something where you've got to set your. So the ship doesn't change time zones. Right? The ship, like it's. It stays on Singapore time zone. So what you need to do is. And this is something that I've had to do in the Caribbean as well, when you are crossing. When we are crossing time zones when we're at sea, which is to manually set your phone to the time zone rather than letting your phone decide what time zone based on satellites, because that's where the. The problem happens. Right? So you want to basically lock your phone into Singapore time zone and tell it to not change time zones. And I, like I said, I've done that. When we've been in, I think, think it's called Atlantic time, which is one time zone past Eastern. When you're in St. Thomas and when you're in Tortola, I believe you're on that time zone. And sometimes that time zone is the same as Eastern and sometimes it isn't, depending upon daylight savings. But your phone doesn't always know that you're based on where it's, you know, connecting what phone towers. It's connecting to where you are. And so you've gotta sometimes manually do that. So that's my best piece of advice to folks who in this sit. So you don't get, you know, off of the. You have your phone showing one time and the Disney Cruise line app showing another time. But your, your best, you know, your best bet is if you don't, if you don't remember to do that. Just make sure when you're looking at the time, you're looking at it in the cruise app. Because the cruise app will tell you whatever ship time is. God, that's a pain, though. All right, well, you've seen Seize the Adventure, so the only thing that's different, the only thing that I think Jeremiah told us, the only thing different is instead of, I think Merida, I think you've got Rapunzel in that one SC with the three princesses. So you didn't really miss anything. It's a great show.
[00:40:57] Speaker B: Of course, Sam says having not seen it, but.
[00:40:59] Speaker C: Yeah, no, no, I'm saying it is a great. No, we have sees the adventure on
[00:41:03] Speaker B: board on the dish. I know.
[00:41:05] Speaker C: So, like, it can't be that different. Right.
But the other show, remember, please tell me you were able to make. Remember.
[00:41:11] Speaker A: We did see remember. And I think again, people should know is you are assigned a certain time to be able to go. And when you go in after we got Our phones fixed.
We were at the right time for that on the second day.
And you have to show a cast member going into the theater that you are assigned to that time. I think remember depends on the questions you ask me later. But remember will be is a solid number. Two of my favorite shows. I think the way they told that story and it is your kind of variety show.
[00:41:44] Speaker B: Right.
[00:41:45] Speaker A: You get a sampling from a lot of a Disney IP there.
But the way they told the show was the story. I'm sorry, it was phenomenal. And I think the puppetry was some of my favorite as well. I think it was great. Absolutely great.
[00:42:01] Speaker C: And Wally and Eve are two of the main characters who. I mean, you can't really go wrong with Wally and Eve.
[00:42:08] Speaker A: Yeah. We weren't sure how they were gonna tell the story using Wally and Eve. Limited vocal arrangement. And I think it makes sense. Again, you have a lot of cultures coming in together, a lot of different languages on the ship. You have to be able to communicate in ways that aren't all in English, even though everything in the ship is English based. But I think for the audience to be able to enjoy the full content of the show, they really were clever with it. And again, the puppetry of Wally and Eve are great.
[00:42:37] Speaker B: Rich, I want to sit back and ask a couple questions just about how full the ship felt, because this is 6,000 passengers on board, 50% more than on the wish class.
Talk to us a little bit about, like, how was the crowd control? Did it feel full? And also, you know, what was the mix of folks on board? Because this ship is really aimed at Southeast Asia. So did. Did you. Do you feel like there was a good mix of international presence on board, at least for the Maiden, or was it really, really hidden hard into that Southeast Asian kind of, you know, kind of fan base?
[00:43:12] Speaker A: So from a capacity standpoint, the first time I noticed was during our muster. So we were assigned to the. The Disney theater for our mustard drill. And it was about two thirds full.
And I was. And I was surprised by that kind of talking to other guests throughout because I kept wondering. I kept expecting it to feel more full than it was, but there was only. According to Rumors, there was 3,800 passengers on the Maiden. So it wasn't that capacity.
[00:43:38] Speaker C: That's what I heard. It's because it's that the rooms were. There were. Most of the rooms were taken. It wasn't that, but you have a lot of couples on board, a lot of. So a lot of adults, not as. Not as many kids, which Makes sense. It's a maiden voyage. Right. And during school times, even for, even in Asia. Right. So you're talking about, you know, people who want to sail a maiden often are like Disney adults, not Disney families.
[00:44:03] Speaker B: How packed was the pool deck?
[00:44:05] Speaker A: It really wasn't. And I think maybe to Sam's point, there wasn't a lot of families.
So most of the kids that we saw were, I'm going to say under 12.
We didn't see a lot of teen or tween age kids. So the pool poles, while they were, they were being utilized, they, it wasn't crowded. At least not, not, not any experience that I saw.
[00:44:26] Speaker B: And what was the, I guess what's the weather like sailing in, in that area? I mean, hot and humid.
[00:44:31] Speaker A: It's hot. It's hot and humid. And I think Singapore for the most part is pretty consistent. It's like kind of that low to mid-80s year round we didn't experience. I think one day there was a little bit of rain, but the seas were pretty calm. There's a little rocking on day, I think it was, but nothing significant. And maybe because you're in a ship that size, it's harder to rock it. But the weather was great.
Getting up, we had sunshine and at night, you know, for the Lion King fireworks show, it's still comfortable. You didn't need to be in a jacket or sweatshirt. I think a T shirt worked just fine. So yeah, it was great.
[00:45:08] Speaker B: Yeah, well, we saw that, we saw the ship track. It was just basically doing donuts just off the coast of sleep for.
Let me go back because I may have missed it, but what was the mix of the crowd like on board? Was it a pretty good international mix or did it skew pretty heavily Southeast Asian?
[00:45:23] Speaker A: I think it was, it was majority, majority Asian, maybe not Southeast Asian. There was a lot of Japanese guests, a lot of Korean guests. And then you did have Southeast Asian and Indian representation there as well. So a pretty good mix.
I would say generally Americans there were maybe 20, 25% of the ship. And that's just kind of a ballpark. Yeah, the majority of the ship were people from Asia.
[00:45:52] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think that's going to be the case for the inaugural season, you know, or at least the last, the next, the first couple of months. I think you're going to see more Americans on that ship than you will see her, let's say, when she hits her one year mark. Right. Because there are lots of folks like you who are completionists. I want to check off that you. They Want to check off the box? They've been on the adventure. They want to check out what the new shows, the new.
[00:46:16] Speaker B: I've got my pen ready, Sam, to give that check.
[00:46:18] Speaker D: Mark.
[00:46:19] Speaker B: We can't be the dcl duo and not have sailed on.
[00:46:23] Speaker C: I know. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. We just. It's hard to find the right timing, but.
[00:46:28] Speaker B: Hey, Rich, can I ask one more question about staterooms on board? Because these are probably a bit unique in the Disney system. There's a lot of different types of staterooms, more so than on the other ships. So, you know, what kind of stateroom did you book and how was it as compared to your experience in kind of other Disney cruise line staterooms in terms of, you know, size, layout, amenities, that sort of thing?
[00:46:51] Speaker A: Yeah, we had that inside stateroom. I don't remember the exact class of it, but it was just a one bedroom or, sorry, one bed. It felt from a size perspective, it felt comfortable.
There are some differences and nuances and things, you know, you've probably already heard the closets are open instead of having doors on them.
We did notice it. The bathroom had the split bathroom as always, but there was definitely less storage space in the, I guess you would call it the toilet room where if you have a family, we utilize both rooms to get ready at a time. And it would be very difficult to do that in the small room. The shower, on the other hand was a lot bigger and a big, kind of like a walk in shower as opposed to some of the older ships have the kind of that big tub in the middle and a little smaller. Smaller. A couple things that were, were different too. There's a service light on the outside of each room.
You can either flip it red if you don't want to be disturbed or you have, you know, somebody come by and, and clean up your room or the green indicates that you, you need some help, you want something. Those were, those were nice little touches. The hallways were different. I didn't appreciate or it didn't, I didn't expect the hallways to be as long as they are. And maybe that's, that's kind of, that's kind of dumb in hindsight. Hindsight.
But, but navigating these hallways where on other ships wish class or some of the other small ones, the hallways kind of have these little, they don't go on forever. They have these little, you know, they move to the left, to the right, little zigzags. These ones just go.
So what I ended up navigating the ship is again, a wish or, or dream or something. I would usually take an elevator down to whatever level I wanted to go to and then move across forward or out or forward or aft.
This one, getting forward or aft was easier, I found just staying on our level and taking that long hallway as long as I could and then, and then moving over to the elevator bank or stairwell and then moving up or down. So it is a little, little differences like that kind of made a difference the, the rest of the stateroom. I'd heard some, some negativity around maybe artwork and things. In my experience, it was not nice. It still had that Disney feel to it. I didn't, you know, you, you walk into some of these and you still feel like you're at home. So I, I thought it was, I thought it was great.
[00:49:17] Speaker B: Ch. Channeling Lynn Testa's favorite review.
You know, how was the bed? Was the bed up to Disney standards? Because, you know, everyone raves about those mattresses.
[00:49:24] Speaker C: Yeah. I'm going to guess they're not as good, but, you know, not quite.
[00:49:28] Speaker A: The bedding's different. It was still great. Yeah. You still get a great night's sleep after a full day of adventure. Pun intended. Right.
But the, the sheets and the bedding are a little different than what you see on the other ships.
[00:49:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:49:40] Speaker B: Last question for me before I let Sam get back into her. Her rhythm. But I was curious how much of the Disney cruise line culture got imported over and actually it's. Let me give you two questions. One is stateroom magnets, fish extenders. Like, did you see that stuff going on in the hallways? And then the second part of my question is going to be just about crew and service, because we've heard that, that somewhere around 80% of these crew are brand new to the cruise line.
How'd they do? So take those in whichever order you'd like.
[00:50:08] Speaker A: So, yeah, I'll try to go in the right order. If I miss one, correct me, please. But then that Disney culture, the Disney cruise line culture, there are no fish hook extenders. Those don't exist.
[00:50:20] Speaker C: There's nothing to hanger on.
[00:50:22] Speaker B: You know, I think Disney Cruise line has been non plussed with this fish extender for a long time. And so this is a way to handle it. We just won't give you something to have. Hang on.
[00:50:30] Speaker A: Yeah. Just.
[00:50:32] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:50:33] Speaker A: But I did see people kind of do their own makeshift with hooks and other things that they had brought. You know, maybe those magnetic hooks on the outside of the state room. I will say the the door decorating game was next level. I have not seen. I have not seen this anywhere, and I didn't expect it.
We saw.
We saw some door decorations that were really incredible.
One of them, again, going back to that giant long hallway. There was a room at the very end on deck 15, and they had Duffy, like Polaroids. So Duffy on all their adventures around the world.
And I don't think it's an exaggeration to say there was over a hundred of these things pasted everywhere. There was people that had flowers and, and just wreaths and all of the decorations were incredible. I came home.
I feel like ours is pretty good, but we came home and my wife and I were talking. We need to step up our game after.
[00:51:36] Speaker B: How can I magnetically attach a water feature to my door? That must be possible.
[00:51:40] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:51:42] Speaker C: It's hard. Listen, you were packing. Carry on. So it's true. You had to be very judicious with what magnets you'd bring with you and bring.
[00:51:50] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:51:51] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:51:51] Speaker A: But it was, it was. They did a great job. And your question to the crew, you're right. A lot of the, A lot of the, The. The cast members that we spoke to were either earning their ears. They still had the little red earning their ears thing on their name tag or they had just had them removed. But I don't, I don't think from a Disney standard, we saw any drop in the level of service from these. The, you know, the folks that we interacted with, everybody was fantastic.
And even if they were earning their ears or just earning their ears, they were very upfront with it, saying, hey, I don't know the answer, but let's figure this out together. And I think again, going on the maiden voyage as well, you kind of expect a little bit of that too. You know, it's a new ship. Maybe you're. You're. You've had some guests, whether a preview cruise or. Or something prior, but your first, you know, paying customers, if you will. There's. There's still a lot to figure out and come once comes with the maiden territory. But everybody was fantastic.
[00:52:49] Speaker C: I gotta ask, going back to the app, because I want to find out a little bit more about how things worked with bookings. I know that from us talking to Jeremiah, there certain things you have to book in the app, like character meet and greets. And you mentioned about how the show, you had to reserve time, like were there. Was there an ability to do things outside of booking in the app, for example, you know, were there any character Meet and greets that were outside of the app. And then was there any flexibility with, like, changing your showtime or did you try? I mean, I. I'm, I'm curious because I'm sure a lot of people will just be like, oh, that's my showtime, and that's what I'm going to go to. But I'm curious if you had any opportunity to sort of change things or adjust things either in the app or with guest services. Services.
[00:53:39] Speaker A: I wish we, we would have been able to change our CZ Adventure because we missed it, but it was only offered on that day and we missed the last show, so that was done. But the rest of the shows for, like at Imagination Garden, you didn't have to reserve anything, that those were all, you know. So we're talking the, the Duffy show, the Baymax, the. The Marvel show. So even not in Imagination Garden, but Wayfinder Bay, there's tales of Moana that didn't need to be reserved either. I think it's only the Disney theater shows that had to be reserved, but they were reserved for us. I didn't have to go in and pick a time. It just said, here's your time. We did have to book, especially on night one times to go into the shops, so those weren't readily available for people, but they stayed open really late. Again, back to the amazing cast members. They knew people wanted to get in there. They were so helpful. If you had something that you wanted to find specifically, there was people to help and try to navigate you through all of that. But we didn't find the booking process to be terribly difficult. You do have to book the.
I guess we'll call those quick service restaurants.
But we never had an issue with that either. We kind of knew the night prior. Our strategy was what our. Our next day layout was going to look like. And so we would try to book a lunch around an appropriate time and. And again, we never, for a party of four, never ran into any difficulty or had to make hard decisions about whether we could or couldn't do a certain thing.
Character meet and greets.
I did notice some impromptu ones as well that didn't require you. We were in Tiana's having a coffee and Goofy came by and then just set up. But that wasn't advertised. It was just one of those magical moments.
Exactly.
[00:55:36] Speaker C: I love that. You know, I've got to ask sort of the, the bigger picture question. Were there things you really wanted to do that you felt like you didn't have enough time to do? Because this was A three night sailing. And so there's a lot to do. There's as we've talked about, there's seven different lands on this ship.
So it's very similar to or more similar maybe to a Parks experience than what we're traditionally used to on cruise line. But yeah. Were there things you really had wanted to do that besides Iron Cycle? Cause I know you mentioned the coaster, but besides Iron Cycle, which was not up for anybody, were there things you wanted to do but felt like you just didn't have enough time to do? I want to give advice to people who are thinking about going over to, you know, Singapore for the adventure. Do they take just a three night sailing? Do they take a four night sailing? Is that really even enough?
[00:56:25] Speaker A: Enough in my opinion, three night is really. It's really challenging. We were on the move quite a bit to try to consolidate and get as much in there. I would have liked to have had more time to experience more of the bars. Other places that we didn't get a chance to eat.
Especially up on I think it was Deck 1718 in the Avengers area.
[00:56:49] Speaker C: Oh yeah, there's like a hot dog place, right? There's. Yeah, yeah.
[00:56:52] Speaker A: There's the infinity pools. There's the. The drink list is all based on the different infinity Stones. Like to being able to go try. I just, we went by, I took a picture of the menu but I didn't have a chance to go sit down and just kind of relax and have a drink there.
And I think that was just more time constraint just trying to get around and see as much of the ship as possible.
Three nights is difficult. I think a fourth night you probably could but you'd also sacrifice some things. Like we didn't once step into the spa trading off time to explore the ship vers time in the spa. We felt like that was probably more sense to walk around.
And again I think you know, with the. The dining rotation I would love to have seen again Hollywood. I would love to experience some of the other ones outside of our normal. And if you're going to do Apollo, if you're going to do the Mike and Solis, you're. You are going to have to sacrifice one of your normal restaurants as well. So I think the three nights is. Is a little difficult. Difficult, doable.
But understanding that you are going to have to miss out on something.
[00:57:55] Speaker C: Yeah, well and you're getting a taste of the ship. I think is. Is when you're on a even a four night I think you're not there's to Your point? You can't. There's so many new bar spaces on this ship as well, right. There's Spellbound Lounge. There's where you get the Infinity Stone drinks. There's the Marvel style studio where you has the speakeasy in it at night. Right. Like, there's just a lot of really cool spaces to explore that. It would be impossible unless you like for went everything else. Right. You could just sort of bar hop on this ship and see nothing else. And you'd have a full schedule as opposed to going to the shows and seeing, you know, the deck party shows. The. The fireworks show, of course. Okay. I didn't ask you about fireworks at sea. I gotta ask, is that show 12 minutes of amazingness? I.
[00:58:43] Speaker A: It's amazing. Word of caution for those coming from the States or. Or Canada.
It's late. It starts at 10:30, so you're going to be. You're going to be tired. But really well done. Again, it's deck 18. I was worried kind of. Brian, your question earlier about capacity being able to get everybody up there. There was. It was busy. I don't know on a. At full capacity how they're going to do that. But there are places around the ship I think you'd be able to see. But most people were up on 1718 getting a view I. Of that.
[00:59:16] Speaker C: Yeah. All right. The. The last thing before we go over to Rapid Fire, I've got to ask you about is not the merch that you purchase at the shops, but I want to know about special gifts on board for the Maiden.
[00:59:28] Speaker B: I just. I just saw a special quilted inaugural bag that got handed out. I think so.
[00:59:33] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:59:34] Speaker C: What.
[00:59:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I want to know what's all
[00:59:36] Speaker C: the merch Got to know. What did they give you? Rich.
[00:59:40] Speaker A: So as platinum. As platinum members we go. Got a passport holder very similar to what we got on. On Destiny, but obviously Adventure Focus Blues. Really cool. I thought the lanyards were actually really cool on the adventure. They're a little bit smaller than the other ones, but really, really well done. They were beautiful. The tote bag that you mentioned, that. That was a gift. We had a hand fan. Like a little electronic hand fan. Yeah. We saw a lot of people using them throughout the ship, you know, up on the pool decks and stuff.
[01:00:15] Speaker B: Having their hand fan smarter than the cup speaker combo they gave us on the.
[01:00:22] Speaker A: We did get a cup. It wasn't the champagne flute that you. You got that we got on the. The Treasure Maiden or the Destiny Maiden, but it was more of a cup that I Think we had on a wish, one of the inaugural wish they sailings. And then we got a water bottle that's. That's kind of handy too. So that was night one or day one? Day two.
[01:00:44] Speaker C: That's a lot for just one night. Yeah, yeah.
[01:00:47] Speaker A: Day two, we got luggage tags, we got luggage covers and a little dry bag that. That came with it. And then the last night we got the maiden voyage keel coin that you. Yeah, you thought the little plaque that the you get and then.
[01:01:03] Speaker C: Yeah, it comes in like a loose sight. Little display thing. Yeah, exactly.
[01:01:08] Speaker A: And then we got a little tin, a little bag. It had a tin with cookies in it and some chocolate covered coffee beans and some. Some gummy bears. So a little. Little treat to go to. And the tin was made in voyage as well. So I'm not sure from a. I think the pearls got a couple other other things. But yeah, yeah.
[01:01:28] Speaker C: Probably night one. They probably got a couple of like one or two extra things they don't as go on. Everybody's getting the same stuff. It's just that first day you get something different because you're getting the. If you have pearl, you are getting the full complement of the castaway gifts. And so you'll get one extra or two extra castaway gifts depending upon whatever the. The pearl gift is. That sounds honestly really nice. Especially a lot of stuff to get for three nights. Did you have to throw out the underwear and the socks like we talked about?
[01:01:58] Speaker A: We were able to keep. I think everything thing the trickiest part was you mentioned spellbound. I did buy the poison apple.
[01:02:06] Speaker B: You did.
[01:02:07] Speaker C: That's the.
The witch and she's a big ceramic cup. Yeah.
[01:02:13] Speaker A: So we ended up using the tote bag that we got as a gift wrapping the. The witch almost like a baby. And using that was our. Our, our carry on. We were lucky enough that because Korean Air and Delta are partners, they checked our bags on the way home all the way through. So we didn't have to worry about that. So.
So we were able to cheat a little bit in that regard. But yeah, there was a lot of merch going back home.
[01:02:38] Speaker C: Yeah. You had the witch wrapped as a baby burrito.
[01:02:42] Speaker A: That's right.
[01:02:43] Speaker C: As we used to call Nathan the way we'd swaddle him into as a baby burrito. I love it.
[01:02:48] Speaker B: I've got a couple of last questions here and then I'll throw it over to Sam for rapid fire. So I wanted to ask you Rich for one highlight, one thing that surprised you and one opportunity you think that they have with the adventure.
[01:03:01] Speaker C: Adventure opportunity means something to improve. FYI.
[01:03:07] Speaker A: I think the highlight for me had to be that omakase dinner and that, that really did.
That surprised me a lot because there was again going back to our other dining experiences on other ships. We've had some fabulous meals and that was so far above what I, what I had expected.
That was absolutely incredible.
So highlight my, the other surprise. I think I was really surprised by the quality of the entertainment. Disney of course, always does a great job and we love shows on, you know, across the fleet. But this, I felt like they, they really stepped up and the entertainment across the ship was, was really well done where I think they could have, they could improve.
There was less for adults on the ship ship than what I would have liked to see. There's, there was no match your mate. There's no, you know, choose your adventure show. There's, there's, there's nothing specifically catered to adults and there's no adult only areas throughout the ship either. And so I would have.
[01:04:15] Speaker C: So the. Yeah, the bars and lounges are open for all ages then at all times?
[01:04:20] Speaker A: Correct. One of the cast members told us they were testing it out to see but again, kind of leaning back into the cultural nuance of the ship that they were worried initially that that might not land well with some of the families that are coming. So there's not, there's not like an adults only area or like a, a Luna Sabi kind of kind of focused area where a lot of those adult games happen.
I, I wish they would have done something with that.
[01:04:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm. Yeah, I'd be curious about the cultural component of that. I, I can see where they're coming from there.
Last question from me, Rich, is just going to be all right. You flew all the way to Singapore to get on the adventure. Did the three night thing, the thing that I swore off, I was like, no way I can make this happen without, without becoming just a miserable human being after all that travel. Would you, would you go back to Singapore to get on the adventure or are you thinking we got enough ships here at home to keep me happy? I don't need to fly all the way to Asia.
[01:05:22] Speaker A: That's a great question and one that we've wrestled with on our way off the ship. We were like, we're done. Like, we came, we saw, we conquered, we're good.
We hadn't even taken off yet. And my wife were talking about again like our trip in December, coming back with the kids experiencing it again.
It is a long way to your point, and I think if you were to, if you were, you're four hours away from Hong Kong, six hours from Shanghai.
So if there's an opportunity to maybe consolidate and combine a couple of those trips, maybe again, one of our list is to get all of the Disney parks too. You have an opportunity to do that by tacking on a Hong Kong stay or Shanghai stay or maybe both. But if you, if you were to go over there just for the adventure, I think that's tough, I think that's, that's a, that would be a tough sell. But combining it with all of the other spectacular parts of that world, you know, the world over there, I, I think it's an awesome, awesome extension to a trip.
[01:06:21] Speaker B: I, I, I would also make the case that going over there and doing like, you know, like we're going to have a guest coming up, that's done. She, she did back to back to back to back. I'm pretty sure.
[01:06:31] Speaker C: Yeah, the first four sailings.
[01:06:33] Speaker B: Yeah, first four sailings. So like I could see, I could see a setup where it's like we're going to go to Singapore and get in the adventure, but we're going to be staying on board for a little while because we do want to have the flexibility to get into all of these different places and see everything in a little bit less pressured filled way. I could, I could make that argument in my head for the travel over there or as you said, absolutely, if you want to go to Tokyo, Disney or Shanghai, Disney or Hong Kong. Like, like totally makes sense to couple the trips together. I do think my instinct is don't fly over there for a three or four night or maybe a five night sailing. Like it's, it's, it's, it is going to be a pressure filled vacation and a lot of exhaustion setting.
[01:07:11] Speaker A: So yeah, yeah, by the time you get used to the time change, change, you're back on a plane going back home and it's a hard turnaround for three nights.
[01:07:18] Speaker C: Yeah, well, and I think adults are a little bit, might sort of psych themselves up and prepare and do that marathon. I think it'll be harder for folks from the US coming particularly with younger kids, but even with teenagers, right.
They need their sleep and it's a bit hard if you take them off their normal schedule.
[01:07:39] Speaker B: All right, well Rich, it is that time when I need to hand you back over to Sam for some arbitrary questions, some arbitrary contrary rules and more than a dash of judgment are the round we know as rapid fire. So Sam, take it Away.
[01:07:51] Speaker C: All right, I love this because you are my first rapid fire guest who has been on all eight ships. So I really. Rich, this is, like, monumental. All right, so we're gonna. We're gonna start with, of course, your Disney favorites, and then we'll. We'll go over cruise line favorites. So we'll start with who is your favorite Disney character? And Disney means everything and anything that Disney owns or licenses or whatever, whatnot. So bluey counts is what I mean by that.
[01:08:16] Speaker A: Well, you may not be able to tell, but my background, I'm in a Star wars office, so I'm gonna have to go with Darth Vader.
[01:08:25] Speaker C: Oh, Vader. Oh, I love it.
[01:08:28] Speaker A: Or my favorite Disney character.
[01:08:29] Speaker C: Yeah, I love it. That's a great answer. All right, favorite Disney movie?
[01:08:34] Speaker A: The one I'm gonna try to make sure my answers aren't all Star Wars.
[01:08:39] Speaker C: No, listen, I like it.
That's fun.
But then you have to pick, like, Rogue One or. And.
But I guess Andor's not a movie.
[01:08:48] Speaker A: Rogue One probably is my favorite, but from an animated movie, I would say Ratatouille. I find that anytime Ratatouille's on, I'm watching it.
It's just great to have on.
[01:09:01] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's not even a musical, and I love it, too, Rich.
[01:09:04] Speaker A: It's just a great feel good story.
[01:09:06] Speaker C: It's a great story. Yeah. All right. Favorite Disney song.
[01:09:10] Speaker A: I knew you were going to ask this, and I'm. I don't have a great answer.
[01:09:14] Speaker C: Imperial March. Come on.
[01:09:18] Speaker A: I think you have to say circle of life is like that opening in Zulu. You know the announcements.
If you don't get goosebumps from that. I don't know if you're human or friend like me. It has to be.
There you go. Perfect. I say friend like me is. Is another great one that always gets you. Gets you moving little bit.
[01:09:38] Speaker C: So I love it. I love it. All right, now we're going to jump over to Disney Cruise Line, and we're going to start with the most important. Well, I think the most important question for me, but not the most important question for everybody else, but what's your favorite Disney Cruise Line stage show you previewed to me that, remember, is maybe now holds the number two spot. So now I know you've been on all of the domestic ships, so you got to tell me which one is your favorite.
[01:10:03] Speaker A: I don't know how they're ever going to beat Moana. That's incredible.
And just kind of mind blowing with that whole performance. So I'm gonna stick with. With Mohana on the treasure. I think that's. That's the best. And remember might be number two.
[01:10:17] Speaker C: Wow. All right. This high praise for remember. Yeah. Beating out Hercules. Beating out Beauty and the Beast. Wow, that's. Yeah, that's pretty great. Okay, I realized. Is my moshi backwards? Yeah, my moshi's been backwards this whole time. I really. On my ears for those listening and not watching. Moshi is not looking at the camera, I guess. I guess he doesn't want to make his.
[01:10:40] Speaker A: Eyes in the back of your head.
[01:10:41] Speaker C: Eyes in the back of my head. That's right. But Baymax is the right direction. It's just motion. Oh, no, he's right. Oh, you just can't see his nose. He was just sitting too far up. Okay, he's there. All right. Sorry, Rich little guy. I got. That was a little squirrel moment from me.
Okay, we're gonna jump to your favorite Disney cruise line activity.
And so this can. This doesn't have to be onboard the adventure, but thing you like to do on board a Disney.
[01:11:05] Speaker A: I think this has changed over time, but I've really come to enjoy bingo.
[01:11:09] Speaker C: Did they have bingo on the adventure?
[01:11:12] Speaker B: They did.
[01:11:12] Speaker A: They had a couple bingo slots to play. But over time, as our kids have gotten older, it's kind of on the ships. They go their own directions except for bingo and dinner. Bingo and dinner are our family times. And I don't know if that says more about our family and the desire to win money, but, um, yeah, bingo is. Is probably my favorite activity.
[01:11:35] Speaker C: Oh, I. I actually really like that because it's like, even though we. We're. We're not huge bingo fans because I. We never win. Um, but I like that because it's one of those. If it's bringing the. The family together, that's the. That's an amazing activity, regardless of what it is. All right, we gotta talk dining. Favorite rotational dining. Whatever restaurant it could be across the fleet. It could be over and on the adventure. It could be treasure. It could be destiny. Which one is your favorite? I have a feeling, but I'm gonna. I'm gonna. I'm putting it in my head, and I'm not gonna say it until after you say what it's gonna be.
[01:12:11] Speaker A: And if it starts with a C. Are you gonna go with Coco?
[01:12:14] Speaker C: I was gonna guess. I was gonna guess Pridelands, actually.
[01:12:17] Speaker A: Oh, okay. No Coke. I think Coco Pridelands is up there too. I really love those. Those performative dinners, but I. I think just the food and the. The music, the show of, of Coco I think is fantastic. The entrance, getting into the restaurant, you know, kind of all those hidden storylines as you're walking in.
It's fantastic.
[01:12:39] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, I love it.
I think both Coco and Pridelands were such like a win for Disney. I mean even, I have to say, I even like Arendelle. It's quite loud.
But I think that's a hilarious show with Oaken and I love seeing Oaken and Kristoff off sing Let it go. I think that's just incredible. So. Yeah. All right, we gotta talk food. Specifically a favorite savory item and a favorite sweet item on a Disney cruise. Could be on the adventure, could be on any of the other ships. We start with the sweets because we save the best for last. So what's a favorite sweet item?
[01:13:18] Speaker A: So the obvious is the churro waffles. By the way, shout out to the adventure on their churro waffle game.
Might be the best churro waffles I've had ever in the line. The line to get them. They're over in the kids section. So you feel a little judged. But there was no line at all. So I just. The guy just kept putting them on my plate.
But they were, they were incredible.
[01:13:46] Speaker C: Outside of Churro, those international guests don't know what they're missing.
[01:13:50] Speaker A: They don't. They don't. So I've load up with a pile like an animal.
But the raspberry macaroni own ice cream is my go to. I always get a few scoops of that whenever I can.
[01:14:03] Speaker C: All right, favorite savory item if I'm
[01:14:06] Speaker A: feeling fancy, we're doing. Oh, and a glass of wine Apollo.
Otherwise you're going to find me on a wish class. Those are a little bit better. Pool deck burgers are fantastic.
So those are. That's my go to.
[01:14:22] Speaker C: Love it. All right, we got to talk water slides because you have been on all the ships and so I've got to ask you.
Aquadunk, Aquaduck, Aqua Mouse or I don't know, it could be Woody and Jesse's water slides on the adventures.
[01:14:38] Speaker A: So I didn't experience those. So I'm going to have to exclude those ones.
[01:14:41] Speaker C: But they're kind of peat slides anyway. They're not real intense. Yeah.
[01:14:45] Speaker A: But I think the Aquamouse with the stories, the videos, all of it going on the Aquamouse, those are, those are hard to beat. Those are great.
[01:14:53] Speaker C: Okay, now what other people might say is the most important question.
Which is your favorite ship? You have more to choose from than Brian And I even.
So you have eight ships. Which one? If you could be on one tomorrow, which one are you jumping on?
[01:15:11] Speaker A: I think this is an easy one for me.
If I had to rank them, it would be difficult, but it picked the number one. It's the trick.
[01:15:18] Speaker B: Treasure.
[01:15:20] Speaker A: I love the Treasure. I love everything about it.
We had such a great experience going on that Maiden. The seven night Maiden was nice to experience. So walking away from, from that, that ship and trip, that was, that was a highlight for sure.
[01:15:36] Speaker C: Yeah, well, they, and they did some, some really good gifts and being on for like you said, being on a new ship for seven nights is the best because you really do feel like you can experience everything and still get some time to rest, relax as opposed really anything shorter than that. The four night Destiny was great, but it was too short. The wish was five night Maiden also too short. Right. So yeah, that's. I totally, totally agree. All right, Bucket list cruise. You've of course now sailed out of Singapore. So check that off the bucket list.
Done. You've sailed all, all eight Disney Cruise Line ships. Check that off the bucket list. Eventually there'll be 13. So you still have more work to do, Rich. Don't worry, you have time.
But that's. Those are two tbd.
So yeah, you could go on any, any Disney ship in the fleet. Doesn't really matter. You can go anywhere in the world. Doesn't really have to even be someplace that Disney Cruise line currently goes. Just has to be someplace accessible by water. Where would you go, Rich, on your bucket list cruise?
[01:16:36] Speaker A: So August of 2020, we had this cruise booked on Disney and obviously it was canceled.
I would love to be able to go on a Baltic cruise.
It was out of. It was Denmark, Estonia. Had a stop in St. Petersburg, Russia. I think you had Helsinki kind of. That, that area up there is an area that I haven't traveled to before. I would love to experience that or if Disney ever came up with like an around the world sailing like some of these other lines do, that would be pretty, pretty hard to turn down. I'm sure this, the sticker on that would be. Would be quite high. But an around the world cruise or again on a more realistic. I would do a Baltic on probably.
I don't know that I would want to do it on a wish class. I would probably do a dreamer fantasy, I think.
[01:17:27] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. Well, Rich, thank you for playing you, you know, a Flying colors.
I'm. I'm sorry I, I missed your, your dining rotation. I thought you were going to choose Pridelands with that, with that from Circle of Life, which I of course love and have a very strong affinity, of course, for anything Lion King.
But why don't you tell folks where they can find you, follow you and if they want to book a cruise with you? I know you don't do it as your full time job. This is a side gig as we talked about prior to the show. But if folks want to book a cruise with you or another Disney vacation, how can they find you?
[01:18:09] Speaker A: I appreciate it. Yeah. So we have Family Passport Adventures is our company and we help people begin friends, family, those that are really interested in the cruising or adventure community to get out and explore the world with their families. And, and we've traveled to all seven continents as a family and been able to, you know, been privileged to be able to experience some of this stuff. So kind of lending that firsthand experience to folks. Family passport adventures.com or family passport Adventures on Instagram.
[01:18:37] Speaker C: Awesome. Well, thanks so much for joining us. We so appreciate it.
Please of course reach out to us again whenever you are sailing the high seas with Disney. We'd love to have you come back.
[01:18:47] Speaker A: I appreciate it. Thank you guys so much.
[01:18:53] Speaker D: Well, thanks everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us alive, we have a live show now every week, Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm p.m. 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 forward/dc 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 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, 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
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