[00:00:00] Speaker A: And I was reading online that Disney allows you to wear water shoes on this aqueduct. And I was like, he has a chance with the water shoes.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: With the water shoes, they might give like a quarter of an inch, a half of an inch.
[00:00:12] Speaker A: So we went up there and my other son is so tall. He's in this. He's probably 50 some inches. So he's very tall for his age.
No problem.
He goes up to the, to the measuring thing. He had his shoes on. I was like, there's a chance. And that lifeguard made him take his shoes off and he lost that quarter inch.
And it was a no go and there was a meltdown.
[00:00:48] Speaker C: Welcome back everybody, to this week's episode of the DCL Duo podcast, brought to you by WeDoTravel. Right, remember, life is short. Take the trip. Let the folks that we do travel right, handle the planning so you can focus on the relaxing.
Sam, it's jingle time.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
Simply the best.
Better than all the rest. I gotta say, I'm loving that our guests and co host Brian are like bopping along when I'm singing. Lately this has been happening on like several episodes, so I'm super excited about that.
[00:01:20] Speaker C: It's bop worthy. There we go. All right, so this one comes from. This week's review comes from Frank Di Matteo, who writes the best of the best.
A big fan of Disney Cruise Line ourselves, we love listening to others discuss topics and opinions related to dcl. No one does it better than the duo. So there you go.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: Wow, that's pretty high praise because there are some other folks that are doing this stuff, like some other Disney podcasters out there that are pretty awesome that cover Disney Cruise Line. So thank you for that, Frank. I really appreciate that. And shout out to Frank because I feel like we interact quite a bit in our Facebook group with Frank. So he's active member of our community, which I always love.
[00:02:02] Speaker C: Yes, yes, we love the community we've built and it's reflected no better than on all the reviews that we have received over the years.
Those five star reviews really keep us going. So as always, I'm going to remind you, if you have not already, please head over to Apple Podcast, hit those five stars.
If you leave us a written review along with your five star rating, we will read it on the air at the top of one of our main episodes. And if you're listening to us on some other platform, hit whatever is available to you to show us some love. It really does keep us going and putting out all of this content week to week. It's amazing the amount of content we're
[00:02:34] Speaker A: trying to put together.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: So you're turning out, Brian.
I mean, I'm on the recordings, but the amount of work you do behind the scenes, I think people don't realize all of that production stuff that goes into putting on this show.
[00:02:46] Speaker C: Yes, yes. Well, Sam, over to you to introduce our guest and our topic for today.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Speaking of our amazing community of folks who we interact with on social media, our guests today is a returning guest who we also interact with quite a bit on the socials. And we are very excited to welcome back to the show returning guest Nick. Welcome back, Nick.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: Thank you. Thanks for having me back.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: Great being here.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. We are so excited to have you back. It's always fun to have returning guests who we've had on the show and we've been able to live vicariously through their cruises. It's always fun when they're. We hear they're sailing again and they want to come back. So that. That's always a great.
[00:03:29] Speaker C: I also got to say, if you're listening to this audio only, what you are missing right now is. So Nick is traveling for work, I think he said off air, but he brought his big podcasting mic with him. And I think partly in anticipation of
[00:03:41] Speaker A: this show, have to have the good audio. Yeah.
[00:03:45] Speaker C: Kudos to Nick for that.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: We appreciate it.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: Have Mike will travel. I love that.
It's the best because he knows how important great audio is to Brian. I think so.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: All right. Well, Nick, we're going to talk about your cruise on the Disney Fantasy. And it was a duo double dip cruise, meaning you had two port stops, I believe, to cast away and a port stop at Lighthouse Point or Lookout Key. At Lighthouse Point. TM owned by Disney, the entire name. But we're super excited to chat today about that cruise. It's a fantastic itinerary we have. This is actually our second show recording about this itinerary. So we record with somebody else who was on your cruise because it's such an amazing, unique itinerary. Not that many folks get to do three private island stops. So I want to start, though, with your Disney background. I know you've been on before, but why don't you remind our listeners as to your Disney and Disney cruising background?
[00:04:51] Speaker A: Sure. So Disney background.
I actually only went to Disney as a child a couple times growing up and usually around Easter time. My grandparents were snowbirds down in the Tampa Bay area, but I got into Disney. I'm actually a pharmacist by education and One of my rotations for pharmacy school to become a pharmacist was with Disney. So I got to spend five weeks at Disney in their medical area doing a lot with behind the scenes cast member health sort of things. And after I was done work for the day, they'd just be like, hey, do you want to go up the stairs and go into Magic Kingdom? And I would say yes, I would. Heck yeah, go check it out. So that really got me involved in Disney. And then I moved to Florida.
So I was a frequent Disney flyer and as I got married, had kids, introduced them to Disney, actually got engaged at Epcot. So Disney's a really big part of our lives. Became DVC members in the COVID times and expanded that portfolio and then got into the cruises too. And we cruise a lot as a family. So adding the Disney cruising into our cruising rotation in general was just a natural thing with all the other Disney that we have in our lives.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Now remind me, what other cruise lines had you been on besides Disney?
[00:06:12] Speaker A: Sure. So we are, I've been. And my wife, I started actually cruising before her. So she grew up here in Florida, but was never on a cruise until she met me.
But I've been on a lot of Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Princess Disney, a few Carnival, but mostly, I'd say it started out a lot in Norwegian, then as we had the kids kind of shifted over to the Royal and Disney side. So with a little bit of Norwegian thrown in every so often.
[00:06:42] Speaker B: Yeah. And remind me how old your kids are right now.
[00:06:46] Speaker A: So we have a six year old boy and a four year old boy, so best friends and worst enemies.
And we can talk about it a little bit during the show. But our six year old has some neuro issues where, you know, sometimes he doesn't like big crowds, loud noises, those sorts of things. So we do have to kind of wind that in through the cruising time that we have with both kids.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: Yeah. So some sensory sensitivity issues. Yeah. Which is always. We listen, we talk so much about neurodiversity on this podcast and preparing different kinds of kids and different kinds of adults for the experience of cruising. And sometimes that includes loud noises, crowds, all that kind of heat, light, all that kind of stuff because we as parents deal with that with our, with our own son and making sure that we can accommodate his sensory issues. So super. A topic near and dear to our heart. Well, Nick, let's, let's start with why you chose this itinerary. I mean, I don't know that there's any other reason than what I said at the beginning of the show. But yeah, yeah, tell, tell us why this was the itinerary for your family.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: So we love private islands. You know, we are frequent Coco Key visitors over the course of the year, especially because we live so close to Port Canaveral. I mean, we're in the St. Pete area.
It's a two hour and 15 minute drive to Port Canaveral. So it's very, very easy for us to get on a, on a cruise that stops at a private.
We were frequent flyers of the weekend Disney Wish cruises when the Wish came into Port Canaveral.
But as we were planning out our summer schedule, we had an Alaska cruise in the beginning of the season that we went on on Norwegian.
We did a beach vacation kind of around 4th of July in the middle. And then at the very end before the kids went back to school, we wanted to throw in one last Disney trip. And this cruise fit perfectly in our schedule.
And it was amazing because it had two stops at Castaway, one stop at Lighthouse, which we've never been there before. So that was something new on our, on our radar. And it just so happened that the day that the ship got back on Wednesday, I had a conference for work in Orlando on Thursday.
So we kind of made it a extended vacation and spent two nights on the way back at Disney and then went back home and our kids started school the following week. So it was a perfect way to end the summer.
[00:09:21] Speaker B: Yeah. And like a perfect fit. And checking off all of those boxes. Now this is a five night sailing that you took on the Disney fantasy. Did you have any, did you have like a Nassau stop or was it just Sea day in addition to the three private island stops?
[00:09:37] Speaker A: So yeah, the schedule was Port Canaveral. Then we went to Castaway Cay Day 2, Lighthouse Day 3, Castaway Day 4, and a sea day on the very last day.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: So it was really the best itinerary, the best schedule.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: So much so that I looked, I looked to doing the same thing the following year. This, you know, next year, 2027. But the, this exact cruise actually happens the week that all the Florida kids go back to school. Like that second week in August.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:06] Speaker A: So unfortunately we can't do the same cruise next year.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: But yeah, see what you're saying is Brian and I can do that same cruise.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: You could, yeah.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: That's the best itinerary. Like we always, you know, talk about itineraries that go to Castaway and Lookout are great when you have that sea day as your last day instead of having a castaway day or a lookout day as your last day, that's even better because that last day where you have to do, you know, unfortunately, the packing before you disembark the ship the next morning, um, if you're at castaway or lookout, you feel this like anxiety about the fact that you need to pack. And so you, I feel like you tend to cut your day short and then you might also miss out on whatever the evening activities you know, are because you're trying to get all packed and, and ready to put your luggage out for the next, for that evening so that when you get off the ship, it's already taken care of for you. But when you have that C day, you've got the whole day. You can like break it up and do a little bit of packing in the morning, a little bit of packing midday, finish the packing at night, and you don't feel like you, you don't cut short your private island day and you can kind of spread out all of that, that packing and preparing to, to leave. That's, that's what I think. It's the best.
[00:11:22] Speaker C: Although my pro tip on packing, if your last stop is cast away, if the arrival time is later, it's actually kind of nice to get up in the morning before they get to Castaway and pack because then you don't have to worry about it while you're out on the island. And I think generally, Sam, we've been able to get most things packed in the morning before disembarking at the private island.
[00:11:40] Speaker B: That's true. We have, we, we have been, or frankly not even really worrying about it. And, and packing like the disembarkation day and walking off with luggage is a possibility as well. It's just I'm kind of a, a slow packer. Well, Nick, let's, let's start with the planning process. You know, in terms of private islands, we always tell people you don't need to book any excursions.
Just enjoy the beautiful, you know, beaches at these two private island destinations. But were you looking to book any excursions in advance of this cruise or any onboard experiences? Maybe on the fantasy.
[00:12:16] Speaker A: It's a good question. And we've been to Castaway many times at this point. So my wife actually said to me, hey, maybe let's look into an excursion this time.
The only problem is our 4 year old.
So a lot of the excursions on Castaway are like a minimum age of five or even bump up to eight, because I really want to do Parasailing I really want to do it.
And my 8 year old is. Or not 8 year old. My 6 year old is actually probably bigger than most 12 year olds. He is huge, very tall and could probably pass for one. But he's not quite at the official age to do parasailing yet. So unfortunately we did look at a few, but we just weren't able to pick anything that really suited all of us at Castaway or. And it was our first time to Lighthouse, so we didn't want to do anything there.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: So yeah, no, we didn't do any excursion on Castaway or Lighthouse. And with the onboard pre booking, same thing. We just kind of. We didn't. The only thing we booked in advance was Palo dinner, which we'll get to, I'm sure. But yeah, that was the only thing that my wife and I really wanted to do. It's kind of a tradition for us to do Palo dinner on every cruise and especially of the kids. The kids have gotten better going to the kids clubs.
So we had that secured for day two, which was kind of a toss up because we didn't really know the schedule for the shows.
[00:13:42] Speaker B: Right.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: So we're like, let's book it for day two, hope for the best. And we had an eight o' clock reservation. And if something is amiss with the shows, we'll try to work it out on board.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Now do you guys do late dining or early dining? You have young kids, so I'm.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: Yeah, good question. Early dining is our go to. So that's. You know, I think the late dining would be a little too late for them.
[00:14:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:08] Speaker A: And just the way our schedules usually work is the kids really like going to dinner and then going straight to the kids clubs.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: And they've never really been show kids yet at their age. Although.
And you'll like the Sam. This is the first cruise that both of them sat through all the shows.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: We did go to all the shows. First cruise that we got through, all
[00:14:34] Speaker B: of them at 4 and 6.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:14:37] Speaker C: 4 and 6.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: Yep.
I only had to leave one early. I had to leave frozen maybe 10 minutes early.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: Ah. That was like. That's nothing. That's amazing. I am super impressed. I think, you know, Disney Cruise Line shows are much shorter, of course, than a Broadway, actual Broadway show. So you're talking the longest one's about an hour and 15 minutes.
But I know from experience with Nathan, especially when he was younger, he will sit through a show. Now he does not go to the shows with us unless we.
Let's Say, require him to go to his show.
And so, for example, on the maiden voyage of the Disney Destiny, we required him to come with us to Hercules.
We also did that on the maiden voyage of the treasure, we required him to go to Moana. Right? So like, you have to see it one time. You don't have to go back to the. And we didn't make him go to any other show. So I've made him go to. We made him go to the new, the new shows. But like, and he can sit through a show, don't get me wrong, he doesn't prefer to sit through a show.
And then. But when he was younger, he really couldn't. Like, that was just not. He. It was just too long, you know, a 30 minute show, sure, but like an hour long show, you know, especially one that didn't really hold his interest because he's not a show kid. But I'm super impressed, Nick. I. Kudos to you. Wow, that's, that's pretty amazing. Now one of the things, the strategies I think with the, with the Apollo dinner that you, you could do and, and I don't. I just depends on what your kids would want to do is if it did work out to be a day where you wanted to see the show. I mean, you could conceivably feed the kids early with pool deck food, go to the early show, take them to the kids club, and then you and your wife go to Paulo. But then it's kind of. Oh, there we go.
There we go. All right. I love that. Yeah, I love that. Well, I was gonna, I was gonna say I didn't know if you had to rejigger things. I was trying to give a strategy, but I love that you figured that out. I, I think it's. That to me is like, you know, it's, it's the way to get it all done. It's not perfect because the kids are eating maybe even earlier than they would have, but if they want to see the show and you want to see the show, that's the solution. Okay, well, let's, let's back up to embarkation day. You guys are, I assume, driving down that morning because you're only a couple hours away from Port Canaveral. Okay.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: Yeah, it's only a two hour drive. We had a 12:30 port arrival time, which it kind of throws off our normal routine, to be honest, because when we go on, say, Utopia of the Seas, the Friday to Monday cruises, we always leave our house at seven and then we're on board the ship by 10:30, like just the way that that ship flows and how everything goes. But with the fantasy. We had a 1230, although we didn't push our drive out too far. I think we maybe left around 8 instead of 7. So just like an hour. And it was a little more leisurely. We drove over there. We have like our one or two rest stops that we'll take.
We got to the parking garage, we're able to drop our luggage and park the car. And the cast member that was there taking our luggage, he actually gave us a great tip. He's like, go into the garage and park on level one.
Because when you're done with your cruise and since you're driving and lugging all your luggage, you can just. You don't have to wait for elevators. Just go across and their car's right there. And there was plenty of spots we were able to park. It was no problem at all. And we were probably an hour early. But they let us in. Like they. There was no crowd there.
[00:18:12] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: No one waiting. So they let us in.
We probably had a 25 minute wait through security, which is maybe a little longer than usual, I would say.
[00:18:23] Speaker B: Yeah, but not bad. I mean, that's not bad. Well, I love the pro tip from the garage attendant because I. If you are, if you are driving, of course you've gotta, you know, park in the garage and then you've gotta get the luggage up and down or down the elevators and then over to the terminal. Or if you park on the level where the sky bridge is, you can do that as well. But again, you have to get the, you know, luggage. Well, it's really. When you're coming home, the luggage.
Transferring the luggage. And you have to go out the bottom floor when you are leaving the terminal. You can't go out the sky bridge on the way home. You can only go in when you are embarking through the skybridge. So it's a great pro tip. It makes it easier to. Yeah. To load up your bags and not have to wait for an elevator. All right, so you, you get on. What time did you get on?
And since it sounds like you, You. You're probably before or close to your port arrival time.
[00:19:16] Speaker A: Yeah. So we, when we got through security, all that. Of course, as my son's going through security, he falls and cuts his knee. So we had to find a band aid, which a cast member was very nice about finding a band aid and getting that taken care of.
But I would say we actually boarded the ship. We were group 15 so we got on the ship, I think I looked at my watch and it was 12:35.
So it was five minutes easy.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: Yeah. And. And people always, it's so funny, you see in the Facebook groups people talking about boarding time. Nope, there's no such thing as boarding time. The only thing that Disney gives you is a port arrival time. And they give you a boarding group number.
[00:19:53] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:19:54] Speaker B: Because they don't guarantee any specific time that you will get on the ship except for you'll get on the ship before the ship leaves port.
And so yeah, so you, your port arrival time is the time they want you to show up to the.
And for you to sort of start the check in process.
And as Nick mentioned, oftentimes you, if you get there earlier, they will, there's not a line already there, they will let you check in earlier. They don't really have a problem of bringing you in and waiting in the terminal as long as they've been able to, as long as they're not backed up. And so if there's no computer issues, they tend to, you know, especially Port Canaveral and Port Everglades, pretty well oiled machines. Unless they're having I T. Issues.
All right, well, Nick, what is, what is the cruise line tradition for embarkation day for you guys? Where are you headed for lunch? And do you have a different tradition when you're on a Disney ship versus when you're on maybe one of the competitor cruise lines like Royal?
[00:20:52] Speaker A: That's a good question. Yeah. Because I would say if we're ever on Royal, we just kind of go straight to the pool. Like there is no real consideration about launch or anything like that.
Disney, typically, we actually are sit down lunch people.
But for this particular cruise we hadn't had the.
My wife was kind of wanting the crab or the shrimp and the crab claws and stuff like that, which she hadn't had in a while. So we had the kids in their swimsuits. When we got on the ship, we went on and we tried. The kids just wanted like a quick. They actually wanted to go straight to the pools, but we wanted them to eat something first, which was a struggle. But they each ate a little bit and my wife got what she wanted.
And the first thing my 4 year old wanted to do was check his height for the Aqua Duck.
And I was reading online that Disney allows you to wear water shoes on this aqueduct. And I was like, he has a chance with the water shoes.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: With the water shoes they might give like a quarter of an inch, a half of an Inch.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: So we went up there, and my other son is so tall. He's in this. He's probably 50 some inches. So he's very tall for his age.
No problem.
He goes up to the. To the measuring thing. He had his shoes on. I was like, there's a chance. And that lifeguard made him take his shoes off and he lost that quarter inch, and it was a no go and there was a meltdown.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: And that's just such a hard thing at the beginning of your cruise to deal with.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: With. We warned him, though. We said, you know, there's a chance that you're not officially tall enough to ride this, but there is the Yellow Mickey Slide, right? So he got over it pretty quick, and my wife took him to the Yellow Mickey Slide and he went down it a million times. So, like, he. He was fine.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: Over again, he was fine.
[00:22:50] Speaker A: So I ended up going with my other son on the Aqueduct and then he went on the Mickey Slide.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: Yeah. It's funny that when we first started cruising on Disney, that's where Nathan would spend all of his time. Didn't matter really what, which ship we were on, because obviously there was no Wish class yet at that point. But he would go, you know, it was, you know, typically it was like the Wonder or the Fantasy. Those were the two ships we kind of went on the most back then. And he would constantly go to the yellow. The yellow Mickey Slide. And.
And it's, you know, not really for adults, Although the one. The one on the Wonder, adults can go on it, but the one on the Fantasy, I can't remember. I don't. I think you're too big if you're an adult. I think it's a. Like, you have to be in between certain sizes. But yeah, he would go over and over and over and over again. And it was. He wasn't even a swimmer back then. But because this. That water slide ends in a chute and doesn't go into a pool, it was kind of perfect. Yeah.
[00:23:43] Speaker A: Right, Right.
[00:23:44] Speaker B: So it's. It's a great. I'm sorry that he didn't get to go on the Aqueduct.
[00:23:49] Speaker A: It's okay. Next time. I think by next time. Yeah, next time will be fine. And then the other piece of disappointment because, like, after the pools, we wanted to go to the open house down at the kids club just to check it out. So it was a new. They've been on the Wish so many times.
And of course, my younger one says, where's the slide?
[00:24:11] Speaker B: Yep, he's right. There's no Slide. So funny that it's actually the, like the, the wonder and the magic have that slide in Andy's room. They don't have a slide to enter the club, but there's. They at least have the slide in Andy's room. But the fantasy and the dream, they have no slide inside the kids club at all. Oh, that's so funny.
[00:24:35] Speaker A: Which, that actually didn't work in our favor later on in the cruise he actually gave us more trouble. Every wishtailing we've been on, he's lived in that kid's club with the slide, it was like you take the slide, you go in there.
This Chris, he gave us a little trouble. My older 1, the 6 year old, no trouble at all. He loved the kids club, loved going in there whenever he wanted. But the younger one gave us a little difficulty.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: Yeah, interesting. Yeah, I guess, you know, just sort of the barrier of going into the kids club right through the gates versus through the slide. The slide. I gotta say that he's right. I mean the slide is a more pleasant experience for entry into a kids club club. So I, I can under, I can understand a little bit of trepidation. I, I'll call it. Let's talk about these amazing ports of call that you all went to before we talk about. We'll talk more onboard experiences after that. But gotta ask where you guys like to sort of stake out your spot on Castaway and are you like early morning as soon as you're docked, we're getting off first thing. Or are you more leisurely? Like what's your style of, of Castaway day?
[00:25:39] Speaker A: So going into this cruise, because we had two castaways in our schedule, we weren't as crazy about trying to get the entirety out of the, every second of the day.
So that that second day we were at Castaway and we kind of just made it leisurely. Like we knew that morning we wanted to do a sit down breakfast.
So we kind of let the kids sleep till they woke up. And as you know and most parents know with those cruise ships and even hotel rooms that have like the darkening blinds and it gets so dark and the light doesn't really wake the kids up, they tend to maybe sleep a little later than usual, especially if they're out later than maybe their normal bedtime. So we kind of waited till they woke up and then we went down to Royal Court to have a sit down breakfast.
And from there we were already ready to go. So we had all of our stuff and from there we went off this ship and our Typical rotation and Castaway is to get off the ship and then go down to where the water slides are at Pelican Plunge, Pelican Point, grab some seats around there. The kids like doing those water slides and my, my younger one is tall enough to ride that one so.
[00:26:56] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: And he's a very good swimmer, so he's able to swim out, you know, do that water slide. I. I do it with them. And then typically from there we'll feed them an early and then bring them to the kids club. And then my wife and I have a little bit of time in the afternoon before we then pick them up and then go back to the ship. That's our normal routine at Castaway.
[00:27:16] Speaker B: And do you guys head out to Serenity Bay, then after you drop them off at Skittles Cove on the island?
[00:27:21] Speaker A: That's our usual. Although this cruise, it didn't really work out that way. We just decided because my younger son was giving us a little issues going into the kids club on the island.
So we just decided if they were to message us or whatever that we would just stay close this time. So we actually just ended up staying like right around the main beach area. But it wasn't a big deal. We still had a great time.
[00:27:44] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and I think, you know, the family beach, especially family beach, what is it? One is really close to Scuttles Cove. And so if you, you know, if you are putting your kids in that, in the kids club on the island, it is really easy to get right there versus if you're at Serenity Bay. You gotta, you know, either walk or take the tram. And it is, it's a. I mean, it's gonna take you a Good, you know, 15 minutes from the time you get the message to getting back to Scuttles Cove. Maybe more depending upon the timing of the tram and how fast you, how fast you walk. Okay, so more leisurely day than you would normally do at Castaway. Then you had lookout sandwiching you sandwiched by Castaway.
Tell us, like, what did you think of lookout if. Did you survive the pier? I mean, you're here to. You're here to tell this tale, so obviously.
Yeah.
[00:28:34] Speaker A: Yeah. So my wife's not as into like all the videos and YouTube and stuff like that. She kind of relies on me to do a lot of the travel planning.
So about the week before the cruise, I started putting up some videos of like lighthouse because we've never been. And I knew what it was about, but she hasn't seen it. And the first Thing she looked at that pier and she was like, what is that?
[00:29:01] Speaker B: I'm glad you put on the videos for her. Just listen, sometimes people need a little bit of preparation. It's not, it's really not that bad,
[00:29:09] Speaker A: but it's not that bad.
[00:29:10] Speaker B: Yeah, but you were there in August so it is. Yes, ungodly hot.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: Yes, it's very hot. There is not a lot of shade, but there are some water stops.
And again lighthouse, we weren't like a mad rush off the ship so we were more leisurely. So by the time we got off the ship, and I should say this, our four year old is no longer in a stroller because it one, we want to go to Europe next year and I refuse to bring a stroller to Europe. So like he needed to get out of the stroller and two, our six year old, if he sees a stroller thinks it's for him and not for the four year old. So there's just a fight over it. So about eight months ago we've ditched the stroller.
So no strollers at Disney World, Disney Cruises, nothing.
And we've survived like it's been fine, you know. Yes, we're a little slower but we make it. And when we got off the ship we did see some people bring the wagons. Right. But when we got down there there were no wagons left and they said it would be probably like a 15, 20 minute wait. So at that point they, the kids didn't know about the wagon. So we're like, let's just walk it.
So we ended up just leisurely walking down and it was fine. We took a water break, we took a picture stop and then we got to the tram area, we got some more water and we got on the tram. So it really wasn't a big deal. Yes, it's like a three quarter of a mile walk right from the ship to the tram. But we just took it slow and it was fine. It really was not a big deal. And by the time we got on the tram it was like a nice relaxing tram ride over to the other side of the island.
[00:30:47] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think, you know, when I have to give you props that you have ditched the stroller in general, I think you're right for Europe. It's actually harder to have a stroller in Europe anyway because you got a lot of cobblestones and whatnot. And so they're not, and they're not real ada accessible places in most of the places in Europe, just depending on where you are of course. And so it's probably easier to get around without a stroller. With regard to the wagons, I'm curious, did you get grab a wagon on the way back? Because I feel like that's when the kids are really tired. And it's after the day in the sun, on the beach, in the sand or in the water.
[00:31:24] Speaker A: You're totally right. And we did. And there were plenty of wagons for the way back. And my older son's too big to fit in a wagon with another child, so we had to pull two wagons, but it was fine.
[00:31:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:36] Speaker A: And we pulled the wagons back to the ship and that was no problem at all.
[00:31:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, tell us, what do you. What did you guys get up to?
And what did you think of the beaches at Lookout? And did you spend any time at rush out Gushout? Did you see the Junkanoo? Like, what were. What were the highlights from.
From Lookout Day?
[00:31:53] Speaker A: Yeah. So it was new for all of us. So once we got over to the island, we.
I guess we. Our intention was to go to Rush Out Gush out first, but I think we just missed a sign or overlooked it. So we ended up being in that main area where really the buffet is. But everything was still closed at this point. But there were characters there and there were zero lines, which is. I guess in the mornings there's not as many lines. And my younger son is obsessed with the characters, so he had to get pictures. My older son doesn't really. He's not as into that character thing. So I sat with him. The ice cream machines were open, so he got ice creams.
My younger son went with to see Donald and Daisy, so he got his two photos. And then after that, we found a way to rush Out Gush out and we just let them play for a while and they had a blast. I mean, just playing in that rush out gush out areas there, it was easy to get some lounge chairs right around there. That's kind of where we kind of had our stuff for the day and they enjoyed doing that. And then from there, my older son was on me because he was watching some of the YouTube videos ahead of the cruise. And I don't know if you all had a part of this, but the secret cave, that's at Lighthouse.
[00:33:09] Speaker B: Yes. All the way at the end. Yeah.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: He was obsessed with finding the secret cave. And I was like, we will find the secret cave. I will go with you. And of course, then the younger son wants to come, my wife wants to come. And it was fine. We just walked down the beach. We each had A drink in our hands. It was a nice leisurely walk down the beach.
We found the secret cave, we got our photos, everyone had fun.
And then we start to go back and we had no sandals, nothing. We were barefoot. Right. My wife says let's try the nature trail on the way back.
[00:33:43] Speaker B: Oh no.
[00:33:44] Speaker A: Yeah, we did.
[00:33:45] Speaker B: Without shoes.
[00:33:46] Speaker A: Without shoes. Bad idea. Don't do that.
[00:33:48] Speaker B: Yeah, don't do that.
[00:33:50] Speaker A: Yeah, don't do that. Bring sandals or something.
[00:33:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:52] Speaker A: So we go up there and there's plenty of water. So like there was water stations, all that. But as we were going up there, I was like, oh, this kind of hurts. This kind of really hurts. And the kids were complaining and I ended up having the four year old carrying him.
[00:34:04] Speaker B: Well, you're barefoot too.
[00:34:06] Speaker A: I'm barefoot and there's a lot of.
It's a little hilly. So you think it's maybe. Oh, just over the next hill. There's either a path to the beach or you're in the asphalt. No. So it's longer than you think. But eventually we did hit the asphalt and my feet were back to normal once we were off the rocky nature path. So the nature path is cool. Just do it with shoes.
[00:34:30] Speaker B: Yeah, do it with shoes. The other tip I hear about the cave area is that there is a lot of coral on the ground in that area. And so you might not want to do that barefoot either. You might if you have water shoes, you know, real water shoes, not like flip flops because you're in walking in the water. So flip flops won't really help you there.
[00:34:50] Speaker A: It was low tide when we were there, so we could easily walk around the one thing I will say is it is very rough over there. Just how the rock formations are in the water. So if you do decide to go into the water, like I went in just to see what was kind of around the rock formation.
It was a struggle for me to swim back with the, with the current and everything like that. I'd had no life faster snorkel vest or anything like that. So if you do decide to go in, just either have a snorkel vest or just be prepared for a stronger current. And there's no lifeguards down there. Zero. So like there's no one watching you.
So just be careful down that way.
[00:35:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that's a really good point. It's not part of like the family beach area. It's past where Disney sort of like considers its family beach. So you're allowed to go there. They don't prohibit you from going there. But if you go in the water there, you're exactly right. There are no lifeguards nearby and nobody looking out for you. So if you go out there on your own and it's a strong current and look out in general, it's not a protected cove like at Castaway. So the current in general is going to be rougher. And there are some days where they'll even sort of warn people, you know, maybe you might not want to swim unless you're a really strong swimmer. It just depends on, you know, on what the are looking like on a particular day. But it is something to be aware of, especially when you're with young kids. You do not want like, especially over by, you know, but over on the family beach, there's lifeguards. And so if you need help, there's a lifeguard that can help you. But if you're out by the rock formation at sort of the end of lookout, you are not, they're not going to be lifeguards. And so you are kind of on, on your own.
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[00:37:46] Speaker B: Well, sounds like you guys had a great time at Lookout. It is, you know, a beautiful beach. I, I gotta ask, ask what you thought about the beaches and, and the layout and sort of everything in sort of comparison to Castaway that you, which you've been to many times before.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, two different experiences for sure. And that was the biggest thing that I was most interested in seeing. Never being to look out before was the difference between Castaway and that experience.
So I, I don't even think they're really the same product. Right. It's. They're two different experiences. But I liked the lookout, the sand and the water. I mean you can't beat the clarity of the water, how blue it is. The sand is nice and soft.
The chair situation's a little weird how they have like some of the chairs by the beach and they have the big dunes that are protecting, you know, the lands part for erosion and they have chairs behind the dunes. So you really do have to go in front of the dune or on the boardwalk to really see the water.
If you're behind that dune by Rush Out, Gush out or up by the, where the buffet is, or even in the nature trail, you don't really see the water all that much. Whereas Castaway, I feel like you see the water basically everywhere. Every advantage point that you look at. So they are different.
But I think for just like general relaxing and swimming, the. That lookout really knocked all those out of the park.
[00:39:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:14] Speaker A: And I mean Cast Away just for like the fun of using those water slides to go right into the water. And we did the snorkeling to try to find the. Some of the hidden statues. Although another.
I mean I'm sure a lot of the listeners on here know, but it's pretty far out to swim to see that stuff. You're pretty exhausted by the time you get out to that first buoy to see what's under there. And I was dragging my 6 year old with me in Castaway to try to get out there. So it's like you have extra weight on you trying to get out there. But yeah, they're just different experiences. So I wouldn't even say they're the same.
[00:39:51] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And now your boys really love Pelican Plunge. And so at Castaway, I'm curious what they thought of Rush Out, Gush Out. Now they are, as you mentioned, completely different experiences. Pelican Plunge is in the water. It's got. Got water slides. There's a rope course like and it's all over.
[00:40:10] Speaker C: You know, it dumps you right in the saltwater.
[00:40:12] Speaker B: Right? It dumps you right in the salt water. Exactly. Rush Out, Gush out is more of a water play area. It is completely on land.
There are some water slides, but the water slides are small and they put you into that one of those shoots so you don't actually have to be a swimmer to do all the stuff at Rush out gush Out. But did they like it as much or more less this?
[00:40:33] Speaker A: I mean, they were playing around there for a while. It's not really something that like, as a parent, I was just kind of more watching than anything. Whereas the Pelican Plunge, I feel like there's more parents like going down the slides.
[00:40:44] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:40:45] Speaker A: And that Pelican plunge slide, like it shoots you out into the water and it goes up your nose. So like you will get water up your nose and it's a deep exit.
[00:40:54] Speaker B: Yeah. In that area, which is why I don't like it. I'll be honest. I actually, I don't do. I have done pelican plunge, but it's been years because I don't enjoy that because every time I get salt water up my nose and then I'm coughing and I feel like horrible.
[00:41:08] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, I'm glad they have that Pelican or not Pelican Plunge. The rush out gush out at Lighthouse. I think it's a great thing for the kids because at Castaway they have that little spring a leak thing. But that's really for little. I mean, you're talking like one toddlers,
[00:41:24] Speaker B: one to two year olds. Yeah.
[00:41:25] Speaker A: So at least this fills the gap. And our kids are so used to going to cocoa, Coco Key and having that big free water play area like that. They have the pirate ship on Coco Key and they have like the big Splash Away Bay area. So I would say rush out, gush out if you're used to cast or Coco Key is like kind of like Splash Away Bay, but more of like a mini version of it.
[00:41:49] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, you're right. I think it fills the gap right where, where you've got sort of the more adventurous. At Castaway and Pelican Plunge, plus that spring a leak that's literally just like, like for infants and toddlers to play. And it's just water coming from the ground. A little like fountain kind of a thing. But this kind of fills that gap in between the two. It's also great for non swimmers. Right. If you have a kid who is, you know, your kid's age but not swimming yet like your kids are. I think it's. It's a really good, really good option. All right, well, you go back to Castaway for your another, you know, a port day. What did you guys do that day? Did you do kind of the same stuff that you normally do or did you do anything different?
[00:42:31] Speaker A: So day two, we said no snorkeling just because it was so exhausting.
So we didn't go in with that intention.
But we got off the ship on day two. The kids actually were kind of worn out from, like, doing the pelican plunge thing. So we actually didn't even do that. Really.
They what they did that day, they wanted to go to the kids club early. So that's kind of different than our normal routine because usually we bring them air in the afternoon, but instead they wanted to go in the. When we got off the ship. So they went first thing. And then my wife and I used that opportunity to do the 5K and we just did like a power walk of it. So we did the 5K.
After we were done the 5K, we got a message from the kids club. And, you know, they're very generic messages. They're not, like, specific. And we thought it was for our younger son. So we actually went back to the kids club after doing the 5k, and the kids club just said, oh, it's actually for your older son. He got injured playing a game and we gave him an ice pack.
I wish you could have just texted me that. Come over. But we didn't pick them up, so they didn't see my wife go up there. So we had a little more time in the beach, and then we decided to pick them up, eat lunch, and then have beach time.
So, like, we kind of did everything in reverse that day, but it was actually a great day just because it was so different than what we normally would do.
And once we were finished, we probably went back to the ship a little later than maybe we normally would. Like it was later afternoon by the time we started walking back to the ship.
[00:44:02] Speaker B: So I have to say, I also wish that the kids club would give you more information in the messages about what's actually happening. Because if it's just a heads up, hey, your kid got bonked in the head. We gave him an ice pack, everything's fine. I wish that they would just say that in the message. And then you can sort of choose, okay, I will go back and check on them. Or it sounds like they're totally fine. I don't need to come and check on them. Right. But, you know, whereas on the ship, you can. They'll. You might get a message that will say, hey, call us.
We've gotten that message. Like, hey, call us when you get your earliest convenience. And then you call them from, you know, one of the phones on the ship and find out that, oh, this usually that they bonk their head there, but they're fine. We give them an ice pack or they scrape their knee, they're fine. We give them an ice pack and a band aid. But especially on the island, they don't do that. They just tell you, hey, you may want to check on your kid or something like that.
[00:44:55] Speaker A: And the wi fi is so terrible that you might not get that message until.
[00:44:59] Speaker B: Right. It might be hours later. Yeah, yeah, exactly. All right, well, it sounds like, I mean, three amazing days at Disney. Private island experiences.
Was your weather good? I mean it was hot obviously because it's, it's August.
[00:45:13] Speaker A: But yes, it was hot. We had some rain, but it was, it was like a, you know, typical Florida Caribbean style rain where it was maybe a little, little thing here and there. It wasn't a washout like in Port Canaveral. We had a storm roll through and actually we had a storm roll through right when we were about to depart. And maybe we'll get to this. But our room set up on this cruise we had the two, we do connecting rooms just, it just works better for our family to have two bathrooms and just for everyone to have some more space. So we had the two connecting rooms on the back of the ship that some people call the flag room. Like we had the flag in, in our, in our room.
[00:45:58] Speaker B: That's cool. On your veranda. Yeah, you get to see the, the flag hanging off the floor.
[00:46:02] Speaker A: Yeah, the Baham, the Bahamian flag. So as we were getting ready to depart work in ad a huge storm rolled through and they, they actually had to put the bow thrusters on to keep us against the dock. So it was shaking because you know, when the ships are maneuvering, especially if you have a room in the very, very aft like we did, you feel vibration and shaking and all that sort of stuff. So when we first got there, my wife, she. One, she gets a little motion sick and two, we, she doesn't really love aft rooms, but she was like, is it going to be like this rattly the entire time? I was like, no, I think they just have the bow thrusters on to keep us against the dock. And literally once the storm passed, they turned them off and it was fine.
[00:46:44] Speaker B: But yeah, yeah, when the, when the ship is also docking, right. Like docking at castaway, docking at lookout, or docking at whatever port you're, you're in for the day.
And when you're leaving port, right. That those thrusters are really shaking. So if you're in the aft of the ship at that, that point in time, you, you feel it real. Yeah, real, real good. Yeah. Well, it sounds like, like I said, a, a great, I mean other than a little bit of weather. Sounds like you had great weather most of the cruise.
I want to jump back on board the ship now. Was this your first time on the Fantasy? Since the kids had obviously been so used to the Wish and, and this the slide, I, I'm not sure if I realized that it's, this was your first time on that ship.
[00:47:28] Speaker A: So we were, my wife and I were on the Dream a few times.
[00:47:32] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:47:32] Speaker A: But I believe the last time we were on the Dream she was pregnant with my oldest.
[00:47:38] Speaker B: So your oldest was on but not aware he was on but not on. Yeah, he was in the womb.
[00:47:42] Speaker A: Right. So yeah, we had a couple dream cruises under our belt and then migrated to the Wish when it came out and this was our last.
We've really only been three day Disney cruisers and I, I, I don't like three day cruises as much as anyone else. Like I like the longer cruises. But sure, living so close to the port, it's easy for us to do a weekend without taking like any time off work. So that's kind of just what we've always gravitated towards. So this was our longest Disney cruise we the, the five night. And yeah, it was, it was great.
[00:48:16] Speaker B: Well, let's, let's talk about some of the onboard experiences then. What did you guys get up to? Let's start with like what you guys as a family, what like family activities did you enjoy doing?
[00:48:28] Speaker A: So Midship Detective Agency, which we never, my wife and I never did it on the Dream. The few times that we were on because we didn't have kids and we were more into like just hanging out at the COVID pool instead of doing the activities.
[00:48:43] Speaker B: Don't. If you are an adult sailing on Disney Cruise Line, if you're on the Dream of the Fantasy, do not sleep on the Midship Detective Agency.
[00:48:50] Speaker A: Yeah, don't.
[00:48:51] Speaker B: It is so fun. I don't care if you're sailing with kids or not.
[00:48:55] Speaker A: Agree. So that was actually my first time doing it too. So we wanted to do the Muppets one first and we did.
And it may have been a mistake doing the Muppets one first because my kids were obsessed with Pepe's Door. Like I don't know what it was about Pepe's Door that it was just like up their alley and it was small and cool and you had to go to it during this activity, but to the point where we didn't finish the Muppet Midship Detective Agency. The first time we did it, we did a little bit, and then we went back to the room. The next day, when they woke up, all they wanted to do was call Pepe on the number.
[00:49:32] Speaker B: Yeah, you could call him on the phone. Yeah, you can call him.
[00:49:35] Speaker A: And my younger son, he kept calling him Pepe. Pepe. We had to call Pepe.
They were just obsessed with using both phones and calling Pepe and hitting all the buttons to hear all the different things.
[00:49:47] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. That's awesome.
[00:49:50] Speaker A: But it was fun, though. The Midship Detective Agent 2 was fun. We. It took us maybe we split the Muppets one in half, and then we ended up doing the Dalmatian one, and we did that in one fell swoop. Like, that was not as long to apply.
[00:50:06] Speaker B: It's quite a bit shorter, I think. You don't go to all of the screens. So on the Muppets one, you go to every single one of the screens, plus you go to the show board and Tepepe's door, whereas on the other two, the Mickey Art one or the Dalmatian one. And I think you might go to, like, one or two less screens, but you for sure don't go. Maybe you go to the same number of screens, but you for sure don't go to Pepe's door or the. Or the show.
The show board. And so. And it makes it. It's a lot shorter. It feels like, at least to me.
[00:50:41] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:50:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I love that they really enjoyed that because that's one of my favorite activities. For those who don't know, it's really hard to explain, except to say it's an interactive game using screens, but you don't actually use any kind of device. They just. It's. You have a paper card that you get on either Deck 2 or Deck 5 at a little desk. You do an intro video and it tells you what you're doing, and then you go around the ship, and it's a great way to get your steps in and tire out your children at the same time. So highly recommend.
What about. What other stuff. Did you guys. Did you do any of the trivias or family game shows, any of that stuff?
[00:51:19] Speaker A: So we did.
They had some dance party thing. I forget what it was called now, but it was in the atrium. All the characters kind of, like, took turns doing, like, a little dance party thing. We did that, and we had a blast doing that. Kids like that. And then the show was really. That was kind of the highlight because they've never seen. And we've been on the Wish a lot, but we've never been able to sit through a show.
So, like, being able to sit in that theater and see the shows was fun. And then for my younger son, the highlight was really to see what characters were around to get in line for.
[00:51:56] Speaker B: I love that.
[00:51:57] Speaker A: So, you know, he loved that aspect of it.
[00:52:00] Speaker B: I gotta ask, which show did your kids connect with the most? You've got Aladdin and Frozen and Believe. On the Disney fantasy.
[00:52:11] Speaker A: They both sat through Aladdin. It's in its entirety.
So I guess for. For them, that was probably the best show.
Frozen.
[00:52:20] Speaker C: We.
[00:52:21] Speaker A: I try to take my younger one out, like I said, about 10 minutes before it finished. Other than that, though, he sat through the whole thing.
And then Believe, we went to the matinee. So they had a matinee on the last day for Believe, which was just a great time because it was 1:30. You know, it's that time of the day where it's super hot. You kind of need a break anyways, so it was a good for that. The first night of the cruise, I was a little disappointed because they.
Instead of having, like, someone that came on the ship or whatever, all they did was show Moana 2 or Moana. I'm sorry, Moana, the live action. And I was also disappointed because Spider man came out that day and they did not show Spider man anywhere. Not in the movies, not in the main stage, nowhere. So I didn't get to see Spider Man.
[00:53:08] Speaker B: Oh, wow. I wonder if that has to do with. With the licensing agreement. Spider man is a little bit different than everybody else. Right. In terms of Marvel characters. And so I wonder if that had something.
[00:53:20] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe that was, like, one of the things that we got in our Facebook group, like, straight away when someone got on the ship, like, no, Spider Man. Sad. But yeah, they had one on board entertainer that came on. He was Kid Ace. Like a magician sort of thing.
[00:53:36] Speaker B: Yeah, he's good.
[00:53:37] Speaker A: We saw him. And the kids really like that too, too. So they sat through that show as well.
[00:53:41] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[00:53:42] Speaker C: What about the adult activities on board? Did you get a chance to experience any of those?
[00:53:47] Speaker A: We did a little trivia. I mean, we're not huge. Like, we have to do every sort of trivia. We kind of just whatever's going on around the ship, if it fits into what we're around, especially if the kids are in the kids club, that's just kind of what we Gravitate to. So I think we sat through like a small trivia. I couldn't even tell you what it really was. And I don't know if we even stayed the whole time. But the honestly we just like sitting in that.
I forget what it's called but it's like that carousel bar. That's like the Italian theme one. On the Fantasy.
We had a bartender.
[00:54:19] Speaker C: Not Piazza, is it the.
[00:54:20] Speaker A: Right.
Yeah, the bartender there just made us really good espresso martini. So we just like going there and having espresso martini and just like enjoying the. The piece of it. But yeah, that's kind of what we did. Our younger son towards the end was giving us the trouble going into the kids clubs. Then he was kind of tag on with us. So it was a little less relaxing. But we still made the best of it and just, you know, went somewhere and sat and enjoyed.
[00:54:46] Speaker C: Nice.
Nice.
[00:54:48] Speaker B: We haven't talked about dining.
[00:54:50] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:54:51] Speaker B: And I feel like we have to talk about dining because you've spent a lot of time on the Wish and we talk about the pool deck food. Pool deck food is amazing. On the Wish. You of course have different dining rotational dining on the Wish than you are all honest on. On the Wish class. You, you know, sort of. They introduced like new. Completely new menus, completely new theming, which means you've got different stuff on the classic four ships. And there's some variation, but there's a lot of. Across the classic four ships there's a lot of consistency in terms of what's offered. I'm curious what you thought of the food especially in comparison to Wish class.
[00:55:27] Speaker A: Yeah. And being on the Wish so many times over the past few years, it was a good change of pace just to get like some.
[00:55:34] Speaker B: Something different.
[00:55:35] Speaker A: Something different into the rotation. So I guess that's kind of what I was most excited about.
And yeah, it didn't disappoint. I mean you can see especially with the new menus how they're trying to align a little bit with some of the Wish menus. Like there is a little bit of more overlap maybe than they had in the past now.
Yeah, but the. The food was good. We started off at Enchanted Garden. For our first dinner I got the pork Wellington, which is a weird kind of take on things.
[00:56:08] Speaker B: Pork Wellington, Heard of that one before? Yeah.
[00:56:10] Speaker A: Usually they're beef Wellington. It was a pork Wellington.
It was good. I mean just a little different. And honestly, sometimes like beef doesn't sit well with me anyways anymore. So it was. I was fine with it being Pork. But yeah, the, the food was a great change of pace. I was happy to get my truffle presets back because I've been missing them since we were on the Dr. Screen the last time. So I had two words.
It was great animators. I mean that we had a prime table for whatever reason right in front of a screen.
My oldest was able to interact with Crush like the.
He was maybe either the first or the second table that he interacted with. So that was like a great start to that dinner. We actually ended up eating an animators twice and then back to Enchanted Garden on the last night night. So we were animators for the regular Crush night and then the pirate night. But overall, I mean, the food was pretty good.
Paulo obviously was the best meal that we had. But you know, I wouldn't say any of the food was like, was bad. It was all very good.
[00:57:13] Speaker B: Speaking of Palo, you said it was the best, of course, compared to main dining. Now you, you mentioned you, you pretty much have a tradition of going for Palo dinner, is that right? Right?
[00:57:25] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah, we try to have the kids be in the kids club and just go for like a relaxing dinner.
[00:57:31] Speaker B: I love that.
[00:57:32] Speaker A: Sit in the bar for a little bit before. So it was fun sitting in Meridian just for like, you know, 30 minutes before we had dinner.
[00:57:41] Speaker B: Yeah. I, I mean, I think if you're, if your kids are willing and able to go to the kids clubs. Right. I think that one of the benefits of Disney Cruise Line is the fact that you have a kids club. Right. You're not paying for a babysitter. You essentially are getting a date night night while on the ship. You can still feed your kids before you go to Palo. Right? You can feed them either by going to main dining with them or giving them pool deck food, which is, as you mentioned, what you did. Pool deck food, see the show, drop them off at the kids club. You go to Palo. I think it's, it's a perfect way to do it. Now I will say for first time cruisers, it's not something I recommend because then you do miss main dining. You know, on your first cruise, I think you want to experience main dining. The other part about your first cruise is if you have kids, you don't know how your kids are going to do in the kids club. And so if you book Paulo and then your kids are not willing to go to the kids club, you're kind of in a pickle. Usually Disney Cruise Line will be very kind and will let you cancel without penalty if you're if that's the reason why you're canceling Paulo, but you don't want to be in that situation where you're trying to late, you know, late. Cancel.
Well, Nick, have we, is there anything we've missed? I feel like we've covered quite a bit of stuff actually. I want to ask, do you feel like your kids really like missed the Wish because this is a different ship, the Kids Club. I think Wish Class has the best kids club on board. I think that all of the ships have something great to offer. I'm not going to say like your kids wouldn't enjoy one of the older ships, but I do think the Wish Class has stepped it up in terms of Kids club. But I'm curious, do you feel like your kids enjoyed this cruise as much as they've enjoyed their previous ones?
[00:59:29] Speaker A: I would say this. The older one, the six year old, he had equally as much fun on the Wish and the Fantasy and he was really wanting to see like the differences in like the Star wars area. Like they have that X Wing trainer that he liked to do and just different activities. I think the younger one missed the Wish just with the Slide and some. I guess I don't know if both ships have it, but they do give them screens I think sometimes like in the.
And the Wish, like the tablets to do different games or whatever they're doing.
So I think he missed some of that. But we asked them after like which ship did you like better? I don't think they could really tell me like, oh, we. The Wish was better than the, than the Fantasy. I think they liked different aspects of both ships and you know, we'll probably be back on the Wish at some point in the near future anyways, so they're not gonna miss out forever.
[01:00:27] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and I, I think that, you know, it's just a matter of like, I think the, the difference that I would sort of take away is like really just the Kids club. It's not really like the. All the other stuff on the ship. I think there's plenty to do and there's plenty to do for kids in the Kids club too. It's just a matter of your kids are really used to a particular kids club and then they go to a different kids club. It sounds like like your four year old, the slide kind of really threw him off and that's not like, that's not unusual for something like that to throw a kid off. And so I'm, I'm curious now. We, we did a rapid fire the last time you're on the show. So I'm not going to do a rapid fire today. But I, but I do have to like ask like have you thought about going on the Treasure or the Destiny? I mean those are wish class sh ships but of course have longer itineraries available on than the Wish Treasure being seven nights. And of course Destiny has four and five night itineraries.
[01:01:21] Speaker A: Sure, yeah. I mean we would definitely consider the Treasure. We do typically do a couple longer cruises each year.
Usually when the kids get out of school like in that. And you know in Florida we get out towards the end of May so we usually do one like right after they get out of school. This year we went to Alaska on Norwegian and we typically do a long one between Christmas and New Year's. Although Disney's kind of out for that because there's just so expensive versus some of the other cruise lines.
And then we always try to do one around spring break so like, you know, whatever that is in March. Again Disney knows it's spring break so the pricing is a little high but we wouldn't love to. And this is just being so close to Port Canaveral. But like the thought, the drive for us to Port Canaveral versus Fort Lauderdale, it's like two different experiences.
[01:02:18] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. So, so how many hours to, for to Fort Lauderdale would it be?
[01:02:22] Speaker A: Fort Lauderdale is a three and a half to four hour drive. If it's no traffic, it's just Fort Canaveral to us is just so easy. The parking's easy. It's the people are the nicest people in the world that work there. Like all retirees are just like, they love working for Disney or Port Canaveral.
[01:02:43] Speaker B: And by the way, that's our, that's our retirement plan.
When we, when we retire from being lawyers, we have talked about like we'll move down to Cocoa beach and we will work at the port and jump on a cruise whenever we can.
[01:02:58] Speaker A: Yeah. I told someone that does some of our financial planning the other day was he asked what do you like? What's your long term plan? I said my plan is to retire at 55 and be a VIP tour guide at Walt Disney World. That's what I want to do.
[01:03:12] Speaker B: Oh my God, that would be so cool.
[01:03:13] Speaker A: I don't know how feasible it is, but that's what I want.
[01:03:15] Speaker B: I'm going to say yes, but I'm going to switch it to Disneyland because I don't want to ever work at Disney World because I can't deal with the heat. I would not Be able those August days in the parks.
I could do it at the port, but I can't do it at. No, I'm not. I'm not doing it at the parks, but I can do it in California because it's not the face of the sun done in August in California like it is in Florida.
[01:03:40] Speaker A: Yeah. So back to your original question. Like, I'm totally open to it. We just prefer the ships that are from Port Canaveral.
[01:03:46] Speaker B: Sure.
[01:03:47] Speaker A: And I mean this one fit in great because it was five day and it hit all, you know, had three island stops. So we'll see what comes in. Like we're sad a little bit that the Wish is leaving to go to Europe and it's getting replaced by the dream. So we're kind of have like the dream and the fantasy in Port Canaveral for a little bit. We'll see what comes in after that. That it'll be a weird time in Port Canaveral because we, we will just have the treasure like for the.
[01:04:10] Speaker B: You're right. It is going to. It's, you know, when the, when the Wish is over in Europe, it's going to be a strange lineup out of. I mean it's going to look like it's old lineup. Right. To have the dream and the fantasy out of Port Canaveral with. Along with the treasure. But yeah, it's going to be a strange time. I think we're going to see a shake up. This is my prediction is we're going to see a shakeup of one. What ships are assigned to where once the Believe comes out. But that's still not until late 2027. So we, we won't know, you know, who's sort of who's going where until. Until that. Until those itineraries are announced, which as we're recording this on August 18th, hopefully sometime soon. We were actually thinking we could get an announced itinerary drop today that didn't happen.
By the time this show comes out, we'll have an itinerary drop. Drop, I'm sure.
But yeah, it'll be interesting to see how things kind of get moved around and, and that may give us some clues if the itinerary drop drops before the Believe itineraries drop, we may be able to sort of suss out where the Believe is going to be sailing out of and what the likely itinerary it will be doing.
[01:05:20] Speaker A: Yeah, my ships are on Port Canaveral for that. So I know you might have a different opinion, but I think I'm hoping for Port Canaveral for that, but we'll see.
[01:05:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Well, it, it is always nice to pair a land and sea for, for those of us who are coming from out of town. I know a lot of people like to plan the, the land and sea and, and it's kind of helpful. It's easier for a lot of people to get to Orlando just in terms of more flights being available to Orlando than to, than to Fort Lauderdale. Well, Nick, you are a travel advisor, so why don't you tell fish folks where they can find you and connect with you if they are interested in booking a vacation with you.
[01:05:59] Speaker A: Yeah, and it's a, a total side thing that we do, but we love doing it. Myself and my wife, we, we kind of co do this thing and our handle for everything is make waves with an S vacations with so with an S Make waves vacations and we're on everything. Instagram, YouTube, the whole shebang. And our email address is bookingsakewavesvacations.com if you're interested in planning anything.
[01:06:28] Speaker B: Well, Nick, thank you so much for coming back and joining us. Sounds like this was a fantastic cruise.
We hope you continue to join us on future episodes. It's always great talking with you and you're such a wealth of knowledge and experience across lots of different cruise lines. So we really appreciate it.
[01:06:45] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks for having me and hope to see you again soon.
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[01:09:25] Speaker B: Sam.
