[SPEAKER_01]: And welcome to very amusing your one stop shop for the story secrets and shenanigans of a pop preview of the theme park journalist I'm currently myself and so much life has happened since we last spoke I truly feel like I've lived multiple weeks.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why I don't know why I mean Maybe it's because I went on a extremely fun cruise which again had some handsome issues We're gonna talk about we're gonna get into it in this episode
[SPEAKER_01]: But mainly, because one of the most important things in my life happened this week, and oh my gosh, I'm realizing in real time I'm not talking about my daughter turning three.
[SPEAKER_01]: Also huge, very big deal had a party at Bob Baker-Marie-Natheter, one of my favorite places in LA.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, no.
[SPEAKER_01]: I met the Olaf robotic and it changed my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: It broke my brain.
[SPEAKER_01]: I cannot believe what technology can do.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was bonkers and I know by now you've probably seen no less than six videos of me yelling about this online But I just have to yell about her in the mic because it was crazy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was crazy.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like crazy in the sense like I I don't Probably I don't I shouldn't mention this, but I was like I was there with the small group of people They walked us through like Walt Disney Imagineering R&D like the like the cool off is like if you're Not only invited there infrequently, and it was very exciting and so we took it to try to back
[SPEAKER_01]: and we met Olaf and I was losing my mind and I could hear WDI employees like laughing with me because I was no like a lot of these things are like we're journalists.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are reporting and I can't contain myself when there's a freaking oh and Olaf when Olaf is bapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapap
[SPEAKER_01]: Trotting towards me right there in the flesh in the in the magical snow.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was I Like I'm speechless about it, which is crazy because my job is to talk about it But it was so cool and I know I like to get really excited about stuff But I have not I don't think ever been this excited about a character experience
[SPEAKER_01]: The Olaf Robotic will be appearing at Disney Adventure World, which is the new version of Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris.
[SPEAKER_01]: He will also appear at Hong Kong Disneyland, but my understanding is that primarily right now his uses for entertainment for being a part of shows.
[SPEAKER_01]: Olaf will not, at this time, for what I understand, be trotting through the land, saying the extremely cute things that he said to us that day.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I understand this was a very, very, very special experience, and I am so grateful that I could share it with all of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: It truly was a once in a lifetime situation.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't, I can't believe it happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't believe how advanced technology is.
[SPEAKER_01]: And truly, if this is what we're getting now in 2026 is Olaf's rate from the screen, imagine what we're gonna be getting in the next few years.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, if this is possible, and they're able to do this quickly, oh my lord, we are going to get so much good stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: Technology is like finally catching up with what we want and it's amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay last little thing I'll say about this because we got to get into the cruise.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got to get into the cruise I didn't think this was gonna be too gigantic things in this episode The last thing I'll say is that the Walt Disney Imagineer and team are not only geniuses They are not only talented.
[SPEAKER_01]: They are not only able to create things we could never even conceive of
[SPEAKER_01]: But they're also extremely generous in kind, because Olaf came out, we all lost our minds, he went away, he came back, and we were like, ah, photos of love isn't, and then you went back, and then we were like, bye, thank you so much, and I grabbed my purse, and I was like, oh, my plurid camera, because I got a new plurid camera, and I like to take a plurid of like big moments in my life, like my child's birthday, or like it took them in my wedding, and also meeting Olaf, and so they were so kind, and they like Olaf come back out, so I can take a plurid with him!
[SPEAKER_01]: And it will be my most prized possession for the end of my days.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it so much.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't believe this happened I know you already know about it, but I just had to tell you more it was it was it was it was Monkers it was Monkers and I I'm so in awe of what they're creating and keep in mind like I am a journalist I'm supposed to be here like neutrom so it's gonna be like not excited.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm supposed to be like
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow cool tell me about the robot.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I could not keep it in because it was too good It was too good.
[SPEAKER_01]: You cannot be standing there watching that happen and not be like applause all around I need to put some respect on your name.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is crazy what you've accomplished It is so good and I'm so excited for the future of Walt Disney Imagineering and research and development And I cannot wait to see what incredible thing they think of next
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, let's talk about the cruise!
[SPEAKER_01]: Stick around, we've got a brand new segment with Becky, we recorded this the second New Deal's drop last week, and there are some bonkers deals that are happening right now, including ones you wouldn't expect.
[SPEAKER_01]: Stick around, listen to that, and let's get into our cruise chat!
[SPEAKER_01]: I have so much to say!
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to our recap of my weekend aboard the Disney Wonder.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I know I went with Pearl alone and that was a big part of this but I'm not going to talk about toddler stuff too much unless it is essential to what I am saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to alienate all of you with like crib talk.
[SPEAKER_01]: So luckily, we had two churros calls come in while I was on board asking specifically about details when it comes to toddlers and cruising, so that segment will dive into all of that a bit more.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you have toddler quandaries about DCL, just scoot to the back of the episode and you will be good to go.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, after you listen to this, because in terms of the cruise itself, I had a great time.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love the Disney wonder.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know that about me, but I also don't know if I would recommend this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I feel like I'm facing this internal battle, I'm also taking off my rings one by one because I forgot they're still on and it feels like I'm really like, Ooh, like the gloves are off and we are ready to talk.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because basically, some people have asked me how the trip went and I was like, Oh my god, we had the best time and it's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then some people have asked me about it and I've said, it's cool, but the vibe is really off.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which is also true.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the person who asked me that by the way was Disney PR.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know,
[SPEAKER_01]: your girl can't help but keep it real at all times.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I know, I posted like a dozen videos gassing the experience up because for Pearl and I, for me specifically, it was perfect.
[SPEAKER_01]: Except for, you know, some major flaws which we will get into.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I do want to make sure I'm very clear that going on this specific kind of sailing is, well, going to specific kind of experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a short cruise in iffy weather to nobody's favorite ports.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's still three glorious nights aboard my so-called favorite Disney ship.
[SPEAKER_01]: I gotta go back to the wish.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do feel like the wish may edge it out, but for now, the Wonder Rain Supreme.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I keep doing this wuffling, which is so bizarre to me because I had a great time.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was perfect for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was great for what we were looking for.
[SPEAKER_01]: This little dancing even happened when I was on board the ship.
[SPEAKER_01]: One person stopped me in line for a character and said hi, and I even think that they said they booked the cruise because of me, which is too much for my brain to process.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm so honored by that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I responded being like, boy, I hope you like it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is really chaotic, isn't it?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then in my head I was like, why am I doing this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Say that, then immediately after we ran into a few folks who were like, oh hi, we listened to the podcast and we're chatting, we're talking, and Pearl is like fully rolling around on the carpeting.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, this quickie cruise is fast and furious, but we simply could not have lasted a fourth night.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if any of you are listening to my talk to, it was so great to meet you, hello, and thank you for saying hi.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, the whole Jeffrey teasing me about length of sailing up at all and how it's not even worth doing anything under a four or five night does someone make sense I get it you unpack and you're already repacking.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a whirlwind But I do think a three night jaunts like this is a very worthwhile cruise if you know what you're getting into
[SPEAKER_01]: Because while three nights is really only two and a half days, and it's busy, busy, busy.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the gap of time between your first and last soft serve ice cream cone is like instantaneous.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you get to know the server who makes your ice latte twice a day, and then immediately poof, you're back on your way home.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are still some advantages to moving that quickly with GCL.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is something to say and highly praise about a Disney Cruise Line sailing that fits into a weekend without MUH getting on a plane.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do not think you should fly four hours to San Diego to do a cruise like this, but for anyone in the general vicinity, driving me this cruise in back is something we don't often get the chance to do and is only available for a limited amount of time.
[SPEAKER_01]: I cannot explain to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: How absolutely mind them, it is, to walk through a tean, a theme lounge, immediately exit the ship.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was so easy to get off the ship, it was so chill, it was not always the case.
[SPEAKER_01]: Grab our bags and just be back in my own car in a matter of like 15 minutes.
[SPEAKER_01]: You really step off the ship and it's like, wait, what?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm in the real world, like I'm in a city, in this jarring and fascinating way that really kind of lingered with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I walked out, looks at my phone, and had multiple cedar sign eye doctor appointment reminders.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, you what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, my vacation is over my shoulder, like, you're just right there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm at the hotel valley, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because, okay, pro tip.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you are sailing on a San Diego, that port doesn't have its own parking lot, so you just have to buy a parking pass for somewhere nearby.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a whole third party thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Once you know about it, it's good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Put a pin in that, because knowing about things is something we're going to discuss.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm there at the valley, putting my bags in the car that I drive every single day at home.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I can hear the dude, dude, dude.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Was that even this real?
[SPEAKER_01]: Was it all in my mind?
[SPEAKER_01]: The ship is right there and I can see it and I can hear it and yet I am on my way home already Not to be like not having to fly as a dream as a professional Traveller in Pakistan Oops, but to make kind of like
[SPEAKER_01]: bookends of the most boring part of the trip entirely under my own control was amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you drive to Disney World for your vacations, you probably know what I'm talking about, but for us Disneyland is very much a day trip.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not something that we kind of go on vacation to, so this was really unique.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I do feel a similar kind of glee when I rent a car in Orlando, but this is just
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, man.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is different.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've done this drive before.
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, I did this exact sailing last March.
[SPEAKER_01]: But in my scenario, being alone, but also with a kid and being completely in charge to do whatever I wanted behind that wheel was just
[SPEAKER_01]: really freeing in a way that I don't even feel when I fly with her alone.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought I'd be really worried that I couldn't access her, you know, she's in the back seat, she's in her car seat, I couldn't really do much.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's like, oh, I'm in control of my environment.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can set myself up for success.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can put waters in my cup holder for me to have at the ready on my way back.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can have a bag packed with my favorite snacks in the passenger seat, so if I'm hungry a few days from now, I mean on the way to the ship we stopped for a latte when we really should not have, just because I wanted a latte and if we relate it was on me and it didn't matter.
[SPEAKER_01]: really something you can do when you're flying with a toddler over Iowa.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just a little different when you're in full control.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was, it was easy, pretty easy!
[SPEAKER_01]: It really was!
[SPEAKER_01]: Because of the length and the setup and the small ship and us not really going on any big excursions or having much reason to leave the ship at all, it was relaxing!
[SPEAKER_01]: with a toddler.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you've been in a situation where you are relaxed and you're with a toddler, you haven't been because it's impossible.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yet, here we were.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I know, yeah, okay, I'll fully admit I fed her Disney movies and sugar in a way I do not when we are at home.
[SPEAKER_01]: But being here was so much easier than going to Florida than traveling to visit family, than even going to a random hotel in California.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything was on board that we needed, and there was so much to see, and so little ground to cover, and everything is carpeted.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I drove there, like not only for kids, by the way.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, of an age that is millennial, and for me, my feet hurt at the end of a long day, standing on carpet in a pair of flats, it's a different experience than being anywhere else in the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, so I drove there on a Friday morning, and I was back in my regular workout class Monday afternoon and was not absolutely zonked.
[SPEAKER_01]: that's pretty great to go on a cruise over the weekend and come back and not be absolutely obliterated with no energy, that does not happen when I fly.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am not making it to the gym when I see MCO and LX in the same day.
[SPEAKER_01]: This sailing really just kind of scratched the itch for me, and three days not entirely warm weather, boring ports,
[SPEAKER_01]: This kind of quick trip is not the pinnacle of Disney Cruise Line experiences.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm being honest, clearly, but it beyond filled my Disney loving heart in a way that was fulfilling and fun and so entirely worth it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Admittedly, even with the gripes, I'm about to get into because we got some real ones.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got some real ones.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am still sitting here daily.
[SPEAKER_01]: Literally every single night scrolling on my phone looking at the guaranteed state room prices for the next six weeks because it is that easy to go on this I could go during a work week and just work from the ship I could be like bye family I love you but I'm caching in my alone time ship and not even miss the entire work week or I could just bring pro back for a weekend and not even have it interrupt our routine that much and that is pretty incredible.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know what?
[SPEAKER_01]: If it's good enough for Jason Blum, it is good enough for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because yeah, the King of Blum House was apparently on my cruise and I had no idea.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you remember that video I posted where I was like, wow, I found the final boss of being focused and it's this woman at the pool typing a screenplay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you think it was his wife?
[SPEAKER_01]: It might have been, I don't know if I'm supposed to say that I'm Mike, but it's possible, who else is screenwriting out here?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know?
[SPEAKER_01]: Who else is screenwriting out a Disney Cruz?
[SPEAKER_01]: Love a Hollywood centric Disney Cruz.
[SPEAKER_01]: Fantastic.
[SPEAKER_01]: Also, we're gonna get into it, but like, I did inquire about what Concierge would cost, and I bet he was Concierge, and if I upgraded, I could have been like, Helloster, I loved M3 again, and I loved M3 again, 2.0.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were fantastic movies.
[SPEAKER_01]: I could have told him myself, but my love for else, and Williams.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, we didn't need to do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, longer cruises are more relaxing and chill and in this kind of situation where you can't lay out and have like a Caribbean kind of beach day, three days does make sense.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you're really interested in either porn offerings, three days does make sense.
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of that is
[SPEAKER_01]: Toddler coded.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think golf carts are on Catalina is supposed to be fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's obviously something I can't do with a small child.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I even looked into a beach day in Ensenata last time, and I was the same time of the spring sailing, and the YouTube review was basically like, so yeah, we paid money for this.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're here.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was 45 minutes away, and it's freezing cold.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's not a lot that I was interested in doing anyway, even if Pearl wasn't there.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you want a trip that's a little more manageable, more intimate, and you just want to take the pressure off of, we're going to Florida, so for already there, I guess we also have to do the parks, and I guess we should maybe see Epic universe, like that cascades pretty quickly.
[SPEAKER_01]: These short saylings are a great option to avoid all of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And let me tell you, the Disney Magic is also going to be doing these three night itineraries a few times this fall because it's going to be doing the Alaska Sandlings as well and then coming back to do these.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the prices are also good.
[SPEAKER_01]: I paid $2,000 for my room, which was a guaranteed veranda room.
[SPEAKER_01]: That means that they assign you whatever room you're going to get.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't know until close to your departure date, but you are guaranteed to have a certain class of room.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was guaranteed to have about
[SPEAKER_01]: these rooms, but I paid $2,000 for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: You save a little money when you don't pick your exact room.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, these are the prices they're currently floating around for that cruise.
[SPEAKER_01]: The September 28th to October for sailing, same kind of itinerary on the Disney Magic, is interior rooms for two people, is basically $1,500.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ocean view is basically almost $1,800.
[SPEAKER_01]: Veranda is $2,100, and Concierge is $3,900.
[SPEAKER_01]: For three nights on this cruise,
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's Halloween on the high seas, so you're gonna get little trick of treating, you're gonna get fun costumes, it is kind of worth it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll tell you, when I started this episode, I did not know about those dates.
[SPEAKER_01]: I did not know the magic was going to be there this fall, so you may see me on board.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've already emailed Blair Blair, my, my travel agent at WML's fan travel.
[SPEAKER_01]: Blair's in an email that was like 20% of my dinner areas in a $250 state room credit for certain dates.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I wrote him back and was like, you can't be sending these stuff like this because I am weak and I will be booking immediately.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now I'm tempted to book out what again.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I finalized my trip with Blair.
[SPEAKER_01]: Over email, while I was wrangling a toddler at Disneyland.
[SPEAKER_01]: player surprisingly with in-room decoration in my room.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I can't recommend booking with MEI mouse and travel, but you already knew that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But like I've mentioned before, as I'm like, you should book this.
[SPEAKER_01]: The port's stick.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_01]: Catalina Island is supposedly great, but when you're only there for a few hours and during a time of year when the weather is as unpredictable as it was, it's just, it's not for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there were warmer moments of our sailing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was in sweaters, both this and last time I went on this cruise ship, but I was also in my bathing suit a little on this one and it was fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it oscillates between warm in the sun and kind of cool otherwise.
[SPEAKER_01]: But my plan was, sorry if you heard me make a mouth noise.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just had a hunk of Parmesan cheese.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been getting all these videos in my feed of like fitness people, being like snack time and they're eating a brick of Parmesan cheese.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, maybe I'll try this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I, my mouth feels like I ate sands.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I went to the beach and fell in face first.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't like it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you heard a sound, that is why it's the Parmesan.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, my plan was to mostly stay on the Disney Wonder, even after the announced that we would not be tendering into Catalina because of high winds.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because my goal of this entire trip was just to treat this like a weekend get away at a hotel.
[SPEAKER_01]: We were going to chill.
[SPEAKER_01]: We were going to eat a bunch of ice cream.
[SPEAKER_01]: We were going to want to move these in bed and hang out and hug goofy, and that is exactly what happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: Little effort?
[SPEAKER_01]: maximum reward, but spending the entirety of the cruise on board did reveal some holes to the Disney wonder that I didn't quite notice as much before, even during our week-long sailing on this very ship to Alaska, because don't forget, this is my third time on the Disney wonder in the past year.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's also…
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even want to say it, I don't even think it's also my daughter's third time on the Disney wonder in a single year, which is questionable.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, listen, we just watched a goofy movie and in a certain segment of the movie, she went, is that car's land?
[SPEAKER_01]: I am either raising her completely right or completely wrong, in a way where she does not know national parks exist, but points things out as though they are lands in a Disney theme park.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you know what, when I can make every day of my life take your daughter to work day, I'm going for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: No regrets, no regrets.
[SPEAKER_01]: The National Parks will hopefully, still be there and so we will be fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I have my gripes about our trip.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is our ramps coming up, trust me.
[SPEAKER_01]: But to being an attempt or controlled environment with carpeting and arts and crafts all over the place, and Disney movies playing, and food that she will eat, and a safe space my girl to run around in a princess dress is a gift.
[SPEAKER_01]: And to do that
[SPEAKER_01]: House, that is something I'm going to be making an annual tradition of and possibly is by annual twice a year, I think so.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to show them.
[SPEAKER_01]: The, the Byrts always confuse me by annual, by annual, also alumni always confusing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, that is something I may make a twice a year tradition considering the magic.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's different.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's one of your magic.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a little different.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, I had a fantastic time and I do plan on doing this again.
[SPEAKER_01]: But, but this is where you would insert like a villain laugh.
[SPEAKER_01]: We gotta talk about a few things happening on this ship.
[SPEAKER_01]: Primarily, we gotta be talking about the food.
[SPEAKER_01]: in a safe space, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's a reason I keep taking photos of my food aboard this ship and just never really posting them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hmm.
[SPEAKER_01]: Strange.
[SPEAKER_01]: Weird.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm pretty sure it's because the food is just fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we maybe need to stop acting otherwise.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now before I lose you forever, let me explain.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are some knockout dishes aboard this ship, and I sailed enough to know what they are.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been on the Disney Wonder three times in the past year, again, Kukuluni sentencing to say hello, but that means I've eaten dinner at Tiana's place four times this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Actually six times totals since I've done lunch there, which is more than I've eaten.
[SPEAKER_01]: at my favorite restaurants in the last calendar year.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I can unequivocally say the Sharkudry plate is one of if not the greatest dishes on board the ship.
[SPEAKER_01]: I ordered it twice at dinner this time because my entree was, I'm sorry, inedible.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not in a picky way.
[SPEAKER_01]: In a, my body at a cellular level told me that the piece of fish was not something we should enter inside of our system and then I needed to stop eating it and I've danced around similar things like this in the past with dishes I haven't liked but I don't
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care anymore, it needs to be said.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I try to be nice about food specifically because everybody is working so hard.
[SPEAKER_01]: Waste staff is this well-oiled machine trying to get so many people fed it once.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like an opera.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like a ballet.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like the things that Timmy shallume hates.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it really takes a lot of effort to have that much food warm and ready at once.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we need to kind of slow down and stop pretending this dining style is at all like a traditional restaurant.
[SPEAKER_01]: Depending on the size of your table, the restaurant, the experience, it can be tricky to do anything beyond saying, uh, give me the stick.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I get it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not an issue for a lot of people, and it's a really big ordeal to serve everyone at once during this entertainment in these small spaces, which is why I ate a plain, big potato with a little butter on it and nothing else, because I wouldn't dare ask for another topping.
[SPEAKER_01]: But not everything you're going to be served is going to be great, sometimes it's not all going to be good, but mostly some will be great, but not all, and I don't think I've said that explicitly before because it kind of makes me feel like a snob to be like the food is fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the food is fine, and it's been my experience that some dishes are great, but not all of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And usually I do not encounter any bad food because I know what to order.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've got to dial them!
[SPEAKER_01]: On one of these three night salings, or at least the first three nights of a longer one, the lamb at Tritons is fantastic, truly in a world of its own.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Escargo are usually great.
[SPEAKER_01]: I personally don't love anything on the menu and animators' pallet, because Truffle Pasta and pork don't really appeal to me, so I tend to get something off that always available menu, like the salmon with the white rice, and one sprig of broccoli, which is fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or maybe I'll get like a kid's mac and cheese and fries on the side.
[SPEAKER_01]: Easy, peasy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those kind of brings me to another thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, guys, I just, you know what, we just, we just, we just have to talk about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Throughout the cruise, like the kids' mac and cheese rocks, the chicken tenders are perfect.
[SPEAKER_01]: The fries are good, it is all so yummy.
[SPEAKER_01]: But more than three days of those foods, and my adult body eating mac and chicken tendies and fries at least once a day, my intestines are shutting down in real time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, hi, I'm in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elder millennial.
[SPEAKER_01]: I cannot make clean energy from those kinds of foods.
[SPEAKER_01]: They are delicious, and I enjoy them.
[SPEAKER_01]: But listen, by the last day I was like, I gotta call it, I cannot be having more of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of times, people tend to praise the restaurants over the food troughs.
[SPEAKER_01]: They do, but let me tell you, Kavanaugh's, Kavanaugh's the buffet aboard this ship.
[SPEAKER_01]: fully hit this time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cabanas was exceptional.
[SPEAKER_01]: 10 out of 10 stars all the way around.
[SPEAKER_01]: I ate a ginormous plate of fresh veggies in an array of different flavorful dishes.
[SPEAKER_01]: I had a little Indian food.
[SPEAKER_01]: I had something called turkey steak.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't know what that is.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was delicious.
[SPEAKER_01]: I had a little sauteed shrimp thing which rocked.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know I'm getting my ginger chicken congee for breakfast in the little cilantro, a little chili flakes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Perfection.
[SPEAKER_01]: So crisp.
[SPEAKER_01]: So good.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will limit.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had some of them that made their way back to our state room and Pearl and I were maybe eating them about six or seven hours later.
[SPEAKER_01]: Food safety law would say don't do that, but when it sure muffles available, you got it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Kind of got to take a little bite.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they were not soggy.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were still good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Truly, Kavanaugh's firing on all waffle iron cylinders could not be beat this trip.
[SPEAKER_01]: And let me add, of course, in these to be
[SPEAKER_01]: Polo friggin rocks.
[SPEAKER_01]: I prefer polo on these small ships to the one polos on the bigger ships.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've said it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, we're just lended all loose.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think polo is perfect here.
[SPEAKER_01]: The mac and cheese there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Go to the bar.
[SPEAKER_01]: Get a seat.
[SPEAKER_01]: Order it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like five bucks.
[SPEAKER_01]: The biggest steal on DCL.
[SPEAKER_01]: The secret they don't want you to know.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it is so good.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the general food itself.
[SPEAKER_01]: The pool side options?
[SPEAKER_01]: Not obsessed.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I say this because this is an older ship.
[SPEAKER_01]: We do not have Mickey and Friends festival of food here, which is so good.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not out here day to my vacation, eating a plate of barbecue in the middle of the day with a mini buffet of hot sauces, just thriving and biving.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like this is an older ship.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna get chicken tenders for a day or two.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna love it and then I'm starting to be like, I need real nutrition.
[SPEAKER_01]: And while this isn't older ship, we love it because of that for many reasons.
[SPEAKER_01]: The ship flow is exceptional.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love the layout.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love the size.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that I don't feel squeezed to spend money on things the way I do when the bars are everywhere on the newer ships.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like the presence of alcohol is so minor here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even think I could have easily ordered it at any point.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I just wasn't near I got coffee, but like beyond being at the bar to get coffee.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I don't even know where I could have gotten it, like that kind of makes the entire experience of boredom Disney Cruise Line on this ship feel more theme parky.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love the refurbishments that they've done here to make certain areas more Disney, and I like it more than the refurbishments they've done on the Disney Magic.
[SPEAKER_01]: The French Quarter Lounge, the theme is impeccable.
[SPEAKER_01]: It deserves awards.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like the perfect flex space.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's open to everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's near the atrium.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a place where there were adults having fancy glasses of champagne hanging out.
[SPEAKER_01]: There were people making these 3D cut out versions of the ship.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was an arts and crafts project that I was not skilled enough for.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pearl and I attempted it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We enjoyed what we made, but we were not skilled.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some people did a really good job.
[SPEAKER_01]: We didn't know ketchup and that's fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm just saying people of all ages were doing an arts and crafts project.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was having an ice latte, but they've these flavors straws.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was on a coffee.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ooh, they'll cough your chocolate straw.
[SPEAKER_01]: Trigger my latte.
[SPEAKER_01]: Other people are having like a nice elegant adult.
[SPEAKER_01]: cocktail moment all in the same space in the French court allowed to the theme and is so beautiful.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tiana's place is one of if not the greatest Disney-crisind restaurant.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that the adult space is on the ship or separate without being on the friggin moon if you know you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even just like you pour out of the feeder and you walk past the gift shops into like it's like it's wide and then it's narrow in the gift shops that it opens wide back into the
[SPEAKER_01]: But also, you know, it's an awesome, it's an older ship!
[SPEAKER_01]: The rooms are a little dusty in those nooks and crannies.
[SPEAKER_01]: Probe sneezing in our cabin, which, like it's clean, but like, you know, she was only sneezing in our cabin and nowhere else in their vacation.
[SPEAKER_01]: But now that I've been on the newest ships for Disney and Royal Caribbean, by the way, the one thing that stands out, it's not even like, Steakroom Design.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not finishing, even though the finishings and styling are very different.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the food.
[SPEAKER_01]: So much of the food on these older ships is just not to the level of other, comparable cruise line experiences.
[SPEAKER_01]: I had ranch dressing with my chicken tenders that was brutal.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it was, oh yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Atrocious!
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry!
[SPEAKER_01]: It's bad.
[SPEAKER_01]: The buffet is not open at night.
[SPEAKER_01]: The poolside restaurants kind of shut down right when a child wants to eat dinner.
[SPEAKER_01]: They literally close the pizza stand between six and nine p.m., which is totally cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not like any body would want pizza between the hours of six and nine p.m. And having seen how Disney has incredible poolside food throughout the day on the new ships.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm impressed, but having been on Royal Caribbean, it is said a bar so much higher that this ship is just not needed.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been on the ship again, a bunch of times, but this is my first time going after having that experience on Star of the Seas.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they have this cafe called Procafe where you walk up, you've heard me talk about it on that episode.
[SPEAKER_01]: You walk up and it's like going to one of those like a food service locations at an airport
[SPEAKER_01]: But everything is free.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can take little cups of fruit, little desserts, little crude-to-take-and-hummus.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can take, oh, little quinoa-next.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can take all of these little grab-and-go foods.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can put them in your room.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you need them, they are there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, there's like other ways to get food, but you can just grab it out of this grab-and-go fresh healthy cafe any time of day, 24 hours.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I believe that if you're hungry aboard a cruise ship, it should be easy to get a variety of food like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Disney makes it easy to get soft serve and achieves burger and some stuff through room service.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you could order whatever you want to your room, but that is like a maybe a 25 35 45 minute wait.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's not easy to just grab stuff and throw it in your fridge during the day.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love Disney Cruise Line, and I genuinely want to recommend it to everyone I know.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I can't imagine explaining to a family that I'm like, you know, our kids, our friends, like we go to school together, can we imagine explaining to a family I know like that in real life who hasn't crused before, that they just like simply cannot get a chicken breast easily
[SPEAKER_01]: Really, I'm so impressed by Star of the season when it comes to this stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think about it regularly Which is which is why mine takeaway is that when it comes to these ships There are pros and cons to all of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've heard me say it and it still rings true.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love the wonder I love so much of it for the experience, but
[SPEAKER_01]: It, you know, it did require a lightning-lane-like approach to make sure my kid and I could be fed when we wanted and when we needed it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And all of it just brings me to one of those holes I was talking about that I mentioned about Disney Cruise Line, which appeared more on this sailing than it has before.
[SPEAKER_01]: When it comes to sailing with Disney, you don't know, you don't know, and it's very, very easy for small bits of information that can drastically affect your trip, drastically improve your experience aboard these ships.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's very easy for those little bits of information to just slip through their cracks, and we are going to talk about that more after this break.
[SPEAKER_01]: welcome back.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I left you, I was talking about how I had a wonderful time, but we did have a few things to discuss, including the idea that you just don't know what you don't know if you are a first time saver.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it was just Pearl and I, on this cruise, we had the early dinner seating at 545 and we were sat at a shared table.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's something I've never done before with strangers.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I'm two people, if it's like my mom and I, we're likely on a media sailing, I'm likely there for work.
[SPEAKER_01]: So our group table is more often than not people we know.
[SPEAKER_01]: It'll be like friends of ours, like Shay and Zach and Carly, not me, I'll call it named Carly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or even like a big group with the table of eight, or I think we had 10 most recently on the destiny, with a bunch of other folks who are working on board.
[SPEAKER_01]: So because of my weird job, I've never actually been sat with full strangers and I do need to compliment Disney Cruise Line because they did an exceptional job of arranging this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I heard we were at a shared table and I was a little like, oh my gosh, there are going to be four adults at our table who are enjoying this adult getaway and my child is going to scream and I'm so stressed about ruining their vacation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Truly, I think most people would be like, oh, no, we have to stay with strangers.
[SPEAKER_01]: My concern was like, I'm going to ruin a stranger's vacation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Very Midwestern, but that's where I was.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I grabbed Pearl, I went to go talk to them and I was like, are there children at this table?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm very nervous.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they were like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's actually three sets of two.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's so it'll be three parents and then three children.
[SPEAKER_01]: which was fantastic.
[SPEAKER_01]: The fact that they did that math and split it up like that and arranged that, I'm very, very impressed by it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, and actually, I didn't have really great seats for Tiana's place.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, we had a great view of the show.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was incredible.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's fantastic themed restaurant.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm sitting there, um, I'm talking to a woman at our table.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's her first Disney cruise.
[SPEAKER_01]: She took her granddaughter.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're having a great time.
[SPEAKER_01]: But she didn't really know how to navigate the app to the best of its ability because she didn't realize, oh, you can find out the schedule by sliding sideways through things, which is actually
[SPEAKER_01]: One of my critiques of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the app is excellent for information, but it's not news or friendly enough to make all of that information as accessible as it could be.
[SPEAKER_01]: They have even have like a vents listed in the kids club that look public and say all ages, but aren't.
[SPEAKER_01]: And things like that can just be a little confusing, even though it is so helpful that everything is listed in there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I talked to her about how to scroll through and how to favorite stuff, so it appears more easily in her itinerary, and then I start to tell her like, oh, it's your first cruise, do you know about like the C-year-old soon show in the last night, and she didn't, so I tell her about that and like all the characters come out and say goodbye.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I'm like, oh, do you know about royal gathering, and she didn't, so I tell her about that when you can book in advance to meet princesses.
[SPEAKER_01]: I realized, in talking to her, there's just a lot of little random stuff, especially for first time cruisers, that you wouldn't even know you don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd actually inspired me to make a series on Instagram, which I hope I post soon.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm really determined!
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been better lately, I've been less lazy, which lazy is just unmedicated, but I'm still trying.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm just hoping that it'll all be like these random little tips of stuff that I would want to tell someone that I know and stuff that is, you know, in my fall through the cracks a bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: because the top line stuff you got.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, this woman knew everything that she had to know for this trip.
[SPEAKER_01]: She was here with her granddaughter.
[SPEAKER_01]: They had a spa appointment.
[SPEAKER_01]: They did bivety poverty boutique on the first day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, they get it.
[SPEAKER_01]: They got it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Done.
[SPEAKER_01]: They did it all.
[SPEAKER_01]: But those teeny tiny things just kind of slipped through the cracks that could have made her trip that much better.
[SPEAKER_01]: I bet she didn't know that you could request character themed kids bedding, something we did on this trip, and we had a Frozen themed Sheets, which my child flipped over.
[SPEAKER_01]: I bet she didn't know about the community of fish extenders.
[SPEAKER_01]: I actually ran into her on the ship later on a few days later.
[SPEAKER_01]: with her grandchild and she was like, oh, hi, how am I supposed to get to the spa?
[SPEAKER_01]: We can't go through the adult area because she's under 18.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, oh, actually, well, yeah, it says we were right by the right back home cafe and I was like, oh, yeah, the sign says it's only 18 and over in there, but you can actually walk through if you need to get somewhere because otherwise it's incredibly confusing to get to the spa.
[SPEAKER_01]: So just you can just walk through quickly and that's totally allowed.
[SPEAKER_01]: which, how would you know otherwise?
[SPEAKER_01]: How would you know that this sign that says this is 18 and over also means like, but girly, if you got to go to the other elevator, it's totally fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Also, sidebar, a bartender at, um, uh, at one of the lounges where I was getting coffee, I was making my coffee told me that I could bring Pearl to cocafe.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think that's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was just like, yeah, you can just bring her, you have to like, in and out, you just need to order a copy and then leave, you can bring your child.
[SPEAKER_01]: But like, that's not the vibe, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I think I saw someone do that once when I was there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it did feel like in monsters ink, and where it's like, ah, like it was like the sock.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, oh, so it worried me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think I can do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think I would sweat through my clothes before doing it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will just, I will drink room service coffee, I will be fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: But like, you can't, I know, I guess you could, and just hope nobody says anything, but just seemed weird.
[SPEAKER_01]: It just seemed weird.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just seemed, I don't think, I don't know, anyway.
[SPEAKER_01]: Enough anxiety about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, like, she just didn't know these little things that you know when you're a cruise regular, like logistics and little tips and just ways to make your trip more magical for free.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I know because it's my job.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, because you listen to this podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you know that you can do little things to make your trip better, like calling up Disney Cruise Line before you go and asking them to start your dining rotation at a certain location, so you don't miss your favorite restaurant for that night you're dining at Palo.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or, logging onto Disney Wi-Fi as soon as you can when you're right by the ship, sometimes from the terminal to adjust a royal gathering booking or get a head start on planning.
[SPEAKER_01]: or even sign up for maybe, you know, that wine tasting or cocktail mixing class that didn't have availability, but might there, and you can get a jump on it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you also know that pulling up to the bar at Paula won the Disney Wonder and Magic is the best way to eat there without a reservation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Order a Gregus martini with a twist, and they'll usually make it bruised.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is on the wonder.
[SPEAKER_01]: I sure they do it on the magic too, but the bartender is really good, which is just little
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, my favorite martini in the friggin' world, no joke.
[SPEAKER_01]: I also had the best waiter of our lives at Paolo when we were on the wonder we went to Alaska, and I ran into him on the last day at Cabanas, and we pulled him and remembered each other, and I got to say it was just really nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was just really nice, who's a wonderful Italian man, and we really enjoyed him, and he was fantastic.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you listen to this podcast, you also know that the spa here is actually legit because they have a room that is not available on most other ships where they have a hot tub in the massage room so you can book a massage that is part private hot tub lounging part massage and it has this big wall of windows that the light comes in you get a great view and I'm not realizing maybe you don't know that because I never made the video about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But now, now you know, and if I never told you before, I'm sorry, and I think oops, but now you know, and I think those little things like that come with the familiarity with Disney Cruise Line really add up to making a sailing over the top levels of magic.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that knowledge often stretches further than money.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's partially why I think we're all such Disney fanatics because once you
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, once you know what you like and where you like to stay and where you like to get your coffee on property and how to execute the perfect day for you Do you like to start the day with guardians?
[SPEAKER_01]: There's at the end of the day living with the land boom, it is heaven to get exactly what you want out of your Disney trip when you know what you want and that is partially why I Love our trip this much
[SPEAKER_01]: because I got the ship dialed in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I'm hurting all the goofy appearances in the app, so I don't miss one.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm showing up 15 to 20 minutes early, so we are guaranteed to meet the character.
[SPEAKER_01]: No stress, we are there, we are in position, and we are ready.
[SPEAKER_01]: I booked royal gathering the moment it opens for a casual late morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: On our last day, just long enough to get a bite of food and approach she needs it, and to give us time to get her in her Cinderella dress, in case she's like, I don't want to wear it!
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want her to wear it!
[SPEAKER_01]: Even though it was day like saving time, and I didn't anticipate it for no work done anyway.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I had some hours at the nursery planned perfectly.
[SPEAKER_01]: an ideal slot between dinner and bedtime for her to play with kids so mama can maybe I don't know maybe go to the Paula bar and also on the final night so she could go there and hang out while I packed that did not pan out but it was planned wonderfully I only went in there once to cancel them I actually don't even know if I got charged and I don't know how to find the bill so we're just gonna enjoy ignorance and wait for the credit card bill to appear
[SPEAKER_01]: I literally left myself reminders, like go to a sit-down lunch at Tiana's when you arrive instead of a cabana, because it'll be calmer and you'll want that after a long drive.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you order a room service, ask about cake of the day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Check in to see how much a concierge upgrade is when you arrive, and this is all stuff you wouldn't even know to ask about if you didn't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, it was $1,300 for the same type of room we had to upgrade to Concierge and about $2,400 for an upgrade to a one bedroom, which definitely wouldn't have been worth it for a larger party.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've never stayed Concierge myself, but we were on the A-floor and we were next to a bunch of Concierge rooms.
[SPEAKER_01]: So on the way out, I think I can say this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Disney Cruise Line don't get me in trouble for this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: If anyone's listening to this, it's fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I like, we were walking pro and I were like, okay, time to go to Kavanaugh's breakfast before we leave.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we were, we left like the latest, you could leave the rooms was, oh gosh, I don't even remember.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's say eight o'clock.
[SPEAKER_01]: We left it like 755.
[SPEAKER_01]: We were, we were rough, you know, it's hard.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's hard with the toddler.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was so low, and I had a lot of bags and stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're trying down and I'm like, oh, fuck up at that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, scoot it in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because there was a one bedroom that was already clean or the processing clean.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody was in there.
[SPEAKER_01]: There were no guests.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we just scoot it in to take a peek.
[SPEAKER_01]: We just scoot it in to take a little sneak peek into a room.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it is quite nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, a one bedroom?
[SPEAKER_01]: Quite nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have seen a one bedroom on the Disney Wish because, oh,
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh podcast mascot double mentioned Jeffrey Epstein when we were both on the wish sailing and he had a one-pandroom and it was too I mean, it was beautiful.
[SPEAKER_01]: I dream of it often.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had it like a
[SPEAKER_01]: through a whole part of a bunch of people hung out like it was wonderful.
[SPEAKER_01]: But even the one bedroom in this ship was beautiful.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't gonna pay more than I paid for my entire cruise for it, but it was absolutely lovely.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you're not in that style of room, call in and let me know because I don't really understand what the point of concierge is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like on a newer ship, I do feel like it's fancier, it's more elegant.
[SPEAKER_01]: and maybe with a big family or a lot of adults, it's really nice to have that private area and to have like the touch point of drinks and food available all day because you know that's a stick in point with me and then there's water and soda and you just kind of I think there is like happy hour with free alcoholic beverages but I just didn't feel like it was worth $13.13.
[SPEAKER_01]: $13 I was doing I just don't feel like it was worth $1300 to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even feel like it provides $13,000 worth of experience in general, but then again, I have not done it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I already felt like I won the lottery with my room.
[SPEAKER_01]: In case you haven't seen the video I posted, I booked as I mentioned, a guaranteed veranda state room, and I was actually upgraded when they confirmed my room to a Deluxe family veranda, so it's a little bigger.
[SPEAKER_01]: The room that I booked, which they were assigning me, a room with a balcony and a nowhere
[SPEAKER_01]: what floor I didn't know inside of the ship could have had an obstructed view.
[SPEAKER_01]: This cruise had less people on it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think we were at capacity at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: It seems like there was a pretty good amount of availability.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I felt comfy booking this because it wasn't like we're going to give you the room nobody wants.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was just very much like, which I don't know if there is one of those, but I assume there is.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I just wanted, I was just like, I'll roll the dice, why not?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll save some money, I'll get a balcony guaranteed, totally fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the room I booked was for three to four people, which is already twice the amount of people per roll, and I are.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this was a room for four to five people.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was huge, it was wonderful, and I was so happy with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got a room confirmation, I think like two days before the sailing, it was very last minute.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I felt like I had one big, and so I didn't even, I didn't want to attempt to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: And our room was amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was huge.
[SPEAKER_01]: It, I mean, it was a little dusty, but it was, but like, for this shipping quite old, like, could be like holding down a professional job.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's, I think it's 26, 27 years old.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, no, because it's the wonder.
[SPEAKER_01]: So maybe the magic is, I think it's 25.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's 25.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Disney wonder is 26 years old.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why my journalist brain is like, you got to get that figure right, buddy boy.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I,
[SPEAKER_01]: but I figured it out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, the room was great.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had so much fun just like lounging in the room watching movies on demand.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was absolute bliss.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there was one thing that happened on this cruise that all of us torpedoed our entire trip.
[SPEAKER_01]: And before I get into it, I just want to say, we had a lovely time.
[SPEAKER_01]: This did not ruin our trip.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it also was not great.
[SPEAKER_01]: The cast members make the magic aboard these ships.
[SPEAKER_01]: I respect and appreciate all them so much.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I did encounter an unusually poor dining experience on this sailing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And before I get into it, the reason I am sharing this is because this happened to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do this professionally.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care if this happens to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I genuinely don't care.
[SPEAKER_01]: The reason why I get kind of hot and bothered about it is because I care I feel myself as a representative for other people booking these trips other people who aren't here a lot That's why I'm like there's some like the whole thing I just said about how you know you don't know what you don't know
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm out here feeling like I need to put myself in the mindset of someone who doesn't do this often to make sure they have the knowledge and the experience that I have in their brains so that they can have the best trip possible because I do think that knowledge plays a huge part in this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I worry not for me having this experience but for other people who would go on a sailing have this happen and have them go I really didn't like that maybe we shouldn't do this again and miss out on a world of fantastic memories that could be created
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, there is probably a reason this happened, and making it sound like they tossed me overboard.
[SPEAKER_01]: I swear it's not.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just want to provide a lot of caveat to this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I assume there's a reason this happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have never sat at a table with this many children.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've never sat at a table with this many children with multiple parties.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like a shared table at an early dining seating.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have to assume serving this many children played a part in this.
[SPEAKER_01]: but our waiter rushed us through our meals in a way that floored me, like our dinners ended up being very stressful because of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: This happened on the first night, this has never happened to me before.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been on almost 10 Disney cruises.
[SPEAKER_01]: I found it deeply unsettling because this is not the way it's done, and I know in my brain when I have like, I have this piece of my brain where I know and I'm sure many of you do too, where it's like, you know how these places function,
[SPEAKER_01]: Like when you hear a cast member say no, you're like, whoop, you're like, we know we know that's the rule we don't even As we'll say that and that's what kind of happened here, but like I, I was so taken aback by it It was something so like no one else may have noticed it, but I was taking aback by
[SPEAKER_01]: that I was out here after the first night, giving myself a pep talk before the next night's meal.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like writing a little diary and treating myself with my little thumbs, like sending an email on my phone, being like, don't let this man stress you out, dude.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't let this man stress you out, you are on vacation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do not let him dictate your pace.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't let him rush you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Only to go to dinner, the final night, like I'm rushing to pull out the door so we're exactly on time to be like, okay, for exactly on time, we all arrive at the same time, maybe this won't happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe we won't be rushed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Only for this man to do it again.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what happened was that we would sit down and be like, oh, we're at dinner.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a relaxing, sitting down time at the day.
[SPEAKER_01]: He would put a menu in my hand and say, what would you have?
[SPEAKER_01]: as he as as the men you went in my hand and would stand there until I told him what I was going to eat.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was straight it was straight like literally the men that moment them the men you hit my mitts the moment that happened he would say well you have to the point where like again I had to I was like stressed about this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like keep in mind, I'm also juggling a child with this table with other children.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't know, like there's a lot going on.
[SPEAKER_01]: To the point where I had to turn to him and say, I have not opened my menu.
[SPEAKER_01]: You literally are putting it in my hand as you speak.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it was so bizarre.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when I see this trip was chaotic.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like some of that was the schedule.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like the get it in before it's over.
[SPEAKER_01]: This trip is really quick.
[SPEAKER_01]: But some of it was...
[SPEAKER_01]: this, like I was on vacation with my daughter, just watching another family at a different table slowly eaten pace, while I'm like swallowing salmon whole, like a snake.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when the experience is great, like this stuff doesn't really matter that much, but I never saw a dessert menu.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was never, I was never given a dessert menu.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they getting a regular world, you might be like, yeah, that's fine, whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: But for someone who knows what the protocol is, gets strange.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wouldn't have even known a menu existed if I wasn't kind of an expert when it comes to this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was the type of thing where like he would, you know, I'm holding them in you, not even open.
[SPEAKER_01]: He'd ask me I want.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I'd open it and be like, uh, I'd order the things I knew.
[SPEAKER_01]: I ordered the lamb.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't even want the lamb that night.
[SPEAKER_01]: I knew it would be good, but I didn't even want that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would panic ordered it, Tiana's.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he'd be like, what do you want for dessert?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'd be like, I'd look at him blankly being like, what, sir, what is?
[SPEAKER_01]: desert.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he slowly rattled things off like you do when you order a garden salad and you know like a diner and they'll be like ranch, balsamic, thousand island and you keep like waiting for them to guess the one you want.
[SPEAKER_01]: He would just slowly rattled things off until I'd be like,
[SPEAKER_01]: Fruit, I don't know, and I panicked and so I didn't really order dessert because I never thought that dessert Then you remember looking at another table longingly.
[SPEAKER_01]: They had their little menu full of options They were casually settling in ooh vacation and I was like that must be nice That must be nice and again, maybe this was purposeful like maybe that's how we had everything ready to go So like the kids would be done eating and like they'd get squirming But it definitely was the low light of our trip and the reason I mentioned it is not just because what I said where I was like
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, if somebody hasn't done this before and they have that type of dining experience, they're going to assume that's the norm, which it is not.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I heard other waiters singing happy birthday to tables and I felt so bad because I didn't feel like I even had the opportunity to tell our waiter because we were so rushed that it was my child's birthday.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't even feel like I could have that conversation because I was just trying to be like, food!
[SPEAKER_01]: Like there was just no way to even relay that information.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I felt bad.
[SPEAKER_01]: I felt bad that she missed out on that special birthday moment because of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, I know he is working hard.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was working so hard.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got our food on time.
[SPEAKER_01]: The kids stay seated like that's the most important thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they did accommodate us the second night at the late night dinner seating.
[SPEAKER_01]: We went to see Frozen Early be skipped dinner.
[SPEAKER_01]: We were going to just do room service and maybe get Pulse and Pizza when they reopened at 9 p.m. or something like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: because, you know, there's no buffet open at night.
[SPEAKER_01]: So around eight, eight, 15, a 10, a 15, I was like, oh, actually the best way to eat dinner is just to see if we can sit in an empty table at a restaurant and we were able to do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I will not factor any of that meal in because that they accommodated us.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was very generous.
[SPEAKER_01]: The same thing did happen, but that's kind of an outlier.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like,
[SPEAKER_01]: No matter what you do, if you rush me there, I'm not even supposed to be there.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't matter.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's the stuff still bothers me, because there was nowhere else for us to go.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was no buffet option.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was nothing that I didn't realize that I'm really interested in on the room service menu besides like a chicken finger and everybody had too many of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's just like the lack of autonomy overdining would very likely be a deal breaker for someone who isn't already obsessed with Disney Cruise Line.
[SPEAKER_01]: And beyond that,
[SPEAKER_01]: We had a great time!
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I'm all in, even with this happening, and I hope that nobody else has an experience like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: They would keep them from enjoying the extent of Disney Cruise Line, because strange dinner experience aside also like our shared table was lovely, pro-played with the other kid, fantastic.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like beyond that,
[SPEAKER_01]: weird, waiter situation.
[SPEAKER_01]: We still had a good time at dinner.
[SPEAKER_01]: We still had a great time aboard the ship.
[SPEAKER_01]: We even have a good time just like ferning around in our room, eating fruit loops and watching a goofy movie on repeat.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pearl actually loves like the scraver screen on the TV because they would have like a picture of the ship and then like, oh, the uphouse would appear.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, oh, God rest, Dumbo would fly past and she was obsessed with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, even though Little Disney touches were so,
[SPEAKER_01]: Special, and I can praise this and I can gripe that one thing on the food in the buffet, but at the end of the day, it's just really nice to be there It's just so nice to do Disney and to do Disney in a way where you are not in charge of everything that happens and to my trip planners out there
[SPEAKER_01]: That should feel like a breath of fresh air.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I love a theme park, duh, obviously.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm staring at like, oh, wall of theme park arts, but this whole setup aboard Disney Cruise Line is truly like Disney Summer Camp.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can participate in activities or you can just hang out.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can swim, you can lounge in your cabin, you can read, you can play games, there's trivia.
[SPEAKER_01]: The whole place is essentially a kids club for all ages.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when the choices are, do you want to go to the end condo dance party and then get a sweet treat or a vice versa?
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of, okay, get ready, we have to run to space mountain for the line gets too long and we have to jet to our first landing lane over in my train.
[SPEAKER_01]: It just lends so much ease to the entire experience while still being so Disney.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got to see the Frozen Show, which was huge for us, more on that shortly.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got to meet Autonic characters in just basically two and a half days.
[SPEAKER_01]: We watched a Muppet movie on the biggest screen in the world out by the pool, just slowly snacking our way through lunch, relaxing, me drinking a call
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, bubbly salsa that I just got from the unlimited soda machine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I sucked down iced non-fat lattes all day because the coffee machine was just a few flights below.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then we played on the main deck because it was just a few flights up.
[SPEAKER_01]: We enjoyed and took in everyone's room decor.
[SPEAKER_01]: We saw Goofy in an elevator on the last morning and even after
[SPEAKER_01]: Two and a half, three, two and a half, three, three nights of non-stop Disney.
[SPEAKER_01]: I saw him and went, PURL!
[SPEAKER_01]: That's enough, I!
[SPEAKER_01]: Because there's something about just seeing him, him being part of our collective ship community, being a board is just so dang exciting.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I justified this whole trip because I wanted to do something fun and relaxing with my kid.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like...
[SPEAKER_01]: Both of those are often a little tricky to do for Disney, and for $2,000 across a weekend Three nights in one of Disney's own hotels would cost that much if not more and this included everything There was I didn't pay for park admission.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't pay for food I tipped some people and like that wasn't that bad.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was no $8 ice cream cone.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean we did we did by popcorn a bunch, but refills were a box 75 because I brought my Disney World bucket and yeah, I can swing a box 75
[SPEAKER_01]: No problem.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's totally fine by me, but again, it's Disney and it's easy, which is not always the case, and I just love being there.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's so nice to do a Disney vacation when you're not on the clock for warning until night, everything is flexible, which is rare these days, and I just think it is the ideal vacation for toddlers, which we will get into shortly in our Choros calls.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I just want to emphasize that if you are on the fence about a 3-day cruise, and if you're like it's not enough time, it's not enough time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Three days is more than zero days.
[SPEAKER_01]: and all of these cruises have their pros and their cons, but this one will hold a special place in my heart forever, and it still does after this recent sailing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was scared to go on this trip, frightened even.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the second time we've ever tracked without trip.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the second time we've ever traveled without a pack and play, which is Pearl's travel crib, and I didn't know she would sleep in theirs, or in the bed, or how it would go, or if she would tantrum and refuse to leave the room, or not even go to the restaurant.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I wondered if I would regret everything, if I would be standing on the stairs with my child screaming crying, being like, why did I do this?
[SPEAKER_01]: But it was bliss!
[SPEAKER_01]: It was better than I ever could have expected.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you're considering bringing a child, or doing it solo, I want to say, this is the spot to do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Truly, these cruisers are...
[SPEAKER_01]: Built for it everyone is kind of children guests especially.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my gosh It's safe.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're tiny little fingers aren't going to get caught in the stairwells because Disney is thinking through this stuff more than most It is comfortable.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is special and it is oh So worth it.
[SPEAKER_01]: What I do it again?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm definitely going to be doing this again even as I'm like the port stinker Rooney I will be back mouse control.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm already knows
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you were on the fence either way about a shorter sailing or kind of strange I tend to really like this, I hope this episode at least gave you some clarity on if a shorter cruise is worth it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just make sure you get your hands on that dessert menu.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are going to take a quick break and then we are going to tackle a lot more about this cruise and even some advice for your traveling with children.
[SPEAKER_01]: In this series, I don't know why I took such a big breath.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_01]: In this series of tourist calls, stick around.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll be right back.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hi, Carly.
[SPEAKER_04]: I've been thinking about calling in for a while now, but have been too scared to
[SPEAKER_04]: and at the end of your last real hotline episode that convinced me to call.
[SPEAKER_04]: So thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: I recently asked a question on subscribers about bringing my adult friends to Disney World for the first time without overwhelming them.
[SPEAKER_04]: Really, really appreciate your thoughtful response to that.
[SPEAKER_04]: It was super helpful.
[SPEAKER_04]: We went in January and we had a great time.
[SPEAKER_04]: My question now is that my husband and I are thinking about taking our twin toddlers on a
[SPEAKER_04]: They just turned two and we've been too chicken to travel with them all yet, but we are looking at maybe taking them on a cruise this summer so they'll be like two and a half-ish.
[SPEAKER_04]: We feel like possibly taking them on a cruise right now would be better than taking them to the parks.
[SPEAKER_04]: We've been to Disney World many times and have done one Disney cruise, so just curious if you've also met, I just saw that you took Pearl on a cruise by yourself, which was so brave of you, I could never
[SPEAKER_04]: But yeah, just wondering what you think, one thing I wonder about is would just quickly sleep thing with them on a cruise, like, with two pack and play a spit in those rooms, but they both sleep in the extra bed, they've never slept in a bed before, so that be the disaster I don't know.
[SPEAKER_04]: So yeah, I just would love to know your boss on this.
[SPEAKER_04]: Is this a terrible idea?
[SPEAKER_04]: Should we wait until they're a little older?
[SPEAKER_04]: Do you agree a cruise would be better than the parks?
[SPEAKER_04]: Also, is there any shift in particular that might be best
[SPEAKER_04]: We were sort of thinking about the Disney wish just because that's one we went on before, but
[SPEAKER_04]: are kind of open to anything, so yes, let's know your honest thoughts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks much!
[SPEAKER_01]: Hi, okay, incredible call and indeed you are correct.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is easier to go on a Disney Cruise Line vacation with your kid than it is to go to the parks for a handful of reasons.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I kind of wanted to, I broke it all down and I kind of want to get into the pros and cons of Disney Cruise Line with the toddler, especially for someone who is weighing it against or is possibly used to visiting Disney's theme parks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, we do have an entire episode about Disney Cruise Line with babies and toddlers, but for someone who's on the fence and kind of deciding if they should or shouldn't go, I think this will be a more effective guide for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, some of the pros of visiting Disney Cruise Line with a young kid.
[SPEAKER_01]: Similar to Disney Parks, everything here is child safe, but on a cruise, everything is contained.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're in one location for all of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You just go up or down.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is huge when it can take 45 minutes to just put on clothes and get out the door.
[SPEAKER_01]: Also, all of that park pressure is gone.
[SPEAKER_01]: the like we got to get out the door to get on the bus to catch a magic kingdom because we have a reservation.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And honestly, having a kid on a Disney cruise is even easier than spending a weekend without leaving a hotel to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just there's so many things to do and they're used to families being there and it makes your life so much easier.
[SPEAKER_01]: May I also add, the boat is temperature-controlled.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know how nice it is to note it'll be like 68 degrees for the majority of your day?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's pretty, it's pretty ovenly and slightly underrated.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are bathrooms all over the place, just like theme parks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Frankly, there aren't enough water, water bottles, Phil stations, water fountains, there aren't really enough of those on board.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is something they can learn from the parks, but maybe you know, not a pro, not a con, just figured I'd mention.
[SPEAKER_01]: Another pro.
[SPEAKER_01]: The onboard Disney experiences are steps from your room.
[SPEAKER_01]: But more importantly, from your diaper station, your change of clothes, your nap time setup.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anything you need at the end of the day is just steps away.
[SPEAKER_01]: And being close to all your stuff, not just your diaper bag, but anything you
[SPEAKER_01]: And you can effectively cram more into a day and still have a really solid nap because you're not going too far.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to have your the type of like leaves the parks to go have a nap at the hotel room, you're not missing out on that transportation hour to get back and forth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you're there, you just go, you nap, boom, you're out of bed, you're back in the game.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is pretty great.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's also why Disney Cruise Line's schedule is your secret to Bliss.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, the schedule!
[SPEAKER_01]: At the parks, a schedule stinks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Having to rush somewhere can be stressful and planning and planning that is too much for all the things we already have to keep inside our brains.
[SPEAKER_01]: But here, it is so nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like summer camp.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, do you want to go do arts and crafts in the lounge at four?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh no, you'd rather watch a movie?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, good.
[SPEAKER_01]: No worries, those types of activities that I think most people would write off on a cruise line like crafts are actually so essential to rounding out a kid's day to keep them engaged and to really feel like you've done a lot even while you've just been relaxing and hanging out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you ever said that a Disney world trip was relaxing with a child?
[SPEAKER_01]: point-proven.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have any of that like, wow, we gotta get to tomorrow at noon because yeah, I'm a certain time, like there's none of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the same is true for characters.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are so many meet and greet during the day and night that you don't really have to stress if you missed one.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there are all just minutes away from the rest of your vacation, making all of the Disney experiences on board very convenient.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the last little bit I want to add for the pros.
[SPEAKER_01]: The reason why you should book a Disney crucification if you're a Disney Parks person is that the special little community touches of being a board of ship with other people is something you do not get in the parks.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love the Disney community.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love to run into people with the parks like I'm in a very unique situation there.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there is nothing like being a board of ship with your fellow shipmates.
[SPEAKER_01]: On our sailing, Probe is constantly being handed gifts by strangers.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were like, oh pixie dust, oh we just wanted to make a little magic.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm saying like four to five times it happened and it's not like it's not abnormal.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I've seen this happen to many many people before.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just all timing.
[SPEAKER_01]: People are just passing stuff out and it was delightful.
[SPEAKER_01]: And part of that is because of the fish extender community.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, the fish extender is something that you buy or you make to hang on your fish, which sits outside of your state room.
[SPEAKER_01]: You hang it on there and people will leave you present.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can join the Facebook group for your cruise.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are Facebook groups for every individual cruise.
[SPEAKER_01]: You just look it up and be like, I'm leaving April 7th and you'll find it and you'll join.
[SPEAKER_01]: And people have a fish extender network and they kind of specifically seek people out to give gifts to.
[SPEAKER_01]: We just played it fast and loose and random.
[SPEAKER_01]: We bought a bunch of gifts and just put them in all the people that were on our floor and just hoped to get things back and we did.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what was so fun was that like, we learned this time that the constant surprise and delight of little presents was amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It just kind of like brought her this dose of joy that we haven't been able to have at theme parks.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've been in incredible time at theme parks, but you're never handed presents throughout the day.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I highly recommend if you are going to go to do that because it will enhance your experience more.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there are tricky bits about Disney Cruisland.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a very specific things that I do want to make sure I mention.
[SPEAKER_01]: The packing and unpacking can be brutal.
[SPEAKER_01]: And not just the fact that you get to your state room, you're unpacking everything, and then very soon thereafter you have to pack, because if you want to check your bags, to leave the cruise, if you want to meet your bags once you are off board the ship, you don't want to lug them yourself, which if you're traveling with children, you really don't want to.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then you have to have your bags out the night before, which means that you have to mentally process what you might need for the next day.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when the next day is a travel day, that means that you at like eight o'clock at night in your cabin while your child might be asleep or attending
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to be like, what am I going to need on an airplane at 545pm tomorrow?
[SPEAKER_01]: And that can be pretty complicated.
[SPEAKER_01]: It can be, it can be somewhat overwhelming.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thankfully, I just kind of pop on the on-demand Disney TV in the room while I'm getting it all done, but that's part of the reason why driving to this cruise was so helpful because I didn't have to think about any of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you're on board, the limited availability to get things that you need when you need them can also be a bit tricky.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, they do sell sundries in the shop and while the shops are closed when they are in port, if you need something, they can get it for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, if you're like, I need baby wipes.
[SPEAKER_01]: They are able to get it for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when I was on our sailing in Alaska, I think we ran out of diapers.
[SPEAKER_01]: We needed one more and they didn't sell pearls size in the store.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we had to talk to guest services.
[SPEAKER_01]: We worked it out and we were able to get a couple of diapers from the nursery.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's non-standard.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when it comes to food, there is room service.
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, there are many food options.
[SPEAKER_01]: But as I mentioned in this episode, and as you likely know from spending time at the child,
[SPEAKER_01]: Kids, when they're hungry, they are hungry, and the dining hours and experiences don't always line up with that.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you are at a dance party on deck five and your toddler goes, I'm hungry!
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what a theme park you just like walk a few feet and get whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here, you would have to go out and go upstairs and go downstairs and you'd have to kind of seek out food or go all the way up to the pool to get something made or to grab a sandwich, stuff like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I always pack a ton of individual snacks, not just because if you want to bring something into the nursery, it's required, but having at least one snack in your bag on hand helps a lot, and guarantees that they are going to stay happy and stay full even during like a 30-minute activity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, ports can be complicated to visit, you know, like a tender boat with a young kid can be a little annoying, but it's all doable.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's all pretty standard.
[SPEAKER_01]: The tricky bit is going to be excursions.
[SPEAKER_01]: Many of which are not really intended for young kids, and if young kids are allowed, it's just going to be really expensive for something they're likely to sleep through.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cut to my daughter asleep on a bench through the entirety of an Alaskan train ride.
[SPEAKER_01]: I had a great time, but she has no memory of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as I mentioned on this episode, you don't know what you don't know, so you got to sign up for stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's different from that longstanding theme park knowledge you have.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whale Gathering is something you want to sign up for before.
[SPEAKER_01]: TURO Waffle Day?
[SPEAKER_01]: Usually on the last day of the cruising get TURO Waffles at Cabanas at the buffet, that's just something you've got to know about in advance.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thankfully, you listen to my podcast and you follow me online, so you're pretty much good to go.
[SPEAKER_01]: Another con is that, well, when I say it like that, it sounds like, oh, they're pulling one over on you.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, it's just something that people gripe about is that younger kids may not get as much out of a cruise because they can't swim in the big pools until they're potty trained.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the splash pad until then is your only option.
[SPEAKER_01]: In my experience on shorter cruises, it's been totally fine because there's just so much random stuff to do and see a board and like going to splash pad once a day kind of fills fills that need.
[SPEAKER_01]: It kind of gets things done.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you go on a longer sailing, not being able to access the pool if you have a kid who loves a pool, might start to be a problem if they are not potty trained yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's also weirdly not as much toddler-specific programming aboard the ships as you would think there is.
[SPEAKER_01]: The big character goodbye show, pirate night, that stuff is awesome for all ages, but it's also really late at night, and the kids' clubs aren't available to them until they're older.
[SPEAKER_01]: Still, make sure to make use of the open house times at kids' club because you can enter those with ease, you can go with your child, and they can enjoy all of those facilities with you,
[SPEAKER_01]: You will be of a nap trap to when you are cruising with a small child unless you wheel them around in a stroller.
[SPEAKER_01]: My child will not sink in a stroller anymore, so we aren't able to do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I do think if you did a shorter sailing on the wish, you probably really enjoy it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, three days on a Disney cruise is better than zero.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's so fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: They have more of an indoor playground, ish, we'll say playground, ish facility on the wish that they need to join the older ships, and if you're going to be able to put a kid in a nursery, who, baby, you're going to be able to vacation too.
[SPEAKER_01]: If my kid went, I would probably be like pro and con list, pro go, con, there are none, there's a nursery by.
[SPEAKER_01]: The nursery is like eight bucks an hour.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is bananas, but my kid refuses to go, so it's fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do think, sorry, oh my gosh, I did not realize I had a little no bit of permission on cheese sitting here that I didn't finish and I kept being like, why does my office smell like vomit?
[SPEAKER_01]: Am I in a coma?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I vomited and I have no idea, like, why does it smell like vomit?
[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody vomited in here.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the small piece of pungent cheese.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, I do think two packing plays in the room would be tough, but doable if your room is big enough.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would do it a family of a randa if it all possible, but that is hard to be like, yeah, it's just totally fine as long as you spend the most money available before it comes to years.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I would actually recommend you call Disney directly to just kind of see if the measurements suffice.
[SPEAKER_01]: I looked around, I couldn't, we could not find any twin, young, twin content on YouTube.
[SPEAKER_01]: I could have sworn there was like a family, like a family out there, like has little twins who like did Doug, wasn't Disney Cruise Line, everything around, but there's really none of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I would just give them a call and see what they think about what type of room you could book.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can always have the coffee table removed, which should get the job done, but I don't want you to be like, oh, we are now unable to have a child to sleep or they need to sleep because of the sizing.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that is my best advice there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I hope you go.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope you have so much fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope this pro-conlist was beneficial and thank you for listening You cry Lee, this is Michelle from New Jersey.
[SPEAKER_00]: I see you are on a solo cruise right now with Pearl and I have just the question for you So typically I am traveling to Disney World with my daughter and we are DVC members so we get a villa.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have
[SPEAKER_00]: place for her to sleep well, you know, we can hang out in the common area and she's, you know, sleep during the next room.
[SPEAKER_00]: As someone has never been on a cruise before and looking to dabble, one thing that is keeping me, but hesitant is what to do and even once, you know, baby girl goes to sleep and we're kind of like stuck in the room with just the curtain.
[SPEAKER_00]: What your plan was, what did you do and what you suggest so that we're not, you know, just in the dark room from seven on.
[SPEAKER_00]: uh, and told them like a more interesting stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, thank you so much for the show and looking forward to hearing all of your great recommendations.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hope you guys had a fantastic cruise and can't wait to hear all about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bye.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hi.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for this call because this was something I too was really worried about when I started sailing Disney Cruise Line with my child.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've now been on four Disney Cruises and I gotta tell you the secret to having your child in the state room with you is the curtain of dreams.
[SPEAKER_01]: dreams.
[SPEAKER_01]: From my research, I think I've deduced that every standard room on a Disney cruise, like, you know, not like the funnel suite, not the tower suite, but the rooms, the the verandas, the indoor, the outdoor.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm almost certain that nearly if not all of them have a curtain separating the bedroom and the living room.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, it's a cruise cabin.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's all one space.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there is a curtain that will separate where your child is from where you will sleep in the bed.
[SPEAKER_01]: The curtain is better on older ships.
[SPEAKER_01]: It tends to be a little thinner on the newer wish-class ships, but it still works, and it's still there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And because of this curtain, once you can go to bed, you are able to kind of keep some of the lights on once they're down.
[SPEAKER_01]: it is immensely helpful and when you close that curtain I always bring little um they're like laundry clips I clip the curtain close so no light can come through I turn on the white noise machine I bring and you can kind of chill and not really wake them up now you are you know stuck in your room pretty early
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I am going to recommend, thank you, push their bedtime a little bit for a sailing, and I want you to recognize that me saying that is a huge deal, because I am a bedtime stickler.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I will be like, we need to leave, we need to leave, it's time for bed.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Disney Cruise Line, I push it a little bit, because there's so much fun stuff happening,
[SPEAKER_01]: that it really don't want her to miss out on things that are happening kind of earlier in the day.
[SPEAKER_01]: We do earlier dining with her when we sail out of the west coast.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, we are West Coast so on East Coast I have the advantage of being able to keep her up until 10 o'clock, which
[SPEAKER_01]: is pretty cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I keep her on her home time whenever we travel.
[SPEAKER_01]: So here when I'm sailing out of the West Coast, which I've done three times now, I just put her in an hour-ish later than usual.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like an hour and hour and a half doesn't really mess them up that much, and you know, they're likely, well, mine did, but usually they'll wake up and kind of a similar time as usual.
[SPEAKER_01]: She hasn't seen as much, and it's worked out totally fine for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: You will want to book early dining for your family, but to keep in mind that the dining and the on stage like Broadway style show are at opposite times.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you'd dining early, that means that your Broadway show will be after.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you want to watch that, it might be a bit too late for your child.
[SPEAKER_01]: So my recommendation is if it all possible to skip your sit-down dinner, the night that you want to see a show.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we did on this sailing because we were one of the main reasons we were going
[SPEAKER_01]: That night we skipped dinner, we saw the early show and we were actually able to be accommodated at our restaurant later that night that is not typical and that was it was that was a late night.
[SPEAKER_01]: We kept her up a quite late.
[SPEAKER_01]: She was up late late, but we it was like the time had rolled around and I was like she still hasn't eaten.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's just try it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm told that you can ask nicely that it is easier to pull that off for a later dining than earlier, but we would have otherwise just gone and eaten this stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've gripped about in this episode like chicken fingers, pizza wasn't open, of course.
[SPEAKER_01]: Chicken fingers, french fries, things like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now for his great is the curtain is, and how helpful my advice might be to skip dinner the night of a show you really want to see, you're still gonna be stuck in the room at night.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just how it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: I recommend kind of taking turns with other adults if you're traveling with anyone else.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I did with my husband when we sailed the wonder last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would go out one night, he went out one night.
[SPEAKER_01]: We could just kind of switch off.
[SPEAKER_01]: We couldn't spend time together in that
[SPEAKER_01]: capacity, but at least I was able to go do a few things I really wanted to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I even one night went to go see a show by myself because I knew that the timing wouldn't work out for pro to be able to see it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, consider if you are traveling with other adults, um, consider having one of them go up and, you know, just bring you soft serve every 30 minutes.
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys just take charge of going to soft serve and bring it back, which isn't, you know?
[SPEAKER_01]: It isn't that bad because that curtain, if you bring a white noise machine, your kid is a sleep and separate and it is kind of nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I wouldn't let the room situation keep you from going, but I would recommend maybe just go on a shorter cruise because if your child is really not down with a sleeping situation, you don't want to learn that on in eight days.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope this was helpful if you have any other questions, please give me a call and have so much fun if you choose to go.
[SPEAKER_01]: SHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
[SPEAKER_01]: That is whatever we don't need a word for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm still only I'm only halfway through.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm still as coffee.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm still getting there But I love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love your calls keep them coming and as you notice in this episode It's really helpful because it's actually a great way to make sure I am answering your exact questions about a Disney experience I'm having
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you incredible segue got to pet myself on the back, uh, if you want to plan a Disney vacation or even that whack and do universal discounted one Head no further than any I mouse fan travel can you tell us is inscripted?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm off the cuff baby and I'm making it work mouse fan travel.com slash amusing is your gateway to a perfect theme park making
[SPEAKER_01]: Or crucification to do a bunch of other stuff, but you know, I'm not really going anywhere unless it's themed There are so many deals right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So many that truly I had to outsource the work to Becky on the podcast That's how many discounts they're on and we didn't always do that segment not only because I You know started working Becky a handful years ago, but I never really covered discounts because it was like Ah, there's too many there over here and also the word as good as they are right now the past year and a half has been a real flashback to some old school good deals
[SPEAKER_01]: And you don't gotta get in on it because they're not going to let's forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know the ones like once people start coming in, they're not going to have as many deals.
[SPEAKER_01]: So make sure to take advantage.
[SPEAKER_01]: And with ME, I'm Nelson and Trevor Nelson and Trevor.com slash I'm using, um, yeah, I use them to play my trips and I recommend, they do the same.
[SPEAKER_01]: They play in that cruise.
[SPEAKER_01]: They play in that cruise in three emails.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, shout out, Blair.
[SPEAKER_01]: My guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't all.
[SPEAKER_01]: Follow me at CurlyWiseau across the internet, join the foamilyifacebook.com slash group slash CarlyWiseau, and subscribe to my Instagram 99 cents a month, I'm giving you, let's say at least a dollar worth the content, I'm over delivering for a 99 cents price point, at least I think.
[SPEAKER_01]: I may be not $10 worth, but it's definitely one zero is zero worth, but the decimal, you know, next to the one between zero.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, thank you so much for listening.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not the part we do.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is happening with me?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not even going to edit this just so you know that sometimes we can't get it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Leave notes, sometimes things are perfect.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's just life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks so much for listening.
[SPEAKER_01]: See you real soon.
[SPEAKER_01]: I genuinely think meeting Olaf broke my brain.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's your only explanation.
[SPEAKER_03]: Stephanie Styles, I'm very amusing this week.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh my god, an actress, a singer, a comedian.
[SPEAKER_03]: She is so so talented.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just love her.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love everything about her.
[SPEAKER_03]: She is our sunshine and a breath of fresh air.
[SPEAKER_03]: Stephanie Kurt is an actor and sound and music at 12.
[SPEAKER_03]: And regional theater at six, what?
[SPEAKER_03]: Whoa, she was born with talent.
[SPEAKER_03]: Stephanie was so funny and so great on the episode of Curb Your In Thoosaism.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was cracking up, she is so talented.
[SPEAKER_03]: I remember telling her how much she stole the show.
[SPEAKER_03]: She is so great.
[SPEAKER_03]: Her acting is so supreme and so natural and so fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just love you on your loot.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love Luke.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love seeing you film loot on location.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you for letting me in Carly's stop by.
[SPEAKER_03]: That was so exciting for me.
[SPEAKER_03]: Jeffrey says I love small girls that's so attainable, that's so great to do.
[SPEAKER_03]: Why go so high?
[SPEAKER_03]: Do like to.
[SPEAKER_03]: regular goals that are small and be connected, that's so great.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_03]: That was such a fun episode and especially between two good friends.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like listening to some talking.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love it so much.
[SPEAKER_03]: Great episode honey.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love you so much, Carly.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love you so much, Coral.
[SPEAKER_03]: Happy Birthday.
[SPEAKER_03]: Bye-bye.