[00:00:00] Speaker A: The weirdest thing is on the last night of the cruise, like, I just was kind of still amped and, like, I wasn't ready to go to bed. And so I went by D Lounge and they were doing karaoke and not a soul in there, right?
So I go and sit down, I'm checking my messages, and then in walks John Stamos, his wife, his kids and friends. Then Brett Iwan walked in and I was like, I feel like I don't belong.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: Welcome back, everybody, 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 WeDoTravel, right, handle the planning so you can focus on the relaxing. I am super excited for tonight's show if. If. Among many reasons, but among others, that the technology actually worked for us this evening. So pretty excited about that.
I'm gonna see. I'm gonna dive right in because our guest really needs no introduction, but I am excited to welcome Benji from Laughing Place back to our show, one of our favorites. Hey, Benji, how you doing?
[00:01:12] Speaker A: I'm good. Thanks for that kind introduction. I don't know how accurate it is, but I appreciate the sentiment.
It's good to be with you guys.
[00:01:20] Speaker B: You are probably the most Disney knowledgeable person that I have ever met. So if anyone can give us the scoop and the opinions, I think, Benji, you're beyond qualified.
[00:01:32] Speaker C: I mean, maybe only tied with Doobie, right?
[00:01:37] Speaker B: The whole Laughing Place team. Yeah, yeah.
[00:01:39] Speaker C: I mean, Doobie. Doobie founded Laughing Place. He and his wife founded Laughing Place. Benji runs it now. Of course, Dewey's still on board, but I feel like between the two of you, I don't like. It's kind of a crazy amount of Disney knowledge. And the fact that you are all at the same place is kind of also mind boggling.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: So it's funny because, you know, I have a lot of friends who work at, like, the Walt Disney archives. And, you know, if you're talking to someone like Kevin Kern over there, who knows, who has forgotten more about Disney than I know. So people come up to me and be like, do you know a lot about Disney? I was like, well, I know a little bit because, like, compared to them, I don't know. But like, like, compared to, like, the general population, yeah, it's probably not right.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: Well, it's like us. It's like us being on a cruise in the hot tub and saying, you sailed before. Is this your first one? Oh, let me.
Let me take you on a journey. My friend, get some drinks. Yeah, yeah.
[00:02:30] Speaker C: No, I mean compared, like, compared to us, like Benji, you know, way more like we, we can give probably certain, like details about certain things on board Disney Cruise Line, probably more specifically than you can. But when it comes to like Disney history and the company overall and things like, and park stuff like, you are far and above beyond our level of knowledge. And it's so great to have you on to talk about a DVC member cruise because it's like a, a mini D23, right? It's like D23 at sea. And nerding out with someone like you who's, you know, obviously deep knowledge of D23 and the happenings in those, in, in those venues and then seeing them play out on board a Disney cruise is just incredible.
Before we get to diving in about the show, Brian, we have to give a special thank you to our friends over at the DCL magazine who also sponsor our live and bonus shows.
For those who have been living under a rock, you should know that DCL magazine, owned by WDW magazine, they put out a wonderful magazine. Brian is a regular contributor to that magazine. And if you want to subscribe, go to dcl-magazine.com and if you use the code ALL CAPS DC L DUO, you will receive 10% off anything in their store. So make sure to subscribe if you have not already subscribed.
I do want to look at you
[00:03:58] Speaker B: handling that ad read with just precision, Sam. Just good, good work, good work. I usually have to do that one, so I appreciate it.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: I know I want a second, though.
I love my DCL magazine. It's always exciting to get it in.
[00:04:14] Speaker C: Yeah, I love the prints.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: It's kind of nice that there's three. I feel like every time, I mean, I'm not home a lot, so every time I go to my remote blocks, I have another magazine to read. It's awesome.
[00:04:23] Speaker C: I love a print magazine too. And I especially love the pictures. I think that they've done a great with the art. I'm not to say that the articles aren't great. The articles are great. But I also just love the feel of a beautiful print magazine. And there's both the WDW magazine, the DLR magazine and the DCL magazine are all just really, really beautiful. And having one of those in your hands is fantastic. I just, I just remembered today to flip my WDW magazine wall calendar to September. I'm two weeks behind, but I also love that magazine. But I do want to talk a little bit of Disney Cruise Line news.
There's not too much to report on. Of course. The Disney Dream is already transatlantic bound. It's already crossing to come back over to the United States, to head back to Florida to continue doing Caribbean and Bahamian sailings.
We have some friends on board who are having a lot of fun. There are some really great folks on board with them. And if I can remember what they told me from my messages, can I
[00:05:30] Speaker B: just dive in here and say one thing we absolutely love. So we had a listener on the DVC cruise with you, Benji, and the listener was sending us photos and stuff from the cruise that we could post on social media. And I think people really loved it. In fact, a few people got confused and thought we were on sale.
[00:05:45] Speaker C: Yes, lots of people thought we were on sale.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: I was online, I was on Facebook and I was like, oh, wait, are they here looking around?
[00:05:52] Speaker B: You would know if we were there, Benji. We would have found you.
But if you are out there sailing and you don't mind sending us photos from your sailing, you know, stuff that's happening around, new stuff you see, if you send them to us, we'll, we'll throw them up on our social feed. We'll give you credit for it. We'll tag back to you whatever it is. We love to share these experiences that people are having in real time. So loved that happened for this DVC cruise. But if you're, if you're on the transatlantic, if you're on some fun cruise, like send us the photos and we might, we might share them on our, on our social media feed.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: So, yeah, every crazy fun.
[00:06:23] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. So on the Transatlantic, Becky Klein and Ducky Williams are both on the westbound transatlantic. They also have two Broadway stars doing the Broadway Stars series.
They are Adam Jacobs and Heba.
I'm gonna mispronounce her name Achilki.
So both of them are on as well. And then the guest chef is Kelly Matthews, who currently leads Animal Kingdom's dessert program. And so they've got some special stuff obviously happening on board the Transit.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: A guest chef, I've never heard they
[00:06:58] Speaker C: do those, anyone can cook type thing. Remember they used to do those, anyone can cook. They only do them now on these like Panama Canal or Transatlantic or DVC or, you know. So they only do them on kind of these more special or longer sailings.
Kind of like having the special guests from, like, from Imagineering and stuff like that. So that's what's happening on board.
I do have some information. There are some new questions in the questionnaire. The onboard questionnaire that you get at the end of a cruise that ask you for feedback.
There are some questions asking now, at least there were on the wonder asking about whether or not guest experience was impacted negatively by other guests. Right. So like bad behavior of other guests, has that impacted your experience?
We have heard murmurs from across the fleet that at times there are, you know, more bad guest behavior than we would have maybe heard of on a regular basis in the past. And I think Disney is kind of becoming attuned to that and trying to figure out is that going to discourage you from booking your next cruise is really what they want to know. And so that's one issue. The other thing I wanted to tell
[00:08:07] Speaker B: people is do you know if, do you know if that question is open ended? Does it ask for you to describe it?
[00:08:12] Speaker C: No, it's an agree. No, it's agree strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree strongly disagree.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: I think I had that on my crew. I think it was same kind of thing. Like it was right, like the weather, did the weather negatively impact.
[00:08:27] Speaker C: Exactly, exactly. They're asking like a category of questions, but the first one was did the, you know, other guests essentially.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: But the social scientists in me just balks at that because I'm like, for the weather, Disney can't do anything about it. So they're just trying to figure out is your opinion skewed because you were, you know, you were forced to stay inside and couldn't use the pools for most of the cruise. This is like, go one step lower, dude, go to the next step. Because I would have relayed the story when we first sailed on the fantasy about speaker guy. I don't know if Sam remembers him, but yeah, there's a guy wearing a speaker walking around spot stuff. And it's like, what are you doing, man?
[00:09:01] Speaker A: Like in my Disney experience, the open ended questions are discouraged.
Signing sort of like a.
You can't because like people put like, oh, I think you should do this. And then does he get sued because they did it and they didn't pay the guy. So you don't see a lot of open ended questions unless it's like a cast member name or something.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: Yeah, fair enough.
[00:09:24] Speaker C: Exactly.
And the other thing I wanted to tell folks is I was speculating about when Believe itineraries would come out and I was being fed information from various sources that seemed to suggest that the Believe itineraries were going to drop sometimes in late August or early September. I will tell you, the sources that I had that information from are now telling me that Disney has changed its mind and that they are not going to be announcing the Believe itineraries until the October event. So I think we can expect to hear it could be anytime between October 5th and October 9th, but probably October 7th, because that's when they'll do the streaming event on TV. And so I think it's very likely, based on what I'm hearing, we won't hear what the Believe itineraries like, what port she's going to sail out of, when she's going to Maiden, what her itineraries are going to look like until that week in October. So I just wanted to put that out there because I had speculated differently before that. And with that, I know Benji mentioned he's not going to be on board for the Believe event, but he's got folks from Laughing Place that will be on board. So of course pay attention to their socials, their YouTube, their website to follow along and see what's going on with the Believe reveal event. Also, the folks over at WDW magazine will be on board as well and everybody will be posting to their socials. And hopefully we'll be collaborating and offering to collaborate with us on some of that information because we're hoping to get out to our audience as well as their audiences, as much information as possible as timely as possible. With that said, Benji, let's dive into the DVC member cruise. First, I want to ask you, are you in fact a DVC member yourself?
[00:11:14] Speaker B: Wait, before we do that, I want to, I want to set this up just slightly because we've gotten a ton of repeat questions about what is a member cruise. So I, I'm just going to set this up very basically no more than two minutes.
Every year for the past many, many years, DVC has done a member cruise. They have also offered these things called first wave sailings on the new ships or to new experiences like lookout. Those are different. So what I want to, we're going to be talking about tonight is the actual member sailing.
You have to be a DVC member in order to book the sailing.
I'm trying to remember. I'm going to have one question for you, Benji. You might know the answer too, but let me finish this piece of it. So you have to be a DVC member.
You don't have to use your points to book the cruise. You can book on cash, but you have to be a member to book it. So the member has to be on it. I can't remember if the member has to be sailing on it. I think that they, I don't think they can book it for someone else. They can book multiple staterooms, but you can book it on cash.
And so just know that going into this binge, do you remember if you have to be a blue card member? I think you do, yeah.
[00:12:22] Speaker A: You do have to be whatever, you
[00:12:24] Speaker C: know, the correct or resale that was grandfathered in under the old rules.
[00:12:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:31] Speaker A: Right.
[00:12:31] Speaker B: So all right with that. Now, Sam, repeat your question for Benji because we're ready to get rolling.
[00:12:35] Speaker C: Yes. Okay. Are you the DVC member, Benji?
[00:12:40] Speaker A: I am a DVC member.
My family's been.
So we have old Key West, Saratoga, Boardwalk, Polynesian, Boulder Creek, Disneyland, Hotel Riviera.
[00:13:00] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:13:01] Speaker C: No Aulani is what you're saying.
[00:13:02] Speaker A: No Alani, because my life is a little crazy. So I don't get a lot of 11 month booking windows. So it really doesn't matter where it's at. So I kind of just go with wherever has the lowest dues at the moment or best, you know, so that's sort of where I end up.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: Do you have a favorite of resorts, the DVC resorts?
[00:13:23] Speaker C: Like yeah, you could stay wherever you want it.
[00:13:27] Speaker A: Okay. West to me just feels so 1991 like because when okay started west was not the name of the place came afterwards. It was originally just called the Disney Vacation Club Resort. And so it was like what DVC meant to be the logo forever was super inspired by it. So to me that just feels like it makes me feel the most dvc. The rest feel like a nice hotel room at another Disney resort. Saratoga has a little bit of DVC in it, but to me Oaky west is like classic nice.
[00:13:58] Speaker C: I love that. I will say for those who haven't ever considered booking a DVC cruise, you do have to book directly through the Disney Vacation Club. So you aren't actually able to use a travel advisor. So Disney, when it comes to a DVC member cruise or a DVC charter first wave cruise, they've completely cut out the travel agent side of things because you have to book directly through DVC because DVC has essentially chartered the boat, the entire boat from Disney Cruise Line.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: And you have to pay up front.
[00:14:30] Speaker C: Yes. And you have to pay. Yeah. So it's pay in full upfront. So there's not like pay in full at a later date and all of that. And so that means you're, you're, you're locked in. You can't move around a cruise like you can with regular. So pay attention to those restrictions. If you book a DVC cruise, Benji, what's like the number one reason why you booked this Disney Vacation Club member cruise.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: To me, the Disney Vacation Club cruises are one of the favorite things I cover. I mean it's sort of like I build my calendar around this.
And originally. So this is the, this was the 25th member cruise. Now the first, the, the story of how this started is that basically they just chartered the ship for the first one and then they went to Ryan March who was like, had the. Does the Disney Files like Vacation Club magazine? It was like, hey, you interviewed Roy Disney. Like, would he be willing to do like a talk on the ship? And then so like that was all it was. The first member cruise was just that. And then they added Bill Farmer and then it became this whole thing. It was, it is today, but
[00:15:35] Speaker C: it
[00:15:36] Speaker A: in many ways feels like.
And, and I never booked one because I thought it was going to be like one of those Vacation Club updates that you go to where it's like, you know, kind of fun but just like really a sales pitch. And they, I mean, don't get me wrong, they will be happy to sell you Vacation Club points, but there is no real pressure. Like, in fact, in fact the programming is so much that oftentimes there's no time to buy the Vacation Club points.
Now they do have special deals and promotions and stuff but like it's not as in your days as I had originally feared. Like, I didn't want to just go just to be sold more vacation clip points. But they did one that was a California coast cruise that didn't sell particularly well, I will note next year. Sold out in the same day. But like, so they, they created. So a friend of mine was going because I kind of loosened the rules and I was like, I'm a member, I'll book it and, and we'll go and try it out. Just spend time with friends in the. And you know, and I discovered that it is kind of like a mini D23 at sea. However, it's just so low key. It's, it's a lot of great, A lot of the content is repeat but in a great way in that like you see the same people you get to like, you know, I mean, Ashley Exxon is going to be there, Susan Negan is going to be there, Bill Farmer will be there. Like there's certain people you just know are going to be on this thing and you know, but they find, but Ryan, who's a creative director on but finds unique ways to attack these things so that it's not just the same thing. But you know, if you Ever want to just like talk to Leslie? I work for 20 minutes. Like you can do that here. And, and it's still a cruise. So it's not like D23, where it's like I'm waking up at 4am every morning. I go into bed at midnight. Like it's still a relaxing cruise.
This one's a little different because, you know, we went to Europe, but like a lot, you know, when it's going to the Bahamas, like the program doesn't, you know, the, on the port days they don't really do anything. So it's like that's the day you can sleep. And then, you know, the sea days is really where it comes to life. So I, I, to me, the DVC member cruise just similar like D23 or what I now as a convert, plan my plan, my schedule around.
[00:17:52] Speaker B: Did you find that piece of it?
You make a good point here, which is you're in Europe, you're in Norway especially. I think even you're getting off, you want to see these little towns. And, and so like, were they able to balance out the programming with the fact that they're actually going to ports where people are going to want to get off and experience support?
[00:18:11] Speaker A: Yeah, so the programming doesn't really take place while they're in port. So now, because they did a special thing for this in Copenhagen where there was a.
They opened Tivoli Gardens early because I think there was obviously going to be given the history, a lot of DVC members who were interested in going so able to create a special experience for Tivoli Gardens. But most of the time it's when you're in port, the port's the star and then you come back on the ship and that's, you know, when, when, when you're not in port, that's when the Disney Vacation Club Magic really happens.
[00:18:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:18:50] Speaker C: It's pretty cool on this one because you guys were able to go, as you mentioned, Tivoli Gardens, which was a ton of Walt's inspiration for the original Disneyland.
There's a visit to the Little Mermaid statue was another excursion. They also had a castle opportunity where you could hear an opera singer singing Disney songs. So there were some special experiences.
[00:19:18] Speaker A: I did that one. That was cool.
Yeah.
[00:19:20] Speaker C: And they have those like, connections back to Disney.
Did you feel like you were exhausted? Because there is, as Brian mentioned, and as you mentioned, it's not like in the Bahamas where you feel like, okay, I can sleep all day and catch up. Where you're like kind of go, go, go, in the ports to visit those things and those places that inspired. Particularly inspired Disneyland. And then you also have the programming on the ship.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I will say I did not. I thought it was going to be more busy than I was. I mean, the programming on. On the ship, you know, starts at 10. So it's just, I mean, you know, not too painful. Yeah, you're not. I mean, no, obviously I was covering it, so that took a little bit of extra time that, you know, as a guest, I'm not writing it up right away, whereas I did that here. But no, I. I was pleasantly surprised at how balanced it was. And one of the neat things they did.
I didn't go do this one. I had someone else cover it, but it was. They did like Scandinavian inspiration for Disney attraction. So, you know, Bob Weiss from Imagineering and Jody Benson and all Becky Klein are talking about that. So that was, that was, you know, they do try and kind of tie it together. So, you know, for example, the theme, if there, you know, if there was one, was, you know, huge, you know, the. The happiness of the Nordic people. Whereas, you know, last time we were Mexican Riviera is very heavy in cocoa and. And then they had the Casa de Tequila people there. So they do try and fit the cruise to the port. You know, the one was focused on the Wish because it was the new ship at the time.
You know, next year they're going to San Francisco. I imagine they'll do special trips to the family museum and perhaps Lucasfilm or what have you. So, I mean, if. I don't know that for sure, but that would be my.
[00:21:16] Speaker C: We're going on that one, Benji. So, I mean, you put it out into the universe because we want it all to happen.
[00:21:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll see. I'm excited for that one because it's the first cruise I'm going to do where. Because it doesn't overnight in San Francisco, so. First cruise I get to sleep in my own bed.
[00:21:32] Speaker C: Well, you're paying for the bed on the cruise line and it's so comfortable. Benji, why would you go home?
[00:21:39] Speaker A: My puppies.
I'm excited to see my puppies.
[00:21:43] Speaker C: There you go. Yeah, I understand. I understand. All right. Well, I want to dive into some of the special experiences on board. Benji, I. There's so. There are so many. And one of the great things about Laughing Places, you actually have a great set of pictures that are all show the brochure. Essentially they gave you a. I don't know what they called it, but essentially Disney Files magazine. But it goes over and describes pretty much all of the special events they had on board. And there were a ton. I would love to know what were like your, I don't know, maybe favorite three of those special experiences. Knowing that we're talking all. They're all, like you said, imagineers, Disney legends, other sort of Disney voices and celebrities. I mean there's like there was so much to do on board.
[00:22:29] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:22:30] Speaker A: Honestly, my favorite favorites. So this time.
Well, let me give some context. Like this is normally like a mini D23 at sea. I was unsure how it was going to be doing this like two weeks after D23.
And because there was a lot of duplicate content world builders, they did, you know, lean into the moment of the, of the cruise.
And I also aware that the company is in transition right now and there's, you know, there's a lot coming and going, you know, a lot of uncertainty as we head into the new fiscal year. And so I wasn't sure what to expect. And I, I think it's safe to say my favorite thing was actually a presentation I've seen before, but I've never seen it publicly. And it was so great to see it shared publicly was Michel Dundalk, who is the creative director for Disneyland Paris. Kind of gave us his history with the company, which is, I think just an amazing tale. And then walked through his projects ranging from Fantasy fare to World of Frozen's. And I just think he's a Disney imagine your star in the making. And I really was glad that he was able to do it publicly so I could share it publicly.
But also it was neat to see, you know, real guests really interact with it. I think that was my favorite. Now they always do some sort of Disney on Broadway show. And it is, you know, one of those Susan Egan produced Disney concerts which are great. However, on my life I see them a lot, but it's almost would be weird if they weren't there. So it's not so much that I didn't enjoy them, but not.
[00:24:15] Speaker C: You've grown to expect, right. You've grown to expect them like they are usually on, for example, a maiden voyage or some other kind of big, you know, thing. And so you're right, it is like we. There's a whole bunch of them on Disney right now from D23. Right. So various different concerts with different theming. One like there was the Princess one, there's like the 90s one. Right. So there's a bunch of those. So I can understand in your line of work in particular seeing a lot of those. Those are always a delight for me. I'm kind of obsessed with those because I just love all of those performers and their songs so much.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: Yeah, one fun thing they did is they did a Halloween deck party. Now, it got moved because of sea conditions, but it ended up being on the last night and kind of earlier than you would expect, a Halloween deck party because it was last night. And they had.
Andrew Levette, who is probably best known for his drag Persona as Nina west, also does a lot of D23 stuff.
Do I got. I put a spawn you with Susan Egan and Jodi Benson, and I thought that was so cool. I mean, you know, I'm blessed enough to have heard Jodi Benson sing Part of your world, I don't know how many hundreds of times, but to hear her do something else and kind of lean into it was really cool. And what was nice is because it was a deck party, we could record it.
And I love that. That was. That was. I'm glad we were able. Like, of course, my battery died right as it was about to start, so Alex dutifully hopped in. But, yeah, it was. That was. That was a cool moment. It wasn't necessarily a cool, you know, it's a deck party otherwise, but it was.
It was. It was neat to see.
[00:25:56] Speaker B: Tracy. Tracy in the chat had a good question for you, which is, Benji, who are you? She says fangirling, but fanboying. Who are you fanboying over the most on this cruise?
[00:26:10] Speaker A: Honestly, the Disney folks I've, you know, we've interviewed, it's hard to fanboy over them at this point, because when you see them and, you know what's nice about the member cruise is they want. Like, at first you're like, I'm not going to go say hi to Susan Egan. I'm not gonna say hi to Jody Benson. But they want you to. In fact, Jody has told me, she's like, why is that person not, like, saying hi to me? It's like, no one care. Like, no, they're trying to be.
[00:26:35] Speaker B: Right.
[00:26:35] Speaker C: They're, like, looking at you. Right.
[00:26:38] Speaker A: I don't want them to be.
[00:26:38] Speaker C: And I'm like, okay.
[00:26:39] Speaker A: Like, you know, the people. The people want to go hide, have the ability to go hide in the concierge lounge and things like that, but they want you to engage with them.
So. But.
So my personal fanboy moment was actually not a. Well, I guess technically a Disney personality is David Eckstein, the ball player, Ashley Eckstein's husband. I went. I was a season ticket holder to the Angels in 2002 when they won the World Series, and he was on the team, and he was my favorite player.
And because he's not Disney and I'm not exposed to him, I was just so excited to see him and, like, you know, like, get to a point where, like, he gives me, like, I know you nod, and I'm like, yeah.
[00:27:21] Speaker C: Now, I heard that he and Ashley actually hosted, like, a sports trivia in the pub on the cruise as well. How would that.
[00:27:29] Speaker A: I want a copy of their books.
[00:27:32] Speaker B: David's.
[00:27:33] Speaker A: David's already packed away. But, yeah, the question was, what is the animal that the Angels.
The answer was right. I'm like, I forget how they say that. But, yeah, I got a signed copy of her book.
[00:27:47] Speaker C: That's cool.
[00:27:49] Speaker A: And David's book as well, so.
[00:27:50] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:27:51] Speaker C: Yeah, that's really cool.
That's awesome.
[00:27:55] Speaker B: All right, well, I think there's one other question here.
I think you touched on this, but did you have a favorite talk or guest speaker that you attended?
[00:28:05] Speaker A: I talked about my favorite, which was WDI1. But one thing. I just wanted one thing that was weird.
[00:28:11] Speaker C: Not.
[00:28:11] Speaker A: Weird's not the right word.
New is. A lot of times there were Disney presentations with Disney people.
I don't know if you guys know who Tony shepherd is, but a lot of this became Tony Shepard and his friends. So, like John Stamos and Jeff Dunham,
[00:28:28] Speaker C: he's like the celebrity wrangler, essentially.
[00:28:30] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And interesting fellow. And you can't imagine what life is like wrangling celebrities that want to go to Disney World.
So there was a conversation between him and John Stamos and a conversation between him and Jeff Dunham and Jeff Dunham's puppet friends. And it's not something you ever would have expected to see on a DVC cruise. They've had Muppet performers or the cast of.
[00:28:57] Speaker C: I was like. I was surprised to hear that Jeff Dunham was on, I'll be honest, because he can be a little bit risque with his puppetry and humor.
[00:29:06] Speaker A: Yeah. And it was funny because you could. It was sort of an ongoing joke about how they had to be careful and had lots of meetings about what he couldn't say, and then he would, like, start to say something, be like, nope,
[00:29:20] Speaker B: nice.
[00:29:21] Speaker A: So, yeah, it went. I mean, you know.
I mean, you know that those 18 and up cruise line shows, like. I mean, it didn't cross any of those lines. I mean, there's. I've seen Match your mates that are more risque than I saw Jeff Dunham. Do because he did an adult show and then a family show.
And I, I saw the adult show and there was nothing in the besides the fact the most adult thing they talked about was the fact that they were trying to not make adult jokes.
[00:29:48] Speaker C: I love that.
[00:29:49] Speaker A: In fact, the most adult thing happened at that sport. The most adult reference happened in this sports trivia. Sports trivia that I won't repeat because.
[00:30:00] Speaker C: Because this is a family show. This is a family show. You know, we would be people would be mad at us if we did not mention the merchandise because one of the things I think that everybody expects at this point. Now, of course, you mentioned that it wasn't this way, I think when the DVC member cruises first started. But now there's this expectation. There are daily gifts, sometimes even more than once a day.
There are addition, you know, not just on a regular cruise. You can go to the DVC member desk and you can pick up like a chapstick, maybe a hat, maybe a drawstring bag sort of. That's the most expensive item you will get is basically that hat. I think that's probably more expensive than the drawstring bag. But, you know, luggage tags occasionally. But on a DVC member cruise, you get gifts in your room and you can also pick up gifts from the DVC member desk and those are even a cut above what they normally are. But the gifts in the room are most especially are talk about what that sort of looks like. And we posted on our social, so if people want to see the actual gifts, I'm going to give another shout out to Ed and to Cindy, who shared pictures of the gifts with us ongoing throughout the cruise. And so I was able to post a lot of those on, on our socials. But talk to us about what that sort of expectation seems to be. Benji and or is the merch worth it, I guess is the question. I don't mean what they sell in the store. I mean what they gift you because I know there are some.
[00:31:29] Speaker A: I mean, I'm at what I'm not looking for more Disney stuff. And you get one per person. So it's like how many of these walking sticks does one person need now? I gave them to my elderly father who I really appreciated them. But yeah, I mean, there's one of the trends that they've done, at least the last couple is they want to make sure everything can kind of fit in the bag so that you don't have to worry about packing because I think that was some feedback that they got. But yeah, I mean, we Got like an amenity kit. We've got. We got like a, like an airline style amenity kit.
We got solar battery, which I may have somewhere, but it was. I got this in the past. This was like a charging thing. I got this from a member cruise. I use it all the time. So I mean, it's not anything like you would necessarily want to go out and like rush to buy, you know, and I'll. But it's fun. It's fun to kind of see what's in the room.
You know, I'm not super merchandise focused and you know, but it's the, the stuff in the room is, is unique. It's custom, it's a. I. When I first did it, some of the stuff was a little bit more like a special edition of a book or something. But now it's all sort of merchandise, like, kind of like trade show.
But like. Yeah. And so it's fun, but I wouldn't like book a cruise for it. It's just part of like the extra stuff and stuff they give away. The kiosk, you know, the vacation club desk is, is fun too. Like we got like a, A custom shoulder plush of the troll. And. But once again, not like, you know, go, don't do a member cruise to get the stuff. Like, I just don't like, first of all, it's all gonna say member cruise on it. If you're not there. I don't know that has the same value to you.
But it's, it's. It's all, you know, it's fun, but it's not. It's.
And I don't want to belittle the gifts because they are fun to kind of go in the same room and see what the surprise is. But that's the fun of it. It's not like I still have last year's the cocoa theme bags. I've still have two of them. I don't think we've opened them.
So you know what it is?
[00:33:45] Speaker B: Well, I liked about this one for some of the gifts. Like, I think there was something. It looked kind of like a fanny pack or some sort.
[00:33:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
Call it a belt bag because in Europe you don't want to use the term fanny.
[00:33:55] Speaker A: Well, yeah, and it was designed to like let. To zipper on to the main bag.
[00:34:00] Speaker C: So like.
[00:34:01] Speaker A: Yeah, they're trying to be, you know, I think in the past they sent out bulky stuff and so people like. I remember the Monopoly was kind of like the classic gift that everyone always wanted. But I was like, well, we're going to pack that.
[00:34:12] Speaker B: But what I liked about this year was like that, that and the walking sticks. It kind of felt like it was the theme of the cruise. Like, because, you know, you're in Norway and you want to go hiking, you're going to grab your walking sticks, right? So it's just. I like the tie in this time
[00:34:25] Speaker A: and, and Ryan, because of his, you know, written background, he, he. There's all the little card or whatever, the tag on it always has some clever thing that kind of all brings it full circle as to why they're giving this to you.
So, you know, it is. Even the style of the bag kind of matches the itinerary. You know, the, the one we had for coat. The Mexican Riviera was a lot more, you know, sort of Latin America inspired than the one that. This was more like, you know, I'm going camping kind of stuff.
[00:34:58] Speaker C: Right. I'm going adventuring. Right. Well, and the, the walking stick, I, I loved seeing the.
I know that they're these sort of call them clip on things for each port had its own thing that you clipped on that sort of covered part of the walking stick. But it was, each one had like, one was Copenhagen, one was Stavon Stavanger, right. Like, they each were tied to each of the ports and then they had a character in sort of, I'll call it costume, but in, in the theme of the place. Right? So like, look goofy hiking and daisy hiking. Right. Like, and I thought that was really clever to kind of tie it all together with the, as you mentioned, kind of the theming of the, the trip.
[00:35:42] Speaker A: Those medallions felt very abd. Like. Yeah, yeah, you know, like, okay, we're at this port, like, what character is going to be on it?
[00:35:50] Speaker C: Your pin instead. It's a, it's a walking stick or not medallion. I don't know what you call it, but yeah, walking stick adornment. Adornment.
[00:35:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:01] Speaker C: If you're listening to us right now, chances are pretty good that you love Disney vacations as much as we do.
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[00:37:11] Speaker B: Benji, have you done a Norway sailing with Disney before?
[00:37:14] Speaker A: I did. I did a 12 night Baltic cruise. At some point I think I might have done two, actually. Two different itineraries, but two.
[00:37:23] Speaker B: Okay, so this wasn't your first time to Norway. What did you think?
Just stepping aside from the DVC portion of this.
[00:37:29] Speaker C: Yeah, I want to talk about the ports. Yeah, yeah.
[00:37:31] Speaker B: What did you think of the ports in Norway? Because Disney, Disney's changed ports and Denmark.
Well, yeah, but just Disney's changed its port setup for Scandinavia. Many, many iterations. So what did you think of this particular setup?
[00:37:45] Speaker A: So Copenhagen I think is a wonderful city. And I would go there, you know, I mean, I think going there is awesome. It was nice that we had extra time. So we went to Tivoli now I've been to Tivoli, but we went, we stayed till around noon and then went to go see the mermaid statue. Alex is really big in Hans Christian Anderson, so we want to see some stuff about that. Went to a comic shop that like had a lot of Disney comics, you know, obviously in Danish, but it was, you know, they, they had a comic that had, was like themed to the Skein port. It's looks like it's pronounced Skagen, but it's pronounced Skein apparently.
And so they like. So we got that comic to kind of, you know, we. And then use chat GPT to tell me what it says. But so I, I love Copenhagen. I think Copenhagen is just a great place to visit and there's a lot, there's a lot to do and a lot of great shopping and all that.
Skein, the other Danish port was actually really interesting as well.
We just spent a lot of time in port, but we took one of the tours and you, you can go where the Baltic and the North Sea meet, you know, and there's like a kind of like a
[00:39:02] Speaker B: statuary. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:39:04] Speaker A: So, so that's cool. That was actually cool. A Neat experience. That. That was probably my biggest surprise.
Stoping your. The weather was bad, but I will say it felt that one was probably my least favorite port in that I just didn't know what to do do there.
You know, it was. So you book like, you know, the, the highlight tour, which is, you know, because I don't want to. You know, we're not super like, we don't want to go on a major hike or whatever. Like we knew this cruise was going to be a little bit more, you know, busy with activities.
So I take you to this VR thing, which is basically not VR, and then you go on a. But you take a tour of the little old village where I basically tell you, yes, this is the old village. And then you go to like TV attended tower to get like an overview of the fjord.
[00:39:55] Speaker C: Oh, funny.
[00:39:57] Speaker A: It was weird. So that was kind of disappointing. But you know, once again we just spent a lot of time out there. You know, we didn't even get off the ship until 12 or 1 or something.
[00:40:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I love, I love Savanger because the day we were there we had fabulous weather. So when you get up to the top.
[00:40:13] Speaker C: Oh, we had rain though, as we were coming down from Pulpit Rock, remember? Oh, that's.
[00:40:17] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm thinking of Olesind actually now that. Yeah, yeah.
[00:40:20] Speaker C: Pulpit Rock Rock it is the star. And it's a great view. But you got to be willing to put in the hiking, you know, steps up and even worse, the hiking steps down and that's when it was raining. It was actually kind of scary going down. But it's a great hike.
But it is, you know, it's. It's not a stroll in the park, let's put it that way. It's not like a super. It's not the most intense hike out there. Like you don't have to be a real like super intense hiker, but you gotta be somewhat like okay with hiking and it's. It's more intense on the way down.
[00:40:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I probably would have done something a little bit more natural if it wasn't the last port, you know, after a long DVC cruise. And then I was, we're going to Paris after that. And so it was this. I did. And you know, this is not a normal guest issue, but like, obviously I still had to write a lot of stuff up and I don't want to do, you know, something that was going to be a whole day commitment. So. Yeah, so it was fine. But it was.
I kind of was like. And I was at that point I kind of hit my wall too. It's like I feel like the last port, no matter how many days is I hit my wall at the last port. And so
[00:41:31] Speaker C: yeah, at least if it's like Castaway, you're like, I could just sit on a beach and you know, take a nap or something. But if it's like a city port and the weather's not great, it's probably, I think I'll go back to the ship early kind of a day. Yeah.
I'm curious, Benji.
Now let's say you have a person who's really, you know, into Disney. They like Disney cruises.
They like the idea of going to D23 but they haven't been to D23 before. Like how would you sort of compare like the choice to go on like a DVC member cruise versus going to D23 because they're pretty, like they're both pretty expensive if we put them like they're neither of them is a cheap thing to do. Of course, if you're going in Europe it's a little bit different because you had to pay for a flight to Europe versus if you're going to D23, paying for a flight to California. But you're paying for your ticket, you're paying for your hotel, you're paying for your food. Right. So all the add ons to California, you, you might get pretty close in terms of pricing. There's a lot more merch you can buy at D23 obviously than you can buy on a Disney cruise. There's tons of merch, but it's just regular Disney Cruise Line merch. There's only a few things that are sort of Disney member cruise exclusive.
But like where would you say the line is between like somebody who should go maybe on a member cruise versus somebody who should go and you know, buy that ticket to D23.
[00:43:01] Speaker A: So the, the member cruise does have forward looking stuff like hacks or you know, sometimes talk about. But you're not going to get the spectacle and the, the obviously a legend ceremony. And though, you know, if that's what you're looking for is to be in the room when it happens, then that's where you should go. D23 if you want something more casual, particularly on the history and heritage side, if you want to have those sort of bump into moments where you run into somebody. And I'm not saying this is, I'm not giving anyone carte blanche to start bugging Disney celebrities. But you know, there are more accessible something like this than they are at D23, then. And. And you also just want to go on a cruise and relax and, you know, eat in the dining rooms and all that. Like, then, Then, then DVC cruises. I mean, not that you have to pick one or the other, but, you know, then I think, you know.
[00:43:55] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:43:56] Speaker A: I mean, but I think, you know, if you. Especially if you're focused on the history and heritage because, you know, you'll have time to talk to Becky Klein or whomever, you know, about that kind of casually as opposed to always just like going to presentation after presentation, you know. And as I said, there is some overlap, but, you know, it's.
I think it just. They're too. They're.
It's easy to say they are this similar because they are, but they're also very different because you're not at a convention hall. You know, it's not Comic Con. It's still a cruise. And so you still can go to the spa. I mean, I've never seen the spa as busy.
So, you know, it's. I mean, now half those treatments are booked by Jodi Benson, but, like, it
[00:44:39] Speaker B: was,
[00:44:44] Speaker A: You know, I think it's, you know, and while some of the presentations can get lines, it's not like, you know, D23, where you're lining up three hours, you know, an hour ahead of time is usually pretty safe.
[00:44:56] Speaker B: What was the crowd like on this cruise, Benji?
Yeah, I feel like. I think DVC cruises.
I mean, if you're a DVC member, you're already a level of Disney fandom above most. And so I feel like you're on a ship with a bunch of people who are really into Disney. But what was the crowd like on board?
[00:45:12] Speaker A: I was surprised, the number of people who. This was their first cruise.
[00:45:15] Speaker C: Okay. Oh, wow.
[00:45:17] Speaker A: That was surprise. It was not insignificant. I would say maybe a quarter.
[00:45:20] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:45:21] Speaker A: You know, when they do the, you know, the cruise.
Yeah, because. And, you know, when I. When I.
[00:45:27] Speaker B: Not.
[00:45:27] Speaker A: When I.
And I knew one of the cast members involved in, like, the embarkation process, you know, the shore side, and I was like, oh, you must have so many pro members at this point. It's like, not really, like, it's like a lot less than you'd expect. So they're. They love Disney, but they're not necessarily.
You don't. I don't want anyone to feel like you need to be hardcore where you're like, yeah, quoting. You know, there's. It's still. It's, you know, it is still accessible to a sort of a more casual fan. And maybe, you know, I mean, I would hope that perhaps by learning a little bit more about Disney, then maybe the more casual fan can become a more, you know, a line fan. But it, it.
There's people on it that are like the hardcore Disney people, but it's not.
I would say it's not even close to a majority. You know, you go to D23 event, you see the same 20 people. Like, you may see three, four, five of those kind of people there, as opposed to. It's a lot of D. Now there's a lot of DBC fans who, like, this is important to them. I mean, there was a guy, like, I swear when they did that DVC song, like, thought it was like the national anthem and like, his hand over his heart.
Yeah. It's funny. One of the DVC sales people, like, is a former cruise director. And so, like, it was interesting to see her interaction because, like, people knew her from the cruises, but now she's on DVC and now they know her from DVC. But it was. It's kind of similar to like D23 where people are like, you know, there's some that are really engaged and some that just want to have a good time. And, you know, obviously a lot less cosplay, but.
[00:47:17] Speaker C: Right. You get a lot of people wearing ears, but they're not. They don't. They're not doing a full cosplay. Like, they. Well.
[00:47:22] Speaker A: And they're not doing like 12 different costumes.
Yeah.
[00:47:25] Speaker C: Right.
[00:47:26] Speaker A: So the thing about a member cruise is they don't tell you what's happening in advance. Like, I don't know what the. I mean, I do, but the. Most people don't know what the presentations are.
[00:47:34] Speaker C: Most people don't. Yeah.
[00:47:35] Speaker A: And. But they will say, okay, we're having a Halloween deck party. And then say, like, we're going to keep everything else secret, but we're doing hollow. So, you know, okay. To bring out my Halloween stuff. Same thing last time they did like the 80s 90s night. So to bring your 80s and 90s gear. And then usually last year they gave out like sweat bands. This year they gave out like a low necklace thing.
But so you do know to prepare for that and then pirate night. But you know the rest. There's not a lot of preparation you could really do. I mean, it's probably a safe bet that certain people will be there, but it's not like we're, you know, you go D23 and they'll debut a new trailer for a movie, and then the next day you show up and someone's already cosplaying this character they just met like the night before.
[00:48:21] Speaker C: Yeah. Hopefully that means like the person is a stream seamstress who lives like in Anaheim. I would.
[00:48:26] Speaker A: Right. Like, like the amount of effort, like just to prepare, like you got to have the fabric in style. Like I, I am impressed by people who can do those like quick 24 hour cosplays. Kudos to you. I could, I, I can, I can't cosplay now. You guys asked me pictures of me on the cruise and I was like, I didn't think. I don't edit. I did not have a single picture. You know, it's. I'm Pearl now, so I got the free pictures, but like I didn't take any.
[00:48:50] Speaker B: Zero pictures of me.
[00:48:51] Speaker A: We're so keyed in into enjoying everything.
[00:48:54] Speaker C: Well, listen, we know that your version of cosplay is wearing like a Roosevelt's button down. Roosevelt's Disney button down. That's your version of cosplay. Benji, I want to ask, you mentioned in terms of lines, like people lining up for things, obviously I think we've learned to expect somewhat of a rope drop culture has gone onto the ships and then for a DVC member cruise, you're going to see that enhanced. So let's put it that way. You mentioned it's not at the Same level of D23 where people are like camped out overnight for certain things. Right. In order to get into certain venues.
But in terms of rope drop culture, you mentioned about an hour for a lot of the events was enough. Were there events where they did have to turn people away? I know, I know a lot of the things they did do more than once. So it did give people more than one opportunity to go to an event. But I'm sure there are some people who were like, I'm gonna see Susan Egan 12 times and whenever she's performing, I'm gonna be in the room. Right. But did you, did you see them turning people away?
[00:49:58] Speaker A: Yeah, but not for anything in the main theater. So it was, it was all, it was stuff at a D lounge.
So, for example, Disney fine art always does like a art demonstration, but then they give like, like tons of product away. So that one's gonna fill up. Because people want free stuff.
[00:50:16] Speaker C: Right. Like Station doing her drawings.
[00:50:19] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And you know, some of stuff in the Buena Vista Theater kind of reached capacity. Some stuff was not well attended at all. So it just kind of, you kind of have to match the expected anticipated demand versus capacity of the room. So like if somebody's in the Walt Disney Theater, you know, no stress, right. Like, you're gonna get in if something is in D Lounge, maybe a little bit harder. And, you know, you.
[00:50:48] Speaker C: You.
[00:50:49] Speaker A: You kind of navigate that. I didn't get turned away from anything. I mean, I refused to wait an hour, more than hour for anything, you know, so it was. But it was, you know, it was.
It was. I might. I got. I heard from other people that they're like, wow, the lines are getting kind of crazy. The one thing that I mean.
[00:51:08] Speaker C: And they.
[00:51:09] Speaker A: Someone. They literally turn people away from the DVC sales presentation, which I thought that was crazy.
[00:51:15] Speaker C: That many people wanted to go. I'll be honest. That's the thing I would skip. I would be like, no, I want to go to all the different talks. Right. Like, I want to go see. Like, of course I want to go to the art presentation. I love those.
But, yeah, it's. That seems crazy. Like, I can buy points some other time.
[00:51:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I mean, they do give you an extra gift if you go. But one of the things that I think probably played a role is that you. Since you're in the balt. It was pretty cold, and so, you know, there's not a lot to do. Like, you're not gonna be just hanging out on deck. You know, you're not watching Funnel Legend, so, like, you need to do something in the ship. And I mean. But it also, like, it was also the regular crew stuff, like, was busier than I had seen. Like, Bingo. The Bingo line, which was an evolution. And the. The line went all the way to D Lounge.
[00:52:04] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:52:05] Speaker A: And then the Pandora Charm, or not Pandora Charm, the charm giveaway at the store. I don't go to whatever that was.
That line was crazy. So, like, I mean, and I. I mean, maybe I. You know, I'm not.
I don't cruise as much as you guys do, so, like, maybe that's just a culture change. But I was like, I've never seen that giveaway thing, like, the line go all the way to the great hall, like, or the atrium, like. Like this. Like, what is happening here?
[00:52:32] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
We had one other question in the chat about events and sort of events conflicting with other events. Right. Were there times where there were multiple events that you wanted to go to, but you had to sort of choose between, like, two events you wanted to go to? Or were there enough repetition of events that you were able to kind of figure out that Tetris and get to go to both, just not at the same time?
[00:52:58] Speaker A: Yeah, we Were you would at least in this one if not mistaken. Because I, I think I attended one of everything except one thing which was just me sleeping.
And you could. Because they, they, they rotate now you have to plan like because it's not going to guide you that way. So you do have to go through and look and say, okay, if I do this one, that means I gotta do this one. That means I can't do this one so I gotta do that one. Like you do have to like play Tetris. But it is possible to see basically everything. I mean I, there was like a DJ dance, like a special DJ dance party it couldn't have gone to. But like that's not really what you mean. Like you're talking about the Disney content which.
Yeah, I, I, we saw everything and
[00:53:45] Speaker B: did you notice if, did they do a DVC trivia?
[00:53:48] Speaker A: They did not not do a DVC trivia as far as I noticed.
[00:53:53] Speaker B: Yeah, that would, that would be interesting for them to do on the cruise
[00:53:56] Speaker C: since trip there's yeah, since they do cruise line. Yeah, since they do Disney Cruise Line trivia and some other that would have been, that's fun but they kind of COVID some of that with parks resorts type trivia.
[00:54:06] Speaker A: Well it's funny because like I was always like I'm not gonna play Disney trivia on a DVC cruise because I'll embarrass my like I don't want to lose Disney trivia. Like I don't do that and but I was like these are DVC members. Like they're gonna know a lot. Like it's not gonna be the easy peasy. Like on the Disney adventure. It was not our no win disappear
[00:54:24] Speaker B: and
[00:54:27] Speaker A: but like I had nothing else to do. Like during a period I was like, okay, I'll do Can't remember what it was. Was it Pixar trivia?
It was something like that. And I did it and there were some good players but I still won.
[00:54:40] Speaker C: So I mean I would expect nothing less. Benji, Benji, I've got to say this, like talking about the DVC member cruise that you all went on and of course seeing our, you know, other friends social media posts over it and hearing just all about it makes me that much more excited for next year's DVC member cruise since that's going to be our first member cruise and I because I want, I'm going to answer my own question that I gave you. Like who is like D23 for versus who is a DVC member cruise for? Because I'm going to tell You. I am the person that the DVC member cruises for, but I don't really, I'll be honest, I like watching the big panels for D23 on my TV at home. I don't want to pay like $2,000 or whatever ridiculous cost it is now to go. The only reason I want to go to D23 is because of like, exclusive merch. Like this sweatshirt that I'm wearing that.
[00:55:41] Speaker B: Here's the question I have for you, Benji. Knowing that next April is our first DVC member cruise.
Like, pro tips. What are the pro tips? What are the things we should do to prepare for that empty suitcase?
[00:55:55] Speaker A: Yeah, okay, that is, that was a pro tip I got myself when I was like. Because, you know, you try and pack efficiently. Especially, you know, you go into Europe, you're like, you don't want to, but you're like, no, we need to have like, if you can fit all of your clothes and it just fits perfectly. That's not enough. You need like the whole space.
[00:56:13] Speaker C: Yeah. You need a nest, a suitcase.
[00:56:15] Speaker A: Because not only do you get the DVC crew, now, granted, you probably don't need to take these anymore, but you also get the castaway club gifts.
[00:56:21] Speaker B: Right, Right.
[00:56:22] Speaker A: And you're like. And between that and the DVC kiosk gifts and, and just.
[00:56:28] Speaker C: And if you buy any merch either at court or in the. Yeah, either I think he's main sale or at port or.
[00:56:33] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I mean next year, next one's a little easier because it's, you know, you're not, not doing it having to book an international flight and all that. But it's, that is my pro tip is pack, pack suitcase. Now the other thing, there's three ways to get information about what the special activities are. One is the DCL Navigator app. Then there's a little booklet they give you as you embark. And then in the room will be a magazine that kind of gives more color.
But the, the Navigator app you can do kind of while you're still waiting to, for your boarding group to be called.
And then you can get the booklet and kind of cross reference, make sure you didn't miss anything and then, then get the magazine because sometimes there's even more stuff that's not like, kind of like in the booklet or like activities that are not necessarily time based. Like, you know, oh, God, you know, I mean, they didn't do it this time, but like Lorcana thing, you know, like, so there was, there's sometimes there's other activities that are not necessarily, you know they're ongoing or things you should know. So check all three of those. And because they may not all line up perfectly, so you kind of have to kind of play a little detective until, like, kind of get everything synced up. But, like, for example, John Stamos, he wasn't in the magazine. Like, they put a separate piece of paper in the room because, like, I guess that got added later once Tony went through his Rolodex one more time. But it was.
[00:58:02] Speaker C: And said, john, please, you know, Uncle Jesse, please come on board with us. Yeah.
[00:58:06] Speaker A: So the weirdest thing. I think I can share this. The weirdest thing is on the last night of the cruise, like, I just was kind of still amped, and, like, I wasn't ready to go to bed, and so I went by D lounge. They were doing karaoke, and not a soul in there.
[00:58:19] Speaker C: Right.
[00:58:20] Speaker A: So I go and sit down. I'm checking my messages, and then in walks John Stamos, his wife, his kids and friends. Then Brett Iwan walked in, and I was like. Like, I feel like I don't belong here.
[00:58:32] Speaker C: You're sitting next to Uncle Jesse and
[00:58:34] Speaker A: Mickey Mouse, so you're watching Caitlin's Stamos, like, singer song. Like, this feels like a private moment. And now, I gotta say, all. Even the celebrities, John Samos jumped on them. You know, obviously, the Disney legends, they were all very gracious and met people. John Stamos did not turn anyone down for a photo that I saw. So, you know, I can't imagine being trapped on a ship. When you're a celebrity, it's got to be a little intimidating because not everyone gives you space. Yeah, but it was.
It was kind of interesting. You know, then you have the sort of, like, regular. Like, the Josh Stricklands of the world and, you know, the Jody's and Susans, who are, you know, just part of the furniture on these things now.
[00:59:17] Speaker B: So I. I thought. I was really hoping against hope, Benji, that story was going to end in a duet with you and John Stamos. Karaoke.
[00:59:24] Speaker C: So they were gonna sing a beast. A Beach Boys song. They were. Yeah.
[00:59:30] Speaker A: Yeah. And y. Trying to even think what they.
Anyway, it's.
Yeah. But Brett did his song as Mickey.
[00:59:40] Speaker C: Oh, did he. Oh, did you get video, Benji?
[00:59:43] Speaker A: I didn't. Because it felt like. Not like it wasn't, like, weird. It felt weird because, like, I was literally like, there was no one else in this room.
Like, I don't want to get a text from Brad being like, why are you videoing me? Don't put that up on the Internet.
[01:00:00] Speaker C: I would have taken some video of that. I gotta.
But no, I love that. I love that. You know, one other thing I'll, I'll point out that we heard from, from our friend Ed, who was on board with you, was that in order to get, like, the DVC gifts from the member desk, they made each individual person come. And the reason they did that is because in the past, people would come and get more than, you know, for themselves and maybe more than who is actually in their stateroom. And then it meant that other guests weren't able to get those gifts because they would run out. And so. So it sounds like they were a little bit more regimented this time around with the giving out of those gifts. And then the same goes for the merchandise in the store. They were limiting it one per person. So if you were buying for your, you know, husband or wife or spouse or whatnot, they had to be there so that they could sort of check off.
You know, that was the one person.
[01:00:58] Speaker A: One other thing about the gifts that you get at the thing is assuming they don't run out, which I don't know, that they run out. Ran out this time because they were checking. Like, you don't need. If you miss a day, they will still give you yesterday's. Like, you do not need to. Do not stress about getting your DBC member cruise hat. First of all, it's just a hat. But second of all, like, they will still have it, you know, later on in the cruise.
So, you know, you don't need to go. They say come by every day. But if you miss a day, like, I always miss the first day because I forget to go because it's the upstairs and it's like, what was yesterday's? And then, you know, they might say, oh, you know, go over here or something. But they will get you what you need to go.
[01:01:38] Speaker C: Don't.
[01:01:39] Speaker A: Do not let this cause you anxiety.
[01:01:42] Speaker C: And same goes for a regular cruise. If you want to go by the DVC desk to get your chapstick hat, string bag, luggage tags, your tattoo for pirate night, I mean, like, they have all of those things at the kiosk for the entire cruise. So if you go on a later date and you tell them, oh, I missed the day, that was the luggage tag, they will, they will find a luggage tag for you and, and hand it to you. They do sometimes run out of those magic band sliders, though. So if, if you don't get one of those, a lot of the time they don't have Them on board.
[01:02:14] Speaker A: I have to say I, I, I can't tell you how many of those like postcards with Walt and Lillian on a cruise ship holding a plush McKay have because they give him. But like I can't throw away a picture of wall. It feels wrong. So like it just goes on the desk.
A pile of them on like, you know, I mean I can get rid of the. Do they still give like the glow like, like the blinky light thing, wristband
[01:02:41] Speaker C: thing that was, they don't give that one anymore. I will tell you. So we don't, I don't think we have the Walton Lily one but we have way too many of where at some point we had way too many of the one that was like, it was from Riviera so they were giving it out for a while. It was like Mickey and Minnie in their like Riviera themed clothing and it was like a, you know, a print but it kind of looked like a drawing anyway. It was a great one. But I think we got like six of them at one point. I, you know, because it was like every time that's what they were giving out.
Well Benji, thank you so much for joining us. Is there anything as we wrap up the show, is there anything we've missed from the member crews? Otherwise I want to let you give a plug in for Laughing Place.
[01:03:21] Speaker A: Obviously I just want to thank the member crews team. You know, the Ryan's assembled quite the crew. Whether it's the warm up guys, you know, obviously Tim o' Day and Michael Young and, and Chris Ostrander and they, the people that produce this thing.
It's just very intentional. They really try and do and they care and the member cruise is not, it's so much more than the sum of its parts. It's the little details that really come into play that you know, really make it special. And it's kudos to heart that they put into it. It's not a corporate mandate. This is not anything that is moving anyone's needle, you know, in terms of the business. It's just a great, it's great because the team is great. That puts it on and you know, they have to work with some crazy stuff. I mean, you know, you know, especially when you're evolving the synergy stuff, you know, upcoming things like that can move a lot really close and they, they navigate it fairly seamlessly. And I think that obviously the crew of the ship is wonderful but the cast that put this event together really deserve a lot of credit.
[01:04:41] Speaker C: Yeah, it's layering it on Right. It's like how they used to layer on sometimes ABDs on top of cruises. Right. You're layering on another layer on top of a cruise and so it creates this additional staffing need and additional coordination that has to happen. So super.
Sounds super awesome. Benji, tell folks how they can find
[01:05:04] Speaker A: laughingplace.com well, they can go to laughingplace.com that's the website.
You know, we're also, you know, YouTube.com laughingplace you know, social is either laughing place or laughing underscore plays. But you go to laughingplace.com will get you in the right place. And trying to think what we got coming up that people might be excited about. And, and
[01:05:28] Speaker C: there's lots of articles about all the stuff that you guys got to do on board for the D number cruise. There's lots of articles about D23.
[01:05:36] Speaker B: So if people coming soon will be be your coverage of the Believe event. So.
[01:05:41] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
[01:05:42] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:05:43] Speaker A: And, and then you know, I would always say if as a Disney fan, if you don't know when the Disney fiscal year starts and ends, that's something you should learn because that's always a very interesting time to follow the comings of the Walt Disney Company. So this year because of it's actually a 53 year, 53 week year on October 4th, the Sunday. But you know that that week should be very interesting. It's also the Believe week, but you know, there may be some other magic you're hearing about that week as well. So you know, follow along and if you have any feedback, please let us know. And you know we always love working with you guys. You guys are subject matter experts on cruises.
You guys know more about cruising than, than anyone I know, including most of the people at Disney Cruise Line.
I mean, it'll be interesting. I don't know how much you've talked about Natasha, but I'm really excited to see what she brings to Disney Cruise Line in the months and years to come.
[01:06:45] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure, for sure. It's a great new addition and bringing her over from Disneyland Paris and yeah, we're excited to see what she brings to the table as well. Well, Benji, thank you so much for joining us. For those out there listening and watch, we will be back next week at the same time, same place.
[01:07:05] Speaker B: Hopefully. Hopefully. I'm having some fair dental surgery on Thursday and I should be back in action but we'll see how it goes.
[01:07:15] Speaker C: I mean in the worst case scenario, maybe he can just produce in the background and I'll host the show because I still need him to produce the show.
[01:07:22] Speaker B: But this is AI Brian right now.
[01:07:25] Speaker C: AI
[01:07:27] Speaker A: Cruising, cruising, cruising.
[01:07:32] Speaker C: That would be an easy bot to make, right?
[01:07:34] Speaker B: I'd be like Max Headroom for those old enough to remember him.
[01:07:38] Speaker A: It's funny how much that Max Headroom has come up in my life in
[01:07:41] Speaker B: the last few weeks.
[01:07:44] Speaker C: Anyway, we will we should be back next Tuesday at 5pm Pacific, 8pm Eastern. We will have Melissa joining us. She is a listener of the show and she's going to join us to talk about a late season Alaska cruise. She I think just got off off yesterday of a Disney wonder cruise. And so she's going to come on and tell us about what it's like sailing to Alaska in September because obviously most of our guests that go to Alaska do so kind of in the midst of the summer. And we, we did it at the end of August. So we'll hear from her about the differences and then I will also tell folks, I'll give you a preview two weeks from now. We're going to have wonderful friend of the show, Cindy and she was on the member cruise with you, Benji. She's going to talk both about the member cruise but also she did a back to back. So she was on the Belgium cruise that followed the member sailing. So we're going to talk a little bit about the member cruise and get we'll call it the more layperson guest experience than Benji's experience, which is a little bit deep dive because he knows all the people on board and the people who produce the event. But we'll get Cindy's experience. She's had a lot of experience with DVC member cruises as well. Well and then as I mentioned, the back to back Belgium cruise. So join us next week. The following week we also will have our normal schedule of recorded episodes coming out.
Stay tuned. We hope to have our episode coming out soon about our Adventures by Disney River Cruise. That will be an audio only episode and that will be similar to our Amsterdam episode without all of the tears
[01:09:23] Speaker B: and the crying and the emotions associated about the Holocaust.
[01:09:26] Speaker C: So don't worry, we won't that one. Yes, she's looking at us like we're crazy, but that episode was really heavy. This is that similar format but without all the heavy stuff. So it's a great episode. It's coming soon.
It's in the final editing process currently so it's sure to be a good.
[01:09:45] Speaker B: I am just awaiting so I will spill the beans a bit here. I think we've already talked about this on the show.
Disney Media Relations and DCL PR or sorry, abdpr VR.
Let us talk to one of the river cruise guides while we were on the ship and interview her for about 20, 30 minutes. And so she will make an appearance in that episode central to the theme. So we're just waiting for approval to, to submit her audio out into the the universe here. And once we have it, that show will go live. So. Yes.
All right. So Sam, Benji, I just wanted. Sam already said it, but I just want to thank you for coming on. You've been such a, such a, it's been such a pleasure to get to know you and the entire Laughing Place team over the last couple of years. Love having you on. We always look forward to having you guys on. So thank you so much for spending some time with us. And with that I think we say,
[01:10:36] Speaker C: and we have to say thank you to Doobie for the introduction in the first place again.
[01:10:40] Speaker B: There you go. So with that, I'll say, I think we'll say see you real soon. And we'll be back soon. So talk to you later, everybody.
[01:10:46] Speaker D: See you.
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[01:13:24] Speaker A: Sam.
