[00:00:00] Speaker A: I have to tell you, like, just walking onto the ship, no one's clapping, no one's saying your name. It's just like, let's go.
There's just something that's not Disney about it. And I had a lot of anxiety about it the first day or so.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's live episode of the DC DCL Duo podcast, brought to you by WeDoTravel. Right? Remember, life is short. Take the trip. Let the good folks over at WeDoTravel, right, handle the planning so you can focus on the relaxing. All right?
[00:00:37] Speaker C: We are also, we are also brought to you by the DCL magazine. So don't forget, if you haven't subscribed yet, go to dcl-magazine.com and you can subscribe. And if you use code DCLDUO ALL CAPS, you will get 10% off anything in their store, whether that be a. A calendar, a subscription, or all of the above. And Brian has a new article in the next edition of the magazine all about his engine tour on the Disney Destiny. Obviously, Brian has become A magazine is
[00:01:10] Speaker B: full of great articles.
[00:01:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: Including one by me. So don't plug.
[00:01:13] Speaker C: I gotta plug your.
By the way, I just gotta say these ears are kind of crazy today. I just got these as folks saw my reel that I posted yesterday.
I've got, you know, Mickey, Minnie, I've got the cruise line, you know, ear characters. They're plushies that you attach to a band. And I decided to go with Pluto and Donald today. And Pluto is just like, humongous. It's kind of crazy. So I'm rocking the ear.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: I have one other thing for the show. And then, Sam, we got to bring our guests in and talk some Disney Cruise Line news.
We dropped a new episode yesterday. It's a very different kind of episode for us and we are soliciting listener feedback on the episode. So if you enjoyed the episode, if you did enjoy the episode, we, we, we'd love to hear because it was a very different endeavor for us to do this. But yeah, check it out. And heavy topic.
[00:02:08] Speaker C: But really we're looking for format on the. Or. Or feedback on the format. Not necessarily on the topic. It was a heavier topic than our usual topics.
[00:02:17] Speaker B: Of course, we've got one more of those coming out in a few weeks that will be about a similar format. Similar format. So we'd just love to hear feedback. But with that, Sam, let's, let's. Once you introduce our guest, I'm going to bring into the conversation.
[00:02:31] Speaker C: Hey, Sarah, welcome back, Sarah.
It's great to be back. Yeah, it's great to see you. For those who don't remember, we had Sarah on not that long ago, just a couple of months ago, to talk about her cruise on the Disney Destiny. And she mentioned to us that she was heading on another family cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line. And we're like, we gotta have you back to talk about this and do a little compare contrast episode, which is what we're gonna do today. We're gonna. But before we dive into Sarah's cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line, we got to talk news. And I mean, it was D23 this weekend, so there is news to talk about, albeit limited news to talk about.
So we got really no fleet wide news. So let's kind of put that aside. There were some announcements that mentioned commitments to the west coast being increased, but as I mentioned in a video I posted on Instagram, we already knew that because of the commitments to the Port of Avalon on Catalina. So that's kind of old news. We knew that Disney had to increase its number of sailings out of at least the San Diego area. We know now it's San Diego for sure.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: Can I just say, and yes, someone finally used your word of the day.
Yes.
I just wanted to say one thing about sort of all of the announcements and that is it's really important not to believe some of the hype cycle that's out there because I've seen people post like, Disney Cruise Line announced a new category. They did that two years ago. So, like, what we're really trying to unpack and piece apart is like, what did we really learn?
[00:04:07] Speaker C: What did we learn?
[00:04:10] Speaker B: I think that was thematically the case for most of D20. What did we really learn here?
[00:04:15] Speaker C: Yeah, I think part of that is because we got a lot of big announcements two years ago and now we're getting some more like let's say artist renderings about things they announced two years ago, but not really any new details, like for even in the parks. Yeah, we got some new, you know, we could see what the ride vehicle looks like. They already told us what the ride was two years ago. So that kind of, that kind of a thing. But anyway, with regard to cruise line, they talked about, you know, very vaguely the commitments to San Diego.
And they did say, of course, the magic and wonder, we're going back to Alaska. Again, old news. Something we already knew.
[00:04:52] Speaker B: Can I just say on that topic really fast, the announcement they made about the increased west coast commitment, as I've reviewed it, like it's so confusing. Confusing because it makes it sound we're doubling our presence on the west coast. But you were already sending two ships and then at the very end they said something like so you'll have access to one of our ships for longer. And I was like, so really you're just the Magic or the Wonder is going to stay out here for a longer period? That's exactly.
[00:05:15] Speaker C: It just means the Wonder is like assuming that they are staying with which ship is assigned wherever. Then let's say the Wonder is going to be west coast all year round, which is already doing now. After they canceled, they stopped going to New Zealand and Australia. But that just means the Magic is going to be on the west coast for longer. Right. So more of like spring and more of fall, but still I don't think year round. So we don't really know what that means in terms of other times of year and whether or not I would guess the Magic's still going to do Panama Canal sailings and that sort of a thing. But anyway, the other thing they mentioned was the Wish going to Europe. We already knew the Wish was going to Europe. And then they showed us a teaser video of the Meridian class that gave us again no new information. They told us the passenger count and the tonnage.
We saw some images that you can
[00:06:13] Speaker B: kind of piece the images apart and maybe get a. Like, like we, we did spot the, the, the atrium looks like there's like a big glass bulge. It does look like that's going to be like a more light filled atrium. But who knows.
It does look like the promenade deck is like at least all one level ish clear. It's not clear, but the ship still
[00:06:34] Speaker C: has what looks like, it actually looks like the Rainforest Room on the, on the Wish class. It looks like on the front of the ship. So it's, it's not clear whether we're going to have a full promenade deck or we're going to have the same thing that the Wish Class even angled
[00:06:47] Speaker B: the rendering so you couldn't see the, the bow character or the stern character. No name on the side, nothing.
[00:06:53] Speaker C: You couldn't even tell if there was a water coaster on top or did.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: It looks like it was nine decks which would match the, I think the Magic and the Wonder in terms of height because Deck 10 is the pool. So yeah, I think maybe Deck 9 is the pool.
[00:07:06] Speaker D: On the Magic and Wonder.
[00:07:07] Speaker C: Deck 9 is the pool. But then Deck 10 is like the thing around the pool.
[00:07:10] Speaker B: Yeah. So this was, this is one deck taller, I guess to the Magic and the Wonder for the pool deck. So, you know. But who knows? It's all art, so it could also.
[00:07:18] Speaker C: It's just an artist rendering. It doesn't really tell us anything.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: But what did we learn? What did we learn, Sam?
[00:07:22] Speaker C: Okay, so what we did learn is the only things we learned really is about the Believe, right? We got some character information about the Believe, the ship that's all about promise and possibility.
So we now know that the bow character is Tinkerbell. So that's that filigree on the front of the ship. This is the first time that it's not Mickey or Minnie on the bow of the ship. It is Tinkerbell. So that's new. We heard that the stern of the ship actually was. My prediction came true, which was that Buzz and Woody are on the back, although my prediction was slightly different. I thought they'd be on the back of the ship with Arcee about to take flight, although that would have probably been harder to accomplish. But they're on the back of the ship.
And then we know that the Asrim character. This was the surprise, I think, because I think we all kind of were expecting Frozen. And so we now know Moana, along with Pua and Heihei, are going to be the atrium grand hall statue. So all of that exciting news, I gotta say, I'm excited. I like those picks. There is a little bit of controversy about the lettering on the back of the ship.
[00:08:36] Speaker B: Because I had a thought here on the lettering.
[00:08:38] Speaker C: I think it's.
[00:08:39] Speaker B: I was gonna. I was gonna. There is. People don't love the lettering on the back of the ship. I actually thought what would have been interesting is if they'd spelled it with toy blocks on the back. I thought that could have been.
[00:08:48] Speaker C: Or they could have done Andy's handwriting. Right? Like, you know, the Andy.
[00:08:52] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:08:53] Speaker C: I gotta say, I'm fine with it, because they're already, like, changing it up in terms of, like, the Bao character is no longer Mickey and Minnie on the destiny they had.
Instead of having that sort of swirly filigree around the lettering. Disney Destiny, they have that web, so it's very, like, angular, and that's completely different than all the other ships. And so, to me, it's like, once you start doing different, like, who cares if the next one's a little bit different?
I don't really. It doesn't bother me. They use the Toy Story lettering for the word believe.
I don't know. Sarah, what did you think about those announcements and the lettering controversy? I guess.
[00:09:32] Speaker B: Lettergate.
[00:09:34] Speaker C: Lettergate.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: I'm pleasantly surprised. We were very late to seeing Toy Story 5 and I saw it on Saturday and then they announced that. And so that was sort of like a little magic moment. My kids were like, you know, because we just watched Toy Story 5 and I think the characters and the message of Toy Story 5 was really about believing in your imagination and play and what that can do for human connection as well. And so I think that sort of spoke in a lot of ways about the world we live in. And I. I was happy for that because I think it just. It touched closer to home for me because I had just seen that movie. And I love Moana.
I don't really know the second movie as much as the first. The first was such a big part of my daughter's like, growing up. And I think that it's a strong story about belief and possibility and where you can go and pushing the limits. So I think theming wise, it's all on brand for what message they're trying to convey.
[00:10:36] Speaker C: Totally.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: I wish there had been more of.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: I'll say. I don't think we should have been as shocked as we were that it was Moana because it just continues the trend for Disney Cruise Line.
[00:10:46] Speaker D: Let's.
[00:10:47] Speaker B: Let's put the Moana stage show on the other ship on the Treasure, and then we'll put her statue on this. It's just, it's. It's banana. Like, I don't know if that port.
[00:10:56] Speaker C: Well, we've got the Little Mermaid statue on one ship and we've got the Little Mermaid show on a different chip.
[00:11:04] Speaker B: I first thought that maybe it was like, oh, they're signaling that maybe the Moana stage show might also be on that. But no, that. That would be completely out of charact for the cruise line to actually line things up in terms of ip.
[00:11:13] Speaker C: So, yeah, the only Black Panther musical.
That would be hilarious. Sarah. I actually, you know, I've been plugging for Rogers the Musical. I don't. It's not going to happen, but I. I would love Rogers the Musical as, like, that, you know, short show on day one. It was so good. We saw it in California. We saw it twice in one day in California. I'm obsessed, but I know it's not going to happen. All right, well, we've gotten tons of feedback, you know, through our social media on. It seems like a lot of people are happy about that part of the announcements, but just disappointed that, you know, just whelmed, as I should say, not overwhelmed, not underwhelmed, just whelmed because we're happy about the announcements we got. We just didn't get enough of it. So you know, we love, we love that movie, 10 things I hate about yout and so had to use that clip.
Credit to Brian for the idea of using the word whelmed to describe it all.
But yeah, we absolutely love that. Okay, well, we're going to jump right into talking about Norwegian Cruise Line. We're going to do compare contrast. I will put a pin in one thing to say that if the itineraries drop tomorrow, which we've heard rumors, we don't have any inside info, but we've heard rumors that they might drop tomorrow. If that's the case, we will be live tomorrow, Tuesday, August 18th at 5pm Pacific, 8pm Eastern. I will announce that again at the end of the show. But if we're, if the itineraries do not, do not drop tomorrow, we'll just be back next Monday at our normal time. All right, Sarah, tell us, okay you guys chose to go on a Norwegian.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: If they don't drop tomorrow but they drop Wednesday, we will also, we will also do a live but we expect them generally to drop on Tuesday. So if they don't drop tomorrow for whatever reason, then yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:13:08] Speaker C: Okay. So Sarah, let's talk about this Norwegian cruise sailing that you did. Norwegian Prima is the name of the ship, right?
[00:13:17] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:13:18] Speaker C: Tell us now you've been on two Disney cruises before.
Oh, three, sorry, three Disney cruises.
[00:13:25] Speaker A: Tell us two short wish cruises.
[00:13:27] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Why, why did you choose to sail on Norwegian this time around?
[00:13:34] Speaker A: Well, this summer. My husband's deployed right now overseas and I was looking for camps for my kids. And when I looked at the prices for a lot of the camps in our area and I knew I didn't want to do sleepaway camp just with him being gone, it seemed like a cruise would be better option and I could get some good quality time with my kids. Maybe they could have a place to go in a kids club and we could travel a little and I would feel like that safety net without him there. And a dear friend of mine and her daughter decided to join us.
So there were five of us, but we each had rooms and we looked at Disney. We both love Disney cruises.
And for the price of a week long cruise itinerary, initially it was about half the cost to go on Norwegian. And I had actually looked at Princess for a while because I had heard some great things service wise. You know, that sounded really appealing to me. But Norwegian had more going on for families on the ship. I have done a Royal Caribbean cruise, and I very much enjoyed that. But some of the newer Royal ships that had itineraries also going out at the same time were closer to Disney prices because they're newer, bigger ships.
And also seemed a little overwhelming for me alone with my kids. They're like mega cities. And we actually saw one of them leaving at the same time that we were leaving Port Canaveral, and it was definitely massive in comparison. So this felt like kind of a good. In between.
[00:15:14] Speaker C: Yeah. How many passengers were on this ship then?
[00:15:19] Speaker A: I think it holds roughly like 3,300 to 3,500.
And I don't know that it was completely full, but it was probably pretty full.
[00:15:28] Speaker C: This is closer to, like the Magic class size than to, like, which class size, but kind of in between, actually. This is really like Meridian Class size if we're really.
Yeah. So the newest class of ship is going to be the Meridian.
Just to tell people why we keep calling it the Meridian Class. Well, one, we started calling it that before we knew what the project name was. Actually Meridian Class. I think it was our friend CT10 who.
Who said that name, and we just kind of ran with it and then we actually found out that that was the project name. So the Wish Class used to be called the Triton Class when it was a project before the Wish came out and before its name was announced, it was called the Triton Class, and now it's called the Wish Class. And the same happened with the Dream. I can't remember what its project name was. But anyway, right now the Meridian Class is that project name. So it seems like that's about the same size as the Norwegian Prima. All right, well, let's move to the next slide, Brian, so we can talk about the itinerary here.
[00:16:28] Speaker A: And this was just my little.
[00:16:30] Speaker C: I love things.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:32] Speaker A: So the younger two kids are mine and my daughter is 11 and my son is six. And then my friend's daughter is going into eighth grade, she's 13.
So we had a good age range to test out some kids clubs. But yeah, we started in Port Canaveral and I really liked the cadence of this itinerary day at sea.
We got some good ports in there. Dominican Republic was new for us. I have been to both the US and the British Virgin Islands. Love them both. So I was excited to go back another day at sea. And then we checked out on the 4th of July actually, that their private island, Great Stirrup Cay in Bahamas.
[00:17:10] Speaker B: This is almost like. This is almost like. Well, this is identical to DCL's Eastern Caribbean itinerary, but with the added port stop. Because they do two days at sea.
[00:17:19] Speaker D: Right.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: And then St. Thomas or no, then Tortola, then St. Thomas, then sea, then castaway. So yeah, you get one extra port stop.
[00:17:26] Speaker D: That's.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: That's interesting.
[00:17:28] Speaker C: Yeah, it's. That's a really nice itinerary too. And I like the. I like getting of course that private island stop in. Now, did you choose these dates just because they worked in your schedule or because of the itinerary? Because I feel like this is a really good itinerary.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: It was a little bit of both. We were trying to go. I had some plans later in July and then we looked at this versus some that went to Puerto Rico, which we.
We were interested in. But this one just happened to have the best itinerary through growth. So.
[00:18:01] Speaker B: And I should say this looks to be a fairly. It's. I was pulling up some facts on the prima, so I didn't realize she's 20, 22. She's pretty grand spanking new. I was looking at these spaces. I'm like, those look really nice. Like what. What was your overall impression of the ship?
[00:18:16] Speaker A: Overall impression? So I have to say as like a researcher, I go online, I watch a lot of YouTube videos. I read a lot of articles.
This is a controversial ship for Norwegian. It.
[00:18:27] Speaker C: Oh, interesting.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: Before the Luna, their newest.
But it's like people have very strong opinions about it. They hated a lot of things.
In my mind it's sort of like the same way when the wish class came out, so many people were so angry about all these things or at least had strong opinions. But we had never been on any of the older classes. So I've only been on wish class ships. I think they're fabulous. Can't wait to try the other one someday. So for me, not knowing their older ships, I just saw a beautiful new ship.
I think the some of the complaints, they have a very large like three deck structure which my myself and my kids didn't actually we never made it around to trying that. My friend's daughter did get to try it, but it does take up a lot of ship space. And then they have a lot of private spaces that are dedicated to adults only that are an upcharge that people felt like took away from some of the overall spaces. But I have to tell you, they have a lot of great other spaces to be in. I never felt trapped or anything like that. So.
[00:19:32] Speaker C: Yeah. All right, well, let's.
The next slide. Brian Sympathetic. Yeah. Tell us What?
[00:19:39] Speaker A: This setting is very beautiful. It's very modern, but with a lot of elegant touches.
So it was really hard for me the first day to go on and be really open and, like, excited.
I have to tell you, like, just walking onto the ship, no one's clapping, no one's saying your name. It's just like, let's go.
There's just something that's not Disney about it. And I had a lot of anxiety about it the first day or so, but it is a beautiful ship. My kids thought it was really cool. The more you explore it, the more you see there are a lot of intentional decorating touches.
It's a beautiful ship.
You can't complain about it. A lot of cool spaces.
[00:20:19] Speaker B: What's the space in the upper right hand corner here? That slide that looks.
[00:20:22] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, the upper right hand corner. And there's other pictures of it later on. But Indulge Food hall is one of their complimentary, like, included. It's a really cool concept of, like, a food hall that you would go to in a country in Europe where there's lots of little spaces with different foods that you can try. And then they have lots of really cool seating areas. Actually, the top left might be the Indulge outside deck.
And it was just really cool. You'd order off an iPad at your table and the food comes out, like, immediately. So you can order from all these different stations.
And then in the evening, they have a not. They have, like, tandoori naan ovens, and you can actually watch them making it, and they bring it out fresh. So that was a really cool spot for us to explore.
[00:21:06] Speaker B: Let me rewind for a second back to booking here, because my experience with, you know, with Disney is you book the cruise, that's kind of about all you do in the first instance. Like, you kind of book the cruise with Royal, you know, depending on when you book, you might also then be presented with what you want. Drink packages, you want to pre book, WI Fi, you want to pay for some upcharge things. You want to include adult dining.
What was the booking experience like for you? Did you feel like. Because I think you started off by saying, well, this was kind of the lesser expensive option. You know, Disney and Royal were up here with the ships that were sailing, and Norwegian was down here. And it looks like a pretty nice brand new ship. So I could totally understand, like, I'm gonna get some value. Did you feel like the gap got bridged along the way by some of the upcharging or. Or how did you approach it.
Yeah.
[00:21:54] Speaker A: To keep things relatively simple for myself as a mom traveling alone with my kids, I decided that they have different packages. They have what's called Free at Sea and Free at Sea Plus.
And within those, you can also buy individual drink packages, WI FI packages. But really the best bang for your buck is to buy one of those. And there's different things included, like specialty dining, different wifi packages, different drink packages.
So when I looked at it, the price still seemed pretty good for the amount of things that I was getting. With Free at C, I had unlimited Starbucks on board every day. You couldn't get more than one drink at a time, but.
And I don't even think I use that probably to its potential. I can't drink as much coffee, though. I, like my daughter, loved that she could go get a refresher once or twice a day.
The drink package I probably didn't use to its potential, but it was nice to not have to think about it every time.
And you could have, you know, like the premium top shelf on Free at Sea Plus. But once you start adding some excursions, some other things like that, it does feel like it bridges that gap. But all the gratuities were included. I believe it was odd. Like, one soda package for one of my kids didn't get included. I had to buy that separately, which I think Disney really.
You know, it's like the shiny, brand new, I don't know, Range Rover at the dealer that has all the things upgraded and you get to drive away and it's yours and everything's there. And, yeah, you have to get gas and you might have to do a little bit of maintenance, but it's like, included in a plant. So, like, I don't have to think about it. I don't know why I chose Range Rover. I don't own one, but this felt like, okay, here's this package. We want to add all this on to the sticker that we already saw in the lot that got us in the door.
And then, oh, by the way, here's all these other little things. So did it ever make it to that price?
[00:23:54] Speaker C: No.
[00:23:54] Speaker A: I think it was still a great value to compare for the week.
But it did feel like, I hate to say nickel and diming. It wasn't nickel and diming. It just felt like I did have to add on things.
[00:24:05] Speaker C: You had to pay for the floor mats, you had to pay for the windshield wipers. You had to. You had to pay for extra fluids. Right.
Things that you had to add on to that you Would that might come standard on the Disney car. You had to pay extra for on the Norwegian car. But it's still, there's still a price differential. Yeah, that, that, that makes sense to me.
[00:24:27] Speaker B: So let's talk staterooms for a second since we're very cool. Yeah, this is a really nice stateroom, actually. It's, it's way better than some of the sort of, you know, regular staterooms I've sailed on in Royal in the past. So what did you, what do you think of the stateroom? And typically like a Norwegian, a Royal is going to have a lot more kinds of staterooms that you can book.
[00:24:48] Speaker C: Like they've got more options.
[00:24:50] Speaker B: More options. So how did you land on this stateroom and what did you think of it?
[00:24:54] Speaker A: So I love a veranda. I, I like to have a veranda. I like to have space to go outside and breathe. It's just helpful for me if I ever, you know, I'm feeling at sea. But also I just like to watch the water and be out there. So I knew I wanted a veranda. A lot of their veranda rooms don't fit a whole family.
It's just like a double occupancy. Which makes sense because I also was spent a little bit of time in Europe this summer and every hotel is double occupancy only. It's like, do you want us to bring our family?
So they have rooms that work. Like our friends who had the room next door, I believe, I believe theirs was like a category lower. Hers was even less because they didn't need that pull out sofa. So they had the two beds that you could have separated or together as a king, but no sofa bed.
And then ours had the sofa bed. I will say the space was tight when the sofa bed was out at night, but I mean, it wasn't the end of the world. My son said it was really comfortable. And then they split my daughter and I's, you know, king bed apart, which we kind of thought was kind of fun.
[00:25:59] Speaker C: So yeah, it's kind of, I mean that I, I do have to say I think people are always. People who sail on other cruise lines are typically very surprised by the fact that Disney Cruise Line bed does not separate. Right. It's a queen size bed. It's not a king size bed and it doesn't separate. So if you're sailing with like a teenager or two teenagers, right. You're sleeping in a bed with a teenager and not, you're not in your own bed.
And this is, you know, it is nice I will say on other cruise lines that you can actually separate the bed.
But the other part, though, about the, you know, room feeling cramped once the bed is open. I mean, you're. You're only having that open when you need it.
[00:26:39] Speaker B: Right.
[00:26:40] Speaker C: And you're not spending probably a ton of time in. In bathroom. I have to ask about products in the room. I know that's a weird thing to ask, but I feel like on some of the other cruise lines, you see a shampoo, conditioner, soap all in one. Like, literally one product in the bathroom.
[00:26:57] Speaker B: I'm looking at you, Royal Caribbean, because that was in my bathroom.
[00:27:03] Speaker C: Yeah. Unless you're selling in suite class. In suite class, you'll actually get, like, shampoo, conditioner body wash like you have on Disney. What was, what was the situation? The product situation?
[00:27:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And I will say I probably should have put photo credit ncl.com for that bathroom shot. I apparently didn't take a picture of the bathroom. The bathrooms, I thought were really nice. Like, I do like the split bathroom on Disney. But this felt really spacious. We had plenty of storage. They did have, I believe, separate shampoo conditioner body wash. Because I bring my own shampoo and conditioner usually.
But my son, he always is. He's like, just learning to read and spell. So I remember telling him. And then they had liquid hand soap, which was great. So, yeah, all of the amenities felt. Felt fine. I will say their ice buckets were like an ice bowl.
And it was. I don't know. There's something. We like ice again. Maybe it's a European thing. There's just like no ice anywhere. And we live in Florida, so I need ice all of the time. And so I asked my state attendant, who was amazing, by the way. He was fantastic. Like, the first night, I said, I'm going to. When you bring the bed out every night, can you just bring a little thing of ice? And I didn't even see the ice bucket in there. I mean, it was like a cereal bowl of ice.
[00:28:21] Speaker B: Did you miss the split bathroom? That's the real question. For someone who sailed on Disney Cruise Line, did you miss having the split bathroom?
[00:28:29] Speaker A: If my husband had been on this trip with us, I think so.
Yeah.
Just because, like, when adults have to get ready and take turns, like, we don't want to both be in there at the same time. It's a cruise ship bathroom. Yeah.
[00:28:42] Speaker C: Tiny.
[00:28:42] Speaker A: On our last Disney trip, you know, he could have his toiletries on one side and I could have mine on the other.
And then, you know, whoever's showering can be in the shower, but you could still go in the other bathroom to do your makeup or whatever. I mean, it was fine with the kids.
[00:28:56] Speaker C: Yeah, I didn't have issues, I gotta say. And this might be tmi. I just like that I can poop and pee and in one room and then somebody else could be in the shower in a different room. And we don't have to be in the same room at the same time. I'm just gonna put that out there.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: It's nice to have a separate commode, everyone.
[00:29:17] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:29:19] Speaker B: I can't control what she says on live tv. Let's move on to excursions. Let's move on to excursions. So I recognize the.
I like. I recognize the pink alleyway there, I think. Yeah, yeah.
[00:29:31] Speaker C: The doctor. Yeah.
[00:29:32] Speaker B: So what'd you get up to in terms of excursions? And what did you. What did you think about the offerings that they had as compared to, you know, maybe something that you've experienced on Disney?
[00:29:42] Speaker A: So I thought they had great offerings. And one part of the free at sea option that I liked was you could get a $50 credit towards an excursion on each day that they had. So we chose not to get off the island. My friend and her daughter did on St. Thomas and did a Jeep tour, but I'd been to St. Thomas and spent some time there, like, good amount of time there.
So that day I skipped with my kids just to give them, like a chill day because they need that.
Dominican Republic was like the sleeper hit we decided very last minute to do. And I wish I had written down the exact name, but it was like culture, coffee and rum. It wasn't the one that had chocolate in it. It was like culture, coffee and rum. And it was like a good overview of the city. We had a fabulous tour guide. His name was Domingo. Everywhere you went, it was, you're our familia. It almost felt like a Disney vibe. Like, I speak some Spanish and I guess they don't learn English as a second language in the Dominican Republic. So it was really fun to practice my Spanish there. And they liked practicing their English.
It was a cool tour. We went to the Amber Museum, which is allowed to use the Jurassic park font because they, I think, became a museum a couple years before the first Jurassic park movie. And so John Hammond's little, like, mosquito in the amber on his cane and a couple other props were from that museum.
And when the studio asked, hey, can we keep a couple of these? They said, yes, if we can use your font.
And so that was the story they told us.
[00:31:19] Speaker C: Love it. That's so cool. That's awesome.
I really like Puerto Plata.
[00:31:26] Speaker A: Puerto Plata was also a beautiful. We did not use it at all, but it's a gorgeous port. Just what's free to the ports. There's like a lazy river, a ton of shops. It's very new and beautiful. So I highly recommend it.
I loved the tour because I wanted to learn about their culture. I really did learn a lot there and my kids learned a lot and it was a nice way to like introduce them to some, you know, Caribbean.
Different cultures.
I just thought it was really very pleasant. The people there were so friendly and so happy that we were there, spending our money there. I really enjoyed it. Yeah. And what about.
[00:32:10] Speaker C: Yeah, it was Van Dyke.
[00:32:12] Speaker A: Happiest place on earth besides Disney for me is Yo Van Dyke.
We went on a catamaran trip with some friends to the US and British Virgin Islands before we all had kids. And that was my favorite place then. And I saw it on the, on the excursions and I told my husband, I think I'm taking the kids.
We call it jvd. And I was like, to jbd. He was like, no, not without me.
[00:32:36] Speaker C: Sorry, honey.
[00:32:38] Speaker A: Yeah, so you have to take a boat from.
It's about a 40 minute boat ride from the port there in Tortola, which is a small port, but it's very beautiful. And you take a boat out, it's really beautiful out to Jos Van Dyke. And then you have to take a little bus over the side of the mountain. It's a tiny little island.
The Soggy Dollar bar and other famous bars and restaurants are all on the beach. And they've really built it up since trying to remember which hurricane.
But when we were there, I mean 10 plus years ago, probably not as nice as it is now.
[00:33:11] Speaker C: Yeah, it was probably Irma. Irma was that big one that hit Puerto Rico and Tortola. Yeah, it really did a huge amount of damage to that part of the carib.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: Yeah, right. But the water is perfection.
You just walk down, you get your painkiller at 10am they have now a coffee and like breakfast burrito tacos place. And then they had lunch. It was just amazing. It's just the kids had snorkels out. Like you don't have to do a lot and you're only there for probably five hours. But it was enough that we got to have that little slice of heaven. And then the boat ride back they served, you know like free rum punch and painkillers. Again. And they had, like, the gentleman driving the boat was DJing, like, all these, like, American classics. He's like, for, you know, and my son, when we got off the boat, he had fallen asleep, and we were like, oh, you missed the whole boat ride back. And he got up and he was like, sweet Caroline, all the songs. Then he asked me about Bon Jovi songs. I'm like, you heard all those songs?
[00:34:14] Speaker C: Didn't miss it. He was half awake and half asleep. That's adorable. I love that.
If you're listening to us right now, chances are pretty good that you love Disney vacations as much as we do. But even seasoned travelers know there's a ton to keep up with when it comes to Disney Cruise Line. From cruise itineraries to the perfect stateroom for your family, shore excursions and onboard experiences. And if you're planning to visit the Disney parks before or after your cruise, then there's even more to plan. From the perfect resort to lightning lane strategies, dining reservations, park tickets, special offers, and much, much more.
[00:34:48] Speaker D: That's where WeDoTravel Right comes in. Their team of experienced travel advisors specializes in Disney Cruise Line, Disney parks, and other exciting places all around the world. They take the time to understand what matters most to your family, providing personalized recommendations and helping you navigate all the details so you can spend less time stressing and more time looking forward to your vacation. Whether it's your first Disney Cruise or your 10th, having an extra expert in your corner can make all the difference.
[00:35:14] Speaker C: Life is short. Take the trip. Visit wedotravelright.com dclduo to connect with a travel advisor and start planning your next unforgettable adventure.
[00:35:23] Speaker D: We do travel, right? The crew that handles the planning so you can focus on relaxing.
[00:35:29] Speaker C: Brian, let's advance to the next slide, please.
All right.
[00:35:32] Speaker B: Sam's favorite. Sam's favorite.
[00:35:34] Speaker D: Entertainment.
[00:35:36] Speaker C: Entertainment. Yeah. Tell us how. What. What are we. What do we have on board Norwegian that compares or doesn't compare to Disney Cruise Line entertainment?
[00:35:46] Speaker A: Okay, this was an area where I was like, personally, again, anxious. Like, maybe had a few hives thinking about, well, I can't take my kids to these shows. It says 18 and up only.
Sometimes it has reservations, sometimes it doesn't. I didn't understand. I was very stressed. They have a theater that we have a concert hall in our area that's the same way. It's like you can move the seats in and out almost like bleachers.
So they use it in different ways. But I have to say, I really loved all of it. I Was not disappointed.
The kids loved the kids clubs, which we'll talk about. We can talk about later. But that allowed my friend and my friend Catherine, she is the music director at our kids school.
And so I run the musicals with her. So we are like musical theater people. I choreograph and she does all the music. And so it was very fun for us and special to like go have a cocktail and watch stuff up close and personal, Enjoy the music and enjoy the live. You know, it was less theater and acting, more like variety shows. But yeah, I had a background.
[00:36:53] Speaker C: Yeah. More musical performances with dancing. Right. So like you've got here. So the one in the upper left is like a dance crew with Latin music.
Then the. The one right under it. Red, white and British. So it's a tribute band. Yeah, but dance. Oh, same crew. Okay. So then they're.
[00:37:12] Speaker A: It was the same dance crew. Yeah, they were phenomenal. I was like Dancing with the Stars level. They were fantastic.
[00:37:17] Speaker C: Wow. And then you got a fleet.
[00:37:20] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. That was a different group. And that one. I guess part of the reason people gave this ship so much hate for a while was that they have a small bar called Sid Norman's Poor House that's like, I guess a famous something. I probably know what it is, but it's a really small bar space for music, and it's great. But this is a really wonderful show. And so people couldn't get in and like, see it. So they have listened to their people and they have now moved it into the main theater.
And it was like just chills on.
They tell the whole story of Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, all of them, as they created the Rumors album.
[00:38:02] Speaker C: Oh, cool.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: Through the songs. So they kind of talk in between about what was happening, all the drama and their relationships. It was. It was fabulous. They were so good.
[00:38:11] Speaker C: Kind of like. I mean, there's a lot of musical theater musicals out right now that are the story of a particular artist or a particular band. Of course, it started with like Jersey Boys, and then now there's been, you know, there's been almost. I mean, there's a Neil diamond one. There's Donna Summers. There's Alicia Keys. Right. Like. Yeah, there's Michael right there. So there's all of these different sort of tribute musicals that I have to say, as someone who loves musicals too, some of them are fantastic. Not all of them. I wouldn't say universally. Every single one of them has been wonderful, but in general, most of them have been really good. And then a crew talent show. Tell Us what kinds of crew members we're talking. We're not talking necessarily just the performers.
[00:38:53] Speaker A: No, no. These were all non performing, non entertainment staff. And I know they do this on other longer. This was my first longer itinerary. So I loved this. Like I wanted to get up and be like, do you need me to come and tap dance for you? But I mean, there was a cast member and I can't remember where she was from, like what department, but she came out in a full like Elphaba outfit and sang from Wicked. And then these are the gentlemen that.
And I think there's one girl, this was a crew that's in the buffet every morning and they sing songs in the buffet and they're like, get your coffee, get your syrup or your waffles, like they would do in the morning. And they did a traditional like Filipino dance with the little stick and they jump over. It was. It was so cool.
[00:39:40] Speaker B: It reminds me of the Guy on Royal, Mr. Washi Washy, who always stands buffet and sings the Wash Hand song. Yeah, I love it.
[00:39:47] Speaker C: Yeah.
Well, I mean, definitely not necessarily family entertainment, but it sounds like a lot of really good adult entertainment. Adult focus. Now, when I say adult, I'm not talking about raunchy, just that it was 18 and older entertainment. Let's head to the next slide. I know we've got kids clubs at some point to come.
[00:40:07] Speaker B: Wait, I want to ask, I want to ask. We're doing a comparison show. So I know this entertainment is not the same kind of Broadway entertainment that you see on Disney necessarily. Like, did you miss that? Did you miss having a main stage show production that felt kind of a little bit more Broadway, a little bit more story driven.
[00:40:24] Speaker A: I would have liked that. I think a story driven show would have been really great. I will say that the older, like my friend's daughter who's 13 and my daughter were old enough to have come to maybe red, white and British, but they were so interested in their kids club they didn't want to come. So like, I don't know. I mean, I like to see a show with my family, but I also understand that this is a really cool time for them to experience their own thing.
Yeah, sure. I would love an actual Broadway theater driven story driven show. But that's okay.
There was one. If you go one slide back really quickly on the.
Oh, no, sorry, the other way.
That picture on the right, the gentleman in the front singing is actually the ship's captain and he was about to take like a three, four month hiatus. That was on the 4th of July, and he was from Norway, and he came out and said the most wonderful things about the history of the Norwegian people in America. And then he sang Tequila Sunrise and something else, and it was incredible.
[00:41:30] Speaker C: That's so cool. I love that. And this. I have to say, this space at Norman's looks really cool, but you said it's very small. And so they pivoted to putting that show, the Fleetwood Mac show, in the main theater.
[00:41:44] Speaker B: The problem is Disney can't do that with their captains because Captain Mickey and Captain Minnie.
It just breaks the storytelling a bit, I feel like.
[00:41:54] Speaker C: But they're the star. Yeah, they're the star.
[00:41:55] Speaker B: You can't have them, like Captain Kate serving drinks at the bar. They probably put him out singing, like, cocktail show.
[00:42:04] Speaker C: Yeah, we have. Listen, I don't. I wouldn't mind Captain Marco, like, singing a song or something. I mean, I don't know if he could sing, but, you know.
[00:42:11] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:42:12] Speaker C: Anyway.
[00:42:12] Speaker B: All right. Food and dining. My favorite part of the show.
[00:42:16] Speaker C: Yes. Tell us how dining works on Norwegian. The. The sort of. The general dining.
[00:42:22] Speaker A: So there were things that I loved about this, and then there were times where the timing was just like.
Just make it less complicated. I will say their app and their technology is not the best.
I know Disney gets a lot of heat for things not working well, but their Disney Cruise Line app is far and away easier to use and just more intuitive.
[00:42:45] Speaker B: It's good to know we have it better than somebody.
[00:42:48] Speaker A: Than someone.
[00:42:49] Speaker B: Than somebody. Yeah.
[00:42:51] Speaker A: So they have anytime dining.
I don't even know if that's what they call it.
My style, Freestyle, freestyle dining.
And I wrote anytime. Just meaning, like, these are. There are things that you can do any time of the day within certain hours. So it sounds. The only thing that's completely open 247 is called the Local. I don't have a photo of it in here, but it's like a pub, sports bar. There was a lot of World cup going on.
It was fun. It seemed to have a lot of traffic at the bar side, and it would move slow, but it was fine if you needed something late.
Then they have two main dining rooms which were absolutely beautiful, Hudson's and the Commodore. And we actually had great service and great food in both of those.
They were very, like, traditional but very beautiful. And because they have two separated, you can go to either one. You may have to wait 10 or 15 minutes for your party to get sat, but we never waited more than five or 10 minutes.
[00:43:52] Speaker B: Could you book any of this stuff in advance?
[00:43:55] Speaker A: Not not for anything that's listed on this slide.
[00:43:59] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:43:59] Speaker A: So on the next slide with specialty dining, you could.
I think there were a few large parties that I heard that said, hey, we have a party of, like, 18 people. They could go and tell, like, the. The Hudson's or Commodore Room, hey, we've got this many people coming in. What would be a good time? Can you, like, kind of write our name down?
I think they did some of that, but Hudson's is, like, overlooking the ocean.
On the bow of the ship is beautiful.
Surfside Cafe was their buffet, which I have to say, they had a great buffet. My kids found a lot there. It's just the hours were weird. You had to, like, every time we wanted to go get something, I had to look up, okay, what's actually open right now, and then go find it. Indulge Food hall was a super cool experience. The picture on the right is Indulge, and it had so many great indoor and outdoor spaces, but the hours were weird, so if you hit it right. It also had a Starbucks.
There was lots of great stuff in there. It was the only freestyle, like, Coke soda machine, though. So there's, like, little things that's like, can you not make it so complicated?
You know, like, I wanted a freestyle Coke machine in the buffet, but it wasn't there. It was, like, the juice machines, only.
[00:45:13] Speaker C: Why?
[00:45:14] Speaker B: Vanessa's asking, did they have a midnight buffet that is a throwback to an era of cruising I have not seen for a while. But did they do a midnight buffet?
[00:45:22] Speaker A: No. Surfside was closed. They had some late hours, and then you could go to the local after that.
[00:45:28] Speaker B: And how did you. Before we get into the specialty dining, how'd you find the food on Norwegian? How'd your kids find the food on Norwegian?
[00:45:37] Speaker A: The kids found the food. There were things they specifically missed from Disney.
The food, very good. There was always something I could find, I think the star of the show or a couple of their specialty dinings. But the main dining rooms actually stood out for me as, like, just consistent with good food and, like, certain things that were on the menu every night and then certain things that changed every night, and I felt like the consistency was. Was there, and the service was good.
So, yeah, I mean, Indulge Food hall had some really great, like, different foods. I got my kids to try new things. They loved that. But if you wanted a burger or chicken tenders, they could get it for you, but they had to order it from the local, and it would take a little while. So it's just like, weird, nuanced things like that for the kids, that made it a little complicated.
[00:46:29] Speaker B: And how did you find it, not having so, you know, rotational dining? Your servers go with you on Norwegian? That's not happening, I don't think.
Maybe they've changed it, but, like, how'd you find that? Because I find that some people really like that. You know, I've got this relationship with the serving team.
[00:46:43] Speaker D: Every night.
[00:46:43] Speaker B: They know what I want, what I expect, you know, those sorts of things.
[00:46:47] Speaker A: I, I, you know, my friend Catherine said she really missed that, and she's taken some longer, like Alaskan cruises and things. And she said that's just such a highlight.
I missed it and I didn't. I found that the service was great and it was friendly, and I do like to get to know my servers, but I got to know my stateroom attendant, and I got to know I had some neck issues, and I went to the spa a few times, and I got to know the, the massage therapist. So, like, I had other interactions. I had a favorite bartender who made me espresso martinis somewhere. And, like, so I had, I had those connections elsewhere. Yeah. And they agree with dress martinis. I would say they're even can't ding one. But yeah, like, you can't get this.
[00:47:27] Speaker C: Can you get anything printed on the top of the espresso? Martin
[00:47:34] Speaker B: Disney might not even do that anymore for most. So there you go.
[00:47:36] Speaker C: Apparently they do it depends what bartender you go to. Yeah, yeah. Blasphemy is right.
[00:47:43] Speaker B: Oh, go ahead. Yeah. And so food in general, you found to be fairly comparable. You didn't miss not having, you know, your servers follow you around.
You found that outlet in other ways. So, I mean, overall, it sounds like it's kind of a wash between the
[00:47:57] Speaker D: two in your mind.
[00:47:58] Speaker A: It's kind of a wash, yeah. Honestly, it was a wash. Like, certain things Disney excels at, but sometimes I like the flexibility of I don't need to, like, do this exact time for my meal every single night.
Yeah, that's just me personally. They do have a lot of specialty options, so with Free at Sea, I believe you get one or two specialty dining included. And then with Free at Sea, plus you get three. And if you want more in addition to that, I think you pay just, like a nominal cost. So it's like a per person cost to go to these.
And the ones that we ate at were the Italian restaurant, which was excellent, except my son was having a meltdown, so it sort of ruined. That was okay once I got him out and Came back, I was able to eat. The hibachi was amazing.
That's where the Broadway performers were. Let's be real.
There was so much singing and entertaining in there, and there's a lot you can't do. I didn't realize with hibachi on a ship, because you can't have fire like the open flame with the little. I mean, there was just. It was really funny. A lot of laughs. And then I thought their steakhouse was excellent.
I don't eat steak. And I had a little surf and turf and I thought the steak was excellent.
[00:49:12] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:49:14] Speaker B: So these photos you've got up here. And again, I got to put in my mid show plug here. If you're listening to us at home, you can always head over to YouTube and actually watch the video of the show and see these great photos that we're presenting.
But it looks like you've probably gotten to the hibachi. Is. Is apparent. I'm guessing the.
[00:49:31] Speaker D: Take a guess here.
[00:49:32] Speaker B: I'm guessing the. Oh, the left is pasta and the right is the steakhouse.
[00:49:35] Speaker A: Yes, correct.
[00:49:36] Speaker B: All right.
[00:49:37] Speaker A: And they. All those spaces are very beautifully designed. I will give them that. Like, I didn't go to the Mexican restaurant Los Lobos, but it. I mean, if you walk by it, it looked like a cocoa restaurant. Like they had all the beautiful, you know, decorations, Dia de los Muertos and all these cool statues outside. Like everything on this ship is very intentionally designed. It's very beautiful.
[00:49:58] Speaker B: So the four you didn't try. So for folks at home, what Sarah tried was Anda by Scarpetta. That's the Italian place. Suzuki is the hibachi. Gr. Cagney's is the steakhouse. You've listed some others here. I'm going to guess Le Bistro is either high end French or just French in general.
[00:50:15] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:50:15] Speaker B: Los Lobos. I'm going to go for kind of a Mexican, Spanish kind of meal.
Palomar is throwing me Nama sushi.
[00:50:24] Speaker D: The name is.
[00:50:25] Speaker C: I'm going to guess Palomar is just a.
An upscale seafood restaurant.
[00:50:29] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:50:31] Speaker C: There you go.
[00:50:31] Speaker A: I'm so smart in there.
[00:50:35] Speaker C: Mar.
[00:50:35] Speaker B: Mar.
[00:50:36] Speaker C: Mar usually means.
But yeah, it looks like now Vanessa's asking how much the free @C package is. I'm going to put a pin in that, Vanessa, because what your itinerary is and how many days and how many people. The prices are dynamic pricing. And so the pricing can change. In fact, you could buy.
And Sarah, correct me if I'm wrong, but you could buy it one day and then it could go on Sale like a month later and you could buy it at a different price potentially.
[00:51:05] Speaker B: Is that, Is that right, Sarah? Yeah.
[00:51:08] Speaker A: When I bought the package, I had decided, yes, I want to do free at C plus. I just was like, I don't want to think about it. My friend decided to wait and just did regular free at sea when she wanted to upgrade. Or actually she didn't choose either when she decided she wanted to upgrade. And she had learned the Starbucks, because she really loved Starbucks, was there and all these other things. The price had gone up per person, per day. Day.
And you have to add it to the.
Even if you're with just children, you have to add it for the two. Like two people in the room. It's not just one.
[00:51:38] Speaker C: Right?
[00:51:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:51:39] Speaker C: For two main.
[00:51:41] Speaker B: I will say while we were chatting, I was just like looking at pricing on Norwegian to get a sense of it. And it was like when it presented me with the free, it didn't present me with a free at C plus, although I was looking at like Haven room. So I'm sure there's something weird there.
[00:51:51] Speaker A: But like, well, and then the Haven thing, right.
[00:51:53] Speaker B: Haven't Stone thing. But it was like a 399 add on, even for the haven. Like $399. To put that in context, it was
[00:52:01] Speaker A: less when we bought, but yes.
[00:52:03] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:52:04] Speaker A: And so they, again, they also have restaurants just for the Haven, which is like their ship within a ship concept.
I felt like we didn't see those people, the comedian. One night. We did see a comedian made fun of them. He's like, oh, we're with the Haven.
Like, he was making fun of them. I don't even know who they were because, like, they really have their own spaces. So.
[00:52:25] Speaker C: Yeah, well. And I think that can be, you know, depending upon the ship there. If there's a lot of amenities within their concierge class, which is the Haven on Norwegian, you might not actually. I mean, they. They'll probably be at the specialty dining restaurants, but you may not see them at the pool because they have their own pool deck and they may have their own pool, you know, and of course, there's variation from. From ship to ship.
[00:52:49] Speaker B: All right, well, sorry, want to ask one more question here while we're talking, because we're talking to a Disney Cruise Line audience. Travels with families, you're traveling with kids. Like, how inviting were these restaurants for the kids?
[00:53:01] Speaker C: Yeah, because they, they all allow kids and the same.
[00:53:03] Speaker B: The same. I kind of want to know too, just generally speaking, like the lounges and bars, because you know, on Disney you can go to the. Was not the bayou.
[00:53:09] Speaker D: Is the bayou Bayou.
[00:53:12] Speaker B: You know, with kids it's fine, you know, like most of the time. So like, how was it? How was the kid experience?
[00:53:18] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it feels that it, I would say it feels catered to an older audience, but there were a lot of families everywhere.
The place that I liked to go to sit to have my espresso martini was kind of a dark, moody bar. And there were sometimes kids there playing uno with their parents. It doesn't feel as natural as it does on a Disney ship. Like on a Disney ship you couldn't go to one of those cute little spaces and they have trivia for the family. Whereas here all of their trivia and things like that were done in the atrium. So it felt like they were trying to keep the families in this like atrium area.
Yeah, I would say as a whole it felt like more of those restaurants and spaces. Like there were always kids there, but it felt like you're bringing your kids to a nice restaurant or you're bringing your kids into this space. Whereas at Disney because of the theming, it's just more cohesive.
[00:54:10] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The spaces are more friendly appearing for the family audience as opposed to it feeling like you're bringing your kids into an adult space. I think that probably hits the nail on the head. Head. All right, ship amenities. Talk to us about the pools, the spa, the fitness center, the splash academy, which is the kids club.
[00:54:33] Speaker A: And then I didn't mention it might be on the next page that there is a whole adults only private up charge and it's very expensive. It's called Vibe Beach Club. So the pools is like the one point of contention on this ship. And I was trying to compare it to the wish class ships, but. But their main pool is very small.
It's a tiny pool and a lot of deck and a few hot tubs and it was always crowded and we never got in it.
[00:54:59] Speaker B: Not one.
[00:55:01] Speaker A: They do have infinity pools and these little loungers with these foot splash pools on a different deck. And we spent all of the pool time that we wanted there.
And I would hear other people being like, oh, the pool deck's so crowded. And I would be like, well, well, have you tried the infinity pools? Don't tell everyone.
You know, People didn't know.
[00:55:23] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:55:24] Speaker A: So it was almost like a hidden gem. And sometimes they were crowded and other times they were empty. So they have options. But it felt like you have this giant three story, three deck sports deck plus this go kart track that they could have had more pools. It needed more pool space.
[00:55:45] Speaker B: I know you didn't try the go karts, but it sounds like someone in the party did, but.
[00:55:50] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:55:50] Speaker B: Like, what is that? Like, like, it does strike me as an odd choice to put three stories worth of go karts in the middle of prime pool deck space. Like, from a noise standpoint, although they're probably electric go karts.
[00:56:04] Speaker A: They are electric.
You don't hear them. But I think it's a huge waste of ship space. Like, so you take a huge section to give to the Haven and the vibe.
That's why this pool is like a little tiny dipper. Like, you know, you could get up in the morning and go to the buffet, and there would be no one there. You could spend some time in there. We had some beach days going. We spent one day on the ship, but again, we just use the infinity pools. And they were fine, but the pool areas were lacking.
[00:56:34] Speaker B: So what does the vibe get you? If, you know, like, does that. Is that, like. Oh, I'm guaranteed a beach chair and a quieter pool experience for the day, basically. Okay. Okay.
[00:56:43] Speaker A: Larger pools, dedicated space.
They have, like, bartenders coming around and asking which. You know, you have that. Other places at the pool as well.
But it just. It's totally private, like, away from everything. Like, you don't really even see it.
[00:56:56] Speaker B: It's up.
[00:56:57] Speaker C: And that's. Is that the adult. Is that adult only, or is that just an upcharge? It's adult only and an upcharge. Okay.
[00:57:04] Speaker A: And they have one on their private island, too. So they have. If you've got, like, the entire length of stay, you can also use it, I think, on their island. Island. I don't know if I'm totally correct in that. You would have to check.
[00:57:14] Speaker B: But it is. It is weird because normally, like, with Norwegian, the Haven has a pool. Then you're saying there's a upcharge. Adult pool, you don't have much. And then a go kart. You do not have a lot of deck space for the people who don't want to pay. Yeah, right.
[00:57:28] Speaker C: And families. Yeah. And the sports deck. Yeah, yeah. What's in the sports deck, by the way? What does that, like, include?
[00:57:35] Speaker A: Well, if you want. That's on the next page, but. Oh, I can just really quickly. The spa was amazing.
I will say my only point of contention was for the price.
I like to know that if I'm getting a massage, I also have access to the thermal suite, and I have not had a massage on Disney But I'm pretty sure that you can still use like the thermal suite or the.
[00:57:57] Speaker C: You can. You can't use Rainforest. No, you can't use the. Yeah, that's kind of across the lines now. So the thermal suite or rainforest rooms are usually a separate charge from the spa services.
But what you can use on Disney is within the women's locker room and within the men's locker room there is a, I believe a sauna or a steam room. I can't remember, maybe both. So you can use that, but not. But you don't get like the. The actual amenities of the Rainforest room. So the showers, the loungers, that sort of a thing. So.
Yeah, yeah.
[00:58:34] Speaker A: But they have beautiful spa.
[00:58:37] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:58:37] Speaker A: No outdoor space, but it is really impressive. Like behind that welcome desk, it's like two or three stories of like a waterfall into a pool. It looked really neat. I just. I needed some time to have my neck work done. And I was really, really happy. And they had deals, different deals for like multiple sessions. That was really cool. The fitness center was great. I think one of my favorite things to do on a cruise cruise ship is to work out and stare at the ocean. For some reason, that makes me really happy.
And we were pulling into a port when I was up there in that day, and that was just cool. Kids Club was a huge hit. I chose this ship because it had all these things for families. And guess what? My kids wanted to be in this kids club that has no theming and just programming the entire time. That's all they wanted to do. I was shocked.
[00:59:26] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:59:27] Speaker B: That is. Nathan loved the Kids Club Club on Royal Caribbean. And I was like, it's like a kindergarten classroom and they just move you from activity to activity. There wasn't a lot of free time. And I was like, I don't understand why you like this better than Disney.
I don't grasp it.
[00:59:43] Speaker A: They wouldn't say they love it better than Disney. There were some things that were like, oh, I wish it had this, like, Disney. However, they wanted to close that place down. You do have to pay after 11 and the kids club has breaks in the middle of the day. And that was frustrating because I needed to go have my neck work done. They only had a 1pm time and I couldn't go because they take their breaks. Like, they want you to have meals with your family so their people can have meals. I guess, like, you don't need meals.
[01:00:13] Speaker C: Can't you rotate people in and out? Yeah, yeah, that's. I feel like all the other cruise lines Have. Do this, like, they shut down during meal time, both lunch and dinner, and.
And expect that you to pick up your kids, have your lunch with them, except maybe a port days if you. If you're doing an excursion on your own. They might keep your kid in the kids club during that time, but it's. I now. Did the. Your friend's daughter was. Is a little older. Did. Did she like the Entourage?
[01:00:43] Speaker A: She loved it. She totally loved it. And she also wanted to leave constantly. We were like, I guess we'll go hang out and do whatever we feel like. Because they didn't want. They just. She loved it. She met friends, like, day one, maybe day two.
They. You know, they all had great. I think they have a lot more going on in the actual space in Entourage. They have more, like, games and things.
But, yeah, this was all the other stuff that was there.
My. My friend did take my son for a little bit when I needed to go have some acupuncture done, and she was like, I'm not trying to turn him into a frat boy, but he was, like, playing with a beer pong table there.
They had a big sports deck with, like, some stuff. Some of that I felt like, could have used a little attention. Like, maybe it's overused already, even though it's such a new ship. We did the escape room one day. They loved that there was a huge arcade, and I'm really glad I did not spend any money on an arcade package because we didn't use it. They offer them, and maybe some kids would love that. They have mini golf.
They had scavenger hunts all the time. They have a lot of shopping, and it's not the shopping that I enjoy.
[01:01:52] Speaker C: Like, is it the same shopping?
[01:01:54] Speaker A: Norwegian shop, but it's all, like, vendors selling stuff that I like.
[01:01:59] Speaker C: Diamonds International, and then, like, a handbag place and things like that.
[01:02:03] Speaker B: Or royals. My favorite is the chain by the foot or whatever that you can buy
[01:02:07] Speaker A: the gold by the inch or whatever.
[01:02:09] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:02:10] Speaker A: No. So some of that was a little, like. Yeah, Like, I felt like there was too much of that on the ship.
Like, so you would pass from the atrium to another space, and you're like, wait, I have to go through this shopping mall. Mall to get to that. So I can see where people maybe made complaints.
Like the spaces themselves where you did all the things were beautiful, but you have to walk through this weird shopping mall to get to some of them. They had too much of that.
[01:02:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:02:33] Speaker C: Did they have a. I assume they had a casino as well.
[01:02:36] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I Forgot about the casino. I didn't even put that on there. I did not. I enjoy playing, like, cards. Like, I love blackjack and that, but we just, we didn't do it.
I would have. I think we paid like, like, I think we put a $20 in like a slot machine. But they had it and it was nice. Like, it was kind of down near the other Commodore dining room and a fancy martini bar. So it had a really cool, like, old, old Las Vegas, like, feel to it. So it, it didn't feel like super smoky or gross or anything. I thought that was really well done and it was away from family spaces.
[01:03:12] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:03:13] Speaker B: All right, so we've, we've advanced the slide and we've got a tag headline here of service on NCL with a star rating. But before we get to the star rating for ncl, I'm curious, is the benchmark here that Disney would. To hit all five. Is Disney a five star rating for.
[01:03:28] Speaker A: Okay, so there's a vlogger that I watch and his top rating is five star plus.
British Disney's five star plus. For me, like, there's little things I could complain about on an individual day that are very nuanced, but as a whole.
So I've worked in different service industries when I was younger, growing up and in hotels and things like that. And I just love when you can ask pretty much anyone to help you with something and they feel empowered enough to either solve it for you right there or be super polite to you and get you to the next person. And I never have not experienced that. I've never. Not like that's always been the case when I've had an issue on Disney. And I'm happy to say that I found that to be the same on Norwegian.
Yeah, I was almost thinking of it when I was there, like, comparing at Disney to Universal, because sometimes I love Universal and there's so many things that we enjoy there, but sometimes the service doesn't hit the mark for me there. And we've spent a lot of money to be there. And I'm like, you could smile when you, when you answer my question. That would be really great. And I'm not digging on Universal because I think they're great, but I've just had different experiences. So when I was trying to think of it from that perspective, just everyone was so polite, so kind.
If they could, they would call you by name, you know, the whole time.
We got to know our stateroom attendant. By the end, you know, he had gotten to know us and just, just really like they, they did go above and beyond, I think maybe not quite as personal as Disney, but.
[01:05:11] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, you give it four and a half stars. That's like, that's a. I think that's a great rating. That would. If somebody, I mean, please don't give me four and a half stars. Give me five stars on Apple podcasts, by the way, I'll put that plug in right now. But, but I can't complain if somebody gives me four and a half stars. That's, that's, that's a repeat cruiser. That's somebody who might go back again.
Speaking of that, Sarah, I have to ask that question. Like this, this ended up being less expensive than Disney even. All in. You mentioned while it started out, maybe half the price. It didn't end up half the price, but do you think it like ended up more like three quarters of the price? And. But would you do it again? Three quarters?
[01:05:57] Speaker A: Probably three quarters of the price. When all was said and done, you know, I could have done a better job of providing those answers
[01:06:09] Speaker C: because every.
[01:06:10] Speaker A: But I would say it was sort of 3/4.
[01:06:12] Speaker C: Yeah, well. And I want to put this out there. The price is very hard to do an apples to apples comparison. So I don't. Whenever we have a guest that's talking about a different, you know, cruise line, we can't do an exact comparison because there are different port stops on a Disney cruise versus another cruise. And you've got to compare like a particular date to a particular date and what's the newest ship versus the oldest ship. So it's, it's really hard to. You cannot line everything up perfectly and do exact apples to apples comparison, you know, even under the best of circumstances. So we're just giving like, approximations. That's the best, you know, that I think typically do.
[01:06:50] Speaker A: All right.
That's something that Disney offers that I've just learned within a couple cruises that I've been on that I just prefer to know that I'm gonna go in and spend about this much and whatever I wanna add on, I can grasp it in my head and I could probably tell you what I spent by the time I got off. Whereas this I have no idea because I had a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet goes out the window when you start adding all these other little things.
And you're right, I spent a lot of money on like amber jewelry in the Dominican Republic and because I just kind of fell in love with some of the people selling things. We bought coffee, we bought, you know, and I Didn't buy anything in great Stir Cay. But when I or key and when I go to Castaway Key and Lookout Key, I do want to spend money. So it's just different.
Different ways to. To discuss it. And I will say they are doing. Putting a lot of work into that island. It's still a lot under construction. It was very nice. Nice. But I mean, it doesn't. That does not measure up.
[01:07:51] Speaker B: That be. My question is, how does it compare to Disney?
[01:07:54] Speaker A: Food was really good. Food was better, but wow.
[01:07:58] Speaker C: Oh, cool. Well, you were there on the 4th of July, so that's just. That's kind of a fun thing now. I noticed they did a balloon drop in the picture in the atrium. We posted it on socials. Like, they don't do fireworks at sea on other cruise lines. Disney is the only cruise line. So is this the way that they celebrated the 4th of July with a balloon drop? Drops, yeah.
[01:08:17] Speaker A: The night before, they had put up a lot of decorations in the lobby. And it again, it is a European cruise line and there are people from all over the world, more so than I think, a Disney Cruise Line. There were people from all over the world because they would call out different countries and everyone would yell.
But everyone was very excited about it and tried to make it really special and fun. Their entertainment team, the dancers and the singers that had done some of the. The shows came out and they sang like every song you would want on your Fourth of July playlist.
And they danced and they did the national anthem.
They sang America the Beautiful. And then we went to a bar and the gentleman playing guitar, I mean, he was. He sang everything I wanted to hear. And he would just. He would go, request. Request. He's like. He was from the Philippines, so he had an accent. And he's like, I know this doesn't sound right, right. Who wants to help me? And I guess he had a guy he had met that week, a gentleman on the cruise, and he came up and sang country with him. And that's so fun.
We are big 4th of July people at home. So this was like a little weird. Plus, my husband wasn't there, so I was glad that they made it special. Even though there were no fireworks.
[01:09:24] Speaker B: It was. It was surreal.
Excuse me. It was surreal to be on the river cruise for 4th of July. And they did, they. They brought a singer on from Amsterdam who did.
She was. She was a riot. She was climbing on couches. She was getting in people's faces and, you know, singing to them.
[01:09:41] Speaker D: It was a ride.
[01:09:41] Speaker B: But she ended up singing Katy Perry Firework as like, hey, my special little nod to the fact that it's your nation's birthday. We can't do fireworks here. So, yeah, it was pretty fun. It was.
Yeah.
[01:09:52] Speaker A: I also mentioned there won't be any fireworks, and they said there are no cruise lines that can do fireworks because of such and such. And in my head, I was like, you conveniently left out the fact that Disney does them every single cruise.
A lot of us were like, I
[01:10:09] Speaker C: don't think you're right about that. Norwegian. Yeah.
[01:10:12] Speaker A: So we're.
[01:10:13] Speaker B: We're over time, but I want to do. I'm taking rapid fire away from Sam for a second because this is a versus episode, and so I think we've answered some of these throughout, but let's just put them on record. So I'm going to go through a category. I'm going to give you a category. You tell me. Disney or Norwegian or a tie.
So. So let's start with ease of booking Disney.
We won't go for a cost comparison because we already know Norwegian. Pencils out lower. What did you think about the food?
Oh, man.
[01:10:49] Speaker A: I mean, comparing it to the last cruise that I went on so hard because they didn't have room service. I don't know. That's a tie. It's a tie.
[01:10:56] Speaker B: Stop.
[01:10:57] Speaker D: Right.
[01:10:59] Speaker B: Service. I think we know pretty close.
[01:11:01] Speaker A: Pretty awash tie. But I mean, if I had to give the edge, it would be to Disney. They would win the tiebreaker.
[01:11:07] Speaker B: Onboard entertainment for my family.
[01:11:11] Speaker A: 100% Disney for adults traveling without kids. I think you would love Norwegian staterooms.
I give that to Disney. I'm sorry. My dog is like, he's got an opinion, too. So he's like, I love Disney, too.
[01:11:28] Speaker B: All right.
[01:11:29] Speaker A: I like the aesthetic of Disney ships. It's just cozier or something cozier and homier. Yeah.
[01:11:35] Speaker B: We already know the answer for Private Island. We already know who wins. So I think my last question is going to be just overall ship spaces and ship experience.
[01:11:46] Speaker A: It goes to Disney.
When we were in port, there was. Was it the fantasy or the dream?
Someone was next door, and we all had to tell ourselves not to look. It was really hard to, like, see it out of the corner of your eye and those cute little lifeboats and just, like, don't look like it was a beautiful ship. The Prima was a beautiful ship. We had a wonderful experience.
But there is something, and maybe it's because I'm a Disney person and grew up going to the parks, but there is something that feels so Safe and so comfortable and so much like home for me when I'm on a Disney ship where I, I just feel like it's okay to let my kids go do this.
I can go by myself to go do this and I'm not gonna feel like, weird. I, I just, I know that the people there, I can strike up a conversation with probably 90% of the people on a Disney ship and we're going to find something in common that we can laugh about.
Norwegian. It's not going to feel that way if you're a Disney person. It just isn't.
We had a wonderful time. I have a lot of great memories, but at the end of the day, I would still choose Disney. Yeah.
[01:12:51] Speaker C: Yeah. Well. And it sounds like at 3/4 of the price, you didn't have 3/4. The experience. You still had a wonderful experience on board. So I think the value proposition it sounds like is there. Well, Sarah, we've got to say thank you to you for joining us. I want to say also thank you to you and to your husband and to your kids for your husband's service because we know that with our, you know, armed forces, like their families are serving alongside them in the sense that you have to do everything on your own when they're not with you. And so we very much appreciate you and we appreciate Jason and your kids for everything that you do.
Thank you, of course, for coming on our show. It's a pleasure, pleasure to have you on again.
For those that will be with us next week, we will be having our live show at our normal time. That'll be 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern. We will have Sam Dart with us. She is just got back from the sailing on the Disney Adventure and she did a talk adventure, which is kind of like Adventures by Disney. I'm calling it an adventure. But a trip with talk to Japan and then of course, a little detour to Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disneysea. So we're going to be talking, we're going to focus on the cruise and also the talk experience. We're probably not going to do much to cover Disneyland Tokyo because we can't cover it all in an hour show. But we know that the reason she booked on talk was because the Adventures by Disney that she booked on got canceled. So we want to let folks know what other options are out there if they are traveling internationally and they want to travel with a company, comfortable travel partner. So as I mentioned at the top of the show, we may be back tomorrow or Wednesday if itineraries drop, if we do. It'll be at 5pm Pacific, 8pm Eastern. But thank you again Sarah. Thanks to all of you watching and we will maybe see you tomorrow, but if not, we'll see you next Monday.
[01:14:50] Speaker B: Thanks. See ya.
[01:14:59] Speaker D: All right, that's our show for tonight, but thank you so much for listening. If you're not subscribed yet, please fix that right now. Head over to Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hit that subscribe button. We're dropping at least two episodes a week plus we're live each and every week over on our YouTube channel, YouTube.comdclduo come hang out with us for a live. It's a blast. You can ask your questions in the chat and really join enjoying the conversation with us and our guests. If you're enjoying our show, one of the easiest ways to support the show, Head over to Apple Podcasts. Hit those five stars and while you're at it, leave us a written review with your 5 star review and we will read it on the air at the top of one of our main episodes. If you're listening to us on another platform, Spotify, YouTube, Castos, there's so many third party podcast apps and players out there. Whatever form of reviewer rating they have, give it all to us. Show the show some love. It keeps us going, keeps us putting out great content week to week. Are you ready to set sail? Book your next Disney Cruise Line vacation with our show sponsor WEDOTravel right the crew that handles the planning so you can focus on relaxing. Head to wedotravelright.com DCLDUO today to get started. Or you can reach out to them directly. Just let them know the DCL Duo sent you. You subscribe today to DCL Magazine. They put out a great product.
[01:16:19] Speaker B: Head over there.
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[01:17:25] Speaker B: Good night.
[01:17:32] Speaker C: Sam.
