[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, DCL Duo fans, Before we get on to today's show, I've got to let you know about a new booking promotion from our travel agency show sponsor, WeDoTravel, right, as a special promotion for DCL Duo listeners only. When you book a future Disney cruise through our friends at WeDoTravel, right, you'll get a $50 onboard credit to be applied to each stateroom booked. This one's for bookings that are new to WeDoTravel. Right? And what I mean by that is it can be applied to a new booking, a transferred booking, or to a transferred placeholder booking.
Redeeming this new promo is easy. Just mention the DCL Duo listener promotion when you book with WeDoTravel, right? Or fill out the quick
[email protected] DCLDUO. Your credit will get applied to your stateroom account after your sailings check in date and you'll get a confirmation once it's been applied. And here's the bonus. If you book something from DCL's new itinerary release between August 31 and September 8, that credit doubles to $100 on board credit per stateroom. That's a solid chunk towards a specialty dinner at Palo or a spa day on board. While that $100 promo is only good through September 8, the $50 promo is good through the end of the year. So if you're waiting for Believe itineraries to drop, have no fear, you have some time. The link for the booking form is in the show notes. Go get that credit before it sails away. And now onto the show.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: Oh yeah, we had gelato every day.
It was, yeah, different flavors like pistachio or lemon or raspberry. Especially because Italy was so warm that those refreshing flavors tasted really good.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: Welcome back, everyone, to this week's episode of the DCL Duo Podcast. We are brought to you by. We do travel, right? And I am your host, Sam. Today, as you can tell from my voice and not Brian's voice doing the show intro, I am hosting solo. But of course I'm not solo for the day. I'm recording this episode on Father's Day. A belated Father's Day. To all those out there listening who are dads, dad figures, mentors, what have you. Thank you all for being in our lives. So gave Brian the day off from the podcast, although to be fair, he's actually editing episodes and getting stuff ready for our European trip so that we will have plenty of episodes going out while we're gone.
But I'm excited Because I am joined today by first time guest. Not first time cruiser, but first time guest to the show. Jen. Welcome.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: Jen, thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: We're excited to have you. We are going to be talking Europe today. Jen, I'm excited to hear about your cruise to the Med out of Barcelona. Before we get to that discussion, I've got to ask about your Disney background and your cruising background. Like, where did your love from Disney first come from and how did you get started in cruising with Disney Cruise Line or perhaps another line?
[00:03:07] Speaker B: My Disney background started when I was a kid. We had the Disney Channel. So of course I watched everything I could on there.
And I went to Disney World for the first time in 2007 when I was like 27. And we did our honeymoon on the Disney magic back in 2009 and we've been hooked ever since.
[00:03:29] Speaker A: Oh. Now how many cruises have you been on and was did you first start cruising with Disney or did you try a different line before that?
[00:03:36] Speaker B: Yep, it's always and has only been with Disney. And this is our 11th cruise for our first platinum cruise.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: Oh, yay. Congratulations. That's awesome. It's always fun when you get, yeah, you get the extra gift, you get the free Paulo meal once you hit platinum. For those who don't know, yeah. For those who don't know, the castaway club status is a loyalty status with Disney Cruise Line. And after you sail only one cruise, your silver after you've sailed your fifth cruise. So on your sixth cruise, you're gold after you've sailed your 10th cruise. So on your 11th cruise, your platinum and after you've sailed your 25th cruise, meaning on your 26th cruise you are Pearl. So and you get different gifts for being at each level. And then the platinum benefit is I think the best benefit of all because it comes with a meal. At Palo. It's typically, it's technically according to Disney, supposed to be Palo dinner, but as anyone who has sailed platinum knows, they honor it for brunch as well. And it's basically that whatever that price fix cost is, that's what's covered. So not including tip. And then if you go for dinner, if you do the price fixed meal, it covers that. But if you do an a la carte meal, it just covers up to the amount that the whatever the price fixed meal is. So yeah, fantastic.
Jen, why did you choose to do Europe with Disney? We all know Disney is of course a premium cost as compared to other cruise lines you had. Obviously you Mentioned you sailed exclusively on Disney 10 prior times. Why this cruise to Europe on Disney Cruise Line?
[00:05:12] Speaker B: Well, we got a good deal on it. The price was right, and we just wanted to. Because this was our first time in Europe, we wanted to go with somebody that we were comfortable with.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: So that makes total sense to me. If you are, you know, you're traveling abroad for maybe the first time or, you know, across the pond for the first time, you want to go with a trusted travel partner. So that makes complete sense. Now, who's in your travel party typically? Is it just you and your husband? Are there other family members?
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Yep, it's just me and my husband, Alex.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: Nice.
Now, tell me, where are you guys coming from? And you were. You were going to Barcelona? Did you fly, like, direct to Barcelona? Did you go do. Spend any other time in Europe prior to the cruise?
[00:05:58] Speaker B: Yep, we are coming from Wisconsin. So we drove over to Minneapolis and flew out of Minneapolis to Paris. We did Paris for four nights and then took a train from Paris to Barcelona, spent three nights in Barcelona, and then we did the cruise.
[00:06:15] Speaker A: Awesome. What a. Like, that's a fantastic way to, I think, get adjusted, of course, to the time zones over in Europe.
You know, it's. It's hard if you're jumping right onto the cruise.
And then also, I mean, who doesn't love some time in Paris? I. I love that for you. I want to talk a little bit about. Yeah. About planning. Did you go to Disneyland Paris by any chance?
[00:06:38] Speaker B: We did not, unfortunately. We had only, like, four days in Paris, and we want to get all the. We want to see Paris for Paris. So we didn't make it there, but next time.
[00:06:48] Speaker A: Yeah, no, totally understand. We were doing that debate about we. We were thinking about going to Europe before we go to Amsterdam, going someplace else in Europe. We ended up not doing that, but we were considering Paris, but we would only have a couple of days. And so it was this, like, do we go to Paris or do we go to Disneyland par Paris? Because it's to cram in both with just a couple of days. Even, you know, three, four days is not really enough to see Paris, much less to see Paris and spend two days, you know, in Disney. Disneyland Paris. Well, I want to talk about the planning side of things. When you were planning this cruise, were there things that you were like, specifically wanting to book in terms of excursions or, I don't know, drink tastings, adult dining, things like that?
[00:07:38] Speaker B: So our. Our main priority was our excursions, and then our second priority was adult dining on the Ship we tried to book.
We got everything we wanted for all our excursions, except for roam, because unfortunately, when I was doing the pre check in, I did roam, like third, and all the stuff was already taken. So I was like, okay, so what do I do now? And then so we booked something, and it turns out that got canceled while we were even on the ship. So then we just settled for a random tour, which luckily worked out in our favor. But, yeah, so it was. Yeah, excursions first, then dining.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: Yeah, that's interesting that that stuff sold out for Rome. And I wonder if it's. Well, for those who have listened to another episode that we just put out, I think probably a week ago, by the time this comes out, if you, you know, if you're going to Rome on a Disney cruise, you're actually porting in Sitichev.
I'm gonna mispronounce it Citavecchia. And it's a couple hours away from Rome. And so you've gotta figure out the transportation aspect to get to the city.
And you can do, you know, shuttle train, that sort of thing. You can book private transportation.
But I think a lot of people tend to book the Disney excursions because there's that feeling of safety and security. Because even if you hit traffic, you're, you know, the hope is Disney will wait for you. And of course, they guarantee that the ship either waits for you or they will. Or they will return you to the ship at the ship's next port. So they will make sure you rejoin the ship. And so I think because of that long travel distance, a lot of people tend to book those Disney excursions for that port. So that makes sense. All right, well, you fly in to Paris, you head to. You take the train to Barcelona. I got to say, I love the train as an option. I think, you know, it's a great option in Europe. Where did you guys stay in Barcelona? Pre cruise?
[00:09:41] Speaker B: We stayed at the Renaissance Barcelona. That's one of the DCL recommended and transfer hotels. So we decided to stay there.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: Yeah, makes that super easy. Did you like the hotel? Did you feel like it was, you know, of course, people always forget in Europe hotels are, like, much smaller. Like, the rooms are much smaller than what we're used to in the States.
But, like, was where the rooms, like, nice? Were they clean? Like, was it a decent hotel?
[00:10:08] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I thought it was a great hotel. The rooms are like. I felt like they were normal size, like you would find in the usa. It was clean. It was right in the heart of the city. It felt like. So we had access to almost everything very close to our hotel. We walked everywhere. Yeah, it was a great hotel. We loved it.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Oh, awesome. Okay, well, that's a great recommendation for those sailing out of Barcelona for pre, pre cruise stay.
How you find the DCL transportation to the port? Like was it, was it easy in terms of, did they give you clear instructions about like when to meet and how was the luggage transfer situation? Tell us the details about how that worked.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: Yeah, so the day when we got into Barcelona, checked in with them, they gave us paperwork, they checked in our names, they just kind of told us how it was supposed to run.
Then the morning of one of the hotel people grabbed our luggage from us in our room, which was kind of reassuring so that we know it would get on the ship.
And then we went down to the lobby at about 11 and we waited for them to call us to get on the bus to go to the port.
So it was, it was really easy.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: I love it when they take your luggage for you. I think it's just a fantastic, you know, benefit and you don't have to worry about schlepping your stuff on your own. And you, you can sort of feel assured that it's going to make it there because it's with all the other passengers that are staying in your hotel. And so they've got like this big probably truckload full of. Yeah. Full of luggage.
Now how long was the bus ride from the hotel to the port?
[00:11:54] Speaker B: It was about, I want to say, half hour because of the construction. We kind of had to go around and we left at noon on a Saturday. So it was busy traffic wise as well. So it did take a little bit, but it was an easy ride.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Nice. All right, well, what, how was the check in process at the port? Was it, you know, similar to what we expect here in the States, like at Port Canaveral or Port Everglades? Is it a little more chaotic in Barcelona? Like, what would you say it was like there?
[00:12:24] Speaker B: It was a little chaotic. But I think that more has to do with what happens with the transatlantic cruise because we were the first official cruise this season out of the Med.
The transatlantic cruise before us had to go through Spain's new security system which pushed back our port arrival time, which kind of made the port chaotic because they had to do extra security for all those people on the transatlantic. But once we got to the port, check in was fairly easy because we did a DCL transfer. We were boarding group three.
I think the longest part was us waiting in the port area for our boarding group to get called.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: Yeah, that makes sense. I forget that when you're traveling typically within the eu, right? So you're. You're going from, like, Spain to Italy, for example, you're not doing customs at any point. You did customs at the airport when you first got into Europe, but you don't have to do customs, like, at each port stop. But the folks coming across on the transatlantic, because they started in the US they actually have to go through, like, a full customs experience and the ship has to go through that full customs, like, probably checks and whatnot. And so it's not surprising that because the ship was literally porting that morning in Barcelona for the start of the season, that it would delay kind of the next cruise. Just the start.
Not every day. Just that first day. Well, okay, so a little bit. A little bit chaotic, about what time did you end up getting on board the ship then?
[00:13:59] Speaker B: We got on board about 1:30 finally. And by that time the rooms were all ready, but we went straight to lunch, sit down, lunch, and then we went straight to our room right after. So that was kind of the nice part of it.
[00:14:14] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It's nice that when. When the ship is like, all ready for you because it's a little bit later in the day. Now, had you been on the Dream before?
Like, which ships have you been on previously?
[00:14:26] Speaker B: We've been on the four original ones at least twice on every ship.
The only ships we haven't been on is the Treasure, Destiny, and the Adventure, of course.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: Okay, so you've been on the first five. You had your Grand Slam before the.
Before the Treasure came out. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. All right, well, so you knew what to expect because you'd been on the Dream before.
You mentioned sit down, lunch. Is that the way you always start your cruise? Is that like your cruise tradition head to, you know, it's Royal Court, Royal Palace. I never remember which one on the Dream.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: Yeah, this time it was Animators because.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: Or is it animators? Oh, animators.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Because the concierge staff was in Animators or Royal palace this time, so we got to go to Animators. And. Yeah, that's always the tradition. We're not really buffet people, and it's too chaotic. So we like just to sit down, relax, and start the cruise off nice and easy.
[00:15:25] Speaker A: Yeah. And I honestly think that so many people go to the buffet, you know, whether it's Cabanas or Marceline Market, depending upon which ship you're on, that they just don't even realize that sit down lunch is an option. And I understand for folks with kids who want to get their kids fed quickly, that totally makes sense. But I do think if you're willing to wait a little bit and have more leisurely experience, I think sit down lunch is maybe the best kept not so secret on Disney Cruise Line for embarkation day.
Yeah, I think it's a great option. All right, well, Jen, I want to talk about your port excursions before we get to all of the stuff you did on the ship. But I want to talk port excursions.
It doesn't necessarily mean. Or port adventures might not be all through Disney as we previewed with your Rome excursion. But let's start with the ports of call and we'll go day by day and talk about what you did in those ports and who you booked it through. Because I do think when we're talking about Europe, of course the ports are the star. We have long port days to cover and people really do want to know what is there to do in a particular port. So I think you started with Caglieri, right? That was the new port for Disney Cruise Line, am I right?
[00:16:48] Speaker B: No.
[00:16:48] Speaker A: Oh, that was the last one. Okay. What was your first port?
[00:16:52] Speaker B: Yeah, Florence.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: Tell me, what did you do there?
[00:16:56] Speaker B: So in Florence we booked. All our excursions were through Disney, through Florence. It took us by some churches, it took us by a copy of the David statue in a piazza. And then we went to the Ponte Vecchio bridge and had lunch. It was kind of an all day excursion.
And yeah, we walked around and saw a whole bunch of things and had lunch and yeah, it was a whole day tour. So basically just walked around, had some free time to explore on our own.
The ride to where we got dropped off in Florence was about an hour and then the ride back was about an hour. So it was an all day excursion.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Now the port city is that Livorno that you guys actually ported into?
[00:17:50] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:17:51] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. And I know there's a few different options to.
If you're porting in Livorno, you can go a couple of excursions, go kind of into Tuscany to some of the smaller cities. Some of them go into Florence. If you go to the ones that go to the smaller cities, you can go to Pisa and see the Leaning Tower. Right. So there's a lot of different options, but I think the main attraction, I think a lot of people choose to spend their. Their day in Florence. Did you feel like you got a good taste of Florence? You mentioned you hadn't been to Europe before. Florence is a huge.
There's a ton of museums, you know, is one day's not really enough to see everything, of course. But of course you did have a. But you did have a long port, like port day. Did you feel like you got enough of a taste of Florence that it sort of satisfied you in terms of wanting to, to see a bunch of different things?
[00:18:39] Speaker B: I think it was okay. I don't know if it gave us enough taste because unfortunately we were there on a Monday and all the museums are closed and so we got to walk outside a lot of places and walk outside of church and do all that kind of stuff, but we weren't able to go into many places because they were all closed.
So.
[00:19:01] Speaker A: Yeah,
[00:19:04] Speaker B: yeah.
So I think unfortunately that day was kind of.
It was okay. We did get a taste of Florence, but I think it's. We need to go back and figure out how we can explore Florence on our own.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: Yeah, well, Florence is amazing and Tuscany is amazing and it's, you know, you can go to lots of little cities. So if you do go to Florence, like, I highly recommend taking day trips or overnight trips to some of the smaller cities in Tuscany as well. It's, you know, beautiful place to spend time. Well, where was your second port of call?
[00:19:41] Speaker B: Our second port of call was in Rome.
So that is where we docked in Chitachovakia and then took, it was like an hour, hour and a half ride to Rome and then again an all day tour. Rome, I think was definitely the highlight. Definitely was amazing. We saw so many things and like everywhere you look, you see something that's, you know, thousands years old. And I mean, we saw Circus Maximus, we saw the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, Hadrian's Wall, a piece of the wall of the aqueduct.
Yeah, we just saw so much. It was another all day excursion, but it was amazing.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: Now who did you end up booking that through? Because you said you had tried to book something on Disney Cruise Line, what you wanted to book got sold out. You tried to book something else on Disney Cruise Line that ended up getting canceled. Like, who did you ultimately book your excursion through? And if you remember even the name of it, that would be great.
[00:20:42] Speaker B: It was through Disney still. When we had gotten the email when we were on board, they had said that our shore excursion was canceled and here are some available ones that still have space. And so when that came through the app, I quickly looked at what was still available and they had this tour still available. So I booked that immediately because we wanted to see everything in Rome anyway. So it kind of worked out in our favor. But had I known that Rome was so popular, I would have booked all our Rome stuff first and then booked everything else second.
[00:21:21] Speaker A: Well, it's a good tip for our listeners. So for those. For those listening, you can learn from Jen's experience if you can. If you're going on a cruise that goes to Rome or goes to Citatevecchia and you want to go to Rome, you might be well advised to book that excursion first. When you're going through your list of things when your onboard booking window opens up. And of course, that's based on castaway club status.
So the number of days in advance of the cruise that you can. That you can book your onboard experiences, which includes excursions, adult dining, drink tastings, all that good stuff. Yeah. Well, it sounds like a fabulous day in Rome. Did you feel like it was worth that one and a half hour, you know, bus ride? I mean, there's a lot of traffic in Rome, so it's. It can be a long drive, especially coming back or, you know, depending upon what time of day. But was it worth it?
[00:22:14] Speaker B: Absolutely. I mean, you know, we're history buffs and we wanted to see, you know, all the things in Rome, and I felt like this tour, luckily we were able to do that.
So in the end it worked out for us and we were happy for that because, yeah, we wanted to see a lot of stuff and we did see a lot of stuff, so I thought it was great. But it's a very long day and it was very hot that day.
[00:22:39] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm curious, like, with these longer port days, both with the Florence excursion and the Rome excursion, like, did you even make it back in time for dinner or the show, like on the ship or how did, like, how did that work out on a particular.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: We had actually booked the late dining because we had heard on previous. On your guys's previous podcast and other podcasts talking about it that a lot of people book the late dining so they don't miss anything.
Yeah. On the Rome day, we got back at like 6:30, so we would have missed first dinner those two days, but we had the late dining because of all the advice I'd heard before.
[00:23:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm glad, I'm glad to hear you listened and heard that and took that advice. I do know there are a lot of people who love, like, first dining, and on all of their cruises they do main dining and then they go to Europe and they book main dining and then it's kind of a disaster because they miss it on every port day. But so I, I do highly recommend for folks who are. Yeah, if you're sailing in Europe, like, if you're on a cruise that does long port days, which are most of the cruises, if you're choosing excursions that have long, that are going to be long, you might not return to the ship until the middle of, you know, early dining. And so it might make sense to book late dining or just, you know, get some pool, deck food or room service, whatever your preference is. All right, well, what was your third port of call on this sailing?
[00:24:14] Speaker B: So that was Naples. That was Naples. And we did Herculaneum that day.
[00:24:21] Speaker A: Nice. Now you were probably choosing between Herculaneum and Pompeii, right? Those are the kind of the two obvious choices for going to see the ruins.
And both of them are driving distance of Naples, so you're gonna have to take a bus to one or the other. But what was that decision point for you all? Like, why, why did you choose Herculaneum over Pompeii, for example?
[00:24:46] Speaker B: Because we had heard that even though, you know, everybody knows Pompeii and it's famous and, and all that, you know it, there's a lot of. It's really spread out. There's. There is some stuff there, but not as much as Herculaneum.
And we just wanted to see more. And Herculaneum is a little less crowded. It's. There's a lot of stuff to see there.
And so we decided to go with Herculaneum instead.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: Nice. I have only been to Pompeii, but I really now want to go to Herculaneum. How far was the drive? Like, how long did it take you to get there? And then did you, did you guys make any other stops? And, and I guess how long was that excursion overall as well?
[00:25:31] Speaker B: It was, I want to say, about 50 to an hour. I don't quite remember how long.
The excursion itself was like a four hour. So it was a half day. So we met on the ship at one to go to our excursion and back at like six. So yeah, it was a half day excursion, which was nice because after the two very long days, we got to sleep in a little bit, have lunch on the ship.
So that was kind of nice.
[00:26:00] Speaker A: Yeah, it's hard to like decide, okay, do I want to wake up early and walk around Naples and maybe get pizza there? But I'm all exhausted from my last like two days of full day excursions. And yeah, I think especially if you're Going to be going to the ruins where it's always going to be hot at any of the ruins locations, you know, there's not a lot of shade. And if you're going in the afternoon, probably a good idea to kind of take it easy in the morning. Did you, did you feel like you got, you know, enough time at the ruins? Like was that, was it sufficient to like see everything being on that half day excursion?
[00:26:37] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, we, we basically walked around like 90% of the site. We got to go in there, we got to see like the old bath houses, the tile work, the actual colors on the wall that are still preserved. Like, we had plenty of time. We got to see things up close. It was, yeah, it was perfect.
And we had heard from other people that went to Pompeii that day that the Italy people on the train had a strike.
So people that took the train on their own to Pompeii actually had problems getting back to the ship.
So I'm glad. That's scary. Yeah. So that's another thing to be concerned about is you never know when there's like France, you might get a heads up there's a strike in Spain. But if you're in Italy and that day of it happens, it's like you better have a backup plan because things like that might happen.
[00:27:35] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a really good point. Because if you're not doing an excursion through Disney, you're gonna have to figure out that backup plan. Right. Like if, if Disney has a cancellation, they're gonna tell you that morning and you have to figure something out on their, on your own. But like Disney has it on them if something happens in the middle of the day. Right. They're going to find a way to get you back to the ship versus if you're on your own. Yeah. So that could be scary. I've also heard that Herculaneum is much better preserved than Pompeii is from, you know, and that it sounds like it from what you described. Just seeing the colors of even the pictures and things like that, that sounds pre. Incredible. I, I now feel like I need to plan a trip to Italy just to go there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was amazing call was that. Oh, go ahead.
[00:28:30] Speaker B: Oh, no, I was just gonna say, yeah, everything is well preserved and you can still see it with your eyes. That's again, why we chose Herculaneum. But yeah, I would highly suggest it in the future.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: Awesome. Now, your last port of call, was that the new one?
I'm gonna mispronounce it Too Caglieri. Something like that?
[00:28:49] Speaker B: Yeah, something like that. Basically Sardinia. Yep. That was our last port of call and that was the new protocol for Disney Cruise Line.
[00:28:56] Speaker A: And what did you guys do there?
[00:28:58] Speaker B: So it was another half day excursion. It basically we took a bus all the way up the city, up into the mountains and kind of looked around and then we drove along.
Sardinia used to be known for having like, salt. Like they would harvest salt from all these ponds and we would sell the salt ponds and they had flamingos there.
So we drove around that area and saw that. And then they drove us to the top of the city on the mountain and then we basically walked back down to meet the bus to go back to the ship.
[00:29:34] Speaker A: Was it like, did you feel like it was like strenuous walk or anything or not? Too bad. I don't. I mean, I'm, I'm curious as to like, whether somebody with like mobility issues could do this excursion.
[00:29:45] Speaker B: Um, yeah, it was fairly easy. There were some people with canes on our tour and they had no problem because it was all basically downhil.
We did go up a couple stairs at some points, but if you, if you felt like you couldn't do it, you didn't have to. So, yeah, it was a very easy, basically walk downhill.
There were stopping points. You know, we saw churches and, you know, there were bathroom breaks and you know, we, you could stop for water, get a drink or you know, get some gelato and kind of walk downhill. But yeah, it was, it was fairly easy, I would say.
[00:30:20] Speaker A: Nice.
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. And much, much more.
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[00:31:32] Speaker A: Speaking of gelato, I mean, did you guys get your fill of gelato on this trip? Like, were there lots of flavors tried? I feel like it's, you know, gelato is what you can eat at any time of day. It doesn't matter breakfast, lunch or dinner. But when in Italy, I feel like you must eat gelato.
[00:31:49] Speaker B: Oh yeah, we had gelato every day.
It was, yeah, different flavors like pistachio or lemon or raspberry, especially because Italy was so warm that those refreshing flavors tasted really good. But yeah, we definitely got gelato.
[00:32:06] Speaker A: And what about pizza? I gotta ask. I mean, pizza of course, pasta as well. But like you were, you, you of course were at Herculaneum, which is outside of Naples, Naples being the home of pizza. But yeah. Did you have some good pizza in Italy as well?
[00:32:22] Speaker B: I had pizza at one of the restaurants that our tour group took us to and it was okay. Unfortunately, we should have gotten off the ship before our tour in Naples and tried to get pizza and gelato, but we didn't because we were just so exhausted by that point that we just decided, yeah, we'll just, just leave it and you know, just go with our excursions. But yeah, we did have pizza and pasta in Italy and it was good, but not Naples, unfortunately.
[00:32:54] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I'm curious.
You know, this is as we've talked about on the show before, when you go to Europe via Disney Cruise Line, particularly in the med, because you're a little bit farther away from a lot of the sort of main attractions, let's say where you port is not necessarily where you want to visit. Do you feel like you got enough of a taste of Italy that you would do something like this again or would you go back more and do like a land based trip? Or do you feel like, oh, I've already been those places other than obviously. Florence. Florence. I know you said, you said you'd go back to. And maybe do it differently because just by virtue of the fact that it was, you know, a Monday. But yeah. How do you sort of, how do you look back on the these, the excursion experience and the port experience specifically and like, did you feel like it was the right kind of vacation or would you do something different the next time perhaps?
[00:33:51] Speaker B: I think I would definitely do something different the next time. I felt like Rome And Naples were good with the cruise line. But obviously there's so much to see in Italy and there's that, you know, you only have so much time. And because we haven't been to Europe before, I felt like it was a great way to try and see at least the highlights, which we did. And it was great. And I would love to go back, but I'm also as. Because Italy has always been on my bucket list and I, you know, I was so happy I got to go.
But I'm also a person that would love to try. You know, I would love to travel to every country on the world if I had the chance. So I, I also kind of want to try something else. But you know, if I had the chance to go back, I would go back in a heartbeat. Yes.
[00:34:47] Speaker A: Yeah. No, I think that that makes total sense to me especially I think as a new traveler to Europe. It's like doing it with like I said, a trusted travel partner, like Disney Cruise Line Adventures by Disney, even a lot of the other cruise lines. Right. Like you can feel really well assured that you're in good hands in terms of they're going to partner with good, you know, travel excursions. You're going try and get, you know, you're going to get to see some of the highlights. Right. Like you're going to get this, let's, I will call it a taste of Europe. You're not going to get the entire smorgasbord, but you're going to get some, some flavor of it. Yeah, well, let's, let's talk about some of the onboard experience. I'm curious first as to whether this cruise was full and what the demographics looked like. Meaning in terms of like, like I'm guessing not a lot of young kids or school age kids. I should say not a lot of school age kids. Because your cruise is what like it was like the second or third week of May. So a lot of schools here in the States are still open. But yeah. Curious about like, you know, were there mostly American passengers? Was it a full cruise, that sort of a thing?
[00:35:56] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a full cruise.
A lot of the people that did the Transatlantic, which was the cruise before ours, cause we were the first one of the Mediterranean season.
They did a back to back. So there were a lot of older people on there. There were a lot of, I wouldn't say a lot of kids. I would say maybe like a handful of kids. But I think a lot of those kids came from like other places in Europe. Like I know there were some English kids and some kids from like Spain and France and a couple other countries mixed in there. I would say if there were American kids, they were on the younger side. So maybe not in school or maybe home older, you know, something that, you know, maybe first grade, that if they missed a couple weeks, big deal kind of thing.
But yeah, it was definitely full.
There were, I would say it averaged kind of on the older side for half of it and then the other half was kind of a mix of everyone.
But a lot of those transatlantic people were a little skewed, a little bit older.
[00:37:08] Speaker A: Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, the folks who are on for that transatlantic, they don't really have much in the way of ports. I mean they, I think they stop in Portugal, in the Azores on the way across. I think they usually stop in like Bahamas and then they go across and then they stop in the Azores and then they're in Barcelona. Right. So they haven't had really, they haven't really gotten to like experience Europe. They just experience the ship for two weeks, basically. So yeah, once you're on board, I mean, mean, you know, if you, if you've got time, like take, yeah. Take three weeks. So why not do three weeks instead of two weeks?
Well, what stuff did, did you all get up to onboard the ship in terms of activities?
[00:37:52] Speaker B: So we, the first night when we got on the ship, we had to do laundry.
So luckily a couple of our bags were at our room already, but we had to scramble to find laundry machines because all the people that were on the transatlantic were also doing their laundry that day.
And so we were running around trying to do laundry.
And then on the next day was a sea day and we did Palo brunch and Remy dessert.
[00:38:25] Speaker A: Nice. Nice. Yeah. I, I will say I have had people ask me.
Oh, sorry, go ahead. I've had people ask me when's the best time to do laundry on a cruise? And it, the answer is it depends. Right? It depends on the cruise itinerary. Like most of the time, like for like let's say like a seven night cruise, most of the time you're better off doing it the beginning of the cruise than let's say the end of the cruise or maybe sometime towards the, the middle, but to skew towards the beginning. Middle, but on a European cruise where everybody had just, or, or half the ship or even a third of the ship has been on the transatlantic. Yeah, they're, they're just running out of clothes and so they're probably doing it that first day. It's kind of hard, hard to know what, what's the best, what's the best time now in terms of like onboard activities, Are you guys big like, like trivia buffs? Are you at all the shows? Are you doing family game shows? Like what are the things you guys are getting up to on board and you know, on your sea days, for example?
[00:39:32] Speaker B: Yeah, we're big trivia buffs.
I'm a craft person.
If there's a anyone can cook that we're interested in, we like to go to that.
If I'm in the mood, I might play bingo on this cruise because we were on the cruise when the new Star Wars Grogu movie came out. We got to see that on our last day because that was a sea day. So that was kind of cool.
Yeah, we just like to do whatever and whatever strikes our fancy. And then, yeah, always adult dining. Always Paulo.
[00:40:08] Speaker A: Nice.
Now did you do dinner or brunch for Paulo?
[00:40:14] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So we did Palo brunch the first C day and we did Palo dinner on pirate night and then we, on the first C day after Apollo brunch, we did Remy dessert at it was like scheduled for like 2:30.
[00:40:31] Speaker A: Oh, nice. I didn't know that they were still doing the Remy dessert. I had, I had heard that maybe it was a thing of the past.
I'm glad to hear they're still doing it. Wow. That was probably a lot though. How would be it which I like. Paulo brunch is always a lot of food. I never eat dessert because I'm not a big dessert person even at Paulo brunch. Why? I'll eat like an amaretto souffle at dinner, but I can't imagine doing Paulo brunch on the same day as Remy dessert. Like how did you fare?
[00:41:01] Speaker B: Yeah, it was well. We had the earliest Palo we could get which was at 9:30. So that was good because we had like three to four hours between Palo brunch and Remy dessert.
[00:41:12] Speaker A: To do that, that to like let the, let the chicken parm settle and then like open up your, open up your appetite again for dessert. I love that. I, I will say like that is like kind of incredible. I, I, I love that for you, Jen. I, I, I think it's amazing. I think it's an amazing way to spend your day doing like basically back to back adult dining with just relaxation in between. I, I'm curious because this cruise was obviously a little bit more adult heavy than Disney Cruise Line in general is just because of the timing and the itinerary and all of that.
Did you find that the adult areas, like maybe the adult pool or the bars, like, were those spaces more crowded than usual or did they seem to be. Or maybe people didn't use them because they were so exhausted from their port days.
[00:42:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I thought they were pretty manageable. I mean, we only got to go up to Serenity Falls the one day, and it was basically empty.
We went to, like I said, you know, some of the trivias were adults only, and some of those were, like, almost empty. Like, we did win one trivia, and it was because it was 18 and up, and there were only like, maybe five other people in the room. And. And, yeah, it seemed fairly empty. Like, we didn't do as much as we normally do, too, because we. We were so exhausted from not only our time before the cruise in Europe, but our Europe, you know, the Europe cruise. So we just kind of laid back and took it easy. But we did try to squeeze in some. Some activities. Yeah. Beforehand.
[00:43:00] Speaker A: That totally makes sense. I'm curious in terms of, like, food quality and service. You know, we. We hear ups and downs from all across the fleet. Some people, great food quality, great service, and some people having less than great experiences in terms of food quality service. I know they've also just implemented some menu changes, and so that there's been, you know, reactions to that and whatnot. I'm curious how you felt in terms of service, not just in the dining room, but sort of service overall. But then, of course, specific to the dining room food quality and service. There.
[00:43:37] Speaker B: There. Yeah. As far as food quality, I know some people say, like, the chicken tenders change when you go to Europe and all that.
I don't feel that we saw that, but I don't know if that's because the Transatlantic had so many extra leftover supplies that we got the normal stuff, or.
I thought the food quality was amazing.
Our service throughout the. All the cast members, no matter what, are amazing, and we love them and they work so hard. And actually, on this cruise, I feel like we've gotten the best service we've ever had in the restaurants since our first cruise.
[00:44:20] Speaker A: Wow, that's high praise. I love that. I love when we hear great reviews like that.
I do think that the food did not change over probably until later in your cruise or until the next cruise. The. The cruise after your. Because that's when they start to run out of some of the American supplies and are restocking with those. Yeah. With those European supplies. Well, Jen, before we move over to Rapid Fire, I've got To ask, like, is there anything that I've missed in terms of any experiences on board that were particularly good, particularly bad, you know, or just different than you'd experienced before?
[00:45:00] Speaker B: Yeah. So the thing with the Remy dessert experience, my husband is a vegetarian, and in the app, they don't tell you, like, if they can accommodate, because I had. We had done it once or twice before, and we had never had any issues. Well, the first night we got on the ship, we got a call in our stateroom saying that all the desserts are going to have gelatin in them and won't be suitable for Alex's diet. And we're like, what? Why? What's going on? Because. Because they had read it as he was vegan and not vegetarian. And we're like, no, he's vegetarian, but if all the desserts are going to have gelatin, then, no, we don't want to do it. And then I had asked, like, if I go and still can have the desserts, can he just come and, like, watch me? I. I know it sounds weird, but, like, just come just to see what it's like.
And they said, sure.
So we show up and the head waiter comes to our table and says, alex will still be able to experience three desserts. Not all the desserts have gelatin in them, and we won't charge him for this. So I don't know who I spoke to on the phone that didn't maybe quite understand, but when we got there, they had put us at ease by just saying, yeah, he can taste the, like, three things and we won't charge you for it. So it was a really great experience.
And, you know, all the staff are so lovely and accommodating, and it was a great time.
[00:46:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm glad to hear that one. I'm glad to hear that they were transparent about what ingredients are in the desserts to begin with. I have found, and this is true in main dining as well, that Disney has move to a lot of desserts that include gelatin. And for those that don't know gelatin is a meat product, it is not a vegetarian. There are substitutes that are. That don't use animal products, but gelatin uses animal products, namely, typically from pigs, actually. So it's actually also not kosher, if you are kosher and not halal as well. So it is one of those things that a lot of people don't really think about or realize. But if you are someone who doesn't eat any animal products, that's certainly something to be aware of.
So yeah, I'm glad that they're being transparent about it, but I'm also glad that they did tell you when you got there that there were some things he could eat and that they didn't charge you because that's the right thing to do. Right. If you're going to have some samplings, but he's not getting the full menu, it's the right thing for them to do that. So. Yeah. Thanks for sharing. Sharing. I think that's super helpful for folks, you know, who are interested in doing one of those dessert tastings at Remy or Enchante. But also something to be aware of in terms of main dining as well in terms of dessert. All right, well, Jen, I think we've reached that point in the show where I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions, subject you to random questions.
I don't even know if the. I can't even think of the way that Brian says it anymore.
Arbitrary rules, arbitrary questions and a dash of judgment or the round we know as rapid fire. I finally. It clicked for me in my head. I'm not used to saying it. Brian is the one who always says it. But I'm going to ask you some Disney favorites and then, of course, some Disney Cruise Line favorites. You knew this was coming by volunteering to be on the show.
You just have to subject yourself to it. So.
All right. What's your favorite Disney character? And Disney means anything and everything that Disney owns.
[00:48:51] Speaker B: I would. It would have to be Peach from Finding Nemo, the starfish. I just love her sass.
[00:48:56] Speaker A: Oh, she's so cute. I love that. You know, nobody's ever answered with that answer before, and I. On the show, and I love that answer. That's such a great. She's such a great character. Yeah. All right, Favorite movie.
[00:49:11] Speaker B: Oh, that is. That is tough. I'd have to say, like, things like Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Sword in the Stone, Beauty and the Beast, Finding Nemo, Moana, Luca. I mean, it goes on and on, but, yeah, those are, like, the handful.
[00:49:27] Speaker A: I love it. Yeah, that's like the top. Like, five, six. I love it. I love it. I bet you got to give a shout out to Bedknobs and Broomsticks. That's such a great movie. It's such a. I love it. All right, well, favorite Disney song again.
[00:49:42] Speaker B: Another one. A tough choice. I would have to say Portobello Road from Bedknobs and Broomsticks, because when I was a kid, it kind of introduced me to all these cultures and Societies and things, and then Ugly Bug Ball from Summer Magic. Because Burl Ives is just a treasure and a legend.
[00:50:03] Speaker A: I love that. Love these answers. You. I love these answers, Jen. You're giving like. Like, rare answers. Like, we don't hear this stuff. And I. I love. But I love it. I think that's so unique and so fun. Awesome. All right, well, moving on. Moving on to the Disney ships.
We're going to talk only about ships, of course, that you've been on, so we're going to exclude the treasure, the destiny, and the adventure from your answers.
We got to start with the best Disney Cruise Line stage show. I mean, you were on the Dream. Please tell me, Jen, it's not Beauty
[00:50:37] Speaker B: and the Beast just because it's. It's.
Their show is more based on the live action, and I don't like the live action version. I can't.
My favorite show, I think right now would have to be Tangled, but I am so looking forward to Moana and Hercules.
[00:50:56] Speaker A: All right, I'm going to give you a pass here, because Tangled is phenomenal, and so I understand that that can be somebody's favorite.
I'm going to have to agree to disagree with you about Beauty and the Beast, But I do. I mean, I agree it's based on.
Heavily based on the movie, live action, but I love the production. It's such a good set design and all of that. But anyway, I'm going to give you a pass because, as I said, you chose Tangled, and that's a wonderful production on Disney Cruise Line. All right, we've got to talk dining.
We got to talk. What's your favorite rotational dining restaurant? Restaurant.
[00:51:33] Speaker B: I would have to say 1923. Just because it's the only restaurant where there's not an extra show. There's not extra noise going on. You can have a conversation and hear the other person.
It's more calm.
It's more relaxing. So I think for that reason, that has to be my favorite.
[00:51:54] Speaker A: All right. Yeah. Some people like the classic Disney touches without the pomp and circumstance or the interruption of a show. I can appreciate that very much.
All right, well, let's talk favorite food items. We're gonna go first with a sweet item, then with a savory item, because, as I always say, the savories are the best, and we saved the best for last.
So sweet item. Favorite sweet item on Disney Cruise Line.
[00:52:18] Speaker B: Amaretto souffle from Palo.
[00:52:21] Speaker A: Yes. I love that there's another amaretto souffle fan. I love that souffle. I think it's phenomenal. It's not too sweet.
I know people love the chocolate one and I. No judgment on them, but it's too sweet for me, that chocolate one. All right, favorite savory item.
[00:52:36] Speaker B: Oh, the pasta presets, of course.
No doubt.
[00:52:40] Speaker A: Yes.
I love it. Jen, Jen, now you're just. I think you're just pandering to me. Now, you wouldn't pander with the show, but now with the food, you're pandering to me, and I love it. All right, we're gonna talk. Favorite activity to do on a Disney Cruise Line ship. This is like a sea day activity, an even activity. What do you like to do? What's like your number one thing to do on a Disney Cruise Line ship?
[00:53:07] Speaker B: Yeah, it's either a tie between going to trivias or just hanging out in our stateroom watching a movie on the. On the TV while we're getting ready to, you know, go to dinner or go out or do something else. I think I love that. Yeah. Just.
[00:53:23] Speaker A: I love that.
[00:53:24] Speaker B: We love our tripping you.
[00:53:26] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, we. Who doesn't love watching, like, ratatouille while you're getting ready or while you're getting ready to go to bed? Right? Like, I. I love that. I love that. All right, most important question.
Which one is your favorite ship? You can choose from the first five ships. You've got the magic, the wonder, the dream, the fantasy, the wish.
[00:53:47] Speaker B: Ah, this is so hard. It's the toss between the magic and the fantasy.
The magic because it was our first. It was our honeymoon.
We've been on it the most. The fantasy because.
And I guess sort of the dream, but like the interactive portholes in the inside state rooms, just the mini golf, the, you know, the food deck of the pool. Like, yeah, they. Nothing can be beat.
Favorite ship is the one you're on, so.
[00:54:19] Speaker A: Absolutely. I like both of those answers.
I agree.
The one you're on is the best.
But I do think the fantasy and the dream do have a couple of nice things that don't exist on the other ships and that are unique. And so the dream class is a great option for those particular things. I will say we have still never stayed in one of those magic porthole rooms because we don't stay in typically in inside rooms. And that's like the one thing I really still want to experience on Disney Cruise Line. I want to. I want one of those magic porthole rooms. So.
All right, the last question of rapid fire. Jen, your bucket list. Cruise. If, if you can go anywhere in the world. Where are you going?
[00:55:04] Speaker B: Oh, it would have to be one of those world cruises that goes to 100 different countries all over the world. Like, Like, I want to see everything. I want to try and, like, go everywhere. So that would be my absolute dream, is just to get on a boat and go everywhere.
[00:55:25] Speaker A: Totally with you.
You know, I. Brian keeps saying he hopes that Disney will do that, like, when they retire the magic or the wonder that they'll do some kind of, like, around the world farewell tour. I don't really think it's likely to happen.
Um, I'm not sure Disney is going to do something like that because I do think those are harder to book in terms of, like, a. Harder to sell out those kinds of cruises just because of, you know, timing and. And school schedules and all of that. But it would be pretty. It would be pretty darn great.
All right. Well, Jen, you passed with flying colors, even with, you know, bump in the road there when we talk about shows.
But I gotta ask, of course, what's next for you and your husband with Disney Cruise Line? You have anything booked? Did you pick up a place?
What have you got on tap?
[00:56:14] Speaker B: We do have a placeholder and we currently have the Panama Canal cruise on the Magic next year, but I don't know if we'll be able to make it happen. We'll see. But I'm fingers crossed we'll be able to do Panama Canal cruise next year.
[00:56:30] Speaker A: Awesome. Yeah. Well, I hope you do get. I hope you do get to do it going through the Panama Canal. We've not done it on Disney, but we did it many years ago on Celebrity. And it's such a cool experience to just experience the locks. Although we were in the art old Panama Canal, not the current one.
But yeah, it's just a really cool experience. And of course, who doesn't love, like, two weeks on a Disney ship? So that in and of itself is a. Is a fantastic experience. Well, with.
Well, with that, Jed, I'll just say thank you so much for joining me to talk about your med cruise. I'll wish you happy sailing and hope you'll join me again.
[00:57:06] Speaker B: Thank you so much. Thanks, Sam. Happy Father's Day, Brian. And I love the podcast. Podcast.
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[00:59:42] Speaker A: Good night Sam.
