Ep. 710 - Disney Wonder to Alaska With 19 People: Excursions, Dining & Tips

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Freezing. I was not expecting it to be as cold as it was. And it had to be in the 30s. And all the kids swam. The parents were on the, you know, wow. [00:00:10] Speaker B: On Glacier Day. [00:00:11] Speaker A: Yeah, they were on the lounge chairs, like, covered up with the blankets and they had their hats and stuff on and the kids were just going down the slide and. Oh, they just had a. The kids had a ball. [00:00:33] Speaker B: Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of the DCL Duo podcast brought to you by WeDoTravel. Right, life is short. Take the trip and let those folks that we do travel right do the planning so you can do the relaxing. Welcome back to the show, guys. As you can tell from my voice, it is Sam. I am your host today. Brian is not able to join me. He is busy with some other stuff for the podcast. But never fear, I am not alone. I will. You will not have to listen to me drone on for an hour today. I've got a great guest on tap today. I am welcoming for the first time on this show, but not a brand new Disney cruiser. A semi, semi new Disney cruiser. Sarah. Welcome to the show, Sarah. [00:01:13] Speaker A: Thank you. [00:01:14] Speaker B: It's so lovely to have you. Today we are recording on a, I guess midday on a Sunday afternoon. So thank you for joining me and breaking up your Sunday to chat with me. But Sarah, before we dive into talking about your amazing cruise on the Disney Wonder to Alaska, why don't you tell folks your Disney background and then your cruising background. I know you're a travel advisor, but let's start like before you became a travel advisor. [00:01:43] Speaker A: Okay, so my Disney background is I grew up in the 80s and 90s, so I like to think that's like the golden age of Disney. I know maybe younger people wouldn't think [00:01:52] Speaker B: that, but you know, I'm with you, Sarah. [00:01:55] Speaker A: You know, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Lion King and then. But I actually didn't start going to. We went to Disney World for the first time when I was adult. An adult. I think I was around 23 or 24. So I didn't grow up like going to Disney. As far as cruising background, I have been cruising since the 90s. I think my first cruise, I think was on the big Red boat, but it was just with my show choir and then, yeah, it was really fun. And I've been on Carnival. We've, we've really hit other than Norwegian, I think we've been on all the major lines, so Carnival, Royal Holland, Princess, you know, we've hit most, most of those. We even did a Crystal river cruise. When Crystal was still doing river Cruises. And in 2022 was our first Disney cruise and we did Mediterranean out of Barcelona and that went to Rome. [00:02:49] Speaker B: Oh, wow. Okay, Interesting. Your two Disney cruises are like two epic destinations. One in the Med and one in Alaska. That's so interesting. Why, why did you decide to start, you know, cruising on Disney? Why'd you choose that cruise in 2022 as opposed to one of the other lines that you had sailed on? [00:03:09] Speaker A: Well, we were going to cruise with children. So we have eight children at the time. We had five children going with us from 7 to 18. So Disney seemed like a really good choice for us. We had done a Royal a couple years before that. And I know this is. I just wasn't a big fan of Royal. It just the ships were so large that we come from a teeny tiny town. I think we only have like 3,000 people in our town. It's actually a village. So when we were on the Harmony of the Seas, there was more people than your whole town, than in our whole town at the time. In 2022, the magic was in Europe. So that was much more manageable for us. And I don't know, we just, I, we love Disney World and we loved everything Disney. So we thought, well, let's try it. Let's try the cruise. [00:04:04] Speaker B: Awesome. Wow. Eight children and five of them joined you on the previous cruise. How many joined you on this cruise to Alaska? [00:04:13] Speaker A: Five. Five again. So yeah. [00:04:16] Speaker B: And what are the, what's the age range? [00:04:18] Speaker A: So the ones on this Cruise had our 11 year old, our 13 year old, our two 18 year olds, and then our oldest who is 33. [00:04:27] Speaker B: So wow, what a range. [00:04:29] Speaker A: Yeah. And then he, our oldest with that. The oldest, he has a wife and then a seven year old and a four year old. So our grandkids were with us. So yeah, it was. And then we had my mom and dad and my sister and her husband and their five kids. So there was 19 of us on this cruise. [00:04:45] Speaker B: Oh my goodness. That is a big, big group for planning and a wide range of ages. Um, what's. So who, who's the youngest in the group then? [00:04:56] Speaker A: So we had 24 year olds and then it went all the way up to 72, which was my dad. [00:05:02] Speaker B: Wow. Yeah. So okay. A huge range. Now is that why you chose Alaska? I mean, I think Alaska is a great multi generational cruise. I mean sailing on Disney in general is great for multi generational sailing. Uh, you can do, of course, Caribbean, Bahamas. Those are pretty EAS for multi generational Sailing. But why Alaska? [00:05:22] Speaker A: I. This is going to be a horrible answer, but my main, my number one reason is my husband does not like doing Caribbean or Bahamian cruises. He just, he's not a tropical person, you know, so I have to choose ones that are, you know, not, not tropical. I mean, we went. We've even done one that was like a Canadian. You know, we left from Montreal and went. [00:05:47] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, like in Northeast. Yeah. [00:05:49] Speaker A: So I, if I want to cruise, I have to choose. You know, like I said, we even did a Danube river river cruise just because I like to cruise, but he doesn't like to do tropical. And there's not a lot of choices. Really. [00:06:02] Speaker B: No, I mean, the. Most of the cruises that's. I mean, it's a great. But most of the cruises that are out there on all the major lines, like, most of them are Caribbean and Bahamian. Right. Like, they have different ports that they go to, different islands that they go to, but they're mostly in that region of the world, at least sailing from the U.S. obviously, you've got more, more options when you're sailing out of Europe and more options when you're sailing out of Australia. But on the American lines. Yeah, the, the biggest number of choices are in that. In the Caribbean or the, or the Bahamas. That's so interesting. Does he just not like the, like, is he not a beach person? Does he not like hot weather? Like, what is it about sailing in those areas? [00:06:43] Speaker A: I don't know. He just. We've done. I mean, like I said, we did a royal and I believe a princess and a celebrity. We did. [00:06:50] Speaker B: All [00:06:53] Speaker A: two of them were Caribbean and the other one was just a Bahamian one. And he just did not, he did not care for them. [00:06:59] Speaker B: So I might, I wonder if he would like a Disney one. I wonder if he would like the Disney private island experience. You'll have to ask him. [00:07:07] Speaker A: And see, I, I honestly, I am trying to convince him. I, in fact, this morning, I am trying to get him to do a back to back in November, and he's fighting me so. [00:07:18] Speaker B: Well, you know, play a couple of our shows for him. Because I would, I would say that if you pick the right itinerary, like an itinerary, for example, that only goes to Disney's private islands, or even if you go to one of the other places, you just, you know, maybe don't get off it, it might change his mind about what that experience can be like. But, you know, the convincing has to happen first. That's, that's really funny. Okay, so now where are you guys? What part of the country you guys coming from to get up to Vancouver. Vancouver for this sailing on the Wonder. [00:07:49] Speaker A: So we flew out of Detroit, Michigan. [00:07:51] Speaker B: Okay. [00:07:52] Speaker A: So, you know, not. We're not east coast, but. Yeah, but like, we're east coast time and everything where we live, so. [00:07:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. All right, well, now, how far in advance did you plan on coming into Vancouver and how did all of that go? [00:08:07] Speaker A: So we planned on coming in two days early. So our cruise left on a Monday. We came in on Saturday morning. [00:08:14] Speaker B: Perfect. Yeah, you get plenty, plenty of time if there's any delays. You also have time to do a couple of things in the city of Vancouver. I think that's the great, a great way of planning. And of course, from Detroit, I'm sure there are plenty of options. Direct flight from Detroit to Vancouver, we [00:08:30] Speaker A: actually only had one and it was the WestJet. And they actually, they actually we could have flown, flown direct to Seattle, no problem. But it was moving 19 people from Seattle to Vancouver. There was. I just wasn't going to try that. And actually, two weekends ago, when we were gonna fly WestJet was, I think it was their flight attendants that were going to strike. And so we had got this thing, you can cancel your flight for, you know, if you want to. And I thought, oh, no, what are we gonna do if they strike? And we got out okay. But I talked to somebody when I got on the ship and they were coming from Toronto and they actually did cancel theirs. They had, they, they did do the strike. They canceled theirs and they had just got in Monday morning from Toronto. Wow. Yeah. [00:09:17] Speaker B: So I was really glad. Yeah, well, and that's a good point about flying 19 people, you know, and then if you had flown to Seattle, there are options for getting up, of course, from Seattle to Vancouver, it's about, you know, three, three and a half hour drive. But you'd have to rent a couple of cars for that many people and of course, a lot of luggage or hire a car service. And dealing with the border can, you know, be time consuming as well. But the other thing is, you know, your other options are, you know, taking a bus or taking a train. And those, the dollars can actually add up for those costs per person, especially for that many people. So I do think, you know, if you're just a smaller family flying into Seattle and then getting up to Vancouver, pretty easy, a larger group, a little bit, a little bit harder to coordinate. Now, Sarah, since you're a travel advisor, I take it you were the wrangler of all Things in terms of booking and choosing staterooms and all kind of stuff. What if anything, were you planning in advance? Like were there things that you were like, okay, we want to do this as a group in terms of excursions or onboard experiences. And then of course, dining. I mean that's a lot of people to coordinate for dining. Like was there anything that you were looking forward to or trying to plan in advance? [00:10:36] Speaker A: I mean, dining. We did, we linked all our reservations. We all did dine at the same time. We just had one serving team, which I was kind of surprised. I thought maybe they'd give us two, but. But they did a phenomenal job as far as excursions. I knew it was going to be really difficult and there was such a range. I mean, my parents don't get around really well, so I knew, you know, there was just some things they would not be able to do. So I just kind of coordinated there. So there was six in my immediate family, so my husband and I and then our four boys still at home. So I just kind of coordinated us and then I just kind of let everybody know, like these are the things we're doing. But there is these options as well. If you'd like to do that. Here's some free things that you can do. I mean, I just didn't know what people wanted to do. So that's kind of what I did as far as excursions. But as far as like transfers, we all stayed at the same hotel beforehand. That stuff, you know, I coordinated for everyone. [00:11:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Now speaking of that, so it sounds like you did a sort of a choose your own adventure in terms of port excursions, which makes sense because with that big of a range, you might not all want to do the same things or be really be able to do the same, same things because some of the younger kids of course can't do certain activities. Certain, you know, some Disney Cruise Line has age limits for certain things. Sometimes the tour providers age limits are actually lower. But Disney has their own. But in terms of transfers, like how did you coordinate that? Did you book through Disney Cruise Line any transfers or did you book those privately? [00:12:05] Speaker A: Nope, I did those all private. I just, you know, I just kind of did a Google search and we ended up going with the, the company that we chose in Vancouver was Quest and they just, they sent two big sprinter vans to the airport and picked us all up and took us. We, and we stayed at the Pan Pacific. So yeah, they took us right down there and then I, you know, the same company picked us up from the Cruise port. It was super simple and easy. So. [00:12:29] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and staying at the Pan Pacific makes it even that much easier because you only have the one transfer from the airport and then you literally have your bags picked up from your room and then you, you know, take the elevator down and you're at Canada Place. Yes. Yeah. Now tell, tell me any highlights from your time in Vancouver before. Did you guys do anything that you would recommend to. To folks who are listening? [00:12:53] Speaker A: We ended up doing the just the hop on, hop off trolley. I liked that. I mean it took you to the major. We didn't. We only had really one full day there. So it took us to all the major, you know, Stanley Park, Granville Island. Those are the two things I wanted to see. If we had more time, I would have liked to go out outside of Vancouver to, you know, so that's basically what we did. We, you know, we ate at some good restaurants. I have to look at the one restaurant was really good. It was Dinh Tai Fung. I think it was. [00:13:23] Speaker B: Yes. I love. So did Tai Fung is actually a chain. [00:13:28] Speaker A: Yes. [00:13:29] Speaker B: In Asia now. It is a chain in the US as well. But there's a. Not a. They're not in every major city. There is one in New York City now, but we've had them in Seattle actually. So the first ones in the US opened in California and then they expanded to the Seattle area. It's like my favorite dumpling place. So for those who have not eaten at a Din Tai Fung, it is like soup dumpling. So it's Taiwanese style. It's fantastic. It's so, so good. And it, it's a chain, but it's not like it doesn't feel like a chain restaurant. It's really, really good. Yeah. [00:14:02] Speaker A: And it was fun. It was a fun experience. You know, if you haven't, I mean, we, like I said, we live in a teeny tiny town. We don't get that kind of experience here. So my boys thought it was wonderful. So we, we enjoyed that. And then there was also a really good sushi place right by Pan Pacific called Miku. And that was really good too. So. So we didn't do a whole lot. And, and honestly I did not. Like I said, we've been to Europe before. I did not expect the time change to affect me so bad. And it was, I don't know if it was just going, you know, instead of going backwards or going forwards. It was, it was a killer. So. [00:14:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, it is a, it's a three hour time Difference, of course, just to Vancouver and then going to Alaska, I think it's another hour that you usually change time. Right. In, in this, in that direction. Because I remember when we sailed to Alaska, it was for us it was only one hour at sea. Time difference. Right. Because we're on the west coast. But yeah, I mean, four hours can, can screw up your sleep schedule for sure. Yeah. Well, let's talk about embarcation. And by the way, I have heard about Miku. We have not eaten there ourselves, but we've heard good things. So that's where I'm going to have to try next time we head up to Vancouver. I'm going to have to try Miku. Yeah. So let's talk about embarcation day. What time did you guys, you know, call for your luggage pickup and what time did you head down for your port arrival time? [00:15:24] Speaker A: We probably called. Right. They told us to call before between 8 and 11. So I think we probably called at the earlier end of that. And they are, they are super fast there. I mean, if you call for your luggage there, I bet they were there within 10 minutes, maybe 15. And our embarkation was 11:45. We had cruised before. My sister and my parents hadn't, so I, they had a little bit later than us, but it was, it was pretty, pretty fast. I mean, they got us on, on the ship. I think we were on probably by 12. We got in line about 11:37. You know, we started to go in and I think we were on by about 1220, so. [00:16:04] Speaker B: Oh, fantastic. Yeah, yeah. Now, this being your second time on Disney Cruise Line, your first time was on either the Dream or the Fantasy. [00:16:13] Speaker A: Probably the Dream wasn't on the Magic. [00:16:14] Speaker B: Oh, on the Magic. Oh, yeah. Because it was before. Yeah, 2022 is a couple years ago. So. Before they switched over. Yeah, that's actually when we sailed. We sailed in the Norwegian fjords the same year as you, so the same season on the Magic. Now, okay, so you're, you're going from the, the magic to the wonder. What was your, I mean, same, of course, class of ships, the same size. What was your, what were your first impressions of the beautiful Disney Wonder? [00:16:42] Speaker A: We loved it. I mean, it felt like, I mean it really felt like the same ship when we, when we got on. But yeah, we, we loved it. I did, I did think she was showing her age a bit. I do. I think tomorrow she's going in the dry dock from. I think they had one cruise after us and then when those people get out. So I thought you know, I could tell she was showing her age. One thing I didn't remember when we were on the Magic, and maybe it was different is the, the stairs. It was really annoying me because it's like wide stairs and then it went to like real skinny stairs. And so it was like kind of difficult. And I always use the stairs, so it was like sort of difficult going up and down the stairs because it was like there was only enough room on those skinny stairs for maybe two people. And you were real close. So that was one thing, you know, that I was like, ooh, they need to expand those if they can. [00:17:34] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and it's. I'm trying to think the style of the stairs is pretty much the same on, even on the wish class now. Yeah, I think the style is the same where you kind of get these sort of two wider sets and then they split and so you get a skinnier set and then a wider set and then a skinnier set. Yeah, yeah. Depending upon which direction you're walking. Yeah. That's funny. That's a funny thing to notice. I'm, I have never really thought about that. Now, not everybody you mentioned in your group had sailed on Disney before. Any first timer impressions? Good, bad? I mean, and had they sailed on other ships? [00:18:14] Speaker A: My parents had sailed before, but I don't believe any. And I think my sister had sailed when she was a child with my parents, but other than that, I don't believe anyone else had ever sailed before. And everyone seemed to really enjoy it. I do think for my parents, they're 70 and 72 there, it might have been a little much for them. They're not huge travelers. And then the amount of children and I think, I think they would have been happier with like maybe a Princess or a Holland cruise, but they were good sports. [00:18:44] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, a Disney cruise has a different vibe, a different level of activity, and a different level of, let's call it, boisterousness. Right. From all of the children running around and all of the characters. And if you want a more relaxed vibe, definitely. Especially in Alaska, Princess and Holland and even Norwegian are all kind of known for that. So definitely other options depending upon what, what style of cruising you. You want. Now I want to dive into the ports because of course on, you know, Alaska itinerary, the ports are the stars. Not to say that the ship isn't a star as well. There's so much to do and see on board. But I'm curious, you know, of course you, you were on sort of a standard wonder. Itinerary so we're talking. I know I'm going to get this order wrong, but Skagway, Juneau, Kashikan, and of course you have a day as well, Glacier day. Usually at the beginning. Let's start with glacier day. What. What did you get up to? I know it's not really a port, but we talk about it as if it's a port day because there are excursions if you want to do the glacier explorer boat trip that gets you closer to the glacier. But what did you guys do on. On glacier day? [00:20:00] Speaker A: We just sort of relaxed getting ready because I don't think. I think we kind of got in late. I mean, it seemed like they said we'd be there between like 2:30 and 4:30 or something. And I think we were on the later end of that. But yeah, we just sort of relaxed. We went to the adults only area for a while. It was freezing. I was not expecting it to be as cold as it was. And it had to be in the 30s. And all the kids swam. Their parents were on the, you know. Wow. [00:20:27] Speaker B: On glacier day. [00:20:28] Speaker A: Yeah, they were on the lounge chairs, like covered up with the blankets and they had their hats and stuff on and the kids were just, just going down the slide and. Oh, they just had. The kids had a ball. But we didn't go on the boat or anything to get off. It was just for six of us. It was quite. That would have been quite expensive. So we just enjoyed it from the boat. [00:20:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and it's funny you mentioned swimming because you absolutely can swim when you're on an Alaska cruise because the pools are heated. Disney does heat those pools up. So I mean, they're not like. It's not like there are hot tubs and the pools are not as warm as the hot tubs, but they are warm. The only issue is getting out of the pool. You are freezing your butt off. Yeah. [00:21:11] Speaker A: It did not seem to bother them because they swam every single day on this cruise. [00:21:14] Speaker B: Wow, that's amazing. Now did you all wait for any of the character pictures or anything? [00:21:22] Speaker A: No, we didn't. I know my daughter in law and her daughter did and she said they waited for what was either Mickey or Minnie. And she really said the line was not too bad. But my older boys were just off doing their own. Yeah, my husband and I just kind of did an adult only day. [00:21:43] Speaker B: Awesome. That's like, that's a fantastic, relaxing, you know, way to spend a day. I mean the, the character lines, I have to say, while they can look quite Long. And while a lot people tend to wait up early, especially for Mickey and Minnie in that. In the morning time, the later lines, it sounds like, can be little bit. You know, a little bit shorter, but they really move people through. So it's. It's. They. It's one picture, and you're done. And they don't let you take, like, 12 on the. On Glacier Day. On other, you know, days and other photo opportunities, they will let you take multiple photos and multiple iterations of your family. But if you want that Glacier Day picture on deck with the characters, you get one photo for your group, and that's it. And then if you want, you can get back to. If you have enough time, you can get back in line and get another picture in sort of a different configuration. But they want to keep people moving rather than letting one family sort of monopolize the time of the character because it is such a coveted picture for Disney Cruise Line fans in general. All right, so Glacier day relaxing day. Did you get some hot chocolate on the deck or anything like that? [00:22:50] Speaker A: Yes, we did. Yeah, I did. That was pretty good hot chocolate, too. [00:22:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Well, what was your first port of call that? Skagway. [00:23:00] Speaker A: It was Skagway. [00:23:01] Speaker B: Yeah. So what did you guys get up to on Skagway? [00:23:04] Speaker A: So, actually, I had heard about this company from DCL Duo. It was called Beyond Skagway. And they were. It was phenomenal. They picked us up. Right. And I think it was pro. It probably was our favorite of all of our excursions. But they picked us up right from the port that our. Where we. Where we docked at, and they took us up into the Yukon. And so about a week or so beforehand, they had sent an email that said, hey, if you want to save some time, you can order lunch ahead of time. So we ordered lunch from a place called Glacial Coffee House that was right in Skagway, and the tour guide picked it up for us on the way. Yeah, so we. That was really great. The. My. We got to stop at, like, on a waterfall where it was coming off of a glacier, and he let us drink from it. He said, you can drink from this. So that my kids thought that was amazing. And, you know, we had a lot of photo opportunities, and we ended up going and stopping in Carecross. It's just a really teeny, tiny town. They have a beach there. I. I thought it was pretty cold that day, but the people up there were on the beach sunning themselves in the water. [00:24:17] Speaker B: These are Alaskans. They're tough people, I guess, because I [00:24:20] Speaker A: I thought, oh, I couldn't imagine being in a bathing suit right now. But, but yeah, they were just, and they were swimming and everything else. So yeah, it was, that was a pretty fun excursion. So you just, you could have either taken the train part way up and then met the excursion at that point or, or done the opposite. You could have done the excursion and, and got on the train and went back down. But we, we just chose not to do the train. We did that. This one we did take my parents on and I thought it might just be a little too much for them, so. [00:24:52] Speaker B: Well, and this is nice because it's one of those where it's a, it's a car service essentially. They're driving you up and, and then you can also sort of model your day as to how you want. You can spend a little bit extra time in one spot and a little bit less time in a different spot versus on the train. You are at the mercy of the schedule. Right. So it's you, you don't have as much flexibility now. Of course you have your total excursion time that does limit the, what you're going to be able to do. And also you're all aboard time that limits what you're going to be able to do. You can't stay out forever. But how long of an excursion was this one with beyond Skagway? [00:25:25] Speaker A: It was a seven hour excursion. And you're right, they, there was like a bridge we could have stopped at. We chose not to do. There was some, the dogs that they use in the racing, there were some puppies we could have and my, my husband and my son are allergic to dogs. So I'm like, let's not stop at that. So yeah, you could, he, he definitely had some different things that we could choose from if we, if we wanted to do them. But he was real accommodating. Whatever he'd say, oh, do you want to stop here? And so it was, that was probably our favorite. It was the most relaxing and he was just, he was a great guide. [00:25:59] Speaker B: So yeah, I love that. Kind of choose your own tour, you know, where, where you can, I mean you've got some parameters but you've got some wiggle room as to what you do. I of course would go see the dogs, but I understand for those with allergies you would often opt not to. Probably a good idea so that your, your husband and your kiddo are not, you know, sneezing the entire ride back. But I, I, I've got to, I gotta say, I think I would do that as our, you know, we just did the, the train and the gold panning and whatnot excursion with dcl. But I think the next time I would probably do maybe one that does the train ride there or the train ride back and does the, you know, a van. Because I, I, I, I would love to stop at more places. We didn't get to stop at all those places. Like, like you all did all a long day in sort of in, not in Skagway. You're actually in the Yukon for most of the day. Did you have any time when you got back to Skagway to do any sort of walking around, checking out the shops, that sort of a thing? [00:27:00] Speaker A: Yeah, we did. I, I really wanted to get one of those conduct doughboys. You made it a priority. [00:27:08] Speaker B: They're like elephant ears for those who don't know. And we've talked about them on the show, but there are these huge, like, like, you know, doughy with, you know, cinnamon sugar on them. Typically. [00:27:17] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So we, we got one of those to share. And I always, I like to try to get a Christmas ornament from each place we are. So we found a little shop that had some handmade from, you know, people from the area. So I always like, if I can find something like that, I like to get it. Sometimes you just get, you know, made [00:27:36] Speaker B: in China or something. Yeah, like that. This is, this is the biggest tip for when you're in Alaska or when you're in Canada on an Alaskan cru is make sure you pay attention to the labels or ask the shopkeepers to direct you to things that are made locally. [00:27:53] Speaker C: Right. [00:27:53] Speaker B: Or made by indigenous people, that sort of a thing. Because a lot of the stuff that you see in the shops is made overseas, whether in China and Indonesia and the Philippines, you know, like, mostly in Asia or Southeast Asia. But yeah, generally speaking, you absolutely can get indigenous and locally made crafts, but you usually have to ask or, you know, look at the labeling and they are going to be, of course, more expensive. That's, you know, but, but it's worth it to get that really nice, you know, Christmas ornament, that really nice little totem, you know, that you can display, you know, on your bookshelf or whatnot. It's, yeah, we, we love to kind of collect those little trinkets from, from the places that we visit it. Well, let's talk your second port day. Was that Juno or Kitchen? Okay. [00:28:44] Speaker A: And then again, this is another one we got from the DCL Duo. It was Jalen's. [00:28:50] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:28:51] Speaker A: Whale watching. [00:28:51] Speaker B: The whale watching. This is the other one. I want to listen, Sarah, you've. You're doing all the ones that I want to do because I've heard from our guests on our show that we've heard of, you know, have been so wonderful. [00:29:02] Speaker A: Yeah, and it was. I, it was she. It was, I think Keisha was our guide's name. We were on the island girl. And yeah, she came. Right. And it was, it was private. I mean, it was just. [00:29:12] Speaker B: Yes, it was just the six of you. Right? It's a maximum six on each boat, six passengers plus. Yeah, you know, crew. [00:29:19] Speaker A: So when we went, the whales were actually doing something called bubble net feeding, which I guess they don't do all the time. I guess they have to, like, learn to coordinate and they have to learn this behavior. And so it was really neat. I think there was probably nine whales and they went. Would all come up at the same time, all dive at the same time. And then you could tell the, the seagulls would be circling or they'd be on the water, and as they got closer to the surface, you'd see them start to circle and that. So that was really neat. [00:29:48] Speaker B: Now the seagulls are just looking for whatever, like scraps that the whales end up not eating, right? Yeah. [00:29:55] Speaker A: So we watched that for a little bit. She also took us to like a. One of those pier things or buoy things and with a bunch of sea lions on there. And we, we watch them for a while because they're kind of funny, honestly, to watch. They were really mad at the one. The one was trying to hop up there and they were all kind of honking at them. And then we got to see a mama and her baby out there. So they were all. We only were seeing humpbacks. We didn't see any orcas at that time. And one thing I do want to say is I was surprised at the amount of whales, though, that we saw on the ship. I was not expecting to see so many from the actual ship. I still would have done the whale watching tour. But you do see a lot from the ship. [00:30:39] Speaker B: Yeah, you get to see them. If you're going on a whale watching tour on one of these smaller boats, you are. They, they can actually position the ship where they've, you know, no whales are where the whales are likely to be, whereas a large cruise ship can't do that. Right. So if you, I mean, you, you often will see whales from cruise ship in Alaska, typically humpbacks. I'm not saying you won't see Orcas, but orcas are incredible and everybody wants to see orcas, but they're just more rare, right? Humpbacks are more prevalent and so you're more likely to see humpbacks than orcas, but you may see them from a distance, so you may just see sort of, you know, a fin or you might see a blowhole. I feel like we saw, the way that we, we would spot them was seeing the blowhole, right? You'd see a little bit of a spout and then you might see like a little flicker of a fin or a little flicker of a tail. You know, you, it's much, much rare to see a whale that does that full jump and breach kind of a thing. Not to say you won't see it, but that's. You're really lucky if you get to see something like that. I love that you went, I love that you went with Jalen's. Now how long was that whale watching tour? [00:31:48] Speaker A: That one was three hours. So. And I, I think it was from the time she picked us up. But yeah, she picked again. Picked us up right from the boat. One other, one other thing we did see on the whale watching tour, you know, the boys were interested in, oh, how much is that? How, you know, how much is that boat? How much is that boat? And we saw this huge, like, I think she called it a super yacht out there and oh, how much is that? And she's, oh, between 300 and 500 million. And she goes. In fact, that's Mark Zuckerberg's yacht that was out there. [00:32:18] Speaker B: That's the yacht that got that. There's, it's all in the news about how that yacht got. There was some boat, pleasure boat that ran, that ran out of gas that was out in Alaska that, you know, they, it wasn't one of those emergency calls that you sort of must help, but it was a, an assistance call and his yacht was the closest. He wasn't on the yacht, but his crew didn't respond. And then a small cruise ship responded and helped that boat and tugged them back to shore. Yeah, well, yeah, that's crazy there that. [00:32:47] Speaker A: His toy, his toy hauler was right, right there with it too. [00:32:50] Speaker B: So it was, I don't know, I imagine pretty. I imagine it was a pretty fancy. [00:32:57] Speaker A: Oh yeah, it looked, it looked pretty fancy. My boys were impressed. [00:33:01] Speaker B: I mean, over 300 million dollar yacht, I'd be, I'd be pretty impressed too. Well, that's cool. Now did you guys have any time that I. Well, I imagine you had plenty of time to walk around Juneau if you wanted. [00:33:12] Speaker A: We didn't end up going into Juneau. You had to take a shuttle if you wanted to go in, which would have been fine, but the boys, they really enjoyed the ship. So we just, just. And I could have, and I could tell my husband was tired and I'm sure I could have done it by myself if I wanted to. But I just got back on the ship with them, so got some lunch. [00:33:31] Speaker B: Now at all at Juno, there are a couple of different places that the ship can dock. And so whether you're sort of closer to the downtown area or you're kind of outside the downtown area just depends on, you know, what, what docking. Disney has, has been able to get that that particular day. And so, you know, there, there is, I think where we docked was like right in the city, but there still was like a shuttle you would take to kind of get through the port area. If I'm, if I'm remembering correctly, [00:34:00] Speaker A: if [00:34:00] Speaker B: you're listening to us right now, chances are pretty good that you love Disney vacations as much as we do. But even seasoned travelers know there's a ton to keep up with when it comes to Disney Cruise Line. From cruise itineraries to the perfect stateroom for your family, Shore excursions and onboard experience experiences. And if you're planning to visit the Disney parks before or after your cruise, then there's even more to plan. From the perfect resort to lightning lane strategies, dining reservations, park tickets, special offers, and much, much more. [00:34:27] Speaker C: That's where wedotravel right comes in. Their team of experienced travel advisors specializes in Disney Cruise Line, Disney parks and other exciting places all around the world. They take the time to understand what matters most to your family. Providing personalized recommendations recommendations and helping you navigate all the details so you can spend less time stressing and more time looking forward to your vacation. Whether it's your first Disney Cruise or your 10th, having an expert in your corner can make all the difference. [00:34:53] Speaker B: Life is short. Take the trip. Visit wedotravelright.com dclduo to connect with a travel advisor and start planning your next unforgettable adventure. [00:35:03] Speaker C: We do travel, right? The crew that handles the planning so you can focus on relaxing. [00:35:10] Speaker B: All right, well, Ketchikan day. Ketchikan, quintessential gold rush town. What did you guys get up to in Ketchikan again? [00:35:17] Speaker A: We just took a private tour. Well, actually there was a couple different things. So my dad and my brother in law and my brother in law's son and then our two oldest boys, our two 18 year olds, they all went on Oasis fishing charter and they all went salmon fishing, which they said. I mean, I can't speak to it so much, but they said it was phenomenal. They had had an absolutely amazing time. I think it was four hours. We were able to hire like a shuttle that came and got. Or a, you know, transfer that came and got them from the, from the port and then took them out to where they were docked at. So they all did that. My husband and myself and our two youngest, we went on, it was called wild wolf Tours. And again, it was sort of like that. Beyond Skagway, we could kind of just choose our own adventure. So she took us to like a stream. We saw a bear down there fishing. And then she took us to the totem park, so we were able to go out there. And then we ended up going. It's called Lunch Creek Trails, I think it's in the Tongass Forest. And walking a trail there. And it was really fun. We, the boys got to pick some like, huckleberries and some watermelon berries and got to like, eat from the land. So that was, that was fun. She, and she, she told us a kind of interesting story. She said when you're in eighth grade and you live in Ketchikan, because she's lived in. I think she said she lived her whole life. But when you're in eighth grade for a science grade, they. You can take a coffee can and fill it with your survival gear. So only on the coffee can, you can't tape anything or strap anything to you or any. You'll, you'll fail if you do. And they take you just like to one of those little islands out there and they, they just like let you survive for three days. I mean, I think there's, she, she said there's like one or two adults with like maybe four or five kids. And I thought I, I, I think I would, I think I would not make it. [00:37:10] Speaker B: So. But yeah, I wouldn't make it. I wouldn't make. And, and Nathan wouldn't. I mean, Nathan's only a year away from that. You know, he wouldn't, he would make it. [00:37:18] Speaker A: Yeah. I have an 8th grader this year and I, as a mom, I don't even think I could let them do that. I, I'd be terrified. But I thought that was interesting. And I love when I go on an excursion, my favorite thing is to like, really learn about the place I'm at. I don't want to just do the touristy Stuff I want to really learn about the people that live there and how they live there. So it just really was interesting learning about that. Learning about, you know, if they have, like, a medical emergency, what do you do? Right. Right. Before we. Two weeks before we went, my husband actually had a sort of a major heart issue that had to get resolved. And so I'm like, what would we have done? Because it was an emergency situation we had to go to, you know, and they have to actually, they have insurance because they would have to fly them out of, you know, off the island to, like, Seattle. Or it depended, you know, if they were a child, if it was an adult, if it was an indigenous person, where they were going to go. But anyway, I just. I think that's interesting. So I probably just bored everybody. [00:38:18] Speaker B: But no, honestly, when you think about if you live someplace remote, like, that is def. I mean, that's one of the reasons why we covered, you know, rescues off of cruise ships in one of our shows in our back catalog, because it's. It's so interesting to just think about now, of course, you know, terrifying for the family dealing with a medical emergency. But it is interesting when you think about, like, what do you do in those circumstances? Like, what is the protocol? Like, what happens? Where do you go? Right. And when you live someplace remote, like certain parts of Alaska, there are. You know, they're not everywhere. Is there sort of a major trauma center, for example? And that's why, you know, depending upon what kind of injury somebody has, they might fly them all the way to Seattle. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, super, super interesting stuff. And I agree with you, learning about. When you go to a new place, it's one thing to just do the touristy things. It's another thing to really try to experience that place's culture, that place's food, you know, just. And to learn about the people who live there and what their everyday life is like. And it's so interesting in a place like Alaska because they have such a large and dynamic indigenous community there. And then, of course, you've got the fishing industry as well, and so you've got these sort of different kind of groups and different cultural things happening all at once. It's a really, really interesting and cool place to learn about. So I'm with you. Right there with you, Sarah. Now, did you guys get some time on your own in Ketchikan as well? [00:39:52] Speaker A: Yes. So then we got a little time on our own. We. We, you know, did the Creek Street. We went to a couple stores. But then, of Course I said how much I like to learn. Then we did the very touristy thing and went to the lumberjack show. So, you know, we did, we did throw that in there as well. Yeah. [00:40:08] Speaker B: Now, did you go to the Disney Cruise Line exclusive lumberjack show where Goofy. We did, yeah. [00:40:13] Speaker A: But the thing was, is, so I thought that was really going to be the only thing we were going to book with Disney excursions. But I found out you can actually book the Disney exclusive right through the company. So instead of. Yeah. [00:40:25] Speaker B: Really? [00:40:25] Speaker A: Like. Yeah. So instead of, I think our, our date to book for onboard things or excursions and stuff, I, I believe it was maybe in May. I, I can't remember now. Yeah. But I booked it in February and I booked right from the lumberjack. Whatever the lumberjack company was. And you could, as long as you set, you know, we're going to be on a Disney cruise ship, you were allowed to book it, so. [00:40:46] Speaker B: Oh, that's awesome. Well, and you know that you'll book it for less money if you book it directly with the Lumberjack show that we. What? Because every excursion, Disney Cruise Line is putting their own, you know, little upcharge, a little handling charge. Now there are benefits and drawbacks, right? Of course. Although with the Disney Cruise Line exclusive one, if the ship doesn't dock for whatever reason or the cruise gets canceled, that show is going to get canceled. So that really wouldn't be any risk in doing it for that one. Might be a risk in doing the non exclusive one because other cruise ships could, let's say your cruise gets, you know, detoured in some way for medical emergency for whatever reason, but other cruise ships might still go there and so they might still have that show. But I would have never thought. Thank you for that hot tip, Sarah. Yeah. [00:41:34] Speaker A: Now. And now the Disney one, the exclusive one was more expensive than just the regular one. So even on the website it was more expensive. I think it, it was, I'm, I'm going to say maybe $20 more. I could be wrong about that. But it was, it wasn't as cheap as just the regular one. But you didn't get Goofy, so. [00:41:52] Speaker B: Right. Right. Now what was the review from your family on that excursion? We have heard from, you know, we've heard mixed reviews. A lot of people enjoy the show, but they have felt like it's overpriced or that the Goofy thing actually takes away from the experience rather than adds to the experience. And also we've heard just like, hey, this is more for younger kids versus, you know, middle school and older kids. Now you have a middle schooler and a high schooler. Yeah. What. What was their impression of the show? [00:42:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, so went. It was, you know, my two sons are 13 and 11 and then my nieces and nephews who are from 4 to 8. And yeah, just they, they loved it. Just to see the joy and the happiness on their face made me smile. Now if I was an adult and I didn't have children, maybe, you know, it wouldn't have been. Been great. But I, I love seeing them just cheering and, you know, yelling and trying to get picked to do, you know, this or that. So. [00:42:49] Speaker B: Yeah, even the 11 and 13 year old, did they enjoy it? [00:42:52] Speaker A: They were, they were still really into it. It. So. [00:42:55] Speaker B: Okay, well, that's good to know because I feel like that is one that is still kind of. I haven't crossed it off my list because we did the lumberjack show up in North Vancouver at Grouse Mountain, but we did not do the one on the cruise in Ketchikan because we chose to do that bear excursion instead. And we couldn't do both. Some excursions, as you mentioned, there are times where you can fit in more than one excursion in a day, just depending upon what time your excursion starts and what time, what the port schedule is, all of that. And, you know, but that's not necessarily something you can do on, on every cruise. All right, well, let's jump back on board the beautiful Disney Wonder. I've got to ask about some of the stuff you guys did on board. What were some of the highlights from the onboard experience on Disney Cruise Line? [00:43:44] Speaker A: Well, we did enjoy a couple trivias. My husband and I did. I'm trying to, to, I'm trying to find my notes here now. But we did a couple of the music trivias. I think we did 80s and 90s. So we did that. Let's see what else. We, of course we did all the, all the shows. Well, we did Golden Mickeys and we did Frozen. Yes. We didn't do Dreams. I had seen that before. And then we saw a magician. You know, we did a lot. We really did a lot of relaxing, honestly. You know, we, we sat on the deck and watched for whales a lot. We're not big drinkers, so we didn't do any kind of like alcohol tastings or anything like that. We didn't do any spa treatments. I know. Kind of. We're kind of boring. [00:44:33] Speaker B: No, not at all. Listen, this is one of the things that I love about Alaska is I think one you can do it more relaxing. And two, if you like, you've got sort of long active port days, and so you kind of want that downtime on the ship to be a little bit more relaxing than perhaps on like a Caribbean cruise. Because on a Caribbean cruise, you're relaxing might be done on the beach, Right? And so you. When you're on the ship, you may be more like, I am go, go, go on the ship. But in Alaska, you're kind of go, go, go at port. And so it's nice to be a little bit more. Take things a little bit slower on the ship. And there's so many beautiful places to kind of relax. I mean, I. The promenade deck or. Yeah. Or of course, the adult pool in. On the. On the Magic class is phenomenal as well. You even. I mean, you even have the family pool deck, which on an Alaskan cruise is typically not real crowded. I mean, how. Yeah, how was it on your cruise? [00:45:33] Speaker A: It really wasn't very crowded. And honestly, you know, now that I'm thinking about that, probably one of my favorite things would be that I took a thermal crack cup because I hate how those other cups burn your hand. And I would just get my tea and from the drink station, I. I brought some tea and I just get some hot water. And yeah, I just would love to just sit up there and people watch and watch the water. Or I'd go up to Deck 10, you know, and sit up there. It was even quieter up there. So those were some of my, you know, favorite moments. Or like you said, I. My husband and I love just walking around deck four and just, you know, taking it all in. Just. Just letting. Being able to let the kids do what they wanted to do. One thing that we did, and I don't hear, and maybe people talk about it on your show, is my son took his pins and he did quite a bit of pin trading. [00:46:22] Speaker B: Oh, did he? [00:46:24] Speaker A: On the ship, which I was surprised that they had. I mean, they actually had events and he spent a lot of time in those stores trading pins. So, yeah, you're. [00:46:32] Speaker B: You know, you're right. Not. We don't. I feel like we don't talk about it very much because we're not big pin traders ourselves. We like to colle pins, but we don't. I'll be honest, I don't really understand the concept of trading pins because I just buy the pins that I want and I don't want to trade them. I just want to hold on to them. But I. But I know other people love to do that. And I, you know, they get. And there are lots of opportunities or a handful of like, sort of event times that they set in the Navigator app and they tell you, you know, come and pin trade with the officers at X time in the atrium. Right. And then there are also pin boards in the shops that you can pin trade really at any time. They might specified times where it's sort of organized. But there's, you know, at any time, whether the shops are open, you can do, you know, pin trading in those spaces. And. And then you also see folks who will put outside their door, they'll put a pin board and they'll say, you know, take a pin, leave a pin. Right. And so they're. They're basically saying, let's trade. But they are putting whatever. Whatever they've put on their board. They are happy to trade with you. So they're. Generally speaking, when people are doing that, they're doing, you know, they're putting pins that they don't care too much about because they're. Unfortunately, one of the things that does happen occasionally is people take a pin and don't leave a pin. So it's an honor system. Yeah. [00:47:51] Speaker A: Yeah. And that was. I. From other people that were at, like, the pin trading events. I guess that was happening quite a bit on this sailing. We didn't do that. We didn't have a board or anything. He just took his necklace and was. Is. Was trading with different people. And it was mostly children. There was some, you know, young 20s people in there too. But it was pretty fun for him. [00:48:11] Speaker B: Him. [00:48:11] Speaker A: He honestly, he fell in love with. And it wasn't in the Mickey Main sales. It was in the other store across from that. Anyway, he. He really made friends with the. With the three people that worked in there and spent quite a. Quite a bit of time with them. I. I'm, in fact, to the point where I had to say, you. You're. You are banned from. [00:48:34] Speaker B: You're distracting them from their job. [00:48:37] Speaker A: Asa, you cannot be in there so much. You. You have to stop. And I went in and apologized, and they said, oh, it's okay. [00:48:44] Speaker B: They probably really enjoyed him. Honestly, Sarah, I feel like, you know, the. The cast members in the stores, their interactions with passengers are so, so much more limited than, like, you know, dining staff or state or stateroom attendants or the entertainment staff. But some of them are just such friendly people, and they actually love those customer interactions, and they probably don't get to interact with. Interact quite as much with kids. And so I would bet that they really enjoyed chatting with him and trading with him. [00:49:14] Speaker A: He was in there a lot. [00:49:17] Speaker B: He made friends. I love that. Listen, you know, kids, kids can make friends in, in the darndest places, right? Yeah. Now, speaking of kids, do your, do your kids like the various, you know, kids clubs? Of course. You've got the, you know, your two younger ones are, are edge age, like Nath. Did they go to the edge and did they go to any of the events or are they more roaming on their own or, or hanging out with you all? [00:49:44] Speaker A: Yeah, they just mostly roamed on their own. I tried to get. I wanted them to go on edge just because I wanted to like, know how it was and things like that. Just for clients when, when I do. [00:49:54] Speaker B: Yeah, when people ask, of course. [00:49:56] Speaker A: But they, they were pretty resistant. They. They had fun just roaming on their own. Like I said, they swam every day. They love the water slide and, and yeah, they would just get up, get up to everything. I think they were doing a ice cream cone eating contest with their cousins. They found plenty of things to keep them occupied all day long. [00:50:16] Speaker B: So I love that. What about the grandkids? Did any of the grandkids head to the Oceaneers Club and lab? [00:50:22] Speaker A: Yep. My, my younger. My grandkids and then my. Like I said, I had from 8 to 4 as my nieces and nephews and they all did. They, they all went to the Oceaneers Club. But they didn't. They really. I really. Swimming was the number one event you wouldn't think on Alaskan cruise, but they all just really enjoyed those pools and the water slide. But they did spend a little time in the Ocean Years Club. [00:50:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Now for. In terms of dining, you know, I know you mentioned you all had one serve or one serving team for the 19 of you. Now, were you at multiple tables? Like, how did they do this? I don't love a large table, I gotta be honest because I feel like service ends up being slower the more people you have seated at your table. Although I do love to dine with friends. So it's like I, I try to balance like, okay, what is. You know, I think the biggest table they'll usually offer you is like 12 maybe. But what was the sort of seating arrangement? How did they break you all up? [00:51:16] Speaker A: So in Tiana's and Animators, they did have us on at two tables, but in Tritons they just. We were at one long table. So 19 of us. Yes. [00:51:25] Speaker B: Wow. Now, did your serving team just have you all though, and not other have anybody else? [00:51:30] Speaker A: Just us. [00:51:31] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, that's fair. Because that's. I mean, that's a. That's a large group to. To have one serving team for. I don't. I don't think that's out of the ordinary necessarily, because that, if you think about. About it being broken up into small tables, it would probably, you know, be, I don't know, like, five tables. Right. Five tables of four, if you think about it that way. But, yeah. How was the. How was the service overall? And how is food quality overall? You, you know, you've sailed on a lot of other lines, so I'm curious, sort of how you think Disney stacks up. [00:52:01] Speaker A: The service, of course, was phenomenal. I. Both Disney cruises that we've been on. I mean, the service and the restaurants and, of course, even the service of the rooms. I. I don't. Their people that they hire are just phenomenal. They're top of the line as far as food quality. I know my husband was really disappointed. [00:52:20] Speaker C: He. [00:52:20] Speaker B: Oh, bummer. [00:52:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. That was the only thing. Just everything he picked seemed to be a miss for him. Him. It wasn't, you know, wasn't the best food. I don't really cruise for the food, [00:52:31] Speaker B: so some people do, but not everybody does. [00:52:34] Speaker A: So it didn't bother me too much. Everything that I chose was fine. I mean, nothing. I had one dish, it was like a Moroccan dish that I thought was pretty phenomenal, but other than that, everything was just sort of. It was. It was good, but not anything that blew my mind. [00:52:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Nothing that you would write home about. Yeah. Interesting. Now, I wonder, for your. For your husband. Did he. Okay, so one of the things I like to give as a tip is you might look at something on the menu and the description might really speak to you, and you think it's really, like, that's the thing I want. But it's not on the recommendation list of what your servers give you. This is something, I think, that happens very, very commonly. Right. So I see. I don't know, let's say the beef. And it looks. That sounds like. I'm reading the description that seems to speak to me, but the server is telling me to order the chicken or the fish. Right. So. So when that happens, My. My recommendation for people listening is order the thing that you. That is speaking to you from the description and order the. One of the recommendations you're getting from your dining staff. Because usually if it's not on the list of things that are being recommended to you, there's a reason why. Maybe it's, like, too dry. Maybe the cut of meat's not that good. What, you know, whatever, you know, maybe the feedback has been kind of negative from other guests that day or that week. So that's my recommendation. Did. Did your husband take recommendations from the serving team or did he kind of. [00:54:08] Speaker A: That probably was the hard thing with such a large table. He would make a recommendation, we might not hear it. Everybody was sort of walking in at different times as well. So like, you know, we might get there and then I'm texting the boys, like, are you coming at any time tonight? Or, you know, should we tell them to take your, you know. So, um, so I think sometimes we wouldn't always hear what he would recommend because maybe he was at one end of the table or maybe he recommended it before we sat down. So I guess that's probably one of the things with a larger group when everybody's coming in at different times and you're at a large, you know, table setting. We probably didn't always hear what he had to say, so that was sort of our fault. And people talking and. [00:54:51] Speaker B: No, I mean that. That's to be expected. I would say. If that, if that happens and the. And the server comes around to you and asks for your order, ask them, you know, tell them I'm thinking about this, but what was that recommendation you were giving earlier? And that way you can always just, you know, sort of last minute pivot or add on a dish if you're concerned that that might not be. It might not be as good as it sounds. Right. So. Yeah. All right. Well, Sarah, before I subject you to rapid fire, I've got to ask, is there anything that we. We haven't talked about in terms of activities? I know we shows you. We've covered dining, we've covered excursions. I don't know if there's anything I've missed. Did you guys do any of the, like late night activities? [00:55:37] Speaker A: No, we didn't. I. I guess one thing I did want to say was we ended up doing an inside room. We did the like, the cheapest inside room you could get. So we didn't have like the split bathroom or anything. And it, it was very small. There was four up. I mean, me, it was. My husband and I and then our two youngest were in our room. It's really small. You don't have. There was, I think there was like two plugs, so. Or no, maybe there was. Maybe there was four. [00:56:04] Speaker B: Yeah. The older ships are the. The magic and the wonder in particular, but also the dream in the fantasy. You really need those, you know, USB Splitter type things because they really don't have enough plugs on those ships. Not for the modern world. Now for all of us having, having phones and all of us having magic bands and computers and iPads and all of that. Yeah, it's. Yeah. [00:56:28] Speaker A: Yeah. So that was. I, I just, I guess I just wanted to say that. So if you're thinking about it and you don't want to like splurge on the balcony or the veranda or whatever, it was fine. I mean, you weren't in your room that very much, but there, there wasn't a lot of space for your luggage and things like that either. So just, I guess just keep that in mind. [00:56:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, some people say they have the best sleep of their lives in those inside staterooms though. Really is so dark at night, which is wonderful. But yeah, I absolutely think, however, it's going to work for you to get on that Disney. What you want is to get on a Disney cruise. Sometimes that's the way to make it happen is by going for that least expensive inside stateroom or doing that GTY where Disney's choosing your room other than your category for you. And listen, you might not have the, the prime real estate that you might otherwise want, but if it's the way to get you on the ship versus, I don't know, maybe taking a Carnival Cruise, it may be maybe worth your, your mileage there. Sarah, I. Since you do have so much experience on other cruise lines, I'm curious if you, if you had a client or prospective client approach you that has maybe been on Disney Cruise Line or is really wanting to get in Disney Cruise Line, but they think that the price point is just a bit too high for them. Like what is the, what is the cruise line that you would sort of recommend as an alternative? I love, I love hearing what people say. I mean, this is different. People are going to have different opinions about that. But what would you say is sort of your, your next best in terms of what you've experienced if you have kids? [00:58:07] Speaker A: I would probably have to say Royal. You know, if you're cruising as an adult couple with no children, you know, I think I would maybe do celebrity. I don't know. We liked our Princess and our Holland Cruises a lot too, too. So I don't know. And we haven't done Virgin yet. My, I had a daughter that did Virgin. She loved, you know, loved those. So even though I haven't done it, I might even suggest that for, for an adult only. [00:58:32] Speaker B: So, yeah, no, I think that that makes Sense. I. I agree with you. I think Royal is probably the best family option out there. And unless you really love Carnival. There are people who love Carnival. And if you're doing a, like a week long cruise on Carnival, not a weekend cruise. A weekend cruise on Carnival is usually more of a booze cruise situation. But a week long does tend to attract families as well. All right, Sarah, well, we've reached that point in the show where I'm going to subject you to some arbitrary rules, some arbitrary questions and a dash of judgment, or the round we call rapid fire. So I'm going to ask you your Disney favorites and then some Disney Cruise Line favorites. Of course, you're choosing from the Magic and the Wonder because those are the two ships that you've been on with Disney Cruise Line. But let's start with who is your favorite Disney character? Disney means anything and everything that Disney owns. [00:59:20] Speaker A: I'm gonna have to say Belle. [00:59:23] Speaker B: I love that Belle the bookworm. She's the best. All right, favorite Disney movie. [00:59:29] Speaker A: Beauty and the Beast. [00:59:31] Speaker B: Yes. Favorite Disney song. [00:59:34] Speaker A: And that's gonna be the evermore from the live action. Beauty and the Beast. [00:59:38] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. That is a great song. I love it. All right, moving on to Disney Cruise Line, onto the ships. What's your favorite Disney Cruise Line stage show on the Disney Magic or the Disney Wonder? [00:59:51] Speaker A: Frozen. Frozen was. [00:59:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, you like Frozen more than Tangled? Wow. [00:59:55] Speaker A: I did, yeah. [00:59:56] Speaker B: Wow. They're both great productions. I think, you know, it's pretty amazing what they've been able to do on the ships in general, but both of those productions are really fantastic. All right, moving into onboard activities. What's your favorite thing to do on a Disney cruise? [01:00:13] Speaker A: Honestly, I. I just like getting my tea and sitting on the deck. That's my favorite thing to do. [01:00:21] Speaker B: I love that answer. Sarah. I. There's nothing. There's nothing. There's no judgment. There's. There's nothing wrong with that. I love it. I would. I would probably specifically say on that promenade deck, I. I think sitting there, I mean, I know the tee is further away because it's up on the pool deck, but I really like just kind of that being able to sit on those lounges on the. On the promenade deck. On deck. For. All right, let's talk food. What is your favorite rotational dining restaurant? [01:00:50] Speaker A: Animators. [01:00:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Classic. Yeah. All right, speaking of food, I need to hear a favorite sweet item on a Disney cruise and a favorite savory item on a Disney cruise. We start with the sweets. [01:01:02] Speaker A: Okay. So my favorite sweet item. Kind of surprised Me, because everyone talks about it so much, I thought, oh, it's probably, you know, I'm probably not going to like it. But it was the churro waffles. [01:01:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:01:12] Speaker A: Those are really, really good. Good. [01:01:14] Speaker B: They are. [01:01:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:15] Speaker B: No syrup needed. I'm gonna give you that. Yeah. If you put the syrup on, it actually is. It's too sweet to cover. It just. Yeah. It just goes a bridge too far with the syrup. Yeah. [01:01:24] Speaker A: Yeah. And I could only eat one, but they were very. I wish I could have ate more, but they were very good. Yeah. [01:01:30] Speaker B: What about favorite savory item? [01:01:32] Speaker A: And this is sort of a silly one, but Daisy Delights had this pesto mushroom sandwich or panini. Oh, it was so good. I got it three different days for lunch, so. [01:01:43] Speaker B: Wow. Okay. Well, I mean, that's a ringing endorsement. All right, I'm gonna have to try that. That panini. I'm. I. I rarely go for the paninis back there. I. Once in a while, I get a salad from that Daisy's Delights. But I. Yeah. So I'm gonna have to try. I'm gonna have to go for it. [01:01:57] Speaker A: I'm. Yeah. I don't know. It was really good. Make sure they press it, because one day they tried to just hand me the sandwich, and I'm like, oh, no. [01:02:04] Speaker B: Oh, no. It needs to be heated up. Yeah. All right, well, I've got to ask you, which one is your favorite ship? The Disney Magic or the Disney Wonder? [01:02:15] Speaker A: I really liked the Magic. I think it. Just because it was our first ship and it was, you know, it was that. That first trip after Covid and just, you know, I don't know. There was just something about that and being in Europe and so. [01:02:30] Speaker B: Yeah, well, listen, you can't go wrong on a Disney cruise in general. But both. I have it in my heart for the wonder over the magic, but they're both phenomenal ships. All right, Sarah, bucket list cruise. You have been on some bucket list cruises, but what is a bucket list cruise that you have not been on? And when I say bucket list, I mean a cruise that you would love to go on. You'd love to do it on Disney Cruise Line. It doesn't have to be one that your husband would even go with you on, Sarah, but your dream cruise. [01:03:00] Speaker A: Cruise. I would love to have a cruise that went around Africa. I think that would be so awesome. [01:03:07] Speaker B: Yes, that would be amazing. Now, that world cruise with Royal Caribbean that we had, you know, a few folks on to chat about, which I love those episodes back in our. In Our back catalog, both with Jenny and with Leslie, but they got to go. That ship did get to sail around the Horn of Africa, which is just a really, I mean, a really amazing, cool experience that would. Yeah, yeah. And there's not too many options out there for something like that. So hopefully, maybe Disney Cruise Line will do a world cruise someday if that happens. Yeah, if that happens. It'll be very expensive, but I feel like we'll sell all my worldly possessions in order to get on that cruise. Well, Sarah, thank you so much for joining me. A. You did great. Now tell me what's next in terms of vacations for you all. Do you have another, did you get a placeholder? Do you have another Disney cruise booked or are you looking at some other vacation options? Well, we did. [01:04:06] Speaker A: We got a placeholder, but we already. So on opening day in February, we booked the eight night Adriatic on the Wish. So that's for June of this of 2027. So. [01:04:19] Speaker B: Oh, that itinerary. We have some friends who booked that as well. And that itinerary looks really, really incredible. And being able to do a Wish class ship in Europe, I'm really excited to see what on the Wish in terms of, you know, new menus and entertainment and whatnot. Because, you know, for forever now, the Wish, since the Wish launched has just been doing those three and four night itineraries. They've never done a longer itinerary and so they're going to have to, you know, add new menus to their repertoire. We might see them doing a second show in Arendelle, for example, and we'll see if they'll add the second Marvel show that they do on the Treasure and on the Destiny if they'll bring that onto the Wish because they absolutely could. So, yeah, be super excited. Well, Sarah, I, I hope that you will come back and join me to tell us all about that amazing cruise. Why don't you tell folks where they can find you, where they can reach out to you if they're interested in booking their vacation with you. [01:05:19] Speaker A: So probably the easiest way is just Facebook. I'm just Sarah Tanza with vacation days and days is D a Z E. But I'm also on Instagram and TikTok as well. So. [01:05:31] Speaker B: Awesome. And for those not watching on video, it's Sarah with an H. So S a R a H and then Tansel T a N S E L. So yeah, thank you so much, Sarah for joining me. It's been fabulous having you and with that we'll just say goodbye to everyone. [01:05:45] Speaker A: Bye Bye. 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