[SPEAKER_00]: And welcome to very amusing your one-stop shop for the story secrets and genanigans of a popcorn fueled theme park journalist.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Carly Waysout and it is Tuesday morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't usually record this close to publishing day on Wednesday.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I just want to tell you straight up from the jump.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: when this podcast is coming out because I am very behind schedule because I have been just truly sidetracks and more involved in the launch of a music polluse and it has gone so well it has been so exciting and I am overjoyed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I moment to go this is Tuesday morning again.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've shared with everyone that we are reaching our numbers more quickly than we thought.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did not anticipate that I would be on mic being like,
[SPEAKER_00]: music pollusa is live and then also be like it might close soon and this is not this is absolute shock I had a number I was anticipating we would eventually get to and we got to that number within hours so it is so exciting it is a little shocking I want to make sure everyone who wants to go can go but please know we will very likely be doing this again in the future because
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we've got a gaggle of people who are stoked to party at Disney World together and that is something I'm not going to give up easily and I'm going to make sure that we do more of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's really going to be something special and I hope to see some of you there.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be really great.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be really great and I'm
[SPEAKER_00]: Beyond stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you were listening to this podcast and it sounds like the audio quality is not good, that means that I blew my deadline and I have uploaded a version that I edited.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Jeff Fox version will be coming later.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is probably what's going to happen today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, a musical loser kind of took over in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It changed the schedule.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if this sounds a little weird, that means that the Jeff Fox version, the shiny, nice version, will be up later.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if it sounds great, that means Jeff Fox works overtime for me and I owe him even more of my life because we love Jeff Fox.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the best.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the most patient man in America.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we are grateful for him being able to tolerate microreasy.
[SPEAKER_00]: But a music alusa and dead lines being blown aside, I couldn't be more excited for this episode because we are talking about Royal Caribbean!
[SPEAKER_00]: And we were talking about Starb the Seas, which I just recently disembarked.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I'm gonna tell you from the jump, this, what I'm gonna say in this podcast about the ship is not what I thought I was gonna say.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had a pretty clear idea for like, oh, I think I'll know how I feel going on this ship in the experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought I had it all mapped out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did not.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got a lot to say.
[SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of it is good.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of it was shockingly good.
[SPEAKER_00]: I cannot wait to tell you about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And hopefully, just give you a new vacation option in your arsenal when it comes to doing fun, wacky trends.
[SPEAKER_00]: I also want to say happy HHN Orlando season.
[SPEAKER_00]: I sadly will not be there this week because it is my husband's fortieth birthday.
[SPEAKER_00]: And my child's also going to preschool.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's my husband's fortieth birthday.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got to stay home and give you running around getting
[SPEAKER_00]: What soaked in blood in the terrifier house?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even want to know what that wet path is.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's horrifying, but it's gonna be a fun day on social media.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have fun if you celebrate HAGEN.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will be at HAGEN Hollywood the following week.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, sorry.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got a text if you heard that from my friend Shay.
[SPEAKER_00]: We love Shay.
[SPEAKER_00]: We love Shay so much of the podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about real gritty and I'll see you on the other side.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bye.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back.
[SPEAKER_00]: And where do I even begin to discuss the largest cruise ship in the entire freaking world?
[SPEAKER_00]: Royal Caribbean star of the seas.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was something.
[SPEAKER_00]: It hasn't betted itself in my brain.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've actually had dreams before and after I got back about just ambiguously being on this cruise ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's how much it has taken up space in my brain because I have so much to tell you about.
[SPEAKER_00]: And while I have gotten a handful of questions, well, during and after my sailing about the experience and not the dining and about the activities, the big question, and perhaps the one I have gotten most, obviously, is how does it compare to Disney Cruise Line?
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're gonna get into that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I assure you, but we're gonna tackle that a bit later, because I just want to tell you a little story first.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you listen to last week's episode, you know that after we disembarked, we went to Disney's wilderness lodge at Walt Disney World for one night.
[SPEAKER_00]: We just spent one night because going straight from the cruise to the airport is just a lot with a toddler.
[SPEAKER_00]: So on to just have one night to chill out, hang out, and then head back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, what I didn't mention is that when we were at the pool during the day, we ran into an acquaintance.
[SPEAKER_00]: We ran to someone I sort of kind of know.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we were talking to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were there with their family.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was raving to them about Royal Caribbean.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, oh,
[SPEAKER_00]: The star of the season was awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had a great time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like pretty shocked by how much fun I had.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in talking to them, they were like, oh, cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were talking about all the different things on board.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they said something along the lines of, I don't really think we're royal Caribbean people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I immediately realized in that moment that, yeah, I get that instinct.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I no longer felt that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: This sailing on start this season changed that for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're before when I was booking a cruise for myself, I probably wouldn't have looked at Royal Caribbean.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would probably just kind of, you know, stick to what I know, stick to Disney.
[SPEAKER_00]: But now that I have seen start this season, I can't say that if you work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now for context, I have sailed Royal Caribbean before, in my youth when I was young, maybe like, thirteen, fourteen, we did an older ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I sailed again in twenty sixteen on one of their oldest ships for a buyout for Zumba crews.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was reporting on Zumba crews.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have the feather in my cap of being a stunt journalist.
[SPEAKER_00]: And going to truly a cruise ship full of Zoom Buns structures, it was the wildest thing we've ever done.
[SPEAKER_00]: I obviously brought my mom.
[SPEAKER_00]: We did about seven dance classes a day.
[SPEAKER_00]: I interviewed Beto Perez, the guy who founded Zoom Bo while he was very, very ill.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like he definitely had the flu.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's this is pre-pandemic and it's just how we rolled.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I need that's an aside.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, like that has been my experience with Royal Caribbean.
[SPEAKER_00]: I went as a teen.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought it was fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: I made some friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: I went for work.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But ever since I fell into cruise coverage, I kind of been like, here and more and more about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been hearing about their island, I'm hearing about experiences.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I never really considered it as something that kind of fell into my cinematic preview until I caught wind of royal railway utopia station.
[SPEAKER_00]: The immersive themed restaurant aboard utopia of the seas, which we didn't episode about back in twenty twenty four.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will put that in the show notes if you haven't listened.
[SPEAKER_00]: But ever since I did that interview, and I heard more about really the seeming that they were bringing to these chips, I've been kind of, hmm, about Royal Caribbean.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just a little voice in my head going, oh, because well, a lot of what we do is so theme park centric, there are many innovative experiences emerging at sea that are kind of right up the alley of what we enjoy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been curious about Royal Caribbean since then, but since that episode, I actually have not been able to make it on a ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: There were multiple cruises that I was supposed to go on, but because of scheduling and things, it just never paned out until this one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Boy, am I glad I made it on board?
[SPEAKER_00]: Star of the seas, or, again, as I like to call it, the biggest cruise ship in the entire world, is second of its con.
[SPEAKER_00]: Icon of the seas came right before it, their sister ships, but they have made tweaks to star of the seas to improve upon that concept.
[SPEAKER_00]: Additional dining concepts, different shows, enhancements, things like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I went into this cruise knowing essentially nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I tried to do a little research, but honestly, the Royal Caribbean website is confusing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's confusing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, from a user's perspective, it is very confusing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a stellar showpiece for the vibe and the feel of the cruise.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like an inshining.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure it looks great in a corporate meeting, but it's very, very hard to wrap once head around what this ship is and to get the guide into you need for your trip for someone who has never sailed on anything like this just by going online.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I, like some of you might approach this, I went into this sailing pretty green.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I've been on cruises, but I didn't know what to expect from this one.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was just ready to see what was ahead.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was excited, but I was a little nervous, which I'm sure is something many of you have experienced in trying a very new to you vacation.
[SPEAKER_00]: But trying something new is excited.
[SPEAKER_00]: I knew star of the seas had water slides.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had this like courtyard with greenery.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had a wind jammer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone's got a win jammer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone's got the buffet.
[SPEAKER_00]: But most everything else on board was a total surprise to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I looked up the decks in advance.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I don't know where I don't know what's going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just went on.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just walked on and was like, okay, ship, present yourself to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when I tell you, everything on board was a surprise.
[SPEAKER_00]: And wow, did Royal Caribbean surprise me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I, guys, I had the time of my life on this sailing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was shocked.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought I would come back with a more, you know, balanced review.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, I liked this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would think it would be one of those episodes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And don't worry, I have a lot of feedback.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have real critiques.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're a handful of critiques and then might make her break the ship for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't worry.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna get on.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like we always do.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I opened myself up and gave Royal Caribbean the opportunity to wow me and they did.
[SPEAKER_00]: They really did.
[SPEAKER_00]: The ship's design was like nothing I was ever familiar with.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you and your brain picture a cruise ship, you're pictureing kind of like a rectangle shape.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's like decks, decks, decks, decks, decks all the way up.
[SPEAKER_00]: The design of ships like this is essentially decks, decks, decks, decks, decks, and then two stacks on either side of the ships.
[SPEAKER_00]: By doing so, they have made and developed these interior courtyard spaces, which they have completely themed through.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've heard of Royal Caribbean's Central Park, that's what that middle corridor is.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is an area with dining, with music, with bars, with lounges, but also, it is so lush and filled with plants.
[SPEAKER_00]: And while you can't see the ocean from there, if you look up, you can see the sky and the decks above, and it is pretty airy and open.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have other spaces like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: including these surf side neighborhood, which is where our room was located.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is more of the kids area, and I love that they separated this from everything else because not everybody wants to be the kids area.
[SPEAKER_00]: Trust me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this area was just chock full of experiences for young kids, young and kind of, I don't want to say middle age kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you call middle?
[SPEAKER_00]: Middle?
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you call like a tweet?
[SPEAKER_00]: Not a tweet.
[SPEAKER_00]: What if you're not a kid and you're not a tweet and you're not a toddler, you're not a kid, you're not a tweet.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's that?
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're eight, what are you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that a tween?
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess that is a tween because you're between what?
[SPEAKER_00]: What?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Toddler?
[SPEAKER_00]: Kid?
[SPEAKER_00]: Tween?
[SPEAKER_00]: What does we get in tween?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Under tens.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just call them under tens and make my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they had this area.
[SPEAKER_00]: They was completely full and separate from the rest of the ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: They was just an unborn playground of experiences for children.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had all these different areas up on the top deck was the area with the water slides with the activities and they split it up in a way that was wholly unfamiliar to me and actually really, really cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the middle where you board the ship was the main area where they had restaurants, they had grab and go cafes, they had entertainment, like there was just a lot happening in that main corridor, that main atrium.
[SPEAKER_00]: almost mall like if I had to describe it as something and that was all in this center.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was just such an interesting layout that I was unfamiliar with and walked away really quite enjoying it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as you can imagine, every video I took, every comment I had in those first twenty four hours was just me slack jawed walking around dumbfounded in my surroundings.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once I boarded, I almost immediately met up with Becky, who you know from the podcast, Becky from MEI Travel Nelson Travel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because Becky is like Loki, a Royal Caribbean expert.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Becky walked me around the ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was my personal tour guide to help me get my bearings going from grabbing three hummus and veggies to walking through Central Park where that plant life just exploded from the decks.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was all over.
[SPEAKER_00]: Life music was coming from venues.
[SPEAKER_00]: Over here there was a sushi restaurant with bubble ice cream cones over there, a steakhouse, a champagne bar,
[SPEAKER_00]: There was this grab and go sandwich place I never even found time to go to that has free roast beef sandwiches that everyone talks about.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like a thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like their Mickey Waffles like these roast beef sandwiches.
[SPEAKER_00]: The more I looked around the more I saw the more I just kept whispering to her like I feel like I'm on the moon.
[SPEAKER_00]: I felt like I was on the moon.
[SPEAKER_00]: My head was just kind of spinning with the options and spaces and sheer size of the ship, but I really wasn't overwhelmed.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was organized.
[SPEAKER_00]: The maps were really, really clear.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there was so much to see and so much to do, but no pressure and no schedule in doing any of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It all felt very refreshingly free-flowing and easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by day two, I was kind of getting into a routine.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd wake up.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is me, you can't see me right now, but I'm like walking over, walking over to the shoes bar by the spa.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was going to get a morning latte, either at Starbucks, we can have a Starbucks, I'm more at wild.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or at the aptly named Pearl Cafe, who by the way had fantastic food.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pearl really wanted a cupcake, which was the muffin, and I got it for her, and I was like, fine, like how good could this pastry be?
[SPEAKER_00]: It was!
[SPEAKER_00]: Bob, like the food, we're gonna get to the food, but pastry was good.
[SPEAKER_00]: I even by the end of the trip had a preferred grab and go breakfast from Pearl Cafe.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had this musely, or they had these like peanut butter overnight oats, which felt so similar to how I prefer to live and how I live back home.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't love a big hot breakfast, even on vacation, like I don't always want a plate of bacon and eggs within twenty minutes of getting out of bed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And to be able to casually visit this onboard coffee shop,
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, ProCathé opened twenty four hours with grab and go meals and food throughout the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sweet streets, grab and go all day, all night, incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that?
[SPEAKER_00]: With something I didn't know I needed and wanted on a trip like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't always have sent meal times when I'm running around on vacation, or especially when I'm traveling with a child.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this high seas equivalent to a coffee shop at a hotel perfectly met my needs in a way I really hadn't experienced before.
[SPEAKER_00]: The footprint of this ship was massive, but I want to let you know from the jump.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was not massive in a big way.
[SPEAKER_00]: It really began to make sense over time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because of that layout that I explained to you, like that kind of double stack, most stuff was in the front or in the back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, a lot of the experiences were tip-to-tail, not as much on the sides.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was almost fun to just wander through them and be like, where am I?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's next?
[SPEAKER_00]: Kind of like your first visit to a theme park where the lands just go and go and go and go.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, this isn't your ordinary cruise ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was more like a spaceship.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a spaceship.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I, I felt like and I don't want to compare it to this movie because a lot of people haven't seen it and if you haven't seen it, it's not very good.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm sorry that you lost two hours of your life, but it reminded me a little of passengers.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's your deep god, deep god, yeah, I'm in Jennifer Lawrence fan, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: Get over it, I love her.
[SPEAKER_00]: It reminded me of passengers like this shiny shiny without the darkness, of course.
[SPEAKER_00]: But like this shiny ship just full of everything to sustain itself while it is out and see it.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a positive thing, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that movie a lot of people did not like.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a huge plot twist, which I do not like either.
[SPEAKER_00]: But forget the plot, we're talking about the ship and ship was cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, this was a city floating in sea.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how it was floating.
[SPEAKER_00]: I never felt movement on the ship and yet it was.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cruises sometimes give people the Ick.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cruises give people the Ick.
[SPEAKER_00]: We all know this.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the Ick factor here honestly has never been lower.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything was really high quality.
[SPEAKER_00]: The furniture, the food, the room.
[SPEAKER_00]: My mom, Pearl and I stayed in a surf side family suite, which is a little bigger than a traditional room and configured a little differently.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a great concept, but in execution, the room didn't work as well as I hoped it would.
[SPEAKER_00]: The sheep in the room was pretty interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: You walk in, there's a split bathroom, which you may be familiar with if you've sailed on Disney Cruise Line, and then as you walk into the room, there's a closet on one side, the bed on the other, and then this nook.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a nook with a pull-out couch and a separate TV and shelving, which basically makes a small kids room within your own room.
[SPEAKER_00]: That nook ended up being great for winding down, and we intended for pearl to sleep in that space.
[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't end up happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a lot to praise here, and there were some fantastic features to the room.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had huge wonderful TVs, so much storage space.
[SPEAKER_00]: A bed that splits into two beds.
[SPEAKER_00]: Supposed to two beds, I don't have to bunk with my mom the whole time, which is huge for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know how nice that is?
[SPEAKER_00]: I had my own bed, the entire trip, the entire trip that never happens.
[SPEAKER_00]: It never happens, glorious, glorious for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there were some things in this room that just made you go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like day one, we get there, we unpack.
[SPEAKER_00]: I go to put my suitcase under the bed and it just doesn't fit.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no room, which is strange because I just got here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they store everything for the room under one of the beds.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we couldn't hide away one of our suitcases because that space was full of toilet paper and spare blankets.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we had to just walk around the suitcase the whole time.
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, there's two sides to every coin when we needed to spare blanket.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me tell ya.
[SPEAKER_00]: pretty convenient stuff like that kept happening actually like they're not being a bathtub in a family specific suite was interesting but now protein showers at home so it all just kind of worked out
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't even feel claustrophobic not seeing the ocean because our room faced opposite other rooms in that surfside area I mentioned so we got light like you can still see outside.
[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't feel like you were indoors the way that you kind of technically were.
[SPEAKER_00]: BUT!
[SPEAKER_00]: We kept forgetting our neighbors were very close to us, and some of them probably got a show, which is not ideal and definitely on us, but oops, we made a mistake and we move on.
[SPEAKER_00]: I also want to praise Royal Caribbean for doing one thing with the balcony, which is adding a lock that is up at the top of the door, which is genius.
[SPEAKER_00]: I never once worried about Pearl going out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then again, none of us went out there so it wasn't a concern.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the balcony was kind of useless.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it was so humid out on this balcony, like so humid.
[SPEAKER_00]: Probably because we didn't have a lot of breeze.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if that's from the design or just from the fact that we weren't moving very fast because we weren't going far on this small kind of media bi-out sailing.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we truly never went out there for a second.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I actually read about that beforehand from other people's reviews of these rooms.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't anticipate it to be true.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't, I was like, humid?
[SPEAKER_00]: Come on.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're in, we're at sea.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can't be that bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it was quite humid.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was quite humid.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we didn't end up using it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it did end up being a bit of a waste of space, which is why other rooms that are designed on the ship, I do think might be better choices, simply because of the way they reclaim balcony space, which we will talk about in a second.
[SPEAKER_00]: regardless.
[SPEAKER_00]: The one big critique I'd like to this room but there were flaws as we're saying and the one big critique was this nook.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ideally we were set up for the most success possible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Probative slept in her crib on the other side of the curtain we could have closed it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pearl has her own room we could stay up all night go like one of us could go out and come back easily we can get ready easy peasy pie wonderful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Only the AC didn't work well enough in that space if the curtain was closed.
[SPEAKER_00]: We found this out the hard way.
[SPEAKER_00]: My mom still has residual guilt for me because we kind of hotboxed Pearl with humid air, not knowing while she was napping.
[SPEAKER_00]: which was not great, which was not a great experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was actually like pretty bad, and so she ended up sleeping in the middle of the room the entire time, which is not the reason someone would want to pay for and book this room.
[SPEAKER_00]: It worked out for us, it was fine, but not ideal, especially if you were going on vacation, specifically selecting this room.
[SPEAKER_00]: We did have it fixed and it still didn't really fix it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for a paying guest, it would have been a pretty rough experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I am hoping this was just our room, just our experience and something only we saw on the cruise.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the room itself was nice.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was nice.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was clean and felt chic and had this gorgeous big shower.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like the shower was shockingly big and roomy and powerful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, sometimes you take a shower on a cruise and like those that water has no wounds behind it.
[SPEAKER_00]: This one was great.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there's a glass door that folds it in.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ah, we love an innovation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, they had mountain and gets products.
[SPEAKER_00]: What?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you kidding me?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's better than most hotel products I've ever seen in my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was shocked by that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those aren't really good products, and they had all the different funds since.
[SPEAKER_00]: Shocking, incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was definitely nice, and at no point did I feel smushed or kind of packed in, like we had room to move about, and it was nice.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the room felt quite open because of the configuration, which meant like, no, you know, kind of, eh eh eh eh eh, sliding past the bed to get anywhere, which was refreshing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just to loop back real quick about what I said about the balconies.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we were in a family suite, but there are truly an unbelievable amount of different room styles on this ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, a level I am not familiar with.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we boarded, we were giving this laminate and they were like, okay, go check out the rooms.
[SPEAKER_00]: All these rooms are open.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were like, dirty rooms on that list.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are categories of rooms I've never even heard of.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have like, they have a room with bunk beds, which I never, I didn't find.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's apparently somewhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have rooms where your balcony is reclaimed, so if your balcony is inside the room, and then you just...
[SPEAKER_00]: hold down part of a wall and then boom, air is coming in, your whole room is a balcony and then you put it back up and you have that extra space, like having extra space for a suitcase and for seating is kind of exceptional while still having a balcony, innovative, wild.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they also have a room where you can be laying in bed looking at the ocean.
[SPEAKER_00]: What?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all I ever want I don't even know those possible I don't know why all cruises aren't that I guess cuz like you have to get around but there's one room that I saw where it's like you're like you're in a bed and you look out and it's ocean all that is to say I just want I just want to let you know sidebar if you were thinking about planning a cruise like this please reach out to mouse band travel and me I travel they know this product inside and out in a way I do not I'm just here being like what is happening
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you are curious, I want to make sure that you have someone to help you along in your journey, literally, to make sure your trip can be planned.
[SPEAKER_00]: Last time travel time comes such an amazing, you know this, but I usually don't like mention them in the episode like this, but they know what they're doing when it comes to Royal Caribbean.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am just here just a gag, just can't believe what's going on, because I was wowed.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was wowed and I'm still kind of gathering my thoughts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, and I'm dreaming about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't really get it together.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's what?
[SPEAKER_00]: But the main reason we are even discussing a cruise line other than Disney on a theme park podcast, which did you ever think this would happen?
[SPEAKER_00]: I did not, but we are doing it because Royal Caribbean star of the seas has unbelievable on-board offerings.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you straight up and I texted this to my friend Jeffrey,
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so sorry, Jeffrey.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jeffrey went on this cruise immediately after me, which is so funny.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were literally ships passing in the night.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I texted Jeffrey and was like, if you're bored on this ship, you're helpless.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's true.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was not bored.
[SPEAKER_00]: I preemptively said that to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, they're so much to do if you're bored you're helpless.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's really how I feel.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have endless stuff I didn't even have the time to experience and I didn't even see.
[SPEAKER_00]: They apparently have laser tag, where was that?
[SPEAKER_00]: We're about to ship for three nights.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't even cover a fifth of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have laser tag, they have rock climbing wall, they have this weird zip line thing where like you zip line, you zip line and then the bottom gives out and you float
[SPEAKER_00]: out over the ocean back around to the ship, not a chance, not a chance, I'm a flown over the ocean, I am a mother.
[SPEAKER_00]: I cannot laugh in the face of gravity and peril the way I once put in my youth.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, but if you are brave, I encourage you people over there having a ball.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is just so, so, so much happening all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And an unbelievable amount of phenomenal live music.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pools all over the place.
[SPEAKER_00]: Many golf.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's an escape room.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's just so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the younger kids area, I was really anticipating a splash pad.
[SPEAKER_00]: A little bit too slide.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not much.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nah.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had multiple levels of baby sides and pools and play areas and splash pads.
[SPEAKER_00]: and like so many different options that were all offered with a view of the ocean on the side of the ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had multiple restaurants just in this area.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had a bar where you can get a fancy drink for you and a little baby drink for your kiddo.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had a merry-go-round which I went on no less than twelve times.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had balloon animals, games, activities.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was just endless.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was an endless amount of things to do for people of all ages.
[SPEAKER_00]: In that area, but also beyond.
[SPEAKER_00]: The sheer plethora of activities on the ship was beyond my wildest dreams as a girl who loves to do too much.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would tell you firsthand if I was like, ah, there's like many golf and there's like ping pong, but I really don't think you could do enough for a week.
[SPEAKER_00]: You could go on the ship for a week and never step foot off board and you probably still wouldn't be able to do it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the flip side of that is that one of my main complaints about this ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, I, I really had a good time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if that would make complaints.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of my main complaints is that I, this is gonna, this is gonna sound wild.
[SPEAKER_00]: I barely saw the ocean.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because they have this like double stack situation going on, you are in interior spaces more than you commonly would be.
[SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of these themed interior spaces don't have portals out outside of the ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like,
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I didn't really see the ocean that much.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, the last night I was like, oh, I'm gonna go for a run.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna get my final views of the water.
[SPEAKER_00]: The view is lifeboats.
[SPEAKER_00]: The views of lifeboats.
[SPEAKER_00]: The same view is from the dining room.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I'm used to walking around looking out a portal as I walked down a hall, seeing ocean.
[SPEAKER_00]: And nah, I didn't see it on ocean.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, to the point where now I gaze longingly at water, like water, I missed you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, there's truly too much fun to be had where I didn't see ocean.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that I think is a testament to how much they have jam packed in the ship and how much fun you can have on board.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's really not hyperbole because anything you would want to do in your leisure time, you can do a board this ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jazz bar, they got it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Comedy club.
[SPEAKER_00]: They got it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And not just a comedian in this theater.
[SPEAKER_00]: They fully built a comedy club like a full comedy club.
[SPEAKER_00]: I went in it for a meeting and was like, oh my god, this is legit comedy club casino food haul coffee cocktails fancy cold brew indoor parade for essentials they got it all they've even got
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, they've got Sailor a dog lives on board Sailor is so soft and so sweet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my god.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got to meet Sailor.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know people who subscribed to me and Instagram know that I was desperate to meet Sailor.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got to meet Sailor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pro got to meet Sailor.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was really something.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they've got a dog like that should be the end of all be all, but like they've got everything they've got a man who plays a roving roaming piano who goes in the elevator and plays piano and then you can hear the like the music coming out through the elevator.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've got a luxury handbag store.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've got a full blown sports bar.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've got fresh cotton candy in a sweet shop.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've got a full blow dry hair salon.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've got kids clubs.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've got pickle bull.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've got a dueling piano bar.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even Disney World doesn't have that anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: Disney World doesn't have their dueling piano bar, but you know who has dueling piano bar?
[SPEAKER_00]: Star of the freaking seas.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the real standout when it came to onboard activities for me was category six.
[SPEAKER_00]: The consultant named Water Park.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when I say Water Park, I mean Water Park.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had an actual water park on this ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not like a term that they're flinging around.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not PR people saying, we both love if you could call these slides a water park, which by the way think, okay, I think enough time is passed, I can admit this.
[SPEAKER_00]: They low key did that when Volcano Bay came out.
[SPEAKER_00]: They kept being like, it's a water theme park, and we were supposed to use that terminology, which is true.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is kind of a water theme park, but what a phrase.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, this was a water park.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wrote two gigantic huge raft slides, like two big boys.
[SPEAKER_00]: and I didn't even make it to the other half where there were more slides.
[SPEAKER_00]: I never even swam in an adult pool or any of the main pools.
[SPEAKER_00]: There were just that many experiences so readily available that it would have been impossible to do all of them in the time that I had.
[SPEAKER_00]: Proofs of them offering way more than you would expect at sea.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as much as there was to do, and as much fun as I had the first half of the sailing.
[SPEAKER_00]: After about a day and a half, I kept hearing this voice in my head.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was kind of like ringing a bell saying, why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I was having fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was enjoying myself and I was enjoying walking around and seeing all the new things.
[SPEAKER_00]: But after the newness began to wear off, I kept thinking, why is this restaurant here?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why is this bar there?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the point of all of this being on this ship?
[SPEAKER_00]: Am I just doing things I like doing at home just at sea?
[SPEAKER_00]: I was enjoying myself, but I did find myself longing for something more.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's something
[SPEAKER_00]: was storytelling.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have crossed extensively with Disney Cruise Line, which is admittedly my favorite Cruise Line.
[SPEAKER_00]: No offense Royal Caribbean.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had a fantastic time the ship rocks, but I'm just very new to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm very new to you and I can't quite say that yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have realized as I get older, like something I really enjoy in my free time and invocation is placemaking.
[SPEAKER_00]: And let me just zoom out for a minute away from cruises and explain what I mean by this.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we're discussing traditional launching, like hotels, luxury chains, beach side escapes.
[SPEAKER_00]: To me, in twenty twenty five, they're all starting to look interchangeable.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pretty patio furniture, umbrellas, and avocado toast, a chic little rectangle pool, like it's all kind of the same.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's really no place making happening at most vacation destinations these days.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you show me a photo of a nice hotel in Florida, in Hawaii, in Mexico, in the Caribbean.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you put those photos in front of me, I probably wouldn't be able to distinguish one of these hotels from the other.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's why, personally, and professionally, on my vacations, when I get to choose what I'm doing, I'm looking for something special.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm looking for something that sets a place apart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everywhere has good stake.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, everywhere has good stake.
[SPEAKER_00]: And no offense.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everywhere has Starbucks.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everywhere has these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when I'm traveling, I'm looking for something more.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's one of the reasons I travel with Disney so often.
[SPEAKER_00]: For Disney and especially Disney Cruise Line.
[SPEAKER_00]: Storytelling really is behind every decision they make.
[SPEAKER_00]: The carpeting, the lamps, the detail, the menus.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of it is not just inspired by their library of work, but a library of work that also draws upon your own life experience and memories of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Disney Cruise Line offers this layered vacation where you're not just at a bar.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're at a bar that's inspired by a film.
[SPEAKER_00]: Real art that real people made.
[SPEAKER_00]: And on top of that, you also have your own memories from watching that art either in your youth or your adulthood.
[SPEAKER_00]: That mix of thoughtful design and artistic inspiration and real world experience is what makes Disney so special.
[SPEAKER_00]: In my opinion, that's the Disney difference.
[SPEAKER_00]: They offer this layered experience that even for someone like me who takes the full spectrum of vacations is always searching for and often can't find other people replicating well.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the first day and a half on the ship, I kept craving something like that, something that felt different, unique and most importantly, artistic.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was really, really missing that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And on the second day,
[SPEAKER_00]: I got it.
[UNKNOWN]: I got it in the place.
[SPEAKER_00]: I least expected.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I will tell you about that after this break.
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what I was saying before is that I kept searching for this storytelling element aboard the ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why are we here?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is the purpose to all of this?
[SPEAKER_00]: And the place I found it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The place that brought this ship together for me that really set it apart from many, many other vacation destinations was the ice rink.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stick with me here, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is going somewhere I promise.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't just an ice ring.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rogue Hermione has ice rings on many of their ships, but it was the show that I saw there.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have this show called Soul.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is the ice skating show, a board star of the seas.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it is one of the best shows I've ever seen in my entire life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was blown away.
[SPEAKER_00]: I spent half the show turning to my mom going, what is going on?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she had turned to me being like, what is this?
[SPEAKER_00]: The talent, the costumes, the artistry, the music, it was exceptional.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that voice that voice I had in my head being like, why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, itching for that storytelling.
[SPEAKER_00]: That voice searching for something more went away and did not come back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the gist of the show is essentially a day from sunrise to sunset.
[SPEAKER_00]: It begins with breakfast in a cafe, and I'm pretty sure it was Miami.
[SPEAKER_00]: A daytime rodeo, and then sunset, it ends on the Santa Monica pier.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've got projections on the ice and on the wall.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've got frigging ice skates that looked like cowboy boots and converse.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had one that looked like converse.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was so
[SPEAKER_00]: cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had unfathomable choreography, and the most banana stunts you've seen someone do on ice wall on a ship moving through the ocean.
[SPEAKER_00]: They also had this one soloist who definitely competed at the Olympics, like straight up solo metalist, like this dude was so talented.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I felt this way, not just at the show, so many of the live performances on this ship just left me gobsmacked by athletes thriving.
[SPEAKER_00]: And how cool is it that you can see real talent, not just the type of dancing and singing and performing that we're used to, but athletic talent on your vacation.
[SPEAKER_00]: There were three kind of showpiece performances on this ship, and Saul was just one of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, I could not stop taking video of Saul.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was trying to enjoy it, and I wanted to take video, and the tricks they did, the flips, the moves.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was like one time when there was a row with them, at the rodeo, and then the row, like, passed with the other row, he thought they were going to each other, unbelievable.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know for about Saul, I could talk about Saul for the rest of my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm probably going to have to do a stand-alone episode about Saul, because it was,
[SPEAKER_00]: That's shows I've ever seen, but start with these has three shows.
[SPEAKER_00]: Soul is one of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: The other real original show is torque.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, torque takes place in their awkward dome, because that's a thing here.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's basically a mixed use salarium with a big hole filled with water in the middle, and a bunch of other.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so they've like this big hole in the middle in this imaginable salarium.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then they have this big hole in the middle filled with water.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't figure out how deep it is to show blue my mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have divers, diving off these platforms, doing flips, doing spins, doing all these things while they have dancers.
[SPEAKER_00]: They also have synchronized swimmers.
[SPEAKER_00]: They also have acrobatics.
[SPEAKER_00]: Torqued like truly had everything in a very step on SNL kind of way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like every time they brought where people out, I was like, are they gonna dance or they're gonna spin or they're gonna swim?
[SPEAKER_00]: They would jump into this tiny pool and then just disappear.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where did they go?
[SPEAKER_00]: How did they get to the diving platform so high?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it was truly phenomenal.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one of the wildest things about Torque was that it was not working.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like they began the show being like, we are still in rehearsal.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna start the show ten minutes in because something is not functioning in the show.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if he was these big robot arms that they have, they didn't use for lighting.
[SPEAKER_00]: They said the lift was broken.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what that meant.
[SPEAKER_00]: You never would have known because you just got to see world class athletes performing at the highest level and also having fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: And to watch an athlete have fun in real life, to watch this level of sheer talent, perform while on a cruise ship was unreal.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the set of this theater was also bananas.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't, I was assuming it would be just like stadium seating.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had mixed you seating so you can just like lay and like allow, like not like a comfy furniture lounge chair, just like relax in these big kind of sofas.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had so much comfy seating that just made this feel so special.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was so special and it really,
[SPEAKER_00]: elevated when I already liked about this sailing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, we'll say it is pretty funny that the show was themed.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's called Torquets themed kind of after automobiles after things like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is funny that like the one thing in automobile can't withstand is water.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how they got there.
[SPEAKER_00]: The show works, but I must have been an uphill sell and whenever they did, they pulled it off and it was quite fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they have those two shows and then they also have back to the future, the musical.
[SPEAKER_00]: Straight from Broadway is their telling me and I was only able to see about half of the first act of the show.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was other stuff I had to go do, but the talent was exceptional.
[SPEAKER_00]: And from what I hear from people who saw it, there are some special effects that you simply cannot miss.
[SPEAKER_00]: the talent across the board truly every entertainment person that I came across was unbelievable just that piano player the people we saw this like impromptu parade rehearsal that happened in the main part of the ship everyone's phenomenal the dancers like I really really really really was wowed I was wowed by truly everything I saw were entertainment is concerned which brings me to another thing that wowed me about this Royal Caribbean experience
[SPEAKER_00]: I felt that they brought a sense of ease into the vacation without sacrificing experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything for the most part was so easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those shows I mentioned did require advanced reservations, but you could show up ten minutes before and snag seats if they were available.
[SPEAKER_00]: The hours for onboard dining and activities were extensive and long.
[SPEAKER_00]: That merry-go-round that I went on.
[SPEAKER_00]: I went round and round and round and round, round and round, round and round.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was open.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes from morning all the way till ten p.n.
[SPEAKER_00]: at night.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's like, especially if you wanted coffee, if you wanted a drink, if you wanted food, all of that late night available whenever you needed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as big as this vessel was, and it was big, the elevator setup made it all so much easier.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have those freaking new style like style of elevators where you walk up to a thing and you put in the floor going to and then it sends you to like elevator E, elevator C, and I generally thought people would be quite confused by this, but it ended up being so easy and made navigating everything so much easier.
[SPEAKER_00]: But dining specifically was probably the most clear version of how easy a sailing like this can be, which is what you want from a vacation.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is standard dining, and also signature dining which costs in additional fee.
[SPEAKER_00]: I only did standard dining, the whole sailing, I didn't do any signature dining, but there is everything from sushi to Italian to a steakhouse to a very teeny tiny supper club with course dishes and live jazz music that seems so rad, and I will hopefully do when I'm back without a toddler.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because there are all of these surcharge restaurants, I just assumed the standard dining food would be that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, like I thought because they want to upsell you in the nicer restaurants, I got the regular food would be mid.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's just what I assumed.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry, Roku Ruby, and that's just what I assumed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was not the case at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had an assigned dinner time in like the elegant dining room, you know, like the official dining location, which they have one dining room here.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I didn't want to go to it, so I just didn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I didn't have to.
[SPEAKER_00]: One night we grabbed slices of pizza, the free pizza shop, which was open late.
[SPEAKER_00]: Another night my mom brought me back, a plate of food and a cell server before she went out on the town, our nightlife corresponded.
[SPEAKER_00]: As you'll notice, we are not talking about bars much in this episode, because
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't go to them, and also I didn't have time to have my mom record a second for this podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: I apologize.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our room did come with free room service, but we never ended up needing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I shockingly ended up eating at the buffet way more than I anticipated I wouldn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: because it was kind of elegant.
[SPEAKER_00]: It felt like a vagus buffet, not like a cruise ship buffet.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had endless seafood and shrimp and pasta and genuinely genuinely so many options that I couldn't even walk far enough to explore the rest of it because my plate was already full.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what I loved most about the food included on board star the seas was the variety.
[SPEAKER_00]: And how many cultures were represented just in the casual cuisine on board?
[SPEAKER_00]: I ate Thai food like lemon grass chicken and pan-tai with fresh cilantro and lime at Aquadom Market.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's many food hall with stall serving empanadas, falafel, barbecue, even made to order crepes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stuffing you would think would cost more, but didn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had Indian food for lunch and dinner, both was exceptional.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I even had Caribbean favorites, like goat curry and plantains at the buffet, which was fantastic.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can easily eat some not-is-great stuff if you don't want to seek out stuff that you like.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you look for the good foods, the stuff that you want to eat, you will be rewarded.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had this meeting where the president of Royal Caribbean did a Q&A.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in it, he mentioned that his favorite food on board was the burger at this place called Basecamp.
[SPEAKER_00]: I, at this point, even on our last day, had never heard of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's how many places I had to go to and try things.
[SPEAKER_00]: But obviously, come lunchtime, I made my way there up to the top deck to see what the fuss was about with this burger.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, if this dude basically runs this cruise line and he thinks this place is exceptional, I gotta see about it for myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the dude was right.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was one of the best burgers I've ever had on a cruise ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a made-to-order smash burger that was just divine and served over by the water park.
[SPEAKER_00]: I ate it instantly and it was so
[SPEAKER_00]: Good.
[SPEAKER_00]: And all of this, everything I just mentioned to you that I ate and raving about, it was included.
[SPEAKER_00]: This didn't cost anything extra.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's so much more even beyond this, truly available all day and night for any time you're hungry.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not married to set dining times, and I found that to be really refreshing.
[SPEAKER_00]: But again,
[SPEAKER_00]: There's some highs and lows to the experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's peaks and there's noise, and something I went into this thinking I would love, I didn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: I walked away loving star of the seas, but I can't say the same thing for the island.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ruth Caribbean operates their own island destination in the Bahamas, called Perfect Day Coco-Key.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's the type of thing where you know if it's spelled C.A.Y.
[SPEAKER_00]: or supposed to say key.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you read it the way it's pronounced, Perfect Day Coco-Key sure sounds brilliant and rhymes.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, that is not the weirdest apparently supposed to pronounce this one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though it's Perfect Day makes you feel like you should feel like you should say Coco-Key.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's Perfect Day Coco-Key.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I hope I am right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Basically, Cocoa Key is a playground for all ages.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have water slides, cabanas, there's a beach, there's a pool, there's a splash pad, there's bars, there's line music, there's so much going on and so much to do that basically was manufactured specifically to give Royal Caribbean guests their best day ever.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that, they nailed.
[SPEAKER_00]: This island destination is exclusive to Royal Caribbean and many of their ships travel to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has been massively successful.
[SPEAKER_00]: So much so that they've begun to build standalone beach club locations for other ports as an optional excursion for guests on board.
[SPEAKER_00]: But for me, Coco Key was not my favorite.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I figured out why.
[SPEAKER_00]: I genuinely think I didn't like Coco Key because the ship was so good that the island didn't while me the way it would have before the ship existed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And before we get into, oh, my many thoughts about it, I do have to give them praise for the layout of this island.
[SPEAKER_00]: The infrastructure is incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Within moments of walking off the ship under a shaded walkway, you are at a beach, you're at a pool, you're at a splash pan, you're at a dining area, it's easy, it's convenient, and that's nice.
[SPEAKER_00]: They built this place based on what would make their audiences perfect day, and they really succeeded.
[SPEAKER_00]: But,
[SPEAKER_00]: The nickel and diming that I feared I would feel aboard this ship, so more pronounced here on the island than anywhere else on my trip.
[SPEAKER_00]: Real Caribbean, essentially, starts with a lower set rate.
[SPEAKER_00]: And from there, you can add things like beverage packages.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can add excursions.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can add a lot of things that you would experience on the island.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if I'm sailing anywhere with anyone, I'm gonna pay for a nice latte.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna pay for Wi-Fi.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna pay for an occasional cocktail or massage.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's even across the board.
[SPEAKER_00]: I get that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't like when my court experience, like the one I signed onto as my vacation, is just the suggested beginning of my spending.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is what I thought I would think on the ship, and I did not feel that way at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was my number one concerned sailing a ship like this with Royal Caribbean.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I did feel that way on the island.
[SPEAKER_00]: because there is a beach club that you can pay extra for.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a water park you can pay extra for.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by virtue of they're being a better beach that you can book on Cocoa Key, it makes me think so is the beach that I would have paid to sail to exclusively on your cruise ship, exclusively to your island destination, is that beach bad?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that beach not good enough?
[SPEAKER_00]: It kind of reframes everything I would have hypothetically paid for in this light that I personally don't prefer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, upcharges are optional.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all optional.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm never going to critique a re-bother by a Kavanaugh, because it doesn't impede my access to what's available.
[SPEAKER_00]: And on the ship, I found these optional upcharges really didn't impede my trip at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: So many things on board were complimentary, which I genuinely didn't expect.
[SPEAKER_00]: And because they included food was so great, I had no point really yearned for anything that wasn't already there.
[SPEAKER_00]: The sports bar had some snacks for sale, which I may have gotten if I was out with friends, and that is something I have done on other cruise lines.
[SPEAKER_00]: But otherwise, I didn't feel like my experience was lacking if I didn't opt into the paid dining, at least within this shorter cruise.
[SPEAKER_00]: On a longer cruise, I probably would have wanted to pay for a meal just for variety, but here I was pretty content.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't develop a little bit of a fresh juice habit, which is...
[SPEAKER_00]: likely would have led to me buying a beverage package or paid for that out of pocket every single day.
[SPEAKER_00]: I probably actually would have gotten a beverage package, ours was included on this sailing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would have purchased one if I was sailing as a standard guest, just to have seltzer from the freestyle machine and access that freely, but that's not a budget buster.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a week of soda and internet, that's not really affecting the budget.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the island, that feels pretty different.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just, I don't love that there is a private beach club you can pay extra for on Royal Caribbean's own island.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't like that they have premium quality beach towels and seemingly better food.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even though cruises often have sweets and exclusivity and things like that, I don't know it just felt kind of tacky for this island to have that option.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the ship, the buy-ins are more consumables like drink packages and fancier meals.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here it made me think that the base offerings just weren't as worthwhile.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the price thing really, it's not insignificant.
[SPEAKER_00]: The beach club, I looked at different rates of it and it's really, really tricky to pin down the exact pricing because they fluctuate all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as a non-sailer, I can't really price them out on my end accurately.
[SPEAKER_00]: But admission to this beach club could be anything from a hundred and fifty to over two hundred dollars a person.
[SPEAKER_00]: Two hundred dollars a person is not a nominal fee.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's eight hundred dollars for a family of four at your included destination, which is a pretty big chunk of change for a day at the beach when you already have access to a beach.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm sure it's lovely.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen photos.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen reviews.
[SPEAKER_00]: It seems great.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it just hits differently as a consumer than offering upgraded meals.
[SPEAKER_00]: And really, really, I genuinely think Star The Seas as a cruise ship is so good, it almost makes their revolutionary game-changing island look somewhat bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the huge water slides on the island, that is bait for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is literally a trap set for someone like me.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm on vacation and my ship is pulling up to an island that has a full water park, I am going to pay for admission to it no matter the cost.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Mr. The Seas, we've got two raft water slides waiting for us on board and so many other ones that I didn't even have time to tackle.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I went, I had admission to the water park and I didn't even ride anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't feel like I needed to because back on the ship, I had everything I wanted.
[SPEAKER_00]: On a longer cruise, I may have felt differently, but I really walked away being so impressed by our ship that the island didn't do it for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I didn't know I was gonna talk about this, but I ran into an internet friend on the island at the live music bar, and they told me that they were eating buffalo wings that cost seven dollars.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know, it irked me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I don't wanna be nickel and dived by buffalo wings on my cruises private destination.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they have cool stuff, like if you have a beverage package on board, you can use it on the island.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's stuff like, there's just this stuff sticking out where it's like,
[SPEAKER_00]: This ship is providing such a high caliber experience, and then these other things were in their way out to make you go, well that doesn't really match the experience I'm having on board.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was these kind of aronious details that stood out to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's because Royal Caribbean star of the seas felt luxurious, even if it wasn't luxury.
[SPEAKER_00]: And anything that didn't align with that just kind of seemed odd.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean,
[SPEAKER_00]: For example, you can be in a room on this ship with a balcony with a view of the ocean.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can be in a nice room and there might not be lotion provided in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not providing lotion is like the hallmark of a low end hotel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet here on this glorious glorious ship, that could be happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you have to bring your towels from the ship to the island?
[SPEAKER_00]: What?
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, we gotta talk about the towels.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is the deal with the towels on the ship?
[SPEAKER_00]: Not to Jerry Seinfeldet, but you need to check out towels on the ship, and if you don't return then you get charged a fee.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what is happening here?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are they really saving more money having people man the main towel check out booths than just letting people use them freely?
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, if my main complaint is like,
[SPEAKER_00]: I had too much fun, I didn't see water, and I didn't like checking out a towel.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is in a plus experience, but still doesn't make any sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't be, people can't be stealing that many towels.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't understand what happened here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who hurt you to make you have to check out towels?
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't make sense to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, forget that, because the ship, the return process to the ship was... JAS.
[SPEAKER_00]: You enter in.
[SPEAKER_00]: You go through security.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you go up a series of escalators to make it to the atrium.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you have cruise before, you know how revolutionary that is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because usually there's just a bunch of stairs because you're on the bottom or you have to wait for elevators and elevators get so jammed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you're thinking like, well, what about if someone needs an elevator?
[SPEAKER_00]: They can't go over an escalator.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't worry, they have a dedicated entrance.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have a separate entrance.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you need to use an elevator when you get back on, you have your own entrance.
[SPEAKER_00]: your own entrance back in the ship in boop, you go up to the elevator.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was an unbelievable level of design that could only be executed by a company that truly sails this much and has exceeded and succeeded successfully.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I'm going to say, succeeding successfully this far for this long escalators.
[SPEAKER_00]: On a cruise ship, genius.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was just one of the many ways starvices defies expectations from a cruise line.
[SPEAKER_00]: It feels like, again, my friend saying, oh, we're not really royal Caribbean people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't, I would never say that after this ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything I mentioned, it just left me just feeling completely different about the cruise line.
[SPEAKER_00]: And to just harp on the upcharges for one more moment, there are two sides of the story.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Royal Caribbean is set up in a way where you pay extra for certain things you like.
[SPEAKER_00]: This keeps costs down, which is incredible for people who don't want to splurge or spend uncertain things.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't drink a lot, so it doesn't really affect me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't really need to go to all the upgraded dining because I was traveling with the young child.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're familiar with Disney Cruise Line, their base rate includes almost everything that you're going to experience on board.
[SPEAKER_00]: Royal Caribbean is like a lower base rate with room for upcharges.
[SPEAKER_00]: Disney is more all included.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's my understanding that Royal Caribbean often, even with the upcharges, still kind of nets out to less than Disney.
[SPEAKER_00]: But a lot of people want me to compare like Disney, you get this for this price and real credit, and you get all this for this price.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't think that is the comparison that I can make after sailing on this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't really view them, real credit, and a Disney cruise line is kind of like left and right like battling competing cruise companies.
[SPEAKER_00]: As a consumer, and someone who has spent time now on both, I actually think of star of the seas.
[SPEAKER_00]: more like Universal Orlando Resort.
[SPEAKER_00]: And because we're theme park people, you probably instantly get what I mean.
[SPEAKER_00]: Disney is Disney.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's always going to be this kind of gold standard for storytelling through entertainment and theming and characters.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Universal is pretty great too.
[SPEAKER_00]: The food, the entertainment venues, rides, the experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's different, but it's also great.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's kind of the takeaway I'm having.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the top question I've gotten as comparing these two cruise lines.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what I'm walking away thinking is that, because it's quite hard to equate them here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, they are both cruise lines.
[SPEAKER_00]: I understand how it's pretty easy to compare them, but me enjoying this massively cool new ship didn't diminish or take away from my love for Disney and Disney cruise line.
[SPEAKER_00]: It truly is so different, it's so different that I'm just delighted to have an entirely new experience available to me for my future vacation planning.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like Epic Universe.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's so much to see and do an experience, and even some things that make you go, wow!
[SPEAKER_00]: The other place isn't doing that, and maybe they should.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, having a buffet open for dinner on a cruise ship wouldn't that be great and convenient.
[SPEAKER_00]: But all of this is to say that as consumers, we win when there are multiple exceptional options available, and that is what's happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the other main question I have been asked was, would you go back and start the seas?
[SPEAKER_00]: I did not think my answer would be gas before I left.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought I was going to have a good time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was going to report on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we'd feel it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Didn't know if I would love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would come back and pay money to go on this cruise ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: One hundred percent full stop.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was there with my mom and with my child, which was incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had a blast.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did at one point walk past a woman laying on a lounge chair on her laptop and was like, I'm gonna come back and do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I saw this woman was like, I'm looking into my future.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I wanna come back here with friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: We each do whatever we want during the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that's me, waitin' the line to go on slides for four hours.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that's someone else doing zooms at Pearl Cafe.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that's someone else lounging outside soaking up sun.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I would love to come back here with friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: We all do our activities during the day and we meet back up for dinner.
[SPEAKER_00]: We go out, we have a blast.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will be going on this cruise ship again.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was that good and I barely scratched the surface of what I can do.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are so many things that I did not get to experience that I'm actively looking forward to when I one day go on this ship again because I will go on it because it was that good that I am absolutely going to pay for this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I can genuinely talk about this cruise ship for much, much, much longer than any human we're on a list of a podcast about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, do you want a nine hour podcast about me all lining every single thing I've done in the cruise?
[SPEAKER_00]: I could do it, I could do it, but I probably shouldn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do just want to run down a hit list of random stuff I want to mention to you that I have not mentioned so far.
[SPEAKER_00]: First of all,
[SPEAKER_00]: I was wowed by a mocktail.
[SPEAKER_00]: I never ordered a mocktail.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm drinking a seltzer or I'm having a cocktail once a week, like I'm not a mocktail, girly.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had this cranberry seltzer with a desert pair syrup, which was so good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Their mocktail program is not messing around their mocktails everywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: If that is something you are interested in, this is a ship for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Though, I will add that I am someone who does not drink a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not really like, woo'd by drinking a much.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not really tempted by it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the proliferation of bars was a different environment from what I am used to.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not used to being around so many bars for so long.
[SPEAKER_00]: To the point where I was like, wow, there's so many different places to hang out and drink that it kind of made me want to drink more than I usually do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, it is a vacation environment.
[SPEAKER_00]: I understand that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, they have beverage packages.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have ways to make it more cost effective.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I was inclined to drink more on this trip than I typically am on most other trips.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, smoking is allowed in certain areas including the casino.
[SPEAKER_00]: There were certain areas of the ship that smelled like smoke.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I was told that the air filtration situation in the casino sucked the smoke out and like, poof, it's gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's high tech.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_00]: You won't smell it.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, when I was in the dining room, which was further from the casino than I thought, it kind of smelled like smoke in the dining room.
[SPEAKER_00]: now my mother and I are basically bloodhounds like we we smell things much earlier than other people do I don't know it's a genetic thing we smell like we we have sharp little noses so like I can I would notice this more than someone else might but we really noticed um the smell of smoke in different areas of the ship and I have heard from other people that they have heard that also whether some people smell that from uh people smoking on their
[SPEAKER_00]: cruise balcony.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to mention it.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you are sensitive to it, it's something I noticed and something I don't obviously typically notice on a cruise ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I know his rest is earlier.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is bonkers that there are Olympians living on this ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are Olympians living on this ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: People who have professionally competed.
[SPEAKER_00]: In sports, living on a cruise ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's wild.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's actually so many employees on this ship that it's kind of overwhelming to think about.
[SPEAKER_00]: What else did I want to say?
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a bunch of scattered words.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wrote down that I want to make sure also sidebar related to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You got it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You got to praise a cruise company that respects synchronized swimmers.
[SPEAKER_00]: These days you only see synchronized swimmers at the Olympics and you see them and like Hollywood parties on TV when they're like doing a dance in the water.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only time I've seen a synchronized swimmer in the past ten years has been it a Hollywood party where they're swimming around in the water.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love seeing them employed in like a high octane live entertainment show.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that and I'm really grateful that Royal Caribbean recognizes the art form and really lifts it up.
[SPEAKER_00]: What else?
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, kids club and adult places really quick.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are kids clubs on these ships.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not something that I would really write home about.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Disney Cruise Line, the older kids clubs, three and up, really are multifaceted experiences.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here it is more of kind of a drop and go daycare situation.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are three different ones that I experienced in this one cluster of kids areas.
[SPEAKER_00]: One was for younger kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe it was
[SPEAKER_00]: zero to three and then three to a certain age and then the older slightly older kid one was a lot of video games.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I attempted to drop Pearl off.
[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't go well.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we, so we didn't stay.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the staff could not have been nicer and I would have felt very comfortable dropping her off if she was okay with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: One thing they did offer, which I thought was revolutionary was that we were like, okay, this isn't going to work.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to have to take her out and they're like, do you want to rent a bag of toys?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, oh, what?
[SPEAKER_00]: They have a binder where you can rent a bag of new to your child toys.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can take it with like six to eight toys.
[SPEAKER_00]: Different things that they may have never seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can take them.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can borrow them.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can bring them out in your excursions.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can have them in your room.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can bring them the pool.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then when you want to swap them, you bring them back and you get a new one.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is so cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's that saves space in your luggage.
[SPEAKER_00]: That, like, gives your child something to play with them, seen before, which is huge at this age.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought that was so cool and so, so thoughtful of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: They also had this area near the kids' clubs that was not ready.
[SPEAKER_00]: They weren't running it during our sailing, but they let me take a peek at it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was a pop-it-feet!
[SPEAKER_00]: They have a pop-it show for children.
[SPEAKER_00]: On board with this cute little furniture, and they have like, those screen movies in there, and it looked like a fake tree inside, and like, I think the time remembering correctly, some of the seating looked like stumps.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it was, it was so chic and so cute.
[SPEAKER_00]: The type of thing that you see in like, a richie-rich mansion, walk-through on Zillow, where you're like, oh, they have a themed basement.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like that, and it was like fully tricked out.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was so cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: We would have loved to stay in there and do an activity, but that wasn't available on our sailing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And ask for adult spaces.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to refer to Jeffrey who gave me a little download on his cruise afterwards because we basically, we were on my cruise position cruise was one week, which is so funny.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Jeffrey kind of filled me in on some of the adult spaces because I didn't spend as much time as there.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said it was great.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was easy to find really well-designed tons of chairs.
[SPEAKER_00]: The bar was lovely.
[SPEAKER_00]: He spends more time in the sun than I do and so he thought it was great.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't love being in the direct sunshine so a lot of these pools are not available to me because I'm pale and weak and probably have undiagnosed pots and that's just kind of how it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: One thing he didn't mention was that the music was very loud at the adult area.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe because it is next to the water slide area and that is true.
[SPEAKER_00]: The music up there is pretty loud because it's more of like a water park park.
[SPEAKER_00]: party vibe.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would recommend if you wanted to read and chill out there are many other areas to do that and the adult pool might not be the best.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ooh, I like laid on this one lounger that was near one of the pools.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was one of those like big circular ones.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just laid there for like ten minutes of his shelter and it was a dream.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would love to go back.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's kind of the area where I dream of working and just sitting on my laptop like that lady.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, I would love to lay there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would love to lay in the aquedome kind of salarium area.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, there's a lot of places to go, but I'm very glad that he flagged that because I completely forgot that music is also in the adult area.
[SPEAKER_00]: Really, I had, I had an exceptional time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I will be adding a small bit to this episode after it errors because I sent a bunch of fact check questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't gotten them back yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to make sure you know these details specifically about pricing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I will put that right here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's it, that's my sailing on star of the seas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some, some, I think, correct critique, some critique that makes sense, but all in all a wonderful experience, one net kind of knocked my socks off.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did not anticipate it being this good.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: I know I know at the beginning I had someone who likes the same things as me say that they were not a Royal Caribbean person and I'm pretty proud.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm proud to say that now I am a Royal Caribbean person.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a cruise that I look forward to coming back on and I highly recommend for you and your family.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have any questions, please call the church hotline.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope you enjoyed this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, I'm happy to tell you anything about this cruise ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will give you my honest opinion because I don't know how to do it any other way.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had a blast.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, it was fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: Very different for what I'm used to, but nonetheless a wonderful time.
[SPEAKER_01]: I currently, this is Michelle from New Jersey, a long time in the center, and a big theme park fan, after listening to all of your accounts of true things for someone I really know and interested in talking about.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am very curious, I think it sounds very fun at our last education.
[SPEAKER_01]: However, my husband, who must have had a traumatic experience in high school on a cruise, is very anti.
[SPEAKER_01]: So how, as some of you have never been on one letter, once it's all in one convict,
[SPEAKER_01]: The South said it's worth a shot.
[SPEAKER_01]: We also now have a formal fold.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, this is looking to see if this is something I can think is reasonable when they are tiny like they're tripped old.
[SPEAKER_01]: I sound like they're doing it because I can do anything at night anyway, I'm supposed to go to bed.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, but seems like a good option.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, looking forward to hearing your advice, thanks.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you called into the right podcast because I'm going to give you a three-pronged attack for how you are going to get your spouse to want to go on a cruise.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I don't want to see him in the next book.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to see him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know all when it comes to this, but I did get my husband.
[SPEAKER_00]: who said he would never go on a cruise again to go on a cruise again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I even caught him in a week moment that he would deny that I heard it with my own human ears.
[SPEAKER_00]: I heard it with my own human ears.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did hear him say that he would be like kind of open to doing it again.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, when I tell you I have expertise in this field, I do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the first thing we're going to do is casually pinpoint what he's not interested in with a cruise.
[SPEAKER_00]: Figure out what he does like about other trips.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what is this ideal vacation?
[SPEAKER_00]: What does he really like to do on a trip?
[SPEAKER_00]: What makes him happy when he is relaxing?
[SPEAKER_00]: And kind of figure out what awaits on the cruise end to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does he like laying by the pool?
[SPEAKER_00]: Does he love going to the bar and having a nice cocktail?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like try to figure out what the through line is between his ideal vacation experience and a cruise strip.
[SPEAKER_00]: The next thing we're going to do is we're just going to low key brainwashing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I didn't do this with my husband.
[SPEAKER_00]: I straight up was like, I'm booking a cruise and you're going.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I would recommend just slowly drop little tidbits about cruising.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want him to realize on his own that ships of modern times are nothing like the cruise ships.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are full cities at sea.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, oh, you're just casually, you know, on your phone, looking at videos of like all the water slides on star of the seas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you're just casually on your phone, looking at like a calm island at one of these cruise destinations.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are just kind of you know dropping little hints like oh wow an elegant supper club aboard a ship like you just want to kind of rebrand the idea of cruising but not not to obviously you just want to be like oh wow I didn't did you see this I didn't know it existed
[SPEAKER_00]: Kind of like that boom seemed a little authentic right.
[SPEAKER_00]: I never do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I never like purposely do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just think I'm really I don't know why I don't know why I know how to do this But I know how to is makes me sound like I'm a mastermind when truly I can't keep any thought in my head without saying it aloud so I'll just be like we're booking this
[SPEAKER_00]: What can I say?
[SPEAKER_00]: I love to cruise and the third thing the third prong on this three pronged fork of just getting your husband on board a ship is that your kid is a tool your kid is a hook to drag him in because while my husband would not voluntarily go on a cruise with two of us ever like that I could never pull off He kind of likes going with Pearl because he likes seeing her so happy and seeing her enjoy the ship and that is really going to be key
[SPEAKER_00]: This works especially if you do have a Disney kid, which, listen, weren't.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're chitchat and over a churros hotline.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm pretty sure you're gonna have a Disney kid, but it is really helpful to get your family on board literally and figuratively with Disney cruise line because it's so much like you see how happy they are in the parks and it's like, what have we did this for a full week?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it just is so
[SPEAKER_00]: nice and it kind of guarantees that they're going to have a great time and as the music they love and as the movies they love and as the characters they love there's just so much there but I also think that while your child is four months old we're not there yet we're not there yet I think there are other cruise lines that offer a lot of benefits that your spouse would also love make sure to mention that they have kids clubs you can leave your child you can go to dinner you can go lounge by the pool it is safe they will let you know if you need anything and I know that because my child wouldn't stop screaming and they called me and I came down to get her so that is reality but you know when he's already on the ship you're
[SPEAKER_00]: Fine, anyway, just make sure that your husband knows that this is something you and your child would like.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now that you have a child, he's kind of outnumbered.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if that's cruel to say, but I just truly believe in modern cruising so much that I want to make sure that you know there is a path to making this happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have so much fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope I didn't sound absolutely psychotic.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just think that I'm right there with him where I viewed cruising is something very very different than what it is now and my eyes have been completely opened by sailing on Disney Cruise Line so much and especially now going on Royal Caribbean star of the seas I now see like what they have on these ships I mean
[SPEAKER_00]: They got war parks like there's just so much happening and I want I don't want your husband's possible bad experience on a more like we got shuffleboard or we got sitting at a coffee shop style old school ship like I don't want that experience to somewhat ruined the wonderful vacation future he can have
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, this is one of the problems, but make sure to mention, like, the motion's not as bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, some routes are bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can definitely pick one that isn't as bad, like something that's not as potentially rocky, but the ship technology is so much better now than it was before, I think.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it's just, I was on the start of the season.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we weren't moving very far, but I didn't, I didn't know we were moving the entire time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So listen, pass that along.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have fun play this episode in the car.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't play this part.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't let me know about this one.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I wish you the best and let me know if you are successful in your mission and sorry to everyone who heard me lay out a fully manipulative plan to make someone they live with going to cruise, but you know what cruises are fun and everyone should do them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, bye.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you all so much for listening to this fun episode.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think a very amusing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think all of them were fun, but I guess I'm biased.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can rate review and follow us on Apple podcasts and rate and follow us on Spotify.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can also leave comments on Spotify.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think you can do that on Apple.
[SPEAKER_00]: And honestly, I wouldn't know because Apple podcasts doesn't work on my laptop.
[SPEAKER_00]: It just does every time I open it, it crashes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I could probably update my iOS, but I don't
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't back things up.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't want to admit that on Mike.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just pray everything is in the cloud and if it's not, I'm just gonna combust.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're just running out a lot of hope over here.
[SPEAKER_00]: This steam train is powered by hope because Lord knows what happens to these files if my computer gets like a little iced a lot to dribble then in.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can give us a call at seven first seven terms about anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: Truly anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love to answer your calls.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, if you like call and you goof, hang up and call back.
[SPEAKER_00]: I listen to the most recent call.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a little transcript.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like, I only, if you goof, I'm not going to listen to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to laugh at you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're totally fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're totally fine to worry about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just call back.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all good.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to take the stress out of picking up a phone, even though it is so stressful, even when I pick up a phone and my job.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the reporter is like, pick up the phone and ask questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, I get it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I get the struggle.
[SPEAKER_00]: Give us a call.
[SPEAKER_00]: We love you, and I love to hear from you.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're planning a trip to Disney World, Disneyland Paris, because a scene has been planted in my brain about that hotel from a thread that was in the phone.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is opulent.
[SPEAKER_00]: The read, the read design inside, Disneyland hers will go, whoa, beautiful.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're planning a trip, reach out to any eye travel in Mouse Man travel, they have you covered, and they will help you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to mention, because we don't bring this up all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mouse Van Travel, MEI Travel, are Royal Caribbean experts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I'm talking, I'm walking through the ship with Becky.
[SPEAKER_00]: And everybody knows her, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: She was like a local, so liberating.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you want to book Royal Caribbean, absolutely reach out, absolutely, to Mouse Van Travel, and MEI Travel.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have special discounts from time to time.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had this discount that only they had access to.
[SPEAKER_00]: That might still be running on on the segment we have on this episode.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like they are experts.
[SPEAKER_00]: They know everything and they will tell you where to stay.
[SPEAKER_00]: They will give you all the details.
[SPEAKER_00]: They will set you up for success.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you are interested in starting the seas in Royal Caribbean, which
[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, I will be booking this ship again with friends like it was fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: Definitely reach out to them and they will hook you up.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is mousebandtravel.com slash amusing to let them know I sent you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_00]: They help this podcast exist.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are making a musical user happen and I am so grateful to them for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Follow me at CarlyWiseL, on the internet, and join the fullmole at Facebook.com slash group slash CarlyWiseL.
[SPEAKER_00]: Subscribe to my Instagram, ninety-nine cents a month.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're having fun over there.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a blast.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really enjoy doing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope you enjoyed being on the other side of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just like, it's like, what if Patreon was easy and cost almost nothing?
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's kind of the vibe I'm going for.
[SPEAKER_00]: This episode was edited brilliantly by Jeff Fox.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks so much for listening.
[SPEAKER_00]: See you real soon.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hi honey, it was so wonderful to go to Disney World with you and Pearl.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then the cruise and then Disney World, you planned to trip so, so well, it was great.
[SPEAKER_02]: Relaxing at the pool and going to Magic Kingdom early evening was just magic.
[SPEAKER_02]: Probably Giggled, if she giggled, we went over like five thirty.
[SPEAKER_02]: She giggled all night long.
[SPEAKER_02]: She was in the best mood.
[SPEAKER_02]: There was literally no weight on small walks, we went on twice and she wanted to go a third time.
[SPEAKER_02]: And when we went on people mover, they had these little turns, not bad for a little hurty jerk, and I'd go, and he's got cracking up.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was such a wonderful evening.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was delightful.
[SPEAKER_02]: And yes, being on the little boat going back to the hotel and watching fireworks without the loud noise was bliss.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was wonderful.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a great cool kid summer and the TV area that they had.
[SPEAKER_02]: At the wilderness lodge, it was a little like two rocking chairs and one chair in the middle, and the TV set up to sit and watch all the Mickey cartoons that were going to eat.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, they're blue.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm too.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was so fun.
[SPEAKER_02]: Great trip.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Great episode.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't wait for next week.
[SPEAKER_02]: Bye, sweetheart.