[00:00:00] Speaker A: Teppanyaki and omakazi were my favorite. Teppanyaki was absolutely amazing. And we were all like $115 for teppanyaki. You know, like, we're thinking like Benihana kind of stuff.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: Right, Right. Or on Royal. Right. It's like on Royal, I think it's like 60 or $70, something like that.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It's amazing. It's super high end. Like, the food is like, amazing, amazing, amazing.
[00:00:32] Speaker C: Foreign.
[00:00:36] Speaker D: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's live episode of the DCL Duo podcast, brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel. And also we got to put in a special plug for our good friends over at the DCL magazine. I can stop calling them the WDW magazine and sending you there. There's the DCL Magazine and big shout out to Danny, Stephanie, Tim, Tatiana, the whole crew over there at the DCL Magazine. If you have not subscribed already, head over today. Dcl-magazine. That's dcl-magazine.com and use code DCL DUO for 10% off everything over there.
I'm going to keep this mercifully short because we got a lot to cover and a really fun guest to do it with. And so I'm just going to go ahead and bring in Luciana. Welcome, Luciana.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: Hello.
Thank you. Thank you for inviting me.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Yeah, it's so wonderful to have you. For those who don't know Luciana, she's. This is the first time she's been on our show, but she does Instagram lives. Lives, like all the time on her own Instagram channel, which is Amo Cruziero Disney. I'm probably mispronounced pronouncing that it's in Portuguese, but she posts all kinds of Disney content. She owns a travel agency.
All of her Instagram is in Portuguese, but she has amazing video and guess what? Translate on Instagram translates it all to English if you want to follow along with her adventures. But we're so excited. I met Luciana on the Disney Destiny. We know that we've been on cruises at the same time before, both on previews and maidens and probably other sailings as well. She is an avid Disney cruiser. She's been on all eight ships now and probably been on the adventure more than any other guest.
More than any guest that I know of, given how, you know, the adventure just started sailing. She did four in a row. That's back to back to back to back sailing.
[00:02:37] Speaker D: That was not a typo on the YouTube art. Like it?
Yeah.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: And. And so when we were chatting on the Destiny and I heard that she was going on the first four sailings of the adventure, and of course that she's an expert on all things Disney cruise line.
Probably one of, I mean, really, honestly, one of the premier experts and an expert for the Brazilian community. Absolutely. Like, for sure.
But I, I was like, we have to have you on the show to talk about this, this grand travel plan.
So let's, let's start with why you chose to book four sailings on the Disney adventure. You had been, of course, on all the other ships multiple times. But why go all the way to Singapore to do this, Luciana?
[00:03:26] Speaker A: So of course I wanted to see this super different ship. Right. Like, it's completely different from everything else. And only three and four night cruises.
We had originally booked a five night cruise in December because they had five night cruises for Christmas and New Year's. So when they reschedule everything to March, I was like, okay, so three night cruises back to back. And I was like, no, I need to stay for a four night. So it was 3, 3, 3, 4. Because of course I was like, okay, if they do something different on the four night, I need to be there. And it's so far away anyway, so okay, why not, right? Like traveling halfway across the world anyway, so that's why I vote the 4.
[00:04:10] Speaker D: And Sam, I think we should pause. I'm going to butcher this myself, but I looked this up because we have folks joining us now from Brazil in the chat. So I just want to welcome them to the show and I want to say hola, Bangvindas.
I hope I did not just say something offensive in Portuguese. My intent was to say that was good. Hello and welcome.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: There we go. All right. We love it. We love it. All right. So welcome for all of those folks who haven't watched or listened to our show before. But we're so excited to have Luciana, and we're so excited to have you all watching.
So we started with why these sailings? Why four sailings? Of course, you mentioned it's quite far away.
How long in advance did you. I know you live in the Orlando area. How far in advance did you go over to Singapore? Because it's obviously like a, you know, a full day. When I say day, I mean like 24 hours of travel.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: Right, right. I, I arrived four days before the maiden, just in case, because I wanted to make sure if there any, you know, flight delays or anything happen, I would have time to, you know, recover.
And also because of the time zone Difference because it's. Right now it's like a 12 hour difference from Orlando to Singapore. So I wanted to acclimate before boarding the cruise because I didn't want to be, you know, falling asleep on the Maiden V.
So that was also a reason to go early.
[00:05:41] Speaker D: I was going to say. I mean, you're effectively the entire trip asleep when you should be awake and awake when you should be asleep. Wow, that's gotta be brutal. That's gotta be brutal.
[00:05:50] Speaker B: You don't want your face like falling into Apollo souffle. I mean, it's like there are worse
[00:05:55] Speaker D: places your face could fall. But yes, I agree.
[00:05:59] Speaker B: Well, let's start with where'd you stay. We're not going to cover the stuff you did in Singapore before the cruise or after the cruise because we want to really focus on talking about the adventure because there's so much to talk about. But of course we should give the logistics of where did you stay and did you like where you at, wherever you stayed?
[00:06:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I stayed in Orchard, which is a really nice area in Singapore that it's fairly close to where Marina Bay Sands and the, the Marina Cruise center are located.
My Singapore friends and clients were the ones recommended.
So I went with their recommendation and it was great. Very easy to go around and lots of shops and restaurants and hotels and everything there. So I really recommend it. I'm going again in December. I'll stay in the same area again.
So yeah, that's a good place to be.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: Perfect. Now, I know you had other folks sailing with you.
You did four sailings. Who was in your sailing party? I know you changed rooms and I, I love that you did that because I want to talk about the different staterooms that you stayed in. But who was sailing with you for these, these four sailings?
[00:07:03] Speaker A: I sailed with two friends, my friends Anna and my friend Claudia. They sailed with me before. Like we, we have traveled together on Disney CR a lot.
Anna stayed with me for three cruises, Claudia stayed for the first two.
And then I did the fourth cruise by myself. They were like, no, too long. And I'm like, no, I'm not leaving before the fortnight.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: I love it. I love it. I do think it's important to understand that with the Maiden the ship wasn't on its regular schedule yet. And so you did have multiple three night cruises before you hit a four night cruise. And so that fourth cruise was your only opportunity to get that full four night itinerary, which to me makes sense because you know it's going to have a slightly different schedule than the three night sailings that you have at the beginning. So let's talk about the boarding process.
Is it similar to. I mean, we've talked to a couple of other folks who were on the Maiden with you, but not anyone who was on any later sailings. Is the boarding process in general similar to what we experience here in the States or in Europe when we sail, you know, on a different Disney ship?
[00:08:08] Speaker A: It's similar. However, you have to go through immigration at the port, which is the different part.
When you arrive in Singapore, you have to do a Singapore arrival card. It's like an electronic visa. To enter Singapore, you need to do within the three days that you arrive in Singapore, when you are embarking on the cruise, you are exiting Singapore immigration. So you have to go through and put your passport photo and stuff that you do, like an airport here.
Then you do that at the port. So that. That was quite different. And you also do that every back to back cruise. You need to do it.
[00:08:46] Speaker B: I was gonna ask.
[00:08:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Arrival card. Go through immigration every cruise. You have to do that over and over again because you keep re entering
[00:08:55] Speaker B: and leaving Singapore, essentially.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So you need to do the arrival card, you know, like your last day of the cruise. I'm like doing arrival card, then going through, coming back. Same thing.
Super easy to do the arrival card. I highly recommend you install the app because if you go through the website, you have to enter all your personal information, your passport all over again. If you do it through the app, it saves your profile. You don't have to reenter all that stuff. So do the app if you're doing back to back.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: Ooh, great pro tip. Let's talk about the logistics of the back to back real quick because we have had a bunch of questions about that.
Is the back to back process on the sort of Disney side of things? Is it similar to what we experience here in the States, where you're directed to a particular lounge to meet up and all the back to back cruisers are gathering and everybody's sort of exiting and entering together?
[00:09:46] Speaker A: Yeah, kind of. Not really.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: Kind of.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: Okay, they changed a little bit. So from the Maiden to the first to the second cruise, so it was quite strange. And then from the second on, they kind of standardized more to be more like what we experience here. So they made a change from the second to the third cruise, and it kind of like started becoming more familiar to what we experienced here.
So they do give you the ladder with instructions, you know, what you need to do, where you need to Go a little yellow ticket. They didn't do that on the Maiden, you know, so that everybody in the media was like, oh, you know, where's the ticket?
[00:10:24] Speaker D: Where we go?
[00:10:24] Speaker A: Yeah, right. And we had like almost 400 back to backers from the meeting to the second cruise. So that was. I don't know if they didn't do it because there were, you know, too many people or, you know, I don't know the reasons. But from. From the second cruise to the third, and then third to the fourth, it was already kind of like more. More standard. But basically you can kind of like stay anywhere you want until 9:45 in the morning. Then you exit the ship. You can go to D lounge, but concierge uses the D lounge to exit the ship. So you can't be there too early. Otherwise you're there with concierge. And then after they leave, you kind of can be there. It's not very controlled in that sense, but you can stay on the ship until 9:45 disembark and then go through the check in again at the port. And then you stay in a separate area to board with the back to backers. We boarded like the last cruise. We were boarding like 11:15, which was a little improvement over the first few. That was kind of like, you know, kind of almost close to noon.
So 11:15 I was boarding. And the last one, the fourth cruise, I actually left the ship early, went to Singapore. I went to the doctor in Singapore and then came back to the ship because I had like a sty in my eye. I need like eye drops. Yeah, yeah. And then I. I had been seen by the ship doctor. It was not working. And then I went to the doctor, came back. So, and I. And I. I boarded like, even before, like, I bored it with the back to back because I thought. I thought I was gonna have to go through general boarding. But it worked out.
But they have been like standardizing the process a little better.
[00:12:01] Speaker D: How popular was back to back cruising? I mean, I'm assuming there was probably a good sized crowd that did the maiden.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: Of course, 400 from the first to the second.
And then after that it was, I would say like 30, 20 people. It was kind of decreasing, so not really a lot.
I saw more people that were probably coming from the US and Europe and those farther places that were doing back to back. The people from Asia were, you know, I didn't see a lot of people from Asia that were doing back to back.
[00:12:32] Speaker D: Yeah. What was the. Like, so how, how full were your sailings? And we heard the maiden was about 3, 800 people. But did it seem to fill up after that or stay about the same? And then what. What did the mix of people look like? Because we'd heard some of the initial sailings were pivoting heavily, you know, like, not heavily, but more sort of Americans, Europeans. Yeah. And then it was going to taper off into something more normal. But, yeah. What was your experience?
[00:12:56] Speaker A: Definitely see the change. So Maiden was 3800, which was quite n.
We're like, oh, kind of almost like a US sailing. And then the second cruise was about, like, 4300 or so. And then my. My last two were 6000, so 6, 6200.
Yeah. So I could definitely tell the difference, especially with the Garden stage shows, because they were way more crowded.
Fireworks viewing, way more crowded. So the pools were more crowded. So could definitely tell that the ship was more crowded. So that we definitely saw that.
[00:13:30] Speaker D: We skipped our news items for the week, but one of the things that came out yesterday on social media was that they have, like, a 50 add on now for fireworks that you can sign up for to get a special viewing area for the fireworks. And I will say, yes, Luciana did it. You did it. Okay.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:47] Speaker D: So talk about how many people. Like, how did you book it? And then how many people were there in this special viewing area?
[00:13:55] Speaker A: So they actually had that since the Maiden, because at the Maiden, we were in concierge, and they offered to us in concierge. So the concierge hosts were asking everybody if they wanted to book that, and then we declined. For the Maiden, we're like, no, we're just, you know, see how it works. And. Yeah, see. See how it is. And then on the third cruise, I decided that, like, I'll give it a try just to see, you know, if it's, like, so much better than va. Is it worth.
[00:14:21] Speaker B: It's always the question.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: Yeah, right. And then. And then walked into the ship, and we went to guest services and asked, you know, we want to book that special firework view. And they say, oh, it's sold out. And we're like, sold out? Like, what do you mean? And they're like, oh, we'll put your name in the waitlist or whatever. But by the second day, we were able to book. We got services. I think they hold the spots for concierge. And then if concierge doesn't get all the spots, they release to the rest of the people. But this is not, like, confirmed by Disney. But that's what we think. Because that's kind of like how we worked the offer to concierge first. And then, you know, I think that. But whatever, they didn't book what concierge they offer to the rest of us. So we did that on the third cruise.
[00:15:02] Speaker D: Go ahead.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: And the viewing spot is really nice.
Obviously, you can get as good of view. And we did get the same view, pretty much standing, kind of like above the area, because the area is on deck 17. You can stay on deck 18 and on the same spot behind them. So you can get the same view, but you have to, you know, get there super early. You stand or you sit on the floor, and then you just wait there for, you know, 40 minutes, an hour. I don't know how long that you're gonna wait there. So. So that's the advantage. You, you know, you're there in a nice chair, sitting there, and they serve you, you know, bubbly and desserts, and they give you, like, a Lion King pin.
That's your souvenir.
And then you just stay there waiting and. And drinking and eating and see the fireworks. And you're not, you know, kind of standing or, you know, in the middle.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: You're not body to body with everybody.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: Yeah, but in terms of view, you can get that view. That's not, like, the only way of getting the view.
My very last cruise, I decided to try, like, a different view. I got an actual chair. I got there early to the side, and I put a chair, and I sat there, and it was fine as well. So, you know, you don't have to do that to get the good view. So there are other ways to see it.
[00:16:21] Speaker D: This sounds like Magic Kingdom fireworks, dessert party at sea, which makes sense, given that they're building this as, like, the, you know, the theme park at sea. I'm a little shocked that they would charge concierge for that, because on the other ships, if they have a viewing area, they will just take the concierge folks out to a special deck or someplace where they can kind of see it. Now, it's not quite as nice as what you're describing, but. But we've certainly been taken out on the wonder and the magic to, like, a deck.
[00:16:48] Speaker B: Only the wonder. The magic doesn't have it.
[00:16:50] Speaker D: The magic doesn't have it. That's right. It's only the wonder, I guess.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: I watch fireworks from the fantasy. The fantasy pool deck. I watched pyre fireworks from the fantasy concierge pool deck.
But you don't get to watch the show. You get to watch the fireworks only Right. Like, you can hear the show, but you don't watch. You don't see the show. You just watch the fireworks, which was nice, but, you know, that's the concierge area already. Right. They are not that area that they're booking for. This is not the concierge area. The concierge lounge doesn't have a good view.
It's too far forward. So you wouldn't really have a good view of the fireworks. The concierge pool area in the Adventure.
So I think that's kind of like, why. Because if you had a good view from the concierge pool area, then they would charge you. But this is a separate area that they're kind of making something different. But it is very much like a dessert party.
[00:17:47] Speaker D: Yeah. I. I really hope they don't. I really hope that they don't. Like, I don't want to see this on the other ships.
[00:17:53] Speaker C: Disney.
[00:17:53] Speaker D: I just want to say that flat out, like, I am. I am. I don't. I don't like the nickel and diming approach. And, like.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: Yeah. So I agree with you.
[00:18:01] Speaker D: Yeah, Yeah. I think it makes total sense.
I take it.
[00:18:04] Speaker B: I do like the new pin. And, you know, I do. I do like getting it.
[00:18:08] Speaker D: You know, will we sign up for this if we go on the adventure
[00:18:12] Speaker A: 49 for a pin? You know, you don't need to pay.
[00:18:15] Speaker B: Four and a half, probably.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: Dessert.
All the dessert that you're serving is dessert that you can find at the restaurant anyway. So, you know, like, you just came from. I just came from dinner, and I was like, oh, skip eating dessert at the restaurant for dinner, and then I'll be at the party. But, you know, it's really, like, it's not necessary. It's the luxury for sure.
It's a nice thing, but it's really not necessary.
[00:18:37] Speaker D: What did you think about the fireworks show? Because Disney's made a big deal about this. It's a Lion King production. It's like 11 to 12 minutes long. It's four times longer than pirate night fireworks are currently.
[00:18:47] Speaker B: That's when they shoot off many more fireworks than what is shot off on a pirate night.
[00:18:53] Speaker A: You can definitely tell.
Yeah.
[00:18:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:55] Speaker A: It is a much bigger show. I really like the show.
It's funny because, you know, coming from all the other Disney ships, I have seen all the other fireworks, and I know what the fireworks in the ships look like. I know, like, what it looks like in the classic ships, in the Dream class ships, in the Wish class ships. And then I get there and I see this, I'm like, wow, this is, you know, a lot more fireworks. Really cool night. Very nice soundtrack to the lion king. It is 12 minutes. I did count that. I did. I, you know, I had my videos and I looked at the timestamps. It is 12 minute show. So really, really nice. But I was talking to some people who were from Asia and they never been on a Disney ship ever, right? And they never seen fireworks on a ship. And they were like, oh, we thought it was going to be, you know, much bigger show. And we're like. I was like, oh, okay.
[00:19:43] Speaker B: Oh my God. So they were expecting probably something like what you see at New Year's Eve or fourth of July.
[00:19:51] Speaker A: Yeah. The ship is not going to carry the amount of fireworks that you see on land.
[00:19:55] Speaker B: Right.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: That's like a really super high expectation. But to me it was like, wow, this is a lot of fireworks. This is really nice.
Much nicer show than the other ships have. But all these first timers that had no clue about fireworks on the ship, they had an expectation that, you know, they were like, oh no, that was, you know, wow.
[00:20:16] Speaker B: Well, and it's funny because Disney still is the only cruise line that is doing fireworks at sea. So it's not like this is universal across cruise lines. Like they've been the only ones in the industry doing it for, I think they said like 15 or more years.
They didn't start doing fireworks at sea when the cruise line first launched, you know, almost 30 years ago or.
Yeah, almost 30 years ago. But yeah, it's, it's, that's, that's really funny. But you know, different audiences and they maybe saw some advertisements and not really understanding what, what they were getting into. Yeah, right.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: And, and that's, you know, a lot of the stuff that I'm seeing online about the adventure is about expectations. Right. So like I keep seeing a lot of people saying, I know I'm, I was so disappointed. But like the expectations really kind of didn't match. Right. So to say that you were disappointed with the 12 minute fireworks show on a cruise ship, it's like, wow, right?
What is the expectation and what is possible? Right. Like that's really what it comes down to. So I was like, wow, this is great because fireworks is three minutes, four minutes tops. And this is like a 12 minute show. So like, whoa, Disney, you really did amazing. And then these people are like, oh, I expected something that like, you know, the show they just had in Singapore, you know, the fireworks show they had on land, like with Marina Bay Sands, with drones and fireworks and stuff. I was like, yeah, that's not going to happen on a cruise ship.
[00:21:45] Speaker D: So let me ask, let me ask, I want to ask this because I want to move us thematically through the ship a little bit here and so. And we got a lot to cover. Let me just ask. The first question I want to ask is, as you notice the people increasing, how much longer did things take? Did it, I mean like, like what got impacted the more that people showed up? Because we'd heard about like dining reservations at like, you know, non sit down restaurants that were on the Maiden that then fell away. You know, obviously the rides are limited capacity, the pool deck is limited capacity. Like did it start to really feel crowded on the ship and like how long were you waiting for. For things on board as the crowds picked up?
[00:22:24] Speaker A: It really, really didn't. I, in terms of like waiting didn't really. I didn't, I didn't feel that much of an impact. But, but could definitely tell that the Garden shows were way more crowded because Imagination Garden has that amount of people that you can accommodate. And then for the main room, for example, we were watching the sailing away party and it was like halfway full, right? Like half of it. You can come in, dance in the back and no big deal. And then for the last cruise when you really saw people for the Avengers show, the whole thing was taken like there was no space. And the previous crews, they let us sit down to watch the Avengers show and then the last one, they made everybody stand because I guess there was not enough space for everybody to sit down.
So yeah, that definitely has an impact on how many people were on the ship at that point. And then obviously the pools could definitely tell, especially because the amount of children.
I heard over 2,000 children. I don't know if that's true, but wow.
It was a school holiday in Singapore. I heard 2,300 children. I don't know if that's true, but.
[00:23:43] Speaker B: Well, you said over 6,000 people, so that makes, I mean that's. You know, it's funny because the character of the guest changed from the Maiden to mostly adults right to the fourth sailing being more of the general mix that it's probably more likely to be in the future now it's. Of course there's going to be variation based on school holidays and things like that. I'm curious about, speaking of expectations, I'm curious about the reservation systems and how those things maybe impacted people's expectations for the good or for the bad. I think there's probably a lot of good that comes out of a reservation system as well as people being annoyed that they have to be on their phone so much. But I know some of that changed too, over the course of the sailings. Tell us what kind of change. And then also how, like, did you find the reservation systems that existed and that persisted?
Were they good, Bad mix, like. Yeah, I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.
[00:24:45] Speaker A: So on the main, when we boarded, we pretty much had to book everything, right? You had to book quick service restaurants, you had to book the rides, you had to book the hero training zone. You had to book characters, everything you had to book, right? It was like, book, book, book.
And then we were like, ooh, you know, this is too much like, you know, I. I don't know what time I'm gonna go for like a quick service burger. That's kind of like, you know, it's a little. It's a little much. But already on the second cruise, they dropped the quick service reservations. They dropped ride reservations. They. Oh, the shop reservations. We had to book shops for the maiden for the. The first night. So they dropped, you know, that for from the second cruise on.
And then when I was chatting with the folks that work on the ship, they were basically saying, we will make reservations needed, kind of like depending on how many people we have. Right. So if we don't have that much of a crowd, then we're not going to require reservations for certain things. And if we are seeing that it's a really full sailing, then we're going to put some reservations in place. But they did not come back with quick service reservations at all.
No shop reservation at all. But the ride reservations kind of fluctuated between the sailings and the hero training zone also. But they, they were doing a mix of reservations needed with open queue hours, which is really nice and I like that a lot because if you didn't get a reservation, you still have a chance to go and wait in line.
So I think that's the optimal mix that, you know, they were doing, right? Rides. Yeah, rides after 5 o', clock, you could just wait in line. Same for the hero training game. You could wait in line after some time.
There were times that you were there and they had like all the booked people waiting and you could approach and say, hey, are you going to do open queue? And they were like, well, once these people are done and we don't have any more people booked, you can just wait in line. So it was like a good balance. And I like what they did for the characters though. So that's where things are not good.
So they had a certain number of characters to book for the Maiden, they had Mickey, Minnie, Duffy, Shelly Mae Baymax, Rogue Gathering to book for the maiden voyage. And then for cruise number two and number three, they only had Mickey, Minnie, and Baymax.
And then for cruise number four, and they had Royal Gathering through all them. And then cruise number four, they came back with Duffy, Goofy, Shelly Mae Baymax. So we had seven opportunities to book characters.
However, you can only book the seven characters. And most of the other opportunities for photos were selfies, which I hate.
[00:27:39] Speaker D: Right.
[00:27:39] Speaker A: And I really gave that feedback on the ship, like, several times. Like, seriously, you guys have to have characters in the schedule. That's an expectation for any Disney cruise. Right. You go on a Disney cruise, you expect that you're gonna have. Have characters on a schedule, that you're going to go and wait in line and take a picture of the character. And it doesn't matter if it's going to take a long time, the line is going to be long, or whatever it is. Like, you can choose if you want to wait or not. But they basically took that choice away from people. And it was either you book or you do a selfie, or you're going to catch a character while the character is strolling around the ship. And that is the part that really created a lot of controversy because people were all complaining about, like, oh, you know, people were being so rude and shoving and pushing and all that when they meet a character that's roaming around the ship. But to be honest with you, I don't think it's an Asian problem. I think that if you only had characters roaming the ship and you couldn't see the characters on any Disney ship, and that's any other sign you're gonna only catch them if you catch them walking around. I don't think people are gonna be polite either. Right. I don't think it's an aging problem. I think it's a scarcity problem. Film.
[00:28:51] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:28:51] Speaker A: And Disney made the characters cars. And you. You really can't, you know, tell people that. Oh, yeah, you know, you have to be super polite. And. And everybody's trying to get a picture, and. And they don't have a time. They. They can.
[00:29:04] Speaker B: Right.
[00:29:05] Speaker A: I literally was waiting for a Minnie Mouse one day, and I was, like, following around, and they were like, oh, she's just strolling around. She's not stopping to take pictures. Like, okay, I'll. I'll follow her around until she stops, and then she stops, and then she took pictures with, you know, three or four people in front of me. And then when it was my turn, the guy had the phone to take a picture from me and she decided to go in and then, you know, that's disappear.
[00:29:28] Speaker B: Oh yeah, that's. That is definitely an area of improvement because it's like. I agree with you. I think when you have a scarcity issue, it doesn't matter what nationality, what culture you're from. Like, everybody who loves Disney characters is
[00:29:43] Speaker D: going to watch plenty of Americans throw elbows in the park. So let's.
[00:29:48] Speaker B: And even on this ships, when you have characters roaming on the other ships, we even see that happen. You see people sort of, some of us maybe like kind of following along, waiting patiently. And then you'll have somebody else who like just cuts right in front of you to get that picture. And it happens, you know, especially children.
[00:30:06] Speaker A: You know, sometimes a child will come running and hug a character and you know, that's.
[00:30:10] Speaker B: And there's not much children.
Exactly, exactly. And it's. So it's just a matter of like we always say, like, pack your patients pants. Right? Because that's one of those things where when you're on a cruise and you're. Especially when you're trying to see characters, sometimes you just gotta like, have to be really patient. But in this situation, they've just. That's kind of crazy that even just seven characters is kind of crazy and that you don't have like the rest of the Fab Five. You aren't having the rest of the Avengers out. That seems like. Yeah, that seems like a big problem.
[00:30:40] Speaker D: So I want to move us along because we got a lot to cover here and there's some good questions.
I did just want to say on this point though, I wonder how much of this is also like operationally imposed requirements coming out of imaginary. Because you could imagine like, you know, one. They don't have enough crew to do multiple character meet and greets, it sounds like. And so then if you had enough crew, what they should really consider doing is can we put Duffy on the front and the back of the ship in some location for him to get photos with People pick your meet and greet. Right. But that then breaks the imagineering that Duffy is an actual sort of character wandering around the ship.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: So yeah, so just to. To say something on that point because, you know, I, I heard, heard when I was on the ship, like, oh, you know, we don't have enough people or whatever, like we're working on it or whatever. But at the same time you have so many characters that are roaming. So if you have all those characters that are roaming, why are they not in schedule meet and greets, Right?
[00:31:34] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:31:35] Speaker A: So Donald Duck. There was no schedule meeting greet with Donald Duck. No schedule meeting greet with Daisy Duck.
So why. Why they're walking around and they are not scheduled for a meet and greet. People will behave a lot better if they are scheduled.
So that's. That. That was my whole, you know, like, I don't get that. I don't believe that. It's like, oh, we don't have enough. You're just using it in a different way. And that way they're using it in
[00:32:01] Speaker B: a way that's not working.
[00:32:03] Speaker D: So we had a question here while we're talking about this. Do they offer the photo package on board? Because people are sort of saying, like, if they offer it, it seems like it's less of a value. If you can't get.
[00:32:12] Speaker A: Get these photos, people are canceling.
[00:32:14] Speaker D: Yep, yep. Okay. So they do offer it, but maybe not the best value out there.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: Yeah, well, yeah, if there's not a PhotoPass photographer and it's just take a selfie, what am I paying for a photo package for? I mean, we, we are Pearl Cruisers, so we get the photo package included now. But for those who are paying a couple hundred dollars, that doesn't seem like a good value.
[00:32:33] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:32:35] Speaker D: The other question I wanted to raise here, which is a really good one, was what kind of feedback did you hear from what I'll call the local audience? Someone here was asking, like, did you hear anything about the fact that the ship didn't have a casino on it? Because that was a pretty big design decision. But, like, what kind of feedback were you hearing from the local audience? Was it. Was it what they expected or was it not what they expected?
[00:32:55] Speaker A: A lot of people were also complaining about the characters because they went with expectation that they were going to, you know, get autographs. They had autograph books and, you know, like, when the characters are roaming there,
[00:33:06] Speaker B: they don't do autographs. When they're roaming, they can't do autographs. When you're doing selfies, it's only those scheduled meet and greets. I didn't even think about that. Lucana, that's a really good point. Especially with the kids who liked autographs. Oh, that makes me sad.
[00:33:18] Speaker A: I heard a lot of parents complaining, saying, like, you know, I have an autograph book, My kid wanted autographs, and, you know, no autographs. Right. So same with the little girls with the princesses and, you know, like, some people got the royal gathering, some people didn't get the royal gathering, and there were some princesses that were scheduled, but very few opportunities. So there were like, maybe like one or two days ahead. Ariel and Snow White, that they were, you know, scheduled, but like, one character at a time. Right. Like, you don't see one character at a time on Wish class ships. Right. This is a bigger ship than a Wish class ship, and it had, like, one character at a time. So, of course, the line is enormous.
[00:33:58] Speaker D: So anyhow, I wanted to ask about, since you mentioned that you sailed concierge for one of the sailings, things a lot of new, sort of off. I mean, not new offerings since they've always had stores on board, but a lot of, like, concierge exclusive kind of offerings, special. You know, they have their own shopping, their own gym, their own spa, their own lounge.
[00:34:19] Speaker B: Like, how did you pool an actual pool?
[00:34:24] Speaker D: Did. Did you. Did it feel like, how did the concierge offering new experience on the adventure compare to perhaps what you're used to or what we're used to seeing in the US did it feel like, like a better experience or did it have drawbacks? Definitely, yeah.
[00:34:38] Speaker A: It's a. It's a. Definitely a, a, a. If you sail concierge in the ships here and you sail there, you're definitely going to be like, wow, this is a big upgrade.
And. And we definitely felt that way.
All of us that sail there. We had sail concierge before here and then we sail concierge there. We were like, wow, this is super nice.
But again, it's like, it's such a ship, a big ship.
You don't know the ship. You were like, running around. So we felt like we were like, oh, my God, we're barely spending time on a concierge area.
So that's the hard balance.
One day, like the last day, we were like, okay, we are not going to do anything else anywhere else on the ship. We're spending the day in concierge today because, you know, we need to kind of use it more. Right. And then we kind of left our exploring, you know, for. For the other cruises because we wanted to use there. So we went on the pool, we had lunch at restaurant that they have in a concierge pool deck.
[00:35:36] Speaker B: Oh, I forget about that.
[00:35:37] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, we had time on the concierge spa, which they have like a. Like a mini rainforest area that's complimentary on a concierge spa.
So. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:35:47] Speaker B: You're blowing my mind.
[00:35:49] Speaker A: Yeah, this Is this is Brian.
[00:35:51] Speaker B: This will be Brian's favorite part of the ship by the way, because now we don't always sail concierge. We some. We're. We're sometimes concierge sailors and sometimes regular sailors dollars just depending upon the cost of the cruise and. But Brian loves a rainforest room and I hate paying for the rainforest room, so.
[00:36:09] Speaker A: Yeah, well, it's a mini rainforest. Not, you know, it's not mini huge like but. But it has the saunas, it has the hot tub, it has the loungers. You know, it's. It's really nice and I was the only person there.
This is awesome there. They do have a really beautiful thermal area in the, in the regular spot that is their, you know, their rainforest there which is like wow, amazing blow. It kind of blows. All the other rainforests did it easy.
[00:36:39] Speaker D: This may be hard to answer because on the Maiden I think a lot of people are like you. They're trying to run all over the ship and do stuff. And probably not in the concierge. But did. Did the concierge areas feel over subscribed in relation to the or they felt like they had enough room for everybody, Plenty of room.
[00:36:55] Speaker A: Didn't feel crowded at any time, not even during open bar. The most crowded times in the. This is a huge bonus for concierge on the ship right now, which is they have characters appearing several times a day.
[00:37:08] Speaker B: Oh wow, that's a bonus.
[00:37:10] Speaker A: The rest ship is fighting for characters and concierge had characters like six times a day, eight times a day, which you know, doesn't happen in the sailings, you know, the other ships at all. It's like once per cruise that a
[00:37:23] Speaker B: character was shot once and it's always a Fab 5 character. You get it once and it's. And if you can't make that time, if you have a con conflict, then you don't get it. It's just what is what it is.
[00:37:32] Speaker A: So they literally had characters. They had Jasmine, they had Mickey, they had Minnie, they had Goofy, they had Donald. They have like plenty of characters. I, I didn't catch all of them, but they had like plenty of characters there. Concierge is not giving away the schedule.
Apparently they had like a mishap that they sent out the schedule and the character changed and something happened there. But they, they're not sending the schedule, but you can stop by the concierge desk and ask them what times characters will show and then they'll tell you, oh, 10, 12, two, whatever. And you show up there and you see who it is. But that was a huge benefit for concierge since it's so difficult to actually get photos with characters. So that was really a nice one.
[00:38:17] Speaker C: Are you listening to our show because you want to make the most out of your next vacation? Great news. The fabulous team over at MyPath Unwinding Travel can help guide you so you don't miss a thing. Thing. Their team of professional travel advisors are caring, knowledgeable and experienced. It's why we use them to book our own travel. My Path Unwinding Travel is an authorized Disney vacation planner, which means they are recognized by Disney for their expertise and service. They have sailed on all the Disney ships, including in concierge, visited the theme parks, adventured with Disney, Relaxed at Aulani, and so much more. Whether it's a Disney cruise, a theme park vacation, or adventures by Disney, or if you are looking to expand beyond the mouse, MyPath Unwinding Travel will elevate your next vacation planning experience. Even if you have already booked, reach out for a complimentary consultation to make your vacation even more magical. Ready to talk to the experts? Head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email DCLDUOYpathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. Thanks My Path Unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
[00:39:16] Speaker D: I wanted to get your take on state rooms because.
[00:39:20] Speaker B: Yeah, because you stayed in three or four different ones.
[00:39:23] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:39:23] Speaker B: Or four different ones.
[00:39:24] Speaker D: It sounds like you were, it sounds like with your group for part of the time. So, like I'm assuming you guys had some pretty interesting coverage of stateroom categories and types. What like, give us make sense of like there's so many different kinds of state rooms now on board. How did you find the state rooms? Did you have favorites? Did you have, you know, head scratching around some of the decisions they made in the staterooms? Like, I'm just curious what, how you found the staterooms.
[00:39:49] Speaker A: The staterooms are definitely, I want to say, not as nice as the staterooms on the existing Disney ships in terms of like quality of finishes of the. The staterooms itself.
They are, they, they feel cheaper.
Let's say they are not terrible, but they are not, you know, the level that we are used to. Right. So that's like for that. I always say that to everybody because I don't want anybody to arrive there and be like, oh my God, you know, I'm so disappointed. But you know, they're definitely not the same level.
They are. You can tell it's like A cheaper finish, and they're not the same level.
With that said, they're, they're not a bad size. They're a pretty decent size.
The really interesting thing is that they have stand like it's, it's not deluxe staterooms. They're are. Each category has their inside stateroom, ocean view stateroom, and veranda stateroom without the deluxe before the name, which for four people. And they have two sofa beds and two bunk beds.
And they're all. So there are four single beds in the room.
So they are smaller rooms. They don't have the little, like, seating area. So they're just like the, the, you know, the, the sofa beds and the bunks and the, they do have a split bathroom, which is really funny to me that they have a split bathroom. But.
And I, I actually happened to go inside these rooms because since I was doing back to back, I was in and out at different times that people were not there. So I like, oh, you're like, I'm nosy.
[00:41:25] Speaker B: I'm going to go in and see
[00:41:26] Speaker A: what they look like.
[00:41:27] Speaker B: I love that.
[00:41:28] Speaker A: So I went in several of those. And so they're, they're, you know, smaller rooms, kind of interesting. I wouldn't stay on them that I, I would not even, Even when I was traveling by myself, I was like, I don't want to sleep in a sofa bed or in a bunk. I want a real bed.
And that is definitely a thing for me.
The sofa bed in the deluxe rooms, they, they open for one person or open for two people.
So if you have three people in a room, they will just open the sofa bed kind of like halfway. And then if people, they will open like fully. You can choose, you know, if you could tell them, like, open the full thing. But if you open the full thing, you have no space left in a room, right? Because it goes all the way to the table really hard. Like, the space between the bed and the sofa bed is like this, you know, little narrow space.
We found out the hard way the first day that they open the full thing, I couldn't get my bag out of the, from under the bed because I was like, oh, what I do now? Right? So, yeah, like your lesson, don't, don't, you know, leave stuff in the bag that you need. Because if they open that sofa bed, then you can't reach your bag.
And then even the closet space, it's a little less closet space. So everything is kind of, you know, not hardly any drawers.
So, you know, it's definitely like a smaller room. With less storage than what we are used to.
So really think about how much luggage you're taking was out, out out there for over 20 days. I had a, you know, quite a bit of luggage, especially because I bought too much stuff.
So don't, don't go with two bags for yourself. That's, you know, I, I actually bought an extra bag in Singapore because I bought so much, so much merch. And that was planned. I, I planned that way I knew I was going to buy too much merch and was like, whatever. That's. That's what it is.
But, but the concierge rooms, even the, the smallest concierge room, which is a concierge inside room, which is the room that we stay because we want to try that room, like, doesn't exist any in any other ship. So it's a concierge inside. It is the size of two rooms.
So, you know, it is like a, almost like a suite. Right?
So it is quite a big room. You have the room of the king bed. You had the, the living area with the sofa bed for two people. And then you have, have. And this is really funny. Like, we found that out when we were on the ship because we were always like this. The second room is, you know, it's a room. It's a separate room.
[00:44:04] Speaker D: The nanny room.
[00:44:06] Speaker A: It's the nanny room.
[00:44:07] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:44:07] Speaker A: It is actually the nanny room.
We were like, you know, like, so confused by this room when we were there because the quality of the finish of the room is it looks like a crew room. And I actually showed pictures to the crew. I'm like, does that look like a crew room? They're like, yeah. And like, why is this, like, something that someone in concierge would sleep? That's. That's the nanny room. That's, that's why it is that way.
[00:44:31] Speaker B: So weird.
[00:44:31] Speaker A: That's so weird. Yeah. But the room is quite big and you have, you have two bathrooms and you end up having two bathrooms because of that. So you have the big bathroom and then you have that, you know, tiny little room. We didn't use the shower in the tiny little room because that shower, it's super ridiculously small.
And if you, if you use that shower, you're going to flood the bathroom. For real.
That's not, that's, you know, I'm not just saying that. It doesn't have, like, you know, nothing to, like, stop the water. It's made to kind of, you know, the water drains there. So it's not. We didn't use the shower though, so we use that as like a half bathroom.
But that was, that was a nice room. The, the concierge inside was pretty nice. So the concierge inside, the concierge veranda are actually the same size. Exactly the same size. And the deluxe inside is the exact same size as the deluxe veranda. Panda.
[00:45:23] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:45:24] Speaker A: So, yeah.
[00:45:25] Speaker B: So you get more space for an inside room than what we're sort of used to seeing on the other ships. Yeah.
Very interesting. Very interesting.
[00:45:35] Speaker A: Yeah. And then the deluxe ocean view rooms. I actually walked into some of the deluxe ocean view rooms. They are.
I don't know. I haven't looked at the map to confirm this, but I think they're all in the front of the ship. They're all facing forward. Maybe there are a couple ones on the side, but all like, all in the forward. In the forward area.
And it's almost like the, the category. I think it's the 90s in the US that they have the, like the slanted window.
So they actually. But the slanted window rooms here, you kind of like, you lose a little bit of the space there. It's almost like it's. The room is the full size of the deluxe room plus the actress landed space.
So actually the rooms felt bigger.
[00:46:20] Speaker D: Bigger.
[00:46:21] Speaker A: So it's interesting because I thought that they were going to be smaller, but they feel bigger because they have that
[00:46:27] Speaker B: extra bump out with the slanted area. Interesting.
[00:46:30] Speaker A: Right. I love their location though, because the ship is so huge and they're so far forward that you're quite a ways from the elevator and from everything else. So really it's a track to get to those rooms. So that, that's the reason why. Why I didn't book an ocean view. I usually book ocean view rooms as well, but I didn't book ocean view myself just because I thought that the location was like. No, I don't want to be in that location.
[00:46:56] Speaker B: Too far away. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you've got, you've got lots of elevators, but you're right, you have, you know, if you're, if you're that far forward or that far aft, you're going to be farther away from the elevator banks. And so something to think about, especially if you have accessibility, you know, or mobility issues. It's definitely something to think about.
[00:47:18] Speaker A: Accessible ones way. All the way forward, though.
[00:47:20] Speaker B: All the way forward too. Of course. They always do. And all the way aft. All right, well, let's, let's talk about food. I. We have to talk about food before we change subjects.
[00:47:30] Speaker A: My, my favorite One was the veranda facing the stage.
That was really good.
[00:47:37] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, the. Yeah.
[00:47:38] Speaker A: So the guardian facing the stage. That was awesome. We had a deck 12, first veranda right next to the stage. So that was like being in the theater and, you know, a box in the theater because, like, we were just there watching the show from the veranda. So that was great.
And because, you know, like the. The cruise we stayed in that room was not one of the most crowded cruises. But if you're sailing like a, you know, holiday time, vacation time, that it's going to be crowded, that, you know, that's a great option not to be there in the corner crowd.
[00:48:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Because then you can watch all. You watch the Duffy show, the Avengers show, all that stuff from your balcony instead of being down in the thick of all the people. Person to person. Like you said, if you've got.
Right. If you have 6,000 people, you're. You're pushing people with your elbows to have room. Yeah. All right, well, let's move over to food.
I want to talk rotational dining a little bit just because I want to hear your thoughts on how. How it works. I know, I mean, I know we have six restaurants. You go to three on each sailing. I know you got to six of them because you. You made the request to make sure you got to go to all six of them.
But how do they compare to what we are used to in the US like, is it a similar experience? I know there's some character shows in some of the dining rooms, but. Yeah, let's talk. Talk to me about, like food and shows in the rotational dining.
[00:49:04] Speaker A: Very much a similar experience with the what we're used to rotational dining.
Each rotation has one restaurant that has characters.
So you're either in the Hollywood Spotlight club rotation or in a navigators club rotation. So each restaurant has Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, and Donald and they do a little show.
Hollywood Spotlight. They have like a show with like a pianist and I think someone playing like the cello and a singer. Singer with the characters. And they dance. And then navigators has two singers with the characters. They sing and then dance.
They go table to table very quickly. They don't really stop for photos hardly at all.
And they just go say hello to the tables.
Interestingly enough, we had a table that we thought it was a great table at Hollywood Spotlight Club when we were in a concierge sailing. We was like, we were the first table next to the stage, but none of the characters could get to our table.
It was too narrow of a passage for them to get to our table. So they would come and almost get to our table and like, bye. So we're like, okay, don't stay that close to the stage then. So that was a disappointment there. But so, you know. So you're either going to have one of those three restaurants. They're both really good. The menu is the same on both of them.
The menu is the same, like either rotation. You're going to have the same menus. You're not going to be like, oh, I wish I was in that rotation because I wanted to eat certain things. No, that's not going to happen. You're going to have the same menu. So Hollywood and Navigators have the same menu.
Animators table and Animators palette. You're going to have the same menu and they're pretty much equal. Like, you really can't tell them apart.
And then Pixar Market and Enchanted Summer, you have the same menu. Enchanted Summer. It's a weird one because you can either be in Olaf or you can be in Maximus era. So it's either Frozen theme or Rapunzel theme. And I ended up not sitting in Maximus area.
I only sat in Olaf area, sat in Maximus area, like for lunch and breakfast. But for dinner, I ended up getting that rotation in a day that I booked omakazi at Mike and Sully. So I ended up not staying there for dinner. But the Manus are the same. And the Manus are really interesting because they make mix dishes that we know from the western menus. And I recognize dishes from 1923, animators palette, enchanted Garden.
And then they have Asian dishes. So you can definitely be like, you know, oh, if I'm really not into Asian dishes, I'm afraid of the spices and, you know, stick to the western menu. If you want to try something, you know, you can order and then you can always go back to something safe if you want.
It was really interesting because I saw a lot of the Asian people ordering the dishes, the Western dishes, because they wanted to try it, right? So I was like, ordering all the Asian stuff you're ordering.
[00:52:07] Speaker B: Exactly. That's what I would do. I'd be like, I'm going to order all. Like, I don't need the. The steak that I can get in 1923. I want to order the Asian dishes
[00:52:14] Speaker A: I love from 1923. I did not order that none of the days. And, you know, I was just like, I want to try the Asian dishes. So, yeah, so all about, you know, what's different, right? So the Asian dishes, they had, you know, different Spice levels. And my waiters were always kind of pretty much spot on with. When I. When I asked about spice levels, they. They were really, like, good at telling me how spicy they were. And even. Even though they. They were pretty good at that, I was like, oh, I want to try it anyway. And then I had, like, a second choice to be, like, my backup plan.
And then, yeah, it turned out that some of them were too spicy for me. And then I had my. My backup dish that I was like, okay, I can't eat that. That's.
[00:52:57] Speaker B: But that's good to try things, right? Because it's. It is, you know, and sometimes you don't really know. Like, I find there are some things that are really spicy that I can eat, and then there's other things that are really spicy that I just can't eat. Right. If it's all heat with a. With no flavor that I can discern, I can't eat it. But if it's, like, a lot of heat, there's a lot of good flavor I can eat. So that's great. I want to ask you about specialty dining, because we know, obviously, there are some. Some unique specialty dining on this ship. You mentioned Mike and Sully's omakase that you went to.
Did you do all of the options at Mike and Sully's or just. Oh, you did. I was. I'm so excited to hear. So you did the omakase, you did the sushi, you did the hibachi, right? Those are the three, I think so.
[00:53:42] Speaker A: Actually, there's four. So they. They. You can book three. You can book omakaze teppanyaki in Japanese steakhouse, but they actually have a lunch. Lunch option that is a paid lunch option that you can do.
You know, you can eat sushi and sashimi and some Singaporean dishes, actually.
[00:54:03] Speaker B: Oh, cool.
[00:54:04] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, So I did that too. So. So really interesting because you have so. So many options for food on the ship. Right. It's, like, just crazy amount of foods. Like, for. For real. I.
I ate one at least one time in each option, but it's. It's pretty crazy because there's just so much.
[00:54:22] Speaker B: There's so much. Yeah.
[00:54:24] Speaker A: So teppanyaki and omakazi were my favorite. Teppanyaki was absolutely amazing. And we were all, like, $115 for teppanyaki. You know, like, we were thinking, like, Benihana kind of stuff.
[00:54:36] Speaker B: Right, Right. Or on Royal. Right. It's like, on royal, it's like 60 or 70, something like that.
[00:54:42] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, It's Amazing. It's super high end. Like, the food is like, amazing, amazing, amazing. The best.
I really love that experience. I know my husband and my children will love it. So when we go in December, I'm definitely booking that one Omakazi. You know, I was talking to some other folks that were there, media people that were there, and we were all discussing the omakazi and we kind of like agreed that it's like, enchante. Asian Enchante.
[00:55:12] Speaker B: That sounds amazing. That sounds like better than Enchante. I'll be perfectly honest, actually.
[00:55:17] Speaker A: I, I, I, I think it's better than our show.
So, so yeah, it was, it was amazing and I really loved it. But you have to be kind of like an adventurous eater to have that.
[00:55:28] Speaker B: Right?
[00:55:29] Speaker A: So it's not for everyone. My husband would not go for that. My daughter would not go for that. My son would go for that. But so, you know, like, I know
[00:55:36] Speaker B: my, you're going to book it for you and your son.
The rest of the family can go someplace else. Right, right.
[00:55:42] Speaker A: So so far as I know, you know that for us, for my family, for my adventures eater, he would love omakazi, but you know, it really, because you don't, you don't really have the options and all the preparations are super elaborate and you know, they start you with like sea urchin and you know, they, they have really cool stuff, but it's, it's really different.
So, and it's not really something that you can say just like, oh, and they'll eat that and you know, it's right.
Doesn't quite work.
[00:56:14] Speaker B: They don't change out the menu for you just because you don't really like something.
It. Now they will, I'm sure, tailor things if you have a food allergy, but there's only so much tailoring they can do with an omakase type menu. Right, right.
[00:56:28] Speaker A: And, and the, the teppanyaki, even the teak, they, they will substitute some stuff. But the omakazi is, it's really not, yeah.
[00:56:37] Speaker B: Really not designed for that. I, I want to ask you about the other dining on board. Did you do Paulo? I know they have.
[00:56:45] Speaker A: Yeah, brunch and dinner.
[00:56:47] Speaker B: Brunch and dinner.
A girl after my own heart. Luciana, tell us, is Palo the same as what we get on the other ships? Are there major differences?
I know there's a limoncello souffle. Yeah, right.
[00:57:01] Speaker A: I had the limoncello. It's so good. It's my favorite souffle. And it's only on the adventure. So that's very sad. Bad.
[00:57:07] Speaker B: Well, you're going back in December. There you go.
[00:57:10] Speaker A: Yeah. But so. So the, the restaurant itself is beautiful. It's, you know, like, that's a Luca themed, so it's like a night sky. Really nice design that they did. It has two floors. Really cool. And the brunch, it's very much the same menu. Like, you know, hardly any difference. For the brunch, that was like the most similar. One thing they don't have is the.
The grape Gonzala pizza, which I love. And they didn't have that. And we're like, what? No way.
So they don't have that for brunch, but for dinner they have a couple things that are special. For dinner, they have a carpacho. That was really good. I had the carpacho.
They have mushroom risotto that they used to have in us and I don't have anymore. I had that for dinner as well. And then they had the limoncello sofola. So my, my Palo dinner was all different things, all new stuff. So I was super happy with that. And it was amazingly delicious. The chef there, Chef Mateo. Chef Mateo opened several of the ships and, you know, he's awesome. And he's there doing a phenomenal job. So really great.
[00:58:17] Speaker B: Great.
[00:58:18] Speaker A: Awesome. But interesting enough.
Palo had tons of openings. Mike and Sully was way busier than Paolo. So if you have a hard time getting your Paulo not in an adventure, the adventure will have plen Palo spots.
[00:58:34] Speaker B: And I mean, I'm wondering if that's because Americans who are on or others who are on, who've been on the other ships were thinking, oh, I've already been to Paulo. It's not really new, Even though of course it is new because there's new dishes. But. But I can understand prioritizing Mike and Sully's over Paulo because it is brand new. I mean, nothing like it on the other ships. I got to ask you about. So we've covered sort of the high end dining. I got to ask you about some of the quick service stuff, because we know there's some additional quick service options. We've got grammatala. We've got the Pizza Planet. We've got. Yeah, it's Mowgli's. Yeah. What did you think of the quick service stuff? I mean, does it. Does it rival, you know, Mickey's festival of foods on the wish class? Because I think that's the best. Oh, wow. That's awesome.
[00:59:22] Speaker A: Great, great stuff. Great options.
So they're open for lunch and they're open late at night as well. So I saw a lot of people eating there late at, at night.
I think it's like, after 10 or something. I, I can't remember the, the time, but I, I, I remember seeing people eating, like, super late at night.
We were there for, like, Silent dj, which is in Imagination Garden, which is awesome. Having silent DJ outdoors in that area, that's, like, amazing.
So we were, like, in silent dj, and then people are just, like, you know, eating their, you know, Indian food and Grandma Tala and all the stuff, so I love that.
Yeah, it was awesome. And then my favorite one was Cosmic Kebabs. That was, like, the best. It has shawarma, like, the wonder and the magic, and it has the kebabs and lots of really delicious, you know, side dishes to go with it, a bunch of different sauces to go with it.
So I, I had the kebab more than, than one time. Most of the stuff I only had time to do at one time, even though I had four cruises, but.
[01:00:19] Speaker B: But there's still much to do.
Yeah, right.
[01:00:23] Speaker A: And the kebabs I, I had more than once because they were, they were that good.
[01:00:26] Speaker B: Because they were that good.
[01:00:27] Speaker A: And Ohana Grill was the.
Funnily enough, the Ohana Grill was the most crowded one.
So she wants burgers. They all wanted burgers.
So I would be mad. I would not had imagined the burgers would be the busiest, but the biggest line, it was always the line outside for Ohana Grill, so.
[01:00:47] Speaker B: That's funny. That's really funny. Okay, well, there's so much to cover. We've been going for an hour. I'm gonna just ask you about a highlight from the show, because before I
[01:00:59] Speaker D: do that, we've got a couple of questions in the chat that I just want to disclose. Let me just pose these questions, and then you can round us out on shows. Okay, Sam?
[01:01:05] Speaker B: So okay.
[01:01:06] Speaker D: All right, Luciana, did you get the Internet on board? And how was it?
[01:01:11] Speaker A: Yes, I did. For all four cruises, it was most of the time, it was pretty decent.
The only time I noticed that it didn't work at all was when everybody was waiting for the fireworks.
[01:01:22] Speaker D: Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense.
[01:01:24] Speaker B: Okay, everybody. Yeah.
[01:01:26] Speaker D: Going back to rooms for a second. We have two questions on that balcony garden balcony room that you were in, and one, somebody wanted to know how loud it was with the door closed, because we've seen competing videos now out on social media about this, and also Andrew's asking a good question, which is, do they pipe the show music and I would imagine you don't need it piped in because you can just open the door to hear it. But, but yeah, right, right.
[01:01:49] Speaker A: No, they don't pipe the music in, to be honest.
You can hear a little bit, not a lot.
And I was in the first room next to the stage. Right. So we were quite like happy with the, the, the noise canceling, like the, the soundproofing.
However, I am out of the room early and I back to the room late.
[01:02:11] Speaker B: Right, right.
[01:02:11] Speaker A: So I'm not in the room.
So if I'm in the room, I'm watching the show or I'm not there.
[01:02:17] Speaker B: Right.
[01:02:17] Speaker A: So that it's not something that bother me. If you are a person who sleeps early, then that might bother you. If you have babies who nap, that might bother you. So that, you know, I was not bothered, but I was not there.
[01:02:30] Speaker B: Right.
[01:02:30] Speaker A: So that like a, you have to kind of like figure out, you know, how much of the room you use and how, what are the hours that you stay in the room.
So I think that's like key.
[01:02:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I think you're right. Mid afternoon napper is probably not the right room for you. But if you're somebody who's going to be out and about unless you're watching the show or sleeping and you're a late night person, I think you're. That makes total sense.
[01:02:55] Speaker D: One last question because this does come up on the ships, you know, are they too cold? They're too hot. How did the, how did the ship temperature feel on the Adventure? Did the, was the AC system working? Was everyone comfortable on board? Or did you find yourself either too warm or too hot?
[01:03:09] Speaker A: So I didn't really hear people talking about that. So to me it makes me think that people were okay with the temperature because when they are not okay, they
[01:03:17] Speaker B: will say something, they'll complain.
True.
[01:03:22] Speaker A: So I am usually not cold in the US ships and the other ships. I'm not usually a like cold in those ships. So to me the adventure was okay and it felt warm at some points, especially in the first cruise I thought that they were still kind of, you know, figuring out the AC and adjusting the ac. So the first cruise I felt like, kind of warm and some of the spaces are like, ooh, they need to kind of, you know, adjust the AC here. But that was not something that, like, not a complaint that I saw, you know, coming up on the WhatsApp groups or on the Facebook groups or anything. So I think that most people thought it was okay. It was okay. To me on the other Ones. The first one, I was a little warm, and the other ones, I was fine, so the temperature was fine for me.
I don't usually need to wear jackets or cardigans or anything like that. And I did not need to wear that on the adventure.
[01:04:17] Speaker C: Sounds good.
[01:04:17] Speaker D: All right, Sam, take us out with shows.
[01:04:19] Speaker B: Okay, I got to ask you two questions about shows. I got to ask you what you thought of, remember? Because obviously, that's the main stage show we know, Sees the adventure is on. I got to ask you a heart
[01:04:33] Speaker D: for those listening at home. Luciana is giving us a heart.
[01:04:36] Speaker B: She's giving me a heart. Okay, so. So you love to remember, but then tell me what's the best? Well, what's the best thing about remember? And then I gotta hear what was the best of the garden stage shows, because there's obviously multiple garden stage shows. You've got Baymax, you know, exercise one. You've got the Duffy one. You've got the Avengers one. Of course, you have a Sail Away party, but that's the Sail Away party.
[01:04:57] Speaker A: I think you have Mickey Color Spin dance Party for the Fortnite.
[01:05:01] Speaker B: Mickey's Color Spin Dance Party. Right? Which, yeah, it's cute, but it's not my favorite one.
[01:05:07] Speaker A: But, yeah, for the Fortnite, you have an extra show, so it's a lot of shows.
[01:05:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:05:12] Speaker A: So I love. Remember, I love the movie Wall E. So, you know, I already like Wally and Eve, so that. That's already, you know, super cute. And they. They did a really cute show.
You know, it's a lot of the favorite musical numbers for, you know, famous Disney movies, so they really mix well.
I don't know if you guys know the story, but, you know, Wally and Eve are, you know, hanging out.
Starts with Eve being a ship that kind of, like, didn't make it back, and he's missing her, and then she comes back, and he's all happy to see her, and they're hanging out and having fun with Eve's favorites. So Eve's favorites, a bunch of, you know, Disney movies.
And then something happens, and she gets hit by lightning, and she gets damaged. Her body batteries get damaged. And then Wall E is trying to make her recover, right? So how does she recover? And then he gets her to recover with Disney favorites, so it's super cute. However, when she recovers, she recovers. And then what happens?
System reset. She forgets everything. Memory erased.
So then he's trying to get her to reset, remember, so it's super cute. And. And people were asking, like, you know, why you know, how come, like, you know, Coco mixes in with, you know, why is the show remember and all that, so, you know, obviously remember me.
[01:06:44] Speaker B: Right?
[01:06:44] Speaker A: He wants her to remember him, and then she does remember him, and everybody's like, oh, so, you know, super cute. Super cute. So all the musical numbers were great.
The stage is. Is really cool because. Because it has, you know, you know, here how they have, like, the projections around the stage. They have like, actually like an LCD around the stage that kind of like spans the stage. And it's really cool.
[01:07:07] Speaker B: It's so awesome. I mean, it looks just from the pictures and video we've seen, it looks incredible.
[01:07:12] Speaker A: Yeah, right, Right. So it is really, really well done. Really nicely done, obviously, with all the cool effects where, you know, bubbles and all the stuff that we see on Disney shows. So they did an amazing job. And I really love the show. I watch remember every single time, and I didn't miss any of the showings. And my friends were with me too. We were all like, no, no, we're
[01:07:32] Speaker B: seeing this again and again every time. That's what I would do too. You know, I would be there with you.
[01:07:37] Speaker A: Super cute. And CZ Adventure is basically the same show. They. They have a couple changes, you know, some character changes, but it's. It's pretty much the same show.
They. They changed the ending a little, like, continue to change the ending. They changed the music at the ending, which was. We were all waiting, being like, what.
What do you mean I changed the song? That song is, like, so iconic at the end. And. And then we understand because they use that song at the end of remember? So we're like, ah, gotcha.
[01:08:08] Speaker B: Okay, that makes sense. Yeah.
[01:08:11] Speaker A: Right.
[01:08:11] Speaker B: All right, well, the Garden stage, which one was your. Which one was your favorite?
[01:08:16] Speaker A: Avengers Assemble, which is awesome.
So you got. Have you guys done Marvel?
[01:08:24] Speaker B: We have not, but we have talked a lot with folks who've done the whole Heroes Unite deck party. And so I've heard it sounds like it's similar but not the same.
[01:08:33] Speaker A: Right. So I've done. I've done Marvel Dead Sea a couple times. And, you know, the. The last time was last year on the Dream.
So I could, you know, kind of fresh to compare with this one.
And then there was some, like, other cruisers that had done Marvel Dead Sea, and we're kind of discussing the show there.
So these cruises were like, wow, Marvel Dead Sea show is better because it has so many more characters. It's such a bigger show. I'm like, well, yeah, but that's just for Marvel Dead Sea because they can't have that amount of characters on the ship for, you know, every week.
Expectations, right? Like, what are the expectations? So, so I thought this show was amazing.
And it's not. Doesn't have as many characters as Marvel D at sea, but it has all the main ones. And the production is incredible because they have, you know, a permanent stage that's not just the pool stage. Right. So they have a lot more like special effects.
So it's super impressive. And it really, like a kind of like a jaw dropping show. That, that show is really good. All the characters are like, super on point.
You know, the spider man coming in, wonder coming in, you know, like, I love it. It's. It's awesome. It's. It's really great. And, and I watched the third cruise. I watched the third cruise. Was the one that they let us sit down. And I was sitting down in the crowd surrounded by children. And the children were amazing. It was amazing to watch the children. I was watching the children because the children were like, wow.
[01:10:04] Speaker B: Their minds were blown.
[01:10:06] Speaker A: They were like, you know, freaking out. You know, the characters are like fighting, things exploding. And these, these kids were like, oh, my God. So we were having the best time watching the kids watch the show. So it' was amazing.
[01:10:18] Speaker B: I love that. I love that. Well, I mean, we could probably talk for another hour plus, but we're gonna have to wrap up with the show here.
[01:10:28] Speaker D: Although I should say in the chat, Rafael is saying, please bring on Luciana more often. Great conversation. I will say, Luciana, you're welcome back anytime on this show. We have had such a blast talking to you.
[01:10:42] Speaker A: Thank you.
[01:10:43] Speaker B: I want to ask one more thing, Luciana, before we wrap up and we let you tell folks where they can find you and follow you and all that good stuff.
Tell us, like, who do you think that this ship is for? Right? Is this ship for only the Asian audience? Is it also for the American audience? Is it for the Disney Cruise Line completionist? Like, who is this ship for? Because that's a question we keep getting asked and I just. I got to ask your opinion. We've asked our other two guests who were on the adventure as well.
[01:11:12] Speaker A: Anybody who goes with an open mind, to be honest. Like, you know, if you, if you're a Disney fan, you're going to love the theming of the show ship. It's gonna be like, amazing theming. The shows are great. You're gonna love the shows.
The food is great. The restaurants are great. You know, it's the only thing that I really didn't, you know, care for was the character situation, but I'm sure they're gonna fix that. We didn't even touch. We didn't talk about San Fransoku, you know, like, seriously, San Fransoku is like, they. They made arcade games themed to Big Hero 6. All the arcade games there are themed to Big Hero 6. I was there every day. I love playing games. I was there every day. Every night before going to bed, I'm, like, playing all the games, trying to beat my score.
And you don't pay for it. You just scan your card and you play as many times as you want. The games are amazing. So, you know, honestly, it's a great ship. Like, it's. It's. I love the ship. It's so different, and it's so weird, and it's. At the same time, it's so great. Right? So, you know. Yes. It's not a normal Disney ship. Yes. You don't walk in and there's an atrium with people clapping and saying, you're in name. No, it's. It's different. But it's okay to be different. You know, I don't. I don't think that it's like, oh, no, you know, Socks doesn't have a green hall, and it's terrible. Like, no, it. It. It has its pros and cons. Like, everything. All the ships. I. I actually. I love all the Disney ships. I don't have a problem with any of the ships. I keep telling people I have great cruises in every single one of them.
The experience is really kind of like, what matters. Like, you know, I had. Oh, I can tell you, great experiences I've had in every single one of them. So that, to me, that's the same on the adventure, you know, we had a blast, you know, with our friends on the Maiden, Even though there were, like, some weird stuff happening with the Maiden with, you know, stuff that they were still figuring out.
Yes. I was very sad not to have the roller coaster working. The roller coaster started working the day I disembarked, and I was pissed.
So.
So that was not fun.
But I'm super excited to. To go on the roller coaster in December. I'm glad I have that cruise booked because I would be sad not to have a cruise booked and not have missed the roller coaster. So. So, you know, there are so many things to do on the ship, and I think that if you go with an open mind, that it's just a different Disney experience. You're gonna enjoy it because especially to Me that, you know, like, you guys too. You guys cruise a lot. I know every single dish and every single menu. I know all the restaurants. I know everything. I'm. I'm like, sometimes I joke with my. My other friends that cruise a lot. It's like, oh, my God, I'm so tired of eating the same manus. I like them, but, you know, I want new stuff, and that was new stuff. Like, so I'm like, all new stuff, so yay.
[01:13:57] Speaker B: Exactly.
[01:13:57] Speaker A: So, yeah. So my. You know, if. If you were still have a lot of Disney ships to. To see, it might not be your first choice to go there. It might be easier to go see all the ships here and then go there. But honestly, you know, for the folks that are telling me like, oh, you know, I always wanted to go to Disney, Hong Kong, Disney, Shanghai, Disney Tokyo, and then I'll just combine it with the Disney adventure, like, yeah, why not? Perfect.
[01:14:24] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. All right, well, Luciana, why don't you tell folks where they can find you if they want to book a cruise or other vacation with you or if they want to just follow along on Instagram, because you have amazing cotton content and Instagram will translate it even if you don't speak Portuguese.
[01:14:40] Speaker A: Thank you. Yeah, my Instagram is.
But it will be hard for people to.
[01:14:45] Speaker D: We will put it in the show notes. We will put it in the show notes.
[01:14:49] Speaker A: Put it there. I have a website that has all the info in detail, more than the. Even more than the Instagram.
And then I. I do put room tours on YouTube. So I have a ton of room tours on all ships in YouTube. YouTube. I will be posting the adventures. I haven't posted the adventure ones on YouTube yet. I'll be posting there.
I eventually will post more stuff on YouTube, but that's still to a to do in my to do list. I do have a TikTok in English. I love Disney Cruise. I have to post more on TikTok. I am trying. I'm starting to post more on TikTok so that. That one is in English.
[01:15:26] Speaker B: So. Yeah.
[01:15:27] Speaker A: So follow me. You know, my content is in. Mostly in Portuguese, but as you guys can see, I do speak English, so people can message me in English. It's fine.
[01:15:36] Speaker D: Your English is better than my Portuguese, just to be clear.
[01:15:40] Speaker B: So that's not saying much.
[01:15:43] Speaker A: I would hope so.
Yeah.
[01:15:46] Speaker B: She lives in here.
[01:15:47] Speaker D: No, I know, but I'm just saying. I'm just saying if we're comparing here, like,
[01:15:54] Speaker B: hilarious. That's too funny. No, it's been a blast having you, of course, as Brian said, you're welcome to come back anytime. Time of course, not just to talk about the adventure, but to talk about any Disney cruising or other, you know, or adventures by Disney. We love to cover as well. But thank you so much for for coming on the show. We will be back next week, same time, same place. So we'll be back at 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern.
We have the incomparable tinfoil mouse years. Our friend Connecticut is going to be joining us for a prognostication episode for those who haven't watched us before. A prognostication episod. It is where we like to just predict. We have no inside information, but we like to predict what Disney Cruise Line is going to do next. We're going to talk about the believe the new ship that's been finally announced. The name of that comes out in late 2027.
We're going to talk about our predictions for what theming will be on the ship. And not just we know some of the theming that will be on the ship, but where that theming will be on the ship. Is it going to be a new bar? Is it going to be a new show? Is it going to be a new rotational dining? So you'll hear all of the duo's predictions, all of CT's predict. If you're not following along on our sub stack, CT's been putting out some great predictions on there and he's going to have one for next week to coordinate with the show as well. But of course we'll be on next week. So watch us live or watch us recorded. And if you're listening over on our podcast channels, you can always come over to YouTube and watch us as well. So thanks so much everyone. Have a lovely evening and we will see you real soon. Oh look, there's the wishing question.
[01:17:33] Speaker D: I must have it. I must have it.
[01:17:37] Speaker B: There's no atrium, but there is an atrium statue. It's Snow White and the wishing well for those watching on the video. But thank you so much, Luciana. Thank you to everybody who's watching and
[01:17:46] Speaker A: thank you for having me. Thank you everybody.
[01:17:48] Speaker D: See ya.
[01:17:53] Speaker C: Well, thanks everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us alive, we have a live show now every week, Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want help support the show, be sure to hit those five stars on Apple Podcasts and if you leave us a written review, a five star written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. Of course you can also help support the show by supporting our fabulous show sponsor My Path Unwinding Travel. 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 Patreon. If you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month, just head over to the website or patreon.com DCLDUO also as a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here, at least on a
[01:19:13] Speaker D: few blog articles that we've written.
[01:19:15] Speaker C: 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 reflective views of the Disney Company or Disney Cross Cruise Line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or Disney vacation, please contact the great folks over at My Path Unwinding Travel or Disney directly or your own travel agent. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL Duo. Good night.
[01:20:06] Speaker A: Sam.
