[00:00:00] Speaker A: But about two weeks before we actually got an email, I was at work and, well, we were both at work. And my wife forwards me this email and it says, this is such. I can't remember the name. From Disney Shoreside Concierge Services. And we would like to offer you a complimentary upgrade to concierge on your upcoming cruise.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Welcome back, everyone. Welcome, everyone, to another episode of the DCL Duo podcast. As you can tell from hearing my voice and not Brian's voice, it's Sam. Today I am solo hosting, but I am not alone. I'm super excited because I've got a longtime listener but first time guest on the show and he's a patreon too. So first I gotta say thank you to Matt for being a patreon. And then I'm gonna say welcome to the show, Matt.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: Thank you so much, Sam. It's a real pleasure to be on.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: Yeah, it's wonderful to have you. Now, we're going to talk today about a cruise you just took in March on the Disney Fantasy. But I understand you guys have been on kind of a fast journey to platinum.
Tell me, like, first, let's start with the Disney background. Like, what got you into Disney kind of in the first place, and then what got you into the cruise line and a very quick succession to platinum.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: Sure. Yeah. So my wife and I both grew up in the Southeast, and so we had both been to Disney as kids, either with our families or on school trips.
But we were not Disney adults or Disney people. I would say the first 10 or 12 years we were together, we may have not said the word Disney to each other. Our daughter was born. We have two kids, a daughter who's 15 and a son who's 13. And our daughter was born in 2010, and when she was about 3, she got. I don't remember if we bought it or if it was a gift that it was. Do you know the little people, they're like those little plastic, like, toys.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:01:58] Speaker A: It's like a plastic castle with the princess. Little people. And when you took the princess and put him on, like, this chair or throne or whatever, it would play their song. So it would play like, you know, Beauty and the Beast tale as old as Time for Belle or so on and so forth. And she became obsessed with this toy. Whoever bought it for her sort of didn't know they were changing the trajectory of our family.
[00:02:23] Speaker B: Say thank you or maybe no thank you.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: Sort of a mixed blessing. But so around the time she was four and our son was two, my wife Said, well, we should take him to Disney World. So we went down, it was 2015, took our first trip and we got hooked. And we've gone back to Walt Disney World about every other year since then. And then we live in Tennessee, so we can drive or fly. It's not too far to get down there.
So it was around 2019 we started thinking about my daughter, had a good friend who the family cruised a lot. And so we gave our kids for Christmas a Disney cruise. So made a big production of it.
Had this huge box filled with balloons and all these little hints, like little like a swimsuit and a pirate. Something pirate. Because we knew there was this pirate night, of course, which we'd never been to. And so we took our first cruise in January 2020 on the Magic. It was a five night and it was actually Marvel Day at Sea. So, you know, weird that we would do that for our first cruise. We're not huge marketers.
[00:03:30] Speaker B: They were like 9 and 7 or thereabouts.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: Exactly, exactly. So we did that and then of course Covid hit soon after that. But we, we went on our first one after that in fall of 21.
[00:03:44] Speaker C: So.
[00:03:45] Speaker A: Right when they were still doing all the testing and everything.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: Yeah, right, right. Very shortly after the reopening. Because I think the reopening was in like August, so.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: Yes, yes, it was, it was Halloween. My wife's birthday is Halloween. So I remember specifically we went on a three night on the dream birthday. And we have been on, we just. This, this, this one on the Fantasy was my wife and I's 11th cruise and our kids 10th. So we did take one for our anniversary, our 20th anniversary by ourselves, but most of them have been together as a family.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: Yeah, well, good job in taking one without the kids. I think that, that I think people forget one, that Disney cruises are not just for families. They can also be for adults.
And two, I just think it's really wonderful when adults who are married to each other decide to without their children because I, I actually think it's a very healthy thing to do as a couple to have time without your children.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: Right, that's right. Yeah. It's very rare for us because we don't have family that live right here around us. We have to do a lot of logistics to plan for that. But we managed to make that one work. It was wonderful.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: Awesome. All right, well, tell me, why did you choose the fantasy? This is actually your third time, I think you said on the fantasy.
So why the fantasy again? What ships have you hit and what ships have you not hit at this point?
[00:05:01] Speaker A: So we have been on the Fantasy and the Dream. We've been on the Magic both as a family and that was the one we went on, just the two of us and we have been on the Wish a few times and the Treasure. So we have not been on the Wonder yet and we have not been on the Destiny or the Adventure. But each of the other ones we chose the Fantasy sort of because of our timing. It was spring break. Port Canaveral is the easiest for us to either fly down or drive.
We're very comfortable with going out of Port Canaveral. We kind of have our traditions going out of there that we do as a family which we can talk about. But so it was more the schedule of that. That week and it being our spring break and the ease of going out of Port Canaveral on a fortnight.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Well. And you get to go to Lookout Key as well as a part of this four night. Your itinerary, cast or not. Castaway Nassau and Lookout Key. Which is a nice itinerary, you know, for one of those shortish sailings. Right. If we're not. Yeah. But you get, you get that extra as I like to call it, that extra sea day at Nassau if you, if you're one of those people who doesn't get off the ship at NASA.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: We are. Yeah.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:08] Speaker A: And I'd say the Fantasy was really where we first. We did. Our first longer cruise was a seven night Eastern Caribbean, not one the Fantasy. When they still did those on the Fantasy. And that's really where we kind of fell in love with Disney. Disney Cruise. I'd say on that.
[00:06:22] Speaker B: That's where we fell in love with Disney Cruise Line. The seven night Eastern Caribbean on the, on the Fantasy. It was our, our first two cruises that we took were seven night Eastern on the Fantasy. And then we repeated that a couple of times until the Treasure came out. We, we definitely had sailed probably the most number of nights on the Fantasy. And now maybe the. Now I'd say the Wonder and the Treasure are getting, you know, I haven't, I haven't done the math to figure out like which ship we've been on actually the most number of nights. I honestly have no ide point because we've done quite a few like shorter sailings right. On like the Magic.
But we've done you know, a few, you know, back to back on the Wonder or seven Night on the one. Right. So who. I, I have no, I have really no concept of it at this point. Yeah. All right, well, let's. Let's dive into the planning of this cruise. You guys were head.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: That's right. Yeah. So last summer, we took our kids to Universal for the first time, and it sort of worked out. It was just after Epic had opened, and so we got to go to all three parks, and it sort of worked out that it kind of worked out financially better to just get an annual pass to the two older parks, so Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. And so we managed to plan it. We flew down there.
We just got Southwest Airlines here. I live in Knoxville, Tennessee. And so we were one of the first flights on Southwest out of Knoxville down to mco. And we went a couple days early and used that annual pass and went to. Stayed at Portofino Bay and went to both parks there.
The two sort of legacy Universal parks. One kind of fun thing we did that we surprised the kids with was Universal has its Mardi Gras going on in. It doesn't just last during Mardi Gras season. It goes really all spring, and they have a parade every night in Universal Studios Park. And we signed up. There's a. It's called the Ride and Dine, where it includes a lunch, and then you actually get to ride on the float and throw beads. So if you've always wanted to do that in New Orleans, and of course, most of us will never get to do that, we may go to Mardi Gras, but we'll never be able to be in one of the cruise and ride on the floats. It was super, super fun. We were on this huge flo called the Gator Float. It was the last float in the parade, and we had to kind of climb up this ship's ladder to get up to the very top. And there was a cast member there with us who actually was from Nashville, so we got to chat with him about. That was not planned, but chat with them about that. And we were wearing sort of like these kind of vests, and you got to, you know, be up there high and ride through the park, and it was. It was super fun. Yes.
[00:09:06] Speaker B: Did they make you wear masks? Because.
Oh, okay. So in New Orleans, for those who don't know, if you ever go to a Mardi Gras parade, all of the crew members, the folks who are throwing, there's a rule, and they, like, all the crews, have these rules about their costumes, and they're typically wearing masks and hats or masks and wigs. And so you're basically obscuring, like, who you are, because you're just supposed to be this anonymous crew member. And the reason I know so much about Mardi Gras is because Brian used to ride in the crew of Endemion with his dad and my mother in law used to ride in the Muses, which are two very large crews in New Orleans who ride, you know, every year for Mardi Gras. But yeah, so there's all this lore.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: I did not know that. I've heard him talk about New Orleans on the podcast and his love in New Orleans, but I did not know that.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. His folks spend part of the year in New Orleans every year. Although they.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: Well, we had a vest. Each different float. When you showed up at a meeting area, then we had a vest they gave us that was a different color depending on which float you were on. And they were sort of in that kind of Mardi Gras style. But I think it was really a safety vest that was sort of a stylish safety vest.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Like bright colors. Yeah.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: And then they took us all backstage because the floats are parked backstage to actually get on the float. And they were very clear, you know, you can't take any pictures while you're back there or anything. And then, you know, rode the float out, rode around and came back. So it was super fun. We did that the second night we were there and then kind of hightailed it back to the resort and got in the car and drove over to. To Port Canaveral.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: Awesome. Now I gotta say, I'm jealous. I want to do that because I don't actually. I never wanted to join one of the crews because it's like a big commitment to, like, you because you go every year, you pay membership fees. It's actually quite expensive to do, but I love to do it as like a one time thing. So to me, actually doing it at like Universal might be the perfect, you know, one time. It's probably expensive to do the one time, but then it's a kind of a.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: It actually was very reasonable because it included lunch as well. And when we ate the lunch, it was like a three course meal at one of the restaurants. And I'm like, that what we paid pretty much covered the lunch, it seemed like. So. So actually it really wasn't that expensive. I think we got a little discount because we were annual passholders, but. But it was pretty reasonable.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: Yeah, that makes sense. All right, well, you guys have a family tradition of something you like to do.
I know the night before your cruise, but before we get there, because there was a big surprise that was revealed Tell the audience what happened. I don't know how long it was before your cruise. You got a very special phone call with some Mickey magic.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: Yes. So we were booked in a veranda room aft, so I believe it was on Deck 8, all the way in the back with the larger, oversized veranda. We typically stay in a veranda room. We had never stayed in this particular room. And we were kind of excited about the larger veranda and what would that would be like and the sail away, you know, from the ports, from the aft room. But about two weeks before we actually got an email, I was at work and. Well, we were both at work. And my wife forwards me this email, and it says, this is such. I can't remember the name. From Disney Shoreside Concierge Services. And we would like to offer you a complimentary upgrade to concierge on your upcoming cruise. There's a slight increase in the cost. It's an extra few hundred dollars in gratuities, you know, automatic gratuities for the concierge staff. But other than that, no additional cost. And if you're interested, call us. So she forwards me the email and is this spam? Is this for real? And I said, well, call. We'll see. And so, of course it was. She called and sort of in disbelief and. Yeah, so they changed our room. They have just. The fantasy just went through a dry dock last fall, and one of the changes was adding some concierge rooms on the 10th deck. Previously, it had just been Deck 11 and Deck 12. And so they were family veranda rooms, deluxe veranda rooms that were. I can talk a little bit about state room in a bit, but kind of outfitted with some concierge touches.
And so we moved into one of those rooms, and we were just. We couldn't believe it. I mean, we. Because we, as you know, we've done several cruises, but we just never felt like we were sort of, oh, I don't know, quantity over quality. We never really felt like we could justify concierge. We'd rather go on two cruises than one concierge cruise. And so it was just really exciting and something new for us, you know, because we've been on several cruises, we're always looking to, you know, add a touch or do something new. And so.
So that was super exciting. And then we decided to keep it a surprise from our kids, so we decided we would let them know sometime much closer to the trip. So we did not let them know originally.
[00:13:49] Speaker B: I'm curious. You and I talked a little bit Pre show. Do you have any theories about why? Because I have no idea. Like, we've heard people who are on their second cruise or their 10th cruise, like, getting these random upgrades. And I know that that's a of. It's got to be, of course, subject to availability type issues. Right? Like, they're not going to upgrades if concierge is full or close to full. They're not going to give anyone a complimentary upgrade. But I'm curious if you have any theories about why, you know, why your family got selected or anything like that?
[00:14:21] Speaker A: Well, yeah, it's so funny because we actually got a deal on the cruise when we booked it because they were running a rate that was. I think the kids sailed for 50% or something like that. And so we actually booked this, the room originally for a lesser price than typical. But we talked a lot about that.
Angie, my wife and I, we think first and foremost, they probably needed our room. So probably they had maybe an oversell on guaranteed rate rooms. And so our room that we were staying in was more valuable to them than maybe an empty concierge room. Now, why we particularly were chosen, who knows? It could have been random. Of course. Our theory was, well, these folks have kind of done everything. They're obviously repeat customers and they've been on several cruises, but they've never done concierge. And so maybe this will hook them on concierge going forward or. I don't know. But who knows why they chose us? And it was one of those things that, you know, we were very blessed to have that.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Yeah, that's awesome. Dear Disney Cruise Line, if you're looking to upgrade someone, I volunteer as tribute.
I mean, you know, we talk about concierge a lot on our show because I think, you know, there is always that question mark for people. Is it worth the. The price and all of that? And I think my personal opinion, generally speaking, no. If you're paying full price for a concierge room, it's, it's. It's hard to justify unless, I mean, if you're somebody who is like, very wealthy and money is not an object, you go for it. Like, more power to you. But if you're making that, if it's that decision between two cruises or concierge cruise. Right. Like, I'm with you, Matt. I think the. I pick two cruises every time and, you know, when we've sailed concierge multiple times and have now sort of come to this, you know, thought process.
But on the other hand, when I've gotten, you know, A discount because of an issue on a sailing. If I'm able to apply that to a concierge, you bet I'm booking a concierge room. Right. So there are some wonderful benefits to it. So it's certainly not a thing that I would ever poo poo, but it's just a matter of that, like. And that worth it question is so to every person, you know, and. And I think the answer, though, of is it worth those extra concierge gratuities?
110.
Right. Like, that's easy. Right. Like, if it's a difference of a couple hundred dollars in gratuities, never say no to, you know, a free. A free. It is really a free upgrade because your room, you're not paying a difference in the room, you're just paying the difference in the gratuities. And that's because there are more staff that have to be covered by your gratuities than if you're sailing regular because you'. All the staff in the lounge and you also have. With the stateroom attendant, you always have a stateroom attendant and an assistant stateroom attendant. You have a team of two. Yeah, yeah.
[00:17:08] Speaker A: I mean, and it just. Our whole approach to the cruise, I think, was different than if we had paid for it, because I think surely at some point we probably would have done it just to see what it was like. But like you, we're not independently wealthy. I mean, we're both professionals. We do fine, but we, you know, have to pick and choose how we spend our vacation dollars. And I just know myself, if we had paid for it the whole time, I would have been like, is this worth the it Is this right? You know, in my head, and really, as we'll talk about, I don't think it's really. You can't. You can't make up for it with the math. Right, Right. I heard you all say in a recent podcast, if you're trying to drink enough to make up, you know, for it, you can't do that. Right. So it's. It's got to be something about the concierge experience that adds value outside of each of the individual items that you're getting for free that you'd otherwise have to pay for.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely. There's, you know, Disney does have pay to play structure a lot at the parks, and then there's some of that on the CRU line. Right. But this, you cannot say, oh, Yeah, I drank 10 drinks at the concierge lounge, and that made the. The math isn't Mathing. It just doesn't. You're not. You can't drink enough. I mean, maybe there are people who can. I can't drink enough.
Yeah, exactly. Make. To make. To make up that cost differential.
I could do it for $200. Some extra gratuity.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely.
[00:18:26] Speaker B: But not for. But not for the thousands of dollar difference. Well, I want to talk about the planning. I want to back up, because we're going to talk about the. Your night before and your reveal to your kids. But what stuff were you able to book that maybe you had not booked before?
I'm thinking cabana is an option. Right. If you're sailing concierge.
[00:18:48] Speaker A: So of course, we did not. Well, we did not have the concierge.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: Oh, you didn't have the.
[00:18:52] Speaker A: After we booked. Yes. So. Because they didn't. They didn't email us till two weeks before the cruise.
[00:18:56] Speaker B: Right. So you don't, however.
Right.
[00:18:58] Speaker A: But it was our first cruise booking as platinum, so my wife and I were platinum. The kids became platinum on the cruise. So, of course, us being in the stateroom, we were able to book. And so I stayed up and booked. And I mean, it was, you know, I booked Palo Brunch for us because it's platinum. This was our first one. We were getting a compliment.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: Oh, you're getting your free Palo Brunch.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: So that was really nice. And a couple tastings here and there, which we ended up not doing. Once we got concierge, we were like, why would we do this tasting? We're gonn experienced concierge. But so I. The kind of. The last thing I looked at was, well, let's see if there's anything at Lookout. You know, any experiences at Lookout. We've been there. My wife and I have been there twice. The kids have been there once. And so I looked, and there's cabanas available.
Multiple cabanas were available. And so that was a real shock. So I actually booked two because my wife's asleep, and I'm like, well, let me book two, and then we can talk about which one we want or whether we want to do one. We quickly decided, yes, we did want to do one, that it was worth it. And so. So, yeah, so we booked the cabana as platinum, and there were. There were multiple cabanas available, which I was kind of surprised by.
[00:20:08] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I mean, maybe it does make sense in the sense of concierge rooms being available. Right. Obviously. Which. Which caused you to get an upgrade.
And then cabana's not being sold out, at least as of the time of platinum opening, which tells me. Tells me two things. Tells me concierge wasn't sold out. And it also tells me that perhaps there weren't that many Pearl cruisers on your sailing as well. And so that means more availability for platinums. But yeah, I mean, there is generally. Now Lookout has more cabana availability than Castaway used to have. And now Castaway has a lot of cabana availability with the new Mickey and Minnie Cove cabanas being added.
So I do think that the demand maybe has lessened a little bit just, you know, just, just sort of the nature of supply and demand. And then Lookout, it's a mixed bag because you're so far away from the family beach stuff. Right. And so I love the Mabrika Cove cabanas, which are the family cabanas at Lookout. But it is, you're. It's a trade off right between being at these beautiful cabanas on this, you know, beautiful spot on the ocean and seeing the. You get a great view of the ship, but you do not have all of the other stuff that is available, like the water slides at Rush Out, Gush out, the Junk, a new parade, the shop, the bigger shop. You have the little stand right there, but not much of a shop. So there's. Yeah, there's those kinds of, you know, trade offs of, of being a little bit more, I don't know, off the beaten path. Secluded. That's the great word. Yeah, secluded. Yeah. All right, well, okay, so you book the, you book the cabana, you book your Palo brunch, you book some drink tastings, which you end up canceling later.
Let's talk about night before the cruise. You head down. So you guys, your tradition is you head down to Cocoa beach for the night?
[00:22:00] Speaker A: Yes. So we typically stay down there the night before in a hotel in Cape Canaveral. And we stayed at a couple different hotels. It's been really interesting over the last few years, seeing the growth down there. I think it probably has to do with the space program and sort of the rebirth of the space program. But traditionally we do like to get down there a little earlier than we did this time on the day before because we like to watch the ships sail out.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: Oh yeah, like around 4 or 5 o'.
[00:22:28] Speaker A: Clock. So there's several restaurants right down there on the port. We've been to a couple of them. But our tradition is to go to Fish Lips, which is right there on the water, and sit, you know, either outside or with a view and watch the ships go out. Of course, this time we were a little later getting there because of the Mardi Gras parade. So we got there around 8 o' clock or so and had.
There was actually a ship there. I think it was staying there. I think it was maybe an overnight port on one of the crews or maybe it was a port. It wasn't a. They weren't leaving from, you know, embarking.
[00:23:00] Speaker B: Yeah, there are some.
[00:23:01] Speaker A: It was a port stop.
[00:23:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Actually, my sister took a cruise on Royal, where one of their port stops, because they left from Baltimore. So it was. It went out of Baltimore and went down to the Bahamas and back. And one of their port days was at Port Canaveral. And of course, the big excursion being going to the Kennedy Space center there.
[00:23:19] Speaker A: Yeah. So we had dinner there outside. It was a beautiful night, and we told our kids, kind of gave them the surprise. About concierge. Our daughter had sort of figured it out. She's the type, you know, especially once we got, you know, they're very busy with their activities in school and they're not teenagers. Not thinking about the trip till we kind of get down there. And then she's kind of messing around in the app and she's like, what's up with this room that you. That we're staying in? I mean, we were so. Because she was. Helped pick the room, you know, with us and was excited about the room. And we're just like, making stuff up. Like, well, you know, we weren't sure about that aft room and. And we heard that you get soot from the engines. And the engines are real loud. I have heard that. I don't know if it's true, but. So she was real suspicious and kind of asking questions. But she also knows, like, it's not really my style to splurge on concierge. So I think she just. She was confused. Our son was just kind of going with the flow. And then, of course, what we told them, they were. They were very excited, of course, wanted to know how did this happen? And so we had to, of course, tell that whole story. And then our tradition, which I don't know if we're the only ones who have this tradition, but I have to think we're among them.
A few cruises ago, my wife had this idea that we would all get up early the morning of the cruise and drive because we stay like half a mile from the port, just right on the other side of that bridge, and go down and watch the ship come in.
[00:24:36] Speaker B: Oh, fun.
[00:24:38] Speaker A: So we typically do that. That's usually around 5, 5:30, you would imagine teenagers, but for this they are excited to get up and then we will usually drive over to this Cocoa Beach Starbucks, get our Starbucks and then maybe go to the beach, watch the sunrise and then go get breakfast. So there's a couple different breakfast places we like there in Cocoa beach and then we'll go back, I'll take a nap and then get ready to go over to the port. So this time the ship came in like super early at like 3 so we didn't get to go see. We weren't going to get up that early. So we didn't get to see the fantasy come in. But we did go over to Starbucks and kind of drive around, go down and see the ship in port and everything. So, you know that day of that morning of you're always so excited and that anticipation is so great.
[00:25:20] Speaker B: I am shocked that your teens will get up for a five o' clock in the morning ship like you know, coming in. Because I will tell you there is no way that I'd be able to get Nathan. I would, I would do it. I would, I would, I would be right there with you, Matt. I'd be, you know, I'd be like, sign me up, I'll go to the, you know, for both the Starbucks, the breakfast, the ship coming in, all of that. Sounds like a great morning to me. I'm up early generally anyway. But yeah, there's no way I would be able to get Nathan up for a 5am or 5:30.
[00:25:52] Speaker A: I'd say when we started doing it, they were younger, you know, and so now it's become a tradition. They know they would be, they like look forward to it and know they'd, you know, be letting us down a little bit if they didn't.
[00:26:02] Speaker C: So.
[00:26:02] Speaker A: And they're excited to do it too.
So yeah, yeah, it's kind of fun. So. So yeah, so this time we knew our original port arrival time had been because we booked that also before the concierge was at like 12:30. And so we weren't sure how we were going to. We were like, even if they buy the. About not wanting to stay in the room when we're like going over to the port at 10:30 instead of 12:30. We weren't sure how we were going to convince them that wasn't something different or change. So, so, so yeah, so then we headed over to the port around 10, 1030, 1045.
[00:26:34] Speaker B: I think that's the right way to handle it. You kind of have to let them know the night at least the Night before or that morning early enough so that you can take advantage of that early boarding time and getting to the port. And there's, of course, a lounge that is for concierge in the port. That's where you first are introduced to your host. So I recommend if you, if you are sailing concierge, to take advantage of that early port arrival time and the earlier time on the ship because you get more, you know, you have just more time on the ship that day, but also that first opportunity to meet the concierge hosts who you. Who often come into the lounge even. And depending upon what ship you're on, you may also see them at lunch. But it is, it's just kind of a nice introduction into the experience and understanding all of the benefits of concierge, because that's something, you know, we talk about it on the show, but if you haven't experienced it, it might not be something you're paying attention to in, you know, before you've done it yourself. Once you do it yourself, you're paying attention. You're like, what are, what are all the things I can take advantage of on the ship? How do I, how do I milk this for everything it's worth?
All right, well, okay, so you guys head to the port early. Tell us about the embarkation or check in process.
Like you guys are, you go, guys go to the concierge check in desk and all of that is everything smooth sailing in terms of check in.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: Yep. Super easy, super fast. They gave us a sticker when you go through there. It's the gold sticker for concierge. And then of course, as soon as you go up the escalator, they're, you know, they're, they realize you're concierge, so they kind of escort you back to the concierge lounge, which was great. I mean, of course we've known it's there and it's this mysterious, you know, behind the wall concierge lounge. I made just a room and just a room and they've got, you know, a fridge with soft drinks and, you know, space there for you. But the concierge staff did come in. It was our first chance to meet them and kind of go through and like you said, tell us some of the perks of, of concierge, a lot of which we knew already because once we, you know, the two weeks ahead of time, my wife and I really started doing our research and thinking about, okay, wow, what are we getting now?
And then, obviously getting on the ship was super easy. They escort you Onto the ship. You're kind of the first ones on, I think, maybe other than people who were doing it back to back.
And we did go straight to the lunch, the concierge lunch, which we are sit down lunch people.
We always do a sit down lunch. You'll sort of hear we kind of have these traditions that we do and we like to do. And that was kind of what made this ship, this sailing, so much fun because we kind of switched it up a little bit and it was like, almost like being on a different ship or a bit different or small, you know, just doing things a little bit different. But.
[00:29:24] Speaker B: Well, you went to a different location for lunch.
[00:29:26] Speaker A: Well, a different location, yeah. So we went to Royal Court instead of animators, which is where we would typically have gone.
But we've only ever done cabanas once. And it was the one my wife and I went on ourselves.
We said the kids would never go because they're like, the sit down lunch is how we do. And we actually typically even order the same thing at the lunch. And I'm like, I don't know if I want the muff a lot of this time. Well, dad, you always get it.
And we sort of solidified that when we were cruising a couple of cruises we did during COVID where you had to get the testing. I don't think, unless you live through that, that experience of showing up and not knowing if you were getting on the ship until the test cleared. That's. And one time we did the test and they're like, we get the email and it's like one of you is inconclusive and you have to retest. And of course it was me. So I had to go down and retest. And the kids are like, dad has Covid. And I'm like, I don't have Covid. I feel fine. And of course I was fine, but. But that getting on the ship and sitting down in the sit down lunch and like we're on vacation, we can breathe. If you hadn't been through that, I mean, the last thing we wanted to do was go up into the chaos of cabanas. So we love cabanas, but just at that moment, that's not what we want to do. So, yeah, so we went to Royal Court. It's very similar menu. There's a couple additional things on the menu. And of course, free drinks also at the concierge lunch. And it was great. It was very relaxing.
Service took a while, I think, because everyone kind of went straight there when they came in. So it Took a little longer than it typically does, but then we headed up to the room. Which one perk is you get into the room earlier.
So they did say when the concierge staff came out to the terminal, they said, well, you get in the room at 12:30, and those of you on Deck 10, because some of the rooms on Deck 10 are Concierge, and some of them are not. They said, if the blue rope might be up, just duck under it. We're like, really just duck under it? And they said, yeah, your room will be available at 12:30. So.
[00:31:23] Speaker B: So the wish, treasure and destiny. If you have one of those rooms in the front of the ship on. It's on deck we were on. That's Deck 11, I want to say, and maybe also Deck 10. Yeah, you have to do the same thing. You have to just duck under the rope. And then also on the Magic and the Wonder, it's on Deck 8, where it's also. It's a mix of concierge and non concierge rooms. And so you just have to duck under. So, yeah, it's one of those things. And other guests will see you doing it, and they'll look at you sideways, but. But just. Just keep moving.
[00:31:57] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:31:57] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:31:58] Speaker A: It so happened. There was a state room attendant standing there when we walked in, and he opened it for us, so we actually didn't have to duck under it. He saw our stickers again and. And let us in and. And we. We went over to the room.
[00:32:08] Speaker B: And that's really the reason for the stickers, by the way. So people, you know, people always think, oh, it's like. It's like a, you know, it's a humble brag or whatever. You're wearing this gold sticker, right. And I guess it is a little bit it. But it really is so that the staff can direct you to the right lunch for. So the staff can direct you that you can't, you know, that you can access your room earlier. Right. Like, it. It does differentiate you just for that first day, and then after that, nobody knows anything unless they're looking at your key card. But you. Because your key to the world card is a different color than the regular key to the world card, which is another thing people don't know. But that's, again, just so, like, when you're getting popcorn at the movie theater, you get free popcorn instead of having to pay for it when you show that key to the world card. Yeah. So, yeah, it's all. All the. All those little things. Let's change topics. I want to talk about the concierge lounge, because I, you know, we know that it was updated in the dry dock and expanded. They did that both on the fantasy and on the dream.
Really, really nice, you know, expansion and gave you some actual ability to see the ocean, which you couldn't do from those concierge sun decks.
And they both have, I believe, a hot tub on.
On their sun deck as well, although no other water feature.
But that's an upgrade as compared to the, you know, the magic and the wonder, which have no. No, no water feature. In fact, the magic has no sun deck. What did you guys think of the lounge as a benefit?
You know, obviously, there's food in there pretty much all the time. You can have your kind of lighter breakfast in there if you. If you want to avoid going to, you know, cabanas or to Cove Cafe and whatnot. Yeah. How much use did you feel like you got out of the lounge?
[00:33:55] Speaker A: Quite a bit. So I would say the lounge and the sun deck were probably our favorite perk of concierge. So, like I said, our kids are teenagers. They're a little bit older and kind of the way we do things, they are pretty independent when we're on the ship. They do not really go to the kids clubs. They did a little bit when they were younger, and they had to go to the kids clubs for us to do things like Palo or. Or go to the spa or things like that.
But now they don't really go. They don't go to the teen clubs, and so they like to have their independence. Sometimes we'll do things together. Sometimes Angie and I might go to an adult trivia or an adult show or something like that, and they'll kind of do their own thing. And so that ability for us as a family, but for them also, just the two of them to go up to the lounge and grab a drink, grab a bite to eat was. Was great.
The sun deck was really, really nice. We typically are not the. You know, we don't hang out a ton on the main pool deck, like where the kid soup is and the funnel vision and everything.
During the prime hours, when we are looking to have some outdoor time and pool time, we kind of try to find areas that are a little quieter. Like, I think it's the wish class that has the Chippendales pool. Like, it's a little quieter. We'd go there.
And so that sun deck was so nice. It was never really very crowded. The only time we saw the concierge lounge crowded was disembarkation when everyone was kind of up there getting off the ship, even at sort of prime time, 5 o', clock, when they would open for. Because the way it works with the drinks, they have a bar in there. It is open the first afternoon for basically from when you get on the ship until about 3 or 4 o'.
[00:35:48] Speaker B: Clock.
[00:35:48] Speaker A: And they have complimentary drinks like champagne, beer and wine and like cloud and Blue for the kids. And then.
But that's the only day that the bar is open for complimentary drinks. It's open all the time to pay for drinks. And then in the evenings, I think it's 5 to 10 or 5 to 11 or something like that, it's open for complimentary. So of course, at 5, a lot of people are going to get their. Get their complimentary drinks.
And so even then it wasn't that crowded, I mean, because people have different dining times and people are, you know, doing their thing, going to different places. So that time of day was really great for us. So we went to shows on two of the nights and we saw Aladdin and we saw Frozen, and we took advantage of the perk in concierge to show up at the lounge. And then they actually take you down early to the show. I think you have to get there about 40 minutes before the show starts. And then. Then they take you down in a freight elevator actually, or staff elevator and sort of backstage. And then you get off the elevator and you're in the Walt Disney Theater. And like you mentioned earlier, they hand you the popcorn. I mean, that is really a little perk. I mean, popcorn is not that expensive. But, you know, typically, you know, being cost conscious, I'm like lugging the popcorn bucket on from the previous cruise. Right. And so, because I don't want to pay for the new popcorn bucket.
And so.
[00:37:07] Speaker B: And then we're the $2 refill.
[00:37:09] Speaker A: That's right. And then we're passing the bucket around. Right. And so for us each to have our own popcorn. Like our son, it doesn't even like popcorn, but he's like, oh, like, I have my own and I can, like, eat it. You know, no one's like, grabbing in the bucket. And it was just like, really nice. So we could pick whatever seat we wanted. And that was just a great time for us to, you know, just kind of be there as a family and hanging out and having a drink or mocktail for the kids or soda and then waiting. Waiting for the show to start. And so we did that two nights and Then the other two nights we didn't go to the show and we really just had some time up as a family. And the sun deck, we got in the hot tub and it was really like almost like a private. There was hardly anyone up there at all. So the lounge, I understand, like you mentioned, we never went in it, of course, before.
It is now Hercules themed, but very subtly Hercules themed. So there's some artwork, I think, you know, from the animation.
It's very, you know, well appointed and then, you know, pretty good size. There's like the main. Main area with the bar, but then you sort of go back down a hallway where they have the food set up and there's some additional chairs out there. And then you go up outside and up a stair staircase to get to the concierge lounge, which, yes, you can. It does go out to the. I can't remember whether it's port or starboard, but it does go all the way to the railing, so you can see out, see out from there. Another really nice perk of that sun deck was for the pirate night fireworks.
So of course they have the show on the fantasy. It is not the pirate parlay that they have on the Wish class, but they have the deck show.
And of course, we've gone to that a number of times.
We like to watch the fireworks. We don't necessarily need to see the deck show again.
And so we were able to go up there to the sun deck maybe 15, 20 minutes before the show, get a drink or not, whatever your preference is, and then get on our lounger. They're walking around with blankets, you know, handing them out, and sit there and be just, you know, relaxed and not too crowded and watch the fireworks from the. From the concierge deck, which is. Which was super nice. So again, not something you can necessarily put a price on, but it allowed our kids to have some additional independence, even more so and really felt like a smaller ship within a ship in a lot of ways.
[00:39:26] Speaker B: Ways, absolutely. And that's, I think, the concept that most of the cruise lines are going for with their concierge experience. You know, obviously some cruise lines call it Rockstar Mega Rockstar. On Virgin, they call it the Retreat. On Celebrity, they call it C Class Star Class and Sky Class on.
I'm doing that the wrong order. C Sky Star on Royal. Right. Like they have different names for it, but they're trying to create this sort of ship within a shop ship concept where you don't feel like you are with 2,000 or 4,000 people on the ship. You feel like you're just with maybe a couple hundred people on the ship, because the people that you run into over and over again are more likely to be people who are also staying in concierge because you're going into that lounge, you are going to. You're being escorted to the theater together as a group. All of. All of those things really do sort of of. I think they create a circumstance where you kind of can relax a little bit more. I'm not saying it's a necessary thing. I. There are plenty of people can relax without having any concierge benefits, but it is nice to not have to sort of do some of that extra waiting, that extra planning. You still, of course, as you mentioned, you got to go, depending on the ship, maybe 30 minutes or 40 minutes for, you know, wherever the meeting spot is for the show. But. But it means I'm not waiting standing in the hallway for an hour if I want to get a front row seat for whatever the stage show is. So it's just a, you know, there. It doesn't mean you're not waiting. It's just you're perhaps waiting in a more comfortable circumstance. Right. Like I'm sitting on a. On a chair with a drink in my hand instead of standing in a hallway or sitting on the floor in the hallway. Right.
[00:41:11] Speaker A: So I'm sure that's even more of a perk for the new shows and the, you know, Moana and we. We have been on the Treasure and did. Did go down there an hour ahead of time to get in line to. To see that. So for that and for Hercules on the Destiny, I'm sure that's a tremendous perk. Those shows, you know, the Aladdin and Frozen, we love them, but they're. They're on multiple ships and both, you know, a lot of people have seen them. So the lines were quite as long.
[00:41:32] Speaker B: Yeah, they've been over the show. The shows that have been around for longer just don't have that same level of demand. Right. You're gonna. You have an easier time getting a good seat in the Walt Disney Theater because a lot of people who are on the ship have already been, and they may decide, I'm gonna skip the show tonight. I've seen that. I've seen Aladdin 10 times before. I've seen, you know, Frozen multiple times before. I mean, there are diehards like me who want to go and see, you know, almost every show or. Or every show depending, but there are plenty of people who are like, okay, I've seen that One. I mean, you. And you guys chose the third show you. You skipped, which would have been leave.
[00:42:12] Speaker A: Yes, I think that's right. Yeah. Which we have seen. So we like it, but we were just enjoying ourselves up there. I will say the hot tub is a real perk because, as you know, hot tubs are kind of at a premium on Disney Cruise Line, particularly for kids. I mean, you. They, you know, like the wish class, there's, I think, one hot tub that's not in the spa and it's in the adult area.
[00:42:32] Speaker B: Right. There's none for the kids. There's no family.
[00:42:35] Speaker A: You know, they really. Our kids like to do stuff.
They like to do kids stuff, but they like to do stuff. They've always liked to go out to nice dinners and do those sorts of things. And so if they had a feeling like, almost like doing things that are in the adult area, had a feel for the adult area. But of course, they can't go to that yet because they're, you know, still underage. So. But the concierge sun deck kind of gave them that feel.
[00:42:54] Speaker B: Absolutely. I want to. I want to pivot over to lookout because you guys did get to experience a cabana for the first time. And of course, you mentioned it wasn't because you were staying concierge. It just happened to be that they were ones still available. When your platinum booking window opened. Opened, which cabana did you end up choosing? What did you think of the cabana experience?
And how was the erosion issue at the cabanas? That's. I know that's been a big issue in that over at Mabrika Cove area.
[00:43:23] Speaker A: Yes, we were. We were tracking that a lot on, you know, YouTube and all of that ahead of time. So we. We chose, I believe it was cabana 14. So it was about halfway down, A little more than halfway. Just past where the food is. Is.
And the erosion, I will say, was fine.
They have, for now, fixed it at both ends of the beach.
You know, it looked like we walked all the way down both ends of the beach. And the erosion, at least when we were there, was in good shape. It was a picture perfect day. I mean, amazing weather. And I will say, because I know at some point you're going to ask, probably did this, you know, do you always have to do concierge again? You know, now can you go back to.
And I will say, you know, spoiler alert. The answer is no. We did really like it, and I think we will do it again, but we don't feel like we would have to do it all the time. But this cabana, it's going to be hard to go back to being on the beach.
[00:44:16] Speaker B: I think that's hilarious. So it's funny because of course one of the benefits for concierge is the availability of get or the ability to get a cabana. Now of course, you being platinum, you have some ability. It just depends on the sailing. It's going, it really is going to depend on just, you know, what's. And safe with pearl. We're pearl and sometimes we can get a cabana just being pearl and other times there's zero chance of getting a cabana. It's just, you just, it's, it's so funny. It really, it's, you know, how full is the sailing, but also how full is concierge. That's really the biggest, you know, that's the biggest factor that impacts that cabana availability.
[00:44:56] Speaker A: So I'll say this, I mean both with regards to the cabana and the concierge, like we would not recommend them for a first time cross cruiser. I mean, I feel like you should experience Disney Cruise Line, you know, as it is, which is wonderful. And again, you know, we love it. Obviously we keep coming back and it's a, it's a product that we think is worth the value for our family. But you know, it would be hard to know what to compare it to. Right. And there's that, that other area of the island where the main beaches are and the family beach and the adult beach and the food and the, the things you mentioned, the, the splash pad and the Junkanoo parade and all of that. We've experienced that before, so.
But I heard an episode recently that you all did where you went on the Treasure and you went to the new cabanas right. At Castaway.
And I was kind of comparing it to our experience and one thing that makes these cabanas great is they're actually much closer to the.
[00:45:48] Speaker B: Yes. Closer to the ship. Yeah, you're actually fantastic.
[00:45:51] Speaker A: So once you get over that pier, you're there, you don't have to worry about getting on the tram.
And it is just so. We love looking at the ship. We love having that view of the ship. So in thinking about course Castaway, this is the first, I don't know if it was the first cruise we've been on, but one of the first where we didn't go to Castaway. So we've gone to Castaway several times. We love it. And we have a spot that we love going to a castaway, which I'M not going to mention on your podcast because I don't want anyone else to take it. But it has a. It's, it's a. I wouldn't call it private, but it's, it's not quite as crowded. It's shady. You get to look back and have a really nice view of the ship. And we love that. And we felt like when we went to Lookout, the beach is gorgeous and it is amazing, but it is very crowded. You know, the beach. Beach chairs are kind of lined up right next to each other and it's just, it's a lot, it's a lot going on. And, you know, we just felt like the experience of having our own space, if not private beach, a very secluded beach. But we could be. We could hang out up on our deck, we could hang out down in the water. We could hang out in our.
In, inside, in the room. Of course, it's nice having the drinks and the snacks and all of that. The food, that was great having that right there because the lines can get kind of long for the food at Lookout, so they have the food area that you can go get it. You can either eat over there, you can bring it back. You know, it was very close to us, so we just brought it back and sat at the table outside on our back deck overlooking the beach. And it was great.
[00:47:21] Speaker B: I think the only thing missing is the soft serve, right? I think that's the one thing that's right.
[00:47:25] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:47:26] Speaker B: Yeah, they actually have. They have real ice cream, but it's.
[00:47:29] Speaker A: They have hand scooped ice cream, but no soft serve there. Yeah, yeah. But they have some extra food items.
[00:47:34] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:47:35] Speaker A: That they don't have. Like, they had a steak and tuna steak and I think they had shrimp and crab claws too there, I believe.
[00:47:42] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:47:44] Speaker A: They definitely had that because we didn't get it, but I was surprised by that. I had not heard that before.
[00:47:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think I. I mean, it wasn't there when we. The steak was there and there was also, like, there were also fish options, but I don't remember there being crab claws and shrimp, which, you know, who, who doesn't love peel and eat shrimp and crab claws? Fantastic. Yeah.
[00:48:06] Speaker A: So just the convenience and, and having that, it was, it was. I mean, of course the weather was great, so that. But we felt like we had. I mean, we were, you know, of course we got off as soon as we were able to get off in the morning and we were able to stay there. That was.
You mentioned, I think, about the new Cabanas. At Castaways, you felt like you didn't have enough time there. And we really felt like we had the whole, the whole day. You know, I can't remember when our all I, you know, I think it was about 3, 45 or 4. We had to, we had to head back. But, but it was a great experience.
[00:48:34] Speaker B: I love that. I think it's, it's so funny how that works how sometimes like you, it's. Well, it's, it's the same with like the castaway cabanas. Right. Like, to me, like, the older cabanas at Castaway are the better option to the newer cabanas. But at Lookout, the ones that are more secluded. Right. Are the better option to, you know, for cabanas, you know, reverses. Of course, the only option on the regular beaches is the Serenity Bay. So the adult only cabanas over, you know, all the way on the other side. But yeah, I mean, it's, it's just funny how that works.
It doesn't, it's not necessarily intuitive, right. It's not like, you know, it's. Being secluded is not a negative, but I 100% agree with you.
If somebody is a first timer going on Disney Cruise Line, don't get a cabana, even if there's one available to you. Don't sail concierge, even if you could maybe afford it for that one cruise, like, because I do think you will miss out on the other experiences. You know, I think it's great for someone who has. You've been on the fantasy, you know, multiple times before, so you've experienced the rest of the ship. So the fact that you spend more time in the concierge lab lounge does not detract from the other offerings on board because you can still go to your favorite things on board and the things that you, you know, can skip, you just skip. Right. And spend that time. So it's a nice balance, I think for an experienced cruiser to have, you know, just the opportunity to do concierge. And maybe it's a one and done. Maybe the person falls in love with it and that's their way of sailing. But I completely agree with you. I think not necessary. And I also would say for a cabana, I would. It's. We see in the Facebook groups all the time people asking, oh, I really want to get a cabana. It's like time cruiser. Like, no, you're actually better off really experiencing, whether it's Castaway or Lookout, like, experience the stuff that is available on the island, get that experience the first time and then decide, is this something I would like to try or that something I need? Now, there are people, of course, who have specific circumstances that maybe need a cabana and, you know, for the shade or whatnot. Medical disabilities, those kinds of things. But in general, you don't need a cabana as a. As a general man. Even though it's a really lovely and wonderful thing to have and maybe, Matt, you'll never go back if you can get it every time.
[00:50:55] Speaker C: It was.
[00:50:55] Speaker A: It was really great. It's probably the best beach day we've ever had as a family. We agree in that it was just. It was. It was picture perfect, for sure.
[00:51:02] Speaker B: Yeah, it does help with the sunburn as well, because you can get out of the shade or get out of the sun a little bit better and. And have some place to reapply your sunscreen.
And they're also equipped with sunscreen as long as you're not picky about what kind of sunscreen. They usually have a, like a copper tone cream sunscreen. Not. They don't have any of the spray ones in the cabanas typically. All right, Matt. Well, let's jump back on board. Actually, let's jump over to NASA. I gotta ask. Did you guys get off the ship at NASA or are you. Sea day is my NASA day.
[00:51:35] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a sea day for us. So we did our Apollo brunch that day. My wife and I did our Apollo brunch and.
Which was. Are complimentary first one as platinum, which was. Which was fun. We now that our kids are a little older, one of our family activities has become going to the gym together.
So we did that. We all went up to the gym and worked out together. Actually, both Nassau day and the at sea day.
I'm a runner and I sort of forgot this is a tip because I was like, well, I'll wait till the Nassau day to run around because I like going to the gym and running on the treadmill. But I also love running around Deck 4. But I sort of forgot that on the Nassau day, they're doing, you know, they're taking the lifeboats down and they're doing those sort of crew exercises. And you usually can't get all the way around the lap on deck four.
[00:52:26] Speaker B: So, yeah, your best chance to run on the ship on deck four on the four classic ships. It's a horrible idea on the wish class because there isn't. It's not even half of a loop that you get on the wish class because of the stairs and then the back is, is closed. So you can only do actually a U on the wish class class. But that includes going up two floor flights of stairs and going down two flights of stairs. So it's horrible. But on the four classic ships, the best day to run is on a sea day because that's your best chance. I mean they might still be doing some stuff. So it might still be, you might still have to do a U because sometimes they'll be doing, you know, painting or maintenance or whatnot. But you'll have a chance of getting the full circle versus if you're at port. There's almost no chance that you're going to have that full circle available because of whatever crew maintenance or exercises and all stuff that they're doing on that, on that deck, unfortunately. But yeah, good pro tip for, for those looking to get a run.
[00:53:24] Speaker A: Well, I was thinking, you know, some, I don't get seasick. I found one of the reasons we put off doing a cruise is because I was afraid I would. But I haven't, you know, knock on wood, gotten motion sick. But a couple times when I've been running when the ship's moving, I've been like, it kind of throws off your equilibrium a little bit as you're doing those laps. And so I was like, oh, wait till we're stopped in Nassau. But our kids went out to lunch when we went to Palo brunch. So they went out and did the two of them, the sit down lunch. And it was so nice because it so happened our server from the main dining room was working at the lunch and she saw them and took care of them and gave them a seat by the window. And it was, it was super nice. It was one of those real nice Disney Cruise Line touches. Really nice. Wonderful. Yeah, they felt very special.
[00:54:04] Speaker B: I think that's great when the staff really like make that effort to have that connection, particularly with the kids and to make them feel like welcome and then they get to feel like they're kind of adult. I mean, and as you said, they're teens so they are getting closer. Right. They get to, to feel that level of independence but also get that, that level of service when it's just them and it's not a situation of oh, I'm catering to you because your parents are right in front of me. No, I'm catering to you because you are my customer also. And I think that that's just one of those lovely touches that we tend to see on Disney Cruise Line. Now you can see it on other cruise lines as well. And sometimes you don't see it on Disney Cruise Line, but I think as a general matter, most of the time we see that. Now, what about some of the other activ.
Do you guys do trivia or family game shows or crafts or any of that kind of stuff?
[00:54:57] Speaker A: Yeah, we all sort of have our own favorite things, and we kind of do them together. So we do love the trivia. Our daughter, in particular, loves the trivia. We never really win the family trivia, but there's. Cause there's the one we really like, although we're terrible at it, is the Disney music one where the pianist plays the songs on the piano. That's always a lot of fun. But then you can't quite recognize them. They don't sound exactly the same. And then when they give the answer, you're like, oh, of course. That was it. My wife loves to do the drawing. So she's an architect, and so she's a very good artist. And she loves to go to those drawing ones where they show the video the Disney animator, and you draw along. And then typically one of us maybe is off doing something else, and then we'll show that person everyone's drawings without saying who's and who's.
[00:55:41] Speaker B: Oh, and everybody has to guess. That person has to guess. I love.
[00:55:44] Speaker A: Which is kind of fun.
[00:55:44] Speaker B: Do they always. Do they always figure out which one's Angie's because it's that much better than the rest the of. Yes.
[00:55:49] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:55:49] Speaker A: 100% yes.
Yeah. And so we did one of those. Our son usually likes to go see a movie. That's kind of a fun thing he likes to do is go see a movie. And sometimes one of us will go with him. And then my wife and I like to do the music trivia quite a lot. So as well as, you know, we go see Match youh Mate and those kind of things. But yeah, usually during the day, we may do the game shows as well, but it's, you know, a combination of. Of time by the pool. Of course, the concierge sun deck was great this time. And some of the various activities around. Usually we're hearting all of the activities the first day, you know, in the. In the. In the terminal when you first get on the app. And then we might get to half of them.
[00:56:28] Speaker B: That's how I feel. Like I heart everything in the app. And then I'm lucky if I make it to, like, 50% of those things because I just have FOMO. So I want to go to everything.
But then Ultimately, I know, like, Brian is the relaxer. He's much better at that. I try and do a little bit of relaxing, but I inevitably am also. Also running around to different activities. It's. There's about. I try to balance. It's. It's hard for me to do that, though. Absolutely. Well, Matt, have we. You know, actually, I want to ask you about food because that's always. You know, we have had a lot of hits and misses lately on Disney Cruise Line. I think we've. We've been lucky to have mostly hits and a few, you know, kind of meth, but nothing really bad. But I actually did hear recently, we just recorded an episode yesterday where there was some. A few bad dishes. It sounds like you had a good serving team. But I'm curious, how was the. You know, how did you find the food quality? I've already heard that they've changed up some of the menus. They're introducing new menus onto the classic four ships, but I don't think they would have done that as of your sailing. You probably got all the classic menus.
[00:57:31] Speaker A: It was the classic, classic menus. We thought the food was very good.
So a couple of the restaurants, we felt like it was our, you know, best experience eating in those. In those restaurants. And like I said, our server was terrific. Even though we'd eaten in these restaurants before, she really made it feel like we were eating in her house. I mean, she was so welcoming, and she was like, as soon as she was kind of impressed with our kids having a little bit more of a sophisticated palate, like, you know, the first night, my son's ordering the duck, and she's like, you know, okay, so we're. Wait, he's not ordering something a little different here, so.
Right.
[00:58:05] Speaker B: And so.
[00:58:05] Speaker A: But that's one of the things we love about. About Disney Cruise Line is the ability to try new things. If we were going out, you know, to a fancy rest, let's say, at Walt Disney World. Right? Okay. So if you order it, you know, and then you don't like it, well, now what are you gonna do? So you're gonna have to order something else or go hungry or get food later at the resort. So the nice thing about the cruise line, it gives you opportunity. And I will say with the concierge lounge, that provided some opportunity for, like, cocktails, that kind of thing for us. So, like, on pirate night, you know, they have so many people order old fashions. They have the old fashions like pre made behind the concierge bar. And Just for you to add whatever bourbon you want, basically. And I like old fashions, but, you know, I want something different from time to time. And it was pirate night. So I asked the bartender, you know, I kind of like something with rum in it. It's pirate night. I feel like I'd be more festive. I like old fashions, but I want something with rum. And he's like, well, have you ever had old Cuban? It's this drink with rum. And da da da was like, no, why don't you bake it for me? And it was great. I mean, and I would have never thought to order it.
And even if it had been on a menu, I'm not sure I would have ordered it because I'm like, I don't know if I would like this. And it cost $15. And I'll go with what I know, Right? So the opportunity to kind of try those different things is a lot of fun. And one of the things we like being on the cruise line. And with the desserts, she. From the first night, our server, Crystal, was like, I'm just going to bring out what I think you're going to like. Right?
And so she just brought out these desserts, and we sort of trusted her from the beginning. And it was. It was. It was great. It was a. It was a terrific. And sort of in the back of our minds were like, does she know her concierge? And that's why she's treating us like this. And I don't know whether that's. Whether that's the case, whether she does or not.
[00:59:40] Speaker B: So she does know your concierge. And I will tell you. And the reason I will tell you that is as a general matter, this is. There might be exceptions to every rule, but as a general matter, if you're sailing concierge, you're getting, like better dining staff. I know that. That's. I feel. I feel kind of bad saying this because we've had some great din staff. It's not sailing concierge, but they do try to ensure that the concierge guests are not getting, like a brand new server. They are typically getting a more seasoned server. And typically the better performing servers are assigned to concierge tables. So that. That is something that does exist. That's. That is a real thing. And so your service level, if you're saying concierge in main dining, overall, you should. If you don't have a good experience in main dining and you're sailing concierge, there is a problem. And you should let the staff know now regular sailing you is hit or miss. Right. You might get an awesome team and you might get a not so awesome team. I would say in general, you know, the servers are quite good, but every once in a while you, you know, you get a dud, either personality wise or somebody who just doesn't really know what they're doing. And then it's total mess. But for me, at least one of
[01:00:59] Speaker A: them is very solid.
[01:01:00] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:01:01] Speaker A: Usually, you know, sometimes it'll be a super experienced, you know, main server, but then the assistant server is due. And although we have had some great, some great pairs as well, you know, of course, this was the only time we were concierge and each of the other, we at least one and often both are really good.
[01:01:17] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. You know, one thing you mentioned early on was canceling those drink tastings. And I'm curious how all that panned out. I actually think that's a really smart move. You're saying concierge, you're getting all of these included drinks. If you want them, you don't have to take, you know, you don't have to be someone who drinks alcohol to sail concierge. But it is one of the benefits that you get included drinks, as you mentioned, from 5 to 10pm in the concierge lounge. I wish they would expand that so you could get your drinks in other places as well.
But you can stop by the lounge and then take your drink wherever you're going for the evening. But, you know, it does give you the opportunity to try different things. Like you said, you might not order off of a menu. You might. You know, I, I think it's great if you can find a great bartender and there are some in the lounge. You just give them, give yourself over to them. Kind of like you do with a tasting menu. Like, just say, hey, I want a rum drink, or hey, I want a gin drink. Right. Tell them what spirit you want and then let them create something for you. Did you find that that was something that worked for you? Did you miss doing the drink tastings?
[01:02:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, we really didn't. We sort of said, you know, it's not that long a cruise anyway, and. And we want to experience that being in the lounge and all of that. We did have, like I mentioned the one where. And there was a couple other occasions. And my son in particular really loves mocktails.
And so he will do that often. He will say, I want something that has this flavor profile. And they will. I want passion or I want Exactly. Or earthy, not Too sweet. You know, something like that.
[01:02:52] Speaker B: Oh, he's gonna be a problem when he's on.
[01:02:54] Speaker A: I think so, yes. Actually, we talked a little bit about out there and like another experience. I will say we didn't. We did sort of. When we did pay for a drink, which we did maybe two or three times, you sort of have that moment, like, should I be paying for a drink? Because I could be getting it for. But like we went to see Match youh Made, which was in the tube. And so we're in there, it's 10:30 and the tube is all the way on the other side of the ship from the concierge lounge. And it's like, well, they have this drink menu. We're sitting here like, let's just get a drink. Or we did the music 80s music trivia there as well. And so one thing we did get, because our Apollo server had recognized. Recommended. You know, we love. We're big coffee drinkers. We love the COVID Cafe and love coffee. And on a previous sailing, Angie had had an espresso martini and didn't really like it. And so I'd sort of been turned off of espresso martinis. And our server at Paula was like, you have to go to the COVID Cafe at this time of day to this person and get him to make you an espresso martini. And he did. And it was amazing. She loved it. So, like, that was an amazing experience for her as well.
And just. Yes, it's very true. On something like this, you can sort of give yourself over to the experience in a way that you might not do on land.
[01:04:03] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And you might not do when you're paying for the drink too. Right. Like, I mean, obviously you did for the COVID Cafe espresso Martini with a. But that was with a specific recommendation. But then in the lounge you can do it because it get. It's inc. It's an included drink. So if you don't like it, don't drink it. It's the same with the dining. Right. When like, you. You mentioned, you know, if I'm buying duck at the Parks and my K doesn't like it, I care because now I've got to buy him another meal. But if he orders stuff on the cruise line and he doesn't like it, oh, well, the server will bring him something different. Right. So it's. Yeah, it gives you like quite a bit of. Quite a bit of freedom. Well, Matt, is there anything that we have missed? Good, bad or ugly? I like to say, you know, it sounds like this was an amazing sailing.
Sounds like you liked concierge, but maybe wouldn't pay for it if you had to pay for it yourself.
[01:04:56] Speaker A: We'll talk about that in a minute when you probably when you me what's coming next. But I will say one thing that happened, and the only reason I mentioned it is because it had never happened to us before.
So I can't remember which night it was. It was either the second, I think it was the second night. So at three in the morning, there was a announcement through into the state room and it was like assessment team, assessment team. And it gave this message about going to inspect a. Something that was happening at the garbage silo, right. And it was sort of like a coded, kind of mysterious announcement. And it woke our son. Slept through it, I don't know how.
And you know, when you're on the cruise, you're sleeping pretty hard. You know, you're the movement of the ship and the bed so comfortable and all of that. But our. It woke my wife and daughter and I up and my wife went on the balcony, she's looking out, she's like, are we still moving? Are we still going the same direction? Like, whatever. And so we come back in, we're going back to sleep. At about 20, 20 minutes afterwards, they came over again and they said with regards to the previous announcement, you know, basically, don't worry about it. It was, you know, it's, it's, it's been taken care of. There was never anyone in danger at any time. We're sorry for the inconvenience. And so I was sort of wondering, like, was it supposed to go to all the state rooms? Was it only supposed to go to the crew? And one of the crew, we asked, and one of the crew members told us afterwards, the next day that there actually had been a small fire. Fire in the garbage silo. And so this was just their protocol to, you know, there is a certain assessment team that goes and checks that. And I said, well, was it a mistake that they put it in everyone's stateroom rather than just to the crew? And they said, oh no, that's on purpose. Because if the fire does get like they've started to, like that's that first protocol to wake people up to the next stage of like, actually you have to do something, you have to move to another partnership or something. So that was a new one for us. And she said, the crew member we talked to said it was relatively rare that that sort of thing happens. We've had medical emergencies, you know, Having to turn around and go back into Nassau or whatever. Previously on previous cruises. But. But this was a new one for us.
[01:07:01] Speaker B: Yeah, that. I mean, it is a very rare occurrence, but, yeah, I.
My impression was exactly what you were told by the crew member, which is that they are. This is purposely announced for every stateroom, so it starts to stir people. So in case there is. There is.
I mean, obviously, in the very, very, very rare case, in case there's some kind of evacuation that has to happen there, people are already somewhat awake, and they're gonna. People can move faster if they need to. Right. If it is. If it ends up being an emergency and everybody has to, you know, get into the lifeboats or something like that, which, you know, is obviously the extreme circumstance. But they have all these different levels. It's like DEFCON 1. Right. Like. Or whatever. Right. Like it's. It's. Or not one. I guess it's the opposite.
I can't remember if DEFCON counts up or counts down, but whatever. It's like, you know, it's the lowest.
[01:07:53] Speaker A: It counts. So one is the worst.
[01:07:55] Speaker B: One is the worst. Okay, so we knew that from the
[01:07:57] Speaker A: 80s movie War Games with Matthew Broderick. I remember that.
[01:08:00] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:08:00] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:08:00] Speaker B: We love war games in this household. Yeah. Do you want to play a game?
[01:08:05] Speaker A: Exactly, yes. Globo, Thermonuclear war.
[01:08:08] Speaker B: Nuclear war. That's right.
Oh, we're aging ourselves mad. Yes.
[01:08:13] Speaker A: You'll be able to hear from my.
Some of my answers coming up. What I know is coming, y'. All.
[01:08:19] Speaker B: I love it.
[01:08:20] Speaker A: You'll be able to tell what age I am.
[01:08:21] Speaker B: I love it. All right, well, we have reached that point in the show where I am going to subject to you some arbitrary rules, some arbitrary questions, and a dash of judgment, or the round we like to call Rapid Fire.
Welcome to Rapid Fire. Matt. I'm going to ask you some Disney Cruise Line, some Disney favorites, and then some Disney Cruise Line favorites. And, of course, with Disney, you can answer anything and everything that Disney owns. So I'll start with who is your favorite Disney character?
[01:08:49] Speaker A: Well, this is tough, of course, but I sort of felt like I had to go classic. And we are huge dog people, so I'm gonna say Pluto.
[01:08:56] Speaker B: Yes. That's Nathan's favorite as well. All right, what is your favorite Disney movie?
[01:09:02] Speaker A: Well, I'm gonna pick two here. And there are two real formative Disney movies for our. Our kids was sort of the two things that two of the movies that really got them into Disney when they were very little.
So for Our daughter, it's Tangled. Her favorite princess has always been Rapunzel, and I must have. It came out the same year she was born. And I must have watched that movie I don't know how many times, but only the happy parts. So she would not. When she was like a preschooler, she would not watch the parts with Mother Gothel. Like we had forward through those parts. And it was only till, you know, older in elementary school we'd actually watch the movie. But the part at the the end with, like, the happy ending where the parents are hugging her, like I've seen hundreds of times.
So Tangled. And then the other one, I remember specifically sitting down and watching one night with our son, and it was just the two of us, Wreck It Ralph. So he loved it because, you know, video games and was really into it. And of course, all the 80s references, like there's the homeless Qbert sitting in the. In the station and you know where they're going out to all the video games. And so that's at a retro. Retro part. I almost picked Fix It Felix for my favorite character, actually. But so those two, I think because of our kids and watching those when they were little. Tangled and Wreck It Ralph are my two favorites.
[01:10:20] Speaker B: I can't tell you how many times I watched the original Cars movie because of Nathan. So I. I totally understand that that doesn't have really any, like, scary parts, so we didn't have to worry about fast forwarding like, through Mother Gothel.
But yeah, yeah, that's hilarious. All right, favorite Disney song.
[01:10:41] Speaker A: So I get to pick my own on this one. And my favorite Disney song is Lost in the woods from Frozen 2.
[01:10:48] Speaker B: Yes. That is such a good song. Classic 80s ballad power ballad.
[01:10:54] Speaker A: Our hot take here. We like Frozen 2 better than Frozen 1. So we like Frozen 1, but the music we just love so much.
[01:11:01] Speaker B: I literally just had this same conversation the other day. Matt, I'm with you 100%. I think because of Lost in the Wood and Into the Unknown, I like into the Unknown better than Let It Go.
And Lost in the woods is clearly the best song in all of the Frozen universe by far.
[01:11:21] Speaker A: If you watch the behind the scenes, they talk about Jonathan Groff and how they were trying to write him a song because he'd only had that one little snippet in the first one. And he's this amazing renowned Broadway actor.
[01:11:31] Speaker B: He's your voice. Yeah, it's crazy. They didn't take advantage of his voice. Absolutely. I love that. Okay, moving on to the ships. We've got to Talk, your favorite Walt Disney theater stage show. So main stage show, not the variety acts, but it can be one of the jukebox musicals or one of the full length shows.
[01:11:55] Speaker A: Yeah. So we do love Seize the Adventure. I think a lot of that is because it's the first night and so you're so excited about being on the cruise. As far as the full length show, I think it's Beauty and the Beast. We've seen it on the Dream. And the track Treasure, our hot take, which you might not like, is we were not as enamored with Moana, so we did like it. And the first half of it was like, you know, blew you away. And we could not get over Maui, like the difference in the Maui character between the movie and. I know they made it different on purpose because you don't have Dwayne Johnson to play him. And, you know, but it just. We had a hard time getting past that. And then it's funny because we're like, well, maybe we had the understood study. And so then we went back in the room and you know how they show the. They were showing it in the room and it was a different one, I assume from like the original cast because we went on the Treasure last summer.
So it was not the original cast for the Treasure. And it was, of course, the actors were fine. It just. Something about that disconnect, I don't know. So it's Beauty and the Beast. Beauty and the Beast for us.
[01:12:58] Speaker B: No, I understand that. I think there is. I think you have to be very open minded in setting aside Dwayne the Rock Johnson. Like it. He is.
You can get a wonderful Moana who can play Moana, right? You can get a wonderful, you know, the parents or the grandma Tala. But like, the Rock is so specific and he plays Maui in such a specific way. And then the animated character has such a specific look as well. And so it's like the combination of those things. Unless you can really, like separate it in your head.
[01:13:33] Speaker A: Head.
[01:13:34] Speaker B: If you do that comparison, you're always going to be disappointed. And that's no shade to whoever's playing Maui. It's just impossible if you are not Dwayne the Rock Johnson to play Maui like he plays it. Right. So, yeah, it's really, really hard.
[01:13:49] Speaker A: That was one where expectations from listening to your podcast and others who were so high that it's like anything other than. But no, it's not your fault at all. But we enjoyed it for sure. And of course, if we go on the Treasure again, we'll Go see it again. But. And we're very excited if we. We do not have any plans to go out to Destiny right now, but for Hercules, because we do love that movie in our family.
[01:14:09] Speaker B: Yeah, it's fantastic. It's a great production as well. All right, well, moving over to favorite onboard activity, so I'm going to get
[01:14:17] Speaker A: to pick my own. And it is. It is music trivia. So, like, the 80s music trivia. 70s, 90s. So I've got that stretch of, like, from, like, the late 70s to the late 90s where I have a really strong knowledge of pop music.
We actually won. My wife and I won the 80s music trivia on this most recent cruise. It was our second time winning that.
And since we never typically do win the trivias, that was a real treat. But, yeah, I have older sisters that kind of got me into pop music at a much younger age than probably most kids would be.
And so, yeah, that's probably my favorite activity. Of course, there's lots of things we like to do together as a family, but that's. That's probably my favorite.
[01:15:01] Speaker B: All right, favorite rotational dining. And you can choose, of course, from any of the ships that you've been on.
[01:15:06] Speaker A: So I have to give a shout out to Enchanted Garden because I love it. And it's usually the one that people like. You know, it's the afterthought. But it has to be Coco. I mean, it's such a great experience. The food was amazing. And we actually.
When we went on the Treasure, we actually went to Coco five times. Times.
So we had the embarkation lunch. The embarkation lunch.
Three nights there, one night of which was the pirate menu, and then the breakfast the last day, because we had gone there the last night of the cruise. So we actually went into the restaurant five times, although we only had the, you know, the cocoa experience, the dinner twice, both of which we liked a lot. So we like. We loved both shows and both men.
[01:15:55] Speaker B: Awesome. All right, we gotta talk food. I want a favorite sweet item and then a favorite savory item. We save savory for last, because that's the best in my mind. And I'm the ruler of rapid fire, obviously, right?
[01:16:07] Speaker A: Yeah, obviously. And I agree with you. I prefer savory also. So I'm gonna go sort of basic items here and things that I really think of when I think of the Disney cruise. So for the sweet, I'm gonna say castaway, Soft serve the cookie. So put the soft serve in the cup instead of the cone and get a cookie and like smash it up in there and make a little soft.
[01:16:28] Speaker B: Oh, not even a sandwich.
[01:16:29] Speaker A: You're making yourself sandwiches. I can't do the two cookies. That's a little much like, I can't quite eat all that. So.
[01:16:34] Speaker B: Yeah, you're making yourself. What do they call that in? Is it like Dairy Queen? Yeah.
[01:16:40] Speaker A: Oh, like a blizzard.
[01:16:41] Speaker B: Like a blizzard, yes. You're making your.
[01:16:43] Speaker A: Like a homemade blizzard.
[01:16:44] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:16:44] Speaker A: Yeah. And then I felt like I just had to give for the sake of savory. You know, it's like our routine in the morning is usually I will go to Cove Cafe, get coffee for us. And usually our kids like something as well. And those warm croissants from COVID Cafe in the morning, that just starts out, it's, you know, how we start our day. Even though we were, you know, had access to the concierge lounge. That was one that we. I think there was one morning maybe I didn't get coffee but got the croissant anyway. So that, that really, really is kind of peak Disney Cruise Line for me. So that I have to give a shout out to as my favorite savory item.
[01:17:21] Speaker B: I love that. Okay, well, the most important question.
It's the second to last question of Rapid Fire. You knew this was coming.
The most important question, your favorite Disney Cruise Line ship.
[01:17:35] Speaker A: That's a tough one. Of course. I know.
[01:17:37] Speaker B: I think you only have two choices and I know the choices. Yeah.
[01:17:41] Speaker A: So like I said, we've been on Fantasy, Dream, Magic, Treasure, and the Wish.
I think it's the fantasy.
I think just simply because.
Just the memories we've made on the Fantasy. We've been on three cruises, so the first was the seven night on the Eastern Caribbean.
We went on a Cruise for my 50th birthday on the Fantasy of Fortnite. And then this most recent one where we had the concierge experience. We did love the Treasure and we loved our experience on it. We did the Western Caribbean on the Treasure and we love them all. We love, you know, have different things about them.
But if I had to pick one again, kind of peak Disney Cruise Line, I'd say the fantasy.
[01:18:25] Speaker B: Awesome. All right, now the last question of Rapid Fire before I ask you what's next is of course, your bucket list cruise, Matt. If you could go anywhere in the world on a Disney Cruise Line ship, it doesn't even have to be someplace that Disney Cruise Line goes currently. It could just be something somepl accessible by water. Where are you going?
[01:18:44] Speaker A: So I don't think I've ever heard this One mentioned on your podcast, but you would know. And it is a trip to the Holy Land in.
So I've seen Holy Land cruises, but other cruise lines, and that's someplace we'd never been to, Israel. And then some of the other sites down there, like in Greece and Turkey and some of those other areas, obviously right now, probably not able to go there because of the situation, you know, the instability over there. That's one that I would love to do, to be able to go see some of those amazing kind of spiritual historic sites during the day, but then to be able to kind of go from place to place on the. On the cruise on the Disney Cruise Line would be amazing.
[01:19:24] Speaker B: That would be an amazing itinerary. I think you're right. I don't think we've heard that before on the podcast, but I think that would be an amazing, amazing itinerary. There was some of those sites were going to be on that world cruise that we covered with with our friends Leslie and Jenny, but then that part of their cruise actually got cut and so they ended up having to make. In fact, Leslie and. And her sailing mate, they went and did those sites themselves. So they took sort of a detour off of the ship and went and still did some of those sites. But yeah, that world cruise was supposed to cover some of it, not all of it, obviously. Just depends sort of on the itinerary. But there are some really cool cruises that do that. So, yeah, that would be a fantastic one. All right. Well, Matt, you passed with flying colors.
Really? No judgment. You get bonus points for both Lost in the woods and also extra bonus points for picking Beauty and the Beast, of course. So, yeah, so flying colors on all of that. But of course, the most important question that Brian would want me to ask is, what have you got booked next? Do you have a placeholder? Do you actually have a booking? Are you considering concierge again?
[01:20:38] Speaker A: Yeah, so we actually have two bookings, one we've had booked for two years, and it's coming up this summer. 26, Alaska on the Wonder.
So we have not been on the Wonder, and so we're doing that in July.
[01:20:53] Speaker B: This is like. This is a bucket list cruise, Matt.
[01:20:56] Speaker A: I know, I know.
So, funny thing is, our date to book excursions was our last night on the spring break cruise. And so I actually won another perk we haven't mentioned is you get free wi fi for 24 hours on. And I used it on the last night to book from my bed in my stateroom.
The excursions for Alaska very Quick to save that 24.
[01:21:24] Speaker B: So we always use it on the first day and burn through it. But if we say concierge, we use that 24 hours and we're done with it. And then we pay for Internet. But like really smart if you don't want to pay for Internet and you use that 24 hour benefit at the end. Very.
[01:21:38] Speaker A: We told our kids we all get 24 hour. One of the things, of course, we love being on a cruise with, with our teenagers is there no access to the Internet, not their phones and all that. So we're like, all right, you get 24 hours. You can pick the 24 hours. But remember, you probably don't want to pick the lookout day because we're going to be off the ship and all that. So. Yeah, so. So that's coming up in July. And then relevant to the concierge. We had a couple of other cruises booked for next year. 27. And we ended up consolidating them into a spring break concierge back on the ferry fantasy.
So that's one where we sort of decided we're going to do, in this case, quality over quantity. And I hate to say that because they're all quality on Disney Cruise Line, but we did also on that one, get a deal because at least the time we booked, they were running a, they had never run the placeholder. You could, we did use a placeholder for that and you could never use a placeholder on, of course, concierge. But right now I think it's 10% or it was at the time we booked it.
[01:22:37] Speaker B: Yeah, it depends on the, the sailing. Not all sailings are eligible for it. There are select sailings that you can actually use that placeholder discount. So it always used to be you could still apply the, the deposit to a concierge sailing, but you wouldn't get the 10% off. So the benefit of the placeholder was worthless if you used it on a concierge sailing. Right. But now there are some, you know, they have run some deals at times where you can use it, but it's only, it's not on every sailing. But that, yeah, that's a great benefit. Just, just getting Even, you know, 10% off can change that calculus of is it worth it. Right. And that's the thing that I, that's why I urge people to like, figure out what's worth it to you, because what's worth it to me is not necessarily worth it to you and vice versa. Right. We all have our own decision making about what, what is Important. And what is our, you know, what's the benefit that we'll get and how much will we use that benefit? And so I think it's a very individual decision. And so I urge people, when they're thinking about booking that, that goes for any stateroom category for you. Like, you know, if you want to do A. And the U I'm using is the general you. Not Matt specifically, but like, you think, you know, inside stateroom is great for your family, or if you need to stay in the two bedroom, you know, tower suite, like, great, like, whatever works for you and your family. That calculus is going to be different for. For every person.
[01:23:58] Speaker A: I should mention, on the Alaska cruise, we did book or so with teenagers, you know, one room is becoming more and more of a challenge. Especially our son is getting pretty big for almost 14, and that top bunk doesn't get any bigger. So we did book for Alaska for the first time, two rooms, and we got a navigator veranda and an inside stateroom across the hall. And that combination was actually cheaper than a regular veranda room on the Wonder a one room, I think because there's fewer of the larger veranda room, which is what we normally get. So I think because there's fewer of those on the classic ships, so. So we're sort of excited to have a little more space. And I'm, I'm very. I've already called that bed in the inside stateroom. I think it's going to be a great night's sleep.
[01:24:42] Speaker B: Some people love this. Some people love the darkness of an inside stateroom. Oh, my God, Matt, you're gonna love. You're. You're just gonna love Alaska. Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Matt. It's been awesome chatting with you. Thanks again for being a Patreon. For those who don't know what that is, that means that you are somebody who basically spends some amount of money every month helping support our show. And so it does take money to put on this show. We, you know, we. When we first started, we didn't have patreons. We didn't have a sponsor like we. We were funding the show completely ourselves. And now we've gotten to the point where we actually are able to not just fund the show, but every year make charitable contributions with whatever excess we take in through Patreons and sponsorships. And so we like to donate to the University of Washington Autism Center. We like to donate to give kids the world.
We're, you know, trying to donate to causes that mean something to us. But and some causes that are also sort of connected to the the Disney community as well. So. But thank you again Matt for your support. Thanks to everyone for listening. And with that I'll just say thanks.
[01:25:53] Speaker A: Thanks Sam.
[01:25:58] Speaker C: Well, thanks. Thanks to everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us alive, we have a live show now every week, Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want help support the show, be sure to hit those five 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 DCLDuo.com it's got links to all of our things. Full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast, links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store. We sell some fun fan inspired magnets Link to our Patreon if you 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, and a few blog articles that we've written. So DCLDUO.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also of course email
[email protected] or reach out to us on our voicemail line at 402-413-5590. That's 402-2413-5590. The DCL Duo podcast is not affiliated with Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Company or the Disney family of theme parks. The views expressed on the show are solely those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflect the views the Disney Company or Disney Cruise Line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or Disney vacation, please contact the great folks over at My Path Unwinding Travel or Disney directly or your own travel agent. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL Duo. Good night.
