[00:00:00] Speaker A: You know, I took Kelsey to see the ocean for the first time in 2011, and she took off her shoes, walked into the soft sand, and I just saw this, like, childlike enthusiasm on her face that was like buried between, you know, the dimples of a smile. Right. And I work to reproduce that as often as I can.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Foreign.
[00:00:41] Speaker C: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's episode. Well, this week's special live bonus episode of the DCL Duo podcast, brought to
[00:00:47] Speaker B: you by my bonus bonus episode, Brian.
[00:00:50] Speaker C: Yeah, but I gotta finish my. Brought to you by Sam. Sorry you're interfering with our sponsors.
Brought to you by my path unwinding travel. And also, of course, our good friends over at the DCL magazine.
As always, you heard me say it all the time. If you haven't done it, just dcl-magazine.com in the web browser anywhere you are right now. Head over there, check them out for all of their great Disney Cruise Line content and their magazine.
If you have not subscribed. We have subscribed. We love the magazine, love all the folks over there. Show them some love. Head to dcl-magazine.com and use code DCLDUO, ALL CAPS DCLDUO to get take 10% off anything in their store over there.
Calendars, magazines, descriptions, the whole works. So head over there, show them some love. Remember, showing our sponsor some love shows the show a little bit of love. And we love to show that love to our sponsors. So. All right with that, Sam.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: A lot of love, Brian. You're very lovey dovey today, I take it.
[00:01:46] Speaker C: You know me, I went to Reed College, so there you go.
All right, let's bring in the man, the myth, the legend. The legend dt, AKA tinfoil mouse here is one of our absolute favorite guests to have on the show, fresh off of his adventures by Disney in Europe, Connecticut. Welcome back, man. It's great to see you.
[00:02:06] Speaker A: Thank you, guys. It's so good to be here. It's super fresh. I'm still.
Time's still messed up. I can smell Brussels still.
[00:02:18] Speaker C: What does Brussels smell like? Is it the waffles? Is it.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: Does it smell like Brussels sprouts?
[00:02:22] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a mix of mayonnaise and waffles. There's a mayonnaise fries thing going on there.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: The mayonnaise is just.
[00:02:33] Speaker C: I might have to title the show this week a mix of mayonnaise and waffles.
There you go. There you go. All right.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: Well, that is a great line, Sam.
[00:02:41] Speaker C: You, you have CT here. You guys aren't wearing your tinfoil mouse ears, but you put, you put in the chat pre show you have some predictions. And if we're going to do predictions, we got to do them with ct.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: So that's exactly right.
[00:02:54] Speaker C: I've already heard this prediction, folks, and I am, I'm not skeptical of the actual prediction, but I have some skepticism around it.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: So Sam, I got two predictions. I got two predictions.
So the first one is like very kind of out there, but it's something we've been talking about for a while. And it started percolating more and more as I was thinking about the New York Times crossword puzzle ads that Disney Cruise Line has put in, you know, put out there in the last few days or last week, whatever it was.
Um, I am going to put it out there into the universe. I think we're going to see Disney Cruise Line return to New York City.
I don't know when, I don't know how, but I'm going to put it out into the universe. A return to New York City. Now, of course we're not going to see like a year round ship in a place like New York City. It's too cold in the winter. Nobody wants to sail in the winter. But they used to do some sailings in the fall. They would go up to New England, they would do some down to Bermuda. So I'm going to predict that we're going to see that. So I'm wearing my Sherlock Hemlock shirt or shirt, my hat because whenever we do predictions and whenever we do, you know, itinerary releases and I go sleuthing, that's, that's what I, what I'm looking for.
[00:04:12] Speaker A: And the official Mouseketeer approval.
I love ITER approval.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: That's right. All right, my other prediction. And a lot of people have been asking about itinerary releases, right? Because we haven't seen the itineraries for late 2020 yet. We only have through, what is it, summer of 2027. So we don't have anything for fall and, or winter.
And I'm going to put out there to the universe that I think at the end of July or very early August we're going to see those itinerary releases. And the reason for the timing has to be D23. D23 starts on August 14, 2026. And Disney Cruise Line has to have enough time to do an itinerary release and book then. Because I think during D23 and after D23 we're going to see more announcements about the believe, eventually culminating in the itinerary release and booking for the Believe, which I think that'll probably be closer to like maybe early September, mid September.
So we just need enough time before D23 to get all those bookings and itinerary releases out there for the rest of the fleet. What, what do you guys think?
[00:05:31] Speaker C: I mean, I think the pattern they've been following for the last several ships is. Yeah, you got, they want to put out the inventory, get it as sold as possible, and then introduce the new ship so that everyone's just not, you know, booking the new ship.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:05:47] Speaker C: And also they love to do like the, we're going to do a little special. It just builds the momentum in the conversation. They do a special release. So like, I mean, I, I, I think the pattern they followed before is the pattern they will follow this time. Pretty much soup to nuts for the Believe.
Yeah. And I agree on the New York I, to go back for a second. I agree with you. They're going to go back to New York. I disagree that anything they're doing with the New York Times has any connection with going back to New York. I think that that is just. If I think about who subscribes to the New York Times, for the most part, I think about families who have incomes that can support buying a Disney vacation. I bet there's big overlap in people who are paying for that subscription puzzle subscription and all that sort of stuff. So I just, I have a feeling it's just a way to put eyeballs on Disney Cruise Line from an audience that might have the money to spend on Disney Cruise Line. That's, that's where I land on that.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: But yeah, so I agree with the prognostication, but I think the Believe will have a greater gap between this initial itinerary release and its itinerary release than we saw with the previous one. And I'm only saying that because of all the sales we're seeing VCL right now.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:01] Speaker A: I think it's not the, the markets become super saturated with new ships. True. And they're competing with larger ships from RCL and, and other places. I think we'll see maybe an additional week between itinerary releases that we saw in the last cycle that look similar. But I do think you're right.
[00:07:24] Speaker B: Yeah. The other thing that goes along with that is I, I think we're going to see the magic and the wonder retire earlier than we thought. Like, I don't think we're going to get to 2031 with all of them.
I don't know.
[00:07:38] Speaker C: I don't see how that's possible, Sam, because they've said they're going to have a fleet of 13 ships by 2031 and they're, they're on a year really. Like I think those ships will be here in 2031. Now, 2031 may be the year they announce the retirement of those ships, but I would expect that to coincide well, depending on how sales are going. I suppose if sales are going well and they're able to sell through these ships and they feel good about it, I could see them like announcing a couple more ships in the fleet to replace them.
But yeah, I mean, so anyway, for all of you listening and watching out there, I do have an automation set up on my machine that is scanning the Disney Cruise Line website every 30 minutes looking for changes that would indicate an itinerary release to Tracy's comment that Tracy said in the chat, someone I know in the travel industry has suggested there may be exciting news coming this week.
I think it's too late for this week. They typically release this stuff on like Tuesday and then it opens on like a Thursday and then pearls have the weekend to sort of decide. Although last time around they compress it I think a little bit.
So I would expect if something's going to get released, it's going to happen on Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. And now we're into Thursday. And I don't, I don't think they'll release on, on Thursday or Friday this week. I think it'll be next week if, if it's going to happen soon.
But yeah, yeah, yeah. All right.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: So we didn't, we didn't talk news. One real quick news thing that just happened is the behind the Attraction came out. So the new season of behind the Attraction, there's two episodes about Disney Cruise Line. The first of the two episodes is sort of how Disney Cruise Line came to be and then the second episode really like how they developed like the first ships. And then the second episode is about the Disney Believe. So instead of do or not, Sorry, Believe the Disney Destiny.
So instead of doing a sort of full length movie like they did with the Wish, they have done a single episode essentially imagineering type story of the of the Destiny. So they're both out on Disney. So catch them now either on the app or on your TV and yeah, well I haven't gotten a chance to watch myself but thus far hearing great things about both episodes.
[00:09:56] Speaker C: Nice. All right, we got to get into this Amazing Adventures by Disney so I'm going to head over to presentation layout, CT has this is A great presentation. I've looked through it. It's great. I love the animation already. And you've. You have somehow cracked the code on sizing it appropriately ct so it fills the window which I am now super jealous of. So people should be able to see this at home. If you are listening to this later, head to YouTube to watch this. A lot of great photos and stuff to help you track the conversation that we're having here live with ct. And if you haven't joined us live before, head over join us live. You can ask questions in real time. And if you are out there watching us live right now and you have questions about this Adventures by Disney, post them in the chat and we will try to address them throughout the show. But ct, get us started here. And perhaps the first question I have is, what made you make the leap from Disney Cruise Line to Adventures by Disney?
[00:10:55] Speaker A: Disney found a hole in my pocket and figured out how to get in there deeper. No, I gotta stop telling jokes and tell really why I was on the Good Murder Ship.
Have you guys seen that? BBC. The Good Murder Ship. No murders every week on a cruise line ship with BBC whodunit. You have to watch it. Okay.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Love it. We love British murder shows in general. So.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: So last year we traveled with my wife's parents to Banff. Traveled with my family down to Walt Disney World and I was trying to knowing those were coming. How do I find time that's really good for just me and Kelsey started looking at about that time was you guys had returned from your adventure and we're talking about it from.
Did you guys. You guys didn't do Christmas markets, did you?
[00:11:58] Speaker B: We did, but we did it in 2023. It was no, we did Christmas markets on the Danu, but It was in 2023. So we. But we've had a couple of folks on, you know, since then. Also to talk about some of the
[00:12:10] Speaker A: other adventures had Rebecca, who was an adventure guide on your show. And right around that time I started looking. I started looking. I keep track of like a bucket list for Kelsey and I.
The Cologne Cathedral was near the top of mine. The Rhine river gorge.
So I started planning Valentine's Day of last year this trip because that's when I booked it. And I took Kelsey on a chocolate, cheese and coffee tour of Central Europe. It was fantastic. So we had a little bit of time before and after that we were seeing some other things.
And the Rhine river adventure just got us from Switzerland to the Netherlands in order for us to check all those boxes. So didn't think I would ever end up here, but I'm so glad we did.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: Yeah. And you had not really considered Adventures by Disney before hearing us talk about it.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: How come the sticker shock?
I, you know, I, I looked even at, like, some of the adventures out west here in conus, and just the price seemed like too much. And to be honest, after the last couple of trips we've taken Banff, pretty expensive. The European cruise we did back in 23, it just got to a place where we're actually traveling on a budget that was close to what this trip cost. So it also helped. We were able to pay off the house sometime last year, and that changes how much we can spend to travel, so.
[00:13:58] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:13:59] Speaker B: Yeah, that makes sense. Now, you chose this one because of the specific.
Like, there were certain things in this itinerary that you mentioned sort of were on your bucket list you wanted to check off, right? Yeah.
[00:14:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:12] Speaker B: Love it.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: All right, before we get into this city has a psa, Please bring a charity.
Sam, that should have been your third prognostication for the episode.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: Well, I knew.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: We talked.
[00:14:24] Speaker B: I knew that would come.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: We talked about boots to beaches last time I talked to them today.
So they're less than a year old and have already helped 772 veterans with some type of trip.
But the goal being most of them cruises. Sometimes they come across an event where they're trying to hook people up with, like, the Lieutenant Dan Band and stuff like that. Other goals sometimes that they go after. But 72 veterans have been helped, and it's not just the trip. It's also some counseling that helps them reconnect with their family and restore like, just who they were before they went on that trip. So fantastic organization.
Bootstobeaches.org I would encourage you go check them out, even if you can just give like $5 one time.
That's a fantastic way. They also just posted QR code today for, you can order something from Walmart.com rounded up to the nearest dollar. And that contributes to helping veterans. So we're going to have a lot of ve returning from, you know, the Middle east without getting into politics here real soon.
So I know they're going to be looking to help a lot of folks be a part of that. It's fantastic.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: So we love it. And you know what? Fourth of July is coming up, so you can do it in honor of our nation's 250th anniversary. Yeah.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: Perfect.
[00:16:01] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: All right, let's talk about the great trip.
Okay, so before the adventure we actually spent a week in Switzerland. It was fantastic. I planned most of it before the land based adventure that Disney set up. I haven't had a look at that because I'd already done the planning for it. But based on our time in Switzerland, I would tell people, take a good look at that if that's something they're thinking about doing. We stayed in Lucerne and hopped out to Stoose Ridge, which is that beautiful mountain vista you see there. It's about a two hour hike out east of Lucerne. We went to Zurich and saw the Lindt Chocolate Museum. We also saw, to my surprise, at the University of Zurich. Einstein was a professor and that was his locker while he taught there, which was fantastic to see.
[00:17:01] Speaker B: That's cool.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: Yeah, we ate lots of cheese, lots of chocolate, lots of coffee, schnitzel, cordon bleu.
We just did this thing where we'd walk around the town during our tours or our time alone and if we saw a new branded chocolate shop, we would pop in, get the darkest chocolate they've got, get the chocolate they have mixed with espresso, and then ask the person at the counter what their favorite was, grab those six pieces and continue on our way and kind of, you know, snack on them and talk about what we thought was the best, you know, whether it was Max or Lauderdock or Lint or Nestle, whatever, you know, all the big brands there, Tober own. We just kind of did that as we went through. So it was kind of, it was great. It was great. There were nights where there was just like a picnic with like a roll of bread and two or three cheeses we picked out. It was, it was great.
[00:18:03] Speaker B: I love that. I, I would absolutely go for the, the, the coffee, chocolate combination, whatever it is.
I will not do the whole. Ask the person their favorite because inevitably it's going to have some kind of weird fruit in it. And I don't do fruit and chocolate together.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: So get that a lot. We didn't get that a lot, surprisingly.
We got orange ones, but that was really good. So I'm not complaining.
[00:18:28] Speaker B: I know lots of people like that. But it's not my jam. It's not. I don't do, I don't do orange and chocolate together. I don't really. I just don't do any fruit with chocolate, but. Sounds like a really fun, sounds like a really fun trip to Switzerland before.
All right, let's, let's check out the next slide.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: All right, so from Lucerne, which was our bay. Oh, I'm Getting ahead of myself. So who are the stars of this adventure?
So that only so was not me. Notice there were three C's for my wife. I mentioned earlier. Coffee, chocolate and cheese. And CT wasn't mentioned. That's because I'm four and my ego can't handle it.
But I was with my beautiful wife. She's in every picture.
Kelsey was fantastic for the trip. So much fun.
And if you were watching us on socials, it was always the cutest girl. In the Alps, on the Rhine, in Europe, in Holland.
I'm the most blessed guy in the world. She's fantastic. But along with us co starring was our amazing adventure guides.
You're seeing it. We'll start in the lower left and go around. But we've got Amelie, Sarah, Roman, Chris, Zuza and Gergor. Or some people just called him George. Fantastic.
[00:20:00] Speaker B: We had Garga also, or AKA George on our Danube river cruise three years ago or two and a half years ago.
[00:20:08] Speaker A: He's fantastic.
He's definitely a good logistics guy. Like you pick up, they start fitting into roles real quick. And he's a real sharp adventure guide and a lot of fun.
I learned a lot from him. We also had a bonus seventh adventure guide because Daniel, the cruise director for AMA Waterways on the AMA Siena, is previously an adventure guide with Adventures by Disney.
[00:20:38] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:20:38] Speaker A: And if you know Daniel, he sounds like Jeremy Irons.
Unfortunately, because of the German accent, It's more Die Hard 3 Jeremy Irons than Lion King. But you got what I'm saying. But he was fantastic.
Did you ask cousins of Hans Gruber was a fantastic cruise director for our AMA Sienna Waterways trip.
[00:21:03] Speaker B: That's awesome. That's. What a cool coincidence. Because of course, whoever is the AMA cruise director that is picked by Alma, right? And that person's on for all of the sailings for. On that ship for their contract. And so they, you know, they have no. They have nothing to do with which weeks are booked by. Of course, Adventures Disney, because Adventures by Disney Charters the entire boat. Now you were on the Ama Sienna Y.
Tell us what you thought about. I don't know if you have a slide here because I haven't looked at the slide deck. But what did you think about the ship when you first saw
[00:21:43] Speaker A: looks? You know, you can tell the reason why Disney picked Amma because AMA cares for the river ships the way that Disney cares for their cruise ships. You would see a Viking ship or another.
The only other ones that looked as good was Avalon.
Everyone else looked like you could see the age on the ship. But you couldn't see it on the Sienna.
So that would be, that would be for sure. The other first impression was what's with the weird window in the bathroom?
I went in there, hit the switch and did like the brace face.
Finding Nemo. Tink, tink, tink, tink. And freaked out Kelsey a little bit the first time. Up against the glass, there is a
[00:22:32] Speaker B: window from the bathroom into the room.
It's higher though, so you can't like if you're sitting on the toilet, the person in the room can't see you. But yeah, you can kind of look in. It is a little, is a little strange. Tracy is. Well, let's go to the next slide. And then I want to tell you, Tracy's asking compare and contrast the ship to Disney Cruise Line and room size, community areas, et cetera.
We'll do this like a brief version. Obviously we can't get into everything.
[00:23:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So room size is a difficult question because of the category I think we were.
Bravo Alpha was our cruise category. Which is one of their better rooms. It's not a asking for a friend. That's funny.
It's one of their better sized rooms on deck two, but not in concierge. So it's not a suite. It's not, you know, the largest room they have. I would say it's about the size of a non deluxe state room with Disney, if that, if that makes sense. There's enough room for two people to get around and not have a problem. I guess it's a little shorter from the standpoint. There's no couch in the room, so it would be like a small inside stateroom would be your comparison. But you're not staying in your room except to sleep. Right. And even then you're probably not spending a lot of time on your balcony. I thought that would be like a big deal for us. But we spent all of our time in like the lounge or up on deck or off the ship. Like river cruises are about the places you see and being comfortable as you transition from spot to spot.
[00:24:25] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:24:25] Speaker A: So I would say then as far as lounges, you have one lounge, you have one restaurant, you have one.
We'll say premium dining, even though you don't pay extra for it.
So different from Disney. You know, if you go on a wish class ship right now there's like 27 lounges and three tea spots. That's not what's happening on a river cruise. But there's also like only 150 to 175 guests sailing.
So you Feel like you have a lot of space in those public spaces compared to, you know, 200 people trying to jam into trivia in a medium sized lounge on a Disney cruise ship. So I will tell you that Kelsey felt more comfortable as both an introvert and someone who grew up in a small town on the river cruise ship compared to the large cruise ship. And I've got a slide that talks about more of the differences later. So we'll come back to that for sure.
[00:25:29] Speaker B: Perfect. All right, well, let's talk about embarkation. Basel, Switzerland. That's where you start off.
[00:25:34] Speaker A: Yeah. So we headed up from Lucerne to Basel, took a private tour for two hours with a local guide the day before we got on.
Great city with a lot of history. You know, a lot of these Central European areas were city states that came together to become the countries we know that they are now if, if they haven't changed in the meantime. But Switzerland's a great example of that.
In the picture here you can see like the main market, one of the gate entrances leading up to the old city wall. And then the last spot with that spire is a place where Germany, France and Switzerland all come together. There's on the north end of Switzerland, Basel, because the metro area kind of expands into those other two countries, including the airport, which I think is technically in France, but does have a Swiss exit.
So you're clear customs with Swiss right from the airport. So great town, had a lot of fun.
It's a great place to embark from. See on your own.
But it's. So it's a Swiss city. There's. It's not Zurich, Lucerne, Geneva, it's not one of these in the north, you're away from the mountains. It's just less of a, what I would say is a big Swiss attraction, but was a great place to start.
[00:27:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Now, did you stay in the hotel that was like the ABD Hotel, Right. Like booked through Adventures by Disney or where the meeting place is or did you stay at a different hotel?
[00:27:11] Speaker A: No, we did our own travel arrangement up into the ship. And to be quite honest, it wasn't hard from the Hotel Marth that we were right in that city center there with the red town hall building.
We were able to walk to the closest bus or tram stop, get on the tram with all of our luggage because it was before 10 o' clock when everything's loaded or open, take it, what, seven or eight stops to where AMA Waterways was and walk our luggage like five or six blocks to get to the ship. It really wasn't that bad.
[00:27:50] Speaker B: Wow. All right.
[00:27:51] Speaker A: We went out and checked it out the day before, kind of, you know, decide if we were going to try to get a taxi. Sometimes when you stay in the city center, some of these European places, we can't get a taxi right up to the hotel. You've got to walk it a while anyway, so. So we just decided we would. She was like, look, it wasn't too far from where that spire is where the three countries come together. So when we went out to see that spot, we. We checked out what the river cruise port looked like and we just decided we were comfortable moving it on our own.
[00:28:22] Speaker B: Awesome. All right, Brian, let's go to the next slide.
[00:28:28] Speaker A: All right, so real quick. We got on the ship as Brian's switching and we actually got to the ship super early because we're going to dump bags and then move on. And they actually like, hey, if you want to come on the ship, have breakfast, hang out in the lounge for the morning, you're welcome to. Which is different. Right. Like they're not afraid to feed you an extra meal. They're not afraid to figure out how to like take care of their customers at the soonest. So there were still people waiting for cabs to depart for the airport while we were getting on the ship and you know, having Mickey shaped suites. So kudos to Ammo Waterways for just like wanting to take care of the customer the moment the customer's in front of them. I thought that was fantastic.
And they were not coming. We were the first Disney adventure that they were. Well, one of the first.
There wasn't a Disney adventure for the itinerary on the Amas Sienna prior to ours. So it wasn't like there were Disney adventure guides that were pushing that. That was just amma taking care of customers, which I kind of love.
So our first stop.
[00:29:40] Speaker B: Yeah. And they do the same thing when you leave too. Just to like, when you leave they don't like shove you off at like 9am it's like a rolling. People are leaving as their transportation is there to take them for their flights or to whatever they're doing after the cruise. So it's kind of a more leisurely kind of entrance and depart. Sorry. So tell us about your first stop.
[00:30:03] Speaker A: They do want you out of your room by 9 or 9:30, so have that as an expectation.
So our first stop was to the Konigsberg Castle in Rickware. The castle was fantastic.
Some great pictures we were able to take. Great storytelling from the local tour guide that was paired with our adventure Guide Sarah for the day.
Sarah was taking pictures of us, us at certain spots along the way and of the castle, along with the other adventure guides that were running other tour groups that were moving around. Disney did a really good job of making sure there weren't like 60 of us with one tour guide when they had a lot of people going to a particular adventure or whatever excursion for the day, to use DCL language. So we had like three different groups of 20 each that did what we did at Konigsberg and Rickware. We moved on to Rickware. And Rickware was a very, like, storybook.
Definitely one of many small towns that inspires some of the Disney animated films we've seen over the year. With the mortar in the wood designed for the homes, the fountain in the square, you know, it felt like we were in the town Belle grew up in when we were there. And a big thing for them there is the storks and the way the storks nest. And they do a lot to take care of that, even locally amongst the population as far as building up certain tops to make it easier to hold the weight that comes with the stork family, I guess. So that's the little picture there on the side.
[00:32:00] Speaker B: Very cool. Yeah.
[00:32:02] Speaker A: With the nest on the rooftop would love that.
Yeah, we would. You know, we walked up the street with Roman, another adventure guide. He was French, so he knew, you know, it kind of made it feel even more Beauty and the Beast, because we've got a French guy that's telling us about, you know. So as we were heading up the street and he's talking about the town more, I just kind of grabbed a bat, a bag of. What has the coconut? Is it macaroons or macarons?
[00:32:30] Speaker C: Macaroons.
[00:32:32] Speaker B: Macaroons.
[00:32:33] Speaker A: So I grabbed a quick bag of macaroons in one of those bakeries and we were snacking on those at 1:30 in the afternoon, as we're walking up the street of Rickware, looking at the beautiful homes, looking at the storks desk going to the gate leading into the old town.
It was fantastic. We absolutely loved it. It was a great afternoon. And then after that part of the guided, you know, he was kind of an ad hoc tour that he gave us. And we dipped into a French bakery and had a, you know, a ham and cheese croissant and an eclair that we split. And it was fantastic. Right? Lots of food. Lots of great food in Europe. I'm going to talk about food a lot.
[00:33:19] Speaker B: So, yeah, I mean, that's. It's One of the highlights, one, one of the things I wanted to mention is you mentioned about excursions for those who haven't heard us talk about Adventures by Disney before your excursions are included in the cost. Your Adventures by Disney Booking. And so when you're talking about most of the river cruise adventures, you have choices. And so I think it's like six weeks before, eight weeks before, something like that, before you sail, you will get those choices sent to you via email and you will pick which ones you want. You can do some changing once you get on board if you want to, but there might be some, some limits because they've sort of planned for how many people are going to do each thing and so they've planned book tour guides based on that. So you might be able to change things around, but it's subject to availability.
But you'll have at least two choices typically for the day of what to do. And sometimes it will be like a full day excursion and sometimes you'll have a morning choice and an afternoon choice. And so, and sometimes it'll be the same thing. It's just some people will do it in the morning, some people do that in the afternoon, things like that. So if you are going to do an Adventures by Disney, that's what you can expect in terms of excursions, versions and sort of how it's planned. And that's specific to the river cruises on land based ABDs. A lot of them, it's like a one, it's a much smaller group and it is a set sort of itinerary with less choosing. You might have a couple of choices, but it's not like on river cruises where you typically every day have at least two choices of what to do.
[00:34:57] Speaker A: It's also only like two or three guides and like 40 people, not six guides for 170. Right. Like it's, it's a different adventure guide customer ratio.
I know the adventure guys talked about how they appreciated the intimacy of the land tours when they did them, but they also loved kind of the diverse customer. And there's a lot of fun that comes with so many great personalities.
[00:35:30] Speaker B: Right. They get to do more mixing and mingling on the river cruises because they might be paired up with you CT on Monday, but Tuesday they'll be paired up with other people. So they do. Yeah, they get to know a larger group of people as opposed to a land based tour might have only like 30 people on it. You only have two adventure guides versus one of these where you're, you're talking, what do we say, six adventure guides for 100, you know, 60 people, let's say.
All right, let's head to the next slide, Brian.
[00:36:00] Speaker A: So the next stop was Strasbourg. There we got off the boat in the morning and took a river cruise tour through Strasburg.
Saw some swans that was fantastic in the canal as we were going through.
And then the cathedral in town is just a great.
I mean, it's a big old beautiful cathedral to see, I guess. Right. Kelsey and I are. As much as we probably didn't appreciate humanities when we're young, we're at the old age where we are appreciating it now.
And then on our own, we had about an hour and a half and we jetted out to another spot because I'd done a little research in. Gutenberg has a statue there in Strasbourg, and I've got to look into more of his history. But if you don't know, he's the one that designed the press. Yeah, the printing press that was a big part of the Bible spreading across the world. The way it did is so much other literature.
So it was cool to go see the statue they have in honor of him. So Strasbourg is also an interesting city. It's one of those that's been French for a while. It's been Roman, it's been German. It's been, as a lot of these spots along the river have, whether it was Napoleon or, you know, Caesar, whatever.
There's this interesting mixing pot of history culture that you don't see in a lot of other places.
[00:37:36] Speaker B: Yeah, we got a great comment from Jeff about Gutenberg, that there is a great Gutenberg museum in Mainz, M A I N Z, which is on the Rhine, that there's a great museum there. Another question in the chat from Ashley, she was curious if you had made the whole trip on the riverboat or if you had to be bused. Because sometimes in Europe and occasionally in the summertime, the water levels can be low. In the wintertime, conversely, sometimes the water levels can be too high. So there are times where you might have to change from one riverboat to another riverboat because you can't traverse a certain area.
And then when that happens, Adventures by Disney will tip in, typically not cancel unless they absolutely have to. They will typically bus you from one place to another and you may, like I said, switch river boats. You guys didn't have to do any of that, right? You guys were on.
[00:38:27] Speaker A: No, no. The Swiss Alps fed the Ryan beautifully. And really, if you think about it, we were kind of on the tail end of the shoulder season leading into the summer season, which is gonna benefit you because that's also kind of the part of the melting season. You know, the waterfalls in Switzerland were flowing with so much volume and water that that all contributes to the way the Rhine feeds up there to Netherlands. So that was not an issue.
They kind of talked through that logistic because some people had asked questions about it, but we were too early in the season for that to be a concern. Sure.
[00:39:11] Speaker B: Awesome. All right, well, let's talk about the next day.
Oh, Heidelberg. Okay.
[00:39:17] Speaker A: So the next day was Heidelberg, so, man, Heidelberg was such a great day.
The castle's great.
I probably would have appreciated it more had I not gotten a text the night before from a dear old friend of mine, Wayne and Margie, that they're dear friends of Kelsey and I.
Most of who I am in the Air Force today is because of Chief Tackett. So it was great to reconnect with an old mentor during the time on our own in Heidelberg. So we had about four and a half hours where we walked around with them, saw more of the city, you know, had schnitzel with them, went to a couple of different cafes, and Kelsey got a chance to catch up with Mark, RG and Wayne as well as I got to. So they're just.
They're good family, and the four of us all haven't been together since, like, July 4th in D.C. in 2018. So it was great for us to get to reconnect with a great family.
[00:40:26] Speaker B: Did they just happen to be there?
[00:40:28] Speaker C: No.
[00:40:28] Speaker A: Wayne and Margie actually work for the Air Force's civilians over in Germany, and they were about an hour away and were able to link up with us. It was perfect. It was a Sunday, so, like, a lot of the shops were closed, but the cafes were open. And we kind of. We walked out to a bridge and a gate to the kind of the old town, because that's what European towns have. And then just had a great time just catching up with them. It was fantastic.
[00:41:02] Speaker C: I'm curious because when I saw the photo of you with the others, I thought, oh, they made friends on the cruise.
Now, hearing your story, I understand shouldn't have taken that from the photo. But I am curious.
How was it with the.
The community of folks who were on the river sailing itself? Did you. Did you eat with other people?
[00:41:20] Speaker A: Pretty great. So one of the things I really liked about river cruising, and I'm more of an extrovert than Kelsey Extreme, but I like that we were like, there wasn't a sign seating at dinner. So there was like another family or another couple that was in the table like next to ours. You know, if you kind of go all the way to the back of the restaurants, you've been on some of the Amish ships where they have the shared booth that goes along and then the chairs on the other side, there'll be like a table for two and a table for four. Before we just connected with a different family. You know, one family was from Minnesota, not five miles from where my mom lives. You know, another family there was just this, they had this, I think it was 14 or 15, you know, son with them and he was so nice and proper. We were like telling him to like don't change, be that way forever, know.
And then another, you know, when we ate the chef's table, we had caught up with that family a couple more times and it was a grandparents that were taking their daughter to Europe on the river cruise and then to Paris.
So you know, we got to catch up and talk to a lot of different folks and we, we liked that a lot. It was, it was cool. It was different than Disney because you kind of, when you have that table, those are the folks you see.
Maybe there's someone you see continuously in the Loun. But I felt like we got to know like easily a third of the folks that were on the river cruise with us. And there was a good sense of community as a result of that.
[00:43:05] Speaker B: Yeah. And you start to recognize people real quickly. Right. Like because, because the ship is not big. There's only really the two main spaces you mentioned. There's the dining room and the lounge. And so you're going to see the same people over and over again. Now you may end up conversing with probably like you mentioned, maybe a third to 50% of the people just sort of maybe some chit chat. But like you will recognize pretty much everyone from your group or from your ship by the end of, you know, the seven days, if you're on a seven day sailing. Because you do get mixed up in those groups every day in terms of excursions. So it's kind of a, a nice, nice way to travel for sure.
[00:43:50] Speaker A: Yeah. And some of the things they do can help you like kind of link up with people. So one was like Kelsey's birthday was the day we were in require that first day we were on the ship.
So a lot of people were walking by at dinner or in the lounge that evening wishing her a happy birthday or on the Heidelberg day. We're meeting at that like 6:30 get together before you go to dinner. And the team of adventure guides had bought several pickle ornaments that go on the Christmas tree. And they were hiding three of them a day on the cruise ship for people to find.
[00:44:35] Speaker B: Oh, fun.
[00:44:36] Speaker A: And as Roman's explaining this, I see, I'm like, okay, so we're looking for pickles and I see a little gold loop hanging from the bar behind them. And I didn't think about it it at the time and it probably. I hope it didn't come across as rude. But as Roman's explaining that, no, they really hid pickles. I get up, walk between the adventure guides, grab the pickle ornament and go sit back down.
So I have a pickle ornament now.
[00:45:10] Speaker B: I love.
[00:45:10] Speaker A: That was a great thing that they did and it caused people to link together, talk about where they had searched, like. Like they do such a good job of that sort of thing.
[00:45:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Were there, were there many kids on your sailing?
[00:45:24] Speaker A: I would say 30 to 40.
[00:45:29] Speaker B: Yeah. That's actually a lot. That's a lot. I would say. Yeah, I.
[00:45:32] Speaker A: 30 to 40 would be my guess. And I'm talking all the way up to like, I'm counting 18 as a kid. Like anybody that is still living with their parents.
Is that 30 to 40?
[00:45:45] Speaker B: 40, yeah. And. And generally speaking, would you say it skewed towards sort of teenagers? It's not usually young kids that you see. So I mean, you might say early teens.
[00:45:55] Speaker A: Tween. Early teen was.
There were a few like high school graduates.
You could tell there were a few like maybe 19 year olds that were back from college.
But yeah, there were in the, the, you know, the junior adventurers, the adventure guides had stuff and they had stuff for the teens to do up on deck in the evening sometimes. So actually I think they were linking up with the teens every single day to try to make them feel involved. And maybe that was driven by the number of teen tweens that were on the. On the cruise. So. But it was fantastic. They did a great job.
[00:46:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I love, I love hearing about that. I also love the idea of celebrating a birthday. We're going to be celebrating our anniversary on our adventure.
I don't know if I'm not sure if people realize this from our. Because we have our podcast cruise. We leave next week.
Our podcast Cruise starts on July 4th, but our anniversary is just a few days later on the. Oh, my God, is it the 6th, Brian? Yeah, July 6th is our anniversary.
[00:47:05] Speaker A: And how many years now?
[00:47:08] Speaker C: Oh, I'm so glad she's having Me think about this question. 18.
[00:47:12] Speaker B: 18.
[00:47:13] Speaker A: Congratulations.
[00:47:15] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:47:15] Speaker A: I would ask Brian what his secret is, but I feel like I have to ask you, Sam, after that.
[00:47:23] Speaker B: The secret is just finding someone who can put up with your own personal band brand of crazy. And. And Brian and I each can put up with each other's personal brand of crazy. Not always. It's not always perfect. But I think, like you have said, though, ct, it's, you know, you. You work every day on it.
You've committed to a marriage. You love the person.
They may annoy you, they may piss you off sometimes, but you're, you know, you. You. You deal with those things because you're committed to the marriage, you're committed to the family, you're committed to being together. Yeah.
[00:47:59] Speaker A: And if they send you psych gifts whenever times are tough, you know, you found, like, that's extra bonus, right?
[00:48:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:08] Speaker A: So, yeah, Kelsey does a good job of that. That.
[00:48:11] Speaker B: Absolutely. I love it. All right, let's see the next slide. Brian.
[00:48:15] Speaker A: All right, next stop, I gotta find my.
[00:48:18] Speaker C: Just keep talking. I gotta find my cursor here.
[00:48:21] Speaker A: The next stop was a lot of fun. I like this stop a lot. It was the one I was looking for to lease because it was on your own time, and on your own time were the morning and afternoon choices, and there was nothing else. There was a.
In the morning to go to a music cabinet museum that Kelsey, he absolutely loved.
I think I've said it on the. Probably on the Love Boat episode, which is a fantastic episode, if I may say. Go check it out if you haven't seen it.
You know, I took Kelsey to see the ocean for the first time in 2011, and she took off her shoes, walked into the soft sand, and I just saw this, like, childlike enthusiasm on her face that was like buried between, you know, the dimples of a smile. Right. And I work to reproduce that as often as I can. The Music cabinet museum did that for me that morning. It was fantastic to see if you are on this adventure. It's early in the morning. Do not sleep on it. It is fantastic. They have several cabinets that they've collected over the years that are like, you know, you see the old pianos in a western that wind up, and they've got the paper roll and it's playing on its own.
They have a collection of maybe 50 to 60 cabinets that they showcased.
Some even had doors that opened and three violins behind each of the doors, and the bow was a round circle that went around and played violins to go along with it. It Was Sam, I'm texting you the video after this. It was fantastic. And Kelsey just ate it up because she was recording stuff. I was recording audio with those new instamics so she could then turn it into a lesson plan for her students and show them what some people have done with music. And I bought her, like, a small music box from them there.
That's so cool.
[00:50:44] Speaker B: So it's like a mechanical words that
[00:50:46] Speaker A: sing notes that inspired. Like the tiki room.
That may be. I kept their information that may be a Christmas present that I don't ever tell her how much it cost in the future because I think she would love that for, you know, for. Because she's a musician and just loves that sort of thing. But that music cabinet museum, do not sleep on it. After that, the town is kind of sleepy. They'll give you tickets to the gondola and you go to the top, and that's what you're seeing there.
And you're in town till about 1:30 that day.
And we went to the top, walked around town, had what's called a Rudesheim coffee, which is a coffee that they burn off the brandy before they add the coffee and chocolate on top. It was fantastic.
[00:51:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:51:45] Speaker A: We shared. What do they call that, a chimney cake. I think it's more Hungarian than it is German, but we shared the chimney cake.
Gergor sent us over to have one of those. Said it was good and it was fantastic.
Or fantaste, if I'm saying German. Right. And then. Then we. This was the day that we then, at the end of the day, went through the Ry river gorge.
[00:52:12] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:52:14] Speaker A: So great town. This was a great day. I thought it was going to be the day we stayed on the ship. And it was one of the best days we had off the ship just on our own.
[00:52:25] Speaker B: Love it. All right, Brian, next slide.
[00:52:31] Speaker A: So the Rhine River Gorge.
It is a gorge of like 33 or 40 castles.
And you just sit up on deck and, you know, Jeremy Irons is telling us about each of these castles as we go by and what their names are, what kind of their history is. What's the, you know, spilling the tea about the drama of how this castle, you know, the family came apart in the castle. Or.
[00:53:03] Speaker B: Right, the royalty, all the royal rumors.
Yeah.
[00:53:07] Speaker A: But the captain did an excellent job of navigating the gorge because it is tricky. So kudos to Captain Ron. And then Daniel did a great job of narrating. And, you know, we sat up on deck for, like, I don't know, four hours. That day and just enjoyed the weather. It was a beautiful day. It was like 70 degrees.
And, you know, we're taking pictures and videos of all these castles as we're going back by. I have a time lapse of the ship going down that gorge with my X5.
It was great. It was great.
[00:53:43] Speaker B: That's awesome. This is, I think, what a lot of people think of when they hear river cruise. And I want to just tell people yes and no. And the reason I say yes and no is because a lot of the time when you're on a river cruise, you're only moving at night, meaning when you've gone to bed and then the ship will move while you're sleeping to its next berth. Right. And so that's most of what a river cruising is.
Depending upon your itinerary, you might have like one afternoon or one morning where you are traversing the river. And so for you all that was this. I don't think, I'm not sure that our river cruise, our Holland and Belgium river cruise, I'm not sure that we actually have even a half day where we're sailing during the day most of. And we did have a half day when we sailed the Danube like you had, where we were traversing the river. So that was like, if you have that, that's really your one opportunity to, to sort of see the sights and sit on the deck and, and enjoy the breeze of going down the river. It's not, you know, it's. We're talking like smooth as glass, typically, because we're on a river, we're not on the ocean.
So you don't need to worry about seasickness. But it is very different, I think, than what people kind of envision when they think of river cruise. They think they're going to be out on the ship, on the deck, traversing the river during the day. And that's typically not the case. So just an FYI, for those interested,
[00:55:09] Speaker C: no sea days on a river cruise.
[00:55:11] Speaker B: Right?
Exactly. We might have an afternoon. You might have an afternoon or a few hours. Right.
[00:55:17] Speaker C: Hey, everyone. We. We lost the live stream there for a second. My computer freaked out and went dark. And so we are back ct. I'm not sure where you cut off, so you might want to just back up a little bit here.
[00:55:30] Speaker B: The last thing I heard was the, the. That this perfume stop was the sleeper hit and that it was essentially like people when it started, it was the essential oils. I didn't hear where, where you went after or you said you were going back to the Church, But I didn't hear after that.
[00:55:47] Speaker A: Yep. So we headed back to the church, went into the church and we looked at. I mean it's got some beautiful stained glass windows that they like hid underground during the World War II in order to preserve them and took them out. And there's a lot of stories like that about churches there. But we had local guide was great.
We had, you know, our adventure guides were popping around. But we stayed in Cologne as long as we could because we actually had a bus about like 15 minutes away.
I think the Worms is where we were that day. No, maybe that was the Heidelberg day. Anyway, we had to go. We had to take a bus back to the port in Cologne, I think is what it was.
And actually we double docked.
So if you guys ever talked about that on the show before, we had crossed through an Avalon ship to get onto our own.
[00:56:40] Speaker C: Yeah, rafting. They call it rafting because you. Yeah, you walk through the ships, they can stack 2, 3, 4 at a time if they need to. And then you just.
[00:56:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Depending on the river.
[00:56:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:56:49] Speaker B: What that means is 2,1. One ship is parked at the dock.
[00:56:53] Speaker C: Right.
[00:56:53] Speaker B: Is in the berth and then another ship is right next to it and you essentially they're connected so that you walk through the lobby. So if you're on second ship in, you're walking through first ships lobby before you're walking onto the ground, basically. And so it's very different than large ship cruising in the sense of like people aren't like checking your IDs. They do scan your card when you walk in, but you kind of have to like go to them to have them scan it. It's not like the security level is not like on cruise ships, ocean cruise ships, because you're not dealing with like. Well, especially in Europe, you're not dealing with customs or anything as you travel from country to country because it's all part of the eu.
Um, but yeah. Interesting. All right, well, let's. Let's talk about your next. Your final stop. Right.
[00:57:42] Speaker A: Y. So the last stop was Amsterdam.
[00:57:45] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:57:46] Speaker A: While we were there, we hopped on a river.
[00:57:52] Speaker B: Brian, you need to advance.
[00:57:55] Speaker A: Oh, sorry. So we hopped on the river.
[00:57:58] Speaker C: I'm not paying attention to you, Sam. That's. That's not the way to have a happy marriage listening.
[00:58:04] Speaker A: So we did a. Another river cruise because of all the canals in the Netherlands. Then we hit the Rijksmuseum.
Then we went out that afternoon. It went Von Shan's, von Sean's. Hans.
I'm terrible. I'm terrible. It's it was quaint. It's got these four old windmills and they're kind of telling the story of the history of those windmills, what their contribution was to the agricultural community or land reclamation.
And you can make cheese, you can paint your own clogs. You can.
It really was a cute little spot to celebrate some of the history of Holland and share it with visitors. So fantastic spot. Great food. We had Dutch apple pie there, which is much different than the way Perkins or Baker Square or whatever your favorite diner makes it.
There's a really cool, cool I also have on there. We went out and did this the next morning after we got off the ship. But we went and tracked down stupple stones or stumble stones for Anne Frank and her family.
[00:59:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:59:25] Speaker A: So we went to the Anne Frank house and wanted to track down if. If you're not familiar with these stones. I was actually texting Sam from Germany about them as we ran across them. But there's like a hundred and brass stones scattered across Europe that are kind of this living museum that started in 1993 by a German where once someone can prove or show where someone last lived freely all the way to the end of their story, they will then track down that location of their last free point and place one of these stones in their honor. I think it's a beautiful reminder, an homage to the sacrifice of those families and probably something we should pay attention more to today because.
I don't know, it just. It was really important to Kelsey and I to see the Anne Frank house.
It was really important for us once we had heard about these stones in Heidelberg actually from Margie.
And we kind of were on a quest after that to track them down in Cologne and the other places we went. But tracking down, we saw several of them throughout Amsterdam and then even the next day in Belgium. But we. Yeah, it was, it was, it was good for us to track them down and to see that and have that be a part of our travels.
[01:01:01] Speaker B: Yeah. And you can find them like all throughout Europe. But of course, especially in this part of Europe because there were a ton of.
A ton of victims of the Nazi river regime throughout the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany, you know, Switzerland, all of all of these places.
We do have plans to go to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam before our sailing as well, because it's not offered as part of our. Because we. We board in Amsterdam and actually disembark in Amsterdam. So it's tickets. We do. We already have tickets. So. Yeah. For those who don't know, you Book tickets for the Anne Frank House on the Tuesday six weeks.
Yep. And it's at Central European time. It's like. So it's in the middle of the
[01:01:47] Speaker A: night, 2 or 3am Central Time was when I had to get up to book ours.
[01:01:52] Speaker B: Yeah, it was going to be. I think, I think it was going to be. I think it's 3am for you Central Time because I think it was 4am Eastern. And I'm going to give a shout out to Michael. I know he's watching because Michael was the one who got up at 4am Eastern. So we didn't have to get up at 1am Pacific to get support for us for the Anne Frank house. Well, let's talk about.
Let's go to the next slide. Brian, I want to talk more generally about some of the.
Oh, here's after your adventure. Let's talk this. And then I want to talk more generally. I know you have some slides about things like food and things like the ship and stuff like that. So let's do that.
[01:02:29] Speaker A: So after adventure we stayed in Amsterdam as kind of a bouncing point and we stayed in, did the Anne Frank did a private tour around the palace and some of the old city.
Great tour guide told us all about the that booked through Viator and then the next day we went to Howa, which is, we would say it is Gouda.
And that's where Guda cheese is. It's actually less about that. That's where the cheese is from. But that used to be the center of the cheese market at large for that part of Europe.
Charming little European village. Village also home to the Stroopwafel, although you can get some great ones in Amsterdam. But if you are in Amsterdam for any amount of time, I would tell you take the one hour train ride out to Haro. It's fantastic. Great food, great people, great vibe in the small town there.
After that was Brussels the next day where there was another instrument. We museum collection of thousands of different instruments that they had there that Kelsey was able to see some that you wouldn't imagine like a violin and an accordion together.
And it's behind a glass case but somebody has played it at some point because you have a tablet and you punch in the number next to the instrument, you can hear a piece that's played on it. And Kelsey would have spent weeks there if I hadn't pulled her out after. After an hour.
But we loved it and saw the rest of Brussels saw is it new house which is the chocolate house that designed the praline. As we know it today. So it was a pharmacist who was coding like vitamins and supplements with chocolate to get people to want to take them. But then people were eating them one after the other. So then he went to like peanuts and raisins. Well, there is a chocolate shop in that pharmacy today.
That is the chocolate company he later became there in Belgium. So part of that chocolate tour of Europe.
[01:04:50] Speaker C: That's funny. Everyone's running around over. Over medicating because it's. It's covered in chocolate. I love it. Yeah.
[01:04:55] Speaker A: So the last day was a day at Amsterdam. We went out to this is Holland and the Amsterdam Lookout. This is Holland is like sol or in over Holland or fly over if you've ever done that in Canada or the world.
[01:05:15] Speaker B: Yeah, they have Wings over Washington.
[01:05:16] Speaker A: Super educational. There are like three different shows. You sit through two of them before the final one. That's the ride, you know, that is soaring. That actually tell you the history of windmills and land reclamation for Holland. That actually makes it super educational. We again, another sleeper thing that. That I just booked to fill time on a day to give us a late morning. And she. She absolutely loved it. And then we had afternoon tea where my wife, she's an anarchist. You know, clotted cream before lemon curd and then jam before clotted cream.
I don't know what I'm going to do with her. I tell you, for an 18th year.
[01:06:03] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I will tell you CT. I do clotted cream only
[01:06:10] Speaker C: just wrong.
[01:06:12] Speaker B: Am I just, like, kicked out of the show?
[01:06:15] Speaker A: Sam, there's a natural order to things in the world, and that is scone, clotted cream and then curd or jam. It's just the way it is. It's just the way it is. And the fact that Kelsey won't even pick the wrong way.
I guess everyone's got to have a fall. That's hers.
[01:06:33] Speaker C: I love it.
[01:06:34] Speaker A: Why she eats gums and Europe.
[01:06:36] Speaker B: Well, where did you. Where did you have tea and. And do you recommend it? I mean, we're going to be in Amsterdam.
[01:06:42] Speaker A: It was great. It was. It was a little Asian influenced for the sandwiches beforehand, but it was Cafe Koprinski at the Antara right there on the main plaza in front of the royal palace in Amsterdam. It was really good. I can send you a link to it, Sam.
Wasn't hard to get a reservation.
[01:07:03] Speaker C: Nice.
[01:07:03] Speaker B: Awesome. Okay, now we do have a couple of slides about the ship and food, right?
[01:07:07] Speaker A: Yep. Yep.
[01:07:08] Speaker B: All right, let's get there. I love it.
[01:07:11] Speaker A: Lots of food. Okay, first one up front. Most important, Ava, water wise, can't make scrambled eggs either. You got to order an omelette from the chef. It's just as Disney. Whatever Disney's done with scrambled eggs has been carried over by the adventure guides to the.
To the river cruises. Yeah, I don't know.
Other great food, you know, obviously Mickey shaped things are on the screen there.
Fantastic desserts. I would say we've talked about this a lot. The food on the ship is a step below Paulo, but a very slight step.
Fantastic food. They're cooking for a lot less people, so it's better than your rotational dining on dcl, but not quite where hollow is. Here's what I will say is the drawback is there's less options.
So there's usually one or two options in each category for your, your appetizer, one or two for your soup, and then one or two for your main dish, maybe a third. And then the kids have a menu, so. And you can always order like an AMA burger or a cheeseburger, and they'll give that to you. But that's kind of.
The food's great. To be honest, there were times where we were ordering and less than enthused and then ended up loving it. So just go in, know that they're designing the menu so it matches the cuisine for the kind of the location or region you're in that day, and just embrace it. How are the choices for pitch? Picky eaters?
Don't be a picky eater. Just embrace the menu. That would be my tip. It's the time not to be a picky eater and just embrace it. If you've got an allergy, you've got an allergy. And they did a great job of asking about that, making sure that was taken care of. Just like Disney. I imagine that's an expectation from them.
[01:09:14] Speaker C: Yeah, sorry, sorry, Tracy. I mean, Tracy's saying rude in the
[01:09:19] Speaker B: chat, but yeah, they will, they will let you order off the kids menu. Tracy, that's probably your best option if you really. If you really. We can't find something on the main menu that sounds good. And as CT mentioned, you can always order a burger. That is something they will always pretty much always make for you. I remember the Mac and cheese being particularly good, but I think it was only served at lunchtime from my memory.
[01:09:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:09:42] Speaker C: Amma has been. Has won awards for food, so it is, it is like everything that we ate on board was delicious. I. I'm curious more specifically, ct, about your experience with the chef's table and
[01:09:55] Speaker A: whether you thought that chef's table is fantastic, fantastic.
But know that that menu is designed by the chef for that cruise, and it's the same every night. So if you really like it, you might be able to pick up another night later in the cruise if you do it early enough. I wanted to line it up with that first full day on the ship because that's when Kelsey's birthday was. It felt like the natural way to go to the chef's table, celebrate her birthday. And, you know, they. You know, there was no clapping and whatever, but we celebrated her birthday back at the chef's table. It was fantastic.
And I would say the chef's table was an. A step above what Paolo does. Yeah, it really was a great experience.
[01:10:45] Speaker B: It's probably not it's a step below Remy or Enchante, but it would be like a step above Paulo. It's not quite the multi courses of a. Of a full chef tasting menu. It's kind of. I would call it a chef's tasting menu, but it's an abbreviated chef's tasting menu. That's kind of the difference. And.
[01:11:02] Speaker A: But now what I.
[01:11:05] Speaker B: Sorry, go ahead.
[01:11:05] Speaker A: What I will say is wine is included with all of the meal.
You know, it's one that they pick. So, I mean, if you're not a picky eater, you're probably not a picky wine drinker. So as funny as I stare at Tracy in the chat, you're. But the wine was fun. Like, it was from. You know, it kind of rotated again with their regions we were passing through. It was something the ship had picked up from one of those regions. So who was it? Nelly was our. Our. Our. Like, our su.
That took care of us throughout the cruise, uh, and was stopping by our table to. Kelsey doesn't drink at all. And she was. She was like, oh, yeah, you're gonna. You know, you're gonna drink wine on this trip. So she was constantly pushing her to at least try new things, which I. I thought was great. I thought it was. Yeah, it was good. But the food I really like, usually
[01:12:02] Speaker B: they give you a choice of a red or a white. Pretty much every night, from my. My memory, they give you. Yeah, Love it. All right. Tips.
[01:12:10] Speaker A: Okay. So a couple of tips I want to give. The first one is dress code for churches, so you got to cover your shoulders. So if you're. You know, you can see Kelsey even in that top picture is wearing, like, a blouse that doesn't cover her shoulders. The quick tip I will give you for that is if you're not wearing too shorter shorts or too short a skirt to go in, but you are wearing the tank top, hop out to the shops real quick and just buy a scarf, right? Buy a scarf that will cover your shoulders and then you can hop in.
So dress code for churches. That was one that our adventure guides kind of missed with us that I wish they'd hit, but we'd mentioned it to them and then they were taking care of it pretty well after that. No, your Translate app, whether you're Apple or Google Translate, whatever, but those worked fantastic.
I use the new earbuds on this trip with the Translate real time. It worked great.
And then no conversions in your app, whether it's converting money or converting, you know, you don't understand milliliters to a cup or whatever. But usually in the calculator app there's a convert. Pack layers. Like, don't dress too heavy. Be able to shred a layer or two to be comfortable. Especially in Europe as it sometimes can be 90 degrees or be 60 degrees. It just depends. And then, Tracy, be adventurous. Try new foods. See something you wouldn't normally be interested in.
And then I would say this is a experience that's distinctively Disney but distinctively different.
And I think you guys will agree with that there. You feel that Disney quality of customers service, where they're really trying to cater to you and make you feel a part of a story in your life.
But it is different than the cruise line is. So there is a night of trivia. There is a night of karaoke, at least on ours. And I've heard from yours, so.
And some of the other places I've looked. So you do get some of those notes. But it is, you know, there's not a.
I guess I'm probably digging into the next slide, but there's not a daily EWA or Daily Navigator. They do have a schedule of events for that day, but it's different.
No days at sea, but you're on abd, so seize the day.
Flexibility in dining and seating. I really preferred cruise. Dress is different on a river cruise. Like there were people that were wearing like khaki shorts and a shirt at dinner. They don't come as you are, you know, they're long days at port. And I didn't really see, you know, like I pack a tux for a Disney cruise that's, you know, eight nights or longer. I. You don't pack a tux for this kind of. At least we do it.
[01:15:16] Speaker C: So I will say one thing on the dress code that. That applies to Adventures by Disney. They do relax the dress code on AMA a bit.
But I. I have seen AMA and some of the other cruise lines, like, do have, like, a standard of dress for mean dining. And so know if you're going on abd, you get some relaxation of that policy.
You get relaxation of that policy, and you get, you know, third person in some of the state rooms if you're traveling. Like, for us, having being able to put Nathan in the same stateroom is key for us when we travel. So that's a little bit different as well. But, yeah, ct, I want to ask.
We are way over our allotted time. No, no, no. I just wanted to ask sort of the ultimate question, which is, would you do this again? Would you do another Adventures by Disney? When do you think it makes sense to do that? And when might you say, you know, I. I don't need this, or maybe I'll go do a river cruise without it being an ebd. Like, what's the equation here that makes this, makes this like a.
A good, you know, makes this the right thing for some people? Yeah.
[01:16:29] Speaker A: I think it's just about where you are in your travel and what you want. Right. Some people are perfectly content traveling in the US And I would tell you that if you are looking for, like, a break on a. A trip where you don't have to plan everything and you trust that Disney's gonna do things and just take care of all the steps along the way, like, you don't even have to go to Europe. You could do a land tour here in the US they have, you know, some Southern California things for, like, super fans. One I'm gonna be looking into is one of the folks we were on the river cruise with did, like, Maine and Arcadia national park with Adventures by Disney. And that' sounds very interesting to Kelsey and I. So I, I think the right time to try it is when you can, because there is a price that comes with this that's, you know, different from the cruise line, I think. I don't know what that third person cost or, you know, I know what the two looks like. I don't know if. If the third person's the same cost as the first two, or is it the same Disney Cruise Line where it diminishes a little?
[01:17:48] Speaker B: So it's the same. It's the same cost for the third person. The difference is we don't have to pay a double occupancy and pay for a second room. That's the difference. Right. Because there's three of us. And so if we needed to get a second room, we would be paying essentially for four people even though there's only three of us. Right. So that's really the issue.
So he is full price because he's over a certain age. I can't remember if it's 11 or 10 or I can't remember, remember what the age limit is. There is a lower cost for younger kids, but for a kid of Nathan's age it's a full price, adult price essentially.
One thing I will completely agree with you CT is the idea of if you want a vacation where you just book the flight and they take care of everything else, that's an adventures by Disney experience. You. I mean if you want to plan something on the front end or the back end, absolutely you can.
But it's soup to nuts. They take care of everything for you and they are your guides throughout the entire experience. And of course as you mentioned, you've got local tour guides as well as your adventure guides throughout the experience.
It's a very white glove level of service in that sense. Even though it's a come as you are casual dress kind of experience as well.
[01:19:07] Speaker A: And real quick on the river cruises because I know land's different but on the river, river cruises all the gratuities are covered as part. There's a much the last bullet there. There's less of an upsell culture. I think the only things we spent on were a few glasses of scotch I had and doing laundry the day we got on because we were in Switzerland and laundry the last day we could while we were on the. And it was pretty fairly priced. I mean six days a lot laundry for both of us was $60.
That's great cleaning on a ship which I. Which was a lot cheaper than what the hotels were in Switzerland or Amsterdam. So.
[01:19:52] Speaker B: Yeah. And you're sending out your laundry. There's no self service laundry. Karen did jump in the chat. Thank you, Karen. Our show sponsor for my path Unwinding Travel. Karen jumped in the chat and said adult pricing starts at age 12. That's why I didn't know. I knew that Nathan was adult price and he is in fact 12. So that makes sense.
So yeah. So younger kids are a lower price now. It's not like half price or something like that though. But it is a discounted price for under. Under 12.
All right. Brian.
[01:20:20] Speaker C: Yes. Are. Are we, are we through all the slides?
[01:20:24] Speaker A: I think we got one left, Brian.
[01:20:26] Speaker C: Oh yes, one more.
[01:20:29] Speaker B: I love this.
[01:20:29] Speaker A: I love the gear stick on this.
The first one's the Muddy seven from GLI Net worked fantastic. I loaded an EIM from Holly.
This was only the second time I had used it because I'd done a test run when I was out in Lompoc, California just a couple of weeks before.
And for 20 days it took care of us in Europe. Hopping across multiple countries worked fantastic.
The next one is Flexpedition Pan Pants from Duluth Trading Company. I was looking for something that looked like a khaki but was durable for all the adventuring.
I spilled red wine on those colored pants and it was gone in 20 minutes.
So those were fantastic.
I have a new two in one bag from Peak Design.
There's an outer backpack that unzips off a lot larger, like 35 liter backpack. So I had a day pack along with my larger bag for when we were traveling over to Europe. That worked fantastic and was super flexible for the day to day.
I used an X5. A lot of the pictures you saw there, I just grabbed the X5, take the picture, let it take the 360 degree and then I picked the picture post production especially for the big landscape views because you could never get the right one. You feel like you missed miss something.
You can always go back and pull a flat picture from that 360 degree view. And I haven't post all the footage yet. I'll be over the next like two weeks. But I caught us. I wrapped it onto the bar for the balcony and caught us going through a lock one evening with it and actually lowering the boat in the lock which was fantastic footage and some great footage walking through castles and stuff, stuff like that.
[01:22:27] Speaker C: So let me.
[01:22:28] Speaker A: And then.
[01:22:28] Speaker C: Oh, I was just going to jump in CT to decipher some of this for folks listening afterwards some of these things. So the X5 is an Insta360, 360 degree camera. We have one ourselves. It's great for static video time lapses. Like you can basically you download it onto your phone or your computer and use their app to edit the 360 degree video. And it's great because you can kind of forget what you're. You can look at things and that you're capturing every thing.
The other the, the. The first thing that CT mentioned too is it's. It's called the Moody 7M U D I it is from a company called Gli Net and what it is is a mobile travel router. It's great for two purposes. CC already highlighted one, holofly is an EIM provider in Europe and so you can buy cards to roam through Europe and get kind of, you know, I'm going to put unlimited data and air quotes that you start to throttle you at some point down to lower speeds. But you can just attach your. You can carry that around and attach your phones to it and get reliable Internet. The other thing it does is it's actually a WI fi router. And so what I like to do with it is you can program it to basically mirror your home WI FI network. And when you get to the hotel, you log in once and all the devices from your family that normally connect to your home network suddenly start connecting. And you don't have to go through all the Captcha portals and all of that sort of stuff. Everyone's just working on off of one WI FI router. So it's a great little handy tool to have.
[01:23:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I also loaded our NORDVPN to it to give us an extra layer of protection and have the router tell the cell network that we were actually in Denver, Colorado.
So if we were checking on something for like a bank or something like that, it wasn't flagging the bank with a weird error because someone was logging into a our account from Germany. The last two on there City Mapper is an excellent map if you're using public transit and trying to walk to different spots in Europe. If you haven't used that app before, it works great. It'll give you what it is to walk. Here's a couple of different, like bus, tram, subway options. And then it'll give you the cost of a taxi and an Uber all at once for you to pick what option to get to where you want to go. And it's linked with public transit to tell you the next times that. But maybe that tram is supposed to come past so you have an expected time of arrival for where you're going. The last one's called Globe Tips and Globe Tips I heard about from another YouTube channel. And you hop in there, you pick what country and it tells you what's the expected tip for where you are.
For a waiter or for a tour guide porter that's handling your back bags.
Sometimes I blow that off. I think if you touch my bags, I should be taking care of you.
But you know, sometimes in like Switzerland, it's just round up to the next dollar because there's already a service charge and they see that small little couple of, you know that less than a. A a Swiss Fran is is good. So those are some great gears and apps. I haven't done that before when I've been on your shows, but this was a long trip in all these things were super vital. Kelsey made me put the pants on there.
All right.
[01:25:53] Speaker B: I love it.
[01:25:54] Speaker C: Nice.
[01:25:54] Speaker B: Good job, Kelsey.
[01:25:55] Speaker A: And then the last slide.
Couldn't have done this without you or Wes. Wes, as you guys know, is my travel guide. He's the other half of or the another part in the greater DCL Duo multiverse. He's, he's the Guardians of the Galaxy to your guys's Avengers. Right.
I love that he did such a great job taking care of us, making sure everything was booked and then taking care of those excursion choices for us during our our booking window for them. So took care of everything. We had a great trip. And you know, he is a big part of that. So we appreciate both him and you guys because I think I went back and watched the episod of your guys's trip and with Rebecca and some of the adventure guides you guys have had over the years a couple of times leading up to this trip. So thank you, Gus.
[01:26:58] Speaker B: Yeah, you're so welcome. We absolutely love Talking Adventures by Disney. We love letting our listeners know about this product as well.
It is obviously I say that Disney Cruise Line is the gateway drug to Adventures by Disney. It is a more expensive product. But if you're interested in doing something different than a large ocean liner cruise, I do think Adventures by Disney's got a lot of great options, be them river cruises or land based and we'll continue to cover them. We actually do have a couple more Adventures by Disney episodes coming up this summer. Of course, we'll be talking about our river cruise in just a couple of weeks when we'll be back because we'll be on a brief hiatus because we'll be traveling. Of course, we'll have plenty of recorded episodes for you all while we're gone. So fear not, you will have plenty of DCL Duo to listen to.
But we will be back next Monday for one more episode before we leave for our abd. We'll be talking with Kelly about her Alaska cruise on the Disney Wonder. So of course I mentioned we'll have lots of Alaska content, lots of Adventures by Disney content coming.
So we will see you all next Monday our normal time, 5.30pm Pacific, 8.30pm Eastern. And then after next Monday, we will be on a brief hiatus while we're traveling and then we'll be back with you to talk about our Adventures by Disney, our podcast cruise. So we'll have, we'll have traveled with a number of listeners in Holland and Belgium. So super excited about that. We'll say thank you so much to CT for coming on the show at Boots to Beaches. If you are interested in donating to charity, especially in honor of our nation's 250th anniversary, make sure you send your money to some veterans who could use a way of reconnecting with their families. So thanks to C T for introducing us to that charity.
And with that we'll say good night everyone. We'll see you next Monday for our regularly scheduled live show.
[01:29:06] 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, 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 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. If you've got questions or you'd like to connect with us, the best way to do that is to head over to DCL Duo duo.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 few blog articles articles that we've written. So DCLDUO.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also of course email
[email protected] or reach out to us on our voicemail line at 402-413-5590. That's 402-413-5590. The DCL Duo podcast is not affiliated with Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Company or the Disney Family of theme parks. The views expressed on the show are solely those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflective views the Disney Company or Disney Cruise Line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or a 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.
