00:01.60 dclduo Welcome back. Everyone to the Dcl Duo Podcast I am your host Sam Brian is not able to join me today so I will be doing solo hosting duties today which I think is actually quite appropriate for our show topic. Um, so first. Let me welcome our guest today Sharon welcome. Thanks so much for reaching out I am really excited to talk about the topic that you actually propose to us as a great topic for a show which is. 00:19.62 Sharon Thank you Sam I'm so happy to be here. 00:34.64 dclduo Solo parenting or single parenting on Disney Cruise line and I don't think we've had a show that's covered this topic we've of course done cruising without kids. We've done cruising with little kids. We've done cruising with Nathan of course. Um. But this is not something obviously that Brian and I have any expertise in because we sail with each other and with our kiddo. Um, so I'm really excited to talk to you about this I think this will be really helpful for a lot of folks out there. But before we dive into our show topic. We always like to find out people's. Cruising and Disney Background so can you tell us you know how many cruises have you been on with Disney and how did you get started with Disney or Disney cruising. 01:18.82 Sharon Right? I would be happy to so I'm going to tell this sort of chronologically which is the best way that I know how to do anything. Um, so my first experience with Disney was a family trip to Walt Disney world um when I was eight years old and this is going to age me a little bit to tell you this but at the time there was only the magic kingdom um, my memory is that they were in the process of building epcot. But it was not yet complete or open. 01:38.46 dclduo Um. 01:49.54 Sharon Um, so that was ah you know at some point in the 80 s we'll say um and then my next experience with Disney was I went with at the time my boyfriend ah who later became my husband with his family on a family trip to Walt Disney World in 9098 01:53.89 dclduo Um. 02:09.32 Sharon Um, and I have some ah some pretty unique experience I think or or something that may be of interest to the listeners we were there in April for spring break. Um, and we knew that the animal kingdom they were opening the following week. So. You know there was a new park and we were sort of bummed out that we weren't going to be able to visit it because the grand opening was the following week. Well we had the Tv on in our hotel room in the morning like this is you know the internet existed but it wasn't like it is today. We didn't all have it in our pockets. So. 02:38.97 dclduo Um, right? Ah right. 02:42.96 Sharon You know we were listening to the news in the morning and I remember specifically 2 important things. Ah the first being that Linda Mccartney had passed away who was Paul Mccartney's first wife and the second was that they were showing footage of guests in the animal kingdom and we thought oh well maybe we can go so we. 02:51.45 dclduo Um. 03:00.45 Sharon Essentially went during the soft manch week of the animal kingdom so we were among the first guests to be able to visit there which is fairly exciting. Yes, yes. 03:08.45 dclduo That's so cool. That's really awesome I remember I do remember when Animal Kingdom opened I because I was a senior in high school at the time. So I'm aging myself as well. Um, and so. 03:18.59 Sharon I. 03:22.48 dclduo Yeah I remember I I do remember a time before animal kingdom opened because I was at the twenty fifth anniversary of Walt Disney World ah back in 1996 I believe it was and so that was when the the castle was a cake and if you remember that is the controversial. 03:36.36 Sharon Oh right? Yes yes I do. 03:41.14 dclduo Um, people don't some people don't like the castle as a cake I Actually really like the castle as a cake but you know it is It is. 03:45.23 Sharon Right? Very polarizing? Yes, but not yeah, not so not too far ah before the animal kingdom was open and then I returned four years later actually on my honeymoon. Um, and we say the wilderness lodge which was absolutely wonderful and spoiled me forever. Um, and then my next experience was when so in the inter my husband passed away. Um, so I'm a widowed single mom which I think is. 04:03.37 dclduo Yeah, yeah. 04:16.35 Sharon You know means that um, we'll get into that a little bit later when we start talking about cruising and that those challenges but the next experience I had was at Disneyland so I had never been to Disneyland but we went out to California to visit a college friend of mine and her husband who lived in Los Angeles so very close and. They are season ticket holders. So my daughter at the time was 3 my husband passed away when she was 2 um, and so they took us to Disney. Thank you? Um, she's now almost 8 so you know it's it's been a ah while since that um, but they took us to Disneyland and then to California adventure each for one day. 04:41.88 dclduo Um, I'm sorry. 04:55.81 Sharon And my takeaway from that which I've heard many people note on your podcast since is that when you have little little kids Disneyland and California Adventure are way more manageable than Disney World particularly as a single parent just because everything's close by and. 05:06.13 dclduo Yes. 05:12.68 Sharon Um, and you know we really enjoyed that experience and then you know yes so then fast forward to 2021 um and I was trying to use up a airline credit I had because my daughter and I were scheduled to go to atlantis. 05:14.14 dclduo Oh yeah. 05:30.27 Sharon Ah, in June of 2020 so of course the pandemic did not allow for that. Um, so I was looking around and I thought ok well I guess we'll just go to Atlantis and you know I I was kind of dragging my feet on booking a hotel and then I said well I wonder if there's another way we could get there without the whole tripping Atlantis and i. 05:33.52 dclduo Right. 05:49.80 Sharon Let me look into Disney Cruise line so lo and behold I I think it was maybe in may or June of 2021 I book this three night cruise out of ah port canaveral that has one stop at Nasa beautiful. We could go to Atlantis and a stop at castaway k so. 05:49.83 dclduo Um, yes. 06:09.30 Sharon I'm very happy with very pleased with myself justifying to everyone why traveling on a cruise in a pandemic is still a good idea. You know a urine. Yes. 06:16.43 dclduo Um, right, this was like right at the restart too. That's that that was I think that was you were on. Maybe the second or a cruise of the restart because I think the dream was the first one in the in the states setting aside the you know the magic was doing those staycations in the u k. 06:27.90 Sharon He writes. 06:32.97 dclduo Around this time but I think the dream was the first to set sail and I want to say it was like mid-augus and you went maybe a week hi gosh I think you went on the second or third cruise. yes yes I was thinking. Maybe. 06:39.10 Sharon Yes, you you were on the same cruise as us. Actually so you tell me what crazy wrong I were and I have a few anecdotes about that. But so we you know I joined the cruise. 06:49.61 dclduo You're on the same one. That's so funny. Yeah. 06:56.79 Sharon Group I joined like the general Disney Cruise line group and I'm asking questions and someone told me to join for our sailing and I see all this chatter in there about wow they're doing a test cruise this cruise might really happen and I was like this cruise was not really maybe could happen I had no idea I was like. So naive just assumed because I was able to book it that I thought they were sold out in July because there was like no availability so we I booked it for August like just completely naive had never cruised on any cruise line before let alone Disney so um, we it was the August twentieth sailing on the dream. Um. 07:18.49 dclduo Um, oh yeah. 07:27.45 dclduo M. 07:30.58 Sharon And I I heard later on you know this year when I started listening to your podcast that that was your first sailing after the reopening and I actually on Youtube looked at ah the video that you have posted and there's ah a shot of you just for a split second say I'm behind your head. 07:35.17 dclduo Um, yeah. 07:49.14 Sharon Looking as you enter the um you know, sort of the check-in area and you can see me standing there with my daughter online. Um, so we were. We had the same port arrival time of 115 and so let me just do a ah quick sidebar as we are sitting in our rental car. 07:56.54 dclduo Um, no way. 08:07.10 Sharon Waiting for my daughter to clear her covid test she was talking to a little boy in the car next door and I want you to ask your son if he remembers this because I think there's a very good chance that it was Nathan and and my to put her cassidy was talking to this boy out the window. 08:09.00 dclduo Right. 08:25.22 Sharon And this being a rental car you know pushes a button and the window rolls up and like hits her in the neck and I start freaking out because I don't know how to how to lower it because it's not my car. We'd been in this car for like an hour. Um, and so anyway, everything was fine. We got out she passed her test. 08:35.40 dclduo Oh my god. 08:44.39 Sharon Um, and we we got onto the ship and never saw that little boy again in real life. But you'll have to ask whether or not we had a chanceing encounter in the parking garage. Okay, okay, that's fine if you won't remember yeah. 08:48.60 dclduo Oh my god that's hilarious. So Nathan will never remember so I I could ask him and there's no way he'll remember that he won't remember because we we will talk about like people. He's met on if it's like the last cruise we went on he will remember. But if it's like. 09:05.19 Sharon In my but yeah, that was a wild while back right? yeah. 09:08.31 dclduo Yeah, it's it's a while back in our hour cruising train now but that is so funny. It's funny. It's funny. You said that when you when you mentioned the date I was like yeah that sounds familiar. Um, and then I just was looking at our trip it and of course obviously you watched the Youtube video so you know but it it was in fact, August Twentieth Twenty Twenty one and we stayed at animal kingdom we stayed at the Kadani Village it's actually the only time. 09:22.67 Sharon Um, yeah. 09:25.40 Sharon Right? right? yeah. 09:36.71 dclduo Or maybe the first time I had stayed at Animal Kingdom and we had yeah and we went to sign off for dinner and so I that's just yeah, that's whole area. 09:45.70 Sharon That's that sounds lovely. We flew in that morning which I will never ever do again because you know it worked out fine like our our flight got in at nine thirty we actually had time to kill. We were just bouncing around at Publix like I don't know I guess I'll bring a bottlele of wine to bring on board. We didn't know what to do with ourselves. 09:52.38 dclduo E. 10:02.91 Sharon Ah, but I had only gotten about 90 minutes of sleep the night before so I was like in zombie mode for that whole first day and night which is on a three three night Cruise is a significant portion of the the time on board but we were just trying it to see if this is something that we liked and. 10:12.12 dclduo Yeah. 10:19.67 Sharon You know throughout the whole year. We kept talking about our crews and what a wonderful time we had so when we got to sort of spring of 2022? Um I said ok well let's do another cruise and I booked a five night out of Miami. Ah, western Caribbean Cruise with a stop at castaway and a stop at kasimel and I have never been to Mexico. Um, so that that was our second Disney Cruise experience um 10:40.95 dclduo Nice. 10:47.30 dclduo And on your first and on your first experience. We actually got they canceled Nasa and we were able to go to casta a e twice right? yeah. 10:54.27 Sharon That's right, it was a double dip. Yes and I um on the first day I had my whole life I want to be in the caribbean I'm like a water baby and you know I had someone I used to work for said. Oh we got to get you in that water. And we got there and it was the hottest hottest day I think I've ever experienced in my life and my daughter and I kind of you know, being overtired and overheated and everything else did not love our experience. Believe it or not so on the second day it cast away I I sort of said ok, you're the boss Today. You decide what we do and she chose not to get off the ship so we had ah an onboard day. Um, that second day of our our first cruise which was fine. 11:29.88 dclduo Um. 11:36.60 dclduo Um I don't I don't yeah I don't blame you honestly? um for Brian and I you know and Nathan we live in Seattle or in the Seattle area and it's um, we're not used to the heat of the caribbean and in August it is the hottest. 11:51.44 Sharon Yes, yes. 11:51.64 dclduo Is the hottest it can possibly be in Florida and in the caribbean or Bahamas wherever you are um and yeah, we we can't usually stay out on castaway for the full day we end up like we'll go for the morning but we usually end up back on the ship in the afternoon. 12:04.87 Sharon Right. 12:10.95 dclduo There have been a couple times where we've been able to stay out all day but it's not usually in August because it's just so so hot. But I love um I love that you reached out to us as I mentioned I think this topic is super. 12:15.10 Sharon Um, right. 12:24.96 dclduo Helpful for a lot of people. You are not the only single parent that likes to cruise with their child on Disney Cruise line I know there are plenty I've met tons. Um I know that you know something that's unique to you is that you are a full time parent all the time. 12:27.27 Sharon Um, right. 12:40.20 Sharon Um, right. 12:40.86 dclduo It's not like in a situation of divorce where you get a break from your child when they're at the other parents' house. Um, and so I'm interested to hear how you go about? you know, planning for the cruise if there's anything in particular you do because. This is your vacation in addition to being your daughter's vacation. So How do how do you?? How do you make sure you're planning in a way that will actually get you some vacation time. 12:58.97 Sharon Um, right. 13:08.76 Sharon Yeah that's a great question and you know what? I really love about Disney Cruise line um, which is a little bit different than Disney World is it kind of takes the mental load off of a single parent like there's a lot to do. Before you go right? especially with all the covid testing requirements and trying you know on that first cruise we had to book 90 minute time slots for the kids club. They were very very limited but what I love is when we are on board that my favorite thing about a Disney Cruise is they tell you. 13:33.31 dclduo E. 13:44.67 Sharon Where and when to eat your dinner because I I have a picky eater in my house and anywhere else that we go especially a new place. It's dinner time it sneaks up on you because you're having so much fun and then it's oh no. 13:58.48 dclduo Where are you going to go. 13:59.90 Sharon You know what? what are we going to eat where are we going to get it. How's it How long is it going to take I'm on my phone. My kid is trying to eat every snack and get her hands on because she's hungry. Um, and it it makes it actually quite stressful. Um, so on a cruise. It's very easy because you have your food is. 14:10.31 dclduo Um, yeah. 14:17.81 Sharon Is there I know there's always going to be something she can eat if she eats pizza for every meal. So be it and that that's pretty much what happened on our 2022 crews right? Nothing wrong with yeah, no shame right? Um, and and they have activities for both the kids and the adults they have. 14:22.11 dclduo Um, ah, nothing nothing wrong with that. 14:37.18 Sharon Um, you know the the kids club which we used more fully on our 2022 crews. Um, you know that your your room is never very far away and it's everything is just designed to entertain and delight both children and parents so as a single parent. I think cruising is something that we will continue to do um you know until she's ah, an adult and then she can bring me on a cruise but exactly that's exactly right. 15:02.93 dclduo That's right instead of Shahar being your plus one. You'll be her plus Ah, that's right. 15:10.64 Sharon Exactly right? So you know we I booked the cruise just as I had last year which is I booked direct I didn't really know about or consider using a travel agent because it's so easy and as a single parent you're just so used to doing everything yourself anyway like I didn't even know there. Was someone in the world that could help me or many many people in the world that could help with this? Um, so so I booked it and I um, you know shortly afterwards of course I joined our cruise group and signed up for fish extender which is a new experience for us. 15:32.10 dclduo Yeah. 15:45.39 Sharon Um, but I I also started looking for podcasts so on our first cruise I was more interested in finding Youtube videos because we didn't even know what the ship looked like so it was ah a more of a visual you know, watched a lot of walkthrough videos that were pre-pandemic etc. 15:52.32 dclduo Right. 16:01.37 Sharon Um, and then this time I found the dcl duo podcast and it really gave me an education so you know thank you to you and Brian and all of your guests because I think it really enabled a much richer experience. 16:05.94 dclduo Hooray. 16:16.53 Sharon Because I you know didn't even know half of the things that were available to do on board. Um, and once I I Yeah no absolutely you're you're very welcome. Thank you for that because you know there's only so much that I have time as a single parent who works full time. 16:24.29 dclduo That's so nice to hear. Thank you for that. 16:31.94 dclduo Right. 16:36.20 Sharon Um, then you need to pay for this cruise that that I have time to really look into. Um so you know as I'm going through and and active in the Facebook group and you see more and more people coming on maybe sometime at the end of June and this was ah August Fifteenth sailing on the dream. I see a woman post are there any other single parents on board and I was like I couldn't raise my hand fast enough I'm like yes, um because I you know very social person I'm a joiner I'm a you know love love all of the above right? Um, and so there were maybe about a dozen. Ah. 16:57.14 dclduo Oh fantastic. 17:07.13 dclduo Um, yeah. 17:14.75 Sharon Women all women who responded and said yes you know I am also a single mom who is traveling with children and there were some were teenagers. Um, you know there was one maybe under 5 but there were several just coincidentally. 7 year old girls and 1 I think 6 or seven year old boy who were all in the same age group all traveling you know several of them were also only children which is another element that you can relate to traveling with an only child right has its its. 17:43.71 dclduo Um, right? Yeah, absolutely absolutely It's easier. Everything's easier if they make friends right? like that's the the thing we know early on or we learned early on in cruising is. You know, of course if we travel with a friend that's great, but most of the time that doesn't work out most of the time it's you know friends that have similar age kids. Maybe they're not into I mean a lot of our friends are not into Disney cruising I'll be totally honest. 17:58.62 Sharon Current. 18:06.40 Sharon Right. 18:08.20 dclduo And then we have a lot of friends that are into Disney cruising that don't have kids or have older kids right? So it's not really going to match up exactly right? So this is I love this idea because if you you know ability for you to make friends for cassidy to make friends like right away on the ship right? So tell me. 18:23.29 Sharon Yes, yes, and. 18:27.58 dclduo Me How does this work So you've got like a group of how many of you So you said there's about a dozen who respond. But what did you sort of plan or arrange for precruise that then you could actually meet up for or do on the cruise. 18:32.20 Sharon Right. 18:43.89 Sharon Right? So I ended up um maybe about a week or two before the sailing putting everyone in a facebook messenger chat together because I wanted to kind of take it out of the public viewing on the the Facebook cruise. 18:52.41 dclduo Not perfect. 19:00.20 dclduo Um. 19:01.40 Sharon Page so that we could just talk a amongst ourselves and kind of see what the interest level is you figure anyone who raises their hand must have some level of interest in in meeting one another so we end up arranging to have a meet up on day one Um, just prior to the sale away party. 19:19.60 dclduo He stop. 19:21.14 Sharon Um, so I said ok, why don't we meet up at mini golf because I don't think it's going to be very crowded. You know, especially at three forty five on embarkcation day. So and it wasn't you know I'd been much too. Ah not to my surprise and there was really nobody else there. So. 19:29.13 dclduo Yeah, yep. 19:39.83 Sharon Of the 10 or 12 of us who who were actively in the group chat. Um I think 6 ended up coming up and another challenge that we had and this is a ah this persisted throughout. Is the message. Ah the messaging excuse me. Let me start that over an issue that sort of persisted throughout the cruise is the Disney Cruise line app that we all use to message one another once we were on board had a significant lag and only works if you have um. 19:59.73 dclduo Um, sure. 20:06.62 dclduo Um, was it. 20:14.66 Sharon The the chat id for the person that you want to chat with. So while we had sort of 10 people maybe 8 or 10 that were active in our group chat before we got on board I think only 6 or 7 ended up in our group chat through the Disney Cruise line app. 20:16.55 dclduo Right. 20:32.73 Sharon Because embarkation day is so crazy and trying to get everyone's Id and trying to get in into this chat was a little bit of a challenge so there was some attrition there and then once we were chatting on board. You know it depends which part of the ship you're in or which room you're in whether or not there was. 20:50.40 dclduo Um. 20:52.40 Sharon You were getting those messages in in real time or with a slight delay or with a significant delay. Yes. 20:57.42 dclduo With a long delay. Yeah yeah, so for for our listeners if you are not ah familiar with the Disney Cruise line onboard app. It's actually the same app as you have on your phone pre-cruise so you download that app. But then once you get on board. You are. Connect to the ship's wi-fi and you get all this functionality including a chat function. But if the only people who use chat Ids are automatically populated into your app are people in your room. Not even even if you have linked reservations with another party and they're in a different room. You will not be automatically connected to them on chat. So when Brian and I are sailing with Nathan or without Nathan and frankly it doesn't matter. Um he and I will automatically be connected on chat through the app because we're staying in the same room. But even if we have another room of friends that's sailing with us and our reservations are linked. I will have to manually input that person's chat id number which I think is a 7 or 8 digit number but it gets assigned to you once you're on board into my app in order for me to start sending them iams through that chat function I can still send them. You know I messages if if they've gotten an iphone and I have an iphone but I can't and I could still send them. You know Facebook messages but I can't send them messages in that app without that chat id so what Sharon is explaining is if you are meeting up with people on day one that would be the best. 22:22.78 dclduo Way to get their chat id but you've got to obviously set up a meeting place in advance because you're not going to be able to connect with them or or talk to them on board particularly after sale away because you may have to put your phone on airplane mode and so if you don't get an internet package. You are not ah you are less likely to be able to get in contact with. Unless you're using. Um you know I message or something like that. So yeah, meeting up on day one is ah is a great plan if there's somebody you haven't met before and you want to meet them and you as I'll say you sort of internet meet them right through through the Facebook group. So. 22:58.61 Sharon Um, right. 23:00.54 dclduo There was super smart. Um I think the idea of mini golf is actually a great idea because I'm not even sure mini golf is probably open at that time in the sense of like do they even have the you know the the um what are they called the putters and the bubbles out for mini golf. Yeah. 23:14.97 Sharon Yeah I like this stuck. Yeah. 23:19.46 dclduo Stick exactly? Yeah, so yeah, that's a great idea I don't know that I've thought of that as a meeting place I know a lot of times people are trying to do meetups from the Facebook groups on board but they'll usually pick one of the bar spaces. Which is fine but I don't know how when you get to the bar space and this happened to us on our norwegian fjords crews and it was the meet up designated meetup space for people in the Facebook group. There's a ton of people that were in ogill's we had no idea who was from the Facebook group and who is not from the Facebook group. So yeah, meeting at a place that's less. 23:48.99 Sharon Um, right. 23:54.34 dclduo Likely to be less crowded is probably a better way to go in your situation. You are looking for ah single moms with their kids so it might be a little bit easier to recognize them than other people. 24:04.41 Sharon Right. 24:11.17 dclduo Um, just because they're going to be there. You know solo with their kid or kids. So yeah, so how many how many of you ended up um, kind of hanging out on board. You meet up with these 6 You know these 6 ladies or 5 ladies plus you um and their kids how many of you ended up. 24:16.11 Sharon Um, right. 24:27.72 dclduo You know, hanging out and did you did any of you end up sitting together at dinner or or do any other activities on board. 24:35.21 Sharon Right? So I'll I'll answer your second question first. So um, ah very shortly before the cruise ah probably less than a week. 24:36.63 dclduo Sure. 24:44.93 Sharon The woman who had originally said are there any other single moms out there. We started chatting and decided to link our reservations. Never met each other um you know lightly stalked each other's Facebook pages I assume at least I did and you know so ok. 24:53.74 dclduo Yep. 24:58.38 dclduo Ah, right? That's the way to go. 25:01.37 Sharon Both girl scout leaders. Our kids are the same age. We you know she looks that doesn't look like a you know serial killer and let's cut that out that sounds terrible. But yeah, so so I looked on her Facebook page and and. 25:06.52 dclduo A weirdo but. 25:15.96 Sharon Seemed to have some things in common. So we decided to link reservations to sit together at dinner and I thought okay well this is fairly low risk if we don't get along for whatever reason we only have to see each other for what an hour a day. 25:22.91 dclduo Easy. 25:30.61 dclduo Yep. 25:30.71 Sharon Um, and at least we'll have someone to talk to I can frankly make conversation with just about anyone. Um, and my daughter and I are both very social. So let's give it a world so we ended up meeting up actually prior to the mini golf meetup I messaged her directly. 25:39.30 dclduo Yeah. 25:49.90 Sharon At one point and I said hey you know we're doing the tour of the kids club where are you? Maybe we can walk up to mini golf together and she said I'm also in the kids club and I look over and she's about ten feet away from me. Um, so. I went over her name is jen her daughter's name is Addison and we all became very fast friends and spent the vast majority of the crews together. Um with the exception of a few excursions and I think there was 1 time when we went to pick the girls up from the kids club. 26:11.75 dclduo Oh fantastic. 26:22.58 Sharon And Cassidy, my daughter wanted to stay and her daughter Addison was ready to go and that was ah about the only time that we diverged um throughout the length of the Cruise. So you know took a gamble it paid off. We were texting just today about what you know where are we cruising to next year um so that's already on our radar as ah as a possibility. Yeah yes. 26:42.00 dclduo Oh awesome I love that I always so one thing I love hearing about is people who meet up on board and then decide they're going to cruise again, they're going to vacation again together you hear it happening. There was actually. Um, one of our cruises I'm going to I'm going to shout out to the mick heck mores which are I think actually 3 or 4 families who have ah we've been on cruises with them several times I don't think I've ever met any of them but they always post in the Facebook group because they were. Ah, conglomerate of there was a couple different families that met on board on one cruise and their party kind of grew over the years and they've sailed together I don't know like 10 times now or something like that. So. It's just really fun to see that I know that we have had we've made friends on board. Um, also made friends through the podcast who we then have sailed with we did that in the norwegian fjords we did that on the maiden voyage of the wish. Um and it's just a really fun, especially when you discover people who like to. Cruise and do excursions the same you know in the same style or similar to what you like to do so um, you can't always find that at home right? It's not always the case that your home friends like to do vacation the same way that you do and um, you know, not everyone's oddly enough, not everyone is ah as Disney obsessed as maybe. 27:59.61 Sharon Um, right. 28:05.34 Sharon Correct. 28:12.76 dclduo You and I are. 28:14.83 Sharon Know that's true and you know I I look around my life and I I've asked and you know we have family members with kids similar ages. We have friends and you know it's either they um. Have other places that they want to vacation or are just not into cruising I've not heard anyone say I'm not into Disney but you know again as a single mom if we want to go somewhere I just book it I don't need to discuss it with anyone can I afford it I ask myself I say yes I approve it and it's booked. So. 28:43.26 dclduo Um, yeah, right you I Love it is a very is a streamlined approval process I like it. 28:48.96 Sharon Yeah, it definitely is I've never told myself no once which is maybe not a good thing. But so yeah. 28:57.28 dclduo Ah, so let's let's let's talk about the kinds of things that are perhaps harder or the way you make it easier by sailing on on Disney um, in particular and and doing these things like setting up. Um, a meet and greet sort of in advance with and with an other single moms right? Tell me you know what? what is it about cruising or cruising in particular with Disney that makes your vacation perhaps easier as a single parent than some other style of vacationing. 29:15.11 Sharon Right. 29:27.32 Sharon Right? So as I mentioned my favorite thing is you know that there's food on board that my daughter will eat I don't have to think about it I don't have to worry about it on the first night when we met our servers we had putu and Jonathan on the dream who were absolutely wonderful. 29:35.41 dclduo Um, me. 29:45.71 dclduo Awesome. 29:45.73 Sharon Um, so shout out to them and I turned around to putu on the first night and I said look I would love it if my daughter ate a vegetable at some point in the next five days so I said she will eat cucumbers. She will eat peppers. Um and she will eat raw carrots if there's mustard to dip them in. And it just so happened that Addison had very similar. You know they both like cucumbers and peppers and she also had tomatoes which my daughter would not eat if I paid her? Um, so every night right? I mean same. 30:13.16 dclduo Ah, Nathan won't need a tomato either. Ah. 30:17.79 Sharon But I um she every night at dinner. Ah puttu would just automatically bring each girl a bowl of vegetables cut up for them to start munching on before we even looked at the menu. Um, so I think that that made it easy just the the value of the. 30:28.20 dclduo Oh perfect. 30:36.60 Sharon Serving team going out of their way to be so attentive to the kids is a huge benefit of Disney that you know having not cruise on any other cruise line I can't say for sure. But definitely I have never been in a restaurant where the server puts the food down and then picks up a bite and. 30:38.60 dclduo Ah. 30:55.41 Sharon Feeds the first bite to my daughter to just get the ball rolling. You know so that was wonderful. Um, we. 30:59.69 dclduo But oh yeah, and I mean I love when they when they cut up the steak for my kid in particular um because one of the things I always think about when I go to a restaurant and you know I before I get to eat my food. It is a constant thing and I don't know if this is just a mom thing or all parents maybe deal with this at some point but I feel like I'm constantly having to make sure my kid is fed before I get to even take my first bite of food and so I I feel you know and and of course I've got Brian so I can trade off that. 31:28.36 Sharon Right. 31:34.99 dclduo Duty sometimes too. Although most of the time I'll be honest, it does you know it falls on me more probably than it does on him but still I I have the ability to pass the baton to another person at times. Um, but it's really nice when the weight staff just pick up that Baton and then we. 31:41.60 Sharon Right. 31:53.69 dclduo Then parents just get to enjoy their food and enjoy their meal and and enjoy the company of either their kids or friends that they've made on board. So I love that That's such a great. Yeah, such a great benefit. 32:02.73 Sharon Yes, such a huge benefit. Yes, and I will say the kids club is very different in 2022 than it was in 21 that you know there were limited um amount of time that she was able to go but they also had the kids in 2021 in like these. Pods I'll call them so you know they would I don't know how many children maybe ten and a few counselors and they would sort of move them from activity to activity over the 90 minutes my daughter was very upset that she could not go over to the millennium falcon and push a bunch of buttons and kind of. 32:21.91 dclduo Yep. 32:38.30 Sharon You know, ah move freely about the cabin so to speak in the kids club whereas you know this year. It was full access. Do whatever you want? You don't have to wear a mask. So I think she and Addison on multiple occasions spent like 3 hours playing video games. Um, but I was yeah they enjoyed it. But I think ah she. 32:52.90 dclduo Nice. 32:58.29 Sharon My daughter Cassidy told me at 1 point that a counselor did did say to them. You've had too much screen time you need to go to something else. So you know she was was really channeling me from wherever I was on the ship at that point in time. Um. 33:12.65 dclduo That's hilarious I you know what I say it's their vacation. Let them have the screen time that they want because I mean I'll be honest Nathan when he's at the kids's club most of the time that's probably what he's doing too is the video games. Um, but I'm like whatever it's his vacation. But. 33:15.42 Sharon Yes, yes. 33:28.29 Sharon Um, agreed and as long as they were happy then we were happy and we were not getting you know messages for although who knows what the connectivity if we were getting messages or not. Ah, the only time I got a message that my daughter wanted to be picked up I was literally at that very moment Paris sailing and she was at scuttles cove without her friend. So um I did not get that message actually until much later when I picked her up. Um, but. 33:47.20 dclduo Oh yeah. 33:55.32 dclduo Any Any issue with that. Did they have any issue you know they sent you the message. Obviously you didn't get it because you're a parasaling. Um and I will say that that it's very Hidden Miss on the. When you're on Castaway key getting anything in the app to work because the wi-fi does not reach very far I I have found at least so I've never been able to use. In fact, I usually go off the ship's wi-fi when I'm on the island and just go on my cellular if I if I get service. Um. 34:18.33 Sharon Um, right. 34:22.32 dclduo But was there any issue when you went to pick her up to I Assume not that they weren't like mad at you or anything because really nothing you can do you're up and you're up in the air with the parachute. Basically. 34:31.50 Sharon Right? right? and I had told them that I was going to be parasaling and I think I got that message you know half an hour after I dropped her off so they would have understood that I was not available but she actually perked up. You know I think she had a moment where she thought. And don't really want to be here. But then she got to dump some water on a counselor's head or something and then she was ok. So yes, no issue there and that particular day First of all parasaling love love love will. 34:52.94 dclduo Yes, yes. 35:03.17 Sharon Ah, hope I can do that every time that I visit Castaway in the future because it was such a wonderful experience for me, but it's one of the things that you know as a single mom I'm like what do I do with her what if she doesn't like Scuttle's cove and you know it was that it was remy. It was um, cove cafe. 35:14.33 dclduo Right. 35:22.60 Sharon These are these are the things that are important to me that I really wanted to do and match your mate all almost all of these except the parasylling which I had heard about really from your podcast and was trying Yes, absolutely. 35:30.61 dclduo Yeah, because Brian loves it although I'm shocked at yours didn't get canceled because you're what he won for 1 and he's like you know, 2 for 7 or something on that. 35:41.65 Sharon And that's what I heard that it often gets canceled and someone had said book as early in the morning as you can which I was doing anyway because of of the heat but it was actually a beautiful day I think it was maybe 85 low humidity I mean it was the most gorgeous gorgeous day. 35:49.90 dclduo Yep. 35:58.22 Sharon Um, on Castaway and very I was very fortunate that parasoling was not canceled that day but I may you know who knows next time I don't want to you know I'm knocking home wood but hopefully I'll be able to do it again. 35:58.64 dclduo Um. 36:07.10 dclduo Yeah don't jinx it. Yeah, that's awesome. Well and the the great thing I think is you know you have you know? Scuttles cove is available. You've got you know kids club on the ship. So it's. You you know these things that you would have to at home hire a babysitter for or if you went on a vacation. Let's say to just a resort in I don't know Nasa like Atlantis and you wanted to do these excursions. You'd have to make sure there was a babysitter or a kids club that you you know could use during that time. So. 36:23.85 Sharon Right. 36:37.40 Sharon Yes, yes. 36:39.70 dclduo I'd love to hear how how you were able to or if you were able to experience some of the adults only activities and adults only areas on board I'm sure you know that's 1 thing probably people think of when they go to Disney Cruise I want to be able to explore some people. It's the adult dining for others. It's just being able to go to the coffee shop. What kinds of stuff were you able to do or or not able to do. Um you know, being a single parent. 37:00.67 Sharon Right? Well I think you can appreciate this because you are from Seattle and I've heard you talk about your love of coffee I I care more about coffee than I care about alcohol. So truly. 37:11.66 dclduo Um, yes, yep, yep. 37:16.90 Sharon Um, so I was I was trying to think and this was maybe the primary driver for me of trying to arrange that meetup I pictured us all and and I don't know whether you can bring a child to cove Cafe I Just assume the answer is no because it's in the adult section. But I pictured. 37:31.11 dclduo Yeah I mean you can like you can like bring him in with you to get a coffee to go but you might get some weird looks um and you're you know there I've seen people do it? Um, but generally yeah, you're not supposed to but that's probably a cove cafe is like the only place though during the. 37:36.70 Sharon Right. 37:48.78 dclduo Day that you is not really I feel like the other adult areas are pretty. You know, friendly in the sense of if you walk through. Um, nobody's going to give you dirty looks. But yeah co Cafe is I will tell you nobody has definitive said to me. No, you can't have your child. 37:55.50 Sharon Row. 38:06.34 dclduo Standing there waiting for you to get your coffee but that's I think an important you know that's an important question because it's an important space on the ship for those of us who won't drink that swill garbage that is to offerys. But. 38:10.11 Sharon Um, it is. 38:19.52 Sharon Ah, exactly thank you for saying it so I didn't have to but you know and it's also a matter of getting her up and out at 7 a m and convincing her to walk up to deck 11 to get me a coffee when there's 0 in it for her. So so here's what I did. 38:21.11 dclduo Yeah. 38:30.22 dclduo Right? right. 38:36.64 Sharon I Um I typically whenever we go anywhere. Bring my poover coffee which is a glass carafe which was not going to happen. So I I figured out ahead of time I brought something called an arrow press which is sort of a ah. 38:43.63 dclduo A. 38:50.92 dclduo Um. 38:53.84 Sharon If there was a way for a French press to be combined with a ah pourover coffee This is kind of what it is so it makes a st cup if they had a baby then this is what they would produce. So um, it's you pour over and it's sort of ah it's a lightweight plastic. 39:01.46 dclduo Um, that's they had a baby? Yeah yeah, okay. 39:11.18 Sharon Single serve like a plunger almost 2 piece thing. So I brought that with me pack that in my suitcase pack coffee in my suitcase, the filters and I ah on the first morning I said okay let me get the room service coffee and give it a try. Maybe it won't be so bad. It was horrible. 39:13.78 dclduo Hey. 39:29.49 dclduo Um, it's horrible. 39:29.94 Sharon Um, schooler alert and so the next day when I ordered my room service which was something I really wanted to do in the morning was to have that delivery. You know, put the door hanger out I had to call later in the cruise and get more door hangers because I ran out of them. Um, so I ordered tea service so I would just get hot water. 39:41.30 dclduo Yep. 39:44.85 dclduo Yes. 39:48.77 Sharon And I made my own coffee in the room and I used the you know the cream and sugar that they provided with the tea service. Um and didn't touch the tea Bag. So I I made my own in-room coffee and then every night after dinner I would order a cappuccino Um, because that helps. You know, keep me up from falling asleep after eating all that good food including the sticky date pudding which I've heard on a podcast that I Love is ah a really good dessert and I did have um so I. 40:08.64 dclduo Yes. 40:14.85 dclduo Ah, oh glad Oh awesome. 40:20.10 Sharon I made my own coffee so I kind of saw for that. It just so happened that jen from you know from western pa who was our table bath and Cruise buddy was not a coffee drinker. So my vision of tag teaming. You know this will take turns going to cove cafe in the morning did that come to be with her. And I was like I brought the all the things I'll just make coffee in the room and that worked out very well because then we didn't have to go anywhere and didn't have to worry about it. 40:43.00 dclduo Well, that's it. Yeah, that's a good I think that's a great tip but I want to give you a different tip and I hope that this won't be seen as too controversial because I wouldn't do this with like ah, an infant or a toddler let me just be very clear about this but I have done this with my eight and a half year old. Um. And I've done it probably the last few cruises that we have been on whereas if if it's just me and Nathan and we're in the room and I need to run and get something like a coffee and he's watching Tv or um, you know, just waking up for the morning so he's. You know, playing on his computer or something like that which is what he likes to do in the morning I will leave him alone for five to ten minutes so I can go get my coffee I figure. He's not going anywhere I mean this is ah you know this is an eight and a half year old I think you could do it with a seven year old you might even be able to do it with maybe. 41:28.61 Sharon I right? The friend. 41:40.30 dclduo 6 year old probably not younger than that. But um, yeah I would just say mommy's going to get coffee. You stay here. You don't open the door for anybody and I'll be right back then I've come back with my coffee. 41:50.17 Sharon Right? right. 41:53.77 dclduo So I'm going to just put that out there into the universe people can take that advice or not everybody's got their own comfort level I just figure on a cruise ship. There's very little that can happen to my kiddo if I leave him for you know, 5 minutes or 10 minutes even in the in the room. So. 42:08.76 Sharon Right? I would be okay with that I don't know that my daughter would but I and you know as she gets older that will happen at some point. Definitely yeah. 42:12.50 dclduo But yeah, yes, yes for sure. Well and I will say we've just started to do that like if I'm going to run to Starbucks we have a Starbucks that's like 3 blocks away from our house and. I we've just begun to do it like 1 time. Ah, just um I want to say a month or two ago Brian and I were like okay we're gonna Nathan we I and dad are gonna walk to Starbucks and walk back and so we're gonna be gone for 20 minutes and and I left him with my phone and we had Brian's phone so if he needed to call. 42:30.20 Sharon Um. 42:49.39 dclduo You know if there was any emergency in that time he could call us and we were you know a few blocks away so that's something again I probably I that's I just we just started and again he's 8 So um I think you have yeah you will have that you will be able to do that. It's just you know like baby steps right? and so I feel I would feel. 42:53.67 Sharon Right. Okay I aspired to that. Yeah one day. 43:09.13 dclduo Comfortable leaving him in the room for you know, ten fifteen minutes probably I probably wouldn't you know I haven't at this point left him alone in the room for anything and I haven't um for anything longer and I haven't let him check himself out of the kids club yet. 43:18.40 Sharon Right. 43:24.85 dclduo Um, I know there are other people there are other folks I know with eight year olds who let their kids check themselves in and out of the kids club. No judgment there. You do you? Um, it's just I'm not at that comfort level yet with Nathan maybe maybe when he's 9 Yeah, that's. 43:35.36 Sharon Right? Yeah I don't I don't think I'm there yet either. But although if they were together you know, cassidy and her friends. 43:44.17 dclduo Yes, that is I do think there that is one yeah that is one you know way of looking at it too if they've got you know safety in numbers if you've got more than 1 kid. Um, it's I think a little a little bit different. 43:52.57 Sharon Um, absolutely right. 43:56.97 dclduo So tell me did you get to do any of the drink tastings or adult dining or and did you get to see match. You're made. 44:04.62 Sharon Ah, yes to all 3 I'm happy to say that the single mom hatrick was achieved um, largely because of um, you know because of my other single mom buddies that were on board. So. 44:08.26 dclduo Yes. 44:16.83 Sharon Um, the drink tasting when Jen and I linked our reservations so we could eat together. We realized we had both booked the same drink tasting which was the stem to Stern wine tasting at pink. 44:22.38 dclduo Oh nice. 44:29.64 Sharon Um I think it was during that visit to pink where I looked in the guest book and saw you had signed it and I said it said 8 2021 that's best bar on the ship heart sam and I said I know exactly who wrote that how funny is that? Um, so we enjoyed that and actually and this is what. 44:33.40 dclduo No. 44:40.38 dclduo I Love it That is so funny. 44:48.27 Sharon Typically happened is we would be getting messages throughout the day from one mom hey I'm at Bingo is anyone you know planning to come to Bingo and my I'm sorry an alarm just went off I can I can start that over if you would like. Okay. 44:57.28 dclduo Yeah, just say that again hey I'm at Bingo. Yeah yeah. 45:02.71 Sharon Hey I'm at bingo is anyone planning to come to bingo or I'm about to go to Trivia or you know I want to ride the aqua duck and my daughter doesn't want to can someone like buddy up with us so that she can stay within the other mom and so I know that some of those things were happening where we weren't involved but. For the the wine tasting it just so happened that um, another mom ah said oh I just dropped my daughter at the kids club like what's everyone doing and we said we're out of wine tasting. There's an extra slot would you like to come join us so she did so she just walked down and okay. 45:20.98 dclduo Um, awesome. 45:38.50 Sharon Here's my room number and she joined us for a wine tasting which I thought would be sold out and what I laugh about this wine tasting was there were 2 couples on either side of the you know sort of the long bench seat and pink each from canada there were the 3 single moms there and then there was a dad there who I had seen on the. 45:51.30 dclduo Who. 45:57.96 Sharon Light down from Jfk and throughout the cruise and his husband and daughter were like elsewhere. So the only person who was alone was actually someone who was married and traveling with a partner who just didn't want to come to the wine tasting and um. 46:06.99 dclduo Was married right. 46:13.80 Sharon So anyway that was that made me laugh a little bit but we had a wonderful time doing that. Um, we did go. 46:18.90 dclduo Oh I love that Brian I'll tell you Brian will do drink tastings on his own. Um I I would do drink tastings on my own I haven't done one yet but he he has done because I don't drink um I don't drink whiskey or bourbon. He's done like those ones and he just he's done. The. Really early morning one which has like a mimosa and a bloody mary and like 3 smoothies which yeah I forget what it's called, but that one just doesn't interest me really at all and so yeah, he's done plenty of those himself and he still enjoys them and usually ends up. 46:39.34 Sharon Oh right. 46:51.70 Sharon Right? right? And that's and I appreciate that. But as a single month who spends a lot of time you know, not with other adults as I work from home I'm buy you know. 46:52.88 dclduo Chatting with somebody you know so that that's always fun. Yeah so um. 46:59.79 dclduo Um, right right? Of course. 47:05.16 Sharon So I just I wanted to have someone else there I think that one is called Kickstart your day that morning drink tasting and funnily enough. Um at some point during the Cruise Jen and I were just sitting in the ah the adult pool area while our daughters were at the kids club and. 47:08.79 dclduo Yes, that's right? yep. 47:22.51 Sharon We went to go pick them up and we saw one of the other moms had been to the kickstart your day and was kind of had taken a little midday nap following that so we stopped and chated with her for a little bit so it was fun to just bump into people. Ah you know the other moms. Ah as we thought. Traveled through throughout the ship. Um and to meet up for these sort of ad hoc. But I'm going to trivia. Let's go you know so I did get to spend time with many of the single moms we went to see a I did not go to any of the shows I'm sorry I know that's your thing. But yeah. 47:55.11 dclduo Yeah, that's all right? It's not everybody's thing I'm not going to you know I'm a little disappointed but you know it's not everybody's thing you do you like I said. 47:59.63 Sharon Right? Yeah, well we had gone to see beauty in the beast on the 2021 sailing and I enjoyed it but because we had early dinner that meant late show and my daughter slept through the whole thing and I thought I've seen it. She's you know wasn't super. You know. 48:07.53 dclduo Is. 48:18.69 Sharon Interested sadly at almost eight years old she seems to have outgrown a lot of the princesses which it happens so quickly you know, um, but we want to write right? and. 48:22.58 dclduo Oh yeah, no well Nathan's never been into the shows. So. It's fine I usually go. That's actually 1 place I all almost always go by myself like unless if we're sailing with with friends then I I'm I love. To go with a friend to see a show but most of the time I go see those shows by myself usually Brian and Nathan are skipping out. Um, exactly exactly. 48:46.81 Sharon Yeah, right? Oh that's good. They can have a boys' night while you do that but we did go see a ah he was actually pretty funny. He was that sort of a comedian flash prop comics flash balloon comic and his name is I remember his nameing. You'll know what in a second. His name was John Cassidy so we thought it was funny that his last name was my daughter's first name and we went with a few I think 2 or 3 other moms to that and we all enjoyed that as did the kids. Um and I we okay I'm sorry I'm bumbling a little bit so um, so. 49:04.96 dclduo Oh. 49:18.27 dclduo No, not at all. 49:23.12 Sharon I had heard from your podcast and from the cruise groups and everything else that is very difficult to get a reservation at remy or Apollo I went to guest services on the third day so it was our first at sea day for a total different reason. 49:35.12 dclduo Who. 49:41.74 Sharon And I said hey is there any way that I can make a reservation and the very nice person said suren you know, dialed the number handed me the phone and they said ok what day do you want to come what time. Do you want to come and do you want remy or Apollo and do you want dinner or brunch and I thought oh ok, well. I guess because our sailing was only 2 wo-thirds capacity or I don't know why there were actually reservations available to you know me as a lowly silver sailor and a castway club member. Um, but we ended up ah having a remy dinner. So Jen and I went to remy for dinner on the fourth night which our cup which was our cosmo night. It was also pirate night. So. 50:24.13 dclduo Ah, perfect. 50:26.91 Sharon This this was a little bit of an interesting logistical challenge but we made it work so we had the five forty five dinner seating and a six thirty reservation at remy for dinner. So we ended up getting. You know everyone got on their pirate gear. We went to dinner with the girls we were at. 50:35.22 dclduo Here. 50:45.44 Sharon Ah, enchanted garden that night which is not my favorite of the 3 rotational dining menus. So I was fine with and I've heard you know the pirate night menu is different anyway. So I was happy to you know not have that meal that was fine so we told puttu and Jonathan as soon as we got there. We said you know we have a six thirty remy reservation. 50:54.26 dclduo Yeah. 51:05.57 Sharon Just going to sit here and drink wine while the girls eat and then when they are you know at 26 or whatever we took them to the kids club and ran up to Rummy so it worked out beautifully and then we just picked them up afterwards but we did miss the deck party. 51:08.32 dclduo Bully Carl see. Yeah. 51:20.90 Sharon Um, but I think my daughter got a little overwhelmed with some of the deck parties. They can be very loud and a lot going on so I don't think they are very loud, Very busy. Um, but we did later that evening actually get to see the fireworks right from our veranda. 51:27.42 dclduo They're very loud. Yeah you. 51:37.77 dclduo Oh nice. 51:38.91 Sharon Um, so this is something I've listened to almost every episode of dcl duo podcasts and some of them more than once and this is not something that I had heard there elsewhere. But if you're not doing gty which we did but we lucked out and got a starboard. Side room on deck seven which I would pick every time if I had my choice although I'll probably just continue to go for the gty rate and there are 2 reasons number 1 is when your our docktic castaway almost always, you will have the better view of the island and not. 52:01.23 dclduo It is. 52:14.84 dclduo Right. 52:15.95 Sharon Dock. Um, unless you're into the dock I wanted on our prior sailing. We had beend on dock side. This was beautiful to look out at the island um, and number 2 as you can see the fireworks from your verand or at least we were able to so we were sort of we were 7 5 3 6 which is um. It was just a few rooms ahead of the forward elevators on deck seven so it was a beautiful spot. We just stood there watched the the quick show and that was our pirate night. 52:46.52 dclduo Yeah, we always we always try to get starboard side. We are not. We haven't always, but um, but particularly sailing to castaway. We do the same. We always try for starboard side. Um, and I will say we haven't always had well we we on the fantasy in the dream we tend to get. An ocean view state room which doesn't have the veranda so we can't do the you can't really see the fireworks if you don't have the veranda. Um, but so we usually go out on deck but actually a great place to watch the fireworks if you happen to be at Apollo or remy from the fantasy or the dream. 53:05.60 Sharon Um, right. 53:22.23 dclduo Is meridian has a little um outdoor deck space right? off Apollo and so um, that's a great space to get to watch but of course then your kids can't come and watch with you. So only if your kids are not if you don't have traveling without kids or your kids are not into fireworks or they're you know too noisy which for Nathan Nathan's fine with them now. 53:31.12 Sharon Right. 53:41.85 dclduo Ah, but he still sometimes covers his ears. He's not a huge fireworks kid because of the noise level. So but yeah, that sounds awesome I am like super excited for you that you got to do remi Um, remy dinner is obviously amazing. Such a fantastic experience. 53:46.57 Sharon Right. 53:56.12 Sharon Um, yes. 54:00.90 dclduo And it is a little surprising that um there was ah you know, still ah a lot of availability I will say that um one I think you're right the short the cruises when sailing at not full capacity. There's more availability than people maybe expect. But 2 dinner is always going to be easier to get than brunch because there's just going to be more dinners because every night there's going to be dinners versus brunch is typically only see days but occasionally on a Nasa day or occasionally on a ensignina on the west coast theyll will sometimes put a open up brunch. It. 54:20.40 Sharon Um, right. 54:37.65 dclduo Paulo for those days. So yeah, it's ah it's there's just more availability for dinner but that's great that you got to do that. What about match you're made I know that was something you said it was on your list and you you were able to do it. But how tell us how that happened. 54:45.46 Sharon Um, yes, if I may complain for a second I wish that they would start match your mate a little bit earlier because we have here a 7 year old and a six year old who. 54:57.64 dclduo Um, yeah I feel yeah midnight. Yeah yeah. 55:00.00 Sharon Had to stay at the club until um, you know, almost yeah until like Eleven o'clock at night so that evening we had gone to do a trivia at pub at the Pub Pub Eight six seven I don't I don't remember exactly the name. What's a call. Yes. 55:15.80 dclduo Yeah I know I know you're talking out 8 so as 8 7 6 I think it's 8 7 6 55:20.13 Sharon 7 6 yes, so we went to trivia at pub 8 7 6 and then we sort of wandered over because I forget what the pregame is called right before match your mate. It's it's it was sort of a group event where it was a warm up to match your mate. Um, and we went to that and it was only for 15 minutes and match your mate started I think at 10 30 or 1045 you know and here we have these young kids at the club. Um and 6 ix eight 7 okay pub 6 eight seven thank you 55:46.12 dclduo Um, oh it was. It's 6 8 7 not 8 7 6 6 eight seven there we go we both screwed it up. Ah. 55:56.20 Sharon Um, so we watched the I would say maybe the first 15 or 20 minutes of that and I kept saying to Jen I think we need to go get the girls I think we need to go get the girls and she said oh they're living their best life which was not not true. Um, but you know I I wasn't thinking at the time like they will message you if they really want to leave I was more just like I'm going to have a cranky kid on my hands who will probably yeah, not be too too thrilled with me if she wanted to come home and I didn't come get her when we did go get them. They were fine. You know, no one was. 56:18.76 dclduo Right in the morning. 56:25.29 dclduo The. 56:30.42 Sharon Was saying where have you been or anything like that. They'd been playing video games and had no idea what time it was so it did work out just fine. But I really enjoyed that wish we could have stayed for the whole thing but because they do it so late we weren't able to. 56:44.19 dclduo Yeah. 56:45.96 Sharon Um, a few days later we did go to the family version of it. Um, and we brought the girls with us and I think that was actually on the last day so we got to kind of see the show start to finish but it was it was not the adult version. It was the family version. 57:01.58 dclduo Yeah now I will tell you I I am with you with 1 exception. So I'm going to tell you why? um they do it so late because I agree with you. It is I we can never go see it or at least not both of us. Can you know can never go see match your mate. 57:05.65 Sharon Um, okay. 57:17.81 dclduo When we're sailing with Nathan because it is really late to keep him up and I feel like we're just gonna pay for it the next day even if it's even if getting him to bed is easy which it often isn't if they're past their bedtime. But the reason they do it that late is because the late dining i. 57:27.48 Sharon Um, right. 57:36.48 dclduo Can go pretty late right late dining depending on the sailing sometimes is at eight fifteen sometimes is at like eight thirty sometimes even eight forty five depending upon the itinerary and so if you've got that late seating for dinner. You don't get out of dinner sometimes until 10 or even past 10 and so they are. They're hold they're doing that. Um you know, usually at 10 30 match your meat I would I think ten thirty is the typical time for them to have it scheduled so you're right? It doesn't end until after 11 um, but that's why they do it? Yeah, just because that way late dining and early din. What it what would be nice is if they did 2 different ones. I. 58:05.13 Sharon My. 58:16.14 dclduo And they could do you know? Um, or I guess they could also do them in between dinner but then that's when there's always the the regular shows and stuff. So yeah, it's ah it's late. Yeah, well that might be it. 58:16.25 Sharon Um, yes. 58:25.21 Sharon I Thought you were going to say because everyone was nice and liquored up that time but it makes more sense. The dinner seating. Ah right. 58:31.55 dclduo I'll be you know that's the other answer. So that's that's that's not untrue that is the other answer um as well. So yeah, no I I Absolutely agree with you though when you're traveling with kids. It's quite late to. 58:45.71 Sharon Yes, yes. 58:45.99 dclduo Keep them up. Um, even if the kids' club even though the kids club is still open and we'll watch your kids until midnight. Um, then your kid has to stay up until midnight. So that's yeah, that's the hard part all right? Well was there anything. 58:50.68 Sharon Right. 58:59.43 dclduo Else that I you know we haven't talked about that you wanted to share with our listeners because I think this is you know, super helpful and and unique topic I think that the best takeaway tip I would take from this is you know if you are willing to take some risk and put yourself out there. Um, you know and. If you don't want to be alone. Let me put it that way during your vacation or or solo with your kid during the the entirety of your vacation to put yourself out there going your cruise book social media group um generally to Facebook group for Disney for Disney Cruise line and you know. 59:21.42 Sharon Right. 59:38.53 dclduo See if anybody ah if there's anybody out there who wants to you know, kind of pair up and hang out and and do things together and hopefully your kids will click and you'll click and it all works out like it did for you I think that's I think that's really the best takeaway tip from your experience that I that I would get from it. 59:56.13 Sharon Now. 59:57.64 dclduo Um, but is there anything I've missed or any other things that we haven't talked about. 01:00:03.49 Sharon I Think that's really what I would recommend to other people if you're someone who, um you know is traveling alone with kids. Even if you're not technically a single mom. There was a mom who was in our meetup group who was just traveling without her husband. 01:00:17.96 dclduo This. 01:00:19.93 Sharon Um, her kids were a little bit older and she had someone she had met on a prior cruise who they had linked reservation so we didn't see them a whole lot and we would see them sort of here and there on the ship. But if you are like me and a social person and don't. Have a whole lot of conversation. You can make with the 7 year old sitting alone at dinner. Um, and you know which we do every night anyway. But I think that it is a great idea to get in that Facebook group see if there's anyone that you're vibing with and just take a chance and you know. If it doesn't work out I'm sure there's a way that you know you can delin your your dinner reservations or just you know make the best of it for that meal and go about the rest of your cruise. But if you don't give it a try and put yourself out there. Then you may lose out on you know, a really rich and fun experience and making new friends. 01:01:16.94 dclduo I love it I love it hey I hey I'll tell you you know we we did it. We had um in our Norwegian Cruise we had had our friend Chris um, he had been on the show once we had never met him in person we had talked for you know a sum total of. Probably an hour and a half for but between you know, setting up the recording and and doing the recording and we linked our reservation with him and his husband Sam and we ended up having dinner with them. You know every night except for a couple of meals that um, we had adult dining that did not match up. Um. And we had a fantastic cruise and we had such a great time and we have 2 amazing new. Great friends out of it. So yeah I I think it's a great idea and I would totally ma I would say to anyone. Um, whether you are sailing. You know single or you are sailing as a couple if you want to make new friends and with like minded people. Ah Disney Cruise is actually a great way to do it all right? I. 01:02:20.79 Sharon Yes, absolutely And if I can quote my favorite show for one minute which is the good place. The reason is friends I don't know if anyone will get that reference or if it'll make it in but the reason is friends So I love that. 01:02:28.21 dclduo Um, yeah, ah the reason is friends I Love that all right? Well speaking of friends I Know there's a little special guest who would like to come on the show for a little bit. So. 01:02:42.21 Sharon Yes, let me let me go get her cassidy honey you're you're on. Let's go but she's watching Tv she kind she snuck in a few times and she's like is it time yet. 01:02:45.54 dclduo Okay. 01:02:54.00 dclduo I Love it. 01:02:56.20 Sharon Um, so I'm just gonna have to transfer my I'm wearing airpods so i't have to transfer them to her so she can hear you so I'm gonna put my airpods in your ears. Okay and myself you can try? Yeah, okay so this one goes in your right ear and the woman you're talking to his name Samantha or sam okay here. 01:03:13.30 dclduo Spam is perfect. 01:03:14.23 Sharon Put that in here put this in here and so she can hear you hi. 01:03:19.46 dclduo Hi so I would love to welcome Cassidy to the show. Welcome Cassidy hi how old are you? You're 7 and so that means you are probably in second grade. 01:03:24.69 Sharon are are I'm 7 yup 01:03:39.20 dclduo Awesome! You know that I have a son named Nathan who is in third grade and he also loves to cruise on Disney Cruise line and I hear that you've done 2 cruises now with your mom is that right? That's awesome. 01:03:44.38 Sharon I yeah. 01:03:55.80 dclduo I Want to ask you some questions about the cruise the last cruise that you went on to find out your favorites does that work all right? Can you tell me what was your favorite activity to do on board. What thing did you like to do the most when you were on board. The. 01:03:56.51 Sharon Are okay and. 01:04:13.26 Sharon Um, um, it was probably arms swimming in the pool. 01:04:13.60 dclduo Dream. 01:04:20.80 dclduo Um, oh swimming in the pool. Do you like the the big pool in front of funnel vision. Oh do you like to watch the movies while you're swimming or you just too busy swimming. That's ok, tell me what. 01:04:24.80 Sharon Um, oh yeah, that's my favorite I'm too busy swimming. 01:04:36.40 dclduo Was your favorite dining room on the Disney dream. Where did you like to eat now you have 3 choices on the Disney dream you have royal court that is kind of princess themed you had animator's palette that has some animation shows. 01:04:40.74 Sharon I. 01:04:54.10 dclduo And then you also had the enchanted Garden That's the green one with the pretty flowers which one was your favorite I Knew you were going to say that tell me why. 01:05:09.16 Sharon Um, animator's palette. There's so many fun things to look at and it's just really fun. 01:05:09.40 dclduo Yeah I love it tell me what was your favorite food that you ate on the Disney dream. 01:05:18.64 Sharon Ah, it's a tough choice but maybe chicken nuggets. 01:05:22.60 dclduo Oh life changing chicken nuggets. They're the chicken nuggets on the Disney Cruise line are the best chicken nuggets in the world I am convinced what about favorite dessert item. 01:05:30.11 Sharon A a. Um, maybe a mickey bar are. 01:05:40.50 dclduo Oh mickey bar that's classic I love it and tell me what was your favorite activity to do in the kids club I know you went to the ocean ears club and Ocean ears lab quite a bit on the cruise with your friend Addison what was your favorite. 01:05:49.16 Sharon Wow. 01:05:55.30 Sharon Um, yep. 01:05:57.55 dclduo Yeah, what was your favorite thing to do there. 01:06:00.50 Sharon Ah, well there was video games and we really liked doing that. 01:06:07.90 dclduo Oh that's awesome. Tell me if you could go on another cruise tomorrow Would you go? Ah awesome I Love it. 01:06:13.70 Sharon Ah, yes. 01:06:19.57 Sharon Way. 01:06:21.30 dclduo I'm going to ask you just a couple more questions because as we call this rapid fire. This is my where I get to ask you your favorites I want to ask you who is your favorite Disney character. 01:06:28.98 Sharon Um, ah, um, favorite Disney character is probably does have to be like in a movie. 01:06:40.74 dclduo No, it doesn't have to be in a movie many character. Yeah, Mickey's not in most movies right. 01:06:42.80 Sharon Or like. 01:06:47.90 Sharon Um, well then um, my favorite character is the red Panda from turning red all well well. 01:06:52.66 dclduo Oh yeah, that's an awesome character. What's your favorite Disney movie. 01:07:05.86 Sharon And red. 01:07:07.25 dclduo Um, turning red. Ah so um and what about do you have a favorite Disney Song nope ok that's all right? Ok now if you could go anywhere in the world on a vacation. Where would you go. 01:07:26.29 Sharon Um, I would go to probably I would want to go to. 01:07:37.22 dclduo Salt Lake city interesting there's no Disney park there I'm still up a little surprised. Yeah, do you have friends there. 01:07:37.40 Sharon Salt Lake city 01:07:43.32 Sharon Um, yeah, yeah now I Just always wanted to see it. 01:07:49.85 dclduo Ok, cool. Well thanks so much for playing in our rapid fire round Cassidy it's super fun talking to you I love hearing all about your Disney favorites and will you let me chat with your mom a little bit. Thanks so much. 01:08:05.13 Sharon Um, hi me see. Thank you! Thank you. 01:08:11.85 Sharon Just changing headphones. Okay can you hear me just the father. 01:08:15.98 dclduo Um, oh my god she is adorable. Ah, um I am going to close out the show by saying? Thank you so much Sharon I'm sorry that Cassidy stole your rapid fire around. So. 01:08:24.16 Sharon Okay I I was you know I was sitting here going I had a really good answer for where I wanted to cruise to and I and you can actually get there by boat not like Salt Lake City but 01:08:37.43 dclduo All right? Well you know what? let's let's do that. Let's do this then I asked I asked Cassidy where if she could go anywhere in the world where she would want to go and she said Salt Lake city and so I thought that was I think that's kind of a hilarious crazy answer because. 01:08:43.89 Sharon Okay, so. 01:08:54.93 dclduo Not that Salt Lake City is not a nice place but it's just kind of a random place but I thought it might be yeah well I didn't ask her I to be fair I didn't ask her my normal question of if you could cruise on Disney Cruise line anywhere in the world. Where would you go because I I'm ah I wasn't sure how much she would. 01:08:57.31 Sharon It. It's a little laptop. Yeah. 01:09:11.17 dclduo Be able to you know how? Well she'd be able to answer that question. So I altered the question of just where where in the world would you want to go if you could vacation anywhere in the world. But I'll ask you my classic question of bucket list cruise you could go anywhere in the world on Disney Cruise line doesn't even have to be someplace Disney Cruise line currently sales. 01:09:12.52 Sharon Right. I Got okay. 01:09:29.57 dclduo Where would you go Sharon. 01:09:31.67 Sharon Well I would love to sail out of New York because we live close to New York and I think it would be amazing to like hop on the commuter rail that I take into the city when I have to work with our suitcases and just kind of zip over to the port. Um, so leaving out of New York ah probably going down to turks and caicos let's throw in a castaway stop? Um, maybe hit the lee city on the way back maybe another day it castaway and then ending in San Juan I don't know where any of these places are in relation to each other but it sounds really fun to. 01:09:51.80 dclduo Um, oh yeah, yeah. 01:10:02.88 dclduo Um, ah that sounds awesome. Yeah I'm not sure that the I'm natural end in San Juan if you're going to Castaway last but that's ok, regardless, it sounds like an awesome cruise I would love to go on it. But Sharon thanks so much for reaching out to us. Um, for all those who are listening Youtube if you have a topic that you'd like to hear us cover on the show and you think you'd make a good guest to cover that topic please feel free to reach out to us that is actually the the way we find a lot of our guests is by folks by listeners like you who reach out to us. Have a show idea or they have an interesting cruise that they were on and and then we arrange it and have them come on. So thank you Sharon so much again for being on the show and thanks for having cassidy on the show. She was fantastic. 01:10:51.53 Sharon Absolutely thanks so much to you Sam and you know tell Brian I said hello sorry we didn't get to chat but I look forward to maybe talking to him in the future about another interesting cruise that we take. 01:11:04.35 dclduo Would love it.