[00:00:00] Speaker A: The tour guide was telling us that the myth or the legend is if you get wet from the waterfall, it will keep you young. So a lot of us were standing out on the deck and I'm thinking, I'm going to get misted by it. I was glad I had purchased a Disney Cruise Line Helly Henson raincoat, because when we got close to it, it was whoosh of water, not just a little mist.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Oh, like French. Oh, my go.
[00:00:38] Speaker C: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's live episode of the DCL Duo podcast, brought to you by WeDoTravel. Right. Remember, life is short. Take the trip. Let the folks over at WeDoTravel, right, do the planning so you can focus on the relaxing. We got a fun show lined up tonight. I want to. I want to do a spot of business for the podcast here. At the top of the show, we got a.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Don't forget the DCL magazine, Brian.
[00:01:02] Speaker C: Oh, yes, I am so sorry, Stephanie and Danny. We're also brought to you by the good folks over at the DCL Magazine. If you have not subscribed already, please head to dcl-magazine.com that's dcl-magazine.com today to subscribe and use code DCLDUO. That's all caps DCLDUO. And you get 10% off anything in their store over there. So remember, showing our sponsors some love shows. The show a little love. So please, please, please, if you are interested, check out our sponsors. They are great people, good people and good businesses. So.
So as I was saying, we got a review over the weekend accusing us of putting out some AI slop in the form of our recently released episode 707. And I just wanted to be transparent with our community about AI. It's a big topic right now. I work for a big company here in the Pacific Northwest. It is one of the frontier AI companies. And I will just say one to keep this brief. One, we do not put out AI audio ever. Every show that we produce, real humans, human editing, we actually pay an editor. We don't use AI editing tools for this the show.
So every episode we put out is human made, human conceived and human produced.
We do use.
[00:02:31] Speaker B: Yeah, that's my laugh, by the way. That's not a computer. That's my laugh anymore.
[00:02:37] Speaker C: Use AI to assist us with some of the administrative stuff behind the scenes of the show. So we do use AI to help us put together show notes. We occasionally use AI to help us put together presentations, slideware kind of things like or the app that we created for the live show. A few weeks back for, for the itinerary releases.
But we don't put, we don't. We have used AI to put out some magnets in the past, but we don't see sell those. We give them away. And they were just fun and frankly we wouldn't have paid someone to make them.
We don't have that kind of money.
Our commitment is we don't make money off this show. We donate our proceeds to charity.
But this show is fully produced really by the two of us. And a lot of the production work goes on me. And so anything I can do to sort of leverage AI to help me in the background with the show work I will do except for any editing, any audio, anything of that nature. So that is the commitment that we have made and it's the one that we stand by and we do. We don't put out AI stuff. I will say it is also just sort of deeply offensive to me to be accused of putting out AI slop when we have produced 700, over 700 episodes of content. We're putting out multiple shows a week now with dcl. We're doing that in our spare time on weekends, around our sun, around our full time jobs. And so I just wanted everyone out there to know that this, I think
[00:04:09] Speaker B: people, by the way, the content is free to listen.
[00:04:11] Speaker C: Well, I think, I think people don't understand the amount of work that goes into content creation.
And it's a lot of work. And so again, anything we can do to sort of ease the load on the administrative side of things running what is effectively become a small business with AI, we look at doing, but we don't do the production work with AI for the show. So with that said, in future, if you are wondering if something was AI, you can ask us the amount of times someone posts something when it's just like, hey, let us know in an email.
We respond to every listener email that we get.
[00:04:51] Speaker B: And folks did ask us when we showed that tool that you created, Brian, back for our itinerary release show, people asked when we sort of posted some screenshots, screenshots of it online, you know, did you use an AI tool? What tool did you use? And we were completely transparent about the use of AI in that tool as well as when we did our live show in telling people this was created with the assistance of AI I would say it's a tool.
AI was a tool that was, that created it with Brian, right? Like it wasn't all AI, it wasn't all Brian. It's a, it's a. It's a cooperative effort. Right. So. But as far as our voices, the things we say, that is all human produced. And as. As Brian mentioned, he does all of the. We pay an editor to do our regular episodes. When it comes to these special episodes like episode 707, Brian did all of that editing.
[00:05:44] Speaker C: I actually did all of that editing. It took weeks and weeks of work to put together.
[00:05:49] Speaker B: The script and the narration was all his voice. So you don't hear my voice on that episode. It's all Brian's voice. We have not trained AI in our voices, nor will we do. So I actually. That kind of creeps me out.
[00:06:05] Speaker C: I did one time in Descript where I thought, oh, it can like insert little word changes for me as I need to. But it was garbage. And so I didn't use that.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: So anyway, the whole idea of AI mimicking my voice creeps me out. So I don't use it for that purpose. I actually don't like it when people make pictures of me using AI either. I find that really creepy. So just putting that out there.
[00:06:27] Speaker C: So that's all we'll say on that topic. But our commitment remains the same. If it changes.
We're pretty transparent on this show about what we're up to and we will let you know. That said, Sam, I'm going to bring in our guests so we can talk a little Disney Cruise Line news. So I actually want to welcome back one of our favorite folks that we've gotten to meet through the show. She was actually featured in episode 700.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: 707.
[00:06:52] Speaker C: 707. So I want to welcome Cindy to the show.
Welcome back, Cindy.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: Hello, everybody.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: It's so great to have you back, Cindy.
Yeah. Let's talk a little news before we dive into talking about your back to back cruises, of course, over in Europe out of Southampton. But we're going to talk first about news item number one, reusable cups being introduced fleet wide. Now, I want to say they're not on all the ships yet. They are only on the Disney fantasy. I believe it's possible they're on another ship, but as far as I know for sure, they are on the Disney fantasy.
I don't believe they're on the wish class yet, but I have confirmed that reusable cups are coming eventually fleet wide. It's just a matter of probably they're doing some testing as to which cups they want to use and what the setup looks like and kind of see how it's going before they introduce it across the fleet.
In general, I think that sustainability is an important thing for Disney Cruise Line to be thinking about working on. It's one of the things that Brian learned about during the tour of the engine room on the Disney Destiny preview. They were very focused on getting rid of single use products in favor of reusable products, for example. And so this is one of those ways in which they are trying to transition to a reusable product.
I totally understand there are drawbacks with using reusable cups. You might have some cups that look dirty.
All the cups are being sanitized. That doesn't mean they won't have little caked in bits of food that might get stuck in them.
Overall, I think it's a good change, but I understand not everybody's going to be happy about it, but it is what it is. Just letting people know it's coming and it's already on the fantasy. It's coming eventually. I can't tell you what the timeline is. Disney Cruise Line has not announced it yet, but it's obviously coming across the cruise line. And like I've said, I've confirmed with insiders this is happening. I just do not know the timing.
[00:08:59] Speaker C: And just a little PSA here on when Disney changes something on the cruise line like this, they test on one ship and they adjust just like they do with rides. Test and adjust and then they take what the learnings were from the one ship and they apply it fleet wide. So there have been times where Disney's tested something and it has not worked and they have decided not to proceed. That could happen here, but I don't think it will because they're really focused on the sustainability commitment so well and
[00:09:27] Speaker B: they may change which cups they use. For example, right? Like right now they're using these kind of what people are saying is they're kind of bulky. They're these white plastic cups. They don't stack on top of one another very easily. Like it might not be that these are the cups that they introduce fleetwide, but these are the cups they are currently testing on the Fantasy.
And if you want to see what I'm talking about, go to our Instagram account. I've got video and picture up there taken by our friend of the show, Sean Connor, who sailed on the Death Destiny a few weeks ago. So thanks to Sean for sharing that. If you see anything new on board, make sure to share with us. It's super helpful for us to share in the broader community.
[00:10:06] Speaker C: Cindy, what do you think? Reusable cups, Yay or nay?
[00:10:11] Speaker A: I go to Trailblazer Games. And they've been using them there for two or three years. They seem to work okay.
When I was on the dream this summer, there seemed to be a different type of cup at cabanas, but they still had the paper cups on the pool deck.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So coming soon. Coming soon. Oh, we got Tracy watching from. From her ship. From the. From Virgin Voyages. Brilliant lady. Hey, Tracy and Michael, glad to see you're watching live, even from the west coast over there sailing.
[00:10:46] Speaker C: I'm not glad. I'm not glad. Tracy, I appreciate you popping in, but go enjoy your cruise. Get a drink. This show will be out on the audio channel tomorrow. You can listen to it. By the point.
[00:10:55] Speaker B: They were supposed be sailing down from California, then south, further south into Mexico. Instead they sailed. They were just in San Francisco because their itinerary got changed due to the hurricane. So just a note, that can happen even on the west coast. We can have hurricanes. Okay, next piece of news. This one is a TBD in terms of is this going to come to fruition or not? So, Mayor Werft, specifically Papenberg and Rostock, those are the specific.
What do they call them places? Shipyards. Thank you. The specific shipyards are in negotiations with MSC Cruises about a 80% controlling share of Meyer Werf, Poppenberg and Rostock.
Those are the shipyards that produced all of the Disney ships since the Magic and the Wonder, save for the Adventure, which was actually built in this marsh shipyard, which is technically a separate entity, even though it's part of Mayor Werft.
But anyway, there are negotiations because right now the government of Germany and Lower Saxony own that 80% share. And it sounds like they kind of want out. They basically bought it in a. To keep it out of bankruptcy proceedings essentially or something. Whatever. Germany has that similar to bankruptcy. And so we don't know what this will mean for Disney Cruise Line. Obviously, Disney Cruise Line already has current orders for the Meridian class ships they're currently building the believe they're currently building the OLC ship. And then of course, those three Meridian class ships they have orders for and they also build for other cruise lines, not just Disney and msc.
[00:12:42] Speaker C: The concern here is having a major cruise line that is competing with Disney in its own backyard in Port Canaveral, control the shipyard, because not many shipyards can build these kinds of cruise ships. And most of them are fully booked out until the2030s.
And so, you know, the question is, if MSC controls the shipyard, will there be sufficient protections in place to make sure that one, you know, IP Leakage isn't happening between, you know, Disney or confidential. You know, ship design plans aren't leaking between Disney and its competitor. You know, we just saw with, you know, the iPhone, the folding iPhone, there's all these accusations back and forth who took what from who. And because, you know, Apple gets its displays from Samsung.
And so, you know, that's the kind of concern that is cropping up right now is just what happens with that. And then also does Mayor Worf get priority for build slots and you know, other services at the shipyard such that if Disney wants to build more ships at Mayor Werft, maybe they can't get a slot for five years because MSC is building ships there now. Right. So that's the concern. Whether it happens or not is a big question mark. Whether this deal happens or not is a big question mark. The German government, yes, is interested in getting out of the ownership stake, but they're also more interested in keeping the jobs at the shipyard, frankly because they're major employers. So. Yeah.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: And getting full compensation. They don't want to. They're not looking to sort of take a loss on their investment in Merwert. They're looking to leave with at least the money they put into the shipyard in order to save it. So absolutely, I think it be it will be interesting to see what happens. I wouldn't worry so much about the short term in terms of the current builds or even the, the contracts they currently have for the Meridian class because those contracts, once they're in place, they're in place. Well, except.
[00:14:34] Speaker C: Except, except it a change in control of the shipyard depending on how the Disney. We don't know what the Disney contracts say but has a termination. It's not uncommon for. If there's a change in control, we're terminating our agreement. Especially if Disney doesn't like what's happening or Disney's putting a lot of rooms on sale these days. They may say maybe we committed too much, maybe we should cancel one of these ships and we have that option. So I don't think that will happen. I'm not even sure that the sale will actually happen in this moment because I don't know how interested the German government is in getting out immediately. But it's exploratory right now. So it's just something to keep an
[00:15:11] Speaker B: eye on, something to watch. Okay. The other piece of news we've got to mention is of course the Disney believe reveal is happening next Wednesday, October 7th. 7th and Disney Cruise Line finally announced when that, that when that's going to be happening. So it's going to be streamed on the Disney Parks blog.
It's going to be at 4:30pm Eastern, which is 1:30pm Pacific next Wednesday, October 7th. I'm sure we'll be watching live. You all may be watching live as well.
I will note that our friends from the DCL magazine and our friends from Laughing Place will be on board the Wish Sailing. I know that we have some other friends who will be on board as well sailing as Passeng, but our friends with Laughing Place and DCL Magazine will be on as media invites and they will be doing scavenger hunts throughout the week. So starting on Monday, October 5th through Friday and so starting on Monday and Tuesday, even before Wednesday, I would not be surprised if we start to see on social media pieces of information, at least hints as to what the theming will be, even though the full reveal will be obviously from Disney Cruise Line on Wednesday. So if you're not following the DCL magazine on Instagram, if you're not following Laughing Place on Instagram, go ahead and do that right now. Hopefully they'll be also collaborating some of their posts with us since we will not be on board.
But I would be watching your social media across Monday and Tuesday and of course Wednesday leading up into the actual reveal stream. So we'll be watching. I hope you will. And you know, we, we. We can start taking. Oh, Wesley saying we should start a GoFundMe for the DCL Duo I think.
[00:16:57] Speaker C: Wesley, I barely have enough time to run this podcast. How am I supposed to go run a shipyard?
[00:17:01] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. But, but you. But, but maybe Wesley wants to start taking bets on theming. So we'll see. Anyway, I'm we should check out the.
[00:17:10] Speaker C: We should check out the predictive markets and see what's on there.
[00:17:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that'd be funny. Yeah. Was it. Was it Poly Market and what's the other one?
[00:17:19] Speaker C: Not that we are advertising or suggesting that you should visit those sites. Yes.
[00:17:23] Speaker B: You should not. You should not be betting. I'm joking. You should not be betting on what the theming of the Disney Cruise Line ship is. Except maybe amongst your own family. Maybe like bet like a hug or I'll cook you dinner or something like that.
[00:17:36] Speaker C: Yeah. I will say the one thing that we've been hearing atmospherically over the course of the week is there's some uncertainty around how this announcement might land with DCL fans. So it may be another case of us dusting off our new favorite word, whelmed.
But I'm hopeful I have My fingers crossed. I'm excited.
I hope they deliver.
But, yeah, we will all find out next week together, so. All right. Yeah, let's shift over, actually, as a good segue here. Cindy, anything you're really hoping to see on the Believe next week?
[00:18:12] Speaker A: I know they can't change some of the structural things that we don't like about the larger ships.
I, I, I really don't know.
Yeah, I hope they keep the Haunted Mansion. I really like that, that space.
I, I'm not sure.
[00:18:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:18:32] Speaker D: All right.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: Any, any, any thoughts about what you'd like to see in terms of a dining, dining venue or a stage show?
If you could have your, like, perfect dining room or your perfect stage show?
[00:18:49] Speaker A: I think I'd like to see a reimagining of Tangled.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I'd love that. All right. I'm hoping for something Tangled themed.
I think there's a good chance we'll see Tangled on the stage again, like we already have on the magic. I don't think they'll reimagine it. I would love if they would do some kind of reimagining, but I think we'll see. I definitely think we'll see Tangled on the Walt Disney Theater stage.
[00:19:16] Speaker C: I'm all in for Encanto.
[00:19:18] Speaker A: I was just gonna say maybe an encanto dining room.
[00:19:21] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: I think Encanto is going to be the show. The, the new show. That's what my prediction. But I would be happy with an encanto dining room as well. But, but I, I tend to just. My, my gut's telling me it's going to be the, the stage show. So we'll see. We'll see.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:19:39] Speaker C: All right, well, Cindy, we're gonna dive into. You did not one, but two cruises, a DVC member cruise, and then a second Disney cruise to Belgium. And this was all after.
After being in Europe, after the adventures by Disney that we did with you. So what an amazing summary you've had. Let me just start there.
[00:19:58] Speaker A: It has been a bit crazy.
We also did Alaska this year.
[00:20:03] Speaker C: Oh, gosh. Yeah.
Hashtag life goals.
[00:20:06] Speaker B: All right, so, seriously, bucket list cruises,
[00:20:10] Speaker C: what made you book these two sailings?
[00:20:15] Speaker A: Well, actually, the Belgium cruise was before the DC DVC cruise, and I. It had been a couple years since we had done a member cruise. I was excited about doing that again.
And originally we booked the London Short Escape, the ABD Short Escape before the DVC cruise. And then I got to looking at the itinerary after we put our money down on it, and it's like We've done almost all of those things already and it was a lot of money to do things that we had already done. And then I noticed the three day Belgium cruise that was less than the ABD cruise trip. So it's like, I think we'll do that instead.
So that's how we ended up with the three day Belgium cruise.
[00:20:57] Speaker C: Were you able to, did you shift the abd? Did you shift it to the river cruise or did you shift it forward to a different abd?
[00:21:05] Speaker A: No, we ended up shifting it to California Short Escape in November because I couldn't commit to another European trip after all the ones we had done this year and thought, well, that one is not quite as expensive.
I've done the longer one with Hollywood before and this one is just California Adventure Disneyland. And I think we get to go to Imagineering or the studio. So it's a shorter trip.
So I thought that would be a safe place to put it.
[00:21:34] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure, for sure. I love that. The three night Belgium cruise. So where did you leave out of and where did it go?
[00:21:41] Speaker A: We left out of Southampton and we went to Bruges or is that part of Brussels? I guess. But when we did the river cruise we went to Brussels and not Bruges. So it was perfect. We could see something different.
And this cruise was interesting. Three nights, almost all people from the uk, so a couple of cast members, you know, we'd be in an elevator and greet them and they'd oh, you're American, there aren't many of you on this cruise. I think we heard 130 or 150Americans and all the rest were from the UK. We met some people from Scotland, from England, but it was very different. A lot more kids on that cruise.
Character lines were insane. We didn't even consider waiting for a character on that cruise.
And when we, we took DCL transportation, we just flew in, spent the night at the airport, took the DCL bus and had no problem getting on. But most of the people from the UK did not get their luggage tags in the mail. So the line for them to get luggage tags was pretty long. It took them, took a lot of people much longer to get on the ship than it took us to get on the ship.
[00:22:58] Speaker C: Yeah, Ed's curious in the chat for the DVC cruise, was that more of, I presume that was more of an American cross.
[00:23:05] Speaker B: Americans. Yeah.
[00:23:06] Speaker A: Right, right.
It had really switched around because you
[00:23:09] Speaker C: have to be a member. So like I think they, I mean I know they oddities around how they can sell internationally, but I know they sell internationally, but I think their DVC audience is primarily American.
[00:23:19] Speaker A: And there were a few that stayed on because we happened to meet a couple from Scotland on the first cruise and they were on the DVC member cruise.
[00:23:28] Speaker B: Yeah, there are a handful. I mean there are ways for folks from the UK to be DVC members. Cause I know our friend Laura Brian who's been on the show. She's she and or DVC members and they, you know, now she lives in the States, but she's from the uk.
So I, I do think there are ways for folks outside the us it depends on the country, but there are some folks who can be members outside of the U.S. it's a little bit more complicated as Brian mentioned, But like probably 90 some percent of members are American because of the way the laws are written. And because of that you, you're the majority of people on a DVC member cruise are going to be American. Now Cindy, you mention you took Disney transportation. Where did you stay then? In Southampton or in London prior to the Belgium cruise?
[00:24:17] Speaker A: We stayed in London. We just stayed in an airport hotel.
We didn't even get into London. We were tired, just, you know, stayed at the hotel, got up the next morning and went down to the greeting area and waited for the bus.
[00:24:33] Speaker B: Awesome. Now was it relatively like simple to find out where you were going or getting the instructions of like what to do with your luggage? All of those. I mean we know it's simple when you're doing it out of Orlando, generally. I'm curious, was it as simple when you're doing it out of, out of I guess London and then Southampton?
[00:24:51] Speaker A: I thought it was. We got an email that said, you know, meet at this time at this area, you know, like the London information booth, go there. And I happen to be using an ABD backpack. And so there was an ABD woman there and she thought I was there for her. And so she came and started talking to us. I said, no, we're here for the cruise.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: That's funny. That's. Well. And you have the great part, Cindy, or one of the great parts about talking to you is you have a ton of experience both on Disney Cruise Line and on Adventures by Disney. You've done both of these and you've done various kinds of trips and in various places as well. In terms of land based ABD river cruise, ABD now and then of course in cruising, you've done it all over the world essentially in terms of both Europe and Alaska, east coast, west coast, all of the above, essentially. So, so you have lots of.
[00:25:48] Speaker A: Not Pearl.
22 now.
[00:25:53] Speaker B: Okay. I was like, you have to be close. Because I'm like, we've now, we've sailed with you a couple of times now. So I'm like, you have to be close. I feel like you, you say you, you vacation to Europe more than we do. Maybe not cruising as much as we do. I don't know. It's hard to, hard to gauge. But. All right. So fairly simple in terms of transportation to Southampton. They pick you up in the morning and take you there.
Time. Are you. You mentioned there's a long line for luggage tags. We've heard that luggage tags are pro. Seem to be a problem for anyone who lives internationally. If you live in the States, you will typically get your luggage tags in advance. But never fear, if you don't get them, they will give you some at the port. It just means if, if you're in Europe and a lot of people didn't get them, there's going to be long lines. But what, what was your port arrival time and what time did they actually let you on the ship?
[00:26:46] Speaker A: I think our port arrival time was 11:30 and we pro. We were supposed to meet at the airport at 9:15.
We probably didn't leave till quarter to 10, 10 o' clock and took a little over an hour to get there.
Didn't take too long in the, in the terminal. I think we waited maybe a half an hour and then we were in having lunch before 12 o'. Clock.
[00:27:15] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:27:16] Speaker A: We went to cabanas, just met some friends that they were working on, making sure that our dining was all connected because there were two other couples that we had done the 2024 member cruise with and we wanted to have our dinners with them. So. And they were on the Belgium cruise and on the member cruise and then they stayed on for the British Isles cruise and then one of them went home and the last couple did the transatlantic cruise and just got home this week.
[00:27:45] Speaker B: Oh my God. So they did four in a row
[00:27:48] Speaker A: on the ship for I think 30 nights.
[00:27:51] Speaker B: Wow, that's amazing. I'm jealous. That's cruise goals for sure. Yeah.
[00:27:56] Speaker A: I don't think I could talk Mike into that though.
[00:27:59] Speaker B: Maybe not. Maybe not. I love that. Now, these couples that you were traveling with, did you meet them originally on the Disney cruise two years ago?
[00:28:10] Speaker A: Yes, they, they both did the Barcelona short escape and then the member cruise.
[00:28:15] Speaker B: Awesome. That's so fun. It's, it's always nice when you, you know, make friends on, you know, on a Disney trip and then get to Sail with them again and get to, you know, connect through dining and all of that.
[00:28:26] Speaker C: So, Cindy, you mentioned that you got a chance to go to Bruges, which we. We did on the abd. I understand you didn't. What do you think of Bruges as a. You know, as a stop?
[00:28:36] Speaker A: I. I enjoyed it. We had. We did a tour that was like a history tour. And chocolate. So we tasted a couple of chocolates, walked around, you know, had a lot of information given to us by the tour guide.
Saw, went to the city hall and saw multiple brides coming out. And then I remembered when we were in one of our other cities on the biking.
[00:29:01] Speaker C: The biking, yeah.
[00:29:03] Speaker A: And they were telling us. Well, they were telling us that in Belgium, a marriage isn't legal unless you do it at City Hall. You can have your church wedding, but that's ceremonial. It. You have to get married at City hall, and it's basically, you're in and out in 15 minutes. Just. Just you and your witnesses. Nobody else can go in. And so it was like every 15 minutes, there was another couple coming out into the square and celebrating with their friends and family.
[00:29:28] Speaker C: I forget where we were, but someone said that they saw there was another tradition they do where it's like the groom.
Because biking.
The groom pedals the bike and the bride sits on the back and they pedal the city hall.
[00:29:41] Speaker A: To do the wedding dress on.
[00:29:43] Speaker C: Yeah. To do the marriage. Yeah, yeah. It's crazy.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: These were a little fancier. There were, like, little sports car convertibles there waiting for them with the bride would put her bouquet on the back and they'd go driving off and waving. It was pretty cool.
[00:29:57] Speaker B: Cute.
[00:29:57] Speaker C: Did you get to do.
So the two things I loved about our stop in Bruges on the abd. One is we did the canal. A canal tour, which I thought was really fun. In Bruges. The other thing was they gave us kind of plenty of on your own time to kind of go explore the city just a little bit. Right. And so that's to mean that I got to go to the. See the shop with all the beer, and we had lunch and, you know, had some fabulous. Did you feel like you got. Did you get explore on your own time, or was that pretty limited?
[00:30:24] Speaker A: And then there was a little hiccup at the end because the tour guide, he told. Told us when we had chocolate, this is where we're going to meet to go back to the bus. And then he took us all around town and there were some people who were afraid they couldn't find it. Again, so he said meet. He had told us meet at this place at 2:00'. Clock. And then while we were walking around he said, everybody can see the bell tower. I will go to the bell tower at 1:45.
So Mike and I made the assumption that he was going to gather the lost people at 1:45 and go back to the meeting place at 2:00 clock clock. So we were at the meeting place probably quarter to two and no one came there.
Oh no, we are not seeing anybody from our group. And finally at like 2:05, I called the emergency number they had given us and said, I don't know what happened to our tour guide. But we went to the place he told us and he's not here.
So she sent us a pin for the where the buses were. So we, and he had been a very leisurely walker. So it's like, okay, okay, we will hoof it back to the buses and we'll get there back in time. And we get there and the buses are gone.
[00:31:35] Speaker C: Oh my gosh.
[00:31:36] Speaker A: And he's standing there talking to some other tour guides and sees us and looks a little panicked and comes running across the street. It's like, you didn't go back to the meeting place. Yeah, you know, he thought it was our fault. We thought it was his fault. But in the long run we got on a different bus, made it back to the shop ship, but we were a little upset about that. Yeah, I should have made a complaint to Port Adventures, but I didn't think about it till after. After we were off the ship.
[00:32:05] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. No, and I would have made the same assumption as you. Like, okay, you've made two alternative meeting spots. Essentially you've made one that's a 145 at the Bell tower or the original meeting spot that's at 2 o' clock because you have to walk past there to get back.
That's how I would have assumed that as well. Without clarification saying, okay, I'm canceling this meeting spot. Everyone should meet at 1:45 at the Bell tower.
[00:32:32] Speaker A: And then he walked them back a different way. He didn't come back by the original meeting spot.
[00:32:39] Speaker C: That's crazy.
[00:32:41] Speaker B: Yeah, that would be frustrating. I absolutely would understand.
I would probably have complained as well. Was that the only stop on your Belgium cruise or did you go go to any place else? Yeah, okay.
Yeah, because it's a sea day now. I'm curious, you know, was the vast majority of the people on this cruise, could you tell first time cruisers? Because you mentioned they're mostly UK folks and so I, in general, I feel like the European season, whatever sailings are shorter and whatever sailings tend to have more, you know, Brits or Europeans on them do tend to lean heavily into that first cruiser crowd. Is that what that this one was?
[00:33:26] Speaker A: I think it really was. I joined a WhatsApp group for that cruise and the DVC member cruise and the WhatsApp cruise for the three night was insane. I mean every day I, because of time difference, I'd wake up in the morning and there'd be a hundred messages that these people would. They used it as like a group chat.
[00:33:47] Speaker B: Oh, like kind of how the Facebook groups get used by us.
Yeah.
[00:33:52] Speaker A: But it's way, way worse than a Facebook group because there was a Facebook group too.
There was a lot of questions back and forth and I think a lot of first time cruisers.
[00:34:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Now, and you mentioned the lines for characters being long. This was on the Disney Dream, of course, because that's the ship that was in Europe this year. Next year, of course it's going to be the Disney wish. In previous years it's been the dream, the fantasy, the magic.
It's not always the same, you know, ship. But the Dream has of course been to Europe many, many times. Did you find that the activities on board were kind of similar to what you've seen in the past?
Did they do. You know, one of the things I always note is the trivias tend to very much skew towards like American pop culture.
I'm curious if that continues to be the case or if they do anything to switch it up when they're doing them on board a cruise that is so obviously not American cruisers.
[00:34:56] Speaker A: I think we did a lot of trivias and they did skew American.
Not as many people at the trivias.
[00:35:05] Speaker B: Oh, interesting.
[00:35:06] Speaker A: And also not as like we went to Match or Mate. Not very many people at Match or Mate. In fact, the two couples we were with, they both volunteered to get up there and they were trying to convince me and Mike to do it. And after. I mean I've never want to get up there, but if I ever had any chance of doing it, that would have been the cruise because it would have been the three of us up there and nobody in the audience, hardly anybody in the.
[00:35:34] Speaker B: That's so funny. Were other activities similarly not well attended? I mean you said character lines being long were like. How about like the shows or other kinds of, I don't know, other deck parties, things like that. What was, what was well attended versus what was not well attended.
[00:35:50] Speaker A: We actually didn't go to the shows on that cruise. We did trivia every night with them. Our friends that were doing the all of the cruises they wanted to do like scouting for the trivia so they could do better. Every time
[00:36:07] Speaker B: they're writing down the questions and the answers. Cheating, cheaters.
[00:36:13] Speaker A: So we won a couple of times even on the first couple of cruises.
So it was fun.
[00:36:19] Speaker B: Good. That's really good. Well, and one of the other things
[00:36:23] Speaker A: in that group with the characters, there was a lot of discussion how they would not have Stitch as a character on this cruise. Because the last time there was a three night cruise, people like attacked Stitch. There was a lot of stuff that it was like they were so crazy over seeing Stitch. So it's like, yeah, they're not bringing them out on this three night cruise.
[00:36:45] Speaker B: Oh my God, that's nuts. I, I, I wonder if. Yeah, the demand is just so, I mean, they have Disneyland Paris. It's not like they don't have a park nearby. In fact, for some of, you know, some of the folks who live in the United States don't have a park as close as people in the uk. Right. Like if you live in sort of the middle of the US you have to go to either coast. Right. To get to a park.
Or if you live all the way up in Maine, you got to go all the way down to Florida. Right. So it's not like you necessarily have are driving distance to a park if you live in the US So I wonder why it's such crazy demand there for the character pictures.
Wow, that's, that's, that's kind of nutty.
Well, so, okay, so it sounds like just a different vibe of a cruise.
Did you have as good of a time? I mean, did you take a different sort of pacing, you know, that obviously we know we're about to talk about the DVC cruise.
The DVC cruise. From my perspective from just talking to you, talking to Ed, talking to Benji, it's a bit fast pace in terms of, you know, packed activities and then you've got ports in between which are also packed.
Did you try to take it easy on the Belgium cruise? Sort of in preparation for that. And also of course you had just traveled from the west coast toes all the way to Europe, so you're probably jet lagged as well.
[00:38:14] Speaker A: We did, it was more catching up with our friends. We did Apollo Brunch on the sea day, you know, took extended time with that. So it was just more relaxing and, and visiting with our friends.
[00:38:26] Speaker B: Yeah, that's always nice. That's a, That's a nice way to cruise. Especially if you're doing back to back. You don't feel like you have to hit every activity, especially because you're gonna hit a lot of those the, the next. The next day.
Um, I think it's interesting. I like Ed's comment in the chat. I don't think that's the right answer for Disney. If people want it too much, let's not give it to them. Yeah, I think usually the answer should be let's, let's just give them more opportunities. The problem is you only have so many people who play characters, right?
And so you've got to, like, figure out what's more important. Do I give them stitch 12 times or do I give them Mickey and Minnie 12 times? And I'll be honest, Mickey and Minnie are more prominent on Disney Cruise Line than Stitches. And so if that's where the, you know, that's where the question lies. I think the answer is you give them more Mickey and more Minnie if you have to. If you have to make a choice.
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[00:40:35] Speaker C: So, Cindy, you mentioned at the top of the show you're excited for the member cruise. So it's not your first rodeo with DVC cruising.
What brought you back? What makes it not a one and done kind of exercise to go on a DVC cruise for you.
[00:40:50] Speaker A: I've never been to D23, and I describe for me it's like D23 at sea. I get to get special entertainment.
I'm not real. As much as I love to meet people, I'm not comfortable approaching celebrities.
So I did not meet as many celebrities as some other people might have. And also because we were with our friends, some of the events where there might have been more opportunity, like in the evening, karaoke, that kind of stuff. We didn't do any of that.
We didn't do the Halloween deck party, which now I'm sorry that I didn't, but I can't remember what we were doing. Instead, it got moved to a different night. I did go to the Broadway shows. Those are my favorites.
Got to meet Jodi Benson on one of our excursions. And I did get brave enough to ask her if I could take a picture.
[00:41:51] Speaker B: Oh, I love that.
She's wonderful. She's really nice. I. I will. I did not get brave enough to go and. And like, ask her for a picture on. What was it? It was the.
The maiden voyage of the treasure, I believe it was. Or was it.
[00:42:07] Speaker C: You interviewed her, Sam?
[00:42:09] Speaker B: No, no, no, I didn't interview. That was Susan Egan.
[00:42:12] Speaker C: Susan Egan, that's right. That's right, Susan Egan.
[00:42:15] Speaker B: I did interview, but then I also got brave enough to take a picture with. With her when I saw her in the. When we saw her in the pub on the ship, on the Destiny. But no Jody Benson. That was on. I think it was on the Wish, actually.
[00:42:26] Speaker C: It was. It was on the. It was on the Wish.
[00:42:29] Speaker A: Karaoke in front of her.
[00:42:30] Speaker B: Yeah. Yes, we did karaoke in front of her.
[00:42:32] Speaker C: Not we. You.
[00:42:34] Speaker B: Sorry, I.
When I say we, I mean myself and Tracy, we both did karaoke in front of her.
I don't know that we knew that she had got. Came in the room. I saw her late. I saw her in the room at one point, but I don't know if that was before or after I. I actually sang, but I. I was not brave enough to go up to her and ask for a picture.
But we. I mean, so we got to see her a number of times on the ship. Yeah. Tracy's saying she heard us sing karaoke. I think Tracy's probably right. I'm not sure I knew that until after I sang, which is probably a good thing, or I would have been much more nervous. There was a girl who chose to sing Part of your world, like, not a child. An adult woman, I should say, in front of Jody Benson. And that's like.
I mean, the, the dodge.
[00:43:23] Speaker C: That's like the dodgeball moment. Like, that's an interesting choice, Cotton. Let's see if it works out for him or not.
[00:43:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I got it. I gotta say, the chutzpah, I mean, and I mean that. I don't mean that in a negative way, but the, the gall. The cojones. That's the only way to say it.
To do that, you gotta have. Yeah, yeah, I'm. I'm like in awe of that person's bravery, but.
[00:43:45] Speaker C: So you mentioned you like the Broadway stars series.
Did you have a favorite of the shows that they put on? Because they typically do something in the Walt Disney Theater, something for the adults. Like what? You know, did you have a favorite?
[00:43:59] Speaker A: There were two different ones. One was called. It was Frozen into the Unknown, I think it was called. And they had five performers. The original Anna from Broadway, the North American Elsa, Hans and Kristoff, and then the West End Olaf and. Oh, my God, they performed songs that got added to the stage play and then just described why each of those songs was added. And that was a great show. And then the last night, I think it was last night or night before last, when the Broadway stars came out. It was Ashley Brown, Susan Egan, Josh Strickland, I can't remember his name, but someone from Aladdin. And he seemed genuinely thrilled to be there. He was very excited to be there.
And then one of the seminars was on Richard Sherman and his granddaughter narrated, and she came on and sang with the Broadway stars at the end.
[00:45:09] Speaker B: Oh, very cool. That's amazing.
[00:45:12] Speaker C: I'm always fascinated at the. Always fascinating at the quality of the production that they put on for those, because, you know, they can't rehearse until they get together on the ship. Like, they're not.
[00:45:21] Speaker B: I mean, maybe a day before, but
[00:45:23] Speaker C: they're, you know, they're, they're, they're all professionals. They're all professionals. They're not. They're not foreign to Broadway, so I'm sure they can pick everything up quickly. But I'm always like, wow, it's such a well produced show from the timing and the little dance numbers that they do and stuff.
[00:45:36] Speaker B: And you're like. And they tend to.
[00:45:38] Speaker A: And that night the sea was very, very rough. And they were. We were the first show because we had late dining and they were really having a hard time on stage.
Paige o' Hara came out and sang a couple songs and she stood next to the piano and Just stood there and held onto the piano.
When they needed her to move on stage, Susan Egan took her by the hand.
[00:46:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean she's a little, she doesn't move as well as she used to. Paige o', Hara, she's. But she's incredible. I mean as are all of these, these are all Disney legends, Disney Broadway stars, they voice movies and on stage and all of that. They're all sort of incredible performers.
And to see, get to see them performing together, like you won't get that on a regular cruise. Even a maiden voyage you might get a few Broadway stars together, but on a Disney vacation club member cruise, you're going to get sort of that leveled up even. I'd say like even more than a maiden voyage. Typically.
I want to talk about some of the onboard activities that were not the non performance ones, but sort of the, the talks, the documentaries, the things like that. What were some of the things you. Or what were, what were a couple of the favorites that you got to attend? Cindy?
[00:47:03] Speaker A: Probably two of my favorites.
Mar. Marcy Kker Kker Summers. I've saw her on Smothers. I saw her on the first DVC cruise we did. She wrote the book Eat Like Walt and so she did one, it was called Walt Disney An Ordinary Man.
And she just talked about how, how, how simple his tastes were, you know, or just ordinary things that he liked to do. And you know, related it back to Marceline. She's actually moved there now because she wants to have more done with the city of Marceline for Walt Disney.
[00:47:47] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:47:48] Speaker A: So I thought that was really interesting. I, I stopped and took a picture with her because the funny thing was when I did that first DVC member cruise, it was Van San Diego to Vancouver bc. So we flew home from Vancouver BC through Seattle and I ended up sitting next to her on the plane. And when I sat there, my husband said, leave her alone. Don't talk to her, just leave her alone.
I just said thank you very much, I appreciated your presentation. And she had no problem talking the whole way.
And she did.
[00:48:24] Speaker B: I told you that she did.
[00:48:26] Speaker A: Remember that.
So that one I really enjoyed. And then there was one, it was a documentary on Dick Van Dyke and Karen Dotrice, who is Jane Banks was there and her husband who did the documentary. And she was hilarious.
She said a couple of things that were a little off color and I think they were like, oh, maybe, maybe she shouldn't have said that. But it was very, very, very, a very good presentation. Learned a lot about Dick Van Dyke that I didn't know how. He was really an advocate for interracial, you know, bringing actors of color onto his show. And I just thought that was really interesting about him.
[00:49:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I love Dick Van Dyke.
[00:49:17] Speaker A: He's like, I do too.
[00:49:20] Speaker B: Such a favorite favorite. A favorite. A childhood favorite of mine.
Very, very much so. Cindy, I gotta ask about the merch.
I mean we have. You have to. Right. There's. And there's sort of two sets of merch that we could talk about.
One is, of course there's some merch for purchase in the store that is sort of member branded. There's also some European merch that is sold on the European sailings that's not sold sort of the rest of the year.
[00:49:50] Speaker A: I'm.
[00:49:50] Speaker B: I'm curious what you thought of the selection both in terms of member cruises in general, but also compared to sort of other European sailings that you've done.
Did you like the variety and were there. I mean, I know there were a few things. It's not like, it's not like they stock the whole ship with new merch for the European season, but there's always a few items for the European season and a few items for the member crews. What did you think of sort of the quality and variety of stuff available in the shop shops?
[00:50:19] Speaker A: I thought there was, there was. Considering it was like the middle of the season, I think there was still quite a bit of European merchandise left. I don't know what was there at the beginning of the season, but there was still quite a bit of stuff that, you know, was branded Europe.
They had, you know, a T shirt, a long sleeve T shirt, a quarter zip sweatshirt for the member crews, a pin. I think the pins probably sold out, but most of the other stuff was there for most of the cruise.
Also the DVC merch that they passed out at the desk was upgraded over what you normally got.
So I thought some of that stuff was pretty nice. Very nice scarf.
A cute little troll perches on your shoulder.
Some of those were nice.
On Benji's episode, I heard him talking about the crowd at the DVC event. They had like six or seven of them.
And I think there was such a big crowd because they gave out a magnet for the cruise. And on the, on the European one, the Mediterranean one, every day the magnet was one of your gifts in the room. And this time it was only one of them and you had to go to, to the member event to get it.
And it was Brett Iwan does some screen prints for each of the cities and it was a small the magnet is a small replica of the screen prints.
[00:51:53] Speaker B: Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah. So for those who haven't seen it on our socials, both Cindy and Ed contributed, by the way, pictures of the things I was posting on our Instagram during the DVC member cruise, which was just at the very beginning of Sept, Included pictures of the merchandise. And some of those pictures were from Cindy and some of those pictures were from Ed, who obviously were sending me via social media, were sending me messages with pictures so that I could repost them. But speaking of the merchandise, that DVC gifts members, and actually not just members, but even their roommates. Because even though you have to be a member to book the cruise, you can bring along with you somebody who is not a member as your guest. You can even book a second room.
I think you can book as a member. You can book, I think, two rooms.
And so they give you gifts every day, sometimes multiple times a day, meaning sometimes you'll get a gift in the, in, you know, in the middle of the day and then sometimes you'll get a gift at, at bedtime at turn down service.
You mentioned the gifts of the desk being upgraded. What did you think about the gifts, the in room gifts that were delivered in terms of as compared to, let's say our regular stateroom gifts that we get? Because you get those already. You get of course, castaway club gifts. If you are a castaway club member, you get those also.
But yeah, what did you think in terms of quality, quantity and packability? Because that's always an issue.
[00:53:33] Speaker A: I thought from the three member cruises I've been on, I think think each time the quantity or the size of things is a little bit smaller.
Like we got the walking stick. So some evenings the evening gift was the little medallion that went on the walking stick. You know, nothing big, just the little medallion and which was fine. I don't necessarily need a lot more stuff. And that ended up being an issue at the end of the cruise because. Because they didn't have enough buses for people because they underestimated the amount of luggage. Everyone would have
[00:54:17] Speaker B: luggage, not the people,
[00:54:19] Speaker A: full luggage holds and not full of people.
So we ended up taking a taxi because we looked at the line and we, there were going to be like we were going to have to wait for three or four more buses to come delivering people for the next cross cruise and unload and load again before we were going to get on a bus. And we said forget it, we're just going to take a taxi.
[00:54:42] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:54:43] Speaker A: And then I contacted them at the when we got home and said, can I please have my money back for the bus? And they did refund it.
[00:54:49] Speaker C: Oh, that's good.
[00:54:51] Speaker B: That's good. That, that's like. That's one of the things that everybody tells you. If you go on a member cruise, you're gonna need an extra piece of luggage, right? So you're already talking about going over to Europe for at least a week, right? I mean, you, you did a back to back cruise, so you had longer. But even for somebody who's just going for the DVC cruise, they're at least coming in a day before to. I mean, hopefully it's coming in even more than that before because it's a big time adjustment when you're coming from the United States to Europe, even if you're coming from the east Coast. But of course, even more so when you're coming from the west Coast. So you're bringing probably at least a week's worth of clothes and, and whatever supplies you need. Of course, weather is going to be a factor. When you're sailing in Denmark and Norway. You're not, you're not packing swim trunks and sundresses. You are packing some rain gear and whatnot. Like an Alaska cruise or. Any Norwegian who talks about packing. You're bringing layers onion. Right?
[00:55:55] Speaker A: Takes more space.
[00:55:56] Speaker B: Yeah, it takes more space than your bathing suits and sundresses take up, no question.
So that, that's, that's really, that's really funny to hear. I gotta ask him. We gotta ask about the ports. I know, I know that we've been talking a while about some of the onboard stuff and obviously I had to ask you about the merchandise. But we gotta start with. We got. Yeah, we gotta talk about the ports a little bit. You had three or four ports of call. Remind me.
[00:56:24] Speaker A: We had three. We had two in Denmark. We had Skin Skane, which looks like Skagen, but it's Skagen and Copenhagen and then Stavanger, Norway.
[00:56:37] Speaker B: Awesome. All right, let's start with Skagen. What did you get up to there?
[00:56:41] Speaker A: So we had an excursion booked that was called Remains of the Atlantic Wall that was going to go to some old bunkers from World War II. But Mike woke up not feeling very well. So I just walked into town town and just kind of walked around, looked at the shops and then went back to the ship about lunch. And he was feeling better, so I said, okay, I would like to go out to Greenan, I think it's called. It's a very northern tip of Denmark where the Baltic Sea and the North Sea come together and so you have these waves that are like crashing like this and they don't. The water doesn't mix, mix right away because they have different temperatures and different salinity. So everybody's out on the point stepping in the water to take pictures.
That was pretty cool.
[00:57:32] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:57:33] Speaker B: Were they different colors? Like one of the things you noticed
[00:57:35] Speaker A: about one is a little greener and the other one was a little bluer.
[00:57:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, you have different salt content in different seas.
It's really cool to see. You don't really think. I mean, it's the same with freshwater salt water, even with different saltwater, you know, bodies and water when they hit together, that's. That's so fun.
[00:57:54] Speaker A: Last time we took a city bus out there and then it's about maybe a mile to where the point is and they have this thing called the Sandermans and it's a tractor that's pulling like a hay trailer and you just paid a ticket to that. And then they take you out to the point and then you, you take your pictures and do whatever you want and then you get back on the tractor and they bring you back.
[00:58:18] Speaker B: That sounds great. That's. I mean, that sounds like a.
[00:58:21] Speaker D: It.
[00:58:22] Speaker B: It's one of those things where I'm not sure you take a trip just to go do that. Like just go to Skage just for that. Right. But if you happen to be going to Skein, it sounds like that would be like a perfect kind of way to cap off the day. A perfect little add on thing to do. I love that. All right, what about Copenhagen? What did you do there in Copenhagen?
[00:58:42] Speaker A: We did an excursion that gave us early entry into Tivoli Garden and got to, you know, some of the, some of the area was open for rides and then the rest of the park opened up at 11. So you could really see the inspiration that Walt Disney got from that park.
Just the way the. It was beautifully. Lots of flowers, beautiful gardens, some of the buildings. There was a roller coaster that had a mountain like the Matterhorn. I don't think it went into the mountain, but. Because we didn't ride it. But the. It's still an. It's still operating. It's an old roller coaster and it still has a brakeman that rides every car to control the speed.
[00:59:28] Speaker B: That's so cool.
[00:59:29] Speaker C: Because it's all gravity. Yeah, it's purely gravity driven.
[00:59:32] Speaker B: Yeah, gravity. Just like the Matterhorn. The Matterhorn is all gravity, but obviously you don't need a brakeman. But that. It's that's all automated, but that's.
[00:59:40] Speaker C: So the real question is if you need a chiropractor. Just like you do for the matter.
[00:59:44] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:59:45] Speaker A: Some of the rides were pretty intense. There were some that did upside down spinning that there's no way I would have gotten on those rides. We did the bumper cars, and then there was a Hans Christian Andersen ride that on the outside, it looked like it might be like Peter Pan, that the cars might fly from above, but they were on a track and they looked like little luggage trucks, trunks. And you went by all these different scenes of fairy tales. You know, the princess and the pea and all the different little ones. And they told just little bits about each fairy tale as you went by.
[01:00:20] Speaker B: Oh, that's cool.
[01:00:21] Speaker A: Little animatronic kind of things.
[01:00:24] Speaker C: So Ed's asking if you had a favorite at Tivoli Gardens.
[01:00:29] Speaker A: I think just the atmosphere, just being there, we just. It was raining, so that kind of brought it down a little bit. But just walking around with the atmosphere, we went kind of hooked up with two other people that we met on a previous member cruise, and one of the guys works for Disney.
So we ended up running into the VIP tour group that. Here comes Jeff Dunham and John Stamos with his family.
And so Mike and I kind of stood back because they knew all these people, and. And so we kind of stood back while they chatted for a while, and then the VIP group got whisked away to do something else. But one of the interesting things in Tivoli Garden is they have this room that has slot machines. They have gambling there.
[01:01:17] Speaker B: That's so weird.
Yeah.
[01:01:20] Speaker A: They have another area with arcades with, like, the claw where you can get stuffed animals. So that's the gambling for kids, but they had, you know, adults only. But it was slot machines in there. There.
[01:01:31] Speaker B: Wow, that's so crazy. Well, it's. It is. I mean, I've not been to Tivoli Gardens, but I, of course, know the. Just the history that that is. That was really the inspiration for. For Walt Disney. For Walt Disney to create Disneyland in the first place. And, of course, the fact that we have all of this greenery across. I mean, you don't see that in most.
In most amusement parks, at least not at the level or with the care and the detail that is at Disneyland and Disney World.
[01:02:01] Speaker C: And of course, greenery. It's topiary, practically, you know, I mean, so.
[01:02:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, but you've got, like, at the front of the parks, right? You've got this amazing, you know, Creation of Mickey's Face. Right. At both Disneyland and Disney World, at Magic Kingdom and at Disneyland.
And then, of course, everywhere, you've got all of these, like, plantings and topiaries and all. You just have all this green. That probably wouldn't exist if not for Walt seeing Tivoli Gardens. Yeah. All right.
[01:02:31] Speaker A: Well, they were having some kind of display there, kind of like a food and a flower and garden thing. And they had these big boards with one that was all apples and one that was all cabbages. And they had done things with different kinds of fruit and vegetables.
[01:02:50] Speaker C: It sounds like the state fair.
[01:02:52] Speaker B: Yeah, they have. So here in. Here in Washington, they have. There is a state fair down in Puyallup that happens every year. There are some other ones around the state, different county fairs, but the fair, they always have, like, these vegetable display competitions. And we've gotten to go to the state fair a couple of times.
[01:03:13] Speaker C: That's actually not. The Puyallup fair, is not the state fair. The state fair is the one. It was this. I thought it was the one that was up north, because Puyallup is kind of like a business of its own.
[01:03:23] Speaker B: No, no, they. The. The official state fair is the one at Puyallup. The other ones are. Are official county fairs. The one you're thinking of in Monroe, I think, is a.
I think is a King County Fair. But anyway, anyway, they have these amazing. And a lot of county and state fairs will have these amazing, amazing vegetable displays. And they're. They're works of art made of, you know, vegetables. And it's just kind of a really cool thing to see. All right, well, let's. Let's move on to your last port of call, Savanger. That's where we climbed Pulpit Rock. Where did. What did you guys do?
[01:03:59] Speaker C: Did you make use of the hiking stick, Cindy? That's what everyone was saying.
[01:04:04] Speaker A: We did a fjords cruise.
That's where I met Jodi Benson. She and her family were on that cruise, too. It was a pretty rainy day, and when we sailed by Pulpit Rock, you could hardly see it. It was pretty foggy up there.
We had little breaks in the sun and had some, you know, could get out and get some beautiful pictures. I got drenched by a waterfall.
The tour guide was telling us that the. The myth or the legend is if you get wet from the waterfall, it will keep you young. So a lot of us were standing out on the deck, and I'm thinking, I'm going to get misted by it. I was glad I had purchased A Disney Cruise Line Helly Henson raincoat. Because when we got close to it, it was whoosh of water, not just a little mist.
[01:04:49] Speaker B: Oh. Like French. Oh, my gosh.
[01:04:51] Speaker A: Yeah, my shoes got soaked, but my upper body, where I had the jacket on, I was completely dry.
[01:04:57] Speaker C: But did you see the backside of water? That's the real, you know, I mean, pretty close.
[01:05:02] Speaker A: Pretty close.
[01:05:03] Speaker C: It turns out it's just as wet as the front side of water. It was, yeah.
[01:05:09] Speaker B: And then Sydney, it was a pretty
[01:05:11] Speaker A: short cruise, you know, that excursion. So we got back into town, had lunch on the ship and then walked into Stavanger and got completely drenched with another rain shower that came down on us before we got back.
[01:05:24] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and that's, that's why, you know, paying attention and packing correctly is key when you're doing like a sailing like this. If you're going to Denmark and Norway, if you're going to Alaska, packing those, you know, either waterproof shoes or at least a second pair of shoes. Because if you only have one pair of sneakers and one gets soaked, there's nothing worse than wearing soaking wet sneakers the next day. I'm just gonna say put that out there.
But yeah, absolutely. Like pay attention and pack differently than you would pack for, let's say a Mediterranean cruise or a Caribbean cruise, that sort of a thing. But Cindy, you've been on. On now, is this the fourth member cruise or the third member cruise?
[01:06:08] Speaker A: The third member cruise.
[01:06:10] Speaker B: You've been on three.
Would you do it again?
[01:06:15] Speaker A: Yes, yes, I would do it again. And the only reason we haven't done more is it's usually timing. It's like, no, can't do that one. It falls right on. During our granddaughter's birthday. And like the one for next year, we already had a cruise booked at the same time time, so. And we're taking our grandkids for the first time. So I wasn't going to cancel that trip to do the member cruise.
[01:06:37] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know, the member cruises are more expensive typically than an average cruise. Do you think that the added experience. Because I, I don't want to say the merchandise being worth it. Of course, the merchandise is a nice to have thing, but I don't, I don't think anybody's silly enough to think that the merchandise is going to make up that price difference. But do you think the added or layered on experience of it, as you called it, and we've called it D23 at sea. That's not what they call it, but that's what we're calling it. Do you think those added experiences make up that difference in terms of making it worth it to go on a member cruise?
[01:07:15] Speaker A: It. It does for me because they're the kind of experiences that I probably wouldn't get otherwise.
And, and I really enjoy them. I think I enjoy them a lot more than Mike. And we've done several colder cruises recently. I mean, the river cruise was not cold, but we were so busy there was no time to relax. I think we're ready for a relaxing warm weather cruise.
[01:07:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Listen, you, you can always take a break. You don't have to go on European, Northern European cruises sort of every year. You can do those every few years and fill in the gaps with Caribbean cruises or Southern California Baja cruises. Right. So there are, there are plenty to offer. Or Mediterranean Cru if you want to go be sweltered at Pompeii. Right. So there's plenty to fill in those gaps.
Cindy, we have to ask, of course, you mentioned you're going on a sailing with the grandkids who are going to get to sail for the first time.
What other Disney trips you got planned? Are you going to be passing out any more bracelets anytime soon?
[01:08:23] Speaker A: Yes, in a couple weeks I'm going to wine and dine and I've been working on bracelet for the Wine and Dine half Marath.
So I have those. We have the ABD in November.
We're doing Marathon Weekend in January.
And then we have the cruise with our grandkids in April, cruise on the Treasure with some friends in May.
Two friends. One family has cruised before with us on Disney. The other family has done a lot of Holland America, but they've never done Disney. And then in October, we booked three cruises.
We're missing the cruise that a lot of DCL Duo listeners are doing, the one that goes from New York to Canada. We're doing the next cruise that goes from Newark to Bermuda to San Juan and then staying on the ship and doing a San Juan Southern Caribbean and then staying on the ship and going from San Juan Juan to Port Canaveral.
[01:09:27] Speaker B: So it's about amazing.
[01:09:28] Speaker A: Fifteen nights, I think.
So it's a five night, a seven night and a four night.
[01:09:34] Speaker C: I think I was so hoping that the DVC cruise next year was in your repertoire because then we would get to sail with you again. But you got to take a break.
[01:09:43] Speaker B: I knew Cindy had told me already she couldn't go because of the grandkid cruise. And I understand.
And they want to do a warm, a more, a warmer weather cruise cruise out of, out of Florida with the grandkids rather than doing a California Pacific coast cruise.
[01:09:59] Speaker A: So I join you for New Year's with the cabana availability, but we're actually seeing Beauty and the Beast in Seattle on January 2nd, so we won't be able to do it.
And then going to marathon weekend.
[01:10:13] Speaker B: Oh, gosh. All right, well.
[01:10:16] Speaker C: So Cindy, there is one question in the chat I wanted to raise before we wrap up here, which is Amy's actually asking how difficult was it to book excursions on the DVC cruise. She was, she was expecting a ton of. She's saying I expect lots of Pearl and platinum. I actually don't know that those cruises skew that way. I think it's a lot more first timers on the DVC member cruises.
[01:10:35] Speaker B: Maybe not first timers, but like silver and gold cruisers rather than Pearl and platinum cruisers.
[01:10:41] Speaker A: I didn't, the ones we wanted to book, I didn't have any problem and I didn't really hear that people had trouble. We booked the Tivoli Gardens one. We didn't book it right away because I wasn't sure what we wanted to do in Copenhagen and if we were just going to, you know, take a city bus and go there on our own. And then I decided to do the excursion and I mean, I think it was after general people could have done it.
So I don't think there was a problem. And I, I know Benji had made the comment on the podcast a couple weeks ago that there seemed to be a lot of even first time cruisers.
[01:11:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think the, the DVC cruises as a general matter, don't necessarily skew to, to Pearl or platinum cruisers. They, they have a mix. It's not, I wouldn't say they're like all new cruisers, all silver cruisers, all platinum, all pearl. Right. Like, they tend to have a mix because you have people, you have a lot of people who are really into Disney parks. And some of those, those people also Disney Cruise. Some of those people have never Disney cruised. Right. So it is. I'm using Disney Cruise as a verb. That's kind of a weird, weird turn of phrase. But it definitely, you're going to have more variety in terms of castaway club levels notwithstanding, when there are special excursions, regardless, those are always going to be more in demand and are going to book up faster than anything else. So for example, if they're. There was a couple of special excursions, like performance of Disney songs in a castle, right.
There are probably going to be a couple of special Disney excursions on the west coast cruise next year. So those things are going to book up faster than your average excursion. So just kind of something I'm guessing
[01:12:34] Speaker A: if you get to go to Lucas, you know, Lucasfilm or something like that, that's going to be a crazy one to get.
[01:12:40] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. Anyway, Cindy, thank you so much for coming back on the show.
If if people haven't listened to episode 707, we've got a great conversation with Cindy on that episode. Cindy has been on before as well. So if you go into our back catalog, you'll find the episode we we did another live episode with her previously.
She's a huge part of this community.
We would not have met her, frankly, I think if not for the My DVC Points podcast. So I've got to shout out our friends over at the MyDVC Points podcast. We met you through that community and then met you for the first time at a rundisney event which was so wonderful. And of course I have many bracelets from Cindy as well.
And she attended our our both our first DVC or DVC DCL Duo podcast Cruise and DCL Duo podcast Cruise version 2.0 on ABD. So Cindy, thank you so much for being a wonderful member of our community.
For those listening and watching live or after the fact, we will be back next Monday. Sorry, not next Monday, next Tuesday. Sorry. Next Tuesday at our normally scheduled time we will be on at 5pm Pacific, 8pm Eastern. We're going to be talking Halloween on the high seas cruises with from a travel advisor from we do travel, right, Alyssa. So she's going to be a first time guest to the show but we've gotten to interact with her and she's going to be a fantastic guest. So stay tuned for that episode. We're going to be talking about a sailing she went on but also talking about Halloween on the Heist Seas cruises in general since tis the season of course this is Halloween season for Disney.
As I mentioned, we got the Believe announcements coming on Wednesday.
We are going to have a special show next Sunday. So not this coming Sunday but Sunday a week from that we're gonna have Danny and Stephanie on from the DCL magazine, also WDW magazine because they're gonna be on the Believers or on the Wish for the Believe reveal. So we're gonna about the scavenger hunt activities they got to participate in. We'll give up reactions of course to whatever Believe announcements we get on Wednesday including of course itinerary release stuff for the Disney Believe. So stay tuned.
[01:15:02] Speaker C: We have those credit cards for the maiden voyage. That's all I have to say.
[01:15:05] Speaker B: Yeah, we've got lots, so we've got lots of content coming for you. So with that, we'll say thank you to everyone.
We'll be back next week and see you real soon.
[01:15:16] Speaker A: Thanks for having me.
[01:15:22] Speaker D: All right, that's our show for tonight, but thank you so much for listening. If you're not subscribed yet, please fix that right now. Head over to Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hit that subscribe button. We're dropping at least two episodes a week plus we're live each and every week over on our YouTube channel. YouTube.YouTube.com DCLDuo Come hang out with us for a live. It's a blast. You can ask your questions in the chat and really join the conversation with us and our guests. If you're enjoying our show, one of the easiest ways to support the show. Head over to Apple Podcasts, hit those five stars and while you're at it, leave us a written review with your 5 star review and we will read it on the air at the top of one of our main episodes. If you're listening to us on another platform, platforms Spotify, YouTube, Castos. There's so many third party podcast apps and players out there. Whatever form of reviewer rating they have, give it all to us. Show the show some love. It keeps us going, keeps us putting out great content week to week. Are you ready to set sail? Book your next Disney Cruise Line vacation with our show sponsor WEDOTravel right the crew that handles the planning so you can focus on relaxing. Head to we do do travelright.com DCLDUO today to get started. Or you can reach out to them directly. Just let them know the DCL Duo sent you subscribe today to DCL Magazine. They put out a great product head over there. It's your go to guide for DCL tips and tricks. Just browse to dcl-magazine.com that's dcl-magazine.com and use code DCLDUO all caps DCL Duo today for 10 off everything in the WDW Magazine store. And if you want to directly support the show, join us on
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