[00:00:00] Speaker A: It was kind of our intro of his prima note. For those that don't know, it's the first night at Palo. It's a, it's a wine pairing tasting experience for adults only.
So the four of us in our party, the four adults were the only four that participated. And so we really got a personalized experience from the psalm from Paolo manager.
It was, it was awesome.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Foreign.
[00:00:38] Speaker C: The music stopped.
We're having a little technical issue over here tonight, folks. But welcome back to this week's live episode of the DCL Duo podcast brought to you by. We Do Travel, Right. Remember, life is short. Take the trip. Let the folks over at We Do Travel right, handle the planning so you can focus on the relaxing. And also a big thank you to our live and bonus show sponsor, the DCL magazine. If you have not already, please head over to dcl-magazine.com and show them some love by subscribing today. Remember, if you use code DCLDUO, that's all caps DCLDUO, you can take 10% off everything in their store over there, including their fabulous magazines and calendars and all that fun stuff. But as folks are already aware because I'm having these hiccups with the software tonight. Rich. Rich is here to join us to talk about the the adventure. Welcome back, Rich.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
[00:01:28] Speaker C: Great to see you.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: We're excited to have you back.
This is your third or fourth time on the show now.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: This is my third time.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we love it. You're so good. You're such a great guest. Rich, we're excited to have you back to talk about the adventure again. The first time we had you on was to talk about the adventure maiden voyage. And now you of course went on the ship a second time but this time brought along the whole family. The first time was just you and the wife. This time the kids. We are very excited to talk about that. But before we get to your cruise, we've got to talk a little bit of news I want to put out there. Just a reminder for folks, our show sponsor WeDoTravel, right does have a promotion going on for DCL Duo listeners. So if you are a first time client with WeDoTravel, right, you can get $50 onboard credit for your first cruise booked with them through the end of year. There was a doubling promotion that was through today, meaning you would get a hundred dollars on board credit. I don't know, maybe if you contact them tonight before midnight, maybe they'll honor that. But I hope, hopefully folks are excited about the new itineraries, obviously, we covered the itinerary release a couple weeks ago. There's some really cool stuff on there and some really great itineraries that have already sold out. But never fear. Remember, a lot of the time people will put a hold on a cruise and then they will either release that hold or they will book something and then they'll decide on the date doesn't work, and they'll move it. Right. So even if their deposit is non refundable, like concierge deposit, you can still move your cruise booking up until pretty far out. So that's, that's pretty common. So if there's a cruise that you had your eye on but you weren't able to book it, keep your eyes open.
All right, in terms of other news.
[00:03:18] Speaker C: Wait, can we pause there? Rich, did you pick anything, did you book anything out of the release we have?
[00:03:23] Speaker A: Not yet. I'm looking at the Canadian itineraries pretty strongly. We're trying to get the days to work right.
[00:03:30] Speaker C: Nice. Nice. Yeah, I really want to, I really wanted to go on a New York sailing. I am so bummed that we just couldn't make it work.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: But yeah, yeah, unfortunately, the timing. All right, so in terms of news, I want to start with Halloween. Of course, Halloween has started, I think, across the fleet. I'm not positive, actually, I should say not across the fleet because the Disney adventure I don't believe is doing any Halloween on the high seas sailings, but the ships that are sailing out of the US Are doing Halloween on the high seas sailings. They, they all have their Halloween trees out. The Destiny got its brand new Halloween tree. Of course, last year there was no Halloween tree on the Destiny because she launched around Christmas time. And so it was after the holiday, after the Halloween season had already closed. So her name is Solara, which means of the Sun.
For those interested, the rest of the Halloween trees on board, the Disney Magic's name of their tree is Reap. The Wonders tree is Bog. The Dream tree is Grim. The Fantasies tree is Muckle Bones, the Wishes tree is Boo, and the Treasure tree is Ginger. And so now Solara joins that lineup.
In other news, two things to report. One is that there is apparently crazy it glitches on board. Big surprise when it comes to booking placeholders. So I'm hearing from friends who are on board on two different sailings that Disney Cruise Line is having some issues with people who are booking a placeholder on board. That placeholder being attached to their room, the deposit going through. Sometimes people are Having one room is now having two placeholders attached to it when they only booked one. Other rooms who booked a placeholder are showing zero. So just a reminder, if you book a placeholder onboard a Disney cruise, take a screenshot of your confirmation when you book it because this is not the first time and probably won't be the last time that Disney Cruise Line has it issues with that placeholder. And you want to make sure, if you want that placeholder, you want to make sure you get it because you can't get it after the fact. So just a tip out there. Another interesting thing that happened. This is kind of an unfortunate thing. Well, a very unfortunate thing. The Disney wonderful was leaving Vancouver yesterday and got delayed in her departure.
Folks might remember she was delayed by like four hours last week, but this week she got delayed because of a medical emergency. Right at debarkation or right at embarcation. And then. Yeah, and then today she actually had another medical emergency. Yesterday's was a passenger, today's was a crew member who actually was helicoptered off of the ship. So remember that episode we did way back in the day about the U.S. coast Guard and then helicoptering people off ships? Yeah. With Kevin.
That's. That does actually really happen in real life. And we've also of course covered what happens on the passenger side of things if you have to be disembarked from the ship early due to a medical reason. So, you know, our thoughts go out to both, both the passenger and the crew member who both had to get off or to get medical attention.
But it's just a reminder that your cruise might be interrupted for reasons outside of your control. So just, you know, pack your patience pants.
[00:06:44] Speaker C: So I want to rewind for a second. How many of us on here right now, and I'm curious for those in the chat knew that each of the pumpkin trees had their own name. I did not. I did not.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: I knew.
[00:06:57] Speaker A: I had no idea.
Now I'm excited. We have Halloween on. The ICs booked and now I'm going to go see. I don't remember what the magic one was called, but I will go see the magic tree.
[00:07:10] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:07:10] Speaker B: That one I think is. I think is reap. Yeah, the magic tree is reap. Yeah. They've all had names. I will confess that I didn't know they all had names until the wish. When the wish first had her. Halloween on the high seas season and they announced her name was Boo. Then I was like, oh, that must mean every. Each one of them has a name. So that is True. But now I have actually paid attention to that. So I've known that since the wish came out.
[00:07:36] Speaker C: I love the comments. So Tracy said, I didn't even know there were pumpkin trees they get on Halloween on the high seas. Tracy and Lauren says had no idea pictures.
[00:07:47] Speaker B: That's funny.
[00:07:48] Speaker C: That's funny. All right, well, let's head over. We actually, I am so excited we're doing this show because we had someone reach out to us after we did a kind of a string of adventure shows and there were lots of like growing pains problems here and there with the adventure. And someone reached out recently and was like, you need to have someone on who sailed more recently because things have gotten so much better. So we're testing this theory with Rich because Rich was recently on the adventure and so we're going to talk to him all about.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: Well, and he gets to compare because we talked to Sam maybe a month ago and she, you know, she had just been on the adventure also, but she hadn't been on it when she, when it first launched. Whereas Rich, you can like apples to apples, compare what's different.
[00:08:29] Speaker A: Yes. And, and we were able to see it through our kids eyes for the first time too. So we were able to see what their new experience was like and to your point, compare it to our, our maiden voyage adventure.
[00:08:40] Speaker C: So.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, let's start with the makeup of your family, Rich. How old are. Remind us how old your kids are and remind folks who are watching and listening your Disney cruising background.
[00:08:53] Speaker A: Disney cruising background goes back to 2017. I think we took our first sailing on the fantasy we have been on now. This was Our lucky number 13th cruise with, with Disney and we've been on every ship and now we've been on every ship except.
Except for the magic and the magic, the treasure and the destiny. We need to go on one more time to have hit all of them at least twice.
[00:09:25] Speaker B: Okay,
[00:09:29] Speaker C: I'll say. How do you get to the adventure without being on the other. So you have been on them all, you just haven't been on twice.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: We're trying to get to all of them twice now.
[00:09:38] Speaker B: And how old are your kids? Remind us.
[00:09:40] Speaker A: Oh yeah, sorry. So My son is 16 and my daughter's 13.
So the party we had, the four of us, my wife included. And then our cruise friends also came and they have.
So they're as a couple plus their two teenage kids as well.
[00:09:56] Speaker C: Nice.
Rich, I want to know what made you decide to go back on the adventure because we've heard from a lot of people are Like I did it. It's nice. I checked that off my list. I'm done. What made you decide to go back?
[00:10:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it was really just a confluence of things. It just came together at the right time. Delta was, was actually launching a. A miles promotion and playing around with flights. I was able to find flights to or from home to Seoul for 59,000 sky miles, which is, it's hard to find domestic flights that cheap.
So with that I had a booking window. It only worked on certain days.
We had Shanghai and Hong Kong on our to do lists still. We've been to all the other parks and so we figured if I can make this work with Shanghai, Hong Kong, there's one cruise on one date that worked well and we wanted to get the kids over to Singapore to, to experience the adventure as well. So again, everything just kind of lined up perfectly. We were able to get cheap flights.
We were able to. It was right before the kids went back to school.
And yeah, everything is just kind of fell into place from there.
[00:11:11] Speaker C: Nice. Well, I have a prediction that Rich is going to be back on the show to talk to us all about the OLC ship when it comes out because now he's gone to Asia twice. It sounds like you're a completionist at heart, which I appreciate.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: Yeah, that is right.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: I mean, he's already been to Tokyo Disney because obviously these are the last two that he needed to check off. Brian. So clearly it's.
He's pretty comfortable going back to Asia. Back to Tokyo.
[00:11:35] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:11:36] Speaker A: Yeah. I used to.
My job outside of Disney life took me to Asia quite a bit. So yeah, pretty comfortable going over there.
[00:11:46] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: Awesome.
Well, let's start with the itinerary. I know that the next slide has sort of your itinerary overview and it's a jam packed itinerary here.
You didn't really have any time to adjust to the time zones. I just want to put that out there, Rich.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: Like no, no adjustment.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: And that's what we found a lot of times when we, when we make these big long trips.
If you, if you really just keep yourself busy after, after two days of being tired, you're kind of adjusted to it. If you plan naps and you plan some other things, it ends up being a little bit more difficult to get adjusted to the time zone. That's been, that's been our experience.
But you're right, we, you know, in 12 days we took off from home and we got back at home.
We, we were able to spend a day at Shanghai Disney we did not get to experience Shanghai, the city itself, but we were able to go from Shanghai to Hong Kong, which is only a couple hours in flying experience the park. Also we were able to get a city tour in and we were able to do a Lantau island tour, which is the island that, that the park resides on.
Go to Singapore.
Four nights on the adventure. And then on our way back after we disembarked, we spent the day exploring Singapore before we woke up in the morning and flew all the way home same day.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: So I'm thinking lots of sugar and caffeine to keep everybody awake. And I think you're right though. I think jumping right into a trip and going and doing stuff rather than like taking, you know, it's slow and taking naps and all that actually does help you. I know whenever we fly to Europe, which of course is not quite as far as Asia, we just try and stay up till a normal time of, you know, of the evening before we like at least 8 o' clock at night before we go to sleep, because that helps you get on, you know, get your body adjusted much faster.
Of course you're going to pay for it on the way home.
[00:13:56] Speaker A: That's right. We were able to do that and we took advantage of getting over one of the, one of the things people keep asking about is getting into China. And so just talking about that really quickly, I think there's, there's some confusion around that China is offering, as of right now, again, encourage everybody to do your research. This is subject to change, but you can do up to 240 hours. So 10 days in China on what they call a transit visa.
The stipulation is you have to fly in from one country and fly out to another country. In our case, Hong Kong counted as a second country. So we flew in from the U.S. technically, Korea at this point. We flew in from Korea and then we, we departed and went to Hong Kong. If you did like Hong Kong to Shanghai, back to Hong Kong, that doesn't count.
It has to be China has to be a stop on, on your route.
And so my family, again, I have a business visa in China.
This was something I couldn't find online. So for, for the unusual circumstance that it was, I went to a different line to use my business visa to enter. They wouldn't let me use a transit visa. But my family went over and this process was really smooth. Just have all your documentation printed out showing your onward flight, your hotel accommodations, all of that in the immigration officials were, were awesome.
And my family was through in 15 minutes, probably was this.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: And they were going to Singapore also. So that would count also as another country as well, Correct?
[00:15:31] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:15:32] Speaker C: Yeah. Was this something you had to register for in advance, Rich, or, or does it. Was it when you flew in, you had all the documentation, they just handled it right there in the airport?
[00:15:40] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good point. We, we did not have to register anything in advance for the transit visas. You show up with your documentation, you inform the official when you get there that you're, you're applying for the, the transit and then they check your, your paperwork to make sure that again, you're not going to exceed the 240 hours you're going somewhere else.
There's also certain pockets of the country that this applies to. I think Beijing, Shanghai, kind of the, the major ones.
But yeah, that's what my family was able to take advantage of in order to get into Shanghai for our.
I think we were there for 48 hours, possibly in Chennai.
[00:16:19] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:16:20] Speaker C: There's a question here for our friends over at WeDoTravel. Right. That we will get clarity on.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: The answer is yes.
Basically any great travel advisor will help you with figuring out some of these logistical things like visas and planning overseas trips, including overseas Disney trips, depending upon the circumstance.
There are some travel advisors will charge you a fee for these services because they aren't getting commission. But it really very much varies on what you're booking. And so definitely talk to a travel advisor to figure out what the best options are.
[00:16:58] Speaker C: I think there's an asterisk for booking the Japanese park because that has to be booked through Oriental Land Company and that my understanding is you can only use their booking process and advisors. So that, that might be where a line gets drawn is they can't like book your park tickets and hotel stay.
[00:17:16] Speaker B: Right, Right. But they can still help you figuring out like a travel advisor can still help you with your hotels and your flights and any other, you know, tours and things like that typically. So it's, it's definitely worth worth talking to somebody who has planned a trip like this. Right. So. All right, well the visa free, no visas for Hong Kong and then for Shang for Shanghai, you had to.
Eva.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: That's a misprint. That's Singapore.
[00:17:45] Speaker B: Singapore. That's what I thought.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: Eva.
And that's just through an app. And so you, you register on the app prior to arriving in, in Singapore for the first time. You actually use it to exit when you board the cruise ship because you're, you're leaving Singapore, going through customs there and then on the return, you're. After your cruise is over, you use the app again to register, get back into Singapore and exit for your flight later.
[00:18:12] Speaker B: Awesome. All right, let's go to your. Your big day at Shanghai Disney. Tell us what were the highlights? We're. We got a slide for each of the Disney parks because, you know, we are Disney Cruise Line focused podcast, but, you know, we can't help ourselves but talk a little bit about the Asian parks.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll hit these quickly so we can get to the cruise. But at Shanghai Disney, we ended up using VIP tours that day.
[00:18:38] Speaker B: Oh, nice.
[00:18:39] Speaker A: Two tour guides for our, our party of eight.
So we were able to divide and conquer if we wanted to, which that helped in certain situations.
It was still the 10th anniversary celebrations going on, so a lot of specialized merch and things that, that go along there.
We stayed at the Toy Story Hotel, so there's multiple Disney hotels there on property. We chose the Toy Story Hotel. They had a really nice family suite that we utilized. The kids each had their own beds. My wife and I had our own bedroom. It was, it was, it was a really great setup.
Sam, I think you would appreciate this. Especially there was specialized shopping for Duffy and Friends.
If you're, if you're in vip, Shellie Mae was representing.
We've got.
They had a whole experience where you could go in and buy again, limited edition specialized merch for those people.
[00:19:32] Speaker B: But, oh, my God. You know, first of all, you know, I'm all about the specialized limited edition merch I have from the VIP tour at Disneyland. I have the special limited edition merch. I'm obsessed, of course, with Olu Mel and all of the Duffy and Friends characters. And so. And I also love, even though we're not members, but I love the Club 33 merch at Disneyland, of course.
So, like, the limited edition and the Duffy thing is like the perfect Venn diagram of my obsessive merch habit. So I would be all over all of that.
[00:20:06] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it was, it was great. And the park itself, it's.
[00:20:10] Speaker C: It's.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: It's huge.
And it was really interesting to see.
The rides are pretty spread out, but some of the rides are spectacular. Like, I've got a picture up there of pirates.
Hands down, the best pirates in the world.
And I'd put it up there probably in the top five rides, I think, in of all the Disney parks. I, I loved it. So we rode that multiple times. That was an advantage of our, our VIP tour Tron as a family, family favorite. We rode Tron seven times that day. Just back to back to back to back.
And then Zootopia.
Zootopia is probably the most immersive land, I think of any park.
Absolutely fantastic. You feel like you're, you're part of the movie. That's us on the pictures with our, our giant, you know, elephant popsicles.
We had to try those.
There's a lot of pictures of, of us on giants, giant benches and small benches and things to accommodate all the different animal sizes. But Disney did a fantastic job setting up and really creating that immersive land for Zootopia. It was awesome.
[00:21:24] Speaker B: That to me looks like one of the. It's like being in Cars land, right? Or being in Toy Story Land.
I love those immersive lands. I mean Star wars, of course, Galaxy's Edge is also a great immersive land. But yeah, that's supposed to be one of the best things I think about Shanghai Disney. I just want to answer in the chat.
Yes, Eddie, you're correct. Hong Kong was visa free while China had a 240 hour transit visa. Singapore had the E visa. So just to correct. That's, that's the difference. And yes, it is unique that Hong Kong and mainland China have a different, have a different requirement. But it is what it is. All right, let's go to the next slide.
[00:22:10] Speaker C: Just keep going, Sam. Don't wait for me.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: So, okay, so kind of on the opposite end of the spectrum from Shanghai. Once, once we got done with that. Again, it's a huge park. Everything's really spread apart Hong Kong and is very small. Everything's very close together.
It's a lot more intimate. And we, we absolutely loved Hong Kong. It was also, again, special place in our hearts. It was the last park we, we needed to check off all of them. My wife and I again, the kids hadn't yet gone on the adventure, but at least for my wife and I, we've been to all the parks and all of the ships now.
So this was a really special day. Another really great immersive land is Arendelle going to the frozen land.
I don't know if it's called frozen land, but going, going to that whole theming. It was, it was really well done. Again, going and checking the box.
Our T shirts literally have boxes for every park. And so we were, we were checking the box on making sure that yeah, our lists are complete.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: Manor, that's like my favorite picture that you sent us is that one with the box check like picture with the. In front of the cast. Hong Kong. It's Awesome.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: Did you ever do one for the cruise ships?
[00:23:31] Speaker C: Yeah. Did you have a favorite ride Rich at the two different parks you got to visit?
[00:23:35] Speaker A: I think Mystic Manor and Mystic Manor was just so unique and so different.
It's kind of a. The right technology itself likened to Mickey's railway, runaway railway, kind of that trackless ride. But the story is really cool.
I love the Haunted Mansion and then just the ties to the sea lore. So sea that Mystic Manor has for those that go a little deep on the Disney lore.
It's really a cool place. And so I think Mystic Manor is probably my favorite.
[00:24:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Society of adventurers, of explorers and adventurers for those who don't know and they've been Disney Parks has been teasing over the last couple of weeks. These hint. These clues for escrow.
[00:24:28] Speaker C: I think it's. I think it's Disney Imagineering who's been putting that stuff out.
[00:24:31] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:24:32] Speaker C: The different clues and documents that people are finding. Something was stolen from D23 and now they have to go find the artifact.
[00:24:37] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:24:37] Speaker C: I've been following along, but at a distance.
[00:24:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
I want to ask about the Premier Pass.
Is that similar to the Premier Pass that they offer at the US Parks, where essentially it's like one fast pass for every ride. Ride for that day?
[00:24:55] Speaker A: That's correct. Yeah. So we instead of doing the VIP like we did in Shanghai, in Hong Kong, we elected to do the Premier Pass. So we were able to do, to your point, every ride once by skipping the line going into that lightning lane.
And that. That worked out great with our early entry as well. We stayed at Disney property. We were able to get early entry access.
We were actually able to do a lot of rides without having to wait at all by leveraging the early access kind of the first go around and then using our Premier Pass for the second time.
[00:25:28] Speaker B: Oh, very smart. That way you could get. Because some of these rides that are completely unique, you probably want to hit twice. Right. And so you don't necessarily want to use your Premier Pass when the lines are short. You want to use a regular line and then go on a second time with your Premier Pass when the crowds maybe are higher. Yeah. Well, okay. So. And Rich is putting great info in the chat about. Because there are some questions about the cost as far as. Or actually it might be Mackenzie who's putting in the chat.
[00:25:58] Speaker C: I think it's Mackenzie.
[00:26:02] Speaker B: Mackenzie's in the chat as Family Passport Adventures, which is Rich and Mackenzie's agency. And so she's answering the questions as to the cost. So thank You, Mackenzie, for being out there and answering those questions.
[00:26:16] Speaker C: Since there's a picture of food here, I gotta ask how did, how was the food across the two parks and did the kids enjoy it? And what in the heck am I looking at here? Cause it looks like an amazing bun filled with butter, but I can't tell.
[00:26:27] Speaker A: Yes, so. So that the first thing is the food was great throughout both parks. We were a little bit nervous about it. I think a lot of times, looking on social media things, people are always posting the extreme version of what reality is.
You can certainly have some, we'll call it unique dining options there, but for the most part, included with our VIP package. We had lunch set up for us and we had steak and chicken and I mean, you can go off menu and do some other things, but that was great. Hong Kong food was fantastic. What we see here in this is what's called a pineapple bunch of.
It's not pineapple flavored. It just, it gets the name from kind of that, that crust on top. And they serve it warm even though it's, it's 100 degrees outside.
It's warm, it's crunchy on the outside, it's soft on the inside. And then they, they put like this salty butter in. And that was one of my favorite things, just bread and butter. And it was, it was delicious.
Yeah.
[00:27:32] Speaker B: A question in the chat about allergies, food allergies. I don't, I have not heard how the, how the parks in Asia in particular do with food allergies. Do you have any idea of how they handle that, Rich?
[00:27:45] Speaker A: Yeah. So one person in our party had, has a shellfish allergy, which can be challenging in Asia, and another has a nut allergy. And both were, had no issues with accommodations.
Again with our, our pre arranged meals.
We just let them know that, you know, people in our groups have certain types of allergies and they tailored the menu to, to make sure that there was no cross contamination. Everything was okay.
[00:28:14] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:28:15] Speaker B: Yeah. You're probably having a harder time at quick service places. So if you've got, you know, if you've got food allergies, I'm sure they can handle them, but it's going to, it's probably going to take longer versus if you're doing a tour and you're, you know, pre ordering meals or sort of presetting meals, it's probably a lot eas. So great, great stuff, though. All right, let's move ahead to Singapore.
Embarkation day. How did embarkation day go? I feel like your embarkation day on the main voyage was pretty smooth in that, you know, there wasn't a delay. They were checking. They had plenty of people checking in. Was it similarly smooth and were there any big differences you noticed?
[00:28:57] Speaker A: Yeah, it was. It was also really smooth. I think the biggest difference.
We like to show up early just by nature.
We showed up around 10:15 at this time for an 11:00 clock boarding. They didn't actually open the doors, though, until 10:30.
So sometimes, whether it's a Florida port, you might be able to get there an hour early or other things.
I think in Singapore, showing up close to your boarding time is probably the better move. If I were to do this a third time.
Um, but, yeah, no issues at all. We.
We got right in again. The. The concierge lounge helped. They have a separate concierge lounge. We decided to do concierge this time. We did not. On the Maiden. That made a huge difference.
But going in, they also, they. They greeted us right off the bat, you know, as. As our family, and then asked us about.
The first thing they asked us about was the Lion King fireworks show, actually, if we wanted to reserve seating and participate in the, The. The dessert and drink kind of package that they have for the Lion King show. I, I believe that. I don't want to spread misinformation, but I believe the concierge groups kind of get first. First dibs at those. At those seats. So they went through, took our names and of course we reserved that, but everything else was great. On. On embarkation day.
[00:30:27] Speaker C: What are the.
[00:30:28] Speaker B: Yeah, our guests. Our friend Sam, who was on about a month ago, she had the same experience. She sailed concierge on her adventure sailing, and she said the exact same thing that it sounds like it. You. It was initially kind of a free for all for that sort of dessert and priority seating.
And they were getting a lot of complaints because concierge folks weren't getting an opportunity to book it. And so now they've switched it where they're. They're actively asking concierge guests first. And then what. Whatever's left over gets released to the rest of the ship.
Sorry, Brian, you started to say something.
[00:31:01] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't remember now. We'll just keep going.
[00:31:04] Speaker B: All right, well, I'm. I'm curious what you guys got up to on your embarkation day. Now you do. You do have a picture of the sign for Iron Cycle test run, if my memory serves. This was not open on the maiden voyage. It had been open on the previews, and then it was shut down for repairs or whatnot. It wasn't working for the first several cruises.
Did you guys get to do Iron Cycle test run and what was the wait time and what did it sort of look like throughout the cruise?
[00:31:33] Speaker A: Yeah, that was the first thing I did is after we got on board I. We still had our backpacks, we still had everything our carry ons. But we went right to Iron Cycle.
It opens at 11:30.
So again us boarding at 11.
We were this third person I believe in line for Iron Cycle. My daughter and I wrote it also to note you must wear close toed shoes.
Unfortunately, other people in our group didn't have close toed shoes. And that's why my daughter and I wrote it first and not. Not others.
But you have to have closed toed shoes on to be able to ride.
By the time it. By the time it opened at 11:30, I think we were riding at like 11:45. Um, so the, the wait itself wasn't bad. My daughter wrote it a few more times throughout the cruise.
You just kind of sometimes that the wait was about an hour and a half. Other times it was about 30 minutes. It just. I think the ebb and the flow of it was around dinner times, I heard was a little bit.
A little bit faster to get through, if you will. Um, but if you're like peak middle of the day, that's. That's when the lines were going the longest.
When there wasn't a whole lot of other activities to do.
[00:32:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Now did you get to ride the other two rides? The one that's kind of. Well, one of them is kind of like a little. We'll call it bumper cars, but it's not really bumper cars. You just go drive around a little track in kind of a circle. And then the other one is like a Dumbo, but smaller version of Dumbo ride. And I know I'm like butchering what. I forget the.
All of the. I know the theming is Groot something spin. Yeah.
[00:33:17] Speaker A: Yeah. I did not.
So our. Our youngest, that our daughter did. And then our. Our. Our friend, their daughter did as well and they said it was okay. It really is a baby Dumbo kind of ride. It's. It's not extremely fast. It's not really that tall.
It's fun.
And. But the, the lines were short and they decided what the heck.
[00:33:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:44] Speaker A: They did not. They chose not to ride the go karts again. Those. Those go really slow. I would say probably the target age group for those cards.
Probably under 12.
[00:33:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm curious about your stateroom. Now, you guys stayed in a regular stateroom previously, but it was just you and your wife. Now you were in a concierge family stateroom for the four of you.
Did you find the stateroom to be comparable to what you get on the other ships you've sailed on all of the other ships in the fleet? Yeah. How would you compare them?
[00:34:20] Speaker A: It's nice, but it's still very, very different.
This in. So we had an inside concierge room, which is a little unique too.
And I posted there for those watching. The layout is a little bit unique as well.
Everybody had their own bed, so there's a master bedroom, if you will, with a bathroom. There's kind of a room off to the side that has really just a bed and its own bathroom. There's a door that closes.
What's really interesting too is there's two doors to the hallway. So that little room itself has access to the hall and then the main room itself has access to the hall. Um, but my son slept in the, the private room, if you will. And then my daughter took the couch and then, and then my wife and I had the main room. But it was, was very nice.
[00:35:13] Speaker C: Did you. So like, so I've affectionately called this, I think it was the intent. It's the nanny room. So it does have kind of its own access. Do they have a way for you to like, if you're going to put your kids in that room, like permanently lock the door for the sailing? So they didn't just wander out into the hallway in the middle of the night?
No, no. Okay.
[00:35:30] Speaker A: Not that, not that we saw.
So yeah, my son with his, with his key to the world, he was able to go in and out on his own.
There's no way that, that we saw to lock that. Yeah.
[00:35:44] Speaker C: How much does that room. So like what I'm, when I'm looking at this, I'm going, wow, that room takes up a lot of space because it's a permanent bed as opposed to like a drop down or a couch. And so like, you know, that's taking up a lot of space in the room. Did you feel like the room compensated for that? That it was like big? I guess. Did it feel tight? Did it feel small?
[00:36:05] Speaker A: It was very. I wouldn't, if that were my room, I would, I would have had an issue. Like it felt a little claustrophobic to me. Yeah, he was fine kind of. Again, 16 year old Moody boy. He's. He's in his cave and that was great. He was able to Close the door, take naps. He's. He was fine, but it did feel a little claustrophobic. There's nothing. There's a small little, I guess, closet that, that had a couple hangers, but there's no dresser to speak of. There's space underneath the bed, but you can't get around the bed. The bed really just goes all the way to the wall and fits perfectly in that, in that little space.
[00:36:45] Speaker C: Did it take up so much, did it take up so much space in the main room, though, that you felt like you were compromised on. Like if I think about a normal Disney stadium, you have a bed, you've got the.
[00:36:53] Speaker B: Because you have the living room compromise. The space of the l. Living room.
[00:36:57] Speaker A: Yeah, no, so there's actually a separate wall.
So the living room itself from that, that small little room.
The living room wasn't affected at all. There's. There's a wall there. And that in the other side of that wall is where the vanity is.
So I think where my daughter slept on the couch, it felt a lot more open. Again, you have a vanity, you have the mirrors. So it kind of, it kind of created the illusion of a little bit more space.
But no, the rest of the rest of the room was. Was really well done.
[00:37:27] Speaker C: Interesting.
[00:37:29] Speaker A: Especially this age range. It still was probably the right fit.
[00:37:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's good. If you've got an. Especially an older teen, I think that space is kind of the best space for them because they've got a little bit of a private space from the rest of the family and they're really just there to sleep.
And that's why, I mean, it is funny when you think about, you know, genting, building this ship for an Asian audience and think that somebody's going to bring a nanny on board with them and the younger kids are going to sleep in that living room and the nanny's going to sleep in that single room. But it's like that nanny is working during the day and so she just gets this private space for sleeping. And I'm saying she. Because that's what the culture is, right, that there would be a female nanny traveling with a family. But it is, it is interesting, I think, for American families the way you used it, which is exactly the way we all would use it. And frankly, if we booked this room as a family of three, we'd still have Nathan sleep in that little hidey hole room because we'd then be able to use the living room as the living room.
[00:38:30] Speaker C: We just see them even less than we do Already.
[00:38:32] Speaker B: So, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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[00:39:46] Speaker B: Well, it's super interesting. I want to ask you a little bit about the concierge experience on board and we can go to the next slide so we can just see some different visuals as we're chatting. But I'm curious like now, of course, on your first sailing, you didn't get to experience the concierge spaces because you weren't sailing in concierge class. I'm curious, did you find you were able to utilize those spaces and did you enjoy utilizing them and, and the staff there?
[00:40:13] Speaker A: 100%. I'm, I'm actually of the mind on, on most ships.
I don't know that I get the value all the time for, for concierge, to be completely honest, but I think on the adventure, if you're going to do it, do it. It's the, the space is massive.
By within maybe the first hour or two, it felt like the staff all knew our names. It was always welcome Mr. This welcome Mrs. That. They knew our kids names. They knew like if my wife and I walked in, they're like, oh, well, we just saw your kids over here. And this like they knew exactly who we were.
Again, the space is, is absolutely massive. It's, I think it's, it's probably the best space in the Entire ship, which sometimes you don't feel like that on different concierge and different concierge lounges on other ships. But on, on the adventure it is, it is the highlight. There's the gift shop, there's a jewelry shop, the bar, the food, the warm food that they also serve, the hot food.
I was able to get my churro, my Mickey churro waffles in there.
It's really open.
It's great. My daughter spent some time swimming upstairs. There's a separate pool with multiple hot tubs as well.
Just a really useful space. I think the whole cruise within a cruise that we, you hear about sometimes.
I think they knocked it out of the park, honestly with the concierge level here.
[00:41:41] Speaker B: Awesome. What did the kids think about the spaces across the ship? You of course had gotten to explore it previously. The Imagination Garden, the reef. Like what did San Fransokyo, another great space on board. Like what did, what did your kids, what did a 16 year old and a 13 year old think of all these new spaces that are very different than on, you know, a Disney Wish class or Dream class or Magic class ship.
[00:42:07] Speaker A: I think they appreciated the immersion of some of, some of the lands. San Fransokyo. It's really difficult to walk into San Francisco and, and, and not be a little bit awestruck. It's so immersive. There's so many things going on and that's where Edge and Vibe are also located.
So they were able to hang out in there. My son's kind of at an age where he doesn't really do Vibe as much, but he went in, he played some games. That's also where the movie theaters are, down that direction.
But overall I, I think they really liked to utilize the concierge space more than they had in other ships.
They'd go up there, have their, their treats, their sodas, whatever it was, but just kind of a place further away from everybody and, and I think they just like that.
Especially after going to, you know, a few theme parks beforehand. It was nice to relax in the concierge lounge and I think that's where they spent a lot of their time.
[00:43:08] Speaker B: I'm curious, you said San Fransokyo is immersive now. You've of course now been to the Arendelle Land in Hong Kong, You've been to Zootopia Land in Shanghai, you've been to Cars Land at Disneyland, you've been to Galaxy's Edge, Disney World, Disneyland. Right. Like, are we talking like that level of immersion? I need a comparison I feel like I've heard amazing things about the San Fransokyo Street.
[00:43:36] Speaker A: Yes, I would say absolutely in the level of detail.
When you walk in again, you feel like you're there. But I think if you take a little time and you start looking at the little details throughout as you walk down Main street at Disneyland. Right. It's. It's impressive. But when you take a minute and you start recognizing the names and you start picking out the different, you know, this and that, San Fransokyo offers a lot of very special little. Little treats for those that. That to take the time to appreciate. Absolutely.
[00:44:12] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:44:13] Speaker B: Now, capacity wise, we know, and I love that you put this on the slide. 6700 guests is the capacity of the ship. But you had about 4,900 guests on board now, so to be clear, that means probably not every room was booked and also means not every room was filled to capacity. So 6700 capacity means every bed in every room is filled with a passenger. So it's. You're never going to see a ship at its capacity, really. You'll see it at 100%. But that doesn't mean. That just means all the rooms are booked. It doesn't mean every bed is booked.
[00:44:48] Speaker C: So just to clarify, in the US the capacity is driven by the number of lifeboat seats that are available. So the maximum capacity of the ship is the maximum number of people that can get into the lifeboats.
[00:44:58] Speaker B: Right, but. Right, but they do. They. They correlate beds to. To that when they book.
So tell us, like, how full did this feel? And. And give us a comparison to how full it felt on the Maiden voyage. Does this feel like the crowds moved better? Because I know a lot of the things on the Maiden were crowded, but you weren't at full capacity then either.
[00:45:20] Speaker A: No, I. I think it felt very similar to the Maiden, to be quite honest.
[00:45:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:24] Speaker A: And there's areas of the ship that feel more con.
Others, naturally. Deck six, where, you know, the Snow White and the well that's located. Guest services is there. There's a restaurant right there and another in an entertaining space.
That area always feels really crowded.
But getting out of that, walking around up on decks 10 and 11, where you see again, the Imagination Garden and the Reef, those didn't ever feel. In my experience, they never felt crowded.
Obviously there's people, but the shows, you can kind of see a little bit from that photo there. Our friend stayed in one of those. The rooms that looked inward. So we were watching shows from there.
There's people, but it never felt too bad. No.
[00:46:15] Speaker B: Awesome. All right, let's get to the next slide, Brian, because I know we've got some shows and activities to talk about.
Yeah, let's talk. Ooh, adult activities. Prima Note tasting experience, happy hour.
[00:46:27] Speaker C: Wait, but wait, I have to ask a very important question first. Did you get a special pin off the adventure for Prima Note?
[00:46:34] Speaker A: I did not.
There's no special pin for that one. But we were the only people at Prima Note.
[00:46:43] Speaker B: That doesn't surprise me. It's funny because we keep hearing, you know, like, why, why did they switch, you know, the age for Apollo to 10 and up or, you know, and, and there are now some tasting experiences that are ages and things like that, but that's because most of the non American audience, the Asian audience, is not booking these add on activities that cost extra, whereas many of us American passengers are more willing to do so. So. Yeah, tell us, how did Prima Note go with when you're the only people there?
[00:47:15] Speaker A: It was great. And we'll, you know, we'll talk about the, the cast members here in a minute, but it was kind of our intro of his Prima Note. For those that don't know, it's the first night at Palo.
It's a wine pairing tasting experience for adults only.
So the four of us in our party, the four adults were the only four that participated. And so we really got a personalized experience from the Psalm from Palo Banninger.
It was awesome.
I wish we weren't spoiled with that experience, but it was.
And that's kind of how the other tasting experiences were too. To your point, if we signed up for gin tastings and whiskey tasting, pretty much all the tastings. But if, if I'd be surprised if there's ever more than maybe 10, 12 people at any tasting, sometimes it was, it was as few as four to six is. It was very, very, very, very sparse in attendance.
So we got to know the bartenders really well.
[00:48:22] Speaker B: Personalized experience, essentially.
[00:48:25] Speaker A: Exactly. Kind of, kind of felt like VIPs throughout the whole thing. And then to your point, too, without, without a large portion of the ship going after tastings and, and doing the bar experience.
What I thought was unique was the happy hour.
The happy hour offerings. Yeah, you could get up to 40% off of beers on tap and 30% off of cocktails by going in.
It seemed to rotate throughout the ship. So different nights or different times would have happy hours at different, different bars.
But that was, that was kind of a fun experience and, and honestly, like a really easy way to, to make an excuse to go, go experience different bars throughout the ship, which I think is obviously the intent.
[00:49:12] Speaker C: Yeah, we've heard that, that the, the, the culture there is not like they're not heavy drinkers on these ships. And so I, I bet they're doing some of this discounting just to try to move some of the, the alcohol on board because they're probably spending a fortune getting the ship provisioned. I am curious, can you tell me a bit more? I don't think we have had anyone on the show who has talked about the Marvel speaker.
[00:49:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I know what it is.
[00:49:36] Speaker C: Tell me more.
[00:49:37] Speaker B: A place where you get your face painted becomes a speakeasy at night. But I haven't heard anybody who's gone to it. So. Yeah, tell us about it, Rich.
[00:49:45] Speaker A: I don't know how much I'm allowed to say, but yeah, you think of the Marvel area. I can't remember the exact name of the space, but it's kind of like Bippity Boppity Boutique. But instead of dressing up as a princess, you can dress up as your favorite superhero during the day. At night, that space converts over into a speakeasy. So there's a space on the wall that opens up and they've got top shelf alcohol over there, the really good stuff. And that's where some of the tastings were. Part of the tastings is you learn how to open the door as well. So the door doesn't just automatically open when you walk up to it. Like a lot of the other spaces, you have to know the secret in order to get in after certain hours.
So after you do your first tasting, they teach you how to get in and out of the space so that the rest of the cruise you can go and experience it when they're not doing other tastings.
[00:50:43] Speaker C: Okay, I won't ask you to spoil the secret, but I. If it doesn't involve saying the words Avengers assemble, I'm going to be a little disappointed.
I just actually hope. What I loved is that they did this kind of at Hooks Barbary in a very low key way. It sounds like they've kind of, you know, pushed a little further into it on the adventure. I would love to see because there's a bunch of cruise lines that have done these speakeasy bars. I would love to see Disney really like Society of Explorers and Adventurers bar. That's a speakeasy on one of the ships would just be phenomenal, which would
[00:51:16] Speaker B: be super cool if you had to like solve some kind of like series of riddles. In order to get like a passcode or a key to open it. Right. Like so like it make you like work a little like kind of like an escape room, but it's you in. In order to get in instead of getting out. Right. You need to solve some, some puzzles to get in. Kind of like what they're doing on social media with the sea. So. All right, but I. Okay. Games, trivia and bingo. One of the other things we've heard about this ship is that these, these are also sparsely attended in karaoke too, which is I think a little bit more surprising because we think of karaoke as being big in certain parts of Asia. But yeah, tell us like were those experiences those adult activities or family activities? Were those under subscribed as well?
[00:52:03] Speaker A: My experience was actually that, that, that those were pretty well attended. Those are so. But. And again they are all in English. So everything on the ship is in English and, and US dollars. But yeah, trivia especially it. I think some people struggled with it because the, the trivia questions were a little bit more western cultural oriented if you will. I don't know if I'm saying it correctly, but yeah, there's a lot of trivia and this was something that was a lot different than the maiden voyage. So pros and cons or then to now.
I think Disney's listened to a lot of the survey results and the feedback that they've received and having an adults only area was new. That wasn't on the maiden voyage either. And now again on Deck 18.
That's the Infinity pools with the infinity bar, the special hot dog stand, all of that. That's, that's adults only.
And that was a, that was a nice change from, from the maiden experience.
[00:53:07] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:53:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:08] Speaker C: Yeah. Mackenzie is saying that bingo is nuts sitting on the floor and too many were allowed in. So yeah, that sounds like that's even more popular than bingo in. In the US apparently so.
[00:53:20] Speaker B: Or just as they start turning people away after it gets to be a fire hazard.
All right, so let's talk about some of the teen included.
Was looking at your slide that you sent over to us, I saw this non alcoholic mixology 14 +. Yeah, tell us what this was like. That sounds like such a cool experience.
[00:53:44] Speaker A: It really was and I think it was a great way. Our daughter is 13 so she wasn't allowed to attend, but our son and our friend's son was able to go. And it was really set up just like a regular mixology class, just heavy on the club soda instead of whatever spirit they would have Substituted for. But it gave them a chance. And the bartenders did an amazing job here of participation and I think they knew that this was a unique experience too. So they were calling on maybe the minors in the room to come up and help prepare and make drinks. But yeah, everything was non alcoholic. It tasted fantastic and, and again it was a great, great bonding experience with our kids that have seen us go off and do experiences that they haven't been able to participate in, Apollo included and feel like they're, they're, you know, one of the adults, you know, for a little bit on the adventure.
[00:54:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I love the idea of a non alcoholic mixology in general. Like even if it was adult only.
You know, Brian always used to like doing that. What was it called? The wake up one. That was on the Dream and the Fantasy. I can't, I'm giving it the wrong name, but it's, it's like a morning start your day or start your kick start your day.
And it included like a couple of, it had a couple of alcoholic beverages but it had a couple of like smoothies with it as well. And I remember it's only on the Dream and the Fantasy. I don't think because they have a smoothie bar. I don't think it's on any of the other shows tips because they don't have a smoothie bar. But Brian always enjoyed that and I always thought like it would be nice to have some kind of non alcoholic mixology for people who, you know, not just minors, but for people who just, you know, don't drink. Yeah. Tell us, how was Palo brunch? It looks like all of you went to Palo brunch, which is lovely. It's kind of a nice experience. The first time your kids got to go to Palo brunch.
[00:55:39] Speaker A: Yes. And they loved it. It was, it was great. And I, this is another thing. I was probably unpopular. I understand the reason to keep it adults only, but maybe even lowering the age limit on other ships. I, I think it's, it was a really cool experience. You have to know your, your child. It's an elevated experience. Of course I think know, know your, your children, but for them to be able to go and kind of have that unlimited pizza and the chicken parm that we always, always talk about and some of these things that they've heard but not, not been able to experience themselves, it was, it was really special. And I think they, because it, it is unique, they appreciated it a little bit more than, than you know, if it was, if it was common talk
[00:56:22] Speaker C: to me about the kids club for a second, where the teens club, tween club.
Did your kids experience those spaces? Did they enjoy them? And you know, they feel like they were able to make, you know, friends and such because this is going to draw a heavy sort of foreign crowd. May not all speak English. So I'm just sort of cur how that went for your kids.
[00:56:44] Speaker A: So yeah, my son didn't really. He went day one and I think played some ping pong the rest of the trip. He didn't go. My daughter did go a few times. She said the. The instructors or the, the cast members that were there did a great job of facilitating games and things as they normally do. But to your point, Brian, I think the making friends was a little more difficult. She said it was day four. She kind of made her first friend in that space. So it is a little bit challenging, I think with the languages and in the different cultural aspects of it.
But yeah, it's still fun. It's still a lot, you know that the games and just outside of the Vibe and Edge, which are right next to each other, you're back in San Fransokyo with the arcade games and some of the other play areas.
[00:57:32] Speaker B: Yeah. So you don't have to even be in the clubs to really play all of the video games available. I know, like if Nathan was in San Fransokyo, he would want to be in front of those screens probably the entire time. So I'm gonna put a vote out there for. I love the idea of being able to include older teens in brunch.
I just don't want a table full of teens. Like I want the teens to be with their parents rather than a table of like just 15 or 16 year olds. And that that's what I would vote for. I have no problem with teens being allowed to go with their parents as long as they're being supervised by their parents in this space. Because I think teens act differently.
I mean, we know from being on the ships here in the States. Right. Like we see the herds of teens flocking around the ship, they act differently than when they're with their own parents.
I did want to ask you about the tea experience on board. I know you mentioned that on your last slide.
I have not. I mean, I love tea and I know that that's kind of a big thing over there over in Asia. And of course they've got a whole tea shop.
How did you enjoy the tea experience on board?
[00:58:43] Speaker A: I'm not really a big tea person either, but it was it was again, another. Another excuse. My daughter and I did it kind of a daddy daughter date.
It's you. You get to the finger foods and then you get to try.
I think it's three different types of tea and they come out and they, they let you smell and they try to try to cater it to your preference.
Again, not my cup of tea, pun intended, but my, My daughter loved it. She. She ended up buying some and bringing it back home.
That was one of her highlights of the trip, was that tea time experience.
[00:59:19] Speaker B: Awesome. I love a tea and scone. All right, let's talk dining.
You liked the dining the first time around. From my memory. You thought it was a very. The quality was good, the experience was good. How did dining go this time around?
[00:59:34] Speaker A: I think dining was just as good, if not better this time around.
So we changed. Our dining rotation was different than the, than the maiden voyage. We wanted to experience the new restaurants. The one we did skip was that Enchanted Summer.
It's again, it's in a weird space. It's probably the weirdest thing of the ship, in my opinion. It's in the middle of deck six and you have. People are walking through your dinner to get from. From forward to after, you know, vice versa.
So we skipped that night. Instead, we did Mike and Sully's Steakhouse.
We didn't do the omakaze experience that we did on the maiden, but the staff are the same. And so what you see here, all these people were people that remembered us from the maiden voyage and helped us, and they were our wait staff while we were experiencing the steakhouse as a family.
[01:00:28] Speaker B: That's so cool.
[01:00:30] Speaker A: And so you could, you know, again, hopefully those watching, I think this picture really sums up the Disney adventure, in my opinion, in it's somewhat private experience. There's nobody else in the restaurant. It's just us. You've got a really attentive, a really fun staff that you treat them well. They're. They're there to, to support and have fun with you. And yeah, we, we had a great, great night. The. The head chef is in that picture in the back, the psalm. There's. There's all, there's all sorts of folks that came out.
When we came to dinner. It was, it was amazing.
[01:01:06] Speaker B: That's awesome.
Now, I want to ask, do you think that for this ship, like, the pay to play model kind of works in your advantage? And I don't mean to, like, I'm not trying to be like, critical of Disney, but I feel like in this ship, it seems like Concierge is more worthwhile paying for that specialty dining or. And the drink tastings and sort of these. These add on experiences seem to add a lot more value than maybe they do on a regular sailing where you can kind of do all of the included things and be just as happy. I'm curious if you felt that way,
[01:01:45] Speaker C: can I layer in one piece of that question, which is just, did you feel like the upcharge for dining made a big difference as between main dining and then when you're doing something like a Mike and Sully Steakhouse?
[01:01:56] Speaker A: Yeah, Mike and Sully's. I would compare to the Japanese version of Paulo, you know, for dinner, I should say not. Not the. Not the brunch, but it's very, very nice.
So you're getting that. That special service that you get at Paulo. Enchante Remy's, you know, one of. One of those types of restaurants, but you're able to bring your kids. And so I think the value there if. If you enjoy one of those other restaurants, you will enjoy Mike and Sully's for sure. It's just a different.
A different.
A different food because it's Japanese food, but it's. It's incredible. Yeah.
[01:02:36] Speaker C: Yeah. Yep. And it does sound like. I mean, from your comments at the top, it sounds like you said if you're going to do the adventure and you want to splurge for concierge, do it because it's. It's worth it on the ship. So.
[01:02:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I just need to get the other ship. Yeah.
[01:02:49] Speaker C: Yeah. I just need to get my picture with this Donald, because I have not seen that outfit before and it looks amazing. So there you go.
[01:02:55] Speaker A: Yeah, that's Hollywood Spotlight Club.
[01:02:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:02:57] Speaker C: Nice.
[01:02:58] Speaker A: Making his rounds.
[01:02:58] Speaker C: Nice. It looks like you. You. Is. Is that Indian food at dinner or is that from the buffet or. Where'd that come in?
[01:03:05] Speaker A: That's at.
Oh, I just spaced.
[01:03:08] Speaker C: Is it Mowgli's or.
[01:03:09] Speaker B: No.
[01:03:11] Speaker A: So somewhat quick service.
Yeah, the Indian food there is. Oh, it's amazing.
[01:03:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:03:17] Speaker A: You have to stop by Mowgli's when you go on the ship if you like Indian food.
[01:03:20] Speaker C: Nice. Yeah. I mean, that looks like better non than what you get when you have the. Make the Indian food and main dining for you, for sure.
All right. Shows. Sam won't let us. Won't let you leave the conversation until you've talked about the shows. So, I mean, obviously it's your second time seeing a lot of this. So did it hold up? Did you feel like it was, you know, it was good Entertainment on board.
[01:03:41] Speaker A: I. I still. I will hold that. The cast, including the entertainment group on the adventure is probably my favorite cast of any ship.
[01:03:51] Speaker C: Wow.
[01:03:52] Speaker A: And they. They did not disappoint on this one either. Remember, is. This is still my number two show overall. Moana's number one.
But remember, is. Is awesome.
And you know, the fireworks show is great for those wondering too. I.
We've had some questions about what you get with drinks and. And treats. The.
What you see in the picture. One glass of champagne and a little cookie.
That's kind of the experience. What you're paying for are the reserve seats. This is a nice to have.
But yeah, the shows were great. We didn't experience Seize the Adventure on the first time. Our calendars or I'm sorry, our clocks were messed up. So we made sure we set for Singapore time the entire trip.
And so we were able to see that. And that was. That was great too. But yeah, remember is.
In fact, that was. My daughter came back and she said that was one of her favorite shows of all the ships too.
[01:04:48] Speaker C: So. Good tip when they say dessert party. This isn't WDW style dessert party. That's a great tip. What did you think of the. What'd you think of the entertainment venues? Because, like, they've got, you know, they've got the stage in the garden area. They've got the stage off the back of the ship with the kind of. The little pool in front of it. Yeah.
[01:05:06] Speaker B: Show obviously we've got pictured here. And then of course, the Marvel show show also happens in the. In the. In the garden as well as the Duffy and Friends Friendship show.
[01:05:19] Speaker C: Yeah. What do you think of the spaces?
The.
[01:05:22] Speaker A: The spaces. I think the. The one that I like the least is in Wayfinder Bay. That's where the. This Moana show is.
You're outside, it's uncovered, and you're in the Singapore sun. It's. It's very, very hot.
So that. That one. One's. That one takes some. Some commitment to get through.
And it's. But it's only about 15, 20 minutes. It's not really that long.
The other spaces are. The Walt Disney Theater is, I think, fantastic. I think. I can't remember if I said it on the last show. The screen quality and how they. They use the. The screens around the stage.
I. The technology is. Is fantastic. I think it's. I think it's some of the best again in the fleet.
The shows in the Imagination Garden are fun. There's not a lot of seating, so be prepared to Sit on the ground, unless you have a balcony.
There is a little bit of. There's some stairs. So you can sit on the stairs in a little kind of elevated space.
But yeah, those are fun and usually pretty short. But the theater shows are.
In the Walt Disney Theater, are awesome.
[01:06:31] Speaker D: Nice.
[01:06:33] Speaker C: And what do we not cover on entertainment? Because I am not the entertainment expert. That's not my beat.
[01:06:37] Speaker B: Well, I think. Well, let's go to the next slide because this is what we have to cover.
I think we've covered most of the entertainment, but yeah, one of the things you mentioned, you mentioned this a few times during the show, though, is the cast members tell us some of the standout cast members and why you think the adventurous cast is even better than the rest of the fleet.
[01:06:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I've got a couple theories there, but it was, it was really.
Every cast member we encountered was so friendly, whether it was someone on the entertainment group.
One of the ladies that was as an usher, she spent the entire time talking to us. As, you know, other people are coming in the. Another show, another usher, the bartenders, as we mentioned, we had. We had a bartender wait for us after dinner and kept the bar open just for us because we were one of the few paying customers that was going to visit him during the bar or during bar hours. The picture in the middle, there is some cast members in the private karaoke rooms.
So wherever we go to, we try to involve the cast members. We try to make sure that they have a good experience.
We have a magnet on our door that, you know, the cast members are what create the magic.
And I think as you, as you put good out, you get it back.
And on no other ship do you get it back as much as on the adventure. And I think a large part of that is the, the. The cast members that we, we experience speak English.
And not all, not all, not all guests do.
And so just being able to have a conversation, have some fun again. We really try to make sure that the guards go down.
We're not the high maintenance guests.
And I think that really creates a fun environment. And everywhere we went, from the concierge lounge to the bars, karaoke room, our state room attendant right out of the gate was asking for challenges. He wanted to be challenged on different animal styles.
[01:08:47] Speaker B: Oh, I love that.
[01:08:50] Speaker A: My daughter was trying to think of creative things and he was creating stuff, you know, just for her. But it really felt like a VIP service, even though we were in concierge, to be fair, even the spaces outside of concierge, it really felt vip.
The cast is phenomenal.
[01:09:07] Speaker B: That's awesome. You know, I hadn't really thought about the fact that there was a communication barrier between the cast and some of the guests, especially, you know, kids. Right. I mean, we don't. A lot of the kids are not bilingual, and that makes sense, right. If they're. Every day. If in their everyday life they're speaking, let's say, Mandarin, they're not also speaking. English is only people who maybe work in a. In an industry where English is the primary or secondary language that are, you know, bilingual or. Or speak or three languages or four languages or whatnot, but that. I hadn't really thought about that. I think you're. You're probably right, especially where you're making the effort. I do. I believe in karma. I'm not a real. I'm not much of a spiritual person, but I very much believe in exactly what you said is sort of whatever you put out into the universe, that's typically what you can expect back. Right. And so if you treat people with kindness and that you're interested in what their life is about and you want to get to know them, that's what you'll receive back from them. And I think that nothing is more true than when you experience that on a Disney Cruise Line show ship, because that's been our experience with cast across the fleet. You know, if we make an effort, we tend to get that same effort back. And it's a really cool.
When that magic happens, it's a really cool experience.
[01:10:28] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[01:10:30] Speaker B: All right, well, you spent a day, a full day in Singapore after leaving the ship, before flying home.
Tell us the Grab app that. Is that, like, their Uber version, right?
[01:10:42] Speaker A: That's their Uber, Yeah. So make sure you grab the Grab Apple Gap.
But a couple things in Singapore. I know I didn't call out things that we did in Hong Kong or. Or otherwise, but Singapore, around the city, they have different Disney attractions.
So if you plan on going over there, make sure you, you know, become aware of those things. The gardens by the bay is very famous right there underneath the hotel, the Marina Bay sands.
What we didn't know, we just kind of stumbled upon it as walking through the gardens.
There's this garden of wonder, and so you can see Sorcerer Mickey there. He's made out of all flowers. As you walk through this exhibit, all of these, there's different scenes from different movies and different Disney IP all made out of flowers. So that was kind of special. We didn't make our way over to Sentosa island, but Sentosa island, you can actually ride a cable car from downtown to Santos Island.
That's where Universal Studios is. But around the island, they have different Disney stations as well, different interactive things for you and your family to do. So, yes, the adventure might be the. The star of the show, but there's. There's a lot of supporting cast around Singapore too. So make sure those that are making the trip over there spend some. Spend some time a day at least, maybe even two or three.
Explore the city. And even from getting your Disney fix, there's a lot more than just the ship.
[01:12:10] Speaker B: Yeah, a lot of them have really cool picture opportunities and character opportunities and stuff like that as well. I've seen through social media. Seems really cool.
[01:12:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:12:20] Speaker C: Well, Rich, as we wind down here, one, I want to give you a chance to tell folks how they can find and book with you because you've got a lot of amazing experience here year with the adventure and visiting the Asian parks. But before I do that, is there anything we missed off of your trip on the adventure that you wanted to be sure to let folks know, or did we. Did we cover it all?
[01:12:41] Speaker A: The only. The one thing that we. We skipped over. I'd just like to mention quickly, door decorations on the adventure are next level.
And I have a picture of it. And it wasn't these guests, but we did hear about other guests as we were departing. People had just left their door decorations up, up and expected cast members to take it down.
So public service announcement.
Have fun with your door decorations, but it's your responsibility to take them down. Please don't make a cast member do that again. It wasn't the. It wasn't these people that I have highlighted here.
But just as an example of the decorations and. And how far out people go with these, it's. It's different than on other ships. But yeah,
[01:13:25] Speaker B: we saw one that was going around social media. This was like a couple months ago. That was this really cool Te Fiti thing that somebody did on their door. It was incredible. But I agree with you, Rich. Take your own door decorations. The cast is not there to clean up after you.
They have to clean up your sheets. Don't make them clean up your door also.
[01:13:46] Speaker A: Yeah, they didn't really have to.
[01:13:48] Speaker C: All right, Rich, talk us through how folks can find you and book with you. We've got up on the screen for folks watching, and we will put it in the show notes as well. But. But talk people through here who might be listening after the fact, like how they can find you and book with you.
[01:13:59] Speaker A: No I appreciate it. Yeah. Family passport adventures.
My wife Mackenzie, that's, that's in the chat. Her and I have this, this group that we help people, especially families navigating these worldwide adventures. So we've been to all seven continents together as a family.
We've been now all parks, all shit, all Disney ships and all but one wonder of the world.
So we're, we're, we have our list, we're checking them off one at a time. And so we like to help people in their preparations for those adventures and experiences as well.
[01:14:30] Speaker C: Nice.
[01:14:31] Speaker B: You are a, you are a bucket lister. I feel like in general, Rich, now I, I gotta ask you, we know because we talked pre show but I gotta, I'm gonna ask Brian's question which is what's, Wait, wait, wait.
[01:14:45] Speaker C: I wanna ask what's the wonder of the world you don't have.
[01:14:48] Speaker B: Yeah, Petra,
[01:14:52] Speaker A: we have to get to Jordan and obviously that's, that's a tough one right now, but that's, that's our last one. Yeah.
[01:14:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:14:59] Speaker A: All right.
[01:14:59] Speaker B: All right. Now what's next? I know the answer to this but I want our guests to know what's next because I, I think we got to have you come, come back in January to talk about this next trip.
[01:15:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Well our next, next trip is actually on the Magic. In October we're gonna do Halloween on the high seas for the first time time to Mexico.
And then after that our, our big trip over the, the winter holidays is going to be to the Galapagos.
So we're going to go experience that as a family kind of some Amazon jungle plus the Galapagos Islands over that two week period.
[01:15:33] Speaker B: Yeah. And for those listening, that's what I was talking about having Rich on for in January, the Galapagos. I now I know you're not, not going with Nat Geo, you're going with a different company. And Adventurous by Disney does not go there any longer. Once the merger with Nat Geo happened, they've sort of those trips are now all with Nat Geo. But tell us what's the tour provider you guys are heading with?
[01:15:58] Speaker A: We're using HX Expeditions.
[01:16:01] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:16:03] Speaker A: And they're taking care of everything from our land based activities to our, our cruise. I don't think you're allowed to call it a cruise. It's an expedition. But from, from land based to our sea expedition, they're helping us handle all of that.
[01:16:17] Speaker B: Awesome. Oh and Tracy in the chat wants to let you know Rich, that on your sailing on the Magic they will have a pumpkin tree. Even though Pumpkins don't grow on trees.
[01:16:28] Speaker A: And it has a name.
[01:16:29] Speaker B: And it has a name and its name is Reap. All right, well, for those watching and listening, we will be back back next week at our same time, Tuesday, 5pm Pacific, 8pm Eastern. We have Benji joining us from Laughing Place.
We're going to be talking with him all about the DVC member cruise that just finished over in Europe. I got to give a special shout out though. I know he's in the chat. Ed Lynn is the master of DVC day by day summaries. He's been sharing them in our Facebook group group. And then I've been using content that he's been sending me and I've been reposting it on our socials as well to tell folks all about the day by day happenings that have happened on the DVC member crew. So I got to give a big thank you to Ed in the chat. But we're gonna have a show all about the DVC member cruise with Benji from Laughing Place. So join us next week, same time, same place here on YouTube. Hopefully we won't be late next week. We'll hopefully get the link link figured out. We had technical difficulties today, but thank you all for watching. For those listening or watching later, don't forget to subscribe to us on YouTube. Don't forget to be giving us those five stars on Apple podcasts and elsewhere.
[01:17:46] Speaker C: And Brian, I just want to put out a special thank you to our Patreons out there. We have not had a chance to read the names on the show of late. The list has gotten extensive. But I do want to send a thank you. We've had a number of people joining join our Patreon community and super appreciate you for helping to support the show. So I just want to send that thank you out there for that. But with that I'm going to hit the button to start the the outro here and it might lag by about 10 seconds. So, you know, we'll just keep waving and say we'll just keep waving. See you next time.
[01:18:23] Speaker D: All right, that's our show for tonight, but thank you so much for listening. If you're not subscribed yet, please fix that right now. Head over to Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hit that subscribe button. We're dropping at least two episodes a week. Plus we're live each and every week over on our YouTube channel, YouTube.comdclduo come hang out with us for a live. It's a blast. You can ask your questions in the chat and really join the conversation with us and our guests. If you're enjoying our show, one of the easiest ways to support the show Head over to Apple Podcast, Hit those five stars and while you're at it, leave us a written review with your 5 star review and we will read it on the air at the top of one of our main episodes. If you're listening to us on another platform, Spotify, YouTube, Castos, there's so many third party podcast apps and players out there. Whatever form of reviewer rating they have, have give it all to us. Show the show some love. It keeps us going, keeps us putting out great content week to week. Are you ready to set sail? Book your next Disney Cruise Line vacation with our show sponsor. We do travel right the crew that handles the planning so you can focus on relaxing. Head to wedotravelright.com dclduotoday to get started. Or you can reach out to them directly. Just let them know the DCL Duo sent you. Subscribe today to DC DCL Magazine. They put out a great product head over there. It's your go to guide for DCL tips and tricks. Just browse to dcl-magazine.com that's dcl-magazine.com and use code DCLDUO all caps DCL Duo today for 10 off everything in the WDW Magazine Store. And if you want to directly support the show, join us on
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[01:20:49] Speaker C: Good night.
[01:20:57] Speaker B: Sam.
