[00:00:00] Speaker A: How long is that drive from Dallas to Galveston?
[00:00:02] Speaker B: Longer than we thought it was. I realized as we're driving down there that it had been quite some time since we'd driven four and a half hours in the car.
So it was a long drive. We stopped at several BUC EE's.
[00:00:13] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
It was my first time to stop at a Buc EE's, and I'm glad I experienced it. I don't know if I would call myself a Buc EE's fan, but the bathrooms are clean.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: Well, that's important.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: And that was nice.
Foreign.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of the DCL Duo Podcast, brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel. I am your host today, Sam. Brian is unfortunately unable to join me for today's recording, but I am super excited to welcome back a returning guest to the show. Welcome back to the show, Andy. Hi.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Thank you. I'm glad to be back.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: Yeah, it's so lovely to have you back and it hasn't been that long. I feel like it was just yesterday I was recording with you the last time.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: It feels that way to me as well, but it was a couple of months ago, so.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Well, Andy, before we jump into talking about today's show topic, which is your cruise on the Disney Magic out of Galveston with a little concierge bonus. But why don't you give folks your cruising background Disney background. Just remind folks of your connection to Disney.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: We are majorly majority. Okay, I'm stumbling on my words already. Walt Disney World goers, we are DVC owners, so we go there pretty often.
However, we do also go to California quite a bit, so that's kind of our Disney love.
We just are recently Disney cruisers as well. We went on our very first Disney cruise in June of 2025.
We took the whole family on that cruise, so they were 11 of us total.
And then the bug bit and I was like, why haven't we done this before? I'd been on a few other cruise lines, but nothing compares to Disney.
And my daughter and I went on the Wish in the fall and I scheduled a cruise for my husband and I and we did book concierge for this trip out of Galveston. He.
He's an airline pilot, so he actually works and flies out of Dallas and has a car there. So I was like, oh, this will work out perfect. We'll drive from Dall down Dallas down to Galveston and get on the Magic and have a wonderful time. It was his birthday, so it was a fun celebration.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: I love that. That's awesome. Now, did you book this cruise, like because it was out of Galveston? Because it was on the Magic. Because, you know, like what were, what were sort of the criteria you were looking at when you were deciding to book? Because this one obviously you, you mentioned your first cruise was like multi generational. All the kids, everybody came and then your second cruise was just you and your daughter and then this cruise is. And your husband. Like, what were you looking for when you decided to book this cruise in particular?
[00:03:11] Speaker B: I've heard you use this term before. I, I would say I'm a completionist. I. My goal is to sail on all of the ships.
I don't know if I'll get the adventure maybe someday. I, I don't see myself flying that far right now. Only because we're on the East Coast. I can't imagine a flight to, to Singapore.
But it was an easy way to get on the Magic at the time.
I won't say the itinerary appealed to me, but the itinerary was nice. I liked the idea that there were two sea days.
I had not been to the Progreso Mexico port. And so yeah, I wanted something that was at least five nights and it worked out well.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Perfect.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Perfect.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: Now was this a Marvel Day at Sea cruise also?
And did that factor in or was that something that sort of got added in later?
[00:04:07] Speaker B: That got added in later. We did not know it was a Marvel Day at Sea.
We got notified maybe eight months ago, six months ago that it would be Marvel Day.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: Yeah, it's interesting. I always think it's how Disney does not seem to release those themes for Pixar and Marvel until months after booking has opened. And I get it helps them fill the ship with those later bookings. But I think it would be smart if they sort of advertise it from the get go because there are probably people who would choose certain cruises based on, on, you know, that overlay of theming. And there might be other people who might perhaps choose a sailing that wasn't a themed sailing because they just want, you know, because, because it does mean that that day is taken over. You know, that first C Day is sort of taken over by Marvel activities and characters. And if you want just sort of the standard cruise stuff, some of that stuff will not, I wouldn't say not be available, but it will be themed Marvel instead of definitely.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
And I would say given all things are equal, I probably wouldn't have chosen a Marvel Day at Sea. I like Marvel. I've enjoyed it. And we did enjoy the Marvel aspect of the theming, but it wasn't what made me choose the cruise at all.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, you had port stops in Cozumel and Progreso for this sailing.
I'm curious for your. You were obviously, you sailed concierge for the first time. So you were able to send in an email to Shoreside concierge at, what is it, 130 days in advance of your sailing to say, hey, concierge, I want to book the following, you know, excursions. I want to book the following Palo brunch or Palo dinner. I want to book the following drink tastings or any of the other things that are available to sort of pre book.
What, if anything, did you ask to pre book? And I'm sure this is the one benefit of concierge. I'm sure you got whatever you asked for because you're at the first, you're the first group for booking. Nobody else has booking ahead of you. And obviously this wasn't a sailing that went to Castaway or Lookout, so there were no cabanas to be, you know.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: Right. Which, darn it, I would have loved that opportunity. But we, we did send in the email. You know, it's a learning curve, being new to cruise, cruising with Disney.
And I did get an email saying you can send in an email, but I really wasn't sure what to ask for.
However, I knew I wanted Palo brunch, I knew I wanted Prima Note and I wanted a Palo dinner. So I booked all three of those. And then did you tell them what
[00:06:59] Speaker A: particular days you wanted those on and what approximate times you wanted as far as those experiences?
[00:07:06] Speaker B: Yes, I.
Yes, I gave them kind of options to fill it in as well. Though I did quest the Palo brunch to be either C day, I didn't care. Which I asked for our Palo dinner to be the last night because that was the night closest to my husband's birthday. His birthday was. Is actually today, but it was the end of our sailings when we celebrated it. So.
And then the Prima note, that is the first night, right?
[00:07:39] Speaker A: First night. Exactly. It literally means first night in Italian. Prima nose. Exactly. And so, yeah, one of.
[00:07:47] Speaker B: How do I put this? One of my thing to note for people who have not sailed a lot with Disney, item of note, I guess you'd call it. It's really difficult, especially those who don't know a lot about cruising, to know you don't know you're doing a rotation until you get there.
So what night do you book your things and you know, doing Prima Note. I'd never been on the Magic before, but I knew I wanted to do it.
However, I had no idea that that was the night they showed Rapunzel and the Tangled show.
And since we had late night dining, our 6:45 Priminote bumped right up against the Tangled show. So we didn't make it to that. And being that the Magic is the only ship that has that show, we didn't get to see it. And we'll just have to wait until we get back on the magic someday before we can hopefully. And I also, one kind of oddity for us was, you know, I figured the regular menu or regular show for the restaurants would be the first night that we dined there. And that was not the case for a restaurant. Lumiere's. Lumiere's is the main. The restaurant that's on the main floor of the atrium.
And we dined there our first evening.
But it wasn't the normal menu.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: You got the alternate. The second menu and.
[00:09:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: So. So I know that missed that our
[00:09:21] Speaker B: last night of the cruise because we had Paolo because of Palo.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So it's the one thing I will say is your best option when you're sailing concierge, you have a little bit of a leg up on the competition because you can ask shoreside concierge, hey, can you tell me what the dining rotation options are and can you tell me what the show schedule is? Now, all of these things are subject to change, but you can usually get an idea ahead of time. Now, it might not be, though, when your booking window opens, right? They might not be able to tell you that. They probably won't be able to tell you the show schedule yet, but they will be able to tell you the dining rotation schedule at that time. So there is some sort of, you know, the, some gambling you have to do.
The one pro tip I will give you, Andy, and those obviously listening is if you are sailing concierge and you did make that, you know, a bit of a gamble, when you're on board, you actually can make a lot of changes, right? Like you can, you can speak to the concierge hosts and change things like your dining rotation or when your Palo reservations are, you have a better chance of being able to move those things than your average cruiser because you're at the front of the line for all of those things. And so that's my, my, you know, my, my tip. I think it's. It's hard to do a, A lot of pre planning for the adult dining. Because of those sort of uncertainties. I guess my best advice would be if you want to do Prima Note, you know, which is always the first night, and you want to see the show, then plan on skipping your main dining. And I know that's kind of hard because then you're not meeting your wait staff, you know, but it's. It's really the only way to guarantee you'll be able to do, you know, both the show and. And Prima Note. You can just do both, you know, the show opposite. When your Prima Note is.
And I actually recommend doing the later Prima Note because then you have really no conflict with the show. You can see the early show, the later Prima Note. You even might have time to stop by your dining rotation to meet your servers. So that. Yeah, so that's the tip I'll give. But of course, that's late, and not everybody wants to do it that way. And, you know.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: Right. And. And I think that for us, I didn't realize, really, until probably the fourth night of our cruise that that I had that flexibility to ask concierge.
We have an issue. Help.
I even went. I went to guest services with an issue instead of concierge and.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: No, Andy. No.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: No. I had no idea.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:00] Speaker B: But I've learned now. And I will say, you know, once you've sailed concierge, you go, oh, my gosh, when can we do that again?
It's not going to be every sailing for sure. But. But yeah, I will have another opportunity someday.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely. Well, yeah. The biggest tip I can give for anyone who is sailing concierge is you never should have to go to guest services. You always just go to the concierge. Now you can. If you're having an issue in the middle of the night, of course, the hosts are not on duty. They're sleeping. There's nobody. There's nobody manning the lounge. The lounge is closed. That would be the time to go to guest services or call guest services. Right. But. But during the daytime hours up until 10pm go, always go to the concierge host, because they are your guest services, basically. They can do all of the same things. They can. They can work with you to get, you know, spa appointments moved, things like that. Dinner rotations, you know, move things like that. And of course, adult dining. It is hard to map out. I will say I try to find out even if I'm not sailing concierge, which, you know, we only sail every once in a while on concierge. Most of our sailings are in. In Regular, regular ocean view stateroom. Not even with a veranda. We. We like that stateroom. But I will try and find out what the dining rotations are through the Facebook group. Because usually there's somebody in the Facebook group or in one, you know, in the sailing Facebook group that is sailing concierge, and they can find out and then they'll share that information and that will help me map out where I want to do my adult dining. Right. Like, which. Which night, and I'll figure out which dining rotation to request. I am one of those people who. I'm almost always requesting a specific dining rotation. I'm probably the annoying ones that Disney hates to deal with because it just means they've got to do more, you know, more Tetris. Right. But it. That's, I will say, one of the benefits of concierge. You can. You can get a lot of that information ahead of time and do a little bit more strategic planning and less waiting in line on board to kind of readjust things.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: Right, right. And I think that I feel like I'm a little bit slow on the uptake with that because the same way learning Walt Disney World, I feel like it took me four or five trips to finally go, oh, wait a minute, let's map out the park. Let's figure out how to. We're going to dine here. We're going to go to that ride. We're going to go to this ride. We're going. And rather than jumping all over the park. And so, yeah, no, I, I totally.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: I totally understand that. This is like, what I'm talking about is like, pro level planning. Mo. Most people are not at that pro level planning. Most cruisers are more go with the flow. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's just a matter of, like, how much, you know, I, I am very particular about what dining we miss and what dining we attend. And I want to, like, make sure I go to the. I don't want to miss drawing night in Animator's palette. Right. Like, I don't want the show in Rapunzel's. Right. So there's. I'm. I can miss a night in Lumiere's, but I don't want to miss a night in Rapunzel's. So there, you know, so there's things like that that you can kind of do for planning. All right, well, you, you still, you still, of course, got all the things you requested ahead of time.
Now, did you, did you book any port excursions?
[00:15:20] Speaker B: We went on a beach day port Excursion in Progreso.
Most of the excursions for Progreso were to go to a cenote for snorkeling or Chichen Itza, which is the Mayan ruins there. And I'm, my family is from Mexico and so I've been to Chichen Itza several times. I've actually climbed that pyramid because you used to be able to do that many, many, many years ago.
And so I, I would have enjoyed it, but it was a long bus ride and so we decided that the, the theme of this trip was relaxation.
And so we did the beach day.
I think that the Progreso beach day was not exactly what I thought it would be. It wasn't quite as nice. I mean, I'm not. We had a great time. The, the staff was lovely. The, the person who was our leader on the bus was friendly, gave us education on the way there. It just, I, when you read the description of it, it sounds like it's going to be this really nice high class locale and it just didn't feel that way. The pools were a little small and a little dingy and the beach itself was kind of a little covered in seaweed, which a lot of them have been recently in the Caribbean. And, and yeah, it was okay. We had a good time, we enjoyed it. The drinks were plentiful, they came along and yeah, and the food was good. The, the, they had like a little buffet set up for us and, and it was actually quite tasty. So.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: Yeah, that's good. Yeah, we've, we've had, I'd say kind of hidden miss experiences with the beach excursions as well as to like how nice the resort is. Like we've done ones in Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan and both times were kind of disappointed, whereas we did.
Where was that? In, in Cozumel that we actually, that we thought was nice. Right. Like, so we've had. Yeah, I think it's kind of hit and miss. And one of the things, you know, you can always give that feedback to Disney Cruise Line that, you know, hey, this wasn't as nice of a resort as we expected it to be. Maybe you want to consider a different resort.
Of course, you're right. The seaweed is something that Disney really can't control. But, but, but you know, the, so the, the niceness of the beach is, is there's some sort of limit of control that they have over that. Except maybe, you know, take you to a different beach.
[00:17:58] Speaker B: Right, right.
Yeah. I, I will say when we were in the Bahamas, the, they were having a seaweed problem. And the resort that we went to actually had us on a. An inner bay side of their resort and there was no seaweed. And so it was really nice. And I was like, I appreciated that they did that.
So, you know, but it was not. It was not a bad excursion. It just wasn't quite as luxurious as I thought it would be. Which sounds, you know, first world problems. Really, really, really first world problems.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: What about Cozumel? Did you. Did you all get off in Cozumel?
[00:18:38] Speaker B: We did not. Now, one thing that happened before we got even got on the boat in Galveston, they changed our itine due to weather. We were initially going to go sea day, Cozumel, Progreso, sea day. And it changed to sea day, Progreso, Cozumel sea day. And so we went to Cozumel second, and it was still quite windy. And initially we thought, oh, we'll go, we'll go. But it just was.
Was still sunny. It was pretty, but it was so windy. We just decided to stay on the boat and have another sea day and really enjoyed it. Like I said, we did a lot of relaxing things. We spent quite a bit of time in the spa. So.
[00:19:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, I love that. Well, let me back up because I jumped, of course, ahead to the ports. But we haven't even talked about embarkation. Embarkation day. So I want to jump back to boarding. First of all, you flew to Dallas, where your. Where your husband as a pilot is based, and drove all the way. How long is that drive from Dallas to Galveston?
[00:19:48] Speaker B: Longer than we thought it was. I realized as we're driving down there, that had been quite some time since we'd driven four and a half hours in the car.
You know, we just used to do it all the time when we were younger, take a road trip here and there. But it was a little bit longer in Dallas. Dallas to Galveston. There's not a lot in between until you hit Houston.
So it was a long drive. We stopped at several BUC EE's.
[00:20:11] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:20:11] Speaker B: Yeah, it was my first time to stop at a Buc EE's. And I'm glad I experienced it. I don't know if I would call myself a Buc EE's fan, but their bathrooms are clean.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: Well, that's important.
[00:20:25] Speaker B: And that was nice.
[00:20:26] Speaker A: Yeah, that's important. Now, did you drive from Dallas to Galveston, like the morning of the cruise or. I'm imagining the day before the cruise?
[00:20:37] Speaker B: We went in the day before and we stayed in an old historic hotel in downtown Galveston called the Tremont House.
Very nice, very nice place. We really enjoyed the stay there. The staff was lovely that we had breakfast the next morning through the hotel and we had dinner that night prior at Fisherman's Wharf, which was, I would say maybe a five to seven minute walk from our hotel, which is right next to the port. So it was, it was perfect location and the food there was yummy. So we had a good time.
[00:21:12] Speaker A: What did you think of sort of that downtown Galveston? I've actually heard people compare it to like a New Orleans, like a kind of a cute little Southern.
I don't know, I don't know what.
[00:21:24] Speaker B: It definitely has that Cajun flair.
Most of the Gulf coast does.
It's, I really did enjoy it. My, my parents moved to Louisiana after I graduated high school and lived in Louisiana for, oh, gosh, 30 plus years.
And so it was, it was really nice. One of the things that we, we went to Fisherman's Wharf and neither of us wanted to order a catfish dinner, but we both wanted a little catfish just because it'd been so long since I'd had good Gulf coast catfish. So we asked them if they could make a, make a, bring us a filet of catfish as an appetizer. Just one. We didn't want the whole dinner. We just wanted them. Yeah. And they did. It was perfect. Yeah.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Oh, that's lovely. Yeah, that is one of those things where if you're, if you're on the Gulf Coast, I feel like you gotta, yeah, you gotta sample a little bit of that.
[00:22:19] Speaker B: Yeah, they, it looked like they had, you know, it was after Mardi Gras, but it looked like that they had had Mardi Gras celebrations downtown. And it, it really, lots of cute little shops and, and it definitely has the, the French influence and the buildings and. Yeah, yeah.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: All the metal work with the, the balconies and the beautiful iron work and all of that. I love that.
[00:22:43] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a cute little town. I, I, I would have loved to have spent a little more time there. Maybe some other time, but I think I might fly into Houston next time though, because that was quite a drive. I don't know. It was worth having the car there.
[00:22:56] Speaker A: Right? Well, and Houston is only like an hour and a half away or whatnot. And you can take Disney transportation or you can, of course, rent a car in, you know, rent a car in Houston. I, that's probably the, the smarter. I mean, unless you live in Dallas, right. And then you, of course you're gonna drive. It's probably smarter to just fly to Houston.
[00:23:16] Speaker B: And yeah, I would recommend that for anyone considering a cruise out of Galveston, fly in Houston.
[00:23:22] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Unless you really want to hit a bunch of different Buc EE's and then I guess take a four and a half hour drive. Exactly.
[00:23:30] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah.
[00:23:32] Speaker A: All right, well, yeah, well, okay. Boarding day comes embarkation day.
Did you guys drive your own car to the port and park at the port? Yeah. How was that experience? Is it easy?
[00:23:44] Speaker B: Very easy. Now we, we never drive in Florida because we always have to fly in as well. So I can't compare the two, but it seemed, because we were concierge, we were early in the day, but we drove up, we dropped our bags off. Luckily they told us, hey, you have to stop and drop your bags. One of the people working the parking said, go this way so you can drop your bags first. And the express lot of the Port of Galveston is literally right in front of Port 28, which is where the ship docks. And it was. You park your car and I would say we were a block, half a block from the ship itself. You know, it was so easy to get in and perfect. I took tons of pictures there. I was like, I can't believe how close we are. And then going in, everything went very smoothly. You know, we immediately were taken to the concierge sitting area. We took our boarding picture that you can take with the little sign that says we're going on the magic. And we were on the ship probably before 11am oh, wow.
[00:24:56] Speaker A: Super early. So they must have had a quick debark from whatever cruise had. Had preceded your cruise. But yeah, just a pro tip out there. For anyone who's driving, really, to any of the ports that Disney sails out of, you are going to drop off your luggage before you park your car. And that's the same at Fort Lauderdale. It's the same at Port Canaveral. It's the same at San Die Vancouver. I mean, any of the places that I have sailed out of. I know that's, that's the, that's the way that you do it. I don't know if that's the case in Europe, that I can't really answer that question. But in any of the places that Disney sails out of in the US or in Canada, Vancouver, Canada, you're dropping off your luggage before you park your car at the port. If you're coming from a local hotel or whatnot, obviously you're transferring with your luggage, then you'll get dropped off with your luggage at the same time. Yeah, yeah. All right. So you get on. Wow. Before 11 now, I think we were like the.
[00:25:56] Speaker B: The fourth family on the ship. It was pretty amazing. I know the family of the day went on and then we got in line and there were a few people ahead of us, but the way they funnel you in, we were right up there. I couldn't believe it.
[00:26:09] Speaker A: Nice. All right, well, you. You give them your. Your family name and you're announced into the atrium of the beautiful Disney magic, the original, the oldest, an original ship in the Disney fleet. What did you think of the atrium? You had only been on larger ships. You had only been on, you know, you've been on the Dream, and you'd been on the Wish, which of course is much, much bigger in the. In the. Just the. The atrium. The grand hall has. Is much larger. But you're. You're familiar with the. The dream. And so the dream.
[00:26:40] Speaker B: Oh, no, we. We haven't been on the dream. We were on the treasure.
[00:26:43] Speaker A: Oh, the treasure. I don't know why I was thinking it's the dream. Oh, my gosh. So you actually. Yeah. So you're pro.
[00:26:49] Speaker B: Shock you a little bit of size shock, but. But at the same time, it was beautiful. You know, Minnie Mouse was right there on the little balcony and. And the. The elevators right there with the. All the gold on the front. Oh, just go. Yeah, the glass and the gold scroll work. It was beautiful. So it was thrilling to walk in and everyone was so friendly.
[00:27:12] Speaker A: Oh, good. And you weren't like, oh, my God, this is tiny when you saw it compared to the treasure and the wish,
[00:27:18] Speaker B: it was a little bit, wow, this is small. But. But at the same time was exactly the cruise we were kind of hoping for. You know, it. It was just perfect. It was just perfect to walk in and.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I love that. Okay, so you. I'm assuming you're headed straight to Lumiere's for lunch.
[00:27:35] Speaker B: Yep. They. They kind of guided us straight there.
And there are two entrances, so we went off to the side entrance into Le Meires. Yeah. And we're seated right away for embarkation day for lunch.
[00:27:49] Speaker A: On the classic ships, the concierge folks are in Lumiere's or Tritons, depending upon, you know, if they're in the. The Magic or the Wonder. And then everyone else, if you want to do sit down lunch, you're either heading to Tiana's or Rapunzel's for that sit down lunch. That first lunch. And that first lunch includes bubbly and beer if you. If you want it. I think there might be wine options as well.
[00:28:15] Speaker B: I believe there was wine because I believe I had a glass of wine. I. Or it could have been. No, it might have been champagne, but I, I think wine was an option as well.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I think they have like one red, one white one. It's actually, I think Prosecco, but bubbly and. And then a couple of beer options for that lunch. And that's included if you're sailing concierge. Obviously if you're not selling concierge, it's not included.
And it's only, it's only that embarkation day lunch. And then of course, in the lounge from 5 to 10pm 1. What now? I can't remember if you had done sit down lunch on your previous sailings or if you had done the buffet lunch.
[00:28:52] Speaker B: We did the buffet lunch on our first sailing with the huge group and then my daughter and I actually did sit down lunch.
I. I don't know if I had heard it through your podcast, but probably your YouTube video.
We get on our phones and start scrolling what's going on on the ship and it's the perfect thing to do when you're at sit down lunch and you're not. Not having to walk around and find your food and then find a table and.
Absolutely.
[00:29:19] Speaker A: And you don't have kids with you so you can have that leisurely, slow lunch versus when you're with a bigger group or you've got kids with you and everybody's wanted to go every which way. Probably that buffet is. Is the easier option. But yeah, I love sit down lunch. You get on your phone, you start Harding the different activities in the Disney Navigator app and deciding, okay, what's our plan of attack? And then of course, because you were at concierge lunch, you got to meet your host for the very first time. Did they come around and introduce themselves or at least.
[00:29:49] Speaker B: Yes, yes, we.
We had two hosts, Diogo from. Where was he from? He said it was Diogo like Diego, but it was Diogo from Portugal. And then the other was Mariella from Bulgaria.
[00:30:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I love Mariella. I know her.
[00:30:11] Speaker B: She was amazing. Yes, they both were so, so nice and generous and help I just. Fabulous. They were perfect for the job. We didn't meet Mariela until later that afternoon in the lounge, but Diogo came by really kind of briefly. Did you have any issues? Did you need to change anything? And we didn't at the time know that we did.
Didn't know we needed to or would have thought that we could. But they also had the spa team come in and ask about Scheduling different things. And.
And we did.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: And you did. I gotta hear Andy. It sounds like you guys had spent quite a bit of time in the spot. Lisa, you. You've given me that impression.
[00:30:55] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Well, a little more than I thought we would.
[00:30:57] Speaker A: But how many services did you do and how many did your husband do and. Which. What.
[00:31:03] Speaker B: That's the funny part.
[00:31:04] Speaker A: Was it all you?
[00:31:06] Speaker B: No, I had scheduled.
Had planned already that he was going to do a shave and I was going to do a pedicure prior to our, you know, on the first day of the cruise. And so those are the two things that we knew we had scheduled.
And then the massage or the spa hostess who came and spoke with us, spoke about this treatment they have called thermage, which is a facial treatment.
When you're on your upper end of your 50s, you kind of go, okay, that sounds exciting. Let's do that.
[00:31:51] Speaker A: So it's born every minute, Andy.
[00:31:54] Speaker B: I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I. I totally bit off on it. And I was like, yes, I want to do that. And it's a treatment where they. They re invigorate, I guess.
[00:32:05] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:32:05] Speaker B: Reactivate your collagen. Well, it's. It's reactivating a collagen in your skin, and it takes effect over the next several months and lasts for three to five years, according to the doctor who did it on the show.
It was.
[00:32:22] Speaker A: It was fun.
[00:32:23] Speaker B: I was like, this is a treat. What am I doing? Who am I? But, you know, because. Because I was doing something. My husband was like, well, what about.
[00:32:31] Speaker A: What about me, too?
[00:32:33] Speaker B: And when he was getting his shave, they told him that they had a special going where if you bought two treatments, you'd get one free or 50% off or something like that. So he was like, well, I'd kind of like a haircut. So he got his shave and his haircut, and then he did a.
I want to say a massage.
Yeah, a massage and then a teeth whitening.
[00:32:56] Speaker A: Oh, I have not heard about anybody doing a teeth whitening on the ship. What did he think of it?
He.
[00:33:02] Speaker B: He really enjoyed it. And, you know, Kips came out with a little kit for two weeks more of treatments to do afterwards. But, yeah, he. He had a blast. He enjoyed it very much. And so our.
Most of our afternoon of this first sea day, which was also Marvel Day, was spent in the spa. But we had a blast. I mean, it was fun. I. I felt a little. Oh, my gosh, I can't believe I'm doing this. This thermage. Because it is not inexpensive.
[00:33:33] Speaker A: Yeah, it's not an inexpensive treatment.
[00:33:35] Speaker B: No, but it was fun. I, I'm, I'm glad I did it. And I was like, you know, the doctor was like, looking at my husband going, you should consider doing this next year.
[00:33:46] Speaker A: Oh, I love that. That's hilarious.
[00:33:48] Speaker B: It was fun.
[00:33:49] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I, Well, I love that you guys start, like decided to start your cruise with a spa treatment because I, I personally think it's such a great start to a cruise to kind of get in that vacation mode. Right. It kind of helps. Helps you. Brian always likes to start with that shave. He, he loves the men's shave. It's more of like a, it's like a men's facial. I mean, they call it a men's shave, but it really is a men's facial because it, they'll, they will shave you, of course, but you don't, you don't have to get like the straight razor shave. Ryan does not do that because he, he has sensitive skin and so he'll, he'll end up with literally like, you know, really bad, like a rug burn on his face. Simple as that. But they do a really nice. Yeah. Facial treatment. I always love going in while he's getting that treatment and taking just pictures of him holds all on his face and whatnot. It's fun. Okay, well, so you, you have, you got all those things booked. You've got, of course, a lot of. You said your, your first C day. Your first full C day, which is the next day, is Marvel Day at sea.
It wasn't, of course, the reason that attracted you to this cruise. It wasn't the reason for you to book this cruise. Did you do any of the Marvel I know you had a ton. You had a bunch of spa time in the afternoon. So that would have obviously interrupted your ability to do some of those Marvel things.
[00:35:06] Speaker B: We did a little bit.
We wore matching shirts from the Roosevelt shirts that have Spider man and team all over it. And it was fun.
And we got pictures taken with, set up ahead of time where they had them in a room. We had Spider Man, Black Panther and Iron Man.
And you know, honestly, it's kind of one of the first times I've done that for me that, you know, you see all these people in line with all these kids. And the closer I got to the front of the line, the more excited I got to, to actually do this. And you know, my, my, my kids most favorite superhero when they were very young was Spider Man. So it was amazing to be able to Take a picture with him. And we chatted a little bit. It, of course, you know, he starts talking about Aunt May burning all the food at home. And I said, well, you know, you just need to come to Ohio and eat dinner with us.
[00:36:04] Speaker A: I'll cook for you.
[00:36:06] Speaker B: And I'm laughing and, you know, you feel a little silly. But also it's so fun to kind of reconnect with your younger self a little and have fun with that.
[00:36:17] Speaker A: I love that. I personally love a character interaction. I do them, you know, Nathan is not that into the character. So I go up and do them on my own or I'll do them with Brian.
And I feel the same way, Andy. I feel like it just transports me into like a child version of myself.
And I think it's really fun to have those interactions and to see like the way that they like improv. Right. Like these character, especially the, the face characters because obviously the ones with the, the heads can't talk to you, but the face characters can all talk to you and so they can really interact. Although I'll be honest, I'm amazed with how well Mickey and Minnie and Daisy and all the pants. Yeah, the way they pantomime the like, it's pretty incredible. But yeah, I always love those interactions. I think they're super fun. And so when you're mentioning the ticketed events so you just for those who are listening, if you haven't been on a Marvel Day at Sea or Pixar Day at Sea or other sort of themed cruise that has, I'll call them reservations or ticketed Character Meet and Grease, and these also happen on regular cruises is just though the Royal gathering, which is a princess meet and greet at 30 days before your cruise. You can book through the app. These sort of ticketed meet and greets, they are free, they don't cost anything, but they do require a reservation and for everyone in your party that is going to meet the character. So it's not like I make a reservation for myself and I can bring Brian with me. No, I've got to make a reservation that's for me and Brian or me, Brian and Nathan. And then you get to go meet the characters at a particular location at a particular time. And there's usually like a, I don't know, 30 minute window or 45 minute window of when your sort of time slot is and there are lines, you are going to wait in a queue. But it's not going to be like at the parks where you're waiting for two hours to meet Elsa and Anna, you're, you know, you may be waiting 20 minutes for most of these. And. And like you said, Andy, this one is one where you're meeting multiple characters, and that's usually. The ticketed events usually involve like three or four characters.
[00:38:24] Speaker B: There were. There were more than one that you could sign up for, but I. I feel like you. You could only sign up for one.
I don't know what. I don't remember exactly, but I remember going, do. Who do I want to meet? Do I want to meet Spider man or do I want to meet the Marvel team? I think was the other one like Guardians of the Galaxy or. Or something of that sort of.
Or Vint.
I don't remember. I just remember.
[00:38:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I wonder if they conflicted in times, because usually you can book. You can't book the same one twice, but usually you can book the different ones as long as they don't conflict in time. But.
[00:39:03] Speaker B: And you know, that could have been it, and I misread it. Who knows? But I only booked the one, and I was thrilled.
It was really neat with Spider man and then Black Panther right after us, he left.
He was kind of quick. He was like, let's take our picture. And. And he was out of there.
And then Iron man asked me who my favorite superhero was when I walked up and. And I told him spider Man.
[00:39:30] Speaker A: Oh, that was the wrong answer, Andy.
[00:39:33] Speaker B: Oh, he. He just loved that. Yeah. He was like, no, no. So, yeah, we had. We had a pretty good interaction with him as well. And I was like, oh, no, I'm so sorry. It's Iron Man.
[00:39:43] Speaker A: It's Iron Man. Obviously. It's obvious. Obviously. Tony Stark. It's Iron Man. Yeah.
[00:39:50] Speaker C: Are you listening to our show because you want to make the most out of your next vacation. Great news. The fabulous team over at My Path Unwinding Travel can help guide you so you don't miss a thing. Their team of professional travel advisors are caring, knowledgeable, and experienced. It's why we use them to book our own travel. My Path Unwinding Travel is an authorized Disney vacation planner, which means they are recognized by Disney for their expertise and service. They have sailed on all the Disney ships, including in concierge, visited the theme parks, adventured with Disney, Relaxed at Aulani, and so much more. Whether it's a Disney cruise, a theme park vacation, or adventures by Disney, or if you are looking to expand beyond the mouse, My Path Unwinding Travel will elevate your next vacation planning experience. Even if you have already booked, reach out for a complimentary Consultation to make your vacation even more magical. Ready to talk to the experts? Head over to mypathunwinding.com dc or email dclduo mypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. Thanks my path unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
[00:40:49] Speaker A: Well, let, let's talk about some of the other things you guys got up to on the cruise. Obviously this was about relaxation. So I know you probably weren't running around going to every family game show and every trivia, but what were some of the, the highlights that you guys got to do on this sail at the.
[00:41:06] Speaker B: We, we did play some trivia. We did. We went to some of the adult.
The, the adult location on the Magic. It's, it's on deck three. Kind of off to its own little area in the back underneath the shops is how I remembered where it was.
And so we went to a few of the adult.
I think one was called Seriously and you're holding shoes up in the air.
It was kind of a crazy one. But we had a couple in there who introduced themselves as friends and said that they booked the honeymoon but called off the wedding. And so they were just there as. And it was the whole room just.
We gotta know the story. We gotta know the story. Oh my God.
That was fun.
[00:41:55] Speaker A: That is crazy. Did you, did you, you, did you end up going to see Match youh Mate?
[00:42:01] Speaker B: We did not. And I don't know how we missed it because that was on my list.
Yeah, but it might have, I mean,
[00:42:09] Speaker A: first night, it might have been the first night and you had such a busy night with your prima note, maybe
[00:42:15] Speaker B: because yes, I, it was like, how did I miss that? But I've got to go to it sometime. We're doing another adult cruise. We'll do it then. But.
[00:42:22] Speaker A: Ah, there you go.
[00:42:23] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:42:24] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and that's, that's the beauty of when you're sailing adult only. You really can sort of take things at your own pace and do a lot of those adult only activities that you maybe aren't going to get to do when you're sailing with, you know, kids and grandkids and whatnot.
[00:42:38] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was fun. We spent a lot of time in the concierge lounge, which was just wonderful. We kind of had our special table that we always sat at and it got to know the people that work there. We met another family and chatted with them several times.
Turned out out kind of hilariously that they're from Ohio. As well, because, yeah, they're like, yeah, we. We live in Ohio. And we're like, where in Ohio?
[00:43:06] Speaker A: We went all the way to Texas to meet another family from Ohio.
[00:43:10] Speaker B: Yeah. But it was. It was a lot of fun. It really was nice to kind of have a place to go and know that you could grab a snack if you wanted a snack or have a drink.
You know, just soda or water to begin with and. And alcoholic after five. But I really enjoy the use of the lounge.
We spent a lot of time in there, and they did have one instance where they brought in. They told us it would be one of the Fab Five, and. And that we should show up at X amount of time. And then they had each kind of like, orderly fashion. Each table would get up and go have a picture taken. And ours just happened to be Goofy, which is my husband's favorite character. So.
[00:43:54] Speaker A: Perfect. So for his serendipity celebration, you got to have a meet and greet with Goofy. That's wonderful. It was wonder. Yeah. I think it's a really nice. Now, you know, it's not going to be a unique character that they bring into the concierge lounge for that one character meet and greet. It's always a Fab Five character. And they're always going to be in their cruise wear outfit. So they're not going to do it on Pirate Night. They're not going to do it on Marvel Day. It's going to be them in their standard cruise wear outfit. But I think it's a really nice benefit because it is going to mean you're going to for sure get that one character. You're not going to be waiting in a line. You're going to be sitting. As you mentioned, they have everybody. You know, everybody's sitting at a table or sitting at the bar in kind of an orderly fashion. And then they just go around table by table and they say, okay, you guys are next, you guys are next. And the. The hosts kind of take care of that. And. And it's. And it's with your own phone. It's not with a PhotoPass photographer.
[00:44:43] Speaker B: Oh. But the. The number of pictures that they took, it was amazing. And the amount of time that Goofy spent with us, you know, I mean, it wasn't a huge amount, but it was more than I felt I would have gotten just in a brief interaction.
[00:44:59] Speaker A: Yeah, you're probably right, because they really can. Because it is a limited number of guests, and to be fair, not everybody who's staying concierge will even show up for that. And so I mean, most people will, but some people might have, you know, a spa appointment or something else that they're doing at that time. And it's usually on one of the sort of. If you have like two C days, it's often on that second C day.
[00:45:22] Speaker B: It's one hour.
[00:45:23] Speaker A: Yeah, which. That, yeah, that tracks. But I, I have to. I gotta ask Andy, did you take advantage of the concierge benef of going to like, the theater early? I know you didn't get to do Tangled, but for the other shows, the other two.
[00:45:37] Speaker B: Yes, we did twice. Charmed and Dreams. Dreams. Yeah, dreams. And I really, I liked that. It was nice.
We would meet in the. The Irish pub, O. Gill's Pub, and take the back way in, have our popcorn, bring a drink from the concierge lounge, or, you know, bring a soda from your room as well.
And we, the first night we sat five rows up right in the center. And both my kids were in theater in high or two of my kids were in theater in high school and always said that that was, you know, five to seven rows was the best place to sit. So we, we sat in the best seats we could for both performances. And I really, I, I liked being able to do that. You know, it was nice. We kind of know. Got to know the people that sat around us.
[00:46:32] Speaker A: Yeah, the same. Kind of the same f. Like sort of the same, the same spot. Yeah, I, I think it's a really nice benefit. It doesn't mean you get to go late. You still have to go to the theater early because of course they let you in before they open the back of the house doors to let everybody in.
So you're usually, it's about 35 minutes in advance of the show, but you're either. But you're going to get into those seats very, very quickly as opposed to waiting outside the theater until they open the doors, you know, for another, you know, 10 or 15 minutes. So you certainly don't have to get there there super early, but you obviously have to get there in time for that.
[00:47:09] Speaker B: Showtime at oak Gills was 5:20 for the 6:00 clock show.
[00:47:14] Speaker A: Oh, okay, so 40 minutes before.
[00:47:15] Speaker B: Yeah, but I would say we were actually sitting in the seat by 5:30. So 30 minutes early. And they opened the doors pretty quickly afterwards. We weren't sitting there very long. The entertainment director would come and say a few words to, to us and then they'd open the doors. So.
[00:47:35] Speaker A: Yeah, and that's pretty typical. And that's why. So if you're sailing concierge and you take advantage of that benefit. Like, you're not going to have a lot, a lot of time to find a seat. You are let into the theater, you're given like two minutes to find a seat, and then they open the doors to everybody else and everybody else comes in. And, and like I've said on other shows, like, this is not the, the opportunity to save a row of seats for everybody else who's not in concierge. Like, you can save like maybe one or two seats if your family is, like, getting a drink or using the bathroom or something like that. But you're really not supposed to save seats out, you know, in the Walt Disney Theater. So please, for the love of, you know, please stop doing that. People. It's really, other cruisers all, you know, get mad at you because they maybe have, maybe they might have been waiting outside for an hour and they don't. Yeah, it's not really a fair scenario if somebody's saving an entire row of seats.
All right, well, let's, let's talk about some of the other concierge benefits. Since this was your first time sailing, you mentioned the lounge and having that availability. What did you think of, like, the food quality, the drinks in the lounge, the food and the service in the lounge? Because I personally think that it's very high quality. I do think that they should maybe increase the hours of when you can get drinks in the lounge or increase the hours of the lounge.
But obviously that's a staffing issue. But I'm curious what you thought.
[00:49:01] Speaker B: Well, I'll start with, since this is the only concierge lounge I've been in, I felt like it was a good size.
There was a, an indoor section and kind of not really an outdoor out air section.
[00:49:17] Speaker A: Open air. Yeah.
[00:49:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:49:18] Speaker A: This is the area where the magic falls flat and like, the wonder is the better of the two in that scenario. But yeah, there's this open air part that it's, it's, it's got partial walls and kind of open.
[00:49:30] Speaker B: It's not a place to go sunbathe. It's, but it's, it is a, it's to enjoy the sea air. We'll put it like that. I, I, the coffee was amazing. It was so good. I love the coffee machine. We went there every morning for coffee. And my husband, for every cruise we've done, even not even Disney, his habit has always been to order room service and get coffee in the morning and sit out on the balcony. And he didn't want to do that in this cruise. He was like we're going to the concierge lounge because it was so good and I felt like the food offerings were good on the Magic class and I'm told the Fantasy and Dream, they don't have hot food, it's just cold food.
But for me for breakfast it was perfect. It was just what I needed. We did go, we went and got churros on churro day and, and we went for sit down breakfast one other time just to see what it was like.
But I, I, I liked the Concierge lounge for that.
[00:50:31] Speaker A: Yeah, it's great. It's basically your continental breakfast with you know, pastries and cereals and even. Yeah. Salmon, smoked salmon and, and par, little yogurt parfaits and things like that are often available as well. So it's a, it's not, not a. Yeah, it's not a full, yeah, it's not a full like hot breakfast as you mentioned because they don't have hot items on. Yeah, Magic, Wonder, Dream and Fantasy does not have hot breakfast or hot food in the lounge. But on the, on only on the wish class is there hot food on the lounge. And actually in the wish class you can get like actual Mickey waffles in the lounge. Yeah, that's pretty nice. Yeah, pretty nice. Yeah.
[00:51:11] Speaker B: We'll see that some other time. But yeah, no, I, I, I liked you know, the afternoon get a snack in the lounge. We did a few times go and have pool deck food. You know, my husband would want to go get a piece of pizza. I did Daisy's Delight a few times to grab something.
We'll say healthy. You know, I had a salad a few times.
[00:51:33] Speaker A: Right. Healthy. Ish. A wrap, a salad.
[00:51:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
And so we did that a few times. But it was nice to be able to go to the lounge to get a snack and know that there would be something there and we could get water to our heart's content and, and sodas if we needed a little pick me up that wasn't hot like coffee. I would agree it would have been nice to have the, the bar open for a longer time, but it was sure enjoyable when it was open to have that. I noticed quite a few people would just come in, get a drink drink and leave with their drink to either go to their dinner for early dinner or just go listen to music in, in one of the like the piano bar or something like that.
[00:52:20] Speaker A: So yeah, yeah, I mean it's definitely a nice, nice to have benefit that way. You know you're not going to pay for your drink at the at one of the lounges because you can go get your drink and then bring it to a lounge at the same time.
You're not going to have the musicians in the concierge lounge. So you still, you may want to venture if, I mean, if you, if you want just a quiet evening, it's a lovely place to sit all evening. But if you want to be in the hustle and bustle of the activity and things like that on board, you, you are going to have to sort of venture out.
[00:52:52] Speaker B: And I did find that we went to the Soul Cat lounge a few times and we went to Keys a few times, but we really didn't order near as many drinks as we would have had we not been able to just walk into the concierge lounge and get one. And it was nice, nice to be able to do that.
[00:53:11] Speaker A: Absolutely. What did you think of the staff in the lounge? I think that's one of the areas where they really shine. Is that like that level of service overall? I mean they're always, you know, there's probably hits and misses in every department. But I'll be honest, I don't know that I've ever found a miss in the concierge department as far as quality of the servers, you know, the bar staff and the host.
[00:53:34] Speaker B: I felt like they were amazing. There were four and I cannot tell you the names of everyone. I do remember Raymond and.
Oh gosh, I feel like I wrote one of the other ones names down. Carlos. Those are the two that I remember specifically. They worked most often when we were in there. But there was a one and can't remember her name at all. But they were so, so nice. Always generous.
What can we do for you? Can it get, can it get you anything? How's your day going? Are you having any issues? Everybody was bend over backwards.
[00:54:15] Speaker A: Yeah. I got to ask, do you think it will be hard to go back to selling non concierge? I mean it's a great benefit. It's also really expensive, let's be fully honest, as compared comparatively the price, you know, anyway. Everyone can do their own assessment of the worth it question. Right. Like for some people it's going to be worth it. For other people it's not going to be worth it. For some people it's going to be completely out of reach just based on the price tag alone. But do you think it'll be hard to, to sail back with the regular folk after sailing concierge?
[00:54:47] Speaker B: My husband said with the Muggles.
No, I, I think that we kind of talked about That a little bit. And we said, said when it's just the two of us and it's available and reasonable that we would like to sail concierge, but when we're sailing with another large group, it's just for us, for our, where we are in our life, what we're thinking, it just doesn't make financial sense.
You know, I was looking at some of the cruises for 2020, summer 2027, and some of the concierge lounges were like $20,000, $18,000 for a room. And I'm going, I can get three rooms.
[00:55:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:55:36] Speaker B: For two people. I can get three rooms and bring my whole family for that much. And I'd much rather do that when they're available to come with us. So that's where I'd say concierge wouldn't be worth it to us. But otherwise, I. It's fun. I can. I definitely, definitely would enjoy it again, for sure.
[00:55:56] Speaker A: Well, and I think the other, the other balance is if, let's say you were sailing with the rest of the family, you're not gonna sail in concierge when the rest of them are not, because then you're less likely to take it. I'm. I'm assuming you correct me if I'm wrong, but you're less likely to take advantage of that time to like, just sit and enjoy the lounge because you're gonna be like, oh, I wanna hang out with the kids. I wanna, you know, I wanna be doing stuff with them and, and watching them, you know, hang out on the pool.
Versus when you're just the two of you, you're like, oh, we're gonna take this leisurely. We're gonna sit in the lounge. Yeah.
[00:56:31] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. And I would say we spent several hours a day in the lounge and, you know, we, we brought a little Yahtzee game along with us.
[00:56:41] Speaker A: So we were.
[00:56:42] Speaker B: I loved that we had a table and we knew it was our table.
[00:56:46] Speaker A: And it wasn't outside.
[00:56:47] Speaker B: It was inside in a nice place. And that was something that I have found on the other two ships. It's, you know, the, the cabanas Marceline market type place is only open certain hours, so you can't always guarantee you're going to be able to go sit there. The, the lovely seating around the grand halls in the Wish class ships is great, but you're not guaranteed you're going to get a seat there. And the others are bars and lounges and you might be able to, but you don't necessarily want to disturb everyone around you playing a dice game.
[00:57:22] Speaker A: Right. Well. And it might be that there's a big trivia or something going on, and then you're being disturbed by their trivia. That's true.
Yeah.
[00:57:31] Speaker B: So we liked having a. A place we knew we could go. We could play a game and. And not really bother anyone around us, because usually I would say, unless there was something like when Goofy was there or the bar had just opened, the concierge was at most half full most of the time, because people are in and out of there all day, as we were.
[00:57:53] Speaker A: Yeah. And as you mentioned, people are often popping in for a drink or to, like, you know, whether that's a soft drink or an alcoholic drink or just a chat with the host to get something done. Right. And then they leave. Not everybody is gonna hang out in that space the whole time because there is so much, you know, to do on. On the rest of the ship. Now, Andy, have we missed anything in terms of, you know, other stuff that you guys did on board? I know this was, like. This was a special celebration. You know, I. I forgot to ask you, actually. I know what I missed asking you about Paulo. You got to go to Paulo three different times. You did Prima note. You did brunch, you did dinner. I gotta ask. Were they all thumbs up or some thumbs down? And then what was the. What was the standout amongst them?
[00:58:39] Speaker B: I. I loved all of them. Prima note. There was not much difference between I went with my daughter on the wish and I went with my husband this trip.
The menu was very similar. I believe even the wines were the same. There might have been one or two different.
But it was delicious. It was fabulous food. And you really kind of talk with people that come from different areas. And I met this nice girl that was sitting next to me, and she was knitting while we were there. Crocheting, not knitting. I said knitting. And she goes, no, I'm crocheting. But she made cute little door Mickey. Oh, fun.
[00:59:21] Speaker A: For Those watching on YouTube, Andy is showing.
[00:59:23] Speaker B: Yeah. So figured out where we were and brought us the one she was knitting. And I loved it. So. Yeah, I was like, you need to sell these. These would sell on Etsy. I know they would, because they were adorable. She doesn't, but she should. But we had a blast in there. The. The wine connoisseur for. For Paulo was wonderfully knowledgeable. We actually did a class with him, a tasting. We did a couple of those during the cruise as well.
Very friendly.
The brunch.
Loved it. I had the parmesan chicken and the lasagna, I couldn't finish both of them, but I had to get both. Yeah. I was like, I'm just gonna eat
[01:00:03] Speaker A: half of this and half of that.
[01:00:04] Speaker B: And I didn't even do get a full half, but it was. It was worth it. And my husband got the. The veal salt and boca, and we were both kind of a little.
My. My father was a dairy farmer growing up, and his best friend. Friend, Family owned a ve or a farm where they raised calves to be ve. And my dad would have nothing to do with ve for my entire life. So I tasted it for the first time on this cruise, and both of us were like, it was delicious, but I feel so guilty. I don't ever want to eat it again.
[01:00:35] Speaker A: I will tell you, Andy, I actually. I don't eat ve, and it's not. I don't. I have tried it. I don't love it to begin with. I love steak, so it's not. I am a. I am a carnivore, for sure, but I still. There's just something. Something about veal that just. It just seems wrong to eat. It does. I know. I know.
[01:00:53] Speaker B: That's why I'd never had it before.
[01:00:55] Speaker A: Like, at least let's have a good, full life, and then let's eat them. Yeah.
[01:01:01] Speaker B: My husband had loved veal before he met me. And then when my dad told him how they were raised, like, And. And how he had experienced it, we just hadn't eaten it for years and years and years. Well, I never had, but he hadn't.
He got it just because he was like, I gotta try Palo's. Let's see. Yeah. And it was. It was good, but we're not. We're not gonna do it again.
But. Yeah, it's. You know, you leave Palo brunch going, oh, that was so good. But I'm so full.
[01:01:28] Speaker A: Yeah. It's like, how am I ever gonna eat again? And then, of course, you know, five hours later, six hours later, you find room.
Yeah.
[01:01:34] Speaker B: Yeah. And then when we went back for Palo dinner, we actually had the same server we stole from. I think he was from. From Bulgaria. Bulgaria or Croatia?
Bulgaria. Yes, he was from Bulgaria, and his son is actually going to college here in Ohio. And so that was kind of funny, you know, Ohio, such a small world. But he was happy to have us again. And we kind of left Paolo dinner so full. It was amazingly delicious.
Of course, I had the agnolotti as my appetizer.
[01:02:13] Speaker A: I love that agnolotti, Andy. Oh, my God. It's So good.
[01:02:17] Speaker B: So good. And then we both got the tenderloin. I got the six ounce. My husband got the eight ounce. And we decided that you could almost just order one to share of everything when it comes to Palo because you're so full by the time you. You leave it.
[01:02:34] Speaker A: Yes. And even if you do like the price fix menu, it's so much food because you're still getting an appetizer and the main and the dessert, like, it's so it's still. And the portions are. I. I mean, they're generous. Yeah, they're very, very generous.
[01:02:51] Speaker B: And yeah, we ordered. We ordered the. The steaks, and then I wanted the asparagus. My husband wanted the mushrooms for his steak.
And then at the last minute, he goes, oh, and I'll. I'll have some of the mashed potatoes as well. And you know, they put that down and it's there' there for an entire table of people.
[01:03:11] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[01:03:12] Speaker B: Gosh. Yeah, Absolutely. Too much.
[01:03:14] Speaker A: We. We try and do some. I always order the price fix, and then Brian always orders a la carte. I always order the price fix because I like the smaller tenderloin. And that's the option on the. That's one of the options on the price fix. But then we always add in a pasta course and then Brian gets a main from, you know, from off the a la carte menu. But then we share everything because it really is otherwise, like, way too much.
[01:03:36] Speaker B: That is definitely what we will do in the future is, is do the sharing. Now, the last time that we had eaten a Palo dinner, we had the whole, you know, there were eight of us or something. You know, we were a large crowd. And so when this little dishes were on the table, it didn't seem like as much food as it did when there were just two of us.
[01:04:00] Speaker A: Yes, yes. Because, yeah, the more people you're sharing with, the more those. Those vegetables, those sides that, you know, will get right, they get spread across. But when it's just two of you. I know, feel the same way because Brian and I, it's usually just the two of us if we're going to Paulo dinner. And it. It's. Yeah, it's. You gotta like, you gotta, like, reign back the ordering and figure out because it's just so much really, what do we really want? Exactly.
[01:04:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I, It. I. I mean, I hurt after that meal. It was, it was. We. We went back to the room and. And because we were gonna pack our bags and kind of work on that a little bit before show of the evening. The kiss good night. But that's not what it's called on this ship.
[01:04:44] Speaker A: See you real soon, maybe.
[01:04:46] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We literally just laid and. And watched a little tv going, oh, I don't want to get up. I don't know if I can get up. But it was. It was worth every penny, so. Yeah.
[01:04:58] Speaker A: Now, which one. Which one would you say if you had to choose between them? Right? Like, because Prima note. I know you've done twice, and it's, you know, as you. It's wonderful every time. I don't know that you need to do it on every ship, because it really is the same across the fleet. Like, it's one of those things where if you enjoy it, do it again, but expect it to be the same or substantially similar. Right. But I'm curious, like, if you could only do one of them on, like, your next cruise, which one would would you do and which one would you say others should do? Is it brunch? Is it priminote? Is it dinner?
[01:05:33] Speaker B: I will say I've already booked priminote for my next cruise.
[01:05:38] Speaker A: All right, so you're.
[01:05:40] Speaker B: You're, to me, kind of like you. You talked about the spa, the. The shave and. And getting something done that first day.
There's just something about that. The. The presentation of the wine, the. The appetizers and the camaraderie around the table that says we're off on an adventure. This is. This is a way to start a trip. And, you know, I'm. I'm Mom. I. I wouldn't do it if we were sailing with my granddaughter, you know, because I don't think it would be worth it then. I'd rather spend the time with her, see whatever else there is to do on the ship. But it was. It was. I. I love it. I just think it's fun. Whether I like dinner or brunch. Oh, gosh. I. It's so. That's like asking which is your favorite kid, right?
[01:06:28] Speaker A: They're both so good.
[01:06:29] Speaker B: They're both so good.
[01:06:32] Speaker A: I.
[01:06:32] Speaker B: There's something about having dinner that I like. I like a nice, candlelit, quiet dinner.
[01:06:40] Speaker A: It's more romantic and calm, for sure.
[01:06:43] Speaker B: The.
[01:06:44] Speaker A: The brunch is. I actually.
I think I like the brunch food the best. I like them both. They're both great. But I think I like the brunch food the best, and I think it's the best value, I think, you know, brunch. Yeah, but, like, there's something nice and romantic and quiet about the dinner. You don't get. You don't get that. I mean not that it's, it's not that loud during brunch, but it's still not quite as.
[01:07:06] Speaker B: It's more like a restaurant. It's not like the, the dining halls of the ship, but it's more like a restaurant than a, than Palo at night feels. It feels very.
You feel secluded a little. And yeah, and I will say on the magic, at least there's, there's the big deck.
So Palo. The Palo windows open up to a deck and there were so many people who were coming and doing exercises right in front of the window. And I'm going, do they know that we can see them? Yeah. Doing their stretches. And I was just like.
It was an interesting view.
[01:07:44] Speaker A: Yeah, you don't really have that at night.
Yeah. But it, during the day. That's a good point. On the, when you're trying, when you're having brunch, there might be. Be a lot of people up there getting their, getting their workout in. All right, well, Andy, I've gotta, you know, I've gotta ask you really an ultimate question because now you've sailed on the magic and then you've sailed on wish class, you've sailed in treasure and wish. I got. We're not going to do a full rapid fire because we've done a full rapid fire before. But I have to. We have to update the question of my favorite ship.
[01:08:13] Speaker B: I have a little comparison.
[01:08:14] Speaker A: Yeah, now you have some comparison between the, the treasure, the wind fish and now the magic. The first, you know, the first in the fleet. What. Which ship do you, which ship resonates with you? Which ship would you. If you're going tomorrow, what ship would you want to be going on?
[01:08:29] Speaker B: I love the treasure. It's just a beautiful ship.
There were so many things that I liked about the magic. I liked, I liked the smaller size. I could tell even though I was told that it was a sold out cruise, it did. Did not feel as crowded as the, the wish class ships do.
But the, the treasure is just beautiful. It's just such a ship. You walk in and you go, this is, is what they must have felt like walking onto the T. Titanic back in. You know, not, not the comparison of the sinking, but the, the grandeur of that, of that grand hall is, is amazing.
So I, I did like that. But I loved of the magic.
[01:09:19] Speaker A: Yeah. I honestly think the magic and the wonder are so, I mean they're such great ships, but I especially think they're great if you want that sort of more Relaxing sailing.
And when you're doing adult only, it's not that there's anything wrong with them for. With kids. I mean, there's plenty to do for kids on those ships as well. But I just, I think that intimacy of that smaller ship and the smaller cast, the smaller passenger count, all of that is great for that, you know, sort of adult relaxing scene.
[01:09:50] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Yeah.
[01:09:52] Speaker A: Well, Andy, I'm so thankful that you joined me again.
This has been so wonderful. I'm glad that you had such a wonderful time celebrating your husband's birthday. I'm glad you enjoyed the luxuries of concierge and of course of the spa. I've got to ask, you know the question that Brian usually asks, which is what's next? What have you got booked and what are you eyeing? But maybe not. Not have booked.
[01:10:17] Speaker B: Oh, we've got a lot booked.
I am eyeing one, but we've got a lot booked. We are going on the fantasy in May and that will actually be very close to our anniversary. So we're going to call it an anniversary cruise.
We're going in the beginning of the month. Our anniversary is at the end of the month.
[01:10:35] Speaker A: But that's an anniversary cruise. Just like this one was your husband's birthday cruise. It wasn't on his birthday. It's close to his birthday.
[01:10:41] Speaker B: Right. And that one, we will also be in concierge. So we're pretty excited about that. That and then in June, I'm taking my daughter, my daughter in law and my granddaughter on the Destiny.
[01:10:56] Speaker A: Oh, girls only on the destiny.
[01:10:58] Speaker B: I know it's kind of funny, but they. My, my granddaughter. No, my daughter in law and my daughter both were very interested in getting on the destiny to see what it was like and at. When I booked the cruise, my son was supposed to be deployed. He's in, in the army and that changed. He's no longer going to be deployed. So he's been kind of like, boy, I sure wish I could.
[01:11:23] Speaker A: Sorry, kid.
[01:11:25] Speaker B: It's been booked for quite some time.
[01:11:26] Speaker A: Girls only. I assume you've got one room for the, for the. One room for the four of us.
[01:11:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So he's not going, but. So we're gonna do that. And then we've got the DVC cruise.
[01:11:38] Speaker A: Nice. Coming up, the European one in September.
[01:11:42] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah.
[01:11:42] Speaker A: Oh, fantastic.
[01:11:43] Speaker B: We are doing that one. We're looking forward to it. I've already booked our. We're going over three days early and staying in London. So I'm excited. Yeah.
[01:11:52] Speaker A: Oh, fantastic. Yeah. Is it, is it the whole family or just you and just my husband
[01:11:57] Speaker B: and I. Yeah, yeah. I didn't.
[01:11:59] Speaker A: It's a bigger trip.
[01:12:00] Speaker B: It is, it is. I didn't think it would be. Yeah, yeah. But then we do have another family cruise coming up. We're going to do Baja California over New York New Year's on the Wonder. I'm looking forward to that. Yeah, we'll be going to Catalina and Ensenada. And the funny thing is my husband and I did that for our, our honeymoon 30 plus years ago.
Yeah. So I'm like, this will be kind of fun. Just go there again.
[01:12:29] Speaker A: I'm doing count here. We've got.
That's four cruises.
And are they on four different ships? I think they are because the member cruises is the member cruise completionist. Yeah, I think the member cruise is on the dream. Is that right?
[01:12:45] Speaker B: It is. It's on the dream.
[01:12:47] Speaker A: Yeah. So four more, four more sailings booked. You are going to actually complete the ships by New Year's, not counting the adventure?
[01:12:57] Speaker B: Well, yes, I will. My husband will still have to do wish.
[01:13:01] Speaker A: Yeah, you will complete just you, Andy will complete the Seven Sisters, the seven dwarves.
Not count. And then of course not. Not the adventure by the end of 2026.
[01:13:13] Speaker B: Which means in two years I will have done all of them.
[01:13:17] Speaker A: Yeah, all of them, exactly. Which means then you'll have to go eventually go over to Singapore to, to hit that.
[01:13:23] Speaker B: Well, and. Yeah, that's true, but we're, we also when the new itineraries came out, we booked Alaska on the Wonder and that's where we had to do some really hard thinking. And as much as I, I just. Oh, it pained me to, to have to pass up the DVC cruise for next year that's going to stop in San Francisco and, and whatnot. I. With doing.
We already had the Baja California planned and then doing Alaska, which we had been talking about for quite some time. Time.
[01:13:57] Speaker A: That's a lot of travel. To the west coast from Ohio. That's a lot of big trips as well.
I totally understand. It's.
[01:14:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:14:06] Speaker A: Wow. You have a lot on tap, Andy. Well, I, I know, I know we,
[01:14:10] Speaker B: we're, we're a little nuts. But you know, it's. I, I really do ascribe to take the trip, enjoy those moments you can get in life because it's so fleeting, you know, it comes, it goes by so quickly. I, I never in a million years imagined have adult children and a grandchild and be the age I am. So you go, okay, yeah, I want to have fun while we can and enjoy ourselves. And I think it's worth it.
[01:14:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Like you said, take the trip, travel while you're able to travel while you have the funds to travel. Right. Like do all the things and enjoy the things that you enjoy. Right. And if that's going on a Disney cruise, enjoy that. If that's doing something else, enjoy that.
[01:14:59] Speaker B: Right. And it's to me, it's just worth it to have those little joys in life. It lets you get through the harder stuff easier.
[01:15:07] Speaker A: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Andy, for sharing your trip with us. Thank you for that piece of wisdom as well. And I'll just say appreciate having you on and obviously you're welcome to come back anytime.
[01:15:19] Speaker B: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
[01:15:25] Speaker C: Well, thanks everybody, everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us live, we have a live show now every week, Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want to 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 comment, connect with us. The best way to do that is to head over to DCLDuo.com it's got links to all of our things, full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast, links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store where we sell some fun fan inspired magnets. Link to our Patreon if you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month, just head over to the website or patreon.com DCLDUO also as a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start with, really pumping out monthly here, at least on a few blog articles that we've written, so DCLDuo.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also, of course, email
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[01:17:34] Speaker A: Sam.
