Ep. 697 - Would You Take a Toddler on a 5-Week Disney Cruise to Europe?

[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 WeDoTravelRight. 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 $120 on board credit per stateroom. That's a solid chunk towards a specialty dinner at Paulo 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: And we ended up going to places called Saturnia, and there were these, like, waterfalls that you. It's like one of these crazy, like, Instagram pictures that you just can't even believe is real. And it was. And it was free. Like, I paid for, you know, her and for transportation, but it was free. And yeah, my son and I just played in the water for, like, two and a half hours. We got some snacks, we got ice cream. And it was like the. It was the best day ever. [00:02:02] Speaker C: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's episode of the DCL Duo podcast, brought to you by WeDoTravel. Right? And Sam, it is time for your jingle. [00:02:11] Speaker A: All right. Simply the best. Better than all the rest. [00:02:16] Speaker C: All right, this week's listener review comes from. It looks like mom Meg W. Maybe M O M me G W so mom magw who writes H hands down, all caps. The absolute best Disney cruise podcast out there. Sam and Brian provide an insightful and entertaining podcast on all things Disney Cruising. A wealth of information is always shared, regardless if you are a Disney novice or a Disney enthusiast. Once you begin listening, you will be hooked, full of tips and tricks, never boring, honest, and always cheerful. Be sure to check them out. Our family is always excited to listen to their latest episode. Thank you, mom Meg W. For that lovely review. We really, we really appreciate it, you know. And a reminder for all of you out there listening, one of the easiest ways to help support the show, Head over to Apple Podcasts, hit those five stars. If you leave us a written review along with your five star review, we will read it on the air at the top of one of our main episodes. And if you're listening to us on any other platform, Spotify, YouTube, all the ways you can listen to podcasts out there, just hit whatever rating system they have and give us the highest because it helps surface the show to other people who might want to hear our content. [00:03:23] Speaker A: All right, with that said, also, one other thing I'll say is in addition to helping surface our content, there are days where one of us doesn't feel well. We're busy at work, life is just hard. Maybe things with Nathan are hard and maybe sometimes we're not so motivated to record an episode. But when we see those listener reviews, that really helps provide extra motivation because we know people are relying on us for this content. These fun shows to listen to in the car or on a plane or wherever you might listen. So anyway. All right, Brian, you want me to intro our guest, I take it. All right. Well, I'm super excited. We've got actually a really interesting show today because we're not just talking about one cruise. We're not just talking about two cruises. We're not just talking about three cruises. We're talking about four cruises technically, but five weeks of cruises. So we're not. This is not going to be like a regular Trip Report episode, but we're going to be talking about five weeks of sailing on Disney Cruise Line from the transatlantic crossing from the US over to Europe and then three European sailings following that. We're so excited to welcome you to the show. Welcome, Emily. [00:04:38] Speaker B: Hi. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm so excited to be here. [00:04:41] Speaker A: Yeah, we're so excited to have you. Thanks for reaching out. We were like, we're gonna fit you into our show schedule because this is such a unique thing. We have talked to folks who've done you significant chunks of the European season before, but you did so with a young child and of course that's a very unique angle. But let's like start with Emily. I know you live over in Denmark right now, but you are American. Tell us, like, when did you start sailing with Disney Cruise Line? How did you like, did your love from Disney come before that? Like, let's get your sort of background before we dive into talking about this particular experience. [00:05:22] Speaker D: Yeah, sure. [00:05:23] Speaker B: So my son is 4. So the first Disney cruise my husband and I took was in 2017, before he was born. We did three before he was born and the first one was a week long Norwegian fjords cruise. And yeah, we were hooked. It was amazing. We flew into Copenhagen. We flew into Copenhagen the morning of the cruise, which in retrospect we're like, [00:05:43] Speaker A: oh my God, who doesn't. [00:05:46] Speaker B: We didn't know. And we did do the Disney where they, where they book your air at the time. And so we just had this lovely port transportation they took us around to. We were a little early to see Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid statue. And yeah, we went up the fjords. It was amazing. And yeah, that was just fantastic. And we had gone to Disney World that January, so I think there was a certain point where we decided as a couple that we liked Disney and, and we just sort of like we were sitting at a cafe in Cape Cod actually for a Walt Disney World trip. And we're like, let's, let's call and find out what it would cost. And I remember the phone number from the ads as a kid. It was like 4 7W Disney. So I called it and we booked that trip and then we booked the cruise while we were there that January. Then we did two more before our son. One was a week long. It was from Quebec City and it went down the St. Lawrence river ending in New York. That was also spectacular. Yeah. And we had taken the. I had a friend's wedding in Poughkeepsie on the way. And so we took the train from there up to Montreal and then to Quebec City. And that was extremely memorable as well. [00:07:02] Speaker A: Wow, you've done some really cool itineraries, Emily. Like I now you, you were telling me pre show before we started recording about becoming a travel advisor, you, your husband said something to you and I love this. And so I want you to tell her list listeners. Why did you become a travel advisor initially? [00:07:21] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I started officially in 2021 with ET Family Travel, which I've been with for five years now. And, and they're great, I love them. But I started, I would plan like, I wouldn't say phantom trips, but I would plan more trips than we could possibly take. And my husband was with the, with the level of granularity. And my husband was like, you need to be a travel agent. You need to just do it. And I was, I was worried, you know, like imposter syndrome. I was like, well, I don't know if I could do it. He's like, you really can. You really have enough knowledge and information, like, go for it. And so I started, I started then and I was doing it part time. I used to be in financial services communications for 10 years and then we moved to Denmark a year ago. And so now I am leaning more heavily into my TA work, but with a European focus. And I think I can really help people who are doing specifically like DCL European itineraries to get a really authentic European experience out of their trip. I think Most people know EAs are free to work with and I like to help people not just with picking out the cruise and the onboard experiences, but like, what are they going to do in those three days when they land in Barcelona? And you know, can they see, you know, can they have some really good meals and experiences that are memorable? Because I think that's what we liked about our trips was that we didn't just do dcl, we did DCL on our first one and then we stayed in Copenhagen for a week and we saw all the sites there. And when you put the those together, I think that's really where the magic happens. Kind of that combination of the ship and Europe is really special. I just want to help people with that. [00:09:00] Speaker A: It's a land and sea, but it's a Europe land and sea. It's not Disneyland or Disney World. It's the European continent plus your Disney cruise. I love that, I love that focus. Now tell us. Okay, you were on Disney Cruise Line for five weeks. You started over. You know, you obviously flew over to the US before boarding. I imagine you visit family or whatnot before. We probably weren't just there like the day before cruise, but like what spurred you to book five weeks on Disney Cruise Line? I know you got a, you've got a four year old, your husband works full time, you're, you're doing the TA thing. Like what? Yeah, why are we like five weeks on Disney Cruise Line? Let's do, let's go for it. I mean, it's a big investment and a lot of time. [00:09:49] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great question. It kind of just grew. We had done one week in September last year from The UK around parts of Spain. And for this one we booked, I think we started with one week on the Mediterranean and then we booked a second one. We're like, well, let's do two so that we're on the ship a little bit longer. And then we were looking at doing the transatlantic. I've always wanted to do the transatlantic. I was booked on the 2021. That, that did not. That sailing did not, did not go. But we're like not sure about that. And then we booked Greece, which was right after the two. And for each of these I had like, you know, either like the 10% off or I had like a 15% off thing for one. And then Greece was a GTY rate. So we kind of like put, like put them together basically. And then there was a really good GTY rate for the transatlantic that came out. And we're like, should we just do it like. Okay. And yeah, so that's, that's how that kind of, it kind of grew. It kind of took on a life of its own, I guess, but it kind of grew. And also. So my husband teaches at a university, so he was kind of done with the semester at that point. [00:11:01] Speaker A: Right. So he's got his break. [00:11:02] Speaker B: Yeah, he had his break. And then I had been working like very, very full time hours for the past 10 years. And this is the first year I'm getting to be a stay at home mom for a bit. And also my son will be in. He's in. It's called Barneo here, but it's nursery school. And so next year he's in school and I can't take him out for a month next year. Like they take attendance very seriously. And so we're like, okay, let's do this. So that's how it kind of came about. Basically. We did fly in the night before. We just flew into Fort Lauderdale. It was very transactional. [00:11:34] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:11:35] Speaker B: Yeah, we stayed at the Disney property and got right back on Disney transportation the next morning to the ship and then. And then went across the Atlantic. So. [00:11:44] Speaker A: Wow. [00:11:45] Speaker B: Yes. [00:11:46] Speaker A: That's incredible. Now had you been on the Dream before? Like which ships have you been on in the fleet? [00:11:53] Speaker B: So I've been on. Our favorite is the Magic. I think everyone loves their first. Our absolute favorite is the Magic. We could live in Ogils and Ogils is the pub there. If anyone has not been on the Magic run, don't walk. I've been on the Dream twice before, but for like four night kind of sailings and the Fantasy we've been on I think two or three times for week long itineraries in like the Caribbean. And then last year it had come over to Europe because it did dry dock. So I've been on kind of three of the classic ships. I've not been on any of the newer ships yet. I do really like the classic ships the best. I've watched lots of trip reports and I watch a lot of YouTube videos and things like that on other people's experiences as well. [00:12:37] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and the Wish is coming over to Europe next year, so you have an opportunity to get on a Wish class ship and of course, you know, longer sailings. There are some short sailings as well, but not just the three, four night, you know, castaway Bahamian sailing out of, out of Port Canaveral. So it's kind of nice. I think people will get to experience the Wish very differently over in Europe on those week long sailings. Well, let's, let's dive into some of the logistics. Like, how does one plan even to be away from home for five weeks? Like in terms of, we think about, like your mail, you think about, I don't know, if you have any pets or, you know, anything that sort of needs to be taken care of regularly where you live? Like. Yeah. Do you have like, friends or family nearby that can, like, I don't know, pop in and take care of things like that? [00:13:27] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great question. This trip is. This is kind of the fun of talking about it is there's. There were a lot of logistics. So we do have. My son has a really good nanny, babysitter. And she, she came over twice. We do not have pets. And I kind of expected this, but all our plants are dead. I put them on the porch. I like set them free. There's a little pine tree that's hanging in there. My rosemary and basil are not in this world anymore. They're done. [00:13:57] Speaker A: They're no longer for this world. I love that. [00:14:02] Speaker B: Let's see the house. I mean, we live in an apartment and it's in a complex that was relatively easy to shut down. A lot of our stuff's digital, so that part wasn't too hard. A lot of clothes to package. And I always aspire to be a minimalist packer and it never happens. But I, you know, we had how many? We had three checked bags. I'm trying to think if we had three or four. I think we had three checked bags and then we bought one on the ship and then everybody had like, there's like some kind of duffel but the, the thing is that the transatlantic is a little bit cooler when you're crossing and then obviously the Mediterranean countries in the summer get very hot. In retrospect, I would not have brought as many cool weather clothing. I think I could have reworn one or two pairs of jeans and like one sweatshirt a lot more that I did. So I didn't need as much of that that I brought. But it was cool. Like the middle of that crossing is consistently cool. So if you are traveling on that, it's not like cold, but it's a jeans and maybe a T shirt and maybe a hoodie in the evening kind of weather. [00:15:03] Speaker A: Yeah, you're not going to be wearing shorts and sitting out on the pool deck in a bathing suit all day when you're crossing the middle of the Atlantic. But when you get to the Med, of course you're then you want the bathing suit and the T shirt and the shorts. So it is. Yeah. Harder to, to pack for for sure. Did you, I imagine you did laundry on board? I can't imagine a way that you would do this trip without laundry. Right? [00:15:27] Speaker B: Yes, yes. And the one thing that we found really valuable is ccl I think. I don't know if they do it on the shorter ones, but at least on their, all of their week long ones they do the laundry offer and it's $25 and you can have up to 30 pieces of clothing. And they did a really nice job with really, we really leaned into that. And if you're doing it, if you're doing your laundry kind of tactically, I would give them like my reds, you know, because you have like one or two red pieces that you don't want to run a whole wash for. So I would give them like the nicer pieces and then I would do a load of like boxers and kids clothes and pajamas and things that could all get kind of thrown in there. And so that's how we approached laundry on the trip. [00:16:08] Speaker A: Yeah, that's really smart. They only do the laundry offer on longer sailings and like they tend to do it in Europe, they tend to do it in Alaska. You don't really see them do it in the Caribbean. Like so even like a seven night on the Treasure. I don't know that, I don't know that they do it on those sailings, but we've seen it both on our Norwegian Fjord sailing and on our Alaska cruise. So yeah, it's definitely something that happens on those, particularly those seven night itineraries in Europe which is really, really Nice. I'm curious about like the planning in terms of port excursions because you're on you know, a series of four cruises. Of course that first one doesn't have a lot of ports. You have just a couple of port stops. But when you're going across obviously to the European continent, you have lots of different stops. Like how did you go about even just thinking about the planning? Like were you doing, you know, booking port excursions through dcl? Were you booking them separately? How did you do even like your research to figure out what you wanted to do in all of these various port stops? [00:17:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great question because we really value our time in ports. I mean there's some people that like cruising just to be on the ship and that's fine but we like it as a conduit to go places even when we're in the Caribbean. I know a lot of people say on the ship in Nassau, like I love the, the, the Dunwatlings distillery there, there's. It's not as fun but like the museum of slavery and emancipation is a must see. There's good bars like so we really take our port side all reports seriously. And my favorite resource is the Mediterranean Cruise Ports Guidebook by Rick Steves. He has a northern European one. I'm a big fan of Rick Steves, but what is great about this book and anyone going on either of the north or south is that he really caters it to cruise travelers. So it's a book for people that have eight hours in a major European city. What do you do? How do you get there? How do you not waste time? Like I mentioned, I watched a lot of people's trip videos and one of the things that drives me crazy is when people just kind of get off a port and it's like the first time they've ever thought about being in this like very exotic location that they've never been to before. And you see people and if you're in that situation, you end up wandering around. You go to a chain restaurant, you buy some gifts and you have, you know, an unmemorable, not an un, not a, not memorable experience but you have, you know, an unimpressive experience potentially and an unremarkable experience. Unremarkable. [00:18:40] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:18:41] Speaker B: I think that's the word I was looking for. Like our philosophy is just that you have all of these hours when you're at home on the couch and you wish that you were traveling and use those to make those eight hours when you are in a new place really great. So we watch a lot of the 4K walkthrough videos also of places that we'll see and you know, to just kind of get a lay of the land. That said, because there were so many ports on this trip, we leaned a bit heavier into the port excursions, which were a bit of a pain point, but also very much a learning experience because I think I mentioned one of the reasons I really wanted to do experience these different kinds of trips is that I'm leaning into the European angle of DCL for my clients and I want to know what to tell them and I want to be able to tell them that with firsthand information. And so I would say in short, though, not to throw shade, but in short, the port adventures that I took with DCL were probably the, what is it? Like the thorn in the rose, like the thorn of the trip. And they're not. It's not like you're getting Disney, you know, you're not. It's not a Disney experience. These are, they are outsourced to providers. I don't know if it's bidding or capacity, but you're getting a company that's running very large scale tours. I think one was called like Trumpy Tours. And they, they did a lot of the different ones that we had. And you know, in Europe you're, you're on a bus, you're kind of shuffling around and you know, it seemed, it's like when you're booking it at the time, it only it seems easier, right. It seems more frictionless to just go ahead and book the port adventure with the cruise line. But I think you pay for that frictionlessness on the back end when you are packed in with other people or you only have 45 minutes to get food in Athens and you've never been to Athens, Greece before or you know, an hour at Herculaneum and they stopped you for half an hour at a cameo museum, which I'm not sure why we're there. [00:20:45] Speaker A: So yeah, these are great points though because there is a lot of friction in those excursions. Even though it seems frictionless to book when you think about a lot of the waiting that you do for the group together, even on the ship before you get off, you think about waiting for the bus. Right. We've had a couple of interviews very recently, Emily, that bring up these very points of folks who went on a couple of these med cruises and booked some port adventures through Disney and ended up up with a not so great experience. Not because they didn't like go to a place they wanted to go to, but because a lot of the time that they spent wasn't actually skiing the place, it was a lot of this sort of hurry up and wait type of experience. Yeah, I think that's. Well, I mean, I'll put a plug out there. I think that's where you can get value in using a good travel advisor. I also think that's where the value of something, a product like Adventures by Disney comes in as well. Because it is that like in it's. If you don't want to take the time to do the research yourself as an individual, I think your best options are having a good travel advisor who is willing to do the research or has been to those places before or using a product like Adventures by Disney where they've already curated some really fantastic, I'll call them Port Adventures, but excursion type experiences. But of course those are either land based or river cruise. Those are not cruise line based. I mean there used to be a partnership I think with abd where they, you could sort of have an ABD on top of a cruise. But they've, it seems like they've eliminated that, that product. I'm curious, like, were there some excursions that you planned yourself either with a vendor or really did on truly on your own? Right. And what were a certain, like, I'd love to know what your favorites were. [00:22:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Because of the number of days we did a number, we did do a number of those and we planned things like after the, after the official port adventures. And those were definitely high points. And I would say, just like in defense of Port Adventures, we used to be much more strategic about using them. And we had a rule of like, we would use a port adventure if it was a place that was really far to get to or it seemed like kind of an immersive experience. And so I think we did better with them when we used them more like selectively or strategically we used them for. We saw Scarabre, which is like ancient ruins and Scotland, which was a distance from the bus and our son was in the nursery. Like, that was great. Just as an example of like, what, what does work well, So I wouldn't say don't use them, but in the past we always thought about it as like very, we would pick them very carefully. [00:23:21] Speaker C: I have one question here which is, you know, you've mentioned a lot how important these port excursions and experiences are to you, even when you're cruising and you know, some might step back and ask the question, like, why Disney then? Like, because the Ships are such in a destination, in and of themselves. I, I don't want to say that, that's my opinion. But like, you know, they are, they are a destination. But why Disney then? Why not sail another cruise line that maybe is, you know, not as potentially expensive? Right. Is it because of the kids aspect? Is it something else that brings you to Disney to sort of get you to these experiences? [00:23:58] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great, that is a great question because yeah, I know that there, there are other cruise lines that are for the people that just want to go to and they want to facilitate that. I think Viking includes a port adventure with every stop. And we've been doing Disney since the before time, before we had Kai. But we love Disney and we love Disney Cruise Line. I love the aesthetic of the older ships, especially that kind of 1930s steamer look. And we always talk about there's this moment when you have a great port day and then there's that moment when you get on the ship and you smell that like air freshener that they use in the atrium and you know, you feel clean, they give you that towel and then like the second part of your day unwinds. And we love that. So we love the being on the ship aspect of it. [00:24:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:48] Speaker B: In conjunction with some great port days. [00:24:50] Speaker A: I love that. That's so true though. But there is this like homey feeling when you step back on the ship after a long port day. I'd love to know, like you mentioned, you know the port adventure you did in Scotland that was like one that you would do. That is a Disney Cruise Line one. I'm curious, were there any, I'd love to know highlights, like maybe one your favorite, like port adventure you did take, that was through Disney Cruise Line. And then your favorite excursion that you did take that was not. That was planned, you know, through either, like I said, completely on your own or with a tour company outside of Disney? [00:25:28] Speaker B: No, I'd be happy to answer that. So the best one, none of them really jumped out at me, but the best one that I went on was to. It was on the island of Sardinia and it was to the very ancient ruins at a place called Nora. And so you toured the ruins, which are very old and fantastic to look at. And then they had a little ceramic activity for the kids and that was run by the archaeologists at the ruins site. And I loved that. And that also felt like very Disney, like that combination of you're seeing something really excellent, but then there's this kind of immersive hands on experience that's family friendly. And so that was a really good experience and my son loved it. And the tour guide was very kid friendly, which was awesome. And then my favorite one that we planned on our own and I ended up using this person twice because we were in these steps twice is I had booked it through Viator. I didn't know the person beforehand, but it was. Her name is Irma and the company is My Love Italy and they're on all the platforms. And she and her husband started out doing trips that highlight the areas that like not just Rome basically. And because we were. We stayed in Rome for a week after the last leg of the trip. And so we were going to do Rome from there. We didn't want to take the transportation 90 minutes in from the port to go to Rome for. For like, like 12, 10 hours. Well, like a 12 hour day you're on transportation. So yeah, I don't know how you're in there for like six or eight hours. We didn't want to do that. We're like, let's explore this area. And so we did a tour with her. And she was so great too because she wasn't a tour guide. She was like a facilitator. I don't know, there's like a very specific Italian word for it. But she picked us up at the port. It was just me, my husband and my son. And first we went to the Etruscan necropolis, which are like graves that are painted pre Roman. Yeah, just like fantastic. I'm struggling to find words for how amazing they were to see. So they're these painted underground graves of these people before the Roman times and you get to go into them. I know that sounds like a funny thing to be really good for kids, but what was so good about the whole thing is that our son could just basically roan free. He could be like, I want to go on this one, I want to go in this one. And because we just had a driver and it wasn't a tour guide, it was a driver. So she wasn't like. She took us there and then she's like, I will pick you up in an hour. And I love that because it's nice to also just kind of be with your family. And so we could, we could go around and he picked me some flowers and he, he likes history even though he's only four and a half. So that was an amazing experience. And then she took us into town and we got like espresso and yeah, we met like her friend's dog who happened because these are small Italian towns. And so my son got to meet, like, these. These dogs that he really got a kick out of meeting. And we, you know, talked to the locals, and then we didn't have a hard and fast plan for Civitavecchia the next week. And so we were like, what do you have that day going on? I know you're probably booked up, but, like, whatever you're doing, we want part of it. And we ended up going to places called Saturnia, and there were these, like, waterfalls that you. It's like one of these crazy, like, Instagram pictures that you just can't even believe is real. And it was. And it was free. Like, I paid for, you know, her and for transportation, but it was free. And, yeah, my son and I just played in the water for, like, two and a half hours. We got some snacks, we got ice cream, and it was like. It was the best day ever. [00:29:14] Speaker A: Yeah, well. And you didn't spend an hour and a half each way on the bus just to go and be in crowds of people near the Coliseum where you couldn't even, like, potentially get in. Right. Like, that. That. Honestly, Emily, that. That sounds incredible. I was. I was gonna ask you, like, how does one travel Europe with a 4 and a half year old? But I think you helped answer that question. But. But I'm gonna ask it anyway. [00:29:36] Speaker C: Well, my more specific question would be, how does one get the four and a half year old to sleep on the plane ride over to Europe? [00:29:41] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that's that. [00:29:45] Speaker A: How is he as a traveler? [00:29:47] Speaker B: I mean, he's a good traveler. Yeah, he's a good traveler. And I will just say strategic, liberal uses of screen time. It might be controversial, but. But he's good. He's good on the. On the planes. We. He likes forts, and so we always. For the. For transatlantic plane rides, which he's been on when he came over here and then back. Yeah, he likes, like, a blanket over him, and he can kind of be in a fort. And so that kind of, I guess, gives him sort of a feeling of autonomy or his own area and just kind of make things cozy for him. Soft, like socks, and just basically make it, like, fun and cozy and like a nice little space to be in. And. [00:30:27] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like he's camping, Right? [00:30:29] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:30:29] Speaker A: It's like, make it an adventure. Right? Like, make an adventure out of it. It's funny, but, like, those kinds of things do help kids. Like now, of course, if you're crammed into coach with five people on either side of you. That's not very practical. But as best you make it right, like to make it cozy and comfortable. I love that. How did you sort of choose like excursions with him in mind as well? Like were there ones where you chose to like have him stay on the ship in like the kids club or the. I guess he would be at kids club age, not nursery anymore. Like were there times where you did that or was this more. No, we're just going to figure out something to do that Kai can come along and be involved in. [00:31:11] Speaker B: Yeah, no, that's, that's also a great question. For this particular trip, our motto was that like everything needed to be Kai forward. We wanted him to have a good time. We're like slightly older parents and we've done a lot of traveling on our own and you know, like this is kind of his time to have a good experience. That said, when he was in Small World where he would, he would stay for much longer. We, we. I think I mentioned like the 11 Night Iceland. It was like an 11 Night Iceland trip. And so we had gotten off, we had dinner in Reykjavik. We used that and we did more adult excursions, but this time now that he's older. And also we could not get him to stay in the kids club more than an hour and a half, two hours at the end of the trip. Day 33, he did a couple hours there, but it was not the olden days in Small World where he was just good to go. [00:32:04] Speaker A: Yeah, it's interesting how kids flip like that though. And then there might come a point where he flips back where he doesn't want to leave the kids club. But it's, I'm gonna say it's kid dependent. Not every kid. Right. Like, but I, I do think there is like the younger age where they're just like perfectly happy to be in the nursery and of course they're napping and all of that kind of stuff and they'll even, you know, eat there. It's a little bit different when you're talking about, you know, a three year old who's walking and talking, a four year old who's walking and talking. Right. Like in general, I would say most of the kids that age aren't going to stay in the kids club for that long. It's also very overstimulating for kids that age. And so there are exceptions. There are some kids who will stay in there, you know, all day, all night. Well, not all night but, you know, but for long periods of time. I love that you made it kid forward. 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. 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. [00:33:25] 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 recreational 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 expert in your corner can make all the difference. [00:33:51] Speaker A: Life is short. Take the trip. Visit wedotravelright.com dclduo to connect with a travel advisor and start planning your next unforgettable adventure. [00:34:00] Speaker D: We do travel, right? The crew that handles the planning so you can focus on relaxing. [00:34:07] Speaker A: I gotta ask about food because always we talk about food on the show. We personally think the food on Disney Cruise Line is very good. Is it gourmet? No, but it's very good. Main dining. Typically. I'm curious though, you're on for five weeks. Like, is there a point at which you get really bored of the food [00:34:27] Speaker C: or your kid does or your kid does? [00:34:29] Speaker A: Because it really is the same. Now I know you have, you can obviously eat off when you're in port. So like lunch on whatever. Your port day is not going to be on the ship if, especially if you're spending a longer time off the ship. But did the food get old for you or did you find that there were enough choices that you could make it different or perhaps eat, you know, pool deck food or room service food or whatnot? [00:34:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that the, like, at a certain point, yeah, it did. Because you are getting the same menus over and over again. And so, and I, I feel we feel the same way about the food. It's not like, you know, five star, but it's, it's like nostalgic or it's, you know, you know, the different, you know, the different meals and it's this rotation and that's kind of fun. Towards the end of the trip, Even though I like often a lot of flavors, I found myself ordering the just like the basic steak and potatoes. I think I ordered that like at least three times. Like I just kind of wanted like regular food at that point. And towards the end of the trip we did do more and more just pool food. And that was more also just a matter of like the amount of time dinner took where when you're sort of at the beginning of the trip, it's like definitely a special occasion and you're sitting down, but then as you get on you kind of just want to eat and then go back to the pool or the movies or having fun. And so yeah, I think towards the end of the trip we ate at main dining less and less. But our server Maui was great. He was wonderful. And if anyone's taking the Dream, you can request servers and he is excellent. So definitely recommend him. He might be going to the Destiny at some point, like in the next year or so. I think a lot of the really good servers are, but for now he's on the Dream. [00:36:07] Speaker A: Now. Did you have him for the entire time? [00:36:11] Speaker B: We did. [00:36:12] Speaker A: That's the best. That's the best. What about room wise? I know you, you booked several of these. You booked gty, which means you're not obviously guaranteed a particular room. It's just you're guaranteed a particular category or better. I'm imagining you had to change rooms. But I'm curious, did you have to change rooms every cruise or did the cruise line make an effort? Because I do know that they'll do this if you're staying on back to back, even for multiple cruises, not, you know, not just one back to back. They will sometimes try and keep you in the same room even if that's not how you booked it. If you know, because they will see if they can move somebody else around in order so that you don't have to move 12 times. So yeah, I'm curious how that worked out. [00:36:54] Speaker B: We moved, we had three state rooms for four cruises. So we moved twice and we had the same stateroom for the first, for the middle two Mediterranean week long cruises that were like the first back to back. Kind of the core of the trip that we booked for the transatlantic. The room that we were in for the Mediterranean cruises was available. However, that room did not have a bunk bed. And my son is four and a half and he's obsessed with bunk beds. And so we were like, okay, is it worth it to change rooms so that he can have a bunk bed for two weeks? And we decided it was. So we did that and then the grease one was gty and we were, we were fine. So we liked, we liked all of our rooms and it was kind of a fun, like I'd say it's like it was nice not. It was nice testing out the different things too again, because I want to know what I can tell people like firsthand. And so it was really nice not having to pack up after the week long cruise. That said, it also felt like a little bit of a fresh start. Like after being on for, you know, two weeks for the transatlantic sort of. Then you still, you walk in and you have that like new stateroom feeling. And we, we liked that. So we got to experience both. [00:38:01] Speaker A: I love that and I love that Kai wanted the bunk bed. I will tell you, at 12 years old, Nathan still wants the bunk bed. So when we book, we tend to book those ocean view rooms on the higher decks. So we don't care about a balcony typically. But the one thing we do look for, or we tell our travel advisor to can you make sure? Because sometimes those will be rooms that don't have the bunk bed. Because for us it's just three people. Right. Just like you all. And so sometimes you get, if you request that category, they can put you in a room that just has the couch bed, which is fine. But Nathan wants to be in the bunk bed. And so we would rather have a room that fits four. It's the same size, but it just has an extra bed because it has that bunk bed. So it's funny that you say that about Kai, but yeah, that might not stop even when he's 12. So just be forewarned. I'm curious about, about the activities you guys did when on board the ship, right? Like when you're, when you're on your sea days or you get back to the ship. What were like the favorite places to hang out? What were the, the things that Kai wanted to do every day that you and your husband wanted to do every day? Yeah. What were those kinds of things? [00:39:15] Speaker B: Well, I think for, for me and Kai, we call it deck 11 fun time. That is our favorite place to be. So like the pool area and you know, the soft serve ice cream, the pools he can go on the yellow water slide. Like we could just be up there for. And then watching Funnel Vision and the food's right there. So we could just be there for like hours and hours and hours. So that's, that's definitely our favorite place to be. My husband does not love the sun as much, so he likes to. He. He likes to be in. There's a bar called Meridian on the Dream. And I think it's also on the Fantasy. And it's like totally a hidden gem because it's where you go for Paulo and Remy and people don't think it's a bar. They think it's just a waiting room for those restaurants. But it's like probably the night you're not. [00:40:00] Speaker A: It's the best on the Dream class. Yeah, it's thus far on the Dream [00:40:03] Speaker B: and the fancy ocean. It's like leather seats. It's amazing. They send the best bartenders up there, but like, you'll see people that will just go and sit down and wait for Paulo and leave. And it's. And it's never crowded unless. [00:40:17] Speaker A: Yeah, so unless there's a drink tasting in there. [00:40:19] Speaker B: I was gonna say unless there's like a tasting. [00:40:21] Speaker A: Yeah, they'll do like the whiskey tastings and stuff like that sometimes in there. And that's the only time it seems like it's crowded or occasionally like right before din time because people are like you said, waiting there for their dinner at Palo or Remy. [00:40:34] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. [00:40:35] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. So he'd hang out there. [00:40:37] Speaker B: Yeah, he liked that spot. And then as a couple, we like an adult activity that's kind of like a marquee adult activity on the Dream. It's evolution. I forget what it's called. I think a fantasy is the Tube. The Tube. But it's usually like a decade's music trivia. Sometimes they'll do like a Broadway start too. But there's definitely, definitely like an adult geared activity where it's kind of like the thing that's happening. So we would like to get to that. And it was always kind of a win if we could get kite to the clubs and go to that. And that was sort of like our evening date. So that was our favorite as a couple. And then I do like the shows. Like I love the shows and one of them for the Golden Mickeys, they, you know, they do the interviews for some people. So my son got interviewed and my husband went in and the cast members kind of like wink and nod, like let him film. And even you're not supposed to film it. So he filmed it like on the screen. And I love that show. It's just so like, just like classic Disney. Yeah. So the shows are great. The shows are. Yeah, that was another, you know, we loved watching those. Watching the movies is fun. On the Transatlantic, they always show a few like extra movies. And I like looking at the Navigators on the. [00:41:53] Speaker A: The DCL blog, What extra, like, movies they had? Like, did they bring back, like, old movies from, like, the vaults? Like, what do you mean by extra movies on board? [00:42:02] Speaker B: Yeah. So some of the movies on the Transatlantic were. They had Sound of Music, which I love, and Kai let me watch like, 10, 15 minutes of that together, and I was like, that's. My cup is full. I was so happy. I got to see the 16 going on 17 scene on the big screen on the ship. I didn't get to see it, but they had Father the Bride, which is amazing. They had the newer west side Story, which is also a good movie. And they had 20,000 leagues under the Sea. And I'm a Kirk Douglas fan, so that was also pretty wonderful. So just, like, really, like, good movies, but, like, I don't want to say crowd pleasers in, like, a banal way, but, like, really good, really good movies that are fun to see in that theater. And I love seeing movies on the ship. I think it's really fun. So, yeah, so we saw those. And then looking at all of the cruises together, I think we did see most of the movies that were on the ship. So right now, like, what's out this season was like, I think it's. Is it called Hopper hoppers in the U.S. okay, hoppers and Zootopia. So we saw both of those. He's too young for Devil Wears Prada. That was the other one that was out. But we had seen both of those in Danish and in Denmark. They do have English movies, but if you hit it at a certain time and sometimes you just want to go to the movies. And so it was great seeing those in English because we could actually understand what was happening. I can't believe that I've seen Hoppers twice in the movie theaters. I mean, it's a good movie, but it's not that good. It was fun, though. Yeah. So that was. Those are some of the things we saw. [00:43:38] Speaker A: I love that. That's hilarious. You know, I'm very curious, like, what was the port that you were maybe looking forward to the most? And then what was the port that actually surprised you the most? Because I always find that, like, I might be looking for, like, when I'm planning a trip, I might be looking forward to one thing, but it's actually something completely different. Different that ends up wowing me. And you had, of course, you know, the two Met itineraries. You had Greek Isles itinerary. Like, what was. What was the one that you were like, oh, I Can't wait to do that. But then what was the one that actually was like the smash hit? [00:44:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm trying to think. Let me think about the one I couldn't wait to do. But the smash hits were the. The three Spain stops on the Transatlantic. Because what's great about the Transatlantic is you really do make a couple of people like a normal amount of stops. And what happened was that we fit in. My son and I are like hardcore about beaches. So we fit in a beach stop at each of those cities and I kind of planned it a little bit. The first one I had like a beach mapped out. I think the second one we had a bit more time and I just asked a taxi driver like with Google Translate, showed him the picture like can you take us to a beach? And we went. And then the third one like I forget, I like similar approach but we made it to three stunning Spanish beaches all with different personalities. And that was such a high point. Yeah, it was great. [00:45:03] Speaker A: And can you think of something? You were really looking forward to that and I'm not saying necessarily was bad, it just wasn't what you necessarily imagined it to be. Because I think that's one of the things that happens with travel in general. [00:45:15] Speaker B: Yeah. So I think with that one I would say Athens was tough because the. And I think this, this was like the pinnacle of the. The difficulty of traveling with a group and was so we saw the Parthenon and this is, this is a universal experience. This has nothing to do with like even cruise lines in general, but like over touristed place. And so if you hit it, we hit it at 11 o'. Clock. That's when our group went like you are just shuffling like I wouldn't even recommend somebody doing it. Honestly. There are other sites that are possibly more interesting. That said there were people because we have WhatsApp group with the crew. So you were kind of comparing notes and that was a really good resource as well, like hearing from people in real time. People went early in the morning or people went even in the mid afternoon. Like one mom had teenagers and she's like I can't get them up before this time. And so, so for Athens, the people that went, the people that went on their own early in the day or went like mid afternoon, like just. I wouldn't say like there was nobody there but they just walked in, they had a lovely experience. Those people had really good experiences. The people that went in the middle of the day, whether with DCL or with their own group tours that they booked separately it is a really tough spot to visit just because of like numbers. And so just if you are going on a Greek itinerary, really research how to handle that. And really the trick is just go like rope drop it or go actually just in the afternoon because you're there till seven. And then the other Greek stop at Santorini has a, a cable car that you go up. We did not get off the ship there, but you have to take a cable car and then the lines back can be up to two hours in the sun. Not that everybody did that, but that's something that like we kind of didn't think about very hard before we went. We had booked a port adventure that didn't rely on that. But if you are going on a Greek itinerary, just kind of think about like there's more logistics to some of those stops than you might, than you might think. But yeah, and then the. We. We've fallen in love with Italy so the Italian stops are great and we loved um. Yeah, we loved all of those. [00:47:16] Speaker A: So yeah, I think the, the, the wrap up question I want to ask about this. I know Brian may have one too, but the wrap up question is would you do something like this again? I mean given obviously I know you've got the situation where your son's about to start the Danish version of kindergarten, but they're serious about absences apparently, which is not a thing obviously. You know, in the United States, like in kindergarten, I mean, of course there [00:47:41] Speaker C: is, there are serious about absences here, [00:47:43] Speaker A: not so much in kindergarten, but like yes, once they're in grade school. It does, it does there, you know, you got to get sort of excused absences, you got to tell the school it's educational, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But you know, I'm, I'm curious. Yeah. Would you do something like this again and, or would you consider maybe a different part of Europe to hit? Obviously you got, you know, you had, you're sort of confined by what's back to back. Right. If you want to do something like this. But yeah, I'm curious if this is something you would look at again if time were permitted. [00:48:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I think we definitely approached it like a once in a lifetime experience for our own travel right now. Like I think I mentioned, we're very interested in Italy and I think we want to do more like on the ground travel. But what we loved about our trip and DCL in general is that it kind of like makes these places feel accessible. Like I would not have figured out the logistics of getting to Cadiz, Spain. But now that I've been there and I know what the lay of the land is and what the beaches are, like now it's like, oh, yeah. Like, I would go there for a four day, you know, weekend type trip trip. And kind of the same with the Norway ports when we first went is like, it lets you dip your toe in the water and it makes the places feel accessible. And that's what I really love about it. So now that we've kind of done this, actually, it's more like, okay, like, Sicily was beautiful. Sicily was so beautiful. We did on our own, a Godfather tour. But, like, that I booked independently and that was like, so amazing. So, yeah, so we kind of want to go back to these places on our own. I think the next Disney cruise we will take actually will just be a bit more recreational. I do have a placeholder for the wish. I move things around a million times before I actually, like, pick something. So it'll be more like. Yeah, it'll be more just. Just kind of for fun. But I would say probably one of my favorite memories from the trip was like, maybe like the second or third morning and we were still on like, European times. We were up early and my son just grabbed his Mickey ears. He was still in, like his shorts and T shirt that he slept in and he was like, out the door to meet characters. I was chasing after him with his shoes and he just like ran out of the room with his Mickey hat on, unbrushed hair, and went right out to the characters. And that was so fun. I think the character interactions were probably one of the funnest things on the cruise. Part of the cruise and having a four and a half year old. And of course, after five weeks, the princesses. Oh yeah, the princesses all knew him at that point. They remembered. And he would always bring a prop. Sometimes he would often bring a stuffed animal or some confetti from the theater or just something to talk about with them, which was kind of funny. So they remembered his stuffed animal names and they were so lovely with him. But seeing him with the characters was great because up until this point, he'd been scared of them until the last day. And this time he was just like, all in. And that's a phase that doesn't last forever. So I just soaked in every minute. [00:50:36] Speaker A: I love that. What a great memory to have though, those interactions. Right? That's some of our favorite memories from our cruises, our interactions. Love Nathan. With Nathan's first time seeing Chewbacca and R2 to NC3PO and being like, they're real. Like, it was just. Yeah, it's th. Those are the things that keep you coming back. And maybe that answers your qu. The Brian's earlier question about, like, why, you know, why Disney as opposed to another cruise line. [00:51:04] Speaker C: Well, Sam, is it that time, or do you have more questions? [00:51:07] Speaker A: I think it's that time, Brian. [00:51:08] Speaker C: All right, Emily. Well, it is. We've reached that point in the show where I need to hand you back over to Sam for some arbitrary questions, some arbitrary rules, and a dash of judgment of the round we know as rapid fire. So, Sam, take it away. [00:51:19] Speaker A: All right, Emily, I'm going to ask you some Disney favorites and then some Disney Cruise Line favorites. Spoiler alert. You already told us your favorite ship is the Disney Magic, so I will throw that question out. But I totally. I mean, it's classic. It's. Of course, you mentioned it was your first ship, so that makes total sense. So let's start, though, with your favorite Disney character. And Disney means anything and everything that Disney owns, so pretty much anything in the world you can pick from. [00:51:45] Speaker B: Okay. I think personally, Rapunzel, but I love the classic princesses in general. And I also like the Fab 4 5, too. So. Yeah, I love classic Disney, though. Like, even, like, 30s 40s. Those shorts. Those are great, too. [00:51:58] Speaker C: Awesome. [00:51:59] Speaker A: All right, favorite Disney movie. [00:52:01] Speaker B: Yeah, those couple. Those first couple ones like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella. I'm just gonna. [00:52:06] Speaker A: Oh, the very classic princess. [00:52:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:52:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I love it. All right. Favorite Disney song. [00:52:12] Speaker B: Ooh, when you wish upon a star. There's a Glenn Miller version of it. [00:52:16] Speaker A: Oh, so good. So good. All right. Favorite Disney Cruise Line show in the Walt Disney Theater. [00:52:24] Speaker B: I think the Golden Mickeys. [00:52:26] Speaker A: Oh, you and Brian. You and Brian. I can't believe you're on the dream. You have Beauty and the Beast, and you're picking the Golden Mickeys. All right. It's all right, Emily. This is where the judgment comes in. Not listen. No shade on Golden Mickeys and Ensign Benson. She's awesome. But I don't know how anything on the Dream can be Beauty and the Beast. All right, moving. Moving over to activities on board. What is your personal. Not Kai's favorite. Not your husband's favorite. Your personal favorite activity to do on board a Disney cruise? [00:53:01] Speaker B: I think my favorite activity is also still the pool time. [00:53:04] Speaker A: Yeah, I love it. Fun time on the pool deck. I love it. All right, what about dining? What's your favorite rot. Traditional dining restaurant. Doesn't have to be on the Dream. Can be on any of the four ships that you have been on, I'm [00:53:17] Speaker B: going to say Rapunzel's Royal Table on the magic. [00:53:20] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely. Love it. Love the birthday celebration. Fantastic. All right, we're going to talk food. A favorite savory item and a favorite sweet item on a Disney cruise. We're going to start with the sweets because I love the savories and we save the best for last. As I mentioned on a previous a show, every meal should end with a soft pretzel. So let's start. What's the favorite sweet item on a Disney cruise for you? [00:53:45] Speaker B: Okay. Favorite sweet item. I mean, I think the soft serve ice cream. [00:53:48] Speaker A: Yes. Do you have a particular flavor? Like, do you like. Are you a classic chocolate, vanilla? Are you like a banana, mango, a blueberry? Like, what's, what's the one that you're like, ooh, they have that flavor. I have to go get it. [00:53:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I think I usually do the vanilla and chocolate swirl. My son is like hardcore about vanilla ice cream in this life moment. [00:54:06] Speaker A: I love that. I love that. All right. A favorite savory item on board a Disney cruise. [00:54:11] Speaker B: I like the, like the deep fried Brie that they have at the Royal. The Royal Court Restaurant. I like those. [00:54:17] Speaker A: Yeah. We have heard Rest in peace that she has. She is being eliminated off the menu. [00:54:24] Speaker B: They rolled out new menus while we were on the trip, like in the middle of the trip. And I'm trying to remember if those were. I was trying to pay attention to all of the differences and I've taken pictures and I don't remember if those are. [00:54:37] Speaker A: Go check. Yeah. After the show. Check. Because from what we've heard, it sounds like in Royal Court, Royal palace, that that Brie is missing, but we have identified ourselves. [00:54:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I will definitely check. I have the information. [00:54:53] Speaker A: Awesome. All right, moving over to water slides. You have been probably on the Aqua Dunk and the Aqua Duck. I know you haven't been on the Aqua Mouse yet, but which one would you choose? Are you the thrill seeker? You want the floor dropped out from under you or are you classic? I want to see Donald as I'm walking up. Aqua Duck. [00:55:15] Speaker B: No, I'm a mom of a four year old. I don't need any more thrills. [00:55:20] Speaker A: Aqua Duck all the way then. [00:55:22] Speaker B: I love the AquaDuck, especially when you're on it. Like if you hit it at the right times. Like, don't wait in line. Just wait till there's no line. But the Aqua Dunk, I've done like one or two times. I never need to feel that terrified again. That is like really intense. [00:55:40] Speaker A: Same, same. I will say special mention to the yellow Mickey slide because that is wonderful. I know you mentioned Kai likes that water slide. Nathan used to go on that over and over and over again when we first started sailing with, with dcl. All right, well, my last question of rapid fire is your bucket list cruise. So, Emily, this is somewhere you haven't been before on a cruise. It doesn't even have to be a current cruise line itinerary. It just needs to be someplace accessible by water. So you can make your own cruise essentially. But you would want to do it on a Disney ship. [00:56:15] Speaker B: Okay. I'm going to say I think it'd be fun to go to Antarctica. [00:56:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I love it. That's. It's a great answer. I think there are expedition cruises, of course, that go to Antarctica. I think Nat Geo even has one itinerary still. But there's of course other. And they, but they partner with. I don't know if it's Panant or somebody for one of those. Yeah, that sounds amazing. All right, Emily, thank you for playing. You passed. I can't give you an A plus plus because of your answer of golden Mickeys. But you, but you, but you did pass. You did just fine. So thank you. Thank you for playing. [00:56:52] Speaker C: Brian, what's next? I guess we already talked about that though, right? She's the wish and so. [00:56:57] Speaker A: Well, it's a placeholder, right? What are you hoping to, what are you hoping, hoping to book for? Like, are you going to do a European cruise in terms of next year on the wish, or are you looking at like maybe coming over to back home and doing, you know, like a Caribbean or Bahamian? Like what, what's on your, what's on your agenda? I know you haven't pinpointed a specific cruise necessarily. [00:57:19] Speaker B: Yeah. So we're definitely looking to do European one. It's so great that it's just like it's basically a two hour flight from where we are to Italy or to Barcelona. So not Disney related. What we really want to do, but this comes out of our Disney travel and having experienced these places is that we really want to just rent like an Airbnb type place in either Tuscany or the place where we visited Tarquinia, which is I think maybe even a little less expensive than Tuscany. So I'm going to check out prices just because it doesn't have that like name brand but because we explored it and we know we like it. So. So yeah, having seen these places now I Just actually want to spend some time, like, being, you know, eating in a restaurant and, you know, that kind of thing. So that the trip has kind of inspired us to want to see the places that we sampled in greater depth. And then, yeah, definitely European sailings. Taking advantage of being over here and being close. I have always wanted to do, like, the Panama Canal one. And, like, when they do Hawaii itineraries, those always look really interesting. So there's a lot of, like, I like when they do exciting, like, interesting itineraries. I'm also hoping that the smaller ships that are supposed to come out next, like, fingers crossed that they kind of resemble the Magic. I don't know if my hopes are going to be dashed or not, but I'm hoping that the smaller ships can continue to go to more interesting places like the Magic does, because I do think that she's able to go to some really good ports because of her size. And I really like when they're able to be kind of creative with those. With those sailings. [00:58:55] Speaker A: Absolutely. Well, Emily, keep us posted on where you're traveling next, because, I mean, sounds like you've got some. Some really great stuff planned for the future. And as you said, you know, as your husband said, you're planning more trips than you can actually personally take yourselves, which I love. I think a lot of people do that. It's lovely to fantasize about taking vacations, but why don't you tell folks where they can connect with you or how they can connect with you either on socials or email or whatnot, if they're interested in booking travel with you? [00:59:25] Speaker B: Yeah, that's great. So best way to reach me is either on Instagram or you can follow along with some of my travel content. And it's Emily Travels Europe. So Emily Travels Europe, and that's the same on Instagram or on YouTube. And you can send me a DM on Instagram. I think that's the easiest way to. To reach me. Obviously. I also have an email address, but I think just. Just reach me on Instagram and you can also see kind of my perspective to traveling and how I can help people get, you know, kind of a more authentic experience while also, you know, getting all the Disney feels and all of that good stuff in their vacation. So, you know, I hope that appeals to people that are like me, and I'm happy to help them. And I like doing this, so. And I am. I did take a lot of content. And so I'm in the process of editing videos. I will probably be editing videos all winter. And so I'll be building more and more of that onto my YouTube page. So if you want to see videos of any of the things that we talked about, I definitely will be able to to share that and we'll be sharing that in the coming months. [01:00:26] Speaker A: I love that. We totally understand it takes a long time to edit all the footage and get all the videos put together and up. That's something we experience ourselves as well. Emily, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. And with that we'll just say we'll see you soon hopefully. And thanks so much. [01:00:44] Speaker B: See you real soon. It's a pleasure. Thank you both. [01:00:51] Speaker D: All right, that's our show for tonight, but thank you so much for listening. 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Or you can email [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 402-441-35590. That's 402-413-5590. The views expressed in this podcast are our own and do not reflect the views of the Walt Disney Company, Disney Cruise Line, or any other travel provider discussed or mentioned. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL Duo. Good night. [01:03:24] Speaker B: Sam.