Ep. 714 - Disney Believe Reveal: Our Honest Take

[00:00:00] Speaker A: I said this when we did the Destiny preview and we sailed. I was like, I didn't think they could do it any better. And they took it up yet another notch. I expected the dial to turn to 11 on this ship and I didn't get it. Welcome back, everybody, to a special live episode of the DC Duo podcast brought to you by. We do travel, right? Remember, life is short. Take the trip. Let the folks over at WeDoTravel, right, handle the planning so you can focus on the relaxing. I also want to give a shout out to our live show sponsor, good folks over at DCL Magazine. If you have not already, head over to dcl-magazine.com that's dcl-magazine.com today to subscribe. And if you use code DCLDUO, all caps DCLDUO, you can take 10% off everything in their store over there. All right, it was reveal day and I got a couple of things I want to say up front. Sam and I have not had a chance to connect on this reveal beyond kind of cross chatter with people on text threads that we're on. And I was going to say I was a little nervous. We've only got about 45 minutes for the show. We have a hard stop because Nathan is at an activity that we have to go pick him up from. And I was a little worried. Like 45 minutes, that can be enough to cover everything. It's. It feels like. It feels like more than enough time to cover everything. And I just wanted to say a couple of things up front. We try to keep this show very positive, but my commitment to our listeners, our viewers, everyone out there is when things don't feel right, we will speak up. And I think we're certainly going to be doing a little bit of that this evening. There were two things that stood out to me about the reveal and I'm not going to get into the venues. We're going to talk about that in a second. Just two things that stood out to me about the reveal that gave me pause. One was it was 30 minutes long. It's 30 minutes long. And if it's 30 minutes long and it's about an entire ship, I'm expecting that to be a jam packed 30 minutes. Instead, we got a 30 minute show, a lot of singing and dancing, which for Disney, that's normal. They like to tell stories. But maybe I'd ask this question reflexively, which is, could anyone tell me what the storyline was for this review? Because I could not follow it. They gave very short shrift to, like some things to the point where I had to go look online to figure out what they were talking about. And then they, like, spent a lot of time going over stuff they've already talked about before. And so, like, I just reflexively looked at that and said, if this was a major marketing moment for a ship of this size and there's this much hype around it, if you get to the point of being on stage and rehearsing and find out you have about 10 minutes of actual new content about this ship and you're trying to fill 30, maybe you need more to say, right? Like, I just. I. That was kind of a theme for me. I just felt like there was a lot of stuff said that wasn't really all that surprising to hear about, even as people who follow it closely. I think for the general, like, the commentary I've seen now on posts that we've made, feedback from folks who are actually at this event and will say this stuff to me privately over a chat is meh. I mean, that is the sentiment that I'm sort of getting from a lot of the community. The other thing I just quickly wanted to say is this is the fourth and final ship in the Wish Class. It should be like any other cruise line. The opportunity for Disney to build. [00:03:55] Speaker B: It's not the final. [00:03:57] Speaker A: That's true. It's not the final fair. It's the final one in the U.S. like, this is the final one that will be controlled fully end to end by Disney Cruise Line. Right. Like, what we've seen is a steady march of the Wish. The Wish kind of underwhelmed some people, but it's grown on people. It was a new style of ship. That was the innovation. This is going to be new layout. The Treasure took that further. There was more detail in the design, a little bit of amplification of entertainment. And then, you know, they brought it with the stage show on the Treasure that really innovated with Moana and the puppetry. The Destiny. I said this when we did the Destiny preview and we saw. I was like, I didn't think they could do it any better. And they took it up yet another notch. I expected the dial to turn to 11 on this ship and I didn't get it. I didn't get it. I'm going to pause there because I want to hear Sam's initial reactions before we get into what is actually announced today. But, like, my reaction was just like, eh. [00:04:56] Speaker B: So I. I have two different sets of reactions. I have one set of reaction which is, you take the good. You Take the bad. You take them both in there, you have the facts of life, right? So what I mean by that is there are some really good things out of these announcements and then there are some really not so good things or meh things out of these announcements. So I'll take them both as they come. We'll talk about those details. I gotta say, I gotta give props where props is due and give negative feedback where negative feedback is due. And so I'm going to give two pieces of that. It looks to me from watching all of the scavenger hunt event stuff going on as a viewer, because of course, we weren't on the ship, we weren't invited on. That actually seems to have gone really, really well. Like the scavenger hunt seems to have been super creative. Everything, all the clues were right on the nose, which I think threw off some of the people on board. And I was like, why aren't you seeing that there's going to be like a Little Mermaid piano bar, for example, when they've serving you a Little Mermaid drink in the piano bar. Right. So I thought it was like pretty obvious, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. But I think people were sort of thrown off by that. So that went really well. I gotta tell you, as a fan of Disney performances and Disney presentations in general, Setting aside the fabulous legend, Susan Egan's wonderful performance and special video appearance [00:06:20] Speaker A: by Lin Manuel Miranda. [00:06:21] Speaker B: And I mean, but he didn't sing, he just talked or rapped. Right. Like I would have appreciated him doing a little rap for us. But I have to say I thought the performances were actually pretty terrible. Like that presentation that was only a half hour. Other than Susan Egan, who is a legend and can never do any wrong, even the Encanto folks, who all have beautiful voices, that medley just did not work. Like the whole show just didn't work. I don't know, it sounded like the audience was pretty quiet in person. I'm sure they were trying to be polite though too. But yeah, that whole presentation just did not work for me. That's setting aside what actual theming that was revealed. So I was just really surprised by that. I just thought that was not a Disney quality presentation. If you look at like the Disney Legend ceremony they just put on at D23, that was like heads and, you know, heads and tails above and beyond what any of that was today that we saw. And it was only a half hour presentation. It could have been, as people are saying in the chat, it could have [00:07:26] Speaker A: been an email in corporate America. I Would have said, you're wasting an executive's time with this PowerPoint. [00:07:31] Speaker B: Like we need to honestly like just, just do like a cartoon video like they did with like they did some comic video type stuff for the Destiny that were really cute. Right? Like just give us like a cool animated thing and it would have been awesome. That would have been. They didn't to do a live presentation that was kind of a big old mess. Just give us the information either in a, in a nice, you know, paper form in terms of an announcement and on the Disney Parks blog, as they did do correspondingly. But yeah, that presentation. [00:08:05] Speaker A: I will just say this and then we need to get into what was actually announced today. And there's a. By the way, there was a, there was stuff announced in the half hour presentation and then there was a massive press release that came after that answered a ton of questions about things that were not presented. Mostly about like they filled out all the dining and the other venues like in the press release. But I guess I would just, I'm struggling with this announcement because of the way they had this big scavenger hunt and I'm like, okay, so cool. The scavenger hunt's cool. But then I expect them to take those pieces and, and make it even better in the announcement and instead it was just like, yeah, you guessed all the right things. Good job. Like it, it didn't, it didn't feel like it worked cohesively through. [00:08:52] Speaker B: So can I, can I answer a question in the chat? So Jen from Kids Travel Tales is asking were they under contract and had to build a fourth Wish class ship? No, the answer is actually the exact opposite this. So they originally were only contracted to build three Wish class ships plus the OLC Wish class ship. And they got offered, as I understand it, they got offered this extra slot at Meyer Werft for a good deal. Let's call it. I don't know what it was, obviously I don't know anything about the financial side of it. But it's my understanding that this ship was not sort of planned. And so I think that might be the reason why we got a lot of what we're going to get into, which is recycling. Let's call it. [00:09:38] Speaker A: So let's, let's start to unpack what we actually heard today. So first, first thing up, we called it before Homeport, Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale. Done. I suspect, Sam, that it will just replace the destiny in her 5, 4, 4 rotation and the Destiny will be moving someplace else. [00:09:54] Speaker B: Well, the Destiny they already announced was A moving to Port Canaveral in November. So this works out perfectly well. [00:10:00] Speaker A: Right. Maiden voyage December 18, 2027, which for those of you keeping track at home, that's a five day sailing that ends before Christmas. They will then have a sailing over Christmas. They will then have a sailing between Christmas and New Year's Eve and then the fourth sailing will be a five night New Year's Eve sailing. Which is really fascinating to me to start this ship off that you wouldn't want to try to maximize the holiday time, especially for New Year's Eve. Not many people are going to get on the ship on. I think it disembarks the four night on December 31st to start the New Year's Eve sailing. [00:10:35] Speaker B: Is it the 30th or the 31st? Maybe it's. [00:10:37] Speaker A: I don't know, I think it's the 31st. [00:10:39] Speaker B: Okay. [00:10:40] Speaker A: I didn't look at the calendar length of sailing. It's actually we didn't have it in here. We had it wrong. But it's, it's, it's 5, 4, 4, not 5, 5, 4. So no, no, it's 5, 5, 4. The ones I saw. The first three or five. Maybe it's four. [00:10:54] Speaker B: The first three. The first three. The first couple are never on schedule. But at 554 is the. Is the typical. Because it's a two week rotation. Right. So the first couple are often off that schedule. The first couple and then probably right after New Year she gets on her normal 5, 5, 4. [00:11:11] Speaker A: So then we know pearl bookings. So they really confused the crowd because they announced it would go on sale on October 19th and we did some digging and found the schedule or a friend of ours sent it to us, I should say. [00:11:22] Speaker B: Yeah, the travel agents have the full [00:11:24] Speaker A: schedule and it is open to pearl booking on the 12th for the inaugural or I guess the. Which is itineraries, which is Monday, the [00:11:35] Speaker B: inaugural season that they've released essentially and they've been loading onto the website. So I'm not sure how much is on the website yet because I'll be honest, I haven't had a chance to check myself. But if you check on the website, you should be able to see at least some of the sailings. And I'm sure they'll continue populating tonight probably. But yeah. So you can book on October 12, which is Monday if you are pearl. If you are platinum, you can book on Tuesday, October 13th. You are silver, you can book or sorry, gold. If you can gold, you can book on the 14th, silver on the 15th. And then if you are general public, you can book on the 19th. Now mixed in there, if you are Golden Oaks Club 33, you book with Platinum. If you are DVC or Adventures by Disney Insider, you can book with, with Silver. [00:12:24] Speaker A: We should double check these dates, Tim, because that's a big gap between, that's four days between the 15th and the 19th. And I feel like it's usually like maybe a weekend. [00:12:31] Speaker B: No, no, it's a weekend. That's what it is. It's Monday, Tuesday. I know it's, it's, I'm positive it's correct. So it's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then it's Monday. So they're basically. They always give castaway club members that sort of extra weekend to book before it opens to the general public in order to give people with loyalty status, which is a lot of people, because it's not just. I mean, you can actually be a first time cruiser with loyalty status if you're a DVC owner, for example. Yeah. [00:12:58] Speaker A: All right, so let's, let's just. They recapped once again. Tinkerbell on the bow, Moana in the atrium, Woody and Buzz on the stern. Nothing new there. Let's just kind of quickly go through, I think, save the shows for last. Because I will say the one bright spot in this announcement was the show. [00:13:14] Speaker B: The show. The show. I'll say shows. [00:13:16] Speaker A: But let's, let's, let's just fill in some of the gaps here that we know from the press release. So we know that 1923 will make its return. We know that Worlds of Marvel will make its return. And we know that the Worlds of Marvel show is the Night 2 Groot Rocket Birthday extravaganza. So I will get that up here in a second. And then we learned today that, you know, because they just can't let it [00:13:46] Speaker C: go, [00:13:48] Speaker A: Frozen will be the rotational dining. It's called Oaken's Table, a frozen dining experience. [00:13:55] Speaker B: Frozen family dining experience, something like that. It sounds like it's not gonna be exactly the same in terms of show from what's on the Wish. I mean, they've sort of promised it's a different show. But Brian made a good point on social media, I think in an exchange with a listener that the current show is concentrated on Oaken and Kristoff already. And so it's another show concentrated on Oaken. So it can't. Well, while it might tell a new story, it's not going to be like night and day different. It's not like we're talking about you know, covering a different character. But apparently it's supposed to be a new story. I got to say, I like Frozen in terms of theming and I like Arendelle on the Wish. I actually. I know there are people who don't like it. I actually really enjoy it, but. But I was really hoping. I know this. There were some rumors about a week ago about this happening. And then of course, all of the hints that kept being lots and lots and lots of Frozen stuff just seemed like they can't do a stage show because the stage show is already on three different ships. It's the stage show other than Seize the Adventure. It's the stage show that's on more ships than any other stage show. And I know people love it, but that became sort of clear. It was likely to be dining and it's just quite frustrating. I wouldn't be disappointed if it was the first of its kind because I like Frozen and I'm happy it's not one of the stage shows because we can see it on three other ships. But I am disappointed by this choice. I really was hoping for, I mean, a lot of different things. [00:15:42] Speaker A: Here's the thing. Every ship in this class has its own restaurant. Restaurant with a show. And it's different across each. So to get to the end and not see them do something like, different. Where's the luau we like. So many people said do a Moana Luau. It would be fantastic. And so like to just do Frozen again, I mean, this is just feeling like the imagineering budget was like, cut, you know, and so like they were just like, just. [00:16:10] Speaker B: Well, maybe they didn't have imagineering budget because this was the ship that they didn't sort of originally plan on. So. And I do think Heather just commented and I think she's right. They are also going to be releasing Frozen 3 and they want to capitalize on that. And so maybe, you know, if you've got sort of storyline or songs from Frozen 3, maybe we'll think differently. Maybe it will be different enough that we will be like, oh, there's. This is a reason to go on the ship. I will say families with kids who are big fans of Frozen are going to be happy. So it's not. This isn't like a You're going to ever please everyone. I will just say this is the thing that pleases me the least about this ship. I'll be honest. Even I. I actually, this is. Falls lower to me than maybe. Well, I don't know. There's one other thing I'LL I won't spoil it. There's probably one other thing that falls lower in terms of repeat. [00:17:07] Speaker A: Let's just quickly cover. So Moana getting recycled up to the atrium Cafe number one. I think there's. There's already Heihei Cafe on one of the. I think it's on the Treasure. [00:17:20] Speaker B: And this one will be Kakamora. So it's a different but within Cafe Kakamora. So it'll be a different. Yeah, different characters, but same IP. This is a big win. The Big Hero 6 Cafe. [00:17:33] Speaker A: Is it, though? [00:17:34] Speaker B: I mean, it is because we. You. You love Baymax and we love. We love Hero 6. [00:17:40] Speaker A: Baymax is not gonna, like, I don't think there will be Baymax at the. Like, the problem with the coffee bars is it's such a small space to [00:17:47] Speaker B: think, oh, yeah, you can't. You can't do, like, six is a [00:17:50] Speaker A: cool IP for, like, even the Oceaneers Club or, you know, whatever it is. But, like, like, I. That. That IP does not get as much love as it should, and it should [00:18:01] Speaker B: get way more love. It should be an. I agree with you 100%. It's good that we have some of it on the ship. It's bad that we don't have it in a more prominent place. Like, I. I love the cafes for, like, the sidekicks, right? Like, I love that, like, Cricket gets. Cricket from. Mulan gets a cafe. Right. I love that the Kakamora getting a cafe. I love that Heihei gets a cafe. Right? Like, I love. I love that a sidekick gets a cafe, but Baymax is not a sidekick. [00:18:31] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm just gonna quickly talk about the staterooms. They did release some of the theming there, and I don't have slots here to cover all the different stateroom them theming. But we know that Moana will be one of the state room themes on some of the ships. Coco or some of the decks. Coco will be on there as well. And then Lion King, I think, is the other theming that they released for state rooms. And then concierge is going to have a mix of, like, Peter Pan and Toy Story rooms. Setting aside the Tower Suite and the higher End suite, we also know. So, you know, they love to announce that Tower Suite. I mean, I don't know so few people can actually book that thing. I'm just like. I don't know why they always focus on it. But we know that the Tower Suite is going to be Magic Kingdom themed, which is the second time they've paid tribute to a park in the Tower Suite because of the Epcot theming on the Destiny is Tony Stark themed, I think. [00:19:38] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it's on the Treasure. It's on the Treasure, yeah. [00:19:42] Speaker A: I don't know if they mentioned Cove Cafe in the press release. [00:19:45] Speaker B: They didn't. At least I don't think they did. But it's funny because Cove Cafe on all the wishclass ships thus far has been Moana themed. I don't think that they mentioned anything about it in terms of. I'll look while you keep going, Brian. [00:20:03] Speaker A: We know that the Sweet Shop is inside out theme now. It does introduce a couple new characters kind of into the theming, but, you know, as a reminder, we already have an inside out sweet shop on board the Wish class ships. I don't think they said anything about the Aqua Mouse, but they now have four storylines in production. No, three. Three or four. [00:20:25] Speaker B: Four storylines in productions on the Destiny. [00:20:28] Speaker A: So, you know, I don't know that I really expect. Especially after today's announ, I don't know that I'm expecting much to change on the Aqua Mouse. The bars were another place where they spent a little bit of time, although they were a bit cheeky in how they revealed some things. So they played the Haunted Mansion theme, but they didn't really confirm. You know, they didn't specifically call it out. They just kind of played the theming. I think they briefly showed some of the wallpaper on the screen and then they mentioned that the magic looking mirror as they were talking about Snow White, might appear someplace else. So, you know, this is obviously a reference to mirror tech that they have in the Haunted Mansion Parlor. I. I will say, out of the Haunted Mansion announcement, they did mention that they will be getting a revised cocktail menu, which is actually a very welcome thing because I think that the cocktails in Haunted Mansion have been some of the weakest in the fleet. And so it's a cool show, but you don't have a lot of reason to kind of stick around after the show's over. So I'm hoping those cocktails really deliver. [00:21:31] Speaker B: Nothing. Nothing in the press release about COVID Cafe. Sorry, I just took a quick look at my. At the email that we got. [00:21:38] Speaker A: Let's start with. So the other three bar spaces are new and I'm going to save the pub for last because I have the most thoughts about the pub. But. But Snow White will be what I affect. You know, I effectively call the main bar on board. It's going to be where the bayou is. [00:21:54] Speaker B: Skipper Society. [00:21:55] Speaker A: Skipper Society, yeah. So what did you think about the Snow White announcement. [00:22:02] Speaker B: I'm okay with this. It's not like it's not. I mean, it's wishing well. It's not Spellbound. I thought that they were going to just port over Spellbound from the Disney Adventure, which actually, I'll be honest, I think Spellbound Lounge looks pretty cool. Snow White is not like one of my favorite ips, but I don't dislike it. I. I think that it fits really well. I think that this could be a nice, you know, it's always a space for trivia, family crafts, but also, you know, music and all that. So I have no. I'm going to say, like, I'm a thumbs up on it, but I'm not, like, enthusiastic. Yeah. On this. Right. Like, I'm. This is a positive, but it's not like a high level positive because it's just not like an IP that I get real excited about. But I also kind of saw this one coming because it felt to me like a very easy port over from the adventure. And a lot of people, I know that that's a bit of a recycle. It's not completely new, but I don't think of it as much as a recycle because let's be honest, most of the folks sailing from the US Are not headed over to Singapore to sail on the adventure. I'm not saying. I mean, there are plenty who have and some of them who have come on our show to talk about it because we're interested in hearing about it, but I don't feel like it's. Porting something over from the Disney adventure doesn't feel the same as porting something over from another. [00:23:32] Speaker A: We're not going to get it. Not everyone in the US Is going to get a chance to go over and see the adventure. And she has no plans of coming to the US in the foreseeable future. So I don't mind them. Like, I would have loved if they would have found a way to bring the San Fransokyo thing that they did on the adventure into this ship. Like, that would have been a good use of Baymax or something. Yeah, that would have been a good use of Baymax. Little Mermaid is the theme for the piano bar. [00:23:59] Speaker B: This is. I. I would give this one, like, two thumbs up. I love Little Mermaid. I think it works as a piano bar. The renderings look cool. I'm hoping we haven't heard anything about meet and play activities on board. I'm hoping we're going to see. You know, it was very confusing this whole storyteller thing because it seemed like they were announcing the storytellers a few days ago with Hugo and Beatrice. But then today Hu and Beatrice announced that there's going to be Percival and Doc something or other. Like who are the actual storytellers on the believe? That's what I got from the presentation today, although albeit quite confusing. I'm hopeful that they'll do some kind of interactive show in the space like they do in deville's on the Destiny. But I think it's a great idea to have a piano bar that's themed to Little Mermaid. I mean, she sings, right? Maybe she could come in and sing for us. [00:24:54] Speaker A: It's no worse than Sketch cat theming. And I think the Scat Cat theming the Scat Cat theming works. The 101 Dalmatians theming, Cruella Deville stuff works like it works. It's nice as a piano bar. So like, I don't know, it's not offensive to me. It's not the most exciting thing they could have done, but it's not, you know, Will I sit in there and have a drink? Thousand percent. I'll do that. [00:25:17] Speaker B: So if you're listening to us right now, chances are pretty good that you love Disney vacations as much as we do. But even seasoned travelers know there's a ton to keep up with when it comes to Disney Cruise Line. From cruise itineraries to the perfect stateroom for your family, shore excursions and onboard experiences. 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. [00:25:46] 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 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. [00:26:12] Speaker B: Life is short. Take the trip. Visit wedotravelright.com dclduo to connect to with a travel advisor and start planning your next unforgettable adventure. [00:26:21] Speaker A: We do travel right the crew that [00:26:23] Speaker C: handles the planning so you can focus on relaxing. [00:26:27] Speaker A: I want to go back to Haunted Mansion for just a hot second. You will notice in the right hand side here for those of you listening later. We have like a full graphic up that as we go. We're plugging these different venues into where they will be on the ship. So I would really encourage you to head over to YouTube and watch because it's. It's a great way to visualize what's happening here. But One of the IPs we have on the right hand side that they teased was Jack Skellington and Nightmare Before Christmas. I think we all believed, or a lot of us believed. Well, the way they incorporate that is through the Haunted Mansion Parlor. They do some kind of little overlay to make it a little different. And like, I. I won't. They didn't talk a ton about the Haunted Mansion Parlor. It's possible it would do some new things or have an overlay. It's possible. They did say will be telling you more later because they love to do that. [00:27:16] Speaker B: True. But like, the press release says nothing about. Doesn't even mention Haunted Mansion Parlor, by the way. [00:27:22] Speaker A: But. But if that doesn't happen, I have to say don't tease the IP and then not talk about it at all. That's like a promise that goes undelivered on. Right? [00:27:33] Speaker B: So, like, this is the thing that I'm actually maddest about, Brian. This is actually the thing I'm most disappointed about. I'm a little disappointed about Inside out being the sweet shop, but I like inside out and I like Inside out too, so. Okay, give me an updated Inside out sweet shop. Okay. This is the thing I'm most disappointed about. I was. I was on board if they wanted to do a Haunted Mansion holiday parlor, because I feel like that's different enough. Even though I feel like it would have been nice to see something completely new. But, like, because they haven't told us, I'm just kind of now expecting it's just going to be the same Haunted Mansion parlor as the other two. I can't say that for sure, but that's what's making me. That I'll be. This is the biggest disappointment for me that we heard nothing and that that leaves me with the expectation of we're just gonna have Haunted Mansion Parlor number three. Yeah. [00:28:30] Speaker A: Okay, I'm gonna talk about the pub for a second because this is a place where I got a little bit fired up as I was thinking about it. [00:28:35] Speaker B: Confusing. [00:28:37] Speaker A: Yeah. So the pub they announced as stargazers, and this was the part of the announcement where they mentioned it briefly, then rapidly moved on to something else. And I was like, I'm sorry. [00:28:45] Speaker B: I think the video Got cut. Somebody said. [00:28:48] Speaker A: But I was like, okay, so what's Stargazer? So I went online, I found it and I was like, oh, it's the pub. And then it immediately struck me that, like, that's a feeling, not a theme. Right? Like, the other pubs have very clear theming pirates theming. You know, the older ships have the Irish theming to them. We have 20,000 leagues under the Sea. This feels like kind of recycling the tech. And they'll have stars up on the ceiling as opposed to something else. Like you can even picture the spyglass or the telescope being right there. Where do you call it? The Periscope is and Periscope Pub. But what IP does this tie back to? [00:29:34] Speaker B: It apparently ties back to a whole bunch of them. If you look at. I'm agreeing with you, Brian. But the graphic shows a bunch of different. It shows Tweedledee and Tweedledum come. What do they have to do with stargazing? Like, it does show a Mufasa like constellation, which is a good one. You know, second star to the right and straight until morning from Peter Pan. [00:29:54] Speaker A: Right. [00:29:54] Speaker B: There are. There are tie ins that they can make, but there's plenty of stuff in those constellations that have no tie in to stargazing. If they wanted to just do a nautical themed pub, then just give us a nautical themed pub. Like Meridian on the Fantasy and the Dream. Right. [00:30:14] Speaker A: When they announced it, I was like, oh, they must be changing the rose into something different. [00:30:18] Speaker B: Oh, no. Yeah, right. [00:30:20] Speaker A: And it was like, oh, that makes sense. [00:30:20] Speaker B: I couldn't tell what they were talking about either. I thought it was, oh, skygazers. Sorry, Arika. Thank you. Skygazers. Not stargazers. I think we have it. I think we wrote it. [00:30:29] Speaker A: Oh, did we write it wrong? [00:30:30] Speaker B: Yeah, we wrote it wrong. Thank you, Arika. Skygazers. But regardless, this is one that just doesn't. It just doesn't. It doesn't fit. I also don't understand what the scavenger hunt really was pointing towards. Pinocchio. So what the heck were they thinking? This is not Pinocchio. I thought I liked the idea of Pinocchio. I thought we were going to see like, it was going to be like the inside of Monstro's mouth or something. Or it was going to be like Pleasure island themed. Right. Like bar. Right. Either of those work would be cool to me. Now, Pinocchio has a lot of trouble in its. In its storyline in today's world. [00:31:06] Speaker A: But I like this suggestion in the chat. How about a British style pub that's Peter Pan themed. [00:31:10] Speaker B: Yeah, there's plenty. Yeah. [00:31:12] Speaker A: Even within the skygazers realm, you could imagine like having the ceiling lit up and Peter Pan flying across with Wendy and the kids. Like there was so much promise. [00:31:22] Speaker B: Let's just like. Yeah, we really could have just stuck with one IP and sort of tie it into this like this idea of stargazing. Skygazing. [00:31:32] Speaker A: I love the comment. I feel like we need to workshop Kakamora Cafe's name a little bit more. [00:31:36] Speaker B: Yes, Cafe Kakamora. [00:31:39] Speaker C: Cafe. [00:31:39] Speaker B: Kakamora Cafe. Yeah. [00:31:40] Speaker A: And Cafe. What was the other one? The Big Hero Sips. [00:31:43] Speaker B: Big Hero Sips. [00:31:44] Speaker A: Big Hero Sips. [00:31:44] Speaker B: That one's a great name. I got to give them props. Whoever came up with Big Hero Sips is a great name. [00:31:50] Speaker A: Someone pointed out in the chat. Yes. There was one more announcement that we don't. We did. We just didn't build it in here. Was that the theme for Sarabi, the two story show space that they use for adult shows. Another thing is Zootopia. Now they did have a nice little announcement sort of a little bit buried in there about. You'll be like Nick Hopps and. Or sorry, Judy. Judy Wilde and Nick Hopps will make appearances in there. [00:32:17] Speaker B: Opposite. He's just Judy. [00:32:20] Speaker A: Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde will make appearances in there. But they're going to have like a family like game show where they like invite you to help them solve a crime. [00:32:31] Speaker B: I didn't even. I didn't catch that. [00:32:32] Speaker A: So that, that's cool. That's cool. Like it's cool to see them doing something like that in there. You know, a lot of people are like, oh, it's going to be really cool to see the Zootopia theme. Like I find the theming in those spaces to be so minimalist, understated that you like, like. I just don't. I don't. When you walk in, it's like, oh, I like them. [00:32:51] Speaker B: They're pretty. I like the understated theming of those kinds of places of those of Luna and Sarabi and Saga. I like them. I. I'm. I'm gonna like ship this one. I think this is a good one. You know. And I don't know that the. I mean I'll go get my picture taken with Nick and Judy. You know, I love Nick and Judy but like, I don't know that I needed like the character thing as a part of it because they. We don't have that on the other ships. And Nick and Judy are in some of the. They're harder characters. To find. But you can find them at California Adventure and I think they're pretty prominent over in the Asian parks. But anyway, I. I'm. I'm a thumbs. I'm actually two thumbs up on that theming. I think that's a good choice. I like Gazelle. [00:33:38] Speaker A: Yeah, Gazelles is the name of the new venue. And I love Zootopia theming. I love the movies, I love the ip and I welcome, you know, Nick and Judy on board. And I think a new game show that kind of involves the characters, you know, that's kind of more of that meet and play moment. And so maybe some of these venues get a little bit more interesting. If to Sam's point earlier, there's some more meet and play happening here. I'm not quite clear on how you do that with. With Ariel, but okay. [00:34:10] Speaker B: We also didn't work into this the Kids Club entryway. So the kids Club entryway that was announced today is Monsters Inc. And that's a great use of Monsters Inc. Theming. Right? You have to give. [00:34:25] Speaker A: But hold on, hold on. Yes, it is a great use of Monsters Inc. Theming, but it's a theming for a doorway to accept. It's a theming to an entry point for the Kids club that will be exactly the same as all of the other kids clubs on the ship. And no matter what people say, it's cool. But the entryway isn't the destination, it's the Kids club. [00:34:47] Speaker B: That's true. True. It's like, it's that sort of. We'll call it. It's like a foyer. Right. So it's the whole entryway. And the slide going into the kids club will be themed Monsters Inc. Once you get in the Kids Club, each room will be themed, presumably exactly the same as they are at all of the other W Class ships. The Kids club is one thing that has been universal across all of the Wish Class ships. There hasn't been any changes in theming or anything like that. And so we're not. We weren't expecting that because it hasn't happened yet. [00:35:19] Speaker A: Yeah, well. And I love this. Like the Zootopia game show Detective game would be awesome. But I think we are thinking more into it than they did. Comment from Marika and like, after today's announcement, I think you might be right. Like we're thinking they've got more stuff to say and I'm sure that they will do the slow trickle of like, oh, here's the new drinks for this restaurant. Or here are some new food items that might Be in Oakens or not or that kind of a thing. But it just doesn't land as well if, like, it's just the same restaurant. [00:35:51] Speaker C: Right. [00:35:51] Speaker A: Or it feels like the same restaurant again. All right, Sam, we've got 10 minutes here. And so we gotta talk shows, so just let me quickly cover. CZ Adventure will make a. Will make its return. That's not surprising. Tangled was announced reimagined, but let's remind people Tangled already exists as a stage show. And what they've talked about is they're gonna be updating some of the staging and production aspects of the story. So it's not a complete reimagination. [00:36:19] Speaker B: Yeah, but this is a great ad because right now, Tangled is only on the Disney Magic. And the Disney magic is gonna be spending more and more time on the west coast, as we know, based on sort of the itinerary schedules. And also does some of those longer, like, Panama Canal sail. So having another ship that's going to have Tangled on it, I think is a. Is a really good thing. I love the show on the magic. I think that this ship could have one of the best show lineups that we've seen because it has Tangled and because, of course, as Brian just showed on the screen, Encanto. So Encanto. I will tell you the. I've been predicting this for a while, and people kept saying to me, no, it's a restaurant. No, it's a restaurant. And I kept saying, no, it's a show. No, it's a show. I heard a couple years ago that this was in consideration when the Disney Treasure was coming out. And then maybe even again when the Disney Destiny was coming out, they were sort of work chopping whether they could do put together a show for Encanto. And both at the time, it was considered for the Disney Treasure, and at the time it was considered for the Disney Destiny. I think Disney Live Entertainment was like, it's just not ready. It's just not ready kind of a thing. And so that's why I've been banking on it being a show, because it's been something I know that they've been trying to work on. It's such a successful show. Of course it could have made a great dining venue. But I do think to the American audience, it would feel too close to Coco. I'm not saying it would actually be in reality, we're talking about Mexico versus Colombia, two different countries. But I feel like in terms of food and theming, it would feel very similar to the American audience. And so I think it. And I think it's such a great. It's such a great movie and musical. It could make a really great stage show. [00:38:12] Speaker A: I hope that they put the amount of thought into the production and staging of this as they did for Moana and Hercules, because I think there's a lot of cool possibilities, especially to represent the house being alive and some of those and some of the superpowers that they all have. Like, I think there's a really interesting opportunity to do that. If they do it well, I think they will because Lin Manuel Miranda seems to be involved or has consented to what's happening here. And so I think he trusts them to get this right. So this, honestly, this is the reason [00:38:45] Speaker B: to go on this ship. [00:38:46] Speaker A: This was the thing that excited me the most. It is probably the reason that I would go on this ship just to see the Encanto thing or the Accanto show. I guess I just want to say this as we start to wrap up here, because we have about seven minutes left, and I think we've announced just about everything that we're aware of that's on this ship at this point. [00:39:07] Speaker B: Pluto's Pita Platters, by the way. [00:39:08] Speaker A: Oh, yes. We are getting a change to the lineup on the Mickey's Festival of Foods with Pluto's Pita Platters. Do we know what that's replacing? [00:39:18] Speaker B: I don't think it's replacing anything. I think it's an add in. It's going to be Mediterranean style food. So we're talking probably like gyros and souvlaki type stuff. So I'm. I'm all about that. I love that. This is like, for some people, and maybe not for me, but for some people, this is like the number one announcement. But I'll put this up in like a top three part of the announcement. Like, the wish class already has great pool deck food, but this is a great addition just to give you even more variety on board. [00:39:45] Speaker A: Yeah. So as we wrap up here, I just want to say, like, a couple quick things. Someone asked in the chat, how hard will it be to book the maiden? It is always kind of, you know, luck of the draw here in terms of how much demand there is for the maiden versus not, you know, it's happening close in time to the holidays. Many schools will probably be out that week, or a lot of schools might be out that week, you know, So I don't know how to temper the reaction I'm seeing from sort of the longtime Disney Cruise Line fans and their interest in this ship versus what the general public might think. It's also down in Fort Lauderdale, which, you know, on these shorter sailings Disney has like they have struggled to bring a real audience, I feel like to Fort Lauderdale consistently. And so although on the newer ships [00:40:31] Speaker B: they seem to be doing pretty well [00:40:32] Speaker A: at that, I will say the maiden voyages do tend to sell out. Now the last time they went on sale, I think the Destiny, no, the Adventure had rooms available for a long, long time. But the Destiny sold out. The Treasures sold out. Even the Wish sold out. [00:40:47] Speaker B: Yes, but I would say the Wish sold out rather quickly. But neither the Treasure nor the Destiny sold out quickly. Meaning it did of them sold out to like Pearl Platinum cruisers. Right. Like they all went all the way through to first time cruisers before selling out. So if you're interested in booking, if, if you book early, you will get on the ship. Now will you get your preferred stateroom? That's a bit bigger question mark. Right. If you want to be in a particular stateroom in concierge, for example, those actually I know that sounds weird because the highest price point, but those actually the regular concierge rooms, not necessarily tower suites and royal suites, but the regular entry level concierge rooms actually tend to go pretty fast. [00:41:35] Speaker A: That's partly because they book a lot of those rooms for executives and some of the guests special entertainment and stuff that's coming on board for the maidens. [00:41:43] Speaker B: So that is some of it. So there's less, even less. Yes, less supply. That's a good point, Brian. But anyway, if you want to get on the Maiden or you want to get on an early sailing, I don't think you'll have a problem getting on one. It's just a matter of will you get your first preference in stateroom, maybe not. And as long as you're booking on the early side, I will give a reminder if you are interested in booking. We do have a show sponsor who is a travel agency and if you let them know that we sent you through the end of the year, you can get if you're a new client to we do travel. Right. You can get $50 off your first booking with them so that you go to DCL Duo Sorry, not DCL Duo it go to so Dubby Brian, you can you put it across the screen maybe we do travelright.com DCLDUO yeah, it's [00:42:30] Speaker A: also in our show notes. [00:42:32] Speaker B: Perfect. [00:42:33] Speaker A: Just you can check the show notes on both YouTube and any place you listen to podcasts for that link. I just want to wrap up by saying a couple of things. One is Tracy posted in the chat for three adults for veranda, it's 80 or so. Chris posted it's $8900 for three adults to go on a five night sailing in a veranda state run multiple. It's like oh my, oh my, it's expensive. That will drive. [00:42:58] Speaker B: Maiden voyages are expensive. [00:43:00] Speaker A: That will also drive down demand, I suspect. All that said, look, I just want to wrap up by saying one thing. Like I know that we've been a little bit like not super positive and as bubbly as we generally are with this episode, I'll just remind folks like we, we defended the wish when other people hated it. We saw a lot of promise in it. We defended Lookout Key when other people hated it even before they foot on it because we saw a lot of promise. I think part of the reaction I'm having today is when the ship sails out of Mayor Wurf, it is what it is and it won't have an opportunity to be reconfigured or rethemed for at least five years if not or more. [00:43:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:41] Speaker A: And they typically don't like, you know, for the wish class, they have typically not really invested in common area retheming of late. What they've really done is, you know, they put in more concierge rooms or they upgrade, you know, not wish. [00:43:54] Speaker B: They haven't done any wish class. Yeah. [00:43:56] Speaker A: But for the, the older, sorry, the older ships. [00:43:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:58] Speaker A: I mean beyond sort of changing some dining rooms which they actually didn't do when they put the last ship into dry dock, you know, they're really not kind of investing in common areas. They're looking at ways to drive up revenue, as far as I can tell by you know, adding more rooms or maybe if a bar isn't working, investing a little something in the food and beverage to try and make it better. Right. But we will tell it like it is in most cases. We can kind of see the promise of it or we think that Disney will be able to fix something through an operational change, that sort of thing. This just doesn't feel like the cruise line at its best. And I just have to be honest about that. I think there are some bright spots with this ship. Will I sail on her? Absolutely. Although those prices that I'm seeing in the chat are making me think a little bit harder about going on the maiden voyage, to be perfectly honest. Will I sail it? Yes. But this could very well be one of those ships where you're like, we sail it and we're like we did it and we checked it off, and we're kind of done. Like, I am genuinely excited to get on the Destiny. I am genuinely excited to get on the. The Treasure. I'm genuinely excited to get on the Wonder when we have a chance to sail her. I don't have, like, a great attachment yet to this ship based on what I've seen, so I don't know, Sam, if you have any final thoughts. [00:45:21] Speaker B: My final thoughts are I have an attachment to seeing Encanto and seeing Tangled again because we have no plans to be on the magic anytime soon just because itineraries aren't, like, meeting up with us in terms of timing and where we want to go. So because of those two things. And then bonus points goes to, like, the Little Mermaid piano bar and the Big Hero Sailor Ships coffee spot. So there's. There's enough on here to make me excited. So I'll. I'll say I'm more excited, I think, than Brian is about this ship, but I do. I think that this is going to be a contender for my favorite ship. No, I don't think so. I don't. [00:46:04] Speaker A: Not based on what was announced today. [00:46:06] Speaker B: Not based on what was announced today. Right. They could. They could absolutely wow us with. With, like we said, with those meet and play onboard activities. And then, of course, with the stage shows, if Encanto is as good as it can be. Which it could be fabulous because that movie is so good. [00:46:23] Speaker A: But. [00:46:23] Speaker B: Yeah. So. Yes. Could they really wow us, knock our socks off and make it the best ship in the fleet? Sure, they could, but the theming doesn't make me feel like they're going to. [00:46:34] Speaker A: Well, and the thing that concerned me the most was as I was reflecting on this was just, you and I are coming. Like, we follow the cruise line. We're knowledgeable. We've been following along all week. We've been making our predictions like we have a general level of excitement that sits above a baseline. [00:46:48] Speaker B: Yep. [00:46:48] Speaker A: And we left sort of underwhelmed. And that announcement and what's been going on on social media is everything that's going out to everyone. Right. And so, like. So, like, I think that there's. I think there's some pockets of. Maybe some pockets of excitement will come off of the folks who were there live for the announcement and that sort of thing. But I worry a little bit about the message that was put out there for the general public to consume, which is how we consumed it. This is how it landed with two people who were generally pretty positive about the Cruise line. [00:47:21] Speaker B: So the presentation wasn't great. But do you really think the general public was watching the presentation? Because I sure don't. I think they're going to see the commercials and they're going to see some of the posts. Right. [00:47:30] Speaker A: So, yeah, I just mean the cruising public who likes to pay attention to the cruise line. [00:47:35] Speaker B: Yes. Fair. Yes. So there, yes. There's, there's different layers and people who have never been on a Disney Cruise Line ship are going to be all excited about this ship, just as excited as they are about any other ship because it's got all this theming. They haven't seen any of it before. But with that, we have to go because one of us has to run and pick up our kid from an [00:47:54] Speaker A: activity and just real fast, if you want to get a different opinion, we will be back on Sunday evening with Danny and Stephanie who were on board the wish for this announcement. They were there live. They may be able to set us straight and tell us where we got it wrong. And I'm looking forward to that conversation. But if you want to hear from some folks who actually experienced all of this firsthand, come back and join us [00:48:16] Speaker B: Sunday night at 5pm Pacific, 8pm Eastern. And we're also going to be talking all about those onboard scavenger hunt and castaway key scavenger hunt. So we're going to talk about how the whole reveal cruise even went, all the stuff they got to do and they even have some, I think, activities tomorrow before they, they leave the ship. So they've got one more day on board before they leave on, on Friday. And so I think they're gonna, they, they are gonna have an opportunity to ask some questions. They're gonna have an opportunity maybe to taste some foods or drinks. I'm not sure. But anyway, we'll hear more about the reveal cruise and their reactions on Sunday. We will not be back at our normal time next Tuesday, but because we will be here on Sunday, don't worry, you have plenty of the duo to see and hear from and you'll have our recorded shows as well. With that, we'll say I still believe. I still believe. [00:49:17] Speaker C: 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.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 Podcast. 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Just browse to dc 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 [email protected] DCLduino that's patreon.com DCLduino Every pledge helps us keep bringing you great DCL content every week. Want more from us? Just head over head over to DCLDuo.com where you will find links to our full episode catalog, our vlog, our Etsy Store, our Patreon, our substack newsletter and our show sponsors all in one place. Or you can email [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 402-413-5590. That's 402-413-5590. [00:51:31] Speaker A: The views expressed in this podcast are [00:51:33] Speaker C: our own and do not reflect the views of the Walt Disney Company, Disney Cruise Line or any other travel provider discussed or mentioned. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL Duo. Good night.