[00:00:00] Speaker A: Oh, by the way, the kids had no idea we were going to go on a cruise, by the way.
We told them it's a family reunion.
And they asked us, oh, but who's the family? I'm like, you haven't met them yet. You'll see. They said, all right, fine, whatever. And
[00:00:13] Speaker B: it kind of worked out because we.
[00:00:27] Speaker C: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's live episode of the DCL Duo Podcast, brought to you by. We Do Travel, Right. Remember, life is short. Take the trip. Let the folks over at We Do Travel, right, handle the planning so you can focus on the relaxing.
Thanks for joining us tonight, y'. All. I gotta send. I gotta.
[00:00:45] Speaker D: Happy Election Day. We're gonna, we're gonna give you a respite from watching election returns tonight. So we're hope.
We hope to have a lot of people joining us. We know it's 5pm Pacific right now, it's 8pm Eastern, and election returns are just kind of starting to come in. In fact, C MSN are gonna start calling races and whatnot. But we're
[00:01:07] Speaker C: just really hoping
[00:01:08] Speaker D: to give you a respite from all of that.
[00:01:10] Speaker C: The point of this show is not the politics. If you want to go do the politics, watch tv, there's plenty of it on right now. I also forgot to thank our live show sponsor, the DCL magazine. I want to send a special shout out to Danny, Stephanie, Tatiana, the whole crew. Tim, the whole crew over there at DCL magazine. If you have not already, please head over to dcl-magazine.com that is D today to subscribe. They've got digital editions, they've got print editions, they've got calendars. I noticed. I think our calendar might be in the mailbox today, Sam.
So lots of exciting stuff over there. If you use code DCLDUO, that's code DCLDUO, all caps. You can take 10% off everything in the store over there. Sam, let's introduce our guests for this evening. Talk a little Disney Cruise Line news and then dive into this dream sailing that we're going to be talking about.
[00:02:04] Speaker D: Absolutely. We've got, we've got two guests. Primarily. Karsh is going to be joining us, but his wife Haral is going to join us for part of the time. There she is. She wasn't done with us for the pre show, but welcome back, you guys, to the show.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you.
[00:02:21] Speaker D: It's lovely to see you again. It's been way too long, but we're excited to have you back on the show. We're going to start with talking about Disney Cruise Line news, there are two news items from this past week. Both are coming off the Disney Adventure.
The first one that I'll mention is the Disney Adventure has a new documentary coming out at the end of this month on November 28th, so just a few weeks away. It is called charting your course or sorry, charting a new course.
And it's going to be streaming on Disney Nat Geo and Geo Hot Star, which I guess is probably a Singapore streaming service. But anyway, it's going to be about the building of the Disney Adventure, which of course obviously was partially built when Disney acquired it as the global dream.
So that should be interesting. Another piece of news is of course again from the Disney Adventure about Paulo and this is something we posted about on social media. I'm curious about to hear what Karsha and her all think about this.
But basically on the Disney Adventure, Paulo has already been Open for ages 10 and up and apparently on select sailings they are testing opening it up to all ages and they actually have specific fixed price menu for kids for brunch, meaning it'll be the same menu, I think.
[00:03:45] Speaker C: Was it all ages
[00:03:46] Speaker D: or
[00:03:46] Speaker C: was it all ages or three and up? I thought it was three and up.
[00:03:49] Speaker D: It's. So here's the thing. The the messaging, I just looked back at it and it says all ages but then the specific price is for ages 3 to 12. So I
[00:04:00] Speaker C: guess they figure kids under 3 aren't eating any chicken parm. So. Exactly.
[00:04:03] Speaker D: I think what they're saying is ages 0 to 3 they wouldn't be charging for I think is what that means. But I think babies could actually go. I originally saw this announcement thinking it was three and up, but I actually think it's actually all ages and they also have a an a la carte dinner menu for kids that they're offering. So I'm interested to hear what Karsha and her all think as the parents of two kids and whether you'd want your kids to go to Paulo. This is specific to the adventure.
I'll put this out there to say the Disney Adventure has not been selling out Paulo. Paulo has been empty both brunch and dinner. So it's a very different experience than on the other ships that are typically full. But I'm curious.
I'll start with Haral. What do you think about would you want to bring your kids to Palo dinner or Palo brunch with you?
[00:04:56] Speaker B: So it's interesting. I actually would just because I love to give that experience to our kids.
The the thing is as we've been talking about bringing our kids, or at least the older one to give her some more of the fine dining experience.
But because the past cruise is so fresh in my mind, I'm not sure that Paulo would be the one, to be honest.
Yeah, I don't know that it has enough variety for us to, to want to bring the kids to Palo at least. And in fact we even spoke about it this time. I was like, I might want to take a break from Palo for the next couple of cruises and then hopefully we can come back to
[00:05:41] Speaker A: was 100% great experience on that one.
[00:05:46] Speaker D: Interesting.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: Yeah. But
[00:05:49] Speaker D: we'll
[00:05:49] Speaker A: get more into that. I would say I would like a break from the kids.
So that's like the one time that we get some quiet, you know, could just, you know, talk to each other, maybe not talk to each other, just hang out, you know, and just eat some good food without telling someone to, hey, eat your food. Hey, don't do that. Hey, don't do this. Stop eating
[00:06:09] Speaker D: your sniff.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: Yeah, so that and Remy on the dream and fantasy. So that's our quiet time. So for me personally, no kids, please.
That's just me. That's just me. That's my quiet time.
[00:06:26] Speaker C: I tend to agree with you, Karsh, and I just want to underscore this for everybody who's listening or watching. Like, there are no indications that this change will come to any of the ships sailing in the US currently.
We've seen numerous comments from people sort of saying, look, there's a sort of a cultural thing in Asia about they don't like to split up, they don't like to be away from their kids. And so this, and so that's clearly showing in the booking numbers for Palo and so they're trying to find a way to, to get those numbers up. Right?
Yeah,
[00:06:57] Speaker B: I mean, I think I do want to caveat that I don't know that I want my 5 year old with me again because I don't want that constant, eat this, don't eat that. You're touching this, don't touch that, you're going to break that. You know, the typical things you're always saying to your kids.
But 10 and above, you know, or and above, I think it is nice to want to give your kids that sort of, hey, this is what, this is what cuisines out there are like and this is what fine dining is like and open your palate up to different foods. And that's what I see like with my 12 year old and up. But yeah, definitely not below 8 or 5 because you just, you're not going to enjoy yourself, you're not going to enjoy the food, you're not going to know what you had and you're probably going to leave halfway.
[00:07:42] Speaker C: I always tell Sam this was, that was my growing up was my parents would take me to night. I was the only child, so like they would take me to the nice dinners with them. It's how I got. I mean I got introduced to calamari when I was like 10 years old. I had no idea what I was eating, but I liked it. And then when they told me what it was, I was like, all right, it's delicious.
[00:08:01] Speaker D: Victoria and Albert, somebody in our. When I posted about this on Instagram, somebody was commenting about Victoria and Albert's is actually 12 and up. And that is as fine dining as. I mean it's certainly higher level than Paulo. Maybe just a step below Remy and Enchante
[00:08:19] Speaker B: or
[00:08:20] Speaker D: maybe at the same.
[00:08:21] Speaker C: I mean it's Michelin star dining or at least it was. I don't know if they kept their stars, but yeah,
[00:08:26] Speaker D: yeah, it's not actually a Michelin starred restaurant, but it's that
[00:08:29] Speaker C: kind
[00:08:30] Speaker D: of.
[00:08:30] Speaker C: It was,
[00:08:31] Speaker D: but right now I don't think they have a Michelin star, but it's close to that level of experience. And so it is a fine dining experience. But they've recognized that that's appropriate for 12. I would, I feel like maybe 16 and up would be like. From my personal opinion, I don't really have a problem with it, especially on the dis Disney adventure. And if it's meant to get staff more greater tips, then I'm all for it, frankly. But as long as it stays on the Disney adventure, I don't want it fleetwide. But I wouldn't have a problem with decreasing the age to 16 instead of 18 or something like that because there are teens who are well behaved who would really enjoy and it would be nice to be able to introduce a mature teen to that experience. I think for some people 12 would be great.
I don't think every 12 year old is maybe Paulo level experience,
[00:09:25] Speaker A: but
[00:09:26] Speaker D: maybe your 12 year old is. Yeah.
Anyway, let's, let's jump, let's jump right into the show. Talking about your
[00:09:34] Speaker C: Tracy, Tracy wants to correct you. I knew it. Victoria
[00:09:38] Speaker D: Albert says one
[00:09:38] Speaker C: Michelin star. They did get their star.
[00:09:40] Speaker D: All right.
[00:09:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:09:40] Speaker D: All right.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: Well,
[00:09:42] Speaker D: anyway, let's talk about your Disney dream cruise.
I know we're going to have some.
I don't want to call them hot takes because you had some rough things happen on your cruise that we are going to talk about.
And so this is. We like to call this real talk. Right.
We are not a marketing arm of Disney Cruise Line, and when Disney Cruise Line gets things wrong, we have to call them out on it. There are things they do well and there are things they do poorly. And sometimes the guest experience is not up to par. And I know that that was the case for you guys on this recent cruise. But let's start, let's start rewind. Before that, you guys chose to sail on the Disney Dream. This was the end of September into the beginning of October, how many nights? And this was not a Halloween on the high seas cruise, which is interesting because it was kind of during Halloween on the high seas.
Timing tell us, like, why did you choose this cruise?
[00:10:41] Speaker A: We chose this cruise mainly because of the price. And I wanted to say all the dream, really.
I know the timing was not the most Perfect.
Aria, our 12 year old, started middle school and it's a. It's been.
It's a different experience for her.
So we knew that it would be a transition for her for that. And we have to be on top of her, get all the work done, make sure the teachers know, the school knows that we're leaving.
And yeah, we chose that time frame. Oh, by the way, the kids had no idea we were going to go on a cruise, by the way, we told them it's a family reunion.
And they asked us, oh, but who's the family? Like, you haven't met them yet. You'll see. They said, all right, fine, whatever. And
[00:11:34] Speaker B: it kind of worked out because we weren't on property. We weren't, you know, none of that. So it was really.
[00:11:39] Speaker A: Yeah, it was working out. Yeah.
[00:11:41] Speaker B: So we stayed at.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: We stayed at Marriott Harbor Beach Resort.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: Yeah. So they were just like, oh, when? When are we meeting family? And we're like, oh, tomorrow when we get on the bus, we have to still go to Miami, so you're not gonna see them yet. You know, all
[00:11:56] Speaker A: of that stuff. And
[00:11:57] Speaker B: then the next day, like our bags and stuff went. We definitely tried to hide the. The tags from them.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I hide the bags in the closet with the tags.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: Yeah. And then the bags went and all of that, which was fun.
And then we get on the bus and they're like,
[00:12:10] Speaker A: even before the bus we got in line.
[00:12:13] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Yes. They're seeing all the Disney cruise, you know, guests lining up with all the Disney gear and everything.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: Aria's asking me, where are these people going? I'M like. And I said, the bus is gonna drop them off at the terminal and then we're gonna continue on to Miami. And she said, okay, I guess.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: Yeah. The kids were so distraught. They were like, we wanna go to the cruise and so on. But
[00:12:37] Speaker A: like,
[00:12:37] Speaker B: yeah, but this bus is going to Miami. These people are gonna get off, but we're gonna stay on because we have to go.
So we do.
[00:12:45] Speaker C: Get your cousins, Mickey, Minnie, Donald.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: It was a little heart wrenching when the bus stopped at the port and the ship is right there.
And Aria's like, why can't we just get on? And I'm like, I mean, I'm twisting it. So I make sure I tell her. Should I not tell her? At what point do I tell her?
Finally, the cast member got on and said, all of you are getting on Disney Dream. And then she looked at me, I'm like, yes. Yeah, we're getting on Disney
[00:13:12] Speaker C: Dream.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: That's when it hit her. Oh, finally.
[00:13:17] Speaker B: Yeah. And then one of the big things for us with the dream was because fantasy, I. I guess we call it our home ship because we've, we've gone on it twice. It was our first ship. We're so in love with it.
And so, you know, we were, we were already so high with the expectation and so we're like, oh, this is, this is fantasy, sister. It's going to be even like, you know, same level or beautiful or something. Like we've got this high expectation of it. And so we go in and, you know, everything's. In fact, getting into the terminal and being able to get on the ship was so smooth.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: That was smoother than Port Canaveral.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: Yeah, like, it was quick and smooth. We were just so surprised and we were like, okay, this is going to be perfect.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: We were
[00:14:02] Speaker B: in the
[00:14:02] Speaker A: terminal for maybe 10 minutes and then we got on.
[00:14:07] Speaker B: It was amazing.
[00:14:08] Speaker A: Very smooth.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: And we get on the ship and yeah, I mean, I love the fantasy for a reason. You know, the peacock feathers and the vibrant colors and so on and so forth. But, but yeah, we get onto the Disney. And I was like, okay, it's different, it's different, but we're going to like it. We're not going to start judging already.
But yeah, we, we got on and food was great. We, we went to eat at cabanas.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: Cabanas.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: Yeah, we ate there. Kids were happy. Everything was, was really good.
[00:14:42] Speaker C: How were the, how are the crowds in.
How are the crowds in Cabanas? Because we, we talked to somebody recently who was like the sit down lunch is getting crazy. Over subscribed. There's lines and I was sort of curious. Well,
[00:14:55] Speaker D: apparently people listening to us.
[00:14:56] Speaker C: Yeah. Is that. Is that sucking people out of cabanas? So the cabanas might actually be a better experience.
Yeah. So like, how. How was the crowd in cabanas?
[00:15:05] Speaker B: I think it depends on your entrance. So, like, if you're one of the first few, you go on and you get a seat and you're great. But if you're gonna get on later and then if you plan to go to your room or you've got to talk to the concierge or the people in front, like you might need a crib for your room or whatever.
If you do all of those things and you go to your kids clubs and check everything out and then you go to cabanas. Yeah. It's going to be. It's going to be crowded and full. Yeah.
[00:15:36] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:15:37] Speaker C: I wanted to ask up front, kind of, since the Fantasy is your home ship, the Dream is a near carbon copy, with some exceptions. Like, what did you think of the spaces on the Dream versus the Fantasy? Just at a high level.
[00:15:56] Speaker A: I kind of felt like it lacked color a little bit.
The Fantasy was more vibrant, definitely.
Spaces were the same.
Like, obviously, structure wise.
[00:16:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: I just felt like it was more red, white and blue. Yeah. You know, less. Less color.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:17] Speaker A: Obviously we like the chandelier and the Fantasy a little bit more. This. This was obvious. Obviously it's as pretty is great.
So you step in, there's that smell and then just like that feeling of entering the Disney bubble and everything. It's a great feeling.
[00:16:32] Speaker B: And I
[00:16:32] Speaker A: mean,
[00:16:33] Speaker B: the ships in a way are carbon copies. So we didn't ever feel like, oh, we got lost or we don't know where we're going. Yeah,
[00:16:39] Speaker A: we knew where we were going, definitely.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: Yeah. So in that sense, it was all exactly the same. But yeah, we felt like the color scheme was just very red, white and blue. Like there wasn't any. A
[00:16:52] Speaker A: little muted.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Other vibrancy or anything too. But that being said, I'm not putting it off because of the color or anything because each ship has its own, you know, look
[00:17:03] Speaker A: and its own
[00:17:04] Speaker B: personality, I guess.
[00:17:05] Speaker A: Yeah, Personality.
[00:17:06] Speaker B: So, you know. Yeah, that was. That was still fine. That wasn't the issue for us at all.
[00:17:10] Speaker A: And
[00:17:10] Speaker C: sorry I missed this up front. How long. How many nights was the sailing and where did you go?
[00:17:14] Speaker A: It's a five night.
[00:17:15] Speaker C: Five night. And did you just go to Nassau and Castaway or.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: We skipped Nassau.
Sorry. Day two was Castaway. Day three, lighthouse. And then day four and five, sea days.
[00:17:28] Speaker B: It was actually a really good itinerary, like, in terms of.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: Yeah,
[00:17:36] Speaker B: because remember, every time, like, you. You know, your last day is castle. And then you're running back in and you're eating and you're packing and you're making sure you're showered and all of that,
[00:17:44] Speaker A: and the bags have to be outside, you know, so thing. It's a rush.
[00:17:48] Speaker B: This is perfect.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: This was perfect. Yeah, it was relaxing.
[00:17:53] Speaker C: What was the kids reaction? I mean, like, obviously you held this back. So, like, I'm imagining them. They have to rapidly go through the stages of excitement here a little bit. And so, like, what was their reaction once you told them? And then getting on the ship, was it just pandemonium?
[00:18:08] Speaker B: Our kids are delayed reactors. It's
[00:18:10] Speaker A: a delayed reaction.
It's like once
[00:18:13] Speaker B: we got on and we're eating and all these other things are happening, and then it slowly
[00:18:18] Speaker A: building up, like, just randomly. Like, I'm like, okay, okay, we're here. We're here.
[00:18:24] Speaker B: It's unexpected. Like, all of a sudden, Aria would be like, oh, I want to go get dessert. And I'll be like, okay. Because, you know, we've. We've said. Because the movie yes day. I don't know if you guys have seen it
[00:18:34] Speaker A: yesterday. Yeah, we have a yes week.
[00:18:36] Speaker B: Yeah. So whenever we're on a cruise, it's a yes week for them. So we don't really stop them for desserts or anything because they have enough. And then all of a sudden, they're like, okay, wait, I can't do any more. No more soft serve or no more desserts or whatever.
[00:18:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:48] Speaker B: And so this time they were like, y. Yeah. I was like, yeah, go ahead. Whatever you want. And then in that moment, like, I got this. Or, oh, I got that.
Like
[00:18:57] Speaker A: a burst of excitement. Yeah.
[00:18:58] Speaker D: Because
[00:18:59] Speaker A: they had no idea. But previously, it. It would be building up. This was like, oh, we're here, all of a sudden. So they had to absorb it.
And then, of course,
[00:19:08] Speaker D: they
[00:19:08] Speaker A: hadn't been on this ship before, so they. It was slightly different as well, but. Yeah. Yeah. Overall, like, they were just, like. They couldn't voice how they were feeling, basically.
[00:19:17] Speaker D: I love the idea of doing the yes day or the yes week. Right. Within reason of, I think, natural consequences, like, oh, I ate too much ice cream. I have a tummy ache now. Right. Like, they figure that out. They all figure them. Like, so day one, maybe they eat too much soft serve, but day two, then they're like, I'm off the soft serve now or I only want one. Right.
Usually works itself out. Let's talk about your room assignment.
And this is where it's going to get spicy. Warning. For those listening and watching, tell us what kind of room you did you select your room, what was the location? And then tell us what happened with the room.
[00:19:58] Speaker B: So typically, because we've done fantasy before and we knew the layout, we like the sixth floor midship because it's easy for us to get to the clubs. And it's also like, especially when we do Remy and Paulo, it's a. Okay, this is where we are. We don't have to move too much. You just go down a couple of decks, drop the kids off, and then, you know, when you're on your own, you figure out where to run to to get to your restauran.
So with that in mind, we. We kind of were midship, sixth floor.
And then, yeah, we, we chose our room. It was the veranda, the
[00:20:34] Speaker A: deluxe family veranda. Yeah, yeah, we like the extra space on. Yeah, definitely. This time it was better because the last, last cruise, our little one was in a crib, so the big room helped. This time she was in the bunk bed. So it felt like there was so much room, you know, because she was in bunk bed and there was no crib. Even the side table was put on the side.
It was a lot of room.
[00:20:57] Speaker B: Yeah,
[00:20:58] Speaker A: yeah.
[00:20:59] Speaker C: Did you just to go back for one second, did you have any problems booking anything that you wanted to book on board before you got on? I mean, you've mentioned Remy and Paolo. I don't know which of all the adult dining you did. I don't know if you needed to book anything
[00:21:13] Speaker A: you wanted, actually.
[00:21:15] Speaker C: Everything.
[00:21:15] Speaker A: We even got a cabana, actually. Nice. Which was.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: It was great.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: And we're silver, so it was surprising it was even available.
[00:21:22] Speaker B: It was crazy. Like, overall, everything was perfect on the ship.
Yeah, the bad parts were just with the room and
[00:21:31] Speaker A: the food
[00:21:32] Speaker B: and some of the food and service at the end.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: But
[00:21:35] Speaker B: in terms of what we wanted, all the bookings, we were even able to book the parasailing, but
[00:21:42] Speaker A: we didn't do the parasailing,
[00:21:43] Speaker B: but it didn't happen because of the weather, obviously. But
[00:21:46] Speaker A: yeah,
[00:21:46] Speaker B: in terms of booking, there was nothing that we felt, oh, my God, we, you know, we needed
[00:21:51] Speaker A: this or we missed
[00:21:52] Speaker B: that or anything. Yeah,
[00:21:54] Speaker A: no, we got everything.
[00:21:56] Speaker D: All right, so let's start. Let's tell us what happened with the room. Tell the audience what happened with the room.
[00:22:02] Speaker C: Dear Disney, we're trying to create The. I won't say the word sandwich. So we've done some good. Now we gotta have some real talk. So, Karsh, go ahead.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Okay. So our tradition when you enter a room is we open the door, we go straight through, and then we go to the balcony to look outside, and then we look outside, then we absorb it, and then we finally come inside the room and then relax for a little bit before we have to go to monster Drill. Well, we walked through, and I smelled a smell, and I thought, you know what? I'm gonna ignore this for now. We're gonna walk straight through and enjoy the balcony or the brand. We did that. We're outside. Okay. All right. It looks pretty. Looks different than Port Canaveral. Of course it is. The univers nail. It's great. Okay, now let's go back inside. And then girl went in first.
And then I went in, and I looked at her. She looked at me, and I said, you smell it, right? And she said, I do smell it. And, like, there shouldn't be a smell like this in here. And she said, no, there shouldn't. And, like, okay, it smells like a. Like a stale pillow.
[00:23:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:13] Speaker A: Let's go to the bed and see if it's that. And
[00:23:17] Speaker B: so the first thing actually we smelt was the. You know, the Disney.
The blanket that they put out. Because I was like, maybe this hasn't been washed well or.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: Yeah,
[00:23:28] Speaker B: because you never think it's the actual sheets or the pillows or any of that, because they get washed so often. So I was like, maybe it's this one. And so we're smelling and sniffing, and it's not that surprisingly. And so we. As we start climbing up the bed and smelling more, and there's some smell in the shape sheets, but it definitely was the. The pillows, the sort of decorative pillows. You know,
[00:23:55] Speaker A: the two
[00:23:56] Speaker B: blue stripes. The
[00:23:57] Speaker C: throw pillows. Yeah, yeah,
[00:23:58] Speaker A: yeah, the throw pillows.
[00:23:59] Speaker B: Yeah. So they. Those had really pungent, bad, stale smell. Like
[00:24:07] Speaker A: it was rancid. It was rancid.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: It was. And
[00:24:09] Speaker A: we
[00:24:10] Speaker B: literally took them and put them in the bathroom and closed.
[00:24:14] Speaker A: And then the smell got better.
[00:24:15] Speaker B: It got better. It wasn't. It wasn't gone, but it got better.
[00:24:19] Speaker A: That's slightly better. Slightly better. Good. Breathe.
[00:24:22] Speaker B: Yeah. And then we went to the balcony again. Kind of took a minute, came back, and we could still smell it, but we were like, okay, let's see if it was really that. So we opened the bathroom door, and it just came back,
[00:24:32] Speaker A: was, that's full of it.
[00:24:33] Speaker B: And so we.
[00:24:35] Speaker A: We. So I. I Went out in the hallway to see if we could find the stateroom post, and she was nowhere near. I'm like, okay, I'll walk around, up and down. And then I think you found her.
[00:24:44] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah,
[00:24:45] Speaker A: yeah. She found her and said, hey, we're in this room.
The sheets smell, the pillows smell. Can you can do something about it? And she looked confused, and. But she said, okay, we'll take care of it.
[00:24:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:58] Speaker A: And then.
So we went up for the mustard drill, and then right at the mustard drill, we go up to the pool deck for the sailway party. And then we rushed down to go to the room and change, and the spell was still there.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: Well, it came back. No, because you changed everything.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: Oh, it came back. She
[00:25:18] Speaker B: changed everything. And it came.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: It was like it was in more things now, the pillow.
[00:25:24] Speaker B: And so we were like, wait, what happened? So we smelled the pillow again, and I was like, oh, my God, she put the pillow back on. Like, why didn't she change these? And this is just me thinking, very Disney, right? I'm like, okay, no, this cannot be happening at Disney. Like, Disney is
[00:25:41] Speaker A: perfect. It was definitely jarring. Like, what is going on here? This is not. This is not normal,
[00:25:46] Speaker B: right? So
[00:25:46] Speaker A: we found her again. And I said, hey, so. So it still smells. And then she said, okay, I'll talk to management.
[00:25:55] Speaker B: And then they were
[00:25:55] Speaker A: going
[00:25:56] Speaker B: to change it again. So then we went.
[00:25:58] Speaker A: Well, first we had to get ready. First we had. We got the kids fed, and then we. I. I. We got ready for Remy.
We dropped the kids off, went to Remy, came back to the room. Oh, no. I got picked up. The kids came back to the room,
[00:26:13] Speaker B: and
[00:26:13] Speaker A: it
[00:26:13] Speaker B: was bad.
[00:26:14] Speaker A: It was bad. And, like, why is it still stinky? So
[00:26:17] Speaker B: she.
Okay, so then it was. It was bad again, right? All those pillow pillows
[00:26:21] Speaker A: are back. The
[00:26:22] Speaker B: decorate, the. The, you know, decorative pillows or whatever. Everything was back. And then I go and find her again, and I'm like, I don't know. And I'm. I said, I'm not blaming you. I'm not. Like, please don't take it as that. But I don't know what it is. I cannot sleep. Like, we cannot. You know when you put your head in the pillow and it kind of poofs? Like, the air poofs out.
[00:26:43] Speaker A: The smell would.
[00:26:44] Speaker B: And. And I was like, I cannot toss. I cannot turn. I can't do this. And so we were like, okay, just please. And she's like, I have literally gotten the managers, and we've replect. She's like, we got Brand new pillows. Out she goes. Everything. Took everything new and we got it out for you. And I don't know what else to do. And at that point, I was like, you know what? Just take these pillows. We're not going to use them. Just. We don't need them for the next five days. Please do not put them in our room. Like, we just said no to those. Then the ones we were going to sleep on, they were still smelly. But what we did is we got some of the towels and we basically sprayed, like, some of our body mist
[00:27:24] Speaker A: and
[00:27:24] Speaker B: sprays
[00:27:25] Speaker A: and stuff
[00:27:25] Speaker B: on
[00:27:26] Speaker A: it
[00:27:26] Speaker B: and put that on. And then for the kids, it wasn't too bad. The kids
[00:27:31] Speaker A: pillows were not bad. Yeah,
[00:27:32] Speaker B: not bad. There was slight, like, very faint, but they didn't complain. So we sprayed some of it for them as well, but they were fine. But we just put towels on ours and sprayed the. The.
[00:27:43] Speaker A: But still, it was like every time we would move, it would get a.
[00:27:46] Speaker B: Smell something. Yeah.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: Body mist plus. Plus stench.
[00:27:50] Speaker C: Did you. Did you ever talk to guest services about. Because it also strikes me like they. It doesn't sound like I'm just gonna say this. It doesn't sound like your ceiling was full.
And so I'm sort of wondering, like, sometimes they'll just say, like, well, how about we move you to a different stateroom? Right. Yeah.
[00:28:04] Speaker A: So
[00:28:05] Speaker B: it was. That was also the weird part because she said, you know, she spoke to housekeeping, and apparently a message was passed on to guest services. And we got this random
[00:28:14] Speaker A: phone call. What happened was we. I think it was day two or three.
We were in the room, we got a phone call, and I was saying, hello. The gentleman couldn't hear me, so I put the phone down. Oh, well, he said, this is guest services. And then he put the phone down. Okay. So I called guest services and they could hear me. And I said, hey, you guys just called me. And he said, oh, Mr. Patel, looks like we already contacted you. Yeah,
[00:28:42] Speaker B: we spoke to your wife or something. I
[00:28:44] Speaker A: said, no, no, no. No one's contacted me. This. You called. I couldn't. You couldn't hear me. I'm calling you right back. That's the conversation. No one's contacted me. And he said, oh, okay, well, we'll get back to you. And then nothing. Nothing. Nothing at all.
[00:28:59] Speaker C: That's crazy.
[00:29:00] Speaker A: So what was embarrassing about this smell was it. It got on us. Like, we would, you know, like. Yeah.
[00:29:09] Speaker B: In the morning when you
[00:29:09] Speaker A: wake
[00:29:09] Speaker B: up, like, our hair would smell
[00:29:12] Speaker A: our skin, and we shower, got into bed, and it was it kind of felt nasty getting to bed. And then the next morning, like. Like I said, like, day two was cast away. So we went to cabanas, got breakfast, and it was coming from our skin. We felt embarrassed. Like we.
It's. It's like we stink, but it's not our smell. I don't know what to do about this. We just hurried up and got out of there because we knew if things would be okay. Once we're out in the open out, you know, out on Castaway, then it's fine. But
[00:29:39] Speaker C: like
[00:29:40] Speaker A: in a closed room, we felt embarrassed just. Just being around people because we could smell it on us
[00:29:46] Speaker B: and
[00:29:48] Speaker D: talk to guest services in person about it
[00:29:51] Speaker A: at the end. Yeah, yeah, but
[00:29:53] Speaker B: so here's the issue, right? We're not typically complainers. We gotta
[00:29:57] Speaker D: be. Okay, this is. I'm gonna interrupt you for all you gotta. When this ha. Okay. And this is not just for you. This is for everyone who's watching and listening out there. You have to be the squeaky wheel when this stuff happens, because that's the only way you're gonna get it corrected. And what should happened is on day two, they might not have been able to do it on day one. On day two, they needed to move you rooms. I know that my friend Ashley is in the chat and she's saying essentially the same thing because they had a similar issue and it took a couple days before they could get moved rooms. But like, they had a. They had a sewage smell, so their smell was a little different than your smell. But regardless, you've got to go to guest services and complain and then get moved. And then also what you do is they then connect you after the cruise with customers, customer service, shore side, who then should be giving you a future cruise credit. And when I say a future cruise credit, that means a percentage off of your next booking so that you're booking
[00:30:57] Speaker B: so that. So that's been my thing, right? Like, I was. I was afraid, like, I didn't want to be that person who's like, complain, complain, complain, because I want something right? I just wanted it to be right. I just wanted to have that cruise and I didn't want, like I've come across across.
And I'm not saying that people aren't complaining because there's actual in. You know, people are complaining because there isn't an issue or whatever. But in both ways, when I look at it, it's like you got actual issues and people are complaining, but then you've also got people who are like, there are no Issues.
[00:31:29] Speaker D: I'm going to
[00:31:30] Speaker B: try and milk the system.
[00:31:32] Speaker C: That's where you like. That's where you let Disney filter it. Right. Like everyone. Everyone comes to get services for an issue issue. It's either an issue they can take care of on board.
It's a complaint that has actually no barrier and no merit, or it's something like your fate. I mean, we had to do this, too. We had a pipe come loose under the floor of our concierge.
[00:31:51] Speaker D: Above the floor?
[00:31:53] Speaker C: Yeah. But it was rattling around and we complained and they said, oh, we'll fix it. And then like, midnight rolls around. They didn't fix. I'm like, I can't sleep because this thing just goes bam, bam. The whole stateroom's
[00:32:03] Speaker B: rattling.
[00:32:04] Speaker C: Finally, you know, two o' clock in the morning, they were like, we get it. We're not gonna be able to fix it until we're back in port, you
[00:32:11] Speaker A: know?
[00:32:11] Speaker C: And they ended up giving. It was the last night of the cruise, thank God. So it was like, you know, it was annoying because we wanted to go to bed because we had to be up early. They just put us in a stateroom on Deck 2 for the evening to sleep.
[00:32:21] Speaker D: And
[00:32:21] Speaker C: then when we got home, we got contacted by Shoreside and they offered us a future cruise credit for the engagement. By the
[00:32:27] Speaker D: way. That stateroom was clean, but it had no soap and no towels in it. So it was really annoying in the middle of the night to wash your hands in the bathroom. You couldn't have any soap to wash your hands. Yeah.
[00:32:36] Speaker A: Ye.
[00:32:37] Speaker D: Anyway,
[00:32:38] Speaker C: I want
[00:32:38] Speaker D: to hear.
[00:32:39] Speaker C: I want to hear more
[00:32:39] Speaker D: about. Okay, why. Let me just give one thing in the chat. Ashley saying, and this is great advice. Can you meet me in my room? Worked really well for us. You get not just. Not the. Not the state room attendant. The state room attendant can't do anything. You get somebody from guest services to come and make them smell the room. That's what I'm
[00:32:59] Speaker A: saying.
[00:32:59] Speaker B: Yeah, we.
[00:33:00] Speaker A: Yeah,
[00:33:01] Speaker D: that's
[00:33:01] Speaker A: a great idea.
[00:33:02] Speaker B: Because when you. When we told the attendant, she was like, no, there's no smell. There's no smell. And then I kept getting worried. I was like, is it just me? Am I just picky? Are they going to think that I just want something? And that's why I'm just constantly complaining. And so I was just like, you know what? We're just. Whatever. We're not going to say
[00:33:18] Speaker A: there is such a thing as. As a nose blindness. Yeah. You just used to the smell. But I felt like, you know, that was the Only room.
Obviously, I hadn't gone to other rooms, but that was the only area that we encountered the whole ship that smelled like that.
[00:33:33] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:33:34] Speaker A: So you would notice it.
[00:33:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:35] Speaker C: So I want to. I want to shift gears for a second. You. You mentioned you went to Remy on night. Night one,
[00:33:43] Speaker D: which is like, baller, I gotta say.
[00:33:46] Speaker C: Talk to us about your. Like. So you did Remy. Did you do Palo dinner? Palo brunch. Like, what were the adult meals you had? And how did those go?
[00:33:54] Speaker B: Remy dinner
[00:33:56] Speaker A: and
[00:33:56] Speaker B: then Palo brunch?
[00:33:58] Speaker A: We do Remy first night every time. All
[00:34:00] Speaker B: the time. Y.
[00:34:01] Speaker A: It's like. And even on the. The wish class, on the wish we did first night.
For us, it feels like we're setting the mood for the whole cruise, the whole vacation. Like, okay, we're relaxing. This is great food. We're being pampered. Finally.
No kids. So, yeah, it's quiet.
And sometimes the servers, like, the. They. They. They speak so well about the food that I just want to listen to. I'm like, man, please say more about this food.
[00:34:37] Speaker B: You
[00:34:37] Speaker A: know,
[00:34:39] Speaker D: the
[00:34:39] Speaker A: narration. I
[00:34:40] Speaker D: agree. I love it.
[00:34:41] Speaker A: Yeah. I just love it. So, yeah, we. We always do Remy first night or on Shantay first night.
And we've been able to book it. I think that's the one people book the least because they want to do rotational dining. But it works out for us. It works out for us.
[00:34:56] Speaker B: But, yeah, the. Again, like I said, other than the state room stuff, experience of the cruise was amazing. So, Remy, the food was, again, really good.
[00:35:07] Speaker A: Phenomenal.
[00:35:07] Speaker B: Like,
[00:35:08] Speaker A: everything
[00:35:09] Speaker B: beyond, you know, above and beyond, because there was one dish that I can't remember the name of it, but it had, like, spinach and stuff in it. And I'm vegetarian, so I had spinach and stuff in it. So I was eating it, and I just found it extra salty because, you know, spinach has its own level of salt. And so as they cooked it or whatever, it just felt really salty for me. And so I'm eating it, and I just. I didn't finish it.
[00:35:32] Speaker A: And that's the only one she hadn't finished. So he noticed, like, that you didn't finish that one.
[00:35:36] Speaker B: So
[00:35:36] Speaker A: you finish all of them.
[00:35:37] Speaker B: So then he. He was like, what was wrong? And I was like, you know, it was really nice. I'm trying to be nice, right? So I'm like, it was really nice. I just. I. I don't. Yeah, I just couldn't do. I said it was just, you know, a little salty for me, but maybe it's just me, like, I couldn't do it. He's like, nope, we're going to fix that for you. And I was like, wait, no, no, no. I don't. I don't want you to go out of your way. It's fine. Like, there's all this stuff you have to do. Like, don't worry about it. It's like, nope, you cannot. You cannot go out of here disappointed. And that's. That's what brings you back to Disney, right? Because that is Disney.
[00:36:08] Speaker A: Yeah, that's it.
[00:36:08] Speaker B: And so he goes. And he noticed that before that one, I enjoyed a gnocchi dish. So he went and made this ravi. Like, you know, got this ravioli made for me. And, yeah,
[00:36:20] Speaker A: he
[00:36:20] Speaker B: finished
[00:36:21] Speaker A: ravioli. I wonder if you finished it. I was like, yeah, you like that one?
[00:36:24] Speaker C: Do you split? So it's. So. For folks out there who haven't experienced this before, Remy is fine dining on the Dream and Fantasy, and they typically have an American menu and a French menu. It's. It's inspired by the chef, the chef who does Victoria and Alberts. But also there's another. There's two chefs involved. And so the American chefs, that's the American menu. The French chefs, that's the French menu. And we always just pick. Like, Sam always gets the American menu. I always get the French menu. We always take a bite of each other's dishes, and we're always really excited with the choices that we made. So I'm curious, do you guys split the menus up? Up? Do you like. How do you approach that?
[00:37:03] Speaker B: I think mine's just one because it's just vegetarian. So
[00:37:07] Speaker C: they.
[00:37:08] Speaker B: They do whatever from. Maybe both, because some of our stuff is similar, but mine is just vegetarian. So. Yeah, there was. There's no, like, other choices, per se, but you. You.
[00:37:22] Speaker A: I was. I was given the choice between seafood and. And. And beef and a land. Me, I can do. I can do sushi. For some reason, I can't do cooked fish. I don't know. It's my issue. I know I have an issue. I admit that
[00:37:42] Speaker D: I
[00:37:42] Speaker A: had this issue. I cannot cook fish. I can eat raw fish.
People have the opposite problem. They would refuse raw fish and eat cooked fish. I have the opposite problem.
So I chose the wagyu beef, the chicken. I think there was a duck as well.
I'm so hungry
[00:38:02] Speaker C: right now.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: Yeah, it was tough. It was so good. It was so good. And we had the cheese in the middle as well.
How many kinds of tomato?
[00:38:12] Speaker B: The initial.
Yeah.
[00:38:14] Speaker A: From the
[00:38:15] Speaker B: juice to. I don't know. Like some confit and something else.
[00:38:19] Speaker A: So many kinds of
[00:38:20] Speaker B: like, he, like, so, you know, the. The juice that you. The tomato clear juice that you drink
[00:38:25] Speaker C: water. Yeah,
[00:38:26] Speaker B: yeah,
[00:38:26] Speaker A: yeah.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: He explained to us. He's like, basically we freeze the tomatoes and then we just hang them and let that juice just drip down. And that's basically what this.
[00:38:37] Speaker D: It's so good.
The weirdest thing ever is having a course that's basically all tomato, but it being literally the best course you've ever eaten,
[00:38:46] Speaker B: like, in
[00:38:46] Speaker D: your life. It is one.
Honestly, that tomato water by itself is one of my favorite things that we've had at both Remy and Enchante. I absolutely love
[00:38:55] Speaker A: it.
[00:38:56] Speaker D: No,
[00:38:56] Speaker C: no, you're forgetting. You're forgetting the chicken. Sam, remember the North Carolina chicken that they stuffed the skin with? The cornbread stuffing? I could eat that
[00:39:04] Speaker D: all day. That was actually at Enchante, I think, the first time we went entrepreneurs.
Anyway. Okay. I want to ask about Paulo. You kind of mentioned at the beginning, Karsh, that Paulo was a bit of a disappointment this time around. And I'm curious what. What was disappointing about it. And did you go to brunch or dinner at Paulo?
[00:39:24] Speaker A: We did brunch. We. We tend to do brunch.
And it felt greasy. Very Just greasy and a little bit greasy as well.
[00:39:35] Speaker B: So
[00:39:36] Speaker A: it was very. Yeah, we were surprised.
[00:39:37] Speaker B: The ravioli dish that, I mean, I've had it before, it just. This time it felt overly greasy. Like the four or five ravioli pockets are just swimming in this oil. And I know it's the dish, but it just, like when you bite it, it just felt like oil was oozing out and everything was just so oily. Even the pizza. The gorgonzola and the great pizza we got,
[00:40:03] Speaker A: it was greasy as well. Yeah, it was just.
[00:40:05] Speaker B: Everything was overly greas.
[00:40:08] Speaker A: It was. It was a different experience. Definitely. Yeah.
[00:40:10] Speaker D: Yeah. I'm glad to hear that they actually had the graping gorgonzola pizza because for those who haven't been paying attention on the Wish, apparently they are no longer making. Well, I should say this is up to the individual chef.
So the grape and gorgonzola pizza is an off menu item at Palo Brunch that has always been available, but apparently now Disney Cruise Line has sort of left it up to the chef of each Palo restaurant. So depending upon the ship you're on, you may be told it's not available. And apparently people have been told for the last month or so that no, when they've requested out on the Wish But I heard on the Wonder from our friends Charity and.
And Kelly. They got it. And so now I'm hearing from you guys, they got. You got it on the dream. So that's at least good to know. I will say I'm sad about the mushroom ravioli, because that's actually a really. Typically a great vegetarian dish. It's the one I recommend to most people. It's much better than the eggplant. There's an eggplant roll latini, and the. I think the mushroom ravioli for vegetarians is a much better dish. But, yeah, that's just a buffer.
[00:41:14] Speaker B: Yeah. I've had it before and I've enjoyed it, but this time, like I said, I just felt like I was drinking, you know, tape, like, oil by the tablespoon, and it just. It didn't feel nice.
Fantasy also did the gorgonzola and the grape.
[00:41:29] Speaker C: I'm starting to wonder if the great grape and gorgonzola gate on the wish was really that they didn't get the provisions they needed. And so somebody was just like, just tell them we know it's up to the chef. Right. Like,
[00:41:41] Speaker D: they were actually. So people were told on the Wish that it was no longer available, and they didn't. Weren't told. It's up to the chef. I heard that through asking through friends who know people in dining and found out that they were now leaving it up to the chef. And actually, Linda is telling us in the chat that on the magic, she just had it as well. And we. I just recorded with her this weekend, but her show will be out just
[00:42:06] Speaker C: a month
[00:42:06] Speaker D: or so.
[00:42:06] Speaker C: Dear Disney. So just put the thing on the menu. Like, it is
[00:42:10] Speaker D: one
[00:42:10] Speaker C: of the most delicious pizzas I've ever had. Like,
[00:42:15] Speaker A: yeah,
[00:42:15] Speaker C: yeah.
[00:42:16] Speaker D: So good.
[00:42:16] Speaker A: Yeah, so good.
I did follow your advice. I had the chicken parmesan
[00:42:21] Speaker D: for
[00:42:22] Speaker A: the first
[00:42:22] Speaker D: time.
[00:42:23] Speaker A: I did like it. I love. Actually, that was probably the. That and then the dessert at the end. What was it?
[00:42:29] Speaker B: Oh, actually, so before you go to dessert. Okay. So we did get a good service on that as well. So when I did not like the ramen ravioli, the. The.
The server noticed and was like, you know, it was wrong. And I was like, it just feels really heavy and oily. And they went and made me a risotto, a mushroom risotto. And it was really nice. Like, that was.
The other things were. But that was not.
[00:42:54] Speaker A: Yeah,
[00:42:54] Speaker D: yeah, good.
[00:42:55] Speaker A: Well, they
[00:42:55] Speaker D: redeemed themselves. And the chicken parm. Yeah, you guys. You guys can get. Actually. I mean, you. You're In Maryland, you can. Baltimore has a great Little Italy, so you can actually get decent IT food not far from you guys.
[00:43:09] Speaker A: So
[00:43:10] Speaker D: that's. That's a good review.
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[00:44:23] Speaker D: Let's talk about some of your onboard experiences, activities, and then we'll circle back to main dining because I know that was where. Where there was some hits and misses as well. But tell us, like, what was. What was good about this sailing? What were some of the fun things you did? And did you enjoy both private islands?
[00:44:42] Speaker B: The private islands were beautiful. I mean, we've been to Castaway Cay, but this was our first time doing the cabanas there. And. Oh, my God, is it worth it?
[00:44:50] Speaker A: It
[00:44:50] Speaker B: is amazing because you get this little, you know, little piece of the beach to yourself. You can go back to your cabana to cool off. There's on your unlimited cold towels, water, drinks, any other little snacks you want.
[00:45:04] Speaker A: They bring fruit, you get a
[00:45:06] Speaker B: fruit platter.
[00:45:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:45:08] Speaker B: And then whatever food you go and get at. Cookies.
And then all your.
[00:45:12] Speaker A: Not cookies. The. The. The. The. The small one. So this was
[00:45:16] Speaker D: hanger.
[00:45:17] Speaker A: Hanger
[00:45:17] Speaker D: 98.
[00:45:19] Speaker A: That's it. Yeah. Sorry.
[00:45:20] Speaker B: Yeah. So whatever you go. Food you go and get at lunchtime, anything that's in your cabana, you just have to press a little button and they'll come and empty that out for you? Like, it was amazing.
[00:45:31] Speaker A: We're spo. We'll definitely spoil.
[00:45:33] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm like, you keep upping the game. Now every cruise
[00:45:36] Speaker A: I
[00:45:37] Speaker B: need a cabana or I'm not traveling.
[00:45:39] Speaker A: Last time. Last time from Port Canaveral.
This
[00:45:43] Speaker D: time is going to be concierge. I guess so.
[00:45:45] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:45:50] Speaker D: Well, tell us what you thought about Lookout Key. That was your first time to lookout?
[00:45:55] Speaker B: First time.
[00:45:56] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. So the
[00:45:58] Speaker B: beach was beautiful.
[00:45:59] Speaker A: Yeah. When we got there, when we first docked, the.
That pier was shaded so we didn't feel the heat. Yeah.
And the walk wasn't. Wasn't bad because, you know, I.
We talked previously.
I've done dopey before, so, you know, like, I'm okay with like, long distance anything.
[00:46:18] Speaker B: Yeah. And the kids and I was fine.
[00:46:20] Speaker A: We didn't have any issues.
I was going
[00:46:23] Speaker C: to say if you, if you've run dopey, you have no right to complain about the length of.
[00:46:28] Speaker A: No right whatsoever. No right whatsoever. So, I mean, it felt fine. Like, this is nice, actually. This is so nice. Nice. And
[00:46:34] Speaker B: we stopped a couple of times, took some pictures.
[00:46:37] Speaker A: Yeah, it was a little cloudy.
And the wind, the wind was a little bit chilly. So we're hoping, hey, the clouds go away, it gets sunny.
But yeah, we got to the beach, found some chairs set up.
We were one of the first few off the ship.
[00:46:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:54] Speaker A: So we got. We got great seats, great loungers and everything.
And then people slowly started to trickle out.
But the, the sand, it was so. It was powdery white sand.
[00:47:11] Speaker B: Beautiful.
[00:47:12] Speaker A: It reminded us of Hawaii.
[00:47:14] Speaker B: There's a beach
[00:47:14] Speaker A: in
[00:47:15] Speaker B: Hawaii.
[00:47:15] Speaker A: I say this beach is as good as Hawaii. That's high press. Yeah, that was. That was it. Yeah. There's
[00:47:21] Speaker B: a beach in Hawaii called Lanikai beach. And it's just like that. It's so powdery and so soft and you don't even know that it doesn't feel like you're walking on sand.
[00:47:32] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, there was. There were no rocks, no shells, nothing. We could just keep on walking and it's just powdery white.
[00:47:38] Speaker B: Yeah. The beat. I mean, the beach in Lookout Key was amazing. Like, no issues there food wise as well. We didn't have any.
[00:47:46] Speaker A: The food was great. There was a more variety of food. I thought a different variety of food, which is great. We love different variety.
But yeah, overall, 10 out of 10. Lookout key. We would love to go back there again.
The walk back, though. The walk back.
[00:48:03] Speaker D: Yeah,
[00:48:04] Speaker A: you can
[00:48:05] Speaker D: complain about that. Yeah.
[00:48:07] Speaker B: That was a little brutal.
[00:48:08] Speaker A: Normally, I, I don't complain about walking, but I do have a medical condition. I can't sweat, so I just. I just overheat.
And
[00:48:16] Speaker B: that sun was literally
[00:48:17] Speaker A: beating down. Then the concrete was just radiating heat.
[00:48:21] Speaker B: But. But Disney did good. They had close. Like halfway and then closer to the ship. So there's people standing with the water and stuff. So that was. That was good.
[00:48:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And halfway there was a little water station. They could get a cup and drink water. So we had some water.
But it. It was a little tough getting back.
[00:48:36] Speaker B: One for the people that don't know, they have little, like,
[00:48:42] Speaker A: golf carts.
[00:48:42] Speaker B: No, not the golf ones that you can. For your kid. The wagons.
[00:48:45] Speaker A: Yeah,
[00:48:46] Speaker B: you can put your kids in there and have them in the wagon. And, you know, it's at both ends. You can pick up and drop off and stuff,
[00:48:52] Speaker A: so. Yeah,
[00:48:53] Speaker D: but then you're sweating even more and they're just enjoying the ride being whatsoever.
[00:49:00] Speaker A: I was dry. I was completely dry. That's what we're eating.
[00:49:02] Speaker B: No, we just made this. We just made the kids. But I'm just saying, for anyone else who have little kids can sweat.
[00:49:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:49:12] Speaker C: It sounds like you had a fabulous days at both of the private islands. Oh,
[00:49:17] Speaker A: yeah. Great.
[00:49:18] Speaker C: Yeah.
I'd love to hear how the kids reacted to the shows on the Dream.
[00:49:24] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:49:25] Speaker C: Sam's excited for this one. Yeah. So
[00:49:29] Speaker A: before we get to the show, there's one more thing I want to add about Castaway.
[00:49:33] Speaker C: Oh, okay.
[00:49:33] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:49:33] Speaker A: We encountered a lot of wildlife at the beach. First was a baby shark.
[00:49:39] Speaker B: Baby shark,
[00:49:40] Speaker A: yeah. Just going around
[00:49:41] Speaker D: and first, you
[00:49:42] Speaker A: know.
Yeah.
So we saw that. We saw this. This big mass coming to us. I. I don't know. So we stepped out of the water, and then someone said, that's a shark. I'm like, oh, okay. And then girl went to. You went to the
[00:49:58] Speaker B: lifeguard, and I was like, is it safe for us to be in there? Or, like, do we need, like, I don't know if you know that there's a shark in there or what do we need to do to be more cautious? Like, I just. I don't want any issues going on. And he's like, this shark has been.
It knows people, and it. You'll find, like, you're not going to hurt it. It won't come to you. It just. It just likes to swim amongst people.
[00:50:23] Speaker A: Yeah. So I took his word for it and I went in. And then sure enough, it came within three feet of me. I'm like, okay, do what you got to do, Sharik. You know, this is. I pay for this.
[00:50:32] Speaker C: People are
[00:50:33] Speaker A: friends. I'm here.
[00:50:34] Speaker C: People are friends. Not food. People are friends, not food.
[00:50:36] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It just, you know, swam away. So, like, okay, cool. There was that. We had lots of other little
[00:50:43] Speaker B: fishes.
[00:50:44] Speaker A: Fishes I stepped on. Was it conch shell?
And I thought, ah, this rock. So I. I reached down and picked it up, thinking, it's just a rock. But no, it was a shell. It was a. It was, like, bright pink. It was a
[00:50:58] Speaker D: big one. You sent me the picture. It's a beautiful.
[00:51:00] Speaker A: Yeah, the creature was still in there. It was looking at me. I can see an eyeball in there. I'm like, whoa, this is crazy.
These
[00:51:11] Speaker D: are fun. That's fun to, like.
[00:51:15] Speaker A: I
[00:51:15] Speaker D: mean, at least it's a baby shark. I have to say,
[00:51:19] Speaker B: know, confirm that it was okay we were in there and that they knew that at least there was. There
[00:51:23] Speaker A: was something
[00:51:24] Speaker B: in there.
[00:51:24] Speaker A: Yeah,
[00:51:25] Speaker C: yeah.
[00:51:25] Speaker D: No, that's a good.
[00:51:26] Speaker B: Other people with, like, little babies in the water.
[00:51:29] Speaker D: Yeah, that's a smart idea to sort of ask because the lifeguards should sort of know, okay, is this something that I should be concerned about? Like, does everybody need to get out of the water or is this okay? Yeah, I think that's. That's a super smart.
[00:51:42] Speaker B: I guess one. One thing. If I really had to be nitpicky, it would have been nice if there was a sign or the lifeguard. We're just letting people know, like, hey, there's the shark in there. But don't worry, like, we already know about it, you know, so do what you do.
[00:51:55] Speaker D: Yeah. All right, well, let's. Let's move back onto the ship and talk about the shows. Yeah. What did you guys think? This was your first time on the Disney Dream? The signature show on the Disney Dream is Beauty and the Beast.
Please tell me you went to see the show or I'll. My heart will
[00:52:12] Speaker A: wait.
You're waiting outside an hour and a half before the show, and there was already a line. And I thought, okay, yeah,
[00:52:20] Speaker B: what, Two or three people,
[00:52:22] Speaker A: four families in front of me. I'm like, okay, I hope they don't get the best seats, because I know where I want to sit, because the previous night. The previous night or something, we. We saw
[00:52:31] Speaker B: the Golden Mickey.
[00:52:32] Speaker A: Golden Mickeys. Great show. Love that show.
And I thought, okay, tomorrow it's the Beauty and the Beast. We. We know where we want to sit, but, yeah, four families in front of me, but we got the perfect seats.
It's such a great show. And it's. It was. It was mind blowing how they were Doing everything. It
[00:52:54] Speaker B: is done so beautiful.
[00:52:54] Speaker A: I did not expect how they were going to do things.
The actors were great. The music was great. The puppetry was great. I loved when. When they're singing, be our guest. And all the different.
[00:53:08] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Yeah.
[00:53:09] Speaker A: Flatters and everything. I'm like, this is. This is one wonderful. This is. Yeah.
That's one. That is the best show we've seen on Disney Cruise Line. It's so. It was so good. It's so good.
[00:53:21] Speaker D: It's so good. It's so good. Now it's all. I'm gonna put a PSA out there. It's also on the Disney Treasure.
It was originally introduced on the Disney Dream. It is. It's. I mean, it's phenomenal. It still holds up today. And it's. It's just a fabulous, fabulous show. It is based in part on the live action movie. So there is, like. There's like an extra. So that's from that live action movie. And so there are people who don't like the live action movie. So you. Who might not enjoy it as much as, like, the animated version, but it's a fabulous production. All right. I do want to ask about your. Your.
Your food experience.
[00:54:01] Speaker C: Oh, yes. Main dining. Yeah,
[00:54:03] Speaker D: your main dining
[00:54:04] Speaker A: experience. Because I
[00:54:05] Speaker D: know you didn't have. You didn't have. It sounds like at the beginning, you didn't have bad service. You just didn't have, like, great service. But then you had an incident on your, like, last meal cruise that's really bad.
[00:54:16] Speaker C: This is breaking my heart, by the way, because.
[00:54:18] Speaker D: I know. I know. Me too. The
[00:54:20] Speaker C: two to three cast members who make or break my cruise. Stateroom attendant, main dining server, and assistant server. Because they're the people you see the most. So I want to hear about this, but my heart is breaking already.
[00:54:35] Speaker B: So one of the things that I was initially disappointed with at main dining was the entertainment. Right. Because I feel like the servers are there for the kids again. They take care of you and everything. But they are making the kids lives this amazing. Because these little magic tricks they do and they constantly talking to them.
Yeah. And making sure that they're okay and stuff. And that's nice to see as a parent, because then you're like, okay, I can eat. Because someone else is asking my kid if they're okay, if they need anything, whatever. Right. Which we didn't see much of at all. Like, we would be the ones like, okay, are you okay? Or do you need whatever and stuff.
It felt like we were, you know, anytime I'd ask for. Because they give you a fork, right? But then my 5 year old is eating plain rice, and I'm like, okay, this isn't quite working with the fork as much. And so I'd ask for a spoon. And it almost felt like they felt that we were kind of being annoying. Like, you're asking a bit extra. We've given you stuff. Like,
[00:55:36] Speaker A: you can tell from the face that, that.
Okay, okay. How much. Okay. How. What do you want? Want? Like, what do you want? Like, I just. We just want spoon, you know.
[00:55:45] Speaker D: Yeah.
Rice with a fork. My 5 year old needs to eat rice with
[00:55:50] Speaker A: a
[00:55:50] Speaker D: spoon. And like, I
[00:55:51] Speaker C: feel like Disney. The service level is always like, you could ask them for, I want you to go butcher a whole elephant and cook it for me. And the response would be like, I'd like to go talk to chef about that. And then they go back and they do the. Oh, my God, these people. Like, they don't.
[00:56:04] Speaker D: These people are
[00:56:05] Speaker C: showing to you,
[00:56:07] Speaker B: even
[00:56:07] Speaker D: if they're
[00:56:08] Speaker B: annoying. And so that started and that was like the first. The first meal at our main dining or, you know, rotational dining. But then as the, as the dinner finished and I'm waiting and I'm like, oh, nothing. Like. Cause before, you know, from twice on the fantasy and once on the wish, they would come and do a little magic trick or give a little joke, or there'd be the crayons or, you know, little something, and they'd do something and have these kids intrigued, and there was nothing. But then the table next to us,
[00:56:37] Speaker A: all tables next to us,
[00:56:39] Speaker B: their servers are doing these things except
[00:56:42] Speaker D: ours.
[00:56:43] Speaker B: And our kids are looking at us like, what? And we're like,
[00:56:46] Speaker D: let's
[00:56:46] Speaker B: just leave. Where are we going?
[00:56:47] Speaker A: We even got asked by little one like, are we gonna get a magic trick? I'm like, I, I, you know what? I don't know. I don't know if we get one then, then great, Just. Just look at that trick right there.
[00:56:58] Speaker B: And we waited, you know, like, because, you know, your main server comes and talks to you about the next night and whatever, and we'll see you at whatever restaurant the next day. So we waited until that point, but then there was still nothing. So we were like, okay, maybe it's the first time, maybe tomorrow we better. But it
[00:57:14] Speaker A: was the same thing. Same thing the next
[00:57:16] Speaker B: day and the day after. Did you, like, okay,
[00:57:19] Speaker C: did your area manager ever come around? Because this is another. I know, I know what you said up front. I don't want to be the complainer, but this is in moments where we've had service issues, when that area manager comes by, I do one of two things. Either if things are going great, I'm like, these guys are awesome. We're loving it. They're killing it. Or when we're having an issue, you're like, actually, I just like to bring to your attention that this. And this happened. Would love for it not to happen tomorrow night. Yeah.
[00:57:47] Speaker D: And
[00:57:49] Speaker A: in a kind
[00:57:50] Speaker D: way. But this one was. This is a little bit harder. This is more of
[00:57:52] Speaker A: like. This was a little lacking
[00:57:54] Speaker D: enthusiasm. Right?
[00:57:56] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So it was kind of hard to like, pinpoint, like, hey, they're not happy to serve us. I'm like, hey, okay, we're being served first off. Okay. Right. I don't want to be a complainer.
[00:58:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:58:06] Speaker A: We're getting the food that we want. We even asked for Indian food starting the second day, and that was great. That
[00:58:12] Speaker B: was good food. Yeah.
[00:58:13] Speaker A: Food
[00:58:13] Speaker B: that. In terms of that food, there was no complaint.
[00:58:16] Speaker A: Dining food was great. Except the animator's palette. The
[00:58:21] Speaker B: last.
[00:58:22] Speaker A: The truffle presets were dry, Sam.
They were dry. They were crunchy. I'm like, why? Why are these crunchy? Or what's going on?
[00:58:31] Speaker D: Oh, no,
[00:58:33] Speaker C: I don't
[00:58:34] Speaker D: like it. Yeah.
[00:58:35] Speaker A: Yeah. So anyway. But. Yeah, so.
[00:58:38] Speaker B: But so going back to the. The manager that you were saying, in all honesty, the couple of times that he came around, it just. It felt fake. Like he was just there to kind of be like, hey, you doing okay? Okay. And then we
[00:58:51] Speaker A: barely talked to us, actually. He.
He would just say, so our little one. Someone's name is
[00:58:57] Speaker B: Elora.
[00:58:58] Speaker A: And we told him her name is Elora. And then he would say, lara, how are you doing? How you doing, princess? And then she would say, hi. And then. Then he would walk away and
[00:59:09] Speaker B: like, yeah.
[00:59:10] Speaker A: What was that? Well, okay. Okay. I don't. I don't know what's going on.
[00:59:13] Speaker B: We saw him in. On other tables with elderly folks and other people.
[00:59:18] Speaker A: Conversations,
[00:59:19] Speaker B: like a long conversation. We're like, oh, okay. I don't know. I don't know what to.
[00:59:23] Speaker A: We got more interaction from
[00:59:26] Speaker B: another.
[00:59:26] Speaker A: From server, because I think our little one was doing something. She was
[00:59:30] Speaker B: doing something. And then he said something, and I was like, oh, you know, he's gonna take it. And he goes, yeah, come on, let's go do the dishes. You're gonna stay with me or whatever. And that's
[00:59:39] Speaker A: the picture that I sent you. Like, it was not even our server.
[00:59:41] Speaker B: Yeah, that was.
[00:59:42] Speaker D: Yeah, the picture you sent me. Yeah. That's a
[00:59:44] Speaker A: different Server. That's not our server.
[00:59:47] Speaker B: Yeah. That was from another table. But he was interacting more with our little one.
[00:59:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:59:51] Speaker B: Than any
[00:59:51] Speaker A: of our
[00:59:52] Speaker B: servers. Yeah,
[00:59:52] Speaker A: yeah,
[00:59:53] Speaker D: yeah. So this is one of those things where I've got to put out there on the. Across the cruise line, you're going to have these hidden miss experiences, you're going to have these great serving teams, and then every once in a while you're going to have. And I will say most of the time, you're going to have great serving teams. Every once in a while you're going to have a.
I'm going to call it a poor serving team. I would call it serving team.
[01:00:16] Speaker C: I would actually
[01:00:17] Speaker D: say not.
[01:00:18] Speaker C: I would actually say you're. You're almost.
Almost always going to have a good solid serving serving teams. It's getting rarer. The great ones are getting rarer, unfortunately, and the ones that have some maybe are more mediocre seem to be increasing a little bit. And I think it just has everything to do with the pace at which this cruise line has grown and the amount of staff they have to hire. Yeah,
[01:00:43] Speaker B: yeah.
[01:00:44] Speaker D: I will also say, I think the, the, the magic tricks and jokes and things like that are decreasing the instances of that. I mean, obviously you saw it around you, so it was. It's still happening, but I don't think it' happening quite as often.
Especially, I know you're on the Dream, but especially on the Wish Clash, just because there isn't a lot of time for it because of the shows and stuff and the interactivity of the shows kind of impacts their ability to do that stuff. But I think on the rest of the fleet it's decreasing just because, as Brian said, the growth of the cruise line and people are not maybe passing these things down to some of the newer servers as often.
And so I think that's impacting guest experience. But yeah, I think Brian's right. Most of the time you'll have a good team. Occasionally you'll have a great team and occasionally you'll have a mediocre team. And this sounds like a mediocre team.
[01:01:34] Speaker C: I am also not above, by the way. Like, I actually like the magic tricks and the crayon puzzles and stuff like that.
[01:01:40] Speaker A: So do I.
[01:01:42] Speaker C: One of our first cruises, we had this assistant server and he was doing all that stuff and our head server wandered by and I was
[01:01:49] Speaker D: our
[01:01:50] Speaker C: main server and I was sort of saying, oh, how much it's really fun. And how Alex is doing magic tricks for us. And the server, the head server from Jamaica was Pete. And Pete said, you want me to do a magic trick? And it was the last day of the cruise. He.
Tomorrow morning, I make you all disappear. Right.
[01:02:05] Speaker A: But
[01:02:05] Speaker C: we've been on recent cruises too, where I'm like, you know, I'm sitting there and I'll just mention to him, like, oh, I love a good riddle or a puzzle. And they'll be like, oh, go get the bucket of crayons and come out and put something together. Yeah, yeah.
[01:02:16] Speaker B: It's funny you said that, Sam, about the passing down stuff, because one of the things the assistant service said was, you know, when they. They use that little thing to scoop all the crumbs.
[01:02:26] Speaker D: Yeah,
[01:02:26] Speaker B: he said that when he first came on board, no one told him what that was
[01:02:33] Speaker A: with it.
[01:02:35] Speaker B: And he just. He's like, okay, I'll just keep it in my pocket and I'll just walk around. And he's like, Then I saw someone use it, and I was like, oh, that's what it.
[01:02:43] Speaker C: This is a really garbage pin they gave me. It doesn't do anything.
[01:02:47] Speaker D: Butter toast with it. That's what it's for. I mean, I don't. Straight
[01:02:51] Speaker B: spoon. Yeah.
[01:02:53] Speaker A: He had no idea what that was.
[01:02:55] Speaker D: Oh, my
[01:02:55] Speaker B: God. Anyway,
[01:02:58] Speaker D: tell us the last. Your last meal on the cruise line, though. Something really bad happened.
[01:03:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:03:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So.
Yeah. So it was at Animator's Palette, right?
[01:03:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it was the morning.
[01:03:10] Speaker A: Yeah, the morning got there and it was.
It was extremely busy. The table next to us, the people never showed up. So that was. That was empty.
And it took us a while. It took them a while to even get to us to take our orders.
[01:03:26] Speaker B: Well, that's the thing. Like, I don't. I don't know that it was that busy, but we just never saw our servers in. On any other
[01:03:31] Speaker A: tables around
[01:03:32] Speaker B: us.
[01:03:32] Speaker A: Yeah,
[01:03:33] Speaker B: they just weren't. Weren't there. And then they would come, you know, get a couple of orders or ask a couple of things and go and go for the longest time and then come back for the next set of things. And we're like, okay, what is going on? Because there's tables around us that are empty. So are you actually busy or is something else happening?
[01:03:50] Speaker A: It felt busy because they were gone that. That long. Yeah.
[01:03:53] Speaker B: Yeah. And so anyway, they. They brought the initial pastries and. And. And drinks and stuff, and that was fine.
[01:04:00] Speaker A: And
[01:04:00] Speaker B: then we placed our orders.
And it. The. The biggest problem.
[01:04:04] Speaker A: Well, no, no. First, our meals were extremely salty.
[01:04:10] Speaker B: Yeah,
[01:04:11] Speaker A: they're not edible.
[01:04:12] Speaker B: The potatoes were like. It felt like someone just dumped the
[01:04:15] Speaker A: hole. So,
[01:04:16] Speaker B: yeah,
[01:04:17] Speaker A: we asked. I think it was our head server.
[01:04:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:04:19] Speaker A: We said, hey, this is salty. So again, she had this face about her. I'm like, I. I'm sorry to bother you. This is salt. I can't eat this. I'm sorry I had to bother you. So she took it in the back and then she, she came back after a little while and said, the chef tried it. And he said, yes, you're right, it is salty. I'm like, you actually tried our food? Okay.
And so she brought, you know, the same plates, but like, you know, but, but, but freshly cooked. And that was fine.
But then right after that, a few minutes after that, our older one, Aria, she had the heart shaped hash browns. She bit into one and then there was she. One wad of hair came out of the mouth and she spat that out. And then she said. And then she started gagging. I'm like, oh, my God. Hold on. Calm down, calm down. Okay, you're fine. Drink some water.
And then I
[01:05:11] Speaker B: think at that point we, we. No, we asked for a second. Well,
[01:05:14] Speaker A: no. And then what happened was our servers were nowhere to be seen. But there was a server.
[01:05:19] Speaker B: We flagged another one down,
[01:05:21] Speaker A: another one down. She came to us and we said, that's hair. And you could clearly see there was hair there. She took the plate.
But the
[01:05:26] Speaker B: thing is, there was no apology.
[01:05:28] Speaker D: Well,
[01:05:29] Speaker A: no, here's the thing. So she took it back. She didn't say anything. Our assistant server brought back three freshly made hash browns and he apologized. And I said, okay, assistancer, but you're there for the drinks. Really?
And then Aria started eating it. We saw our head server coming towards us.
The server who we had talked to, who we had flagged down upon, approached her, pointed, pointed at our table, and I guess told her what happened.
[01:05:58] Speaker D: Yeah,
[01:05:58] Speaker A: yeah. She nodded and then walked away.
[01:06:01] Speaker B: And
[01:06:02] Speaker A: we thought, oh, that's weird. He didn't say anything to us, but okay. And then see her again?
[01:06:07] Speaker B: Yeah, but I put it down to okay. Maybe she went to get more of the story from the back or whatever. Right.
[01:06:12] Speaker D: But
[01:06:12] Speaker B: then when we didn't see her for the long time, but then when she finally came back again, there was like no apology. Well,
[01:06:18] Speaker A: no, we saw her. So when we were done eating, we thought, okay, we have to go, because we had got. We had to get a rental and, you know, traveled to Orlando. We're leaving. And as we're leaving, we see her running towards us. And she said, safe travels. And I said, thank you.
And then we walked out.
[01:06:37] Speaker B: Yeah, there was nothing that
[01:06:39] Speaker A: was.
That Was it.
[01:06:41] Speaker B: And it was very. That was very disappointing.
[01:06:43] Speaker A: I felt like. I got, I got to say,
[01:06:46] Speaker D: I got to say you should never go on the dream again. I don't know what it is. Like, you're like,
[01:06:52] Speaker A: I don't know. I'm not saying
[01:06:54] Speaker D: people shouldn't go on the dream again.
[01:06:56] Speaker A: Like,
[01:06:56] Speaker D: other people can go on the dream again, but you. There's some bad juju in the universe.
[01:07:01] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely, definitely.
[01:07:03] Speaker D: Your family cannot go back on the dream.
[01:07:05] Speaker A: Not on the dream. I don't think we're gonna go back on the dream again. It was, that was a one and done. But that's the thing. We're talking about this after that. Like, besides our first cruise, the, the, the, the middle two cruises, we had people come over with us. Like, we had. We, we convinced people that, hey, this is a great product. You will enjoy yourself. We, We've done Disney World. This is relaxing, and you can make it as much Disney as you want or not at all. It's up to you. It's a great cruise. So we had two families come with us. We were glad we didn't bring anyone with this one because it would have been their first experience. It would not have been a good one, and they would have been turned off by Disney completely.
So we're glad we didn't bring anyone with us. I
[01:07:48] Speaker C: gotta agree that someone in the chat is saying. And I totally agree with you. Yeah.
[01:07:51] Speaker D: Polly's saying in the chat,
[01:07:52] Speaker C: I would write into Disney's cut customer recovery team. Their, their guest services team suicide. Yeah,
[01:07:59] Speaker A: yeah, it's about that. So
[01:08:01] Speaker B: when we got
[01:08:01] Speaker A: to
[01:08:02] Speaker B: Orlando,
[01:08:02] Speaker A: we got to Orlando, to Coronado Springs. The, the bellhop had a, a blue name tag. So he was one of those.
Legacy, I guess. Yeah, those are the
[01:08:13] Speaker D: best.
[01:08:13] Speaker A: He, he asked us, hey, how did your day go?
How's the day going? And we said, oh, it went okay. You know, we had this experience.
We drove down here, the drive was great. And then finally, you know, we're this great hotel. It's great. And he said, what happened? So we told him everything that happened. And he said, I'm going to talk to my management, who's going to talk to DCL's management and they'll contact you. And I said, at that point, I'm like, okay, buddy, okay. I appreciate what you're saying. I don't think it's going to happen just
[01:08:44] Speaker B: because of what we experienced at this, you know, the ship. Like, they didn't contact us. We already spoke about something
[01:08:50] Speaker A: and sure enough, no one contacted Contacted me because of that. But I was at work one day and I think it was two days after we got back and I was at work. I thought, you know what, I'm just gonna write.
So I found the email and I wrote them every single detail that happened.
And then sure enough, two days later, they emailed and said, hey, let's talk.
So I said, okay, here's my, here's when I'm open.
We had a talk. And I, again, I said everything. And she was so apologetic and she said because in the email I had written that, hey, I was told someone contact me, but no one did. So I'm writing to you now.
And she apologized about that. She's like, I'm sorry, we should have contacted you. And she said like first obvious. She did her research. She found out apparently every single time you talk to guest services on the ship that you lost.
[01:09:46] Speaker D: Yeah,
[01:09:46] Speaker C: yeah.
[01:09:47] Speaker D: This is,
[01:09:48] Speaker A: this is
[01:09:48] Speaker D: why you have to be a complainer. Because then shoreside,
[01:09:51] Speaker A: if
[01:09:51] Speaker D: you complain, even if so sometimes onboard crew can't do anything for you. I want to be completely transparent. There are times where you have a problem and onboard crew cannot do anything for you. If it's monetary, pretty much they can't do it. But you know who can do it? Shore side customer service, who you're talking about right now. But the way that they are going to know about it is because all of that stuff is documented. Of course
[01:10:15] Speaker C: they're going to see that, that you gave crew on board an opportunity to
[01:10:18] Speaker D: fix the situation.
[01:10:19] Speaker C: Yes,
[01:10:20] Speaker D: yes.
[01:10:20] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah,
[01:10:22] Speaker A: yeah. So she did sit, she did say that we do have it on log that you did try to contact about this.
What did they say? What did it do? And I said, I told her this is what they, what they've done.
But guest services itself never contacted us, even though they said they did. But this is what, this was my interaction on the phone and you know, she was apologetic and she said what I can offer is 25% off for future cruise. That's, that's really,
[01:10:50] Speaker C: that's
[01:10:51] Speaker A: really good.
[01:10:52] Speaker C: That's a really good discount, by the way. Like 15 is usually where they end the discussion. So 25% is like, yeah, that's really
[01:10:59] Speaker A: good.
What I love is it was 25% plus it was stackable with the, with the placeholder. And so we're looking at cruises, but we, we didn't find anything that we found intriguing so far.
[01:11:12] Speaker C: I going to encourage you with 25% off. Take a hard look at concierge because people, when, when people get future Cruise credits. I think they tend to think about it in terms of what was 25% of whatever I paid before kind of thing. No, it is a straight 25% off. And that thing is an appreciating asset within the portfolio of rooms you can book. Because if you use it on concierge, you might actually get close to what you paid to go on the dream back.
[01:11:37] Speaker D: Sometimes they say you can use it on concierge and sometimes they say you can't. Though this is. You'll have to look at the fine print of what they.
[01:11:43] Speaker C: Fair enough, fair enough.
[01:11:44] Speaker D: Because sometimes they will limit it to non concierge and also they will exclude certain holiday sailings. But to Brian's point.
[01:11:52] Speaker C: But book the find.
[01:11:54] Speaker D: Yeah, find the European sailing or the transatlantic sailing or the Alaska sailing,
[01:11:59] Speaker C: Panama
[01:11:59] Speaker D: Canal.
[01:12:00] Speaker C: Right.
[01:12:01] Speaker D: You use that credit on the more. Don't use it on the three night cruise. Use it on the second
[01:12:05] Speaker A: night. Definitely not. It's not worth it. Yeah,
[01:12:08] Speaker D: exactly.
[01:12:09] Speaker B: I don't think we could do sailing any less than seven or five night. Like
[01:12:13] Speaker A: five nights. Yeah, five nights was still a little short for us.
[01:12:16] Speaker B: Yeah,
[01:12:18] Speaker A: but it has to be like seven night, you know, seven nights or more.
[01:12:22] Speaker C: And I do want to emphasize what Sam said. I want to correct myself. If you were booked in a regular stateroom, more likely than not you can't use the discount on concierge. We have been able to use a future cruise credit on concierge because we were booked in a concierge room at the time we experienced the issue. So yeah,
[01:12:40] Speaker A: this one line print did say we can't book concierge room. The only restriction was no Halloween or Christmas cruise.
[01:12:50] Speaker C: No, fair
[01:12:51] Speaker A: enough.
No Thanksgiving and Christmas. Oh,
[01:12:56] Speaker D: Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yes, the holiday specifically. Not a maritime, but the holidays.
[01:13:00] Speaker C: I think ours was completely unrestricted, Sam, because we were also sailing in concierge on a holiday.
[01:13:07] Speaker D: Ours. We were on Thanksgiving. So they would let us use it on Thanksgiving,
[01:13:12] Speaker C: they
[01:13:12] Speaker D: wouldn't let us use it on Christmas. So that was. Yeah, so there. They will specify it based on when you were sailing.
Okay, you guys, now you're, you're, you're gonna sail Disney Cruise Line again, just not on the dream because the dream is now a cursed ship for you. And it's just, it's forever gonna be a cursed, cursed ship for your family. I don't.
[01:13:33] Speaker B: It sucks because we had amazing like cabana and you know, amazing experience at Remy and all these things. And then there was these other things and it's like, I'm so torn. I'm like, how can I say
[01:13:43] Speaker D: no?
[01:13:44] Speaker B: We had all these great things.
[01:13:45] Speaker D: You're just. You just going to have to go back on the fantasy or you're going to have to go on a Wish Class ship or the magic or the one that you just can't go back on the dream.
[01:13:54] Speaker B: What
[01:13:54] Speaker D: do you. Do you guys have something planned? Do you have something on the calendar? I know this is. It's kind of probably hard to think about right after this experience, but do you. What's next?
[01:14:06] Speaker A: We do. We do, actually. Yeah, we. So we booked the Treasure. Western Caribbean. We booked it last year, actually, because every single time. I mean, you've noticed every time the kids on vacation, it's Eastern Caribbean.
[01:14:18] Speaker B: And we've done it twice already with.
[01:14:21] Speaker A: Twice already with. Which I'm okay with doing it on the Treasure. I just want to see Western Caribbean one time. You know,
[01:14:27] Speaker D: I will tell
[01:14:27] Speaker C: you, you immediately turn back and want to go to the Eastern Caribbean.
[01:14:30] Speaker D: You want to go back.
That's okay.
[01:14:33] Speaker A: I looked at that. So.
[01:14:34] Speaker D: But that's OK right now because the Treasure's amazing.
I was gonna say don't worry about where you're going, because the Treasure is amazing. You're gonna have a fabulous time. You're gonna get to see Beauty and the Beast on board, and you're gonna get to see Moana on board.
[01:14:49] Speaker A: Two of
[01:14:49] Speaker D: the best shows in the fleet.
Please, will you come back on the show?
We really hope that Disney Cruise Line is going to redeem itself when you
[01:14:59] Speaker A: sail on the
[01:14:59] Speaker D: Treasure.
[01:15:00] Speaker B: Okay, so here's. Here's my. I have this. I have this theory, right? I'm wondering if it's the second ship of the class, because Fantasy is a second ship and it's been beautiful for us now wish we went on, but we didn't enjoy it only because it was such a short. It
[01:15:17] Speaker A: was a Fortnite. And
[01:15:18] Speaker B: we
[01:15:18] Speaker A: were
[01:15:19] Speaker B: just like, okay. We didn't enjoy. We didn't get to know the people. Like, we didn't enjoy it for that reason. Other than that, there was nothing else wrong with it.
[01:15:26] Speaker D: That theory. That theory is 100% true. We say it it all the time. The Wonder is better than the magic. The Fantasy is better than the dream. And both the Treasure and the Destiny are better than the wish. The second in class always can up the game because they've already worked out all of the operational kinks and things that didn't work on the original ship. They're able to tweak. They can't change the layout, but they can tweak operational things to make it work better on the second ship. So I absolutely believe that to be true. Second ship, sometimes even the third ship better than the first ship in the particular class.
We are, yeah, we are. We are over time. So I we're and we got to go watch election returns. I know everybody who's watching and listening live wants to go check what the election returns are saying.
We want to say thank you to both of you for coming on the show.
Of course. You're welcome back anytime. We're, we're always happy to have you on. Brian, I'm trying to remember who, who we have on schedule for next week. Do you remember? Otherwise, I'm going to our calendar right now.
[01:16:30] Speaker C: You're gonna have to go to the calendar, Sam. I, I,
[01:16:33] Speaker D: I know who it is. We have, we have a wonderful travel advisor, Katie Collins from We do travel right.
Somebody requested that we do kind of a deep dive episode on DCL room categories. This is something Brian and I are not experts in. We have like a couple of our favorite room categories that we stay in over and over and over again.
[01:16:54] Speaker C: We have one favorite room number, seem to book continuously
[01:16:58] Speaker D: well on the wish class. We have a particular room that we actually stay in on. It doesn't matter what wish ship it is, but it's a specific room. But we have been asked for more information about room categories. And so next week's episode is actually going to be Next week's live episode is going to be a deep dive on DCL room categories. We're, of course, going to be focusing on the US Fleet. We're not going to be focusing on the Disney adventure because that has a completely different, you know, set of room categories. We might touch on a couple of aspects of their rooms, but we aren't going to do a deep dive on those. But join us live next week. We'll be on same time, 5pm Pacific, 8pm Eastern. Thank you again, Karsha and Haral for joining us. Thank you for all of you watching and listening live and for those listening to the recording.
Happy election Day, everyone. Thank you for exercising your civic right of voting.
[01:17:52] Speaker B: Thank you for having us.
[01:17:53] Speaker A: Thanks for having us.
[01:17:54] Speaker C: See you, everybody.
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