[00:00:00] Speaker A: But when you Google the size of a pop century resort room versus a dcl, this category room, a family ocean view with veranda. This room is actually larger than your pop century hotel room, which is like, what? It's mind blowing. Right?
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's live. Welcome to this 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. Also, got to give a shout out to our alive and bonus show sponsor, the good folks over at the DCL magazine. If you have not already, please head over to dcl-magazine.com that is DCL Duo subscribe today. And if you use code DCLDUO, that's all caps DCL Duo, you can take 10% off everything in their store over there, including their other amazing magazines for Disney World and Disneyland, their calendars, all the great stuff. So please, please, please check them out. If you show the sponsors of the show some love, you're showing us some love, so please check them out. But, Sam, I think we're going to bring our exciting guest in from one of our show sponsors.
[00:01:24] Speaker C: Let me just tell people I got a heating pad on my shoulder. I have, like, a messed up shoulder. I'm. It's just. Just ignore it.
I'm trying to ignore it.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: She slept on it funny.
I am not to blame. I am not to blame for this problem.
All right, let's bring Katie in from we do Travel, right? Welcome, Katie, to the show.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: Thank you. It's so nice to be here. I'm so excited.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: We're excited to have you.
[00:01:51] Speaker C: Of course, we say it simultaneously.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: It is a slow news week for Disney Cruise Line this week, but we want to highlight one fun thing that happened this afternoon. So, Sam, take it.
[00:02:02] Speaker C: Yes. Our friend Carly Wiesel, who, as people know, she's a podcaster, she's a theme park journalist, she's a friend of the show.
She actually just posted a reel today. She just got off the Disney dream a few days ago and she posted a reel about that lemon souffle in Palo. Because Disney Cruise Line, of course, removed the amaretto souffle. And she and I are both really big fans of that amaretto souffle. In fact, she was giving up a sugar deto and going to have her amaretto souffle and then found out, of course, that they eliminated it and replaced it with a lemon.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: Sorry, can I just.
[00:02:38] Speaker C: Lemon cello.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: Okay, skip Ahead to the headline for a second. You need to go to Instagram. And either it's
[00:02:44] Speaker C: in
[00:02:44] Speaker B: our stories or it's on Carly's feed. And it is. Her reaction to the lemon souffle is A, priceless, and B, has me very worried about the lemon souffle. So
[00:02:56] Speaker C: basically, she didn't use this word, but I'm gonna use this word. It's trash, okay? It's trash, trash, trash. It's not a replacement for the Amaretto's who flag recipes.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: Hold on, hold on. You haven't tried it. You won't like it because you don't like lemon.
[00:03:10] Speaker C: I don't like lemon
[00:03:11] Speaker B: things. I still have to try it.
[00:03:12] Speaker C: I know Brian loves lemon desserts, so he's probably going to love it. I don't care. Because it's, like, the only. One of the only desserts I like on Disney Cruise Line. We actually just recorded an episode a couple days ago that won't be out for, like, another month, though, with some other friends who just also had the limoncello sule in Paulo like, a week ago on a different ship. And they didn't hate it, but they did not like it as much as the amaretto soup.
[00:03:37] Speaker B: I'm still. I'm still hangry. They took the carrot cake off the menu.
[00:03:42] Speaker C: That was a good
[00:03:43] Speaker B: carrot cake.
So. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But is what it is in. It
[00:03:48] Speaker C: is what it is
[00:03:49] Speaker B: at a month and a half, Sam. Geez, maybe a month and a half. I guess. Check in. Opens for our Christmas cruises. Our first Christmas cruise here on Friday.
Yeah. So we're getting close to it. And I will try it. Sam can record my reaction.
Carly Wiesel Stitch incoming, I guess is the phrase to use. And we will see. We will see.
[00:04:13] Speaker C: Yeah, we'll see. I will not even take a bite of it because I know I will not like it. And it also comes with raspberry sauce. And you know what? The only thing I dislike more than lemon desserts is raspberry desserts.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: I don't really like raspberry either, so this thing has to stand on its own or not at all, in my opinion. Why don't they have, like, a lemon vanilla drizzle or something for that? Well,
[00:04:35] Speaker C: they have, like, a vanilla and a. And a raspberry. The two. Like they do with the chocolate. They do the chocolate and the vanilla. So they, like, pour them in together and mix them. But you could always, like, say no to the raspberry one and just pour in the vanilla one, I guess,
[00:04:49] Speaker B: you know, like, hold me down and pour it down my throat. Okay.
[00:04:52] Speaker C: They're
[00:04:53] Speaker B: not going
[00:04:53] Speaker C: to force it on. Well, let's, let's start tonight's show. Katie, with your Disney Cruising background. And of course, you are a travel advisor with. We do travel. Right. But why don't you tell folks like about your background with Disney and Disney Cruise Line. I know you book a lot of Disney cruises, but do you also travel on Disney Cruise Line yourself?
[00:05:13] Speaker A: Yeah. So a few years ago, my husband and I went on our first one's first Disney cruise and we did adult only, and we did it on the Disney Dream, and it was the most magical thing ever. I hate when people say that you can't go on DCL being adult only because, I mean, I love bringing my kids, don't get me wrong. But, like, it was the most magical experience not having my children.
So we were able to experience all the things by ourselves first. And then we have since brought our kids on a few. We've done the Wish together. We did the Wish concierge, and then we've done Marvel Day at Sea on the Dream. And my kids would have lived on the Marvel Day at Sea one. I'm sad that it's out of Galveston right now because, I mean, coming from Connecticut, like, going to Texas is, you know, it's not the, the not easiest. It's not easy. It's the weather in January is really rough. I get super seasick. So we haven't one of those yet. But we love the adult only and we love bringing our kids on.
[00:06:17] Speaker C: Love that. Love that. Now, what is your family makeup like? How old are your kids? Because we're going to be talking about state rooms, but of course, one of the things you have to consider for staterooms, so before we dive into the topic, is what your family makeup looks like because, you know, you got to know how many people are going to be sleeping in your room.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Yeah. So we have that horrific third child that tips us over the edge. Okay. I read so many things and that it's like, oh, it's not the child. It's, you know, the resorts or the cruises that's the problem. So we are, we are tipping the edge with our third child.
He is young. He's still only two.
And then our older boys are six and seven. So we have three boys. It gets a little wild and rowdy. But what I love, and we'll talk about what I love about the DCL staterooms is that they're huge. So, like, we have enough room for our pack and play. We do the summer plaid with our pack and play. And the boys have their beds that they are able to sleep on too. So the room that you get in a DCL stateroom is unmatched for three boys.
[00:07:21] Speaker C: Absolutely. I love that. I love that perspective because, you know, a lot of cruise lines really don't cater to that five person family. I know that Royal on their newer, their newest ships now they have rooms that fit five people on the Star class I believe, or Icon class rather, but on their previous ships. So that would be like Oasis class and lower right or smaller, I should say not lower, but none of those rooms fit five people or more unless you're staying in a suite classroom.
Whereas Disney has always had a category of rooms in regular class that fit five people. So it's, I think that's one of the, one of the best things for Disney Cruise Line when you're not having to purchase a second stateroom. Obviously there are people who do that because they want more space. But let's dive in then. Brian, to this awesome presentation that Katie put together for us. And Katie, we just want to say thank you so much for coming on and agreeing to do this because we did have somebody reach out. This show idea came from a listener actually who was like, I can't find any, you know, any information about the state rooms that Disney Cruise Line has and how do you choose a stateroom and what are the different categories? And we reached out to, to Emily who pointed us to you as a great resource for this and we just thought it would be fabulous to be able to go through the, the typical state room categories on Disney Cruise Line, who they might work with for and all those kind of details. I want to just put the one caveat. I mentioned this on last week's show. We're not going to be doing a deep dive into the Disney Adventure state rooms. We're going to be staying on in the US Fleet. And that's because the Adventure has a bunch more different categories that do not exist on any other ship. And let's face it, most of our listeners are sailing out of the US or sailing out of the Caribbean. And so that's going to be the focus of today's show.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: Before we dive in too, I think to the specific staterooms, I think it would be great to talk about more generally, like where to be on the ship. People are always arguing about bottom versus top and motion front to back. The aft wraparounds really that great, you know, those sorts of questions. And so I just think it'd be Great to talk a little bit about where, like, what are the pros and cons of different places on the ship? You know, port, port and starboard. It make a difference depending on where you're going. So why don't we start with, like, where do you like to advise. Advise your guests, Katie, like, do you have a preference for, you know, the Deck 2, Deck 3, versus the higher decks forward, aft, midship? Like, where do your preferences lie?
[00:10:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it's so funny. And someone, I don't know if it was in the comments on our Instagram or on one of our Facebook pages, but one of my friends was joking about, you know, the movement and the different areas of the ship. And for everyone that knows me, I get so incredibly seasick, which you're going to be like, you're crazy for going on boats when you get so seasick. I like, people are like, oh, you're going out of the Caribbean or out of Florida, you're fine. Right? Versus Boston and going through the rough water. So we went out of Florida. I didn't put a patch on. And as soon as we started moving, I was like, no way. And like, it was just so. I'm a prescription patch kind of gal and I will never step on a boat without one.
And when I have that thing on, it does not matter what part of the boat I'm on. I'm like, living free and it's the best. And I don't even know I'm on the water.
But aside. So I saying that if you get seasick, you're more than likely going to get seasick no matter where you are on the boat. So I would take the preventatives either like the natural patches or the prescription ones, you know, seasick bands or. So many preventatives I always tell people to do.
But I think that some people, you know, it might even be a mind game. Now I'm like bringing my therapist hat on. You know, if you think you're midship and lower, maybe you're gonna just feel like you're moving less also. So typically the rule of thumb is if you're on a lower deck in midship, you're not gonna feel as much forward. You do tend to feel a little bit more. And then in the aft, you get a lot of the vibrations when you're docking at port. We've stayed in the aft on Deck 8 before in a navigator's veranda. And you know, that vibration, that thumping definitely woke at 6am but we're morning people anyway, so, you know, I always kind of throw that out there to the universe in terms of location.
And, you know, if you have young kids, like, would you rather be, you know, towards the back by the buffet in a higher deck so you can just walk up and down the stairs versus waiting for the elevator or if you're on a wish class, do you want to stay, you know, in the forward on deck 11 so that you can walk right out to the.
The quick service by the pool and enjoy the splash pad and that thing? So, you know, it depends on what your family makeup is and kind of what your priorities are when you're on a Disney cruise.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I'd give. I'd give sort of four observations I've had over time with, like, where to stay on the ship. So our preference is always starboard side, higher deck. You know, usually like a Deck 9. If we can get it on the older ships, maybe like a Deck 7.
And we like to say forward because for us, selfishly, our son can get himself to the kids club no problem for us. It's like all the adult spaces are kind of like right there on most of the ships. And so it's like walking up to the, you know, walking down to the spa or up to the spa or, you know, the, the theaters right there, which Sam wants to have quick access to.
The bar spaces on the, you know, the Legacy fleet are all kind of in the front of the ship. And so.
[00:13:12] Speaker C: No, they're in the back of the ship, aren't they?
[00:13:14] Speaker B: No.
[00:13:14] Speaker C: Oh, no, you're right. The front of the ship. That's right. They're
[00:13:17] Speaker B: all
[00:13:18] Speaker C: ships. I'm mixing it up.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: And so, like, I think that's a great point that you raised, Katie, which is no where. What are you using the most? It's also like for us, the Deck 9 is like a quick walk up to the. The pool.
And I am. I'm going to be in that pool all day long. So you know that that's easy for us especially the adult areas of the pool tend. Tend to be on the forward side.
[00:13:38] Speaker C: But
[00:13:39] Speaker B: the
[00:13:39] Speaker C: quick service food, too. I like being close to the quick service food. I find that like. So I can bring the food back to the room really easily as well. Yeah,
[00:13:46] Speaker A: for sure.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: The other thing is port, starboard mostly does not make a difference with kind of maybe two exceptions.
Castaway Cay, if you want that beautiful view when you wake up in the morning of the island, you gotta be on the starboard side of the ship. So just know that going in. Also those wraparound balconies on Castaway on The aft of the ship. Great spot to get just a beautiful view of the island, especially if you're on the starboard side on lookout. They tend to dock with the starboard side, but they don't.
[00:14:20] Speaker C: They go back and
[00:14:21] Speaker B: forth.
They can kind of go either direction if they want. So it really is just dealer's choice on which side of the ship you're on. Other than that, I have not found too many places where I'm like, we must be on this side of the ship.
So we port. Starboard, I think, is less of a real choice. Pick. Pick your poison. We tend to go starboard, and so I hate when we shift to the port because there's been a couple times we've been assigned a port stateroom, and I'm like.
[00:14:46] Speaker C: I'm
[00:14:46] Speaker B: like, I have no idea where I am.
[00:14:49] Speaker C: We just get turned around. I will notice that Tracy is saying in the comments she likes to be close to the ice cream. So the ice cream is always where the pool deck food is. And so, you know, you're talking if you want. You want to be on a higher deck floor, typically, if you want to be closer to the ice cream. So.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: And the last thing I'll say from the. From the motion standpoint, like, I totally agree with everything that Katie said. Just recognize, like, the center of gravity of the ship is lower. You're going to feel the waves.
You should feel the waves a little less the lower and more to the center of the boat. You get at the top, when it's really moving, you're going to. You're going to feel the sway. And we certainly had some experiences in stormy weather or getting into Nassau, where it felt like we were just, like, rocking back and forth. So.
[00:15:33] Speaker C: But I think Katie's point is well taken. If the ship is really moving, if you're in bad weather, you're gonna. Or if you get really seasick, you're gonna feel it wherever you are.
And so it's. It's. While it may make a marginal difference, it's not gonna make a huge difference. If you need seasickness remedy, you should be prepared with that seasickness remedy for wherever you're gonna be on the ship, because that's not gonna matter if you're that sensitive or if the seas are that. Are that bad. So.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: And
[00:16:03] Speaker B: if you ever. If you ever get to the point where you see the seasickness bags out in the common areas, it's going to get rough fast. Yeah. So,
[00:16:11] Speaker C: yeah, it's really bad. The other thing to think about is there are some hallways that are really close to the kids clubs. Right. And so if you don't want to be listening to kids traipsing down the hallway at 11:30 at night when they're leaving the kids club, that's something to think about. If you go to bed early, you probably don't want a room near the kids clubs.
Yeah.
[00:16:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:34] Speaker C: All right.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: We've
[00:16:35] Speaker C: got this great list of the seat room types. Katie, why don't you run us through the list? And we're going to talk about them each individually, but why don't you run us through the list?
[00:16:44] Speaker A: Yeah. So the first two, you're going to have your inside room, so they're standard and deluxe. And then the next two are going to be your ocean view. So this is one with either one big window or two small port windows. No verandas on those ones. And then the next two are going to be family or deluxe veranda, and then family veranda rooms. And then our last one is concierge, and there is, like a few different great ones engulfed in that category and something that I'm so excited about.
And they've redone the lounge on a couple of the older ships, so they've turned out really great. We've sailed concierge on the Wish, so we have, like, that newer experience.
But I'm super excited to kind of go through the presentation, and I have a mix of older ship pictures and wish class ships pictures, and it'll be super fun.
[00:17:35] Speaker B: Katie, one thing before we dive in, because a lot of times people will be like, you know, what stateroom category do I need? And they're talking more about the numbers. Right.
Is this an 04A. And I. I complete. I tune out at those moments because I'm like, I don't have these memorized. I don't think that's as important as understanding the category, because even within categories, you get different room configurations that aren't necessarily differently numbered. Right.
[00:18:01] Speaker A: I agree. And to be honest, I don't. I'm sure there's a rhyme or reason to them. I've never come across a time as a travel agent where someone is like, what is this number? What is this? I'm like, I want a standard inside room, and then we just kind of go from there. So truly, I want someone to tell me what these numbers mean, because I. I don't get it. I don't get it.
[00:18:25] Speaker B: I do know the lower they get, kind of the more expensive the room gets. That seems to be the logic. So, like. Like, I think the power suite was added is like a double zero category or something. So yeah, that,
[00:18:36] Speaker A: that
[00:18:36] Speaker B: should give you an indication or.
Yeah,
[00:18:39] Speaker A: and I will say that the, the price difference between them are so microscopic, usually between like let's say an 04E versus of 04, you know, A. Or something like they're like a $50 difference. So I think that some people don't realize that also is, you know, when they're like, oh, I want a veranda state room and typically, you know, on Deck 6 is like those lower category ones. But then if you go to like Deck 8, the price difference really when you look at it is only like $75 to be like on a more preferred like midship, higher level deck. So it's not a huge price difference within like the, the chunks of inside ocean view and veranda rooms.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: I think, I think we should also just say really quickly in terms of the distribution of these kinds of staterooms, like Ocean View has gotten fewer and fewer because as you think about the ship designs, like all the cruise lines are trying to build verandas. They want to sell more and more verandas because they can command a higher price. Disney did something kind of cute with the ocean views that are on the front of the ship and charging more for those than a veranda stateroom, at least on the concierge versions on the Wish class. But typically I think the distribution is the most of any kind of stateroom on board is going to be verandas.
After that it's, it's a toss up between ocean view and inside. I think that's fair.
Yeah. Yeah.
All right, let's dive into our.
Well, the first. This is a great slide. So what are you going to get in your stateroom regardless of what category you book? Katie?
[00:20:12] Speaker A: Yeah, and this is something so different about other cruise lines is you get 24. Seven room service included with your fare, which I, we don't typically sail on other cruise lines so I don't even know what the status is on those anymore. But I know like with Royal Caribbean you don't get, you know, free all you can eat room Service.
So with DCL you do. It's 24. 7. You can call them at 1am when you get back to your stateroom when you're on your adult only cruise and order some like buffalo wings and ice cream just because you can, you can do Mickey Bar at night with the milk and cookies with the kids and watch a Disney movie and it's pretty magical there.
[00:20:53] Speaker C: Or you can do as our friends, the whole gates do every night which is to order an all hands on deck cheese plate.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: Yes. And you can do it, you know, even as like an appetizer before you go down to the dining room too. I mean, you can do it five times during the day if that's what you want, which is such a great perk.
[00:21:12] Speaker C: There are, there are a few add on items there are that you have to pay for that are not the non standard items, but they'll be very obvious on the menu. Most of the menu is completely free and you just have to take tip whoever is bringing your food.
[00:21:25] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:21:26] Speaker C: And pro tip. Do not put your dirty dishes in the hallway so that people can trip over them, especially people with accessibility devices having to roll over them. It's really rude and it's gross. Just call the people that come pick up your dirty dishes or if you're going to be out of your room, leave them for your stateroom attendant to clean up and they'll take care of it and give them extra tips.
[00:21:48] Speaker B: Linda's saying don't sleep on the chocolate truffle. Hazelnut, whatever it's called cake. That sounds delic.
[00:21:54] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: It does sound good.
[00:21:56] Speaker B: Yeah. We used to get, we used to also get the pro tip of order your carafe of coffee at night because the carafe would actually keep the coffee hot through the night. And then in the morning your coffee was there and ready and you wouldn't have to worry about the rush, the breakfast rush that some people experience with room service in the morning. But yeah, yeah,
[00:22:12] Speaker C: but that only works if you drink Jeffrey's coffee.
[00:22:16] Speaker B: I also love this. Call out Katie to the stateroom host. Say, explain. Because if people out there have not experienced the Disney stateroom Host, I think they're missing out.
[00:22:27] Speaker A: And I think this is like one of the reasons why I don't think I can cruise on any other cruise line because I know that they're not. I remember when we did our dream on the Marvel dsc.
I remember our stateroom host, his name was Tree. And I obviously remember that because that's a unique name. But Tree was.
They're just always around. Like I don't even know when they sleep. It's like they, they don't sleep almost. They are there for your every need. They are your children's most favorite people. They leave you your towel animals, which I love. The little ones that I was able to put on here that we've found through the agency in our different rooms, they just have everything, you know, turning up and down your beds every night. I Mean, who wants to do that? Like, when I go to a Disney resort hotel and I have to flip down that bed and make it for my children, I'm like, why am I not on a Disney cruise right now? It's just, oh
[00:23:21] Speaker C: my God, that's so true.
[00:23:23] Speaker B: Well, Disney still does, Disney still does service twice a day. There's some cruise lines that have moved to one time a day.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: Yes.
I can't even imagine I, I where it was spoiled by the dcl, Steve.
[00:23:36] Speaker C: Especially if you have like the bunk bed situation that every,
[00:23:39] Speaker A: that most
[00:23:40] Speaker C: of us do on dcl. Right. Like, because when you're on another cruise line, they will not, they'll open up the bunk bed. Right. But then it stays open 24 7. So you no longer have use of your couch as a couch because it's a bed the whole time, really.
And any kind of fold out bed situation on Disney, they put it away. So you have that room to like use
[00:24:02] Speaker A: that,
[00:24:03] Speaker C: use the whole room.
But on all other cruise lines, because they leave the beds open because they only do that one service.
It's. Yeah, it's terrible. I just don't, we just don't want to sail other cruise lines because of all of all of these things.
And then you also mentioned in here the chocolates.
Without chocolates at night, I think Nathan would be very upset. Our son Nathan, he always asks how many of the Dove chocolates. It used to be the Ghirardelli, but now it's the Dove chocolate. How many can I have tonight? That's what he's always asking. Yeah.
[00:24:36] Speaker A: The limit is endless.
[00:24:38] Speaker C: The limit does not exist, Nathan. Well, it does. We, we usually let him. There's always three in the stateroom, one for each of us. And we let him have usually all three of them. So.
[00:24:48] Speaker B: Yeah,
[00:24:49] Speaker A: I love that
[00:24:50] Speaker B: Linda's putting out don't sleep on the breakfast card since we were talking about room service, because you can, you can do a door hanger card for breakfast and it will be delivered at the time you indicated, which is, can be super helpful to
[00:25:01] Speaker A: plan
[00:25:01] Speaker B: the day around.
[00:25:02] Speaker C: Yes. You can't get eggs or that kind of hot stuff, but you can get coffee and all kinds of continental breakfast items.
[00:25:09] Speaker B: All right, let's start with what is either the most beloved or the most hated stateroom category on the cruise line, which is inside stateroom. So, Katie, walk us through. Like, what do you expect from an inside stateroom? Who would you recommend it for? Yeah, take it, take it from there.
[00:25:26] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, truthfully, I would never go on inside stateroom on any other cruise lines because they look like a closet and they look scary.
For dcl, though, I will say they are beautiful. And these are pictures of wish class ships. So these are the newer ones. But even, you know, the magic, the dream, the fantasy that may maybe look a little bit older style, they still offer the same things. So these standard inside rooms, the biggest difference if is you don't have a split bathroom. So every other stateroom in the DCL fleets will have a separate sink and shower and then sink in toilet. And here you can see in the picture in the standard inside stateroom, you just have one bathroom, which for a lot of people, you know, if you only have one kid or if you're adult only or, I mean even people that shove a family of four in there, like, you know, whatever. Some people have one bathroom at home and they make it work.
So these rooms fit three to four people. So all my families of five out there, this will never be you.
Unless you want to get two staterooms. Right.
[00:26:30] Speaker C: Or just like get rid of, leave one of the kids at home
[00:26:34] Speaker A: or
[00:26:35] Speaker C: maybe leave an adult at home, maybe leave the husband at home.
[00:26:39] Speaker B: Thanks, Sam.
[00:26:42] Speaker C: We're only a family of three, so I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about Katie.
[00:26:46] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:26:47] Speaker B: And Katie, I think there's one thing we have to call out here that is also in every stateroom, which is those amazing beds at Disney Cruise. I mean people leave the Disney Cruise and like they're doing things like trying to find the tags on the mattresses, like they want to buy them for their homes. Like I don't know if you agree, but I sleep pretty well.
Those stateroom beds.
[00:27:07] Speaker A: Yeah. And we'll talk about it as we go in. But I mean the concierge staterooms have those king size beds. So if there's anything that makes you want to book concierge more than being able to sleep in a king size bed and the pillow menu that you get with that, I mean, we'll talk about that after blanket. Like going from sleeping at a king bed at home to then going to a queen bed on vacation. It's a little snuggly.
[00:27:31] Speaker B: Yeah,
[00:27:32] Speaker C: it is a little snuggly.
[00:27:33] Speaker B: I also think this is a great photo to remind folks because people will be like, where do I put my luggage in the state? It goes right under the bed.
[00:27:40] Speaker C: Under the bed.
[00:27:40] Speaker B: All of the Disney state rooms, they've lifted the bed up enough that you can slide most luggage right under the bed. Some of our trunk style luggage didn't fit. Like, doesn't fit if it's, it's closed. But if we just open the top and slide it under, it fits perfectly. So a lot of storage that you can just throw stuff in your suitcase and slide it under the bed if you need to. So, yeah,
[00:28:02] Speaker A: for sure. And it's great that with the stateroom host, like, they're going to flip your couch back up so you'll still have, like so much extra space even being in one of these inside rooms.
[00:28:12] Speaker C: Yeah. And as you, as you have on the notes on this slide, for those who aren't watching visually and are listening to this after the fact on one of our podcast channels, well, one, go over to YouTube. We've got all these great visuals that Katie put together, but if you decide not to, these are mostly for three people, but some of them do fit four people. The ones that fit four people have that bunk that come down and the ones that are for three people only have the couch and of course the, the queen size bed that Katie spoke about. All right, Brian,
[00:28:40] Speaker B: let's
[00:28:40] Speaker C: go to the
[00:28:41] Speaker B: one last thing I say. People love these inside staterooms because at night
[00:28:44] Speaker C: we're going to talk about another inside stateroom.
[00:28:46] Speaker B: Brian, let me move on. Let me move on.
[00:28:50] Speaker A: Yeah, let's keep talking about the inside with no windows. I mean, some of these ones on the older ships have the virtual window that you can shut off.
But yeah, it's completely dark in here. There's. There's no sunlight. You won't even know what time it is if you open your eyes.
[00:29:05] Speaker B: Yeah. And people swear by that. Like, they love it. They like, best sleep of my life. It was like I'm in a cave. It was completely dark and quiet. So. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, how many? So the deluxe inside, you still can't get to five. You're three to four people.
Like, what, what do you get out of these rooms? They're just slightly bigger, Katie.
[00:29:23] Speaker A: They're slightly bigger. And you get the split bathroom. So you can be going to the bathroom and brushing your teeth or whatever. And then you can have someone in the shower too. So it really gives you that extra space within the bathroom. As you can see on that bottom picture, this is one of the older ships and you can see the tub and sink. And then there's a second room that has the. Another sink and then the toilet.
And like, as you can see from the middle picture, there is like a good amount of space in this room, even like on the sides of the bed. Like, I'm sure you've seen. And I feel like I went on a Norwegian ship when I was like, five. Like, the inside rooms where, like, the bunk beds come over the Queen, like, I don't like that. That makes me nervous, actually, even thinking about it. So this one is like, you have that separate space. You can still pull the curtain and, like, have a separate space from whoever's on the couch. And if there's a bunk bed too, that comes down.
[00:30:21] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:30:22] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. No, and just to point out one thing. We're looking at all regular staterooms. We aren't looking at pictures of accessible staterooms, but we have a great show that we recorded with Vanessa and Andrew that had.
Well, we've recorded several of them, but all of the shows that we've recorded with our friends Vanessa and Andrew have been. Have covered accessible staterooms as well. And so we've got great pictures on those prior episodes of those staterooms. The layouts of those rooms are going to be different, of course. Some of them will have curtains, some of them will not have curtains. Their curtains might be in different places. But what we're looking at are sort of the standard staterooms that most guests are going to be able to book. Because, of course, you can't book an accessible stateroom unless you need an accessible stateroom or unless Disney puts you in one if you happen to be have booked a GTY guaranteed category seat.
Let's go to the next slide, Brian.
All right,
[00:31:19] Speaker B: tell
[00:31:19] Speaker C: us what we're looking at. Yeah, these are all.
[00:31:22] Speaker B: We usually get families. I think we usually get family. We usually
[00:31:24] Speaker C: go one more above this,
[00:31:25] Speaker B: which we'll cover next.
[00:31:26] Speaker C: The next one. Talk
[00:31:27] Speaker B: us about. Talk to
[00:31:28] Speaker A: us about
[00:31:28] Speaker B: deluxe ocean view.
[00:31:29] Speaker A: Yeah, so this one is physically the same size as the deluxe inside room.
So this one is still going to fit three to four people. It's going to have a similar layout, but you're going to have that window in the back of the ship or in the back of the room. So you're either going to have like that giant larger window which is on the upper decks, or if you're on like, decks one or two, usually they're like two smaller or one small porthole that you can't sit in, but it still brings in that natural light.
So like we kind of already talked about. And there's a picture here with the bunk down.
And again, this is one that fits three to four people. So you're not going to have that. That the next slide's the fifth people. But so these are just the deluxe ocean view. And you're also still going to have that split bathroom. The bathroom picture here is obviously from a Wish class ship because it looks new and shiny and then the room picture is I would probably guess the dream or the fantasy here.
[00:32:31] Speaker B: Yeah,
[00:32:32] Speaker C: yeah.
[00:32:32] Speaker B: And I think it's, I think it's important for these. Like when you go online, you price out an ocean view stateroom. The most ocean view staterooms are on like deck two and they have really tiny like usually it's two tiny portholes in them. That is not this gigantic porthole that you're going to get as you kind of move up the decks. And if you think about looking at the Disney ship in profile, it's where all of the verandas end and there's kind of the white, the white space kind of coming up on either side. That's where the higher deck level ocean view staterooms are. And there's far fewer of them because so many of the staterooms across the deck are verandas. So you can kind of see it in the picture in my, my, my background photo here you can kind of see the white stripe just over my. Was this my left shoulder?
I don't know if that's right. But anyway, my left shoulder, you can kind of see it with all the little portholes. That's where the porthole rooms are. And they get expensive, they get, they get much closer to the cost of a random room kind of the higher up you, you go. Because the higher decks tend to be, be more desired. So. Yeah,
[00:33:36] Speaker C: yeah,
[00:33:37] Speaker A: yeah. And I think that it's important too that there's, there's just not a lot of them. Right. So they're going to sell out quicker. And in terms of like that motion sickness, you're not going to get a Deck 8 midship ocean view room because they're just not there. So if you, you know, if you want to be more of cautious of motion like then you're going to be with one of those smaller portholes on Deck 2 versus, versus the larger window that like your kids like to sit in.
[00:34:06] Speaker C: Yeah. And you, or you're going to have a higher deck and you're going to be on it with a veranda. Right. I mean that's really your option if you want to be midship. You're either going to have that, those smaller portholes lower down or you are going to have a veranda high on those higher up decks. One thing I want to give advice to people on is so these rooms of course sleep three to four people.
Now if you are a three person party and you book a room that is in this category or even veranda category that we're going to talk about next or in a couple of slides.
You need to make sure if you want that bunk bed that you are booking a room that actually sleeps four people. And a lot of people don't know to make this request. And I'm not saying you need to, you only need three bed spaces. But if let's say you're one adult and you're actually traveling with two kids, maybe two teens, and you don't want to share a bed with them, you should be making sure that you get a room that actually sleeps for people. And you have to be specific in your ask because these category state rooms that we're talking about, as Katie so helpfully put on the slide, sleep three or four people, depending on the room, meaning some of these rooms have the bunk bed and some of these rooms do not have the bunk bed. So if you book a room because you happen to be three people, that ends up being this category and only sleeps three people. If it's with two kids and you don't want to sleep in a bed with two kids, with one of the kids, you're going to be stuck sleeping in a bed with one of the kids. So that's. I say this because this happens. This happened to come up in a Facebook group of mine.
Not one I run, but a lawyer mom Facebook group where somebody booked one of these rooms not realizing that it was a three person room, assuming it had the bunk bed, and then being really pissed off at Disney and it wasn't actually Disney's fault. So we're trying to give you this information so you have the tools to get the room that you want. And so if you're traveling with your teens, you don't have to sleep in a bed with them.
[00:36:01] Speaker B: Let me ask this, Katie, because Linda's pointing out, oh, I was on the magic and we did have a big porthole on deck two. And like, totally fair.
One thing I want to say is there is such a variety in the fleet, even like within these rigid stateroom categories. I think Katie has a great slide at the end. We'll talk about some, like, magical kind of staterooms that you can kind of keep your eyes on. But Katie, one, how good is the website at helping people understand the bed configuration in the room?
And can you talk through some of the bed configurations you're likely to see as we kind of go through the ocean view and veranda categories?
[00:36:36] Speaker A: Yeah. And the website Is not good. And I will say, and to your point, Sam, around the, you know, requesting a room with four, I mean, as someone who, you know, makes those phone calls, we, we are told no sometimes because they're going to save those rooms that fit four for families of four. So, you know, we can try and, you know, we call back and we get a different cast member and sometimes they give us a different answer. But there is, I mean, we're willing to make those calls. And when you book with us, we have like a whole trello board of assistants that help us that monitor rooms and make phone calls literally daily. Like, I have a client trying to get on the trans Atlantic from Europe to New York next because that sold out before most castaway members could get it. So people are monitoring stuff all the time. So not to say that it's not possible, but we do get some pushback when we're trying to do what you're saying, which is a very good point.
But yes, there are certain things that I just call in rather than booking online because the website is not always great. And, and I just like to hear it firsthand from a cast member. And also. And then moving on to the veranda, A big request that veranda clients make is they want verandas that open if they have connecting staterooms. And not all of them do not every connecting veranda room, you're going to be able to open that outside veranda, like partition, like the white doors. So that's something that we do have a few, like, guides that we can look on. But I always call to double check, like, hey, do these connecting rooms also have connecting verandas so that you can open it and make a double wide.
So part of my job is always like doing the double checking because, like you're saying there are so many, like, caveats and here and there, especially on the older versus the wish class ships.
So I always like to call and double check and make sure that we can get people what they're wanting.
[00:38:41] Speaker B: Yeah, and I was just going to say on the bed configurations, I think what you're going to see across everything until we get to concierge, there's always one queen bed. Bed got to be up front because most other cruise lines can split that bed into two twins. Basically, Disney does not. So if you're traveling to adults, someone's sleeping someplace else in the state room. Unless you guys want to get cozy in the queen bed together.
The you will always have a couch. That couch will convert into a bed.
[00:39:10] Speaker C: A single bed.
[00:39:11] Speaker B: A single Bed. Great for kids.
Where things get tricky is to Sam's point, not every one of these rooms has a drop down bunk bed over the couch. Some of them have replaced that with a Murphy style bed that folds out in the stateroom. So you've got the couch bed and then kind of a Murphy bed near the window generally. Or the veranda generally. I don't think. I'm not sure the veranda rooms have it. But the. But some of them have that Murphy style bed. Some of them have all of the above. Right.
[00:39:38] Speaker C: That's the five person room.
[00:39:40] Speaker B: Yeah. And we'll talk about that in a second. But just know that the beds don't split. You're always gonna have a couch bed. If you really want the bunk bed bed. Highly encourage you to reach out to a knowledgeable person like Katie or someone@ouijotravel. Right. Or your favorite travel agency. But reach out because they're the ones who are gonna be able to ferret out what each room has and what it can accommodate. So yeah,
[00:40:00] Speaker C: yeah, absolutely. And let them do the research for you so you can focus on the relaxing.
[00:40:05] Speaker B: There you go. There you go.
[00:40:09] Speaker C: If you're listening to us right now, chances are pretty good that you love Disney vacations as well as much as we do. But even seasoned travelers know there's a ton to keep up with when it comes to Disney Cruise Line. From cruise itineraries to the perfect stateroom for your family, shore excursions and onboard experiences. And if you're planning to visit the Disney parks before or after your cruise, then there's even more to plan. From the perfect resort to lightning lane strategies, dining reservations, park tickets, special offers, and much, much more.
[00:40:36] Speaker B: That's where WeDoTravel. Right comes in. Their team of experienced travel advisors specializes in Disney Cruise Line, Disney parks, and other exciting places all around the world. They take the time to understand what matters most to your family, providing personalized recommendations and helping you navigate all the details so you can spend less time stressing and more time looking forward to your vacation. Whether it's your first Disney cruise or your tenth, having an expert in your corner can make all the difference.
[00:41:02] Speaker C: Life is short. Take the trip. Visit wedotravelright.com to connect with a travel advisor and start planning your next unforgettable adventure.
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We've moved on to the deluxe family ocean view stateroom. There's a photo in here. You see a little cabinet next to the couch and you can See the little indent coming down above the couch? That indent is the bunk bed, the cabinet nearest the window that there. In some state rooms it's storage. In some state, which we prefer. And in some state rooms, it's a bed that folds down.
[00:41:42] Speaker C: Yeah,
[00:41:42] Speaker B: yeah,
[00:41:43] Speaker A: for sure. So these are, up until now, this is your first room category that those families of five can sleep in. As I kind of told Sam and Brian, I am a family of five. I have that third child that pushes us to this level of stateroom on dcl.
So. And you can see, I mean, even just from this picture how much floor space there actually is. So if you have a child, my youngest is two still. So next time we sail, he won't be at a pack and play anymore. But you just put that pack and play up by the cabinet, the Murphy bed. And then your stateroom host if, if you tell them we kept it up usually for naps. But if you're someone that doesn't want it up during the day, there's nothing worse than unpacking and packing up a pack and play. And like your stateroom host is going to do that for you. Like, there' so much floor space right there. You can't get any better than that.
And the rooms are obviously bigger.
[00:42:40] Speaker C: These, this is our favorite category of room
[00:42:44] Speaker B: DCL Duo stamp of approval right here.
[00:42:47] Speaker C: This is exactly like the. And even the one in the pictured here, it could have been taken in the room. Literally the exact room that we say. And I'm not going to say the stateroom number because I don't want people stealing my stateroom on the sailings I want to get on. But.
But it's exactly that setup. And yeah, this is our favorite room category because it gives us the extra floor space, but we don't spend that little bit of extra money. To Katie's point, there's not a huge difference in price once you get to these deluxe family ocean view stateroom before you get to a veranda. But we don't find that we use the veranda. I will say, and I don't know what you think about this, Katie. I think if you do get seasickness, having a veranda might actually be helpful though, because getting like being able to open the veranda and getting a little bit of a fresh air breeze can be helpful if you're suffering from seasickness a little bit. I don't know how you feel about that
[00:43:43] Speaker A: for sure. I just am not a person that. I mean, when you open those random doors, the amount of wind that comes in. I just don't know if I would be hanging out with my door open. I mean, maybe some people do, but. Yeah, I'm with you. I would rather have the extra space. Space and have this big, beautiful window. Window to look out.
[00:44:02] Speaker C: Yeah. And it is a shallow window. So even this window, yes, it's big enough for a person to sit in its width, but it's actually the depth is not really quite big enough to sit and be comfortable in. A child can sit and be comfortable in that porthole, but not an adult. It's just not deep enough for our butts. Let's be honest.
[00:44:22] Speaker A: There's no padding, like, you know, on the, you know, the main areas of the ship where they have like the padded seats that like an adult could fit in.
[00:44:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:44:34] Speaker B: I will say we just so folks understand, we have booked veranda rooms and we will in the future, I'm sure.
Alaska. Great. We'll talk in a second. Let me defer this conversation in part to the second. But we love these rooms because we live in Seattle and we melt in the Florida heat and the Caribbean heat in the summer. And so we are just not out on the veranda enough for it to make sense for us. And so love being able to see the ocean. Love being able to look outside, but. And probably not going to spend a ton of time on the veranda. I'll spend more time on the pool deck where I can bounce back and forth between relaxing in the chair and being warm and cooling off in the pool itself. So that's, that's why we like these and we like this particular stateroom setup because of the extra storage that comes in the corner for. For us as a family of three, it's just super helpful. So
[00:45:24] Speaker C: now, one thing Katie wrote on this slide that I wanted to point out is the safety issue. There are families who are concerned about, especially with younger kids, not maybe with our 12 year old, but with younger kids who might be concerned. And this might work well for your family, Katie, since you got a two year old.
If you have any worries about watching your kids like a hawk with the veranda and them going outside and doing something unsafe like climbing on furniture, um, this is a great option for that because they're sharing.
[00:45:56] Speaker A: Yeah. And we'll talk about it obviously in the next couple slides are veranda's veranda room. And I have a few videos I'm sure that other people do as well. Different reels. It literally took me and my husband probably a total of like five minutes to open Our first DCL veranda door. These things are heavy. There's so many locks. You have to twist it in the right way. Way.
I mean. And then my other brain, my therapist brain is I understand people's anxiety and I would never want someone to go onto a veranda that already has some baseline anxiety about it. Like we're just going to book you an ocean view or an inside room and you're going to have the best cruise ever. So people's anxiety around veranda. I get it. I'm not going to tell you to push through and do it.
But they obviously are so safe the way that they are built. Built, but they are scary to some people.
[00:46:47] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:46:49] Speaker B: Let's move, let's move on to the veranda rooms because Katie, my, my first question to you about verandas is going to be if you read any Facebook group cruise forum, it's like there's the die hard, like you must book a veranda. You cannot possibly have a good cruise without a veranda. I doubt you subscribe to that, that theory. But, but tell us where you land on that debate.
[00:47:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean I, I'm with you guys. I would rather save a few dollars and get an ocean view room. Honestly, if I was a family of four, I might even like dabble into like the inside once in a while. I'm more of like, I rather spend money on doing like bipity boppity for the boys when they dressed up as nights. Like that's expensive. Doing like extra adult only dining. Like there's other areas where I'm going to spend my money rather on verandas. And that's not everyone's like, like you said, some people like having coffee out on their verandas and they're going, my kids don't chill. I'm not going to be hanging out in my room like ever. They want to be running around at kids club, you know, swimming, doing all the things.
So yes, I love the people that love verandas and I also love the people that don't love verandas.
[00:47:59] Speaker B: Yeah. I was also going to say if you think about it like one of the other reasons we like the ocean view is all of that space that would normally be taken up by a veranda is suddenly part of the room and so
[00:48:09] Speaker A: it just
[00:48:10] Speaker B: would change. Feels bigger when you're in it. So it's, it's kind of nice when you've got a family to have enough space for people to kind of spread out a little. So
[00:48:19] Speaker C: although one of the things I'LL give a, I'll give a plug for veranda for kids who, who families who have kids who are still napping and they don't want to be like stuck in the room. Right. Because you know you've got, if you've got a kid that's napping, you're, you are stuck in your room. But maybe you're stuck sitting out on that veranda with a glass of wine or a cup of coffee or a soda or some chicken fingers instead being stuck in the room on the bed with your kids sleeping. So that's, you know, to each his own. I think there's a, there is a place for every type of cruiser in terms of veranda versus no veranda. But yeah, you are going to pay a little bit more for most of the time for a room with the veranda. Although obviously you can.
That, that can depend on what, what deck. Now tell us how many, how many people does this. This is not the family one. This is the deluxe ocean view with veranda or navigators veranda. So this is.
Of the two, how many people does this one fit? Katie?
[00:49:18] Speaker A: Yeah, and before I get into that, I just need to say I think the one thing Disney did wrong was not putting the bed on the veranda side like other cruise lines like Royal because when your kids are sleeping, you know it still makes a lot of noise opening, closing the veranda and they're right next to it. So I'll just say I think they did it backwards and the bed should have been on the other side.
But anyways, so this one is a veranda and these categories do have the navigator veranda which people get really freaked out about that.
So these ones fit 3 to 4. So again my family will never be in here. But people get really freaked out about the navigators rata because yes, it looks cool and it is different. Yes. But I will say I don't know the exact number. I'm sure I can figure it out.
I think there's probably like maybe 10 of these if that maybe five of them on each ship. Like it is not likely you are going to get this room. I wish I put the picture of it. We stayed in it. I don't know if you guys have ever stayed in a navigator. We stayed in one on the dream and it was a navigator because there was this like little piece of white that like cut it was, it was a normal veranda run but you pay less staying in the navigators veranda. So you know. Yes, you're kind of rolling the dice which you could get something like, I think it's cool. Or you could like, basically be in a regular veranda room at a cheaper price just because they added this fancy word attached to it.
[00:50:46] Speaker C: Yeah. It usually means it's somewhat enclosed or obstructed. Right. It doesn't. It means it's
[00:50:52] Speaker A: not
[00:50:52] Speaker C: fully open like a regular or it has a taller wall or something like that. Right. So,
[00:50:57] Speaker A: yes,
[00:50:58] Speaker C: like in this picture in the middle, that one happens to be a navigator's brand. So it's not completely open. It's got this porthole. It is a window. It's not. There's not glass there.
But yeah, these. We have not stayed in one of these ourselves. I have actually visited, I think a couple of these on some of the older ship. They're really cool. I would totally stay in one.
[00:51:19] Speaker B: I was going to say that's a veranda that I would actually use because it's like.
[00:51:22] Speaker C: Yeah,
[00:51:23] Speaker B: it's kind
[00:51:23] Speaker C: of.
[00:51:24] Speaker B: It looks fun to sit out there with like the nautical dials and the map in the background. Like, it's cool
[00:51:29] Speaker C: and you're driving the boat or something. You could be like a total. This is like a total imagination station. I feel like, to pretend like you're. You're driving the boat.
[00:51:39] Speaker A: For sure. For sure.
[00:51:41] Speaker B: I did want to call out, I liked in the last show with Vanessa and Andrew. They were calling it like they were on a veranda stateroom. The way the veranda was configured, the upper decks could actually look down into their verandas. And so, you know, be mindful, these verandas are not fully private.
Even on the regular verandas, like, you know, you can hear the people next door and, you know,
[00:52:05] Speaker C: you could, like, lean and you could lean out and see around to the veranda next door. And frankly, if you're docked at any port, the people at the next cruise ship over can see you as well as can people walking on the port. So these are not private spaces that you can just like, sit out naked on. Let's just be clear about that.
All right, let's go to the deluxe family.
[00:52:28] Speaker B: Actually, before we get to that, Katie, I wanted to ask you, so in the chat, Linda was asking, have you seen photos of the rooms, I think on the Wish class where they have a chair that converts into a bed? I've not seen that. I just saw this photo with the chair over in the corner. Have you seen any
[00:52:45] Speaker A: of
[00:52:45] Speaker B: those staterooms?
[00:52:47] Speaker A: No, I have not seen a chair pull out. Obviously, like in the Disney resorts, they have like twin bed chair pullouts But I have not seen that. So I would be interested, I don't know if it's maybe something they used to do and then. Well, no, because if she said wish clash, it would be a new one. Yeah, I have not seen that.
[00:53:06] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah,
[00:53:07] Speaker C: yeah, I have not seen or heard of that either.
[00:53:10] Speaker B: I mean we've seen, we've seen something similar on a river cruise because that's where our son sleeps. But yeah, I haven't seen it on Disney. I haven't
[00:53:15] Speaker C: seen one on Disney Cruise Line. Yeah. The only thing I've seen are there are pull out couches in the older ships on in concierge
[00:53:24] Speaker A: that
[00:53:25] Speaker C: are like regular convertible, let's call them a convertible sofa. Right. Like instead of the sideways sofa, single bed. But that's only.
[00:53:34] Speaker A: I've
[00:53:35] Speaker C: only seen those in concierge,
[00:53:36] Speaker B: which raises
[00:53:36] Speaker A: a great
[00:53:37] Speaker B: question, Kate, because like we've, we've stayed in those concierge rooms. We'll talk about concierge state rooms here in a second. Second. Those beds, the pull out couch beds in the older models that look like basically what a pull out couch used to look like.
[00:53:49] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:53:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Not comfortable. How would you, how would you talk about the, the couch bed, the bunk bed, the Murphy bed? Like, if people are like, oh, I want to make sure my kids are comfortable, how would you, you know, would you steer them any different direction on a stateroom to make sure that the beds are more comfortable for the kids?
[00:54:08] Speaker A: So a little trick in. I don't know if some people know this. You can request a mattress topper when you're in concierge. You can also do a fancy pillow. So I think when you're in concierge, you know, you can find ways to make that pullout couch comfy.
If like my kids were sleeping on it, I probably wouldn't even think twice about it because they could probably sleep on the floor of the boat and like, could care less.
And like we've had. So when we go on like agency and like girl trips, like my friend who thinking back, and I hope she's listening to this, but she's in Universal with her son right now.
She's like probably almost six feet tall. And I made her sleep on the top bunk because I didn't want to and I feel so bad, but she was comfy and she did it and like she had the best time. So saying that to say that even if you have, you know, a taller adult, they're gonna sleep comfy on the top bunk. Maybe she won't. Wasn't Sleeping comfy. She lied. But
[00:55:09] Speaker C: I. I'm gonna have to agree to disagree on this one. So I have because. So I've slept in all four places in. So let's. We're looking at the family ocean view with veranda. I've slept in all four places in this picture. I've slept on the main bed, which is a queen with Brian. Right. I have also slept on the couch bed which is underneath the bunk bed. And I have slept on the bun.
I have only slept on the bunk bed for one night total. And I will tell you, I will never again sleep on the bunk
[00:55:39] Speaker A: bed.
[00:55:40] Speaker C: Yeah, it was not comfortable. It wasn't the length. It wasn't the length. It was that the mattress was more like a foam mattress rather than a real mattress. So I did not find it comfortable whatsoever. On the other hand, I have slept on the couch bed. I went on the Disney Treasure preview cruise with. With Karen and Leia and, and they were in the queen size bed because they're a mother daughter. And I was in the couch bed. Couch bed. Perfectly comfortable.
I'm 5 7, so I'm not 6ft tall. So I don't have the. I don't have the same length issue that your friend would have.
The length was a bit of an issue in the bunk bed, in the upper bunk bed. But the couch bed, not really an issue for me at all, but much more. I found that bed to be. It's. It's, it's narrower than a twin bed at home. No question. It's not a full size twin bed, but it was fine. So for a. I'm not a tiny person. I'm not a really large person either. I'd say I'm like an average to large person. And if I have five, seven, I'm tall for a woman, but not tall for your average American.
I found. Yeah. I found the couch bed to be comfortable. I would not sleep in that bunk bed again. I think kids will be. Kids are fine in that bunk bed though. So it's just not as comfortable for a full size adult. There is an age limit though, a lower limit that they recommend the bunk bed for. And I highly recommend people follow that age limit because you do not want a little toddler rolling out of that bed and breaking an arm in the middle of the
[00:57:17] Speaker A: night.
[00:57:18] Speaker C: Yeah. So.
[00:57:20] Speaker A: And you can request bed rails for the bottom bun. So I mean, we pretty much did that until our kids are like six or seven because it doesn't hurt to have some extra protection even on the bottom one.
[00:57:31] Speaker C: Yeah. Absolutely.
[00:57:33] Speaker B: Yep.
Anything else we want to cover on the family ocean view veranda state area?
[00:57:38] Speaker C: Yeah, this is the five person one.
[00:57:40] Speaker A: This is the five person. So on the right side picture you can see behind is where that Murphy bed pulls down. Very similar to the ocean view, but you're getting that extra outside inside space versus that extra inside space.
And I put a little fun note for those that can read it, but when you google the size of a pop century resort room versus a dcl, this category room, a family ocean view with veranda. This room is actually larger than your pop century hotel room, which is like what. It's mind blowing. Right? Like, can you believe that a cruise stateroom is larger than like a standard hotel room? It's wild.
[00:58:24] Speaker C: Crazy. That's crazy.
[00:58:26] Speaker B: Well,
[00:58:27] Speaker A: you got so much space.
[00:58:28] Speaker B: It's. It's the other reason, like Disney Cruise Line, if you're a family of five, is, is sometimes a much better proposition than sailing. Unlike Royal. Unless you're going to go into like a higher end suite or something. Because they. I don't think Royal has any rooms that accommodate five guests. At least in my experience. I could be wrong though there. But like,
[00:58:47] Speaker C: no, they only have it on the icon class now, Brian. And
[00:58:51] Speaker A: they're so expensive. Yeah, like those icon, like it's the bunk bed, like infinity window rooms. I mean they're like double the price as sailing and like a family veranda on dcl.
[00:59:05] Speaker B: Yeah,
[00:59:05] Speaker C: yeah, yeah.
One comment in the chat about that bunk bed from Vanessa. It does have a weight limit of 250lbs, which tells you it's really, really intended for kids. It's not really intended for adults.
[00:59:20] Speaker B: Yep,
[00:59:20] Speaker A: for sure.
[00:59:21] Speaker B: For sure.
All right, let's.
Let's just amp it up one less notch. And I should, I should say we're going to move into coner staterooms for a second and like there is no, like concierge has many different state or not many. They have a lot of different staterooms.
[00:59:36] Speaker C: So we're
[00:59:36] Speaker B: going have to spend some time here. So Katie, walk us through what you can expect as you, you know, from kind of the bottom of the stack of concierge staterooms up to the top.
[00:59:47] Speaker A: Yeah. So it's interesting. So we talked about it before. So in concierge they're like lowest level, cheapest level is actually that family veranda. So that's a picture on the bottom for those of you that can see. This was our room when we sailed. It was Halloween on the high seas. So we got the room decorated. It was one of our kids Birthdays.
So we had the couch, the bunk bed, and then the pull down Murphy.
But our youngest was only six months old at the time. So we had the pack and play. They had like a nice concierge cover on it, our slumber pod. So all of that still fit in the room. There is so much floor space.
And then it's interesting. So it's kind of like backwards. So then the next level up, the slightly more expensive room is actually their family ocean view. So those rooms, it's on deck 11 in the front of the ship in the forward and they are huge square footage wise because it's that extra outside space, but really inside. So they have these beautiful big like almost bay windows looking out of the front of the ship.
And there's also like a secret suite, one that's a corner room of this category. And they sell out. I mean, I can barely find them for like spring of 2028 at this point. Those, that one room, that secret suite sells out super fast. And then you go into the one bedrooms, the tower suites, the ones that fit a slightly larger family.
And you also get some higher perks as you move up. The top picture is the newer one bedroom on the Destiny.
And it's just, it's beautiful. You get a full size dining room table. You're able to order takeout to any of the adult restaurants. You can get hot breakfast in your room.
So when you have that dining room table in there, you get some extra perks as well.
[01:01:34] Speaker B: I was going to say that the concierge staterooms are the place where Disney has differentiated between ship club classes the most. I feel like you'll find all of the other stateroom categories we've discussed are on all of the ships in some fashion, except for the deluxe inside staterooms, which are exclusive to the wish class.
[01:01:56] Speaker A: But
[01:01:56] Speaker B: in concierge, you start off with to your point, like the family stateroom, the deluxe family stateroom with veranda. In concierge, basically the same stateroom with, you know, nicer touches and some changes in decor that's available fleet wide. One bedrooms, also in concierge, available, available fleet wide. On the Magic and the Wonder, you can get a two bedroom.
But just to like help people understand what that means, the second bedroom is not a full big bedroom. It's like a media room that has some bunk beds that come down. It's really meant for like kids or you can sit in there and like watch tv.
You also start to get more bathrooms as you go up into one bedroom and two bedroom. You'll frequently have like the master bathroom which is having sailed a gorgeous and huge comes with a like a real tub in addition to a stand up shower, double vanity sinks, all of that sort of stuff.
When you, when you. And the wonder and the magic and the dream and the fantasy, if I'm recalling correctly, the only suites they have on board beyond the one bedrooms and the two bedrooms on the magic class are the Roy and Walt Disney suites. So those were the largest ones you could get up until the winter Wish class. Then with the wish class they did away with the Roy and Walt suites and they started doing royal suites where they put more of them on the ship. And some of them are single floor, some of them are multi level. That's where you get into some of the videos where you see people standing in their bathroom with the ocean outside and they can hit a button and it like frosts the glass so people can't see in.
And of course the wish class is the first class to introduce the tower suite which now they have retrofitted onto the at least one of the dream class ships got a tower suite.
[01:03:39] Speaker C: And the fantasy. Yeah,
[01:03:40] Speaker B: they did both. Yeah. So the tower suite and so the suite categories in the newer ship classes you get more like you get more options in terms of your suite categories. But they're expensive.
[01:03:55] Speaker C: You
[01:03:55] Speaker B: could buy a new car for what you might spend on a suite or at least a used car on what you might spend on a suite on a Wish class ship. So you just need to know that going in. So yeah.
All right, I think we got to get to the potpourri here. Katie, I am excited to hear your thoughts on these like special hidden state rooms I think is what people call them.
So let's talk about a few special opportunities for staterooms on board.
[01:04:21] Speaker A: Yeah. And I know, I think sometimes people get confused. There are like secret spacious rooms. Like the picture on the left isn't an accessible room. So there are still rooms that have this split layout. Again none for my families of five. Okay. That third child. Child either bring a grandparent and get another room and then you can have a cool room like this or leave one at home.
But typically these rooms are the for families of three to four.
So this can be like a non accessible room. You get this split layout and it works for some people, it doesn't work for others.
This room would have that like single bathroom.
Some of them still do have this but layout. But you know you kind of get a mixed bag with this extra space and how I already mentioned like there is this like, secret suite in terms of like a concierge room.
But because of the Internet and nowadays and social media, all these rooms go so fast. So it's almost like, you know, when these new sailings get dropped and you're able to book with your castaway status, like, that's when we need to be planning like, hey, I want this specific state room. Because nine out of ten times they're going to already be sold. Sold out. The fantasy has really great extended veranda rooms, which again, like, not necessarily a huge perk for me. Like, I'm not going to be sitting out there with all three of my children.
But you know, if you're on an adult only cruise or even if you go with a couple, you know, girlfriends or friends, like, it would be fun to have that extra space.
And then the other part of this too is the like, really great theming.
So we have like a whole spreadsheet, a whole, you know, Google file of all the different movie themes with each state room, like literally down to. There's like a bajillion rooms on these spreadsheets. So if you're, if your child has a favorite Disney movie, like, I think it would be something so like a nice little extra touch for them to walk in and see this beautiful, like, mural on the wall, this picture on the wall of their favorite Disney movie.
Um, so we are able, and like I said, calling in and requesting rooms and doing all that stuff, we're, we are going to make this the most magical trip because like I said, and you can probably hear like, DCL has our heart.
I do. The parks is just not my thing anymore and my kids would rather be sailing on the ocean and hanging out at Castaway.
So, yeah, there are some, some good secrets out there.
[01:06:58] Speaker C: Yeah. One of the things that I think is also great for using your Travel Advisor to do for you is to make sure that you're getting the room you want, the location you want, if you're sailing back to back, that you're getting the same stateroom. Maybe your, your first preference of stateroom isn't available, but it's more important for you to not change rooms, for example, which
[01:07:18] Speaker A: is
[01:07:19] Speaker C: always the case for me. I would rather take my second or third choice or fourth choice room and not have to move staterooms. Right. So, like, having those conversations with Travel Advisor so that they know what your priorities are is really helpful because they can help walk through all of your different options.
Whether that is getting one of these secret rooms that basically is a suite, but you're paying for a regular room or has this extended veranda or maybe has this navigator veranda that you think is really cool and you want to stay in. All of those things are the benefit of working with a travel advisor who knows what they're doing and who's going to take that time to make sure you get exactly what you want as best as they can. Of course it has to be available.
So
[01:08:05] Speaker B: I just want to underline this point. Sorry, I just want to underline this point really fast. We had a unsolicited listener reached out.
[01:08:12] Speaker C: Oh yeah, this is great to let
[01:08:14] Speaker B: us know you said Good afternoon DCL Duo. I wanted to touch base and let you know that a few days after our live show we booked a cruise on the Disney fantasy after booking 10 cruises on my own. So this is coming from someone who traditionally has just done this stuff. Never
[01:08:28] Speaker C: used travel agent
[01:08:29] Speaker B: never used a travel agent for booking 10 cruises on my own. I decided use WeDoTravel right this time via the DCL Duo link. Of course he's calling out kelsey over at WeDoTravel. Right. Was assigned as my agent and did an amazing job as a repeat DCL customer. Being able to outsource the effort of searching for dates and times made the process completely seamless. I would love to reassure your listeners that there is no catch and that they are truly getting the best prices. This could be a great talking point if you ever choose to have me back on the the show. This is from Josh who is the ultramarathon runner, not Josh the DCL villain for those familiar. And we will absolutely have him re underscore this point when we have him back on in the future. But I wanted to take a moment to underscore it too because even if you've never used a travel agent before and you think I know everything, we use a travel agent and we know a ton about Disney Cruise
[01:09:22] Speaker C: Line.
[01:09:22] Speaker B: It's less about not knowing enough and more about just wanting to not have to take the time to do everything our and to Josh's point, there is no catch here. Like you're not paying extra and in fact I would argue some of the benefits with ouijotravel. Right. Like the, the, the booking folks. I forget the name of the benefit they call but the dining and
[01:09:43] Speaker C: dining and experiences
[01:09:45] Speaker B: like that is so great and it just, I mean I use
[01:09:50] Speaker A: it for myself.
[01:09:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:09:52] Speaker A: When I go on cruises. My they do it. They wake up midnight.
[01:09:56] Speaker C: Yeah. Tell people what the dining and experiences team is that we do travel. Right. Because we,
[01:10:00] Speaker A: we
[01:10:01] Speaker C: Ryan and I both think that this is one of the huge benefits of working with wdtr
[01:10:06] Speaker A: for sure.
They are amazing. I have a personal assistant. Her name is Brittany and she is wonderful. But we also have a whole team of lovely ladies. And I will say I'm very, I'm very selective about my, my dining assistant members who do my DC out because it is, it's pretty cutthroat compared to like, you know, Disney World, like dining reservations. Like to get bippity boppity or Royal gathering, you need to be on your phone on multiple devices at midnight. So it's like in the middle of the night for eastern time folks.
And they are so good at their job. They are. I mean, I can't stay up till midnight. I'm at 9pm it's past my bedtime at this point. So they are the ones that are getting on at midnight to get you those bookings.
They're organizing everything. Like they already know much like I know, but they know they're inside my brain. You know, it's like if a client wants Royal gathering and Bibbidi Baptist, they know to try to get Bibbidi Bopidi before the royal gathering so that their, their daughters are in their dresses for their pictures.
So they are just the most amazing group of people that you will ever come across and they make our job so much better for our DCL folks.
[01:11:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I just, I want to call out Vanessa
[01:11:23] Speaker C: Optimize. They know how to optimize the click through as well. They have practiced this so many times and they know like where to go first, what, what to get first, what to get second and how the click through works. Because knowing that makes a difference when you're talking seconds.
[01:11:38] Speaker B: I wanted to highlight Vanessa in the chat saying 41 cruises and I use a travel agent. And then she says something that's really important to know. Like she, she's like, I can choose how much I want to engage in the vacation planning here and do stuff on my own versus not. I'll also add, if you're thinking about booking back to back, you know, a maiden voyage, like for me it is so helpful to just email, you know, our travel advisor at we do travel right? And say, hey, we want to do these two cruises. Or I think for the destiny we're doing or for the. Sorry for the believer in three cruises back to back.
And like the core operating instruction was we want to be in the same stateroom because Sam will not tolerate moving staterooms on back to back sailing.
I went to bed, woke up. The booking was taken care of like when I. Because we're on the west coast. So it's for the west coast, it's less about.
[01:12:27] Speaker C: We had an email in our inbox from Emily saying you're booked.
[01:12:30] Speaker B: Yeah, for the west coast, it's less of a late night issue. It's more of a, like a, I don't want to be up at 4 o' clock in the morning or 8, 5 o' clock in the morning to book my cruises. And
[01:12:39] Speaker A: yeah,
[01:12:39] Speaker B: to book three and get the same stateroom. Like I can't have three devices working at once on booking three different cruises. Like, I just can't juggle that, especially without coffee. So I just want to wholeheartedly support, like if you have not used, if you've been sailing for a long time in Disney Cruise Line, you can keep doing what you're doing or you can, you can just offload some of it to a really great travel agent. And we love, we do travel. Right. Whoever you choose to use just know like it's, it is an added bonus that, that you can do this and it doesn't cost you anything. So. Yeah,
[01:13:11] Speaker C: right. And you're supporting a small business because your money is either to going, going to the Walt Disney Company or your money could at least partially go to a small business owner like Katie and all of the other travel advisors that we do travel. Right. Katie, why don't you tell folks where they can find you if they want to reach out to you directly? Brian can put our link. Can you put our banner link? Brian? It's we do travelright.comdclduo but if people want to directly reach out to you, Katie, how you can, can they do that?
[01:13:44] Speaker A: Yeah. So my Instagram, which is I think nowadays where a lot of work comes from, is Magical Disney Therapist. For those of you who don't know, I am also a therapist. I'm like kind of in my little office corner over here and I, I mostly, I focus on postpartum and pregnancy moms. I do a lot of family work in that area. So I bring a lot of my clinical skills to this business. Especially when we were just talking about anx with verandas and you know, just being in the ocean in general. So I love kind of this combo of jobs that I'm able to do. So my, my Instagram handle is Magical Disney Therapist and then my email is the same
[email protected].
also on the We Do Travel website, there is obviously the DCL Duo and there's a little write up of myself as well.
[01:14:36] Speaker C: Yeah. Katie, maybe you should think about bundling your services. Like
[01:14:42] Speaker A: I have. There's, there's like, I think a weird gray area of like hip on the other side, I guess maybe on both sides. Right. But you
[01:14:50] Speaker B: just need consent. You just need consent.
[01:14:54] Speaker A: Exactly. They're the best. I mean, you get some therapy, you get some Disney. I mean and combining the both is. I'm so thankful to be able to do that.
[01:15:03] Speaker C: Yeah, well, Disney in a lot of ways is therapy. But Katie, thank you so much for joining us. This has been so much fun having you on the show.
Brian, who do we have visiting with us next week?
[01:15:15] Speaker B: You always ask me this.
[01:15:16] Speaker C: This
[01:15:17] Speaker B: is. You schedule live shows. I don't.
[01:15:20] Speaker C: I know. I have to just check really, really quick.
Oh, we've got, we have Dr. Chris. Dr. Chris is going to chat with us about from being park obsessed to becoming cruise obsessed. The journey of a parks lover turned cruise lover. He just recently sailed on the Disney destiny for the first time as well. So we're going to be talking with Dr. Chris next week at our normal time, just like tonight. So at 5pm Pacific at 8pm Eastern on Tuesday.
[01:15:51] Speaker B: Yes. And just to give you a preview, we will have that show next week as our regular live show. We will be dark for the week that of the Thanksgiving holiday which is the week following.
I think when we get back. I just want to tease this because I'm excited the DCL villain is returning. I can't remember if it's the first week in December or the one right after.
[01:16:11] Speaker C: Not the first week. No, it's not the first week in December. The first week in December. We're going to be 20 joined by Emily and Scott from. We do travel. Right.
[01:16:18] Speaker B: Talking about their. Also excited about that. Yeah. So
[01:16:23] Speaker C: we have some fabulous shows coming up for the, for the rest of the year into the new year. We'll be talking lots of maritime stuff. We'll be talking lots of. We have several New Year's Eve episodes coming and we will have the DCL Duo villain, Josh.
[01:16:40] Speaker B: Wait, Josh is not a villain. He's the DCL villain. He, he, he, he's not against us. He has hot takes about the cruise line.
[01:16:48] Speaker C: Yes, yes, yes. I, yes, but I. Okay, anyway, anyway, with that we'll say thank you to Katie. Thank you to all of you watching and listening to us live.
Thank you to all of those listening after the fact. Don't forget to go onto YouTube and like this episode but also to subscribe to our YouTube. Why don't you Also go over to we do travel rights, YouTube and give them a subscribe as well. And with all of that, I'll say we'll see you next week.
Lovely rest of your week everyone. Thank you so much.
[01:17:23] Speaker D: All right, that's our show for tonight, but thank you so much for listening. If you're not subscribed yet, please fix that right now. Head over to Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hit that subscribe button. We're dropping at least two episodes a week plus we're live each and every week over on our YouTube channel. YouTube.
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