[00:00:00] Speaker A: When we were on the tram to go back to the ship after Castaway, you know, my husband and I looked at each other and we were like, lookout can't come close to the day that we just had. Like, is there even any point in getting off the ship? Is what we said. We were like, it can't come close to this. Like, we had a cabana. It was perfect. And then we went to Lookout, and it was one of the best days of my life.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's episode of the DCL Duo podcast. And Sam, do your jingle.
[00:00:39] Speaker C: Yeah, simply the best.
Better than all the rest, she says
[00:00:45] Speaker B: with an air of humility.
So this week's review comes from Pluto Girl, who writes balanced opinions, fun pace, and good variety of cruises covered. DCL Duo has become one of my favorite podcasts. I love their balanced coverage of Cruising Disney. It's just the right balance of excitement and enthusiasm, coverage of news and critique where warranted. I appreciate that the critiques aren't in the form of tirades about things they don't like, and they're presented in a constructive way. They cover a wide variety of itineraries and ensure they have guests on the show traveling in different ways. Big families, family with kids, families with unique needs, couples, etc. It's a great place to get information on excursions and even how did you do this outing on your own? I love the coverage thrown in on ABD and River Cruising, as newly empty nesters were more likely to be taking advantage of those kinds of trips. Thank you. So there you go.
[00:01:37] Speaker C: Awesome. Love that Pluto girl. And we love Pluto. So gotta give a big shout out to everyone's favorite Disney dog, Pluto. I swear that he's everyone's favorite Disney dog. I mean, maybe Doug fits in there too, but. Sorry, Goofy.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
So as always, I will remind everyone one of the easiest ways to help support the show. Head over to Apple Podcasts, hit those five stars. If you leave us a written review, we will read it on the air at the top of one of our main episodes. And if you're listening to us on another platform, use whatever rating system they provide. Give us as much of that rating as you can legally, and then we will know how much you love the show. We don't. We don't do this for the money.
In fact, we donate all the proceeds to charity if we haven't said that in a while. So anything over operating expenses goes to charity. So this is really just something that we do.
[00:02:25] Speaker C: We do it for those sweet, sweet five stars. Brian that's sweet.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: Sweet. Mailchimp money. Yeah, no, we. Yeah, we do it. We do it for the community here and we love the friends we've made and the community we've built. So that's what keeps us going. So, Sam, over to you to intro our guest and our topic for today.
[00:02:41] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm super excited. We have a repeat guest with us today. She was on our show a couple years ago talking about Lookout Key when it was brand new, and now she is back to talk about lookout Key again. While also castaway.
She just sailed on the Disney fantasy for five nights. And we will welcome now gold castaway club member Megan. Welcome back to the show.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: Thank you so much for having me. I am super excited to be back.
[00:03:08] Speaker C: It's so nice to have you back. You know, you reminded us that Brian wasn't here the last time it was a girls show the last time we chatted. But I'm glad you get, you know, the benefit of both halves of the duo.
[00:03:21] Speaker B: Now you already got the most interesting half, so that's. That's all this required.
[00:03:25] Speaker C: Oh, that's very nice of you, Brian. He's not one to give compliments on the air so often, folks, so I'm going to savor the ones on the air. On the air, I feel like you give me compliments in person more than
[00:03:37] Speaker B: on the air, so I just needle you on the show for comedic value.
[00:03:41] Speaker C: That's right. That's right. We just like to show what it's really like to be a married couple people. So it's who is.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: I would not hold ourselves out as a standard of a married couple. Maybe married lawyers, but not a married couple. So there you go.
[00:03:53] Speaker C: I just mean, like, we. Who we are to each other on the show is who we are in real life. We like to needle each other.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Teetering on the constant edge of divorce. Yes.
[00:04:05] Speaker C: No, but anyway. Well, Megan, let's remind folks of your cruise. Actually, you're. Let's start with your Disney background, your cruising background. It's been a couple years, so I want to give people a refresher on who you are and why you love Disney cruising.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: For sure. Honestly, we didn't have much of a Disney background prior to 2022.
We kind of just came in guns blazing then for our first cruise, and since then we've done six. Started doing the parks as well. I would say it's gotten more fun as our budget has increased. That's been nice. We chose not to start until we felt like we could do it.
I don't know, to the max.
And that's kind of how we do it. And it's fun. And every cruise I feel like we've gotten better at cruising, if that makes sense. I look back to our first. Yeah, I look back to our first cruise on the Dream and, and we had fun, but there were definitely ways that we've improved since then.
And now, you know, we've learned to go longer. That's obviously way more fun, but. Yeah, so we've done six cruises, multiple parks, getting ready to do Disneyland for the first time on your guys's coast. So that's super exciting. But it's just, it's one of those things where I really wasn't interested at all.
The Disney kind of overwhelmed me, the planning process.
And so I thought that a cruise would be our best bet. I thought we could plan less, which is kind of funny now. I love to, to plan them all out now, but it does remain true. You can go with less planning than the parks, obviously. And so we started with the cruise and starting in 2024, we started going with my parents annually. We started making it a multi generational thing. And so this is the third year that we've taken them. And that's super fun. It's just a way we live in the same town, but we don't see each other super frequently. Just busy schedules. So this is a way to do something really intentional and relaxing and it's just a beautiful habit that we found that we enjoy immensely. So.
[00:06:11] Speaker C: Well, and I think that's true though, as far as the more you cruise, the better you get at it. And I'm not saying you can't have a great first trip. As you mentioned, you had a great first trip. But I think the, the more you learn, it kind of helps, you know, like how to pick and choose your activities and plan your day better so that you don't, like, try and over. I actually think you end up often doing less but enjoying it more, right?
[00:06:36] Speaker A: Oh, a hundred percent. I look back in, our first two cruises were three nights, which when that's what you can afford, that's awesome. I'm so glad that Disney makes those available to people or if that's what your schedule, you know, allows. But we crammed them so full, you know, we had so much fear of missing out and now we spend hours and hours and hours doing nothing in the pool. And I would consider it a more successful day. So.
[00:07:00] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah, that definitely makes sense. Well, let's talk about, well, let's talk about your family makeup. Who was on this cruise with you? Grandma and grandpa came again.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: So my mom and dad, Gigi and Papa. We'll give them a shout out. I know they'll listen. And then our normal cruising party is myself, my husband Patrick, and our daughter emma, who is 12.
[00:07:21] Speaker C: Awesome. Now, when. How far in advance did you plan this cruise on the Fantasy, and what made you choose this itinerary in particular?
[00:07:30] Speaker A: We try to plan our trips the second we get off the prior trip.
So we knew we wanted. We had a fantasy book showing some
[00:07:39] Speaker B: restraint there, because we usually just plan our trips while we're on the current trip.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: But, yes, I guess that's true. We did book the Placeholder, but it does. It makes getting off a ship a lot easier when you know when you're getting back on a ship.
So we had this plan last year, right about, you know, in the summer. I think we. We changed dates, you know, somewhere along the way. But I knew we wanted to go to both islands. That was something, because my parents had not been to Lookout yet. They had only been to Castaway both times, and they had been on the Magic with us, and they'd been on the Wish, So they needed a Dream Class ship, which is our favorite. I was so excited to get them on a Dream Class ship. They loved the Magic, and then the Wish was a little bit overwhelming for them. They ended up enjoying it, but I really thought the Dream Class would be the perfect in between for them. A little bit more basic of a layout, you could say. You know, I think the Magic and the Dream classes are a little bit easier to figure out. Very classic decor. I just thought they would love it. And I was right. They did. And, oh, my gosh, the adult deck on the Fantasy and the Dream, in my opinion, is the best. So I was super excited to get them on the Fantasy, super excited to take them to Lookout. And five days is better than four, which is better than three, so it seemed like a winner to me.
[00:08:55] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. Even just one extra day can make a big difference, I think, in your enjoyment.
[00:09:01] Speaker A: I was really surprised at how much longer a five felt than a four even. It was just, oh, so. And, you know, Art, I'll tell you this. Our itinerary, in my opinion, was a unicorn, and it was the best. Our first day was Cast Away, and then it was Lookout, and then it was Nassau, and then we got to end with that perfect day at sea, which I hate ending at Castaway because I feel like you're kind of looking forward to the end almost the entire trip. Because Castaway is so fun.
And then you've got to get off the beach and pack and get to dinner. All on that last night. And it's a little.
That's not my favorite. So this was the most incredible itinerary.
[00:09:39] Speaker C: That is a unicorn itinerary.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: I know, I know.
[00:09:43] Speaker C: I don't think I've ever been on a cruise that started at Castaway.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: Well, I mean, right. You know, after it was our first full day. Oh, it was so. It was so incredible. Especially because we always start at the parks. And so when I push my family a little hard at the parks and so I was able to tell them all, like, we're going to be cast away in two days. Like, go. You know, yes, I'm making you walk 30,000 steps. But just think in a couple of days, like, you're going to be lounging on a cabana. So it was easier to encourage them.
[00:10:13] Speaker C: Yeah, you can go hard at the parks if, you know, you've got that perfect beach day out there, you know, a couple days from now.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: And spoiler alert, it was a perfect beach day.
[00:10:23] Speaker C: So love that. Let's talk a little bit about the planning process. Now, you had hit gold before this sailing, so you had the gold booking window. I'm curious if you had booked anything in advance. Of course, you're going to the private islands and to Nassau, so you may not have booked any excursions. But I'm curious, did you book any excursions? Did you book adult dining, drink tastings, anything like that?
[00:10:48] Speaker A: Yes. So the most exciting booking was we did get a Mickey and Minnie's Cove cabana. That was the most exciting thing that we booked. And I didn't know if we were going to get one. And I, I, I kind of feel like we lucked out.
They became available for booking pretty close to when our booking window opened. So I'm not sure everyone on our cruise even knew they were available. So I think that played into why I was able to get one as a gold. But I didn't. I don't care why I got it. I was just excited to get it. So we booked that. We booked Palo Brunch. That is a must do for us. We also, we did book two drink tastings. We booked Mixology, and we booked World of Old Fashioned or World of Old Fashions for my husband. I'm trying to think. I think that's all. We didn't need anything at Lookout. I wasn't. I'm not totally sold. I know you guys have done it. I think on a Cabana there. We like to be at the main beach and then we've got our kiddos, so we can't be, you know, on the adult side.
And I think the views are incredible over on the family beach. But then it's further away from all the, all the action of the. So I didn't even look to see if one was available, to be completely honest. So there could have been some available.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: How did the Mickey and Minnie Cove cabana go then? Based on sort of your, you know, what you just said there about lookout. Because I agree with you, lookout. The family cabanas are all the way on the other side of the island. If you want to do anything like rush out, gush out or you know, the play spaces, I mean, it's all on the other side. You got to take the tramp.
But we, we just, we just actually put out a substack article on this. Like we found the Mickey and Minnie Cove cabanas to be fairly far away too. And actually someone recently we talked to you said something that had fully understood, which is like, well, there's no gift shop there, so if I need to go buy a rash guard, like I've got to go all the way back.
So how did you find that experience with the Mickey and Minnie Cove cabanas?
[00:12:43] Speaker A: So, full disclosure. So we have done a sandcastle cabana before as well and we got a really good one. We got Sandcastle 2, which is right there next to food. It's, you know, it was a great one. So going into this, I fully expected not to like the Mickey and Minnie's as well. I thought exactly what you just said. It's further away.
The. Some of the YouTube videos I'd watched. The tide was really low.
So we went into it actually a little apprehensive, obviously excited, but thinking, okay, this will be a great option, but clearly we'll prefer the sandcastle. And we did not. We loved the privacy.
I feel like the beach is because it's not kind of the rocked in lagoon that's over on the family beach. You know, it's just an ocean. It's a wide open ocean. I mean, it felt so much bigger and more open and it did feel more private because when we were at the sandcastles, you're right up against the family beach. I mean, you could hear everybody. You get to feel kind of fancy in your private area, but you can see everybody and hear everybody. This was so much more quiet, so much more serene, I thought so much more beautiful. And all we did is we Waited to go shopping until the end of the day because they kick you out a little bit earlier. And so we just said we'll go shop at the end, which is exactly what we did.
We bought our rash guard. So, I mean, everything was still available that we wanted.
We had planned to slide at that point because we love to do the water slides at Pelican Plunge, but I'll be honest, the water was. Water was a little too chilly for that for me. So we did not. But I mean, that would have been fine too. The lines were non existent at that time.
And I think the biggest benefit of the Mickey and Minnie's is the, the.
The dining availability. Like you get your own, basically your own cookies to eat at. You know, you're not even sharing with Serenity Bay. They have their own side of the restaurant.
And so of all of our trips to all of the different island destinations, this was the best lunch we've ever had. We didn't wait in any line. It was. You obviously could take your food back to your cabana, but I mean, we just sat there and ate and there was plenty of tables available.
So in my opinion, Mickey and Minnie's is the way to go. And that's what.
It's certainly a reason to book concierge so that we can guarantee or at least have a better option of getting one next time.
[00:15:09] Speaker C: That's interesting. I like that take because I think everybody's going to have a different take on sort of that question of worth it and how they like it. You're absolutely right about the eating experience, though. We didn't talk that much about it on our episode. But you really aren't going to wait in any lines. I personally don't like bringing the food back to the cabana because you get the birds and whatnot coming to your cabana if you bring the food to your cabana. I'd rather the birds hang out by the food area areas than hanging out at our cabana and then pooping all over our loungers and whatnot. So just that's a tip. I mean, there are a lot of people who like to bring their food back to their cabanas and you can buzz for somebody to come take your trays and whatnot, but it's not that fast. And so that's, you know, the birds are super aggressive at castaways.
You can't leave the food unattended at all.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: We did see plenty of people leave their food out and I mean, just swarms of birds would come out. It's crazy. Crazy. It's.
[00:16:09] Speaker C: They are great. They are really crazy. Well, I want to back up a little bit. I know Brian jumped ahead to Castaway and I'm glad we, we talked about the cabanas, but I want to talk about that embarkation day, getting on the ship with your folks in particular, because they had not been, as you mentioned, on a dream class ship. So this is their first time on the. This is the fantasy, but it was their first time on, on either the dream or the fantasy. What did they think? I mean, obviously they've been welcomed onto the ship into the atrium with their family name. That's that they've experienced. But it is a different, you know, atrium to the magic. It's a different atrium than to the wish. It's because it is a different class of ship. What was their, their first impression of the ship and the decor and all of that?
[00:16:55] Speaker A: They thought it was beautiful, which it is. It's. It's so hard because the wish class, the wish classes are so, so beautiful. But then the dream class are just different, different, beautiful. I don't know. It's hard for me to pick a favorite because I get on a wish. Like I get on the wish or I see the treasure and it's so, so pretty. But then I get on the fantasy and it's just so different and so classic and so large and so grand and they agree. I mean, now I will say this. My dad gets a little. He's one of those people that gets overwhelmed on embarkation day. Embarkation day is my favorite. It's so exciting. The buildup is, you know, it's finally here. He gets a little overwhelmed the whole, you know, so. So the first day is not his best day.
So I give him time to take in the ship.
They get a little. The crowds overwhelm them and just the busyness of the first day. So I waited to ask them how they felt about the ship until a few days later. But obviously they thought it was beautiful.
They thought so much bigger than the magic. Of course, you know, because that at the time, that was their favorite. And it is, it's shockingly bigger than the magic. But I took them. I had thought about sending them to the sit down lunch since they do get a little more overwhelmed. But like I said, since this is about family time, we did take them up. They wanted to come up with us to cabanas. We are cabanas people on embarkation day purely for the apple crisp. We are obsessed with that apple crisp dessert. We might grab a chicken tender or two. But we're up there only for apple crisp.
[00:18:33] Speaker C: And that is not one of the options at the sit down lunch. It's not on that menu exactly.
[00:18:38] Speaker A: If it were, you could probably talk us into doing sit down. But since it's not, that's just, that's all we want. And so. But I think it was nice we found more what we got on. We do DCL transportation, so we have a fairly early boarding group. And by the time we got up to cabanas, it wasn't, it wasn't horrible. This time around, I feel like he preferred, my dad preferred the seating options over what was available in Marceline. We actually went outside and I do feel like there's more outdoor seating on the Dream Class.
And the birds weren't bad yet. We had a nice view. They had not actually been out of that particular.
What's the word, the terminal. They have only ever done. We did Fort Lauderdale for the Magic and then last year on the Wish, we were in the other terminal, the one that Disney just kind of rents out, the generic one. And so this was their first time going through the traditional Port Canaveral terminal and being ported there. So that was fun to finally get to show them that. Because that's what we consider the Disney Terminal.
[00:19:43] Speaker C: Right? Right. Terminal 8. For those listening, if you haven't been there before, Terminal 8 is Disney's dedicated terminal. Port Canaveral Terminal 10 is where the Wish goes out of. And it's essentially rented by Disney. I mean, technically they're all rented, I believe, but it's not a dedicated Disney terminal. There are other ships that go out of that terminal. But because Disney has three ships that sail out of Port Canaveral for at least most of the year, and currently you've got the Treasure and the Fantasy going out of Terminal 8, Disney's terminal. And you have the Wish twice a week going out of Terminal 10 because it's four and three night cruises. And so they just can't. All three ships can't be in their main terminal because they would have two ships in port on Fridays. Actually every other Friday they have two ships there. So yeah, they have to use two different terminals in order to make it work. And for people with parking and luggage and all that kind of good stuff. Yeah. Well, that's nice that they got to experience Port Canaveral Terminal for the first time. Let's. So let's, let's talk a little bit about some of the onboard experiences. Now, we know you love the fantasy. Tell us, what do you Love about the Fantasy. What are some of the onboard spaces and onboard experiences that really that you have fallen in love with?
[00:21:00] Speaker A: I think simply put, the Serenity Falls area is my favorite space on any Disney cruise ship. I love Serenity Falls.
I also love or I speak as you know, for my husband too. We as a couple also just love the adult pool deck on deck 11. You know, you've got the pool, you've got the kind of the sit down bar that's in the pool with the cool misters. You've got those great hot tubs. We love to go back and forth between hot tub pool, Serenity Falls and just do a rotation.
We also, I like, I was almost afraid to even say this because I don't want people to know about it and I don't want it to get like popular. But the funnel puddle pool on the Fantasy and the Dream is our family's favorite pool. That's where we hang out as a family and very, very rarely is it crowded. Many times on the sailing we were the only ones in the pool. And so it feels like a little private pool for us. A little private escape.
I think a lot of people are confused if it's a family area or if it's an adult area because you know, you're right there in between the two adult pools. But we love that pool. This was the first cruise though that we. And I know this is going to be a hot take.
We're not big like adult, I can't say adult entertainment. That sounds bad but you know, like the adult spaces down, down on deck three. We have never ever gone to any of them on any of our five cruises before this.
But we found ourselves when our the first night we just were like, let's do something different. And we found ourselves in the tube and we were there for, I think it was called Snippets which we've never done a single one of those and it was hilarious. The host's name was Megan and we were obsessed and we just said we're gonna go to all of Megan's shows in the tube and so match your mate.
Majority minds. They were all.
So we laughed and laughed and laughed.
It was. I can't believe we've missed them all these other cruises. They are so much fun. We love Meridian on the Dream class. Meridian is so beautiful. I think the only bar that might top Meridian to me is the Rose on the Wish. So I do love, I do love the Rose. But Meridian's great.
We love to putt. Putt.
[00:23:15] Speaker C: Oh, I love that it's. And it's one of those things only available on the Dream class.
[00:23:22] Speaker A: I mean I, I must, I must be in the minority but I loved putt putt on the ships and so especially at Nassau. Like I love having just kind of looking out and taking in the port while we're putt putting. I think that's so much fun. My husband and daughter love to play ping pong. So they're up on the sports deck playing ping pong, which then I have a gorgeous view while they're playing ping pong though, I can just sit up there with them. So we try to. Oh, this time we did the Rainforest Room on the Fantasy for the first time. We've never done that before and I bought it for my parents as well. That was kind of an early mothers and Father's Day present to them and we all loved it. It was so nice. Oh my goodness, it was. It'll be a must do now, especially for the price for every cruise on that particular class.
[00:24:10] Speaker C: Yeah. And if you're going to do it, booking in advance is the way to do it because you do get a bit of a discount in that advance Rainforest Pass. But of course it's a length of cruise pass. You can't do a day pass booking in advance. And actually the cruise line has limited the availability of day passes in general.
Now if you want a day pass, you've got to go day of that morning and see if they have availability. And sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. It seems like they do because a lot of people don't know about it.
But it's definitely going to be based on sort of capacity. So it's not always available.
But I love that we love Meridian. For those who don't know, it's the bar between Paulo and Remy on the Fantasy and the Dream. I think Meridian and the Rose, as you mentioned, are probably like two of the best bars on Disney Cruise Line, bar none. I mean they're very much out of the way. You're not going to have kids walking through. They're both very chill, really beautiful spaces. So yeah, I love that you got to experience this. I think it's interesting that you hadn't experienced the adult only game shows and activities in the evening until this cruise. Any thought about why hadn't you ventured into those spaces before?
[00:25:26] Speaker A: Yeah, honestly. So we're from Colorado, so we're not close to any coast and we are huge beach people. And so I feel like for our first five cruises we were really committed to only Doing things that were like, ocean centric. We wanted to be where the water was. We wanted to hear the water, see the water, smell the water.
And so anything like that, that put us in a room on the inside of the ship. I almost felt like, incorrectly, of course, but I felt like at the time that we were wasting our time, you know, that we should be enjoying. If we're on a cruise, we should be enjoying the water. So we loved, you know, walking deck four, just relaxing on deck four, being anywhere where we could see those waves. Like, we really were obsessed with that.
But on our last cruise on the Wish, we discovered live entertainment on the bayou. And that was the first kind of time where we were like, okay, we can be inside and it's okay. You know, it's really fun to be inside the ship at night too. And so we at least were more open on this, on this cruise. And I've heard so many people say that the adult spaces on the Fantasy are their favorite, you know, the Europa, I believe it's called.
And so we really did commit before this cruise, like, let's give it our best try. Let's try to enjoy it. You know, skyline and just all the different spaces. And it. People were right. It was so much fun. We really did enjoy it. And, and, you know, I don't, I don't want to say I regret not doing it before because I have great memories of all of our other cruises. But moving forward, we definitely will spend more time in the adult spaces.
[00:26:55] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't think there's any wrong way to do it. Right. I don't think the way you did it before is wrong versus the way you're doing it now is right. Like, I actually think there's some combination for every. Yeah. For every person that's the right balance of activities being like, I think you're absolutely right when you're on a ship.
That's one of the things I don't like about some of the other cruise lines is that you don't even know you're on a ship because you can't never see the ocean. And on Disney Cruise Line, the way that the ship is sort of created and with the windows, you know, when you're walking through hallways, like, you. You actually remember that you're still on an ocean liner. And so I love that. So I don't, I don't. Like I said, I don't think it's wrong the way you've done it in the past or the way you're doing it now. It's just there's some amount of balance that people should sort of exercise in deciding what activities are right for them and their family. But I love that you experience something new. I gotta ask, did you check out the bathrooms in Barcelona?
[00:27:52] Speaker A: My husband literally said. He said, oh, my God, you have to go look at the bathrooms. And so I had never seen them. Oh, my gosh, they're so nice.
So I thought that was so funny because I've heard people mention it, and I kind of thought, well, they can't be that different. But oh, my goodness, they're just so different.
[00:28:10] Speaker C: And it's the only ship that has them. That's why, like, that's. That's honestly one of the reasons why I feel like we like the fantasy over the dream.
It's such a weird thing to like, but, you know.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: You know, the dream was our first ship, and so that was four years ago. I'm. And we didn't do the adult space, so I'm really struggling to remember what the difference is between the fantasy and the dream. It's called the District, I think.
So obviously there's no Barcelona. Yeah, I just can't visual.
[00:28:40] Speaker C: It's a different layout and there's a little outdoor space and it's a different pub, like, so where, like.
[00:28:47] Speaker B: Well, it's a hold. It's a slightly different pub. Skyline is smaller and they took some of the indoor space on.
That's the. Some of the space that's indoors on the Fantasy. On the Dream, it's outdoors.
And then it has a. It has a complete. It's not Europa theme. Sam, what's the theme?
[00:29:04] Speaker C: Right, it's the district.
[00:29:05] Speaker B: Yeah, the district. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:29:07] Speaker C: It's.
[00:29:08] Speaker A: Have to go back and see it.
[00:29:09] Speaker C: Yeah, it's. The theming is not like Europa is very themed country different. Right. Different countries. The district doesn't have that level of theming. It's just. And it's not European themed. It doesn't really have a cohesive theme.
[00:29:25] Speaker A: Yeah, that's where the fantasy shines.
[00:29:27] Speaker C: Exactly. And the layout of that adult bar spaces is a little bit different. As Brian mentioned, there's some outdoor space. Instead of skyline being. Skyline's a little bit smaller. Yeah, it's just a.
[00:29:39] Speaker B: It's still a lovely space. Don't get me wrong.
[00:29:41] Speaker C: It's different and it's in the same place on the ship. It's just a slightly different layout with slightly. With different theming as well. All right, well, I want to talk about your kiddo.
She's 12 now, and so you Know, when we talked to you previously, she was still a Kids club kid. Now she is Edge aged. And I know you and I were talking pre show, but I won't give any spoilers, but tell us, like, how did she do with Edge? How does she do on the ship and what level of independence do you give her on the ship?
[00:30:12] Speaker A: Sure. I guess first I do want to say that she's been, it's been up and down with kids clubs for her from our very first sailing where sometimes she likes it and sometimes she wants nothing to do with it.
Which, you know, as a parent, you hope your kid enjoys it so that you can have a little more adult time. But that hasn't always been the case. The last time we were on the Fantasy, the reason we took that particular fantasy sailing is they had just made the age change.
And so we knew if we needed to take one more cruise for her to experience the kids cup one more time, however it was, we also, at that time, we signed her up so that she could also do the Edge. And that particular cruise, even though it was supposed to be about her going to the kids club, she loved Edge on the Fantasy, but that's when it was in the funnel. It was still in the funnel at that time.
So this time around I thought she was going to love it because now they're down where Edge used to be. You know, they've got their own pool deck. It seemed like a really cool space.
And unfortunately, spoiler alert, she went in the first night and came back like 10 minutes later and just said, nope, not for me this time. And did not step foot back into the Edge club.
But honestly, she is a super independent, mature kiddo. I don't say that to, you know, sound like I'm bragging on her, but we have a. She's got a unique situation at home with two of our kids have severe special needs. So she's, she's kind of had to mature and grow up a little bit. So we do give her full independence on the ship. She can do whatever she wants. And that's just what she did this time. She took advantage of that. She loves to people watch, she loves to chill. She loves to. I. She said she made best friends with the people that served her chicken tenders because I think she was there like just on the hour, every hour. And it would just be fun because we'd be walking around the ship and we would just like run into her, you know, and then we would hang
[00:32:04] Speaker B: out a little bit.
[00:32:05] Speaker A: But she was, she, she also understood like mom and dad need some time, but I think our lives are just so chaotic and busy at home that she really enjoyed doing nothing, if that makes sense. We don't do nothing ever at home. And so the ability to just do nothing guilt free and kind of be alone and independent, I think that makes her feel cool that she can walk around and just kind of do whatever. We gave her spending privileges on her magic band. So, you know, she went shopping and she loved it. She didn't even go to the pools. Like, that's really not. She's not.
Unless she's with us. She's not even a pool kid. She just truly just walked around and hung out. And I think that's a huge benefit of these ships, is that you can trust that your kids are safe. That's something we've talked about when we've considered going on Royal and those big, giant mega ships, which do appeal to us. But we're like, will we feel a safe, you know, will we want her wandering around on a ship that big with that many people and it's just not something we have to worry about on Disney. So.
[00:33:04] Speaker C: Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, they're the. I will say they are also safe. It's just they are harder to navigate, though. I think Disney ships are easier to navigate than like an Oasis class or Star class on Royal because they're just humongous and there's so many different, like, areas. Right. Neighborhoods. Exactly, Exactly. So it's navigate. I find it harder to navigate. I mean, it takes me a couple days and then I'm fine. But it takes me longer to navigate one of those ships as opposed to Disney ship, for sure. I gotta ask if you guys did Midship Detective Agency because my favorite game that exists only on the Dream and the Fantasy. And it's. I'm sad we, you know, we don't get to do it when we sail on one of the newer ships or one of the older ships. And so curious if that's something you guys did this trip. If your daughter maybe did it on her own. I actually think it's one of the best things to do on your own.
[00:34:00] Speaker A: I completely, so I completely agree with you. I love the Midship Detective Agency. And we did it on the Dream and we did it on the Fantasy. And this time around, she was too cool for it and she didn't want to do it with me.
[00:34:12] Speaker C: Oh my goodness. I know.
[00:34:14] Speaker A: And I didn't want to force it, so I didn't. And it broke my heart. You know, we've done them all, even the Muppets, which. The Muppets was actually a little harder for her because I know you love the Muppets. We're not a Muppets family, so the clues didn't make as much sense to us. You know, we still did it, but we love the puppies and the missing painting.
And I agree with you. I think that's one of the best things about the Dream Class. But we didn't do it. Nobody wanted to do it with me. And I, like. Like you said, I could have done it alone, but, you know, it was just one of those things where I chose to hang out with them instead. So we're. I guess we're past that. I hope, you know, as she gets older, it'll become maybe nostalgic and fun and we'll do it kind of that way. But not this time.
[00:34:55] Speaker C: That's a bummer. But I will say, I highly recommend to adults, like, even if your kid's not interested in doing it, it's really fun. And if you want to get some steps in and you don't want to just walk around and around on deck four, it's a great way to explore the ship, see different artists, see all the artwork.
[00:35:13] Speaker A: I think that it's like an art tour is kind of why I like to do it.
You just see both the aft and the forward, all the different art. I love it, but like I said, just not this time. I was. I tried to. I. I encouraged her. So.
And we, you know, we've not done. We've not done too much of the. What is it called? On the Wish? We. We did it our first sailing on the Wish, and it was the Wish that was still its first year. And so it was. It was pretty glitchy. And so I think that turned her off. We didn't do it at all. On the second sailing. What is. What is the new one on the treasure in the Destiny? The Happy Haunts. Is that what it's called?
[00:35:49] Speaker C: It's Happy Hunt. Actually, it should be Happy Haunts because it's about catching ghost. It. But it is Happy Hunt. Yeah. And it's, you know, with. You use the Magic Band, not a phone with that game. And it's less glitchy there. There can be. Brian had some glitchiness with it on our last sailing, but it all got fixed, and so he was still able to complete it.
But it's. It's. Yeah. Magic Band. Magic Band plus or Disney Band plus is what you're excited to Try it.
[00:36:21] Speaker A: I, I, I do want to try that. I'm hoping since it'll be something new, you know, that she hasn't already done that we can convince her to do that sometime soon.
[00:36:29] Speaker C: Yeah, I hope so too. All right, well, I want to pivot topics here and I want to talk about the things that you booked that you hadn't done before, which were you did a mixology and a world of old fashioned tasting.
I'm curious what you all thought of those experiences. Did you like them? Did you think they were worth it? All the things?
[00:36:51] Speaker A: Okay, well then this is going to be a big, giant bummer.
So we were really excited, like we were really excited when we first booked these. I have never done a drink tasting before and so I was so excited to do mixology with my husband. I am not a big drinker at all. Not anything other than I just can't find anything that tastes good. And so he was like, this is a great opportunity. You can, you know, because he does drink tastings a lot, he enjoys doing those.
And he was super excited about World of Old Fashions because that is his drink through and through. That's pretty much all he drinks.
Well, mixology was scheduled for the afternoon that we got off lookout. It was at 4:00'. Clock.
And when we went to lookout last time we were on the ship well within that time frame. So we didn't think it would be an issue at all this time. Lookout hit so hard that I looked down at my watch and it was already, it was already like 4:15. And you know, the, the people were stacking up chairs and it hit me. I was like, oh gosh. We had mixology. We completely forgot.
So we had to go to guest services. And they were super kind and they, they refunded us. But I mean, it was literally one of those situations where we were having so much fun on the island that we just literally lost track of time, last track of plans. And so we missed mixology, which was a bummer. I really did want to do that with him. He enjoys the drink tasting so much. I really did want to accompany him to one. So we will, we will do, just plan it better next time and not have it, you know, right after a beach day.
As far as the world of old fashions go, the only issue for that one was it was on pirate night and that he's done that before on the magic. And this time around he was already feeling a little like, I don't know if I want to leave you guys, but what sealed the Deal was he found a bartender at this cruise at Currents. I believe Currents is the one in between. You kind of can see it from the adult pool deck, I think, think. And his name was Sandeep. Got to give a shout out to Sandeep. Sandeep kept my husband drinking from the time Pat went out on the pool deck to the time he went to bed.
The man. And he found mojitos this time. So Sandeep apparently just made a mean mojito. He was actually our bartender at the Cabanas. That's how we met him. And so since, since, you know, Castaway was the first day Sandeep met him there, my husband tipped him well and they were best friends the entire cruise. So I think he had a buzz from the time we got our castaway till the time we got over the ship.
So, you know, by the time it was time for World of Old Fashions, he was like, I don't know if I need to go drink a bunch of fashions.
So he. And that way he could do Pirate night with us. So he ended up canceling that one too. So two of the things we were the most excited for we didn't actually do.
So we'll just have to save those for the next cruise.
[00:39:40] Speaker C: But you know, this is a great lesson in like don't over plan. And I'm not saying you, you actually didn't over like you planned very reasonably, but you can have an awesome trip, an awesome cruise without having anything booked. Yeah, yeah.
[00:39:56] Speaker B: I, I also want to say, have you, sorry I missed this up front. Have you been on one of the Wish class ships yet?
[00:40:02] Speaker C: Yeah, just wait.
[00:40:04] Speaker B: Did he do the old fashioned tasting and hooks Barbary.
[00:40:06] Speaker A: Yes. And that is his favorite place on any ship is hooks. Yes.
[00:40:12] Speaker B: Gold standard. Yeah. So like. Yeah, I think, I think the other ones are kind of a letdown after.
[00:40:16] Speaker A: I think that's why I can get him on any Wish class ship anytime is because there's hooks. So like that, that's all he needs to enjoy a cruise. He doesn't even get drinks at dinner. He goes to hooks first and then goes to dinner.
[00:40:30] Speaker C: So I will say that I think some of the worst drinks you can have are the ones that you get at dinner like at, I mean at, at main dining.
[00:40:39] Speaker B: So I had a good one in, I had a good one in Plaza de Coco. They have that margarita, basically.
[00:40:43] Speaker C: Oh yeah, they do have, they have a couple of good margaritas. But in general I think if you want a good drink, like go to one of the Bars before dinner and get your drink and bring it to dinner. I think most of the time you'll get a better drink there. I just. I don't know who the bartenders are in main dining, but I just, it's. It just doesn't seem like they're as good as the bartenders out and about on the ship.
[00:41:05] Speaker A: He likes one. I think it's an old fashioned at 1923. Um, I think there may be a smoke. I don't know if it's smoked or not, but. But even then, it's still not as good as. As hooked or hooks. But I agree. He's still. He still typically orders one. It'll somehow appeal to him and then he doesn't like it. Same with my daughter. She does a fancy drink every single night, thinking she's gonna like it, and it's some weird concoction of flavors that she never drinks drinks. But that's part of the fun of a cruise. You got to order something fun. So I just get a diet Coke and I'm happy every time. So same.
[00:41:38] Speaker C: I order my iced tea at dinner and I'm happy every time. Nathan has tried some of those kids concoctions previously. He doesn't order them anymore because he's learned that every time he's ordered one, he doesn't like it. He never. Yeah, it's always.
Yeah, it's always some weird concoction. He likes the cups. He likes like a, you know, a. A fun cup. But. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:42:01] Speaker A: All right, well mention though too. I wanted the one thing I did forget to say you.
I think you guys will be proud is we discovered trivia this cruise. We had also never done trivia ever. Oh, my God. I fear we were just really bad Disney cruisers. But because. Because my daughter.
[00:42:20] Speaker B: It's smart. Yeah, yeah.
[00:42:22] Speaker C: Avoid it.
[00:42:23] Speaker A: Because my daughter wasn't doing Edge. We did want to find and she didn't really want to be in the pool close to dinner because she wants to have her hair done.
We discovered trivia in the D lounge and it was so much fun. We're still not like super good at it, but we did. We did Pixar trivia, we did Finding Nemo trivia, we did pirates trivia. And then we would stay for the game shows. So we did the inside out game show. We did the pirate night game show. And oh my gosh, for a family, it was so much fun. We were. We were almost laughing as hard as we did in the adult shows. I mean, they're really fun. We didn't participate Yet, But I think maybe we'll work our way up next time. But they were so fun. And then it was cool because we'd get to know the hosts and then we'd see them, like, in the shows. They're the same people that are acting on pirate night. And that was.
Again, we're getting better at cruising. That was really fun for us to enjoy this time.
[00:43:21] Speaker C: I love that. I think the family game shows are. Are absolutely one of the funnest things on board Disney Cruise.
I have gone and watched them even without Nathan, because he will be off on his own. And if it's one I haven't seen before, like, I've gone to the inside out one. I've gone to the Mickey's Mouseketeer. I forget the Name of it 1. You know, like, there's a bunch of different themed ones throughout the cruise. I think that. Yeah, I think they're super fun. All right. I want to ask you about Paulo Brunch. You mentioned this is like a must do every time.
[00:43:54] Speaker A: Must do. We think about it all year long. It is our favorite meal.
[00:43:58] Speaker C: You don't have good Italian food in Colorado?
[00:44:00] Speaker A: No, we do not. Oh, my goodness. Like, nothing compares. In fact, we thought we had good Italian food. And now I won't. I won't eat there because I'm like, this is so bad compared to Palo.
[00:44:14] Speaker C: What are your go to dishes? Are you chicken parm? Are you team lasagna? Are you something else?
[00:44:21] Speaker A: You did this poll on Instagram a while back, and my vote was I'm team Both. I unashamedly, I don't do breakfast that morning. You know, we try to do the later Palo reservation and I get chicken parm and I get lasagna and I eat them both. Now, I was talking with my husband before we came, before I started this, and he said, well, what are you going to say is your favorite? And I don't think you have to have a favorite. I think, you know, but. But if I could truly only have one, I would pick the lasagna and he would pick the chicken parm. So fair.
[00:44:52] Speaker C: All right.
[00:44:52] Speaker A: Well, they're so good. However, I wanted to bring up, because I never hear anybody talk about this. We got a calzone for the first time. This time he wanted to try something different. We still got the pizza, but we got.
[00:45:05] Speaker C: I love that story.
[00:45:08] Speaker A: It was so good. The calzone was unbelievable.
The. Our waiter said most people don't order it just because everybody already has their favorites and you're already full, which I totally understand.
We will get the calzone every time. It was incredible.
[00:45:25] Speaker C: I love the calzone as well, Brian. Yeah, Brian's not a fan. He's not a fan. And so that's why we don't order it, is because I can't.
[00:45:33] Speaker A: You couldn't eat it? Oh, I can't eat it.
[00:45:35] Speaker C: It's just too much. It's the size of a football.
[00:45:37] Speaker A: Like, it is huge, but it is so cheesy. And the flavor. Oh, my gosh. We loved it.
[00:45:43] Speaker B: I don't know what it is with me and calzones, but I just. It's so air. And then when you, like, open it up, it's like, why didn't I just get a pizza? Is kind of my reaction to it. But I, I. I totally get it. I totally get it. We have had it, and it is delicious. It's just not my favorite, I think.
[00:45:56] Speaker C: I love it because I think the pizza dough that Apollo is just so good. And so any more of that bread, and I'm like, yeah, give me.
[00:46:04] Speaker A: I'm just 100% that whatever dough they use is the best of the best. Oh, my gosh. I'm literally, like, counting down until our next cruise so that I can have it again. I. I love palette.
My. My husband's favorite dessert, though, and I don't see many people talk about this. And I'll butcher the name. It's Zab. Zablion.
[00:46:23] Speaker C: Zablion.
[00:46:24] Speaker A: Yeah. There you go. And it's fruit covered in marshmallow, basically. I know that's a very kindergarten way of, like, describing it, but he loves that.
I love the panna cotta and the lemon torte, and it's just the best day. The palo day is the best day.
[00:46:39] Speaker C: Palo day is the best day. I don't even eat the dessert, but Palo day is the best day. I just eat more bread. Yeah.
[00:46:45] Speaker A: The only thing now we made when I booked. So there was our cruise did Palo on Nassau Day and on the day at sea. And initially we booked the day at sea because I love having the ocean, you know, sailing by. But then I realized that would be our last day, and I didn't really want to be looking forward to it the last day. And I assumed that that would be churro Mickey waffle day. And I knew I was going to have to eat at least 10, you know, Mickey churro waffles.
So we rescheduled for Nassau Day, and I knew I was. I knew that could go.
I was worried what we would be looking at. And sure enough, we looked at an Old ugly carnival ship the entire time, which is not quite as romantic as the open ocean. But I mean, it gave us something to talk about. So we people watched the carnival ship at Palo.
[00:47:34] Speaker C: That's hilarious. I still think you made the right choice.
[00:47:37] Speaker A: View.
[00:47:38] Speaker C: Setting aside the view. Right. Like, I still think if you can do it on not your last day, it's like having cast away on your last day. Right. Like, like you are worried about packing. You're kind of, you know, anxious about debarkation day and all of that. And so it's not quite as relaxing as if you can have it a day earlier or a couple days earlier or whatnot.
[00:48:01] Speaker A: I totally recommend that.
[00:48:02] Speaker C: Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about lookout because you mentioned how this was like just such a perfect day, you lost track of time. This wasn't your first time at lookout, but it was your, your parents first time at lookout.
[00:48:15] Speaker B: It still has that new island smell going to it, right?
[00:48:18] Speaker C: Yeah. Tell us what was so awesome about lookout and where you guys kind of positioned yourself on the beach. I know obviously you were on the family beach, but sort of which way did you head when you got to the beach?
[00:48:29] Speaker A: So we knew from last time that when we get to the beach, we immediately turn right and go down as far as we can because I mean, the further down you go, you essentially get a private beach. I mean, people just all gather right there, you know, together. And I don't really understand why. I mean, you're allowed to separate.
And so we do, we go further down. I had watched and last time we were there, we went all the way down to the. I'm going to call them cliffs. I don't think that's the right term, but the rocks. And we knew that was beautiful down there and we took beautiful photos last time.
But leading up to this cruise, I, I love my YouTube videos for Disney cruise. And we were watching a vlog and someone walked around the rocks, rocks through the water and they found the ship. I mean, you can see the ship. And so that was our goal this time and we did it. And it is.
I, I don't think it's an exaggeration to say it's the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my entire life. I mean, when you hike around those rocks, there's no. You're the only person there. The water is so beautiful, the sand is so beautiful. You've got these rocks and then your ship is right there.
It was just one of those moments where you had to pinch yourself because it's just. It didn't seem like real life. It seemed too good to be true, that you were standing somewhere that peacefully beautiful. And so we did it twice. We did the hike twice. It's just. Oh, my gosh.
I've never been any place like it. It's just stunning.
[00:49:55] Speaker C: You know, we've seen videos and pictures of that area, but we. I have to admit, we have not actually done that ourselves. So I gotta ask you a question about just logistically, footwear. Do you need water shoes? What kind? I. You can't go barefoot, right in that area.
[00:50:10] Speaker A: We, for one, water shoes are a must because, I mean, there is coral all over. I feel like even if you're not hiking down there, you need water shoes. Like, my husband scuffed up his foot last time, just down the family beach.
We were lucky, though. So there was a group of like, six of us that all kind of walked together. So somebody pointed out, hey, if you go out in the water a little bit further, there's a path without coral.
So we did that. But I still would want water shoes because it, you know, that coral is pokey. But, I mean, you.
You really only ever get to water about waist high. So it wasn't. And I mean, I don't want to. I don't think I'm breaking any rules. Like, there's no signs that say you can't go that way. So I don't. I'm not a rule breaker. I'm a rule follower. So there's no signs that say you can't do that. And all we did was walk around and take a photo and then come back. But there's a sandbar.
If you haven't done it. I highly recommend it. And it didn't feel dangerous at all. Like I said, I wouldn't want to do it alone, just in case you were to hit a patch of coral and fall or something. I felt much safer because there was a big group of people. But then everybody was very respectful and let everybody kind of get their private photo. And I. It's so beautiful.
[00:51:21] Speaker C: I love that. All right, well, we. I'm. I'm taking notes because we're. We're headed back to Lookout. Not until December. We're recording this in. In May. But, yeah, we'll be. But we will be back to look.
And so I feel like this is something we're going to need to do. And go get a family photo out by those rocks.
[00:51:39] Speaker A: My favorite photo of the trip. And I will say, too, this has been true both times. We've been to Lookout. The water just seems to be warmer at Lookout than it does at Castaway. I'm not sure why. I'm sure there's some geographical reason, but, you know, it was very easy to walk out there in the water. I am a weenie when it comes to cold water. Like I said, I didn't even do Pelican Plunge this time time because the water was too cold. It cast away, and I was very comfortable at Lookout, so.
[00:52:03] Speaker C: Well, we know you spent NASA on the ship because you went to Apollo, of course.
But I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about the shows on board the Disney Fantasy. I know you've been on the Fantasy before, but did. Do you go see the shows every time, and did you go see them this time? I know your. Your parents wouldn't have been able to see them previously.
[00:52:23] Speaker A: Right, right. So we. Because we've been on the Fantasy before and we've seen the shows. I know this is the wrong answer. Myself and my husband didn't go to any, but my mom was there. I. I like Frozen a lot. I really enjoyed it last time, but it was our. Our last day, so it was our day at sea on this cruise. Probably. If it had been any other day, I would have gone.
You just. I wanted to soak in the ship as much as I could, but my mom and my daughter went to see Frozen together. They did a matinee for Frozen this time, which I. They did not do that the last time we were on the Fantasy. So they went. My daughter said it was better than the first time that she saw it. And my mom said it's now her favorite Disney show that she's seen, which I don't agree with, but everyone gets their own opinion, so she loved it. And I'm. I wanted. Is Golden Mickey's was. Was Golden Mickey's one of the ones that would have been on the Fantasy?
[00:53:19] Speaker C: No, you would have had.
You would have had Believe and Aladdin and Frozen. Frozen.
[00:53:25] Speaker A: Aladdin. That's it. That's okay. The one that I've missed because I feel like I've seen all the shows that I want to see. I've not seen Golden Mickeys, and I really want to see Golden Mickeys. Is it on the Wonder?
[00:53:35] Speaker C: It is on the Wonder. Okay. Yeah.
[00:53:36] Speaker A: Good, good, good. I really. That's the one I feel like I. I still want to see. But beyond that, usually I'm not the biggest show person, but I do appreciate a good show, and I've loved Beauty and The Beast. I love, love Rapunzel. I really enjoyed Frozen Love. Seize the Day. I enjoy Aladdin and Little Mermaid, but, you know, once I've seen them once, for the most part, we're. We're pretty good and we just. We like to use Showtime to be on the pool deck. I feel like that's why we do late dining. When everyone goes to dinner and the first show, we basically get the pool deck to ourselves. And that is literally our favorite time of day on the entire ship. We can just do the Aqua Duck over and over and over again. Or you get. You know, because we won't touch Funnel vision in the pool during the day because affectionately called Kid Soup. I mean, that's. That's just it. I'm not interested. But you know, when everyone goes to dinner and a show, you can have fun o Vision pool to yourself with your family. And so we trade off, you know, going to see the shows with just enjoying the pool deck to ourselves.
[00:54:41] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, next time you're on either the Wonder or the dream, obviously you need to go see the. The Golden Mickeys because it's Brian. You know, it's Brian's favorite and you know, he's. He stands for.
[00:54:52] Speaker B: I don't know if it's my favorite show ever, but it's. I enjoy that show a lot. I think Moana and Hercules might be.
[00:54:59] Speaker A: I'm so excited to see both of those. So.
[00:55:02] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, have we missed anything? Megan, now we've done a rapid fire with you, so I'm not going to do a full rapid fire with you today, but I do want to. I do want to make sure we've cover all of the topics.
[00:55:14] Speaker B: Fans down. Sam, they. They tune in for rapid fire. You know,
[00:55:19] Speaker A: I'm trying to think. I think, I think that's. I mean, it was just. We all agreed as we got off the ship that this was our best sailing ever.
We just loved every second of it. It was so good. The only thing I will. Oh, for one, best server we've ever had.
I feel like we're one of the groups of people that have been a little unlucky with dining teams.
Only ever had one our last sailing on the Wish. You could. You could say it was bad service. It wasn't just mediocre. It was bad where my parents had to go to guest services and complain, which I don't do. I, I still tip. I still, you know, but because I, They. They're doing a great job. It's a hard job, but this time around was spectacular service. I mean, I feel like this is the service that when you hear people talk about Disney Cruise Line, this is what they're talking about, about.
So if you ever go on the fantasy again, Ivan was incredible. He had us. We didn't even ask, but, I mean, he had us in and out of there in less than an hour every single night. He knew, you know, just from talking. I never even specifically would order desserts the night before, but we would just chat and talk about favorites, and he would have them ready for me the next day. He was so good. So, I mean, that was. It was fun to have that quality of service that you hear about.
We have kind of decided, though, this cruise, we felt a little cramped for the first time. You know, our daughter's getting older that we are thinking about, and it's kind of going back and forth. Do we do two normal staterooms and just give her her own, like an. An interior room next to or across the street, or is it time for concierge? So we're. We're debating between both of those.
I know which way I want. My bougie self wants to do concierge, which, spoiler alert, we do have one booked, but this is the first time where we just. We felt ourselves all being in a. In a. In a veranda room, just being a little cramped.
[00:57:15] Speaker C: Now, do you do the bigger family veranda room? The. The deluxe family veranda?
[00:57:19] Speaker A: We've had that once. Our very first cruise on the Dream, we did a guaranteed veranda. And since that was still within, like a year of sailings, coming back by doing a guaranteed, we got an upgrade, essentially, and we got the extended room. We have not done that since only because we are those people who do elevator rooms. We want our room directly next to the elevator for ease of just walking around. And so those extended rooms aren't by the elevators. And so we are just going to have to make that call of giving that up for a little more space.
We just all felt like we were on top of each other and unpacking was stressful and packing was stressful because everybody was just so we're. We're going to try something different next time. We'll see if the extra room and the concierge is nice or. And then maybe. Oh, go ahead.
[00:58:08] Speaker C: I was just going to say the deluxe family veranda is the same size as the lowest level concierge veranda. So just for people listening, like, don't think just because you're paying for concierge that you're getting more room.
Those rooms Are identical.
Yeah, you need to move up to like a one bedroom or something to get more space, and that's another big price jump. So I, I definitely recommend for. For folks who are feeling cramped in a regular family veranda to try that deluxe family veranda first just because that does give you just even a few more feet of length in the, in the room. That can kind of help. Yeah, no, we.
[00:58:52] Speaker A: I would, I would. My aunt. When we, when we did the magic, we also cruised with my aunt and uncle and they did one of the new renovated one bedrooms on the Magic. The most beautiful room I've seen, I think, on most of the ships. I mean, it was a really nice room. And so the one bedroom does. Like, that's appealing, but I mean, the price is a lot more. So we'll see if the extended room, you know, makes a difference.
And if not, like I said, I've heard of people doing just, you know, a veranda room with an interior across the hall and, and seeing how that goes. But I think it's time we've. We've grown out of just the small room, which is. It's totally fine. You know, I want everyone to enjoy every second of the room and when you're on top of each other and, you know, that's not as fun. So.
[00:59:36] Speaker C: Yeah. Well. And for you, the math might work out better to do the concierge one bedroom just because you have to pay double occupancy for both rooms. Right. So you, you have to. Yeah, you're going to have to pay for four people if you're getting two rooms, even though they're only a family of three. So you'll have, I mean, yeah, you'll have to pencil it all out because there are probably sailings where it makes sense to have the two rooms, and there are probably some sailings where it makes sense to upgrade to the one bedroom. It's just going to, you know, that's going to vary depending upon the sailing and the ship and all of those things. Well, all right. Well, Megan, I've got to ask you. I'm not going to do a whole rapid fire because we did that last time, but I want to ask you two rapid fire questions which I want to ask you. Is the fantasy still your favorite ship in the fleet?
[01:00:24] Speaker A: A hundred percent. I'm anxious to see. So I'll. I don't know what the next question is, but there's another ship that we have booked that I hear every. Basically, I feel like it's almost across all of Disney Cruise Line fan base right now is everyone's favorite. So I'm curious to see if that one will become a favorite favorite, especially with it being a seven nighter. You know, I'm curious if that will. I can only see that one potentially being my favorite, but we'll. We'll have to see.
[01:00:51] Speaker C: Okay, my next question is Lookout Key versus Castaway key, because now you had both of them on the same sailing, literally back to back days. And so you have like a perfect comparison. It sounds like you had a great day at both of them. So I'm really curious.
[01:01:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:01:09] Speaker A: You know, when we, when we, we. When we were on the tram to go back to the ship after Castaway, you know, my husband and I looked at each other and we were like, lookout can't come close to the day that we just had. Like, is there even any point in getting off the ship? Is what we said. We were like, it can't come close to this. Like, we had a cabana. It was perfect. And then we went to Lookout and it was one of the best days of my life. And so, I mean, you could almost argue that Lookout without a cabana was just as good of a day as Cast Away with a cabana. And one cost us a thousand dollars and one cost us nothing. So I mean, like, I love them both. I truly, if I had to pick my favorite, it's just an itinerary with both. Like, that is truly the right answer.
[01:01:56] Speaker C: That is the right answer.
[01:01:58] Speaker A: You know, the one thing that Castaway has.
We love to float in the ocean. We love. We get a float and we just, just float out there. My husband fried himself because he just like floated in the ocean in one position for like three hours.
Oh, my goodness. I just, I don't know if I can pick. Like, I truly love them both, but I guess, I guess that'll be my deciding factor. I think you at where we are now in our lives and what we have kind of grown accustomed to enjoying, we don't get off. We are not off the ship as long on Castaway without a convenience cabana. You know, we've done a cabana twice now and we stay until they kick us off. Whereas when we went on the Wish, we didn't get a cabana and we spent a couple hours and then we just got back on the ship. Whereas at Lookout, we spent the entire day. I mean, they, like, they were stacking the chairs up next to us. We got the message that it was time to go. And it's just so beautiful. And the And I think the bathrooms are cleaner, and I think there's more showers available.
[01:02:59] Speaker C: I mean, you're answering this question, Megan, your answer is Lookout. Your answer? Because if you're comparing caring like I have to spend a thousand dollars to have as good of a day, then clearly Lookout has to win, right?
[01:03:11] Speaker A: I'm not what I answered last time I was on the show. Last time I answered Cast Away, but I just. And they fit. I meant to say this. They fixed the food on Lookout. The food situation was horrible the last time we went, and the lines were so much better. And now you stood in one line and had access to all the food. You didn't have to get in, like, one line for spicy chicken, one line for ribs, and so eating was easier. Yeah, I guess I've switched. I, if I, it's Lookout. However, I still maintain that if you can find an itinerary with both, that's the winner.
[01:03:43] Speaker C: Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. I love it. I mean, I, I, I don't think you can answer wrong with that question,
[01:03:49] Speaker A: but, you know, I know you're right, though. I mean, I answered it without even answering it. There's just one very clear answer. But I'm just, I'm glad that we got to go to both. It was, it was a wonderful sailing.
[01:04:00] Speaker B: Well, it sounds like you had an amazing time.
What's next?
[01:04:04] Speaker A: Yeah, that's, like, such an exciting question right now because we have two, Two cruises booked for one. Like I said, we're excited to just go to Disneyland. As a Disney fan, we've never been to Disneyland, so we're doing that next month in less than a month, so we're super excited. But cruise wise, we are doing the Wonder in October for our anniversary, and we did book concierge, so we're excited about that. That.
[01:04:27] Speaker C: Oh, on the Wonder, that's like you're starting at the cream of the crop for coner.
[01:04:32] Speaker A: I heard you say on a, a podcast that the Wonder, you know, of the four original ships, the Wonder was one of your favorites to cruise concierge, just because of the outdoor space and the, the staff, I've heard is really great. So we're very excited about that.
And then next May, we are doing the Treasure. So I am super excited. Like I said, I think if any ship were going to top the fantasy, it may be the Treasure, especially with it being seven nights. Just having more time to enjoy it. Honestly, the different ports, like, we've really never been anywhere other than Nassau and the islands, you know, so to do as of right now, We've got Eastern Caribbean booked, but I'm, I'm okay if we have to change that. Sometimes we have to get childcare for my other two kiddos. And if the dates change, I'm fine with Western Caribbean as well. Well, just because it's more ports. But I've always wanted to do St. Thomas and Tortola. I just think they look so beautiful and so I am excited to do that. So, yeah, we've got an exciting lineup that I think we'll mark two more ships off of our list and then all we'll need is the Destiny.
[01:05:36] Speaker C: So fantastic. I can't wait.
Yeah, I can't wait to hear what you think of concierge on the Wonder. I can't wait to hear what you think of the treasure. Megan, you. You must come back to talk about both of those experiences.
[01:05:49] Speaker A: I'm super excited.
[01:05:51] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate it. It's been super fun catching up with you and hearing about your family's umpteenth experience now on the Disney fantasy. But you're.
Yeah, it's such a great ship. Honestly, that was our first ship and there are times where I think I go back and forth. Obviously we love all of the ships, but the fantasy, there's something very, very special about and I'm glad to hear you guys had such a wonderful time on it.
[01:06:21] Speaker A: Me too. Thank you for having me. It was so fun to talk to you guys. It was fun to reminisce even though it's only been a couple weeks. You know, it's just great memories to talk about. So thanks for letting me chat your ear off about it.
[01:06:36] Speaker D: Well, 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 live, we have a live show now every week, Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want help support the show, be sure to hit those five stars on Apple Podcasts. And if you leave us a written review, a five star written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over to 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 where we sell some fun fan inspired magnets. Link to our Patreon if you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month, just head over to the website or patreon.com DCLDUO also has a way for to 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 402-413-5590. The DCL Duo podcast is not affiliated with Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Company, or the Disney family of theme parks. The views expressed on the show are solely those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflect the views of the Disney Company or Disney Cruise Line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or a Disney vacation, please contact the great folks over at My Path Unwinding Travel or Disney directly or your own travel agent. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL Duo. Good night,
[01:08:26] Speaker A: Sam.
