00:00.39 dclduo Welcome back everybody this week's episode of the DCL duo podcast brought to you by my path unwinding travel sam how are you this evening. 00:13.14 Sam I'm doing great I'm a little bit hungry because we are recording today at dinnertime um dinnertime west coast ah but I've got dinner ready and waiting for us after we do this recording so I will fill my belly and I will be good but I'm super excited. To talk to our guest today who is a repeat guest from not quite a year ago but almost a year ago um and this almost almost um. 00:37.86 dclduo Has it really been a year has it really been a year. Oh wow. 00:44.64 Sam and and I and I we specifically recorded that episode with the intention that she would come back on at this time. So I'm not going to give any more spoilers I me let Brian I'm gonna let you introduce our guest. 00:55.52 dclduo Well, that's it that that is a well I'm happy to excuses well I'm happy to do that. So let me welcome Claire back to our show. Welcome Claire. 01:06.16 Claire Thanks for having me back Sam and Brian. 01:09.10 Sam Yeah, it's so fun to have you back. can I can I give the the big reveal now Brian. 01:16.90 dclduo Well I'm trying to remember which episode number so we can give that to our listeners so they can go back for those who are new and listen to the None episode we had with Claire when was that Sam what here? Oh no, no hold on hold. No no wait wait wait what where when was it sam I don't even. 01:25.23 Sam Yeah, ok well you well you? well you look for the number I ok. 01:31.90 Claire I wasn't it in November oh episode 160 01:34.64 dclduo I remember there you go? Yeah, okay so let me do that. Let me do that again. So like welcome Cla and so and so claire for everyone out. There was on episode 160 which was. 01:36.65 Sam Oh there, you go Claire knows it ok. 01:49.46 dclduo A wish come true Claire had questions we had answers and that was because Claire won a year of wishes crews on board. The Disney wish and so now that she's had an opportunity to sail on her. We wanted to bring her back find out what of our tips did not work out for her and which ones may have and what she thought about the wish. So. 02:03.41 Sam Ah, yeah, so we let me let me just interrupt and say that the up ok all right? So yeah. 02:09.41 dclduo Claire before we before we wait start over start over sam don't say don't say let me interrupt because I will edit that part out. So just start with whatever you're going to say. 02:21.45 Sam So for our listeners. Um, if you didn't listen to episode None 60 claire as Brian said won what's called the year of wishes Cruise which was one of the preview sailings on the Disney wish that I think 50 guests won um and that sailing was going to be Claire's none Disney Cruise ever and so she came on the show and had a list of questions for us about sailing on Disney. There were some that we could answer I think pretty well and others where we were like you know I don't know because it's a new ship. It could be different and obviously with all the covered protocols changing. We knew we couldn't be precise on some of those things but we wanted to have Claire come back and actually tell us how this year of wishes Cruise was and whether or not our advice panned out didn't pan out or what. 03:14.64 dclduo Yeah, same I may edit that piece I think we had enough of an intro I was trying to get to her cruising background. So yeah, sorry, um so Claire. This was your None Disney Cruise but remind folks have you been on other cruises before. 03:16.68 Sam Um, ok, ok, all right. 03:30.59 Claire No, um, even though I'm from Michigan you know sometimes you get the ferry boats and I've done like I've taken boats to macinaw any other kind of boat experience is very minimal and I'd never done an overnight cruise before. 03:44.80 dclduo Okay, so first time and who so who went with you on your year of wishes cruise. 03:50.42 Claire It was hard to pick people because I'm just a ah single person so when the option came to bring 3 other guests along. It's like well I do I bring one of my. Siblings that's married with children. Well it doesn't really work out numbers wise so I decided to go with my mother and my father and my older brother Matt. 04:12.21 Sam Awesome. 04:12.40 dclduo Nice, nice and now logistically with the year of wishes crews did you get to pick any sort of stateroom or were you just assigned a stateroom on board. 04:24.30 Claire Ah, okay, there's there's a story to this because if I'm just going to tell everybody if you are a type a vacation planner. Do not enter a Disney vacation contest they will tell you nothing I didn't find out. 04:35.84 Sam Which. 04:43.43 Claire About anything for the cruise itself until July sixth we sailed on July tenth there was like when I finally like downloaded the app and got the reservation number in you know the the countdown calendar said four days to go. 04:49.45 Sam Oh my goodness. Ah. 05:01.73 Claire So and so I lost all of that awesome you know watching the calendar countdown planning stuff out. It was completely. You know, kind of frenzied going. Oh my gosh. It's finally happening. There was a moment there on July fifth when I thought oh no, we've been. 05:04.52 Sam Is that. 05:20.42 Claire We've been swindled they it took all our personal information and we are. You know that you know we're going to find out that we have like crazy identities in the dark web or something and then finally July six came and they're like we have your reservation and you're going to stay at the yacht club and then we're going to take you and they had all. 05:20.75 dclduo With. 05:20.98 Sam Ah. 05:40.20 Claire That stuff I just and I was on the Facebook group with a lot of contest winners and they were also saying has anybody heard an every day it was someone else posting. It has anybody else heard about our reservations and there was always speculation and we were also on a Facebook group with. Other people that didn't win on the cruise who have been travel agents because this was the enchanted showcase cruise which the name I heard later and they were saying oh yeah, we're staying at at Coronado and then we're going to do this and we're staying for these nights and and they're telling us all this information we are getting zilch out of Disney. So. 06:10.76 Sam Um, a. 06:17.91 Claire And I heard from someone else that oh yo I friend won like a Disney world vacation and they didn't find out anything until like the week before and I'm I'm like okay this is a 1 and done thing I am not doing anywhere disney vacations if it's going to give me a heart attack. 06:30.81 Sam Oh my goodness now did they? um did they they cover your airfare in addition to the the hotel before the cruise and obviously the cruise is that right. 06:44.43 Claire That's correct. They they did get that information out ahead of time. So once they they bumped the cruise that month and they they gave you the option if you wanted to do the the enchanted showcase cruise on the None or you could um. 06:50.20 Sam Is. 07:00.32 Claire But another cruise for a similar price later on and I do do know a couple of people that had conflicts and yeah, there were a few and they they got just they're going to be doing a future cruise and another three night on the wish some other time which we'll get to other stuff later, but it it. 07:05.25 Sam Um, oh. 07:15.47 Sam Get. 07:18.74 Claire When we did the airfare in March I want to say the only requirement was that you all had to be flying out of the same place which I usually fly out of Chicago my parents would fly out of Detroit and my brother is all the way in Oakland so we all had to meet in Ann Arbor 07:30.71 Sam The. 07:36.80 Claire And then fly out of Detroit together and then fly back the same way. So it was a little extra travel for my brother and I but they were able to cover it and because I told them we don't have to sit together. There were a lot more airline options that were available I think we all flew out of delta. Um. 07:41.40 Sam Um. 07:55.15 Claire And so when I said we didn't have to fly you know all in one row because we're all adults it all of a sudden. It's like oh the the air. The um, the times that you suggested worked just fine and if that hadn't been the case they would have been. You know we would have been moving it around. It would have been crazy but it worked. 07:59.17 Sam Right. 08:10.81 Sam Yeah, now did they have you all fly in the day before the cruise because the the cruise was None I think right? and then did they have you all fly in on July Eighth oh sorry okay 08:21.41 Claire The cruise was July tenth so that Sunday and we chose to come in on the ninth and I just wanted to make sure that we got in and had a little bit of time since we were staying at Yacht Club I wanted to go to epcot and do. Guardians of the galaxy cosmic rewind and and I know my parents on the other hand are not roller coaster people. Well my mom is but my dad's not and so they wanted to go to Hollywood Studios and finally do rise of the resistance. So. 08:39.85 Sam Scott yeah, you yeah you did. Why wouldn't you. 08:54.18 Sam Um. 08:57.10 Claire We wanted to make sure that we had ample time to do that. So we we scheduled a flight that left at like eight thirty in the morning and fortunately we didn't have any sort of delays. Actually I flew like 5 times this summer for various trips and I was out in Oregon for another thing later I didn't have any flight delays. It was a miracle. 09:13.88 Sam Wow. 09:15.59 Claire And I was so concerned and it never was an issue and I think most other people were flying in on Saturday as well because when we checked in with they took us to Disney Cruise lines bus check encounter and they said oh are you going on the fantasy or the wish. 09:20.63 Sam Are. 09:33.50 Claire And the fantasy was flying out or the fantasy was sailing out that day and so there were people that were getting on buses and going straight to the port but we were on a but ah boat we were on a bus with a bunch of people who were going straight to the resorts and then tomorrow we're going to be meeting up on various. 09:36.41 Sam Um, ah. 09:53.19 Claire Buses and going to the port. 09:53.47 Sam Now do you know did everybody who won the year of wishes crews and and went on it I mean not the people who delayed did every one of them stay at the yacht club. Do you know or did they stay at various places. 10:08.81 Claire That's an interesting question because when we went on the bus. We went to a couple of resorts I believe we went to boardwalk and then we were going to yacht club and then we were going somewhere else and I think like I had mentioned with the Facebook group I think a lot of the tour. The. 10:13.93 Sam Um, yeah. 10:26.12 Claire Travel agents were going to moderate resorts like I think coronado or Saratoga Springs might have been the one they were going to so I and I didn't do a lot of talking with people to know what was or where they were going and and why they were on this cruise. 10:29.21 Sam Yeah. 10:43.87 Sam Um, okay. 10:45.58 Claire You know there were and you know there were the random influencers and celebrities which we'll get to later. Ah, but it it was I think most of us were staying at the yacht club because yeah, because they. 10:49.27 Sam Who. 10:55.50 Sam Um, interest. 10:59.61 Claire When they finished up or when they got us together on Sunday morning we met at the Yacht Club convention center and it was like the year of wishes people and all that checking in and stuff. 11:08.30 Sam No interesting. Yeah I bet I bet they had all the year wishes people staying at either Yacht Beach um and then the other folks staying other places because we did hear we do know of None we do know of a couple of travel agents who went on the same on the year of which is cruise or the enchanted showcase crews as it's been called as well and they I believe stayed at coronado so that makes sense so then Disney covered your. 11:27.61 Claire So who. 11:36.10 Sam Your flights they covered one night at the hotel and then the crews did they cover any time after the cruise at any hotel. 11:41.90 Claire No, if you were staying afterwards which was the initial plan in June when it was in its original timeframe. We were going to be staying afterwards and going to the parks for a little bit but when they pushed it. We just decided that we were going to take the bus and it took you straight back to the airport. 12:00.73 Sam Nice. 12:05.62 dclduo Where to next Sam I'm here I'm here. 12:07.62 Sam Brian you there? Oh okay so I know you were very quiet that I was like that's why I was just checking to make sure he were there before I asked another question. Okay, so you you meet up in the morning of the cruise at at the convention center tell us what. 12:10.86 Claire You've been so very silent. 12:24.52 dclduo Actually wait I want to ask I sorry want to ask 1 other detailed question here which is given when they notified you about the planning. Did you get luggage tags in advance. 12:24.60 Sam What if anything happens there. 12:34.51 Claire Good question, A lot of the stuff that they would have mailed to you. They didn't for example, the Covid testing had just changed where you could do Rapid Antigen and have a telehealth provider at your house like like you could do telehealth at your house. 12:48.77 Sam Okay. 12:54.29 Claire So that's what we did on Friday so I already had I had you know in my frenzied state of stress I had gone onto the inspire website and had ordered for tests and had paid the money out of my own pocket to get these tests and they were mailed to me with plenty of time and so other people were. Talking about testing and I'm like well I think I did it right? I did the inspired tests and then when they gave the confirmations they said. Okay, we will give you luggage tags when you check in on Saturday we'll have a booth at the convention center stop by. We'll give you your tags we will. Also. Ah, give you a gift card for the if you purchased covid tests because we weren't able to mail you the covid tests that we should have if we had given you all this stuff on time so that actually the 4 of us we each got a $25 gift card from Disney and that covered. Our lunch at ail and compass at the yacht club on Saturday so I thought that was a ah nice ah deal and getting the luggage tags on and they had you know what stateroom are you going to and all that it it wasn't an issue actually I didn't really think about that. 14:05.42 Sam Like like the luggage will get on the boat somehow. And yeah, you not something I think I think it's not. It's not something most people think about and I will say. 14:07.90 Claire Um, because I've never been on a cruise I wasn't freaking out about luggage Jags. Sure. 14:20.86 Sam If in general Even if you don't get your luggage tags ahead of time for a regular Cruise. It's really not a big deal because they always have luggage tags at the port and you would just have to they would just label them right then and there so they wouldn't have the pre-printed stateroom on them. But the. They'll still get labeled and they'll still get to your room So It's It's really not a big deal to not get luggage tags in advance. 14:43.85 Claire You said they're pre-printed they have your stuff on it already. We had to write that we had to write that down. 14:47.30 Sam Yeah, they have your yeah. So yeah, so the ones you get in the mail ahead of time I'll already have um your stateroom your name written on them. You eat you get I can't remember if it's 2 or 4 per person or. 15:01.17 dclduo You get 2 per person 2 per person per stateroom. Yep. 15:05.12 Claire Nice. 15:06.10 Sam Yeah, so yeah, and then you can always get more if you need more. But again if you get more. They're more at the port so they are blank ones and then you have to fill them Out. So The ones that are always at the ports are the ones probably that they gave you claire and it's like I said just not a big deal. It's just a matter of. Then you have to write all your information on stateroom and all that whereas the ones that come in the mail already have that? Yeah so what happens when you at your your meet up. Well I guess you get information at that meet up rate at the at the yacht club that morning the morning of the cruise. 15:38.87 Claire By this time they were sending us a lot more emails like every day we're getting another informational email from Disney and I'm thinking you could have sent this out like a month ago that would have been nice, but by this point they said okay. 15:50.55 Sam Yeah, yeah. 15:55.70 Claire On Sunday you're going to bring all your luggage Down. We'll have a truck and you're just going to put your luggage that is checked at at the truck you know they'll check you in. They'll highlight your your name and information and then you'll meet us at the convention Center. We'll check you in and then we'll gather everybody and we'll give they actually gave out. Ah, tags I think similar to the ah disembarkation process those oval tags they gave those to us to figure out what bus you were going to take to get to the port but there was a hiccup. Um. 16:19.14 Sam And this. 16:28.68 Sam No oh. 16:32.87 Claire They had just instituted this None question survey that they would email out and this was a dcl questionnaire. Not a a year of wishes questionnaire so you guys probably got this and you know what I'm talking about where you are confirming your covid status you we were sit. We were clear to sale. 16:47.70 Sam Um, yep. 16:52.54 Claire On midnight on July tenth so right before we went to bed we had just gotten back from the parks and finally I got that email I was checking all day frantically to see if I would get it clear to sale and finally at midnight I did I was so thrilled so in the morning I'm brushing my teeth in the bathroom I can remember this vividly and. I get the questionnaire and and I'm like okay you know, no no, no and then there was None question that said has anybody in your party had any close contact with someone who has gotten covid in the last seven days unfortunately after we had ah after we had tested negative on friday. 17:21.82 Sam Oh. 17:27.83 Claire My dad says oh good thing we are negative because last Saturday we had lunch with with a friend of ours and then on Wednesday they texted us and said they had tested positive for covid so that's in that's in my mind and I'm like oh yeah, well we're clear to sales I'm just going to click yes, not realizing. 17:37.26 Sam Um, oh no. 17:44.18 Sam Um. 17:47.39 Claire All of the stuff that would happen afterwards and I could have consulted with my family and kind of said hey you know what do you think about this question and maybe they would have said okay, well they did. They didn't have covid until the Wednesday after that's like a whole four days did they have it when we were with them. We don't know so. 18:00.30 Sam Um, right, you don't know. Yeah. 18:06.66 Claire I Don't know if they would have told me a different answer. Ah, but that's what I did in the moment because I was brushing my teeth at the Yach club and I was going on pure adreone adrenaline at that point. 18:17.12 Sam Yeah, yeah, and you're also trying to be truthful in these questionnaires which you know I will say you're probably 1 of the few people that's actually truthful on those questionnaires. 18:27.21 Claire That crossed my mind as we sat there for an hour in the convention setter watching all these people go by while the year of wishes cast members were running around in circles trying to figure out what to do now the easy thing. The easy thing is they would have said okay. 18:41.11 Sam Um, from here. 18:46.58 Sam Right? Piece the art minister right? A rapid pcr at the port I Not yeah. 18:46.74 Claire You've got to get tested at the port you got to do a pcr rapid test at the port none none of them knew that so we sat there for an hour and I'm like my mom is completely silent which is never a good thing for my mom. My brother bless his heart. 18:59.48 Sam So. 18:59.83 dclduo If. 19:06.30 Claire Is trying to keep us a little bit upbeat and once we found out that we would have to do a pcr test at the port. He's like well you know if we test positive we shouldn't be going on the ship am I right? and I'm just like melting down I I even went up. Yeah. 19:07.25 Sam Um, and. 19:17.18 Sam Yeah, you're like yeah but I won this curs and I've been waiting a year to go ah that brother come ah but. 19:22.90 Claire I Even went this was near the end when they had finally gotten a hold of the ship's physician at the port and they were talking to my dad and I went over to the cast member who's. 19:30.35 Sam Um, right. 19:37.25 Claire In this little check-in area and there wasn't anybody checking in because they were all waiting for the buses and I just I sat there and I put my head down in my arms and I'm like I was just trying to be honest and now everything's going wrong I'm so I'm sobbing in front of this guy I felt so bad. He's like it's okay, they're just going to. 19:40.99 Sam Um, right. 19:51.29 Sam Um, ah. 19:57.24 Claire Check and make sure you're all right? and you know it's probably nothing and I'm like thank you I Kind of needed that so we have to we get on a bus which I think is ironic because okay if exactly. 19:57.54 Sam Oh. 20:10.66 Sam You're now on a bus with all these other people if you had covered you just and could have infected everybody else. Yeah I knew you're gonna say that it's ah it's all a Mars Claire. It's all a farce this whole thing. 20:15.85 Claire He exactly So um, okay, my brother. Yeah I believe it now. 20:24.48 Sam Not covered I not covered covered is not a farce covered is real. Let me just be clear, but the this whole testing process that Disney is chewing in general is a farce because these angen tests are like not they're really, they're just not accurate with all these new variants and it's just. 20:27.47 Claire E. 20:40.25 Claire Yeah, yeah. 20:44.17 Sam Yeah, and and just just having contact with somebody you know and you know who knows it's so random as to whether or not, you're actually going to get infected and if you're wearing masks and all that stuff. So sorry I'm just going off on a tangent now. But. 20:55.67 Claire Which that's all right I feel. Yeah, we were all masked. We we had done our best that that from you know the whole week after my parents had gone out with their friends and so you know my brother and I were masked. 21:06.40 Sam Are. 21:13.70 Claire On the bus and I'm just sitting there like staring out the window. It's the longest. What 45 minutes to get to poor canaveral. We see the wish and everybody's got their phones out and I'm just like I hope this isn't the only time I see this ship and we finally get there and the lady comes. 21:18.30 Sam Are. 21:24.70 Sam Oh. 21:29.62 Claire Onto the bus and she's going to tell us about the lines and if you've never been on a Disney Cruise there's a bunch of lines when you get off the bus if you're clear to sail you go on like the blue line if you need more testing you go on the red line and she's she's about to say if if you are clear to sal and she says clear and I think she's going to say claire and the rest of my family thinks. Oh no, they are going to announce our names in front of this whole bus exactly but they didn't they said. Okay, if you're clear to sale go on the blue line if you still have further testing go on the red line like 3. 21:51.98 Sam Um, everybody's going to know that's the covered family. 22:05.32 Claire None of our bus had to do additional testing. It was crazy I was not expecting that so it made me feel kind of good. Um, so we did the pcr. My brother is trying to do like the heads up game on the iphone and my dad and and me are participating and my mom is just like still silent and then we finally get the all clear. 22:06.93 Sam Yeah. 22:23.40 Sam Yeah, a. 22:25.15 Claire Yay! But on inspires tests didn't transfer to dcl in time. So when we got to the terminal and they took our stuff they said oh you didn't you answered yes to None of the questions on the questionnaire and I said literally. Yes. But we just got our tests to the pcr across the street and here's our negative test. Why is that not shown up on your ipad yet. So I wish that inspires results got in a little faster because there were None times when we crossed somebody after we had taken the pcr test and. 22:51.51 Sam Um, yeah. 22:57.65 Sam And you had to show them the paper. 22:59.28 Claire They said exactly and they if there's like they had to bring in another person then they had to like talk behind their hands and finally they'd let us through it was just it was so Stressful. It was such a stressful way to start So when we got on the ship finally and you guys had. Mentioned going to the sit down restaurant that was the literally the best advice but well I had no idea where to go because I had not watched anything before this. So Even that the fact that 1923 was literally in the Grand hall that that was the key was like. 23:19.60 dclduo I would have fed to the bar None after that. But. 23:25.92 Sam Ah, yeah, right there? yeah. 23:36.86 Claire I Think that's where lunches we need to sit down. Oh and it was so it was so quiet and just we all breathe a little bit. My mom is finally talking again which is a good size. She was she was freaking out. She thought it was her. 23:38.46 Sam Yes, good call. Ah. 23:51.45 Sam Oh. 23:53.27 Claire And she was feeling really guilty which you know to have ah a mother that always talks suddenly not talk. It's very I don't know if you have that experience with your mothers. But it's just kind of a weird feeling. But yeah, so that was the experience at the terminal and oh yeah. 24:01.12 Sam Um, yeah, yeah, it's disarming. Yeah, so let's let's talk about your your entrance onto the ship. Um. Did they did they announce your family name and did they do a little wand ceremony I don't know if they did for these these ah preview cruises. 24:22.70 Claire They did but they didn't clap so it was kind of awkward and I think that's yeah, they give us this grand entrance and of course I'm wearing a mask and the guy who has the microphone is wearing the mask and I'm trying to get him to say our name. 24:26.60 Sam Yeah, they didn't clap for us either. We thought that was a little weird too. 24:40.87 Claire And you know it's ah it's a greek name. So. It's a little harder but still, it's like it's not that hard so he finally gets it and I'm coming out I'm like I'm waiting for the applause. Nothing. It's like oh okay so I'm still in my state of shock and yes, they were handing out ones. And my mom got got one. We actually got she ended up getting three so I was able to give None to each of my nieces and then kept one for myself. But I really got a ah nice video and I I vloggged at this all and I'm I'm working on editing the videos right now. But I I just did this today. Ah where they have Lord Leopold tell us to wave our wands and say wishes do come true and seeing the the ceiling and the chandelier itself lighting up like that I'm sure other people were like hey this is cool I'm just like this is really pretty. Um, not I don't like I said I didn't know what to expect getting on this ship and this shows in a lot of different ways. But it was just nice to to see that magic finally happen after the three or four hours they had just preceded that. 25:44.30 Sam Yeah, yeah, well I think that's a good call though on on doing the sit down lunch especially from the kind of craziness that you had um that morning. Ah the you know Marceline. Probably would have been a little bit overwhelming for you at that point just given that everything was overwhelming at that point. Um, but what did you? Oh sorry, go ahead right. 26:05.15 Claire I didn't even I didn't even know where marceli Marco was I didn't even know that that that was the place to go is I was so lost just that I think maybe they do nineteen I don't know if they did 1923 for both year cruises. Ah for that. 26:18.84 Sam Um, yes. 26:21.72 Claire Yeah, so the fact that they do that and it's literally right there so you don't have to walk anywhere I think was very smart of them. 26:26.15 Sam Yeah I think that that's going going to be the thing they do for all the cruises is the the none lunch None of it is the concierge lunch and the other half of it is just the regular cruisers lunch. Um, at least that's what happened on our none 2 cruises and that's pretty typical even on the other ships where there's a particular location where they do the concierge lunch and a particular location where they do the anybody who wants to do sit down lunch instead of going to cabanas. So yeah. 26:54.64 Claire Okay, okay. 26:57.98 Sam So I I imagine it will kind of stay that way and I think you're right? It's a perfect location because it's right off the Grand Hall not difficult to find so let's talk about what you what? you all got up to on the ship. What you know what? oh sorry. 27:09.11 dclduo Wait hold on wait. No no hold on hold on. We never heard but this day so you got on the ship. You finally find out what kind of stateroom you have. 27:14.96 Sam So Steve. 27:16.67 Claire Ah, yes, we we did know when we when I plugged in the reservation into the app I Finally found out it was an ocean view with the veranda and I I don't know the exact like I tried to look for it. But there. 27:23.99 dclduo Okay. 27:33.22 Claire It it wasn't in any of the emails that I had received from them. It was like in the app and now when I go back onto the app it gone so it was it. It wasn't like the family size where they have like that extra two feet before you get to the veranda but we did have a veranda um and we were on the I will say the port side. 27:40.30 Sam It's gone. Yep. 27:46.11 dclduo E. 27:52.89 Claire The the side where when you get on cast away key you're right by the you can see the dock. Um, it was really nice and we were in a cinderella floor so you know you had the Cinderella um painting at the headboard. 27:55.32 Sam Um, yeah. 28:07.43 Claire Since Matt and I are brother and sister. They pulled down the upper loft and that's where I slept and then Matt slept on the the fold out futon and then my parents had the the ah bed that the storage as everybody has said was. 28:15.30 Sam Are. 28:20.62 Sam Um, and not good. Yeah. 28:24.13 Claire Questionable and I'm glad to hear that this is a unique thing to the wish and the other ships tend to have more places for storage So when when I do do another cruise I'm hoping to do it on the fantasy that's kind of my dream. It's It's my quote unquote dream not the actual dream ship. 28:39.90 Sam Ah, right, your dream is to go on the fantasy I got it. 28:43.42 Claire But I'm glad to hear that. Okay, if we do a seven night cruise on the fantasy there's going to be a little more storage there. 28:48.26 Sam Yeah there's a there's a just a few more drawers and a few more shelves. Um, it's yeah, it's it's not the closet space I thought on the wish was was decent at least in that um in that family stateroom. We had a family ocean view stateroom. No veranda. Um. And so yeah, we probably had the same closet space I thought the closet space was fine but because you didn't have the the drawer space. Um, you had to put like everything in the closet so that was yeah that was kind of a bummer especially for 4 adults. We were None adults and a kid and that was. 29:17.59 Claire The. 29:26.73 Sam Um, tight for us so I can imagine for adults, especially with those ginormous hangers that don't make any sense. Um, yeah I don't I have to laugh about that because it's yeah, the storage situation not not great. So I think we should talk about what kinds of things you got up to and. 29:35.19 Claire If we leave. 29:46.26 Sam Actually maybe before we get into what things you got up to maybe we should talk about how what you thought of the layout I know you hadn't been on other ships but was it. You know you're on for three nights did you eventually figure out where you were going I know it's ah when it's brand new. It's impossible to know where you're going but did you have. You know significant difficulty by the end of the cruise sort of navigating where you were going and figuring out where things were. 30:10.38 Claire I think for people that had never been on a Disney Cruise ship before it was very easy for us to navigate because we didn't have anything to base it off of we were not used to 3 elevators so we were just thinking okay, 2 elevators for and aft where are we going. 30:19.70 Sam Are. 30:27.68 Claire And we figured out the stairs and and figured out okay to get to the adult only area this is the stairway we have to take we're we're all pretty good with directions so it wasn't too much of an issue for us for anything The only problem was we missed some stuff and I didn't realize it until I start watching other vlogs and seeing. Are listening to other podcasts where they're going. Oh we went to the rose and I said where was the rose and like anantte and Palo Steakhouse nope didn't see those at all I think when we did do the open house at the kids club. Ah the Marvel area was closed. 30:50.58 Sam Ah. Yes. 31:02.39 Sam Okay. 31:03.30 Claire I want to say because we completely didn't do that area and there were there were a couple other. Oh the? um the basketball courts nope never saw that so there were it just we knew the layout of the basic areas. Okay Luna. We're going there for games. We know where the restaurants are we know where the pool deck is. But any other things that maybe weren't on our radar. We never saw them. 31:25.51 Sam Yeah, well I can understand the Hero zone is is sort of a little off the beaten path unless you happen to go up a particular way to get to Marcelene Market and then you might see it. You might not um and then the rose and enantte are kind of. Behind the hero zone or off to the side of the Hero zone. Um, and so unless you're like specifically looking for them and even if you're looking for them. They're not quite as easy to find I would say as because they're not quite essentially located. So yeah, that doesn't surprise me. 31:56.11 Claire The. 32:00.54 Sam But as I understand on this cruise there was like limited opportunity to do um on Chante and Paulo. Anyway, it wasn't sort of open for regular reservations like it is on the on the regular revenue cruises. 32:14.21 Claire Right? And there were there were quite a few things that weren't available to us like I even tried to get photo pass and you know in the four days that we had before the cruise it set unavailable and my brother was game to buying that and getting as many photos as possible but it never became an option. 32:27.24 Sam The here. 32:33.56 Claire And so poor Matt has had to buy things what you call it individually and that's really racked up if they had just allowed us to get the photo pass which they had a lot of photographers on the ship. It would have saved him so much money. But I mean he got some great pictures but it made me a little miffed at that. 32:51.30 Sam Um, yeah. 32:52.70 Claire We couldn't even we couldn't even tip I was like we got to our stateroom at the the last night and I'm like oh shouldn't we have like tipping envelopes or something I had to go down to guest services and ask for tipping envelopes for the yeah and and like comment cards are our ah server. 33:02.90 Sam Um, oh wow. 33:10.82 Claire Sui was telling us oh make sure to fill out the comment cards I said sorryi we didn't get a comment card and he said oh I talked to the head waiter and they said they'll email that to you spent a month they haven't emailed it. So all these things that you had mentioned oh make sure you do this make sure you tip make sure you comment on the comment cards. 33:20.10 Sam No. 33:29.40 Claire They didn't allow us to do that Now they did mention at guest services that they were tipping our waiters for us as part of the you know part of the package that we had won which was nice but we wanted We had actually brought tip money to show them even more gratitude. So. 33:34.15 Sam Um. 33:46.85 Claire I grabbed envelopes from guest services and and we gave them more money than what the initial tip was because we really appreciated the work and you guys are right? Disney Cast member is on a ship or a cut above the rest. Um, and then like we didn't get any freebies I think some travel agent got like some special stuff when they got into their state room I even. 34:03.83 Sam Here. 34:06.28 Claire Remember on other watching other cruise videos that you know sometimes you get a landnyd because you're silver cast club or you get 1 of those like slam bags. No we didn't get any of that they I guess they figured you're on the ship. What more do you want exactly. 34:16.55 Sam Ah, you won the cruise. yeah I'm surprised I because yeah I know the travel agents did get some some swag and the Swag Said Enchanted showcase crews so they got like some there were some some like tote bags and some champagne flutes. 34:28.42 Claire Ah. 34:36.42 Sam Those are the things I can remember off the top of my head that they got they didn't get a ton of stuff because again it was a promotional cruise and so they were getting the cruise for free but they did get some stuff so um, but that's interesting that they didn't do the comment cards and the tip envelopes and stuff I guess I kind of understand in the sense that they're paying for the tips. But. I'm really glad that you asked for envelopes because ah as you said you know when you have a really great, especially when you have really great service like those servers want to know that you really appreciated their service and the only way to do that is None telling them into showing them with your dollars right? And so. Um I love that you I love that you went out of your way to to ask so I feel like we this is where we should talk about ah some of the activities that you got up to I and listen I think we warned you and told you you're not going to be able to do everything that you want to do especially on a three night cruise it's just not possible. There's just too much stuff to do all at once. Um, did that actually bear fruit where we write on that. 35:41.91 Claire You're very right. There were a lot of things especially like late at night we got back at like to our state room at ten Eleven o'clock and we were pretty exhausted but there were still other things that we could have done ah but be like the late night karaoke and a dance party with. Silent deejay and I was interested in those but I was also really tired. Um, there were some and then there were some exercise things at the beginning of the day where I you know set my alarm for it and then my alarm went off and I'm like nope so going back to sleep. But there were a lot of things that that we were able to do. We did a lot of the games. 36:06.20 Sam And then you hit this news. Ah. 36:15.28 Claire Ah, they didn't have any trivia and they didn't have any bingo They only? yeah they only had like they had match your mates and then they had like a family version where it was like parent and child that one was fun. Yeah. 36:17.29 Sam How interesting. 36:25.40 Sam Oh yeah, how well do you know your family or something like that. Yeah I've seen I've seen that on board I don't know if I remember seeing it on the wish. But I so I've seen it on some of the other ships. Yeah. 36:34.89 Claire Yeah, and then there was like a crazy scavenger hunt. But it was all in Luna. So you're like go into your purse and then show the host. You know this thing and one of them was show your host a selfie of you with the host. So. I still have that on my phone. Maybe I'll send it to you as as part of the photos that I send you is is my really really bad selfie and then heard that so it wasn't just music. It was like commercials and I think they were sampling some new shows that they were doing and my brother actually got on for that and. 36:54.21 Sam Oh I Love it. 37:11.70 Claire Did okay but he had like a Hercules song and I'm like Matt come on. You know this and he did. He didn't so those are fun games to do. We made sure to I think my brother said one of the favorite things that he has ever done was. 37:15.22 Sam Yeah, yeah, yeah. 37:26.91 Claire Sit in the mickey pool which is that front pool and he watched Ryan the last dragon from there which he had yeah he had never he had never seen it before and I did it the next day with finding Nemo which of course I had seen before but he was right? It was a pretty fun experience to just sit in the pool and just staring up at the tea at the. Ah. 37:31.48 Sam Yeah, funnel business is in love it. 37:46.71 Claire Screen on the funnel and watching you know some random movie. We did a little time at the adults only area. Ah, but we didn't go all the way back. My mom did like None thing in the morning and she said there was nobody there shoot I think she was hoping for like a lat pool and she like. 37:58.54 Sam Um, oh yeah, not on any ship not on any cruise ship that I know of yeah yeah. 38:05.17 Claire That's like her favorite form of exercise is doing laps in the water but and she Nope so it's something I'll have to break to her later but she she did mention there wasn't anybody there then which was nice but they did get into the hot tub that's over on the side. 38:18.41 Sam Right. So. 38:24.40 Claire Unfortunately, that was about an hour and we we were in there for like 2 hours and then like the last hour. The aqua mouse was going and so you're just hearing Mickey and Minnie say the same thing over and over again. Ah yeah. 38:39.39 Sam Ah, that's ah, maybe not the most fun way to experience a hot tub. Yeah, it's a little the I don't love the layout of the adults area. Um, and it does it at least when we were on it got quite crowded at times I'm sure early in the morning is probably the best time. 38:48.86 Claire Who. 38:58.48 Sam To go over there. Um, it wasn't too crowded. The one time I I went and got us cove Cafe coffee in the morning one day. Um, it was not crowded yet, but the other times I went over there just to kind of peek around. Yeah it was. It was real quite crowded. Um sue. 39:13.91 Claire M. 39:17.65 Sam Did you did you enjoy the the pool deck layout other than the adults only area did you enjoy the pool deck layout and then I want to ask you about the Aqua Mouse Of course. 39:24.37 Claire That was another thing where because we didn't have any Disney Cruise experience it was really nice to just enjoy it for what it was I thought it was great. It spread everybody out the kids were in like their own pool when I was watching finding nemo at the mickey pool. There was. 39:35.00 Sam Has. 39:42.22 Claire Like 2 other people in they're with me and this was like the middle of the day and it was lovely I think having so many different pools is able to spread them out and it also makes it easier at night when they're doing like the deck parties where they just have to cover up the pools very quickly and you've got that full space. So I thought. 39:42.92 Sam Here. 40:02.14 Claire Was a great a great idea I do I do regret not realizing and this was one of those things I just didn't know the ship layout that there was a chip and Dale pool and that was that was more of an adult's only quiet pool than anything else and I didn't find out about that tilt too late. 40:11.10 Sam Oh yeah. 40:18.75 Sam Yeah, that is a really good tip that chip and Dale pool. It's technically not an adults only area but it's all the way in the front of the ship on I believe it's still deck eleven. So it's still like the pool deck area. It might be deck 12 actually. Um, but it's the very front of the ship and so it's completely separated from all the other pool areas except for the ah you know the adults area adults only area on the back of the ship but it's completely quiet except for if the horns are going to be playing. 40:42.97 Claire Um, and m. 40:49.97 Sam If the horns are going to be playing plug your ears or run away. It is very very very loud. 40:54.00 Claire And I think that it's actually a sensory pool like it's It's for people who can't handle the loud noises of the of the main deck. That's what I had heard. You can you can tell me if I'm wrong. But I think that's why it's so distant from the rest of them. 41:03.62 Sam No. 41:09.38 Sam I I don't know if you're right or wrong I hadn't heard that yeah Brian did you hear any. 41:12.70 dclduo yeah I I actually yeah I heard that from Aaron Foster actually she noted that that pool was kind of away from the hustle and bustle and she thought it was probably kind of a sensory space for kids and families who couldn't didn't want to be like right in the middle of funnel vision and all of the pool deck. 41:29.89 Sam Yeah, well, that's a perfect explanation. It makes sense except for the fact that the horns are there but the horns only go off at like certain times of day or when you're leaving port. So it's really not um, it's easily something and they always announce before they blow those horns. So it's it's something to be avoided. 41:30.17 dclduo Ah, craziness. So yeah. 41:35.47 Claire Yeah. 41:47.91 Claire Well yeah, and and we got to we since we were on one of the sides that was by the the deck where Castaway key was when they were like releasing the the ropes we were. 41:49.73 Sam Very easily. 42:00.70 Claire We had gotten room service, Mickey bars and were watching them do that and so when they were done and they were leaving the four of us yelled thank you and you know they heard they heard us loud and clear and they turned around and waved and then the other cast members that come out. Ah, as soon as we started pulling out and they had their mickey hands and they were waving at us that was that was really cool. Yeah cast members if anything from this cruise to note, it's that the cast members were stellar. 42:18.85 Sam Long. That's awesome. 42:27.24 Sam Oh that's awesome. We love hearing that so Brian should we talk about food. 42:34.72 dclduo Yeah, well restaurants I would say let's talk about restaurants. 42:38.70 Sam Well yeah, ok main dining restaurants. You mean not deck you well will we'll talk about deck food after that. 42:44.20 Claire Oh I hope so yeah, okay, so we had worlds of Marvel first and we were all excited about that because we wanted to see what the show is about there had been rumors about you know something that Antman said you know that kind of made the made Twitter go wild for a little bit. Um, and then we did aaron dell the none night and then 23 was our final night so we actually were in 1923 3 times for lunch and then that dinner and then our final breakfast was also there which out of all of them I think was the best for that kind of of ah rotational oh I don't know what to say. 43:21.52 Sam Is. 43:21.76 Claire For that kind of schedule I thought that that was perfect for us and I think out of all of the dining. My favorite was Aaron Dell and I think that's not uncommon just because I think the live entertainment put it up to the top. The worlds of Marvel was nice and my my brother who's a huge Marvel fan. 43:35.22 Sam Yeah. 43:41.69 Claire Really enjoyed it but he also said well it was just everything was on the screen and the only time that a man and wasasp came they came very briefly into the room they waved a little bit and then they left so but he really appreciated and the rest of us did too the fact that when you go to Aaron Dele you're getting that live entertainment. And yeah. 43:44.99 Sam Um. 44:00.64 Claire Um, you're not having the main characters sing their songs so you're getting kind of a different version of it. But the version you're getting is so amazing and I just I adored that the the trio the guitar and the vocalists and the violinists were incredible and. 44:08.42 Sam Yeah. 44:19.36 Claire When the violinist you know, kicked off the into the unknown credit and credits version. Ah, you're just you're like by the time he finishes you're doing a standing ovation because he's just shredding it on the Violin yeah, that was it was. 44:23.36 Sam Oh my goodness right. 44:31.77 Sam Oh it's like it's some. It's some rock Violin or rock fiddle. Whatever you call it. But it's so and it's so good. Yeah, so good. 44:37.97 Claire So much. Yes I agree and then 1923 was just so pleasant and just seeing all of the animation cells and the models that they had which I did find out were replicas which was kind of a bummer but I can make I could see why they couldn't do the real stuff. 44:53.85 Sam Yeah, yeah. 44:57.90 Claire But just the the music in there I heard the the newsies I think it was King of New York I heard that a couple of times in there. So just having. 45:02.60 Sam No. 45:07.10 Claire That vibe was really great I think my family all enjoyed that my mom got a couple of the ah the alcoholic beverages and she liked all of them. There was one that had like a lime straw that you could eat and she thought that was pretty neat. Um I couldn't. 45:22.16 Sam That's cool. 45:22.91 Claire Yeah I couldn't tell you everything that we had eaten but I can say that basically everything we ate. We enjoyed I I Yeah I do remember my mom got the duck con fee appetizer and I had a bite of it and I immediately thought oh I should have gotten that. 45:27.18 Sam Um, oh awesome. 45:36.32 Sam What did you think about the the food quality overall in the main dining I Know you do you know you don't have another cruise to compare it to but let's say to you know a restaurant you might go out to dinner at at home. You know what? how would you sort of rate the food. 45:51.82 Claire I wouldn't put it it at the very top but it and but I do think that is also because my flavor palette is a little limited I don't go to fancy restaurants on a regular basis I have really tried to expand my boundaries when it comes to. 46:10.00 Sam Here. 46:10.40 Claire Ah, ethnic foods. So I've really been doing that but when it comes to fine dining when you're really expanding your palette that way I don't do that too much so was it incredible like I can't wait to go back and order 6 of the Lambshank. Ah no, but was it. Tasty and did I eat all of it. Yes. 46:30.52 Sam Perfect, Yeah, well listen it. They have to they're still making it for sort of mass amounts of food right? So it can't be fine dining quality Anyway, I mean it's just not possible and that's what onantte and Pao are really for um because. 46:36.98 Claire You. 46:47.85 Sam They just can't do that in main dining they're just making too many plates in order to be able to make everything at that sort of highest level. But the food should be tasty. It should be good and you know it should come out hot. That's always what I hope for? yeah. 46:59.65 Claire Right? right? And what we had was delicious and my family couldn't stop talking about it. They they loved it. They thought everything was delicious I think yeah I think my dad and my brother both had the filet menon at 1923 and I think they just devoured it. 47:17.13 Sam Nice, nice now speaking of other food we we would be remiss if we didn't ask you what you thought of the on deck food. 47:17.63 Claire They they loved it. 47:27.44 Claire Okay, so I'm going to start at Marcili Market I Thought it was great. I didn't have anything to base it off of so it was lovely and I enjoyed my breakfast. There. The problem was we didn't go up there for lunch and later my dad found out that there was shrimp and he went there was shrimp. Why didn't we go there for lunch I So it like sorry to I didn't know it. But so I enjoyed it very much and had a lot I mean there was one morning where my brother and I we're going to go see light year at like the early showing at the Wonderland Theater. Um, which my parents complained about because they thought the seats. 47:46.14 Sam Ah, yeah. 48:04.57 Claire Were very uncomfortable and the popcorn wasn't good. So but we we were going to go anyway and so we woke up early. We went down and we had a quick breakfast and I actually snuck two muffins into the light you're showing and then afterwards we went back to Marsley Market had second breakfast. 48:15.94 Sam Yeah. 48:23.11 Sam Ah, right. 48:23.44 Claire Because everything was still out and yeah it was. It was very good and no complaints about anything from from the family about that The deck food however was incredible and I think that's where they really shined and I cannot talk enough about those chicken fingers. Everybody's right, They are amazing and. 48:40.73 Sam I Love that you love the chicken fingers. 48:42.91 Claire But there was a well okay, you have to know something about me. There was one vacation where we were like going to the West Coast and every single restaurant we went to I ordered chicken fingers. So my family and while my family thinks I'm a little nuts about it. But i. 48:54.62 Sam Yeah, so you were a chicken finger Aficionado is what you're telling me. 49:02.84 Claire I had to get them and they were incredible except for the second day. No the None day when we were at Castaway key I went yeah I'm going to watch finding nemo at the pool and I'm going to eat some chicken tenders because they were so good yesterday and they had like the bee version of the chicken tenderders I said what is this. 49:15.29 Sam Oh. 49:19.95 Claire Like either either. They overcook them or they ran out of the good ones and they were bringing like the the bee version. It's possible because they did not taste half as good as the ones I had the day before but they were amazing I Loved the ice cream I mean. 49:23.59 Sam Maybe they gave you the gluten free ones or something. But. 49:37.90 Claire When we first got on the ship and we were going to the sailaway party which didn't end up happening because we had a rain shower that happened right? at that point I I saw some people that had ice cream cones and I I pointed to my dad and said yeah, right underneath us I think is where the ice cream soft surf machine is you could get as many as you want he immediately leaves me. 49:42.34 Sam Oh bummer. 49:55.63 Claire Goes down and returns with a chocolate cone. Ah, and I have I took like the best picture I've ever taken of my dad with him standing at the rail with his ice cream cone in hand it it. 49:57.68 Sam But. 50:05.58 Sam No. 50:08.90 Claire So we loved it after a recommendation from people We sat with at the hot tub. We made sure to get the pulled pork and the macaroni and cheese. No the brisket and the macaroni and cheese and that was amazing. Ah, just seeing that they were making the pizzas right there in front of you same thing with the burritos. 50:16.12 Sam Grow. Yeah. 50:26.15 Claire They it was just a step above what you might expect from you know, getting out of the pool and grabbing some hot food. Yeah that that I think they they hit out of the park. Sorry I'm on. 50:35.24 Sam Um, awesome, No, that's okay. 50:43.54 Claire See I'm on my Macbook and then when I get text messages they tend to beep. Let me just tell my dad recording. 50:47.71 Sam Yeah, and tory. 50:53.82 Claire You not text. Okay shows. Oh. 50:55.78 Sam Brian what do we've missed shows. Yes, no shows. So the only thing I think that oh yeah, okay so ah, but. 50:57.55 dclduo Yeah shows shows. Yeah and deck party. 51:05.76 Sam But let's talk about some of the entertainment on board I know again, this is your none experience with with Disney Cruise line entertainment. But everyone's familiar with you know Disney Entertainment what did you think of the the shows. If I'm recalling correctly, you got to see ah maybe a dress rehearsal of a little mermaid and you got to see seize the adventure am I right. 51:26.72 Claire We did we saw cc venture on the first night and loved it. We thought it was great there. They you could see that they were working on some technical things like when Hercules appears the spotlight was not on him at all so he's saying like that first eight bars in the dark. 51:43.43 Sam You know the same thing happened on the Maiden voyage. Not even talking. Yeah it literally when you said that I'm like oh my God That's exactly what happened on the Maiden voyage I will say on the Dvc charter the spotlight was on him because I saw it twice but. 51:45.56 Claire So oh that doesn't surprise me. Ah. 51:56.70 Claire Oh good. All right? excellent. We loved it. My brother and I had front row center seats and it was it like when Mara comes down and then she she like pretends to shoot an arrow like her hair was flying in in my brother's face it. He thought that was great. 52:11.67 Sam Oh nice. 52:15.12 Claire Um, and I mean the fact that Marta they let Meredith sing and she did such a great job. Um I thought that was great but then we kept checking and there were no other live entertainment things offered except for the pirate party. Ah so we went to the pirate party and that was way better than like. 52:18.94 Sam Are you. 52:26.70 Sam You. 52:34.29 Claire Was expecting I was just expecting you know yoho yo ho pirates life for me and then shoot shoot off random fireworks like I had seen on Dis previous cruises like you know 1 place is shooting off one set of fireworks for like 2 seconds and then and you're done. This was. 52:42.10 Sam Um, yeah. 52:50.13 Claire Way better. The the singers they had the songs that they chose to do I'm still singing jumping Jack Flash from from that show because it just just so catchy and then they were shooting fireworks off 2 places and we had I I didn't even know this but I had. 52:53.21 Sam Um, you can. 53:07.37 Claire Positioned ourselves on the on the railing and the ah up the deck on no as a 12 Yeah it was I did not expect that and all of a sudden there they go and it was just perfect and then my brother and I stuck around for the dance party afterwards and. 53:10.59 Sam Of the starboard side. Yeah, you were on the exact correct side. 53:25.22 Claire It was great and then we thought that was it for live entertainment until we were like getting changed in stuff from Castaway key and I'm checking the app to see what else is coming up and I go guys the little mermaid's on here. It was not here before and they're all looking Oh yeah son. 53:40.37 Sam Are. 53:44.10 Claire We should totally go and then we had a special announcement come over the ah over in the room and so we tuned our Tvs to it and they had Ashley the the Cruise director announcing a couple of things and then all of a sudden goofy comes on and he's talking a little bit and then Ariel comes on and she talks for a little bit. Turns out that was bill farmer and Jody Benson they were in the oh shoot where do you call that? What do you call that main area where the where the captain is no, not not the grand hall. Thank you or turns out they were in the bridge doing those announcements live so that was. 54:10.82 Sam No the Grand hall. Oh oh the bridge. 54:23.48 Claire Incredible and that's when Ashley announced. Oh we just put on this dress rehearsal for the little mermaid. It's going to be at this normal time so you can all catch it so we had late dining so we got to see the first probably full showing I hear that like maybe another crews had had like a limited. Um. 54:39.32 Sam Um, yup yeah I think they had like a half out I think the I think the other the crews right before you the preview cruise right? before you were on had like a half hour of the show. So just like a seat a couple of scenes. Yeah. 54:42.40 Claire So a limited amount of it but we saw the whole thing. 54:53.42 Claire Yeah, we thought it was great and they did have to stop right? after Ariel saying part of your world. The technical you could tell that the projections that they had around the theater were not working properly and we thought that they might have to stop but they just it was a 20 minute stoppage and then they. 55:06.24 Sam Are. 55:13.23 Claire Picked right? back up where they left off and they got to finish the whole thing and we were very supportive and I think they just really appreciated a live audience and okay I I have to say this that opening song. No one has given it enough credit. 55:25.17 Sam Um, me here. 55:27.65 Claire We we did that like a countdown calendar before the cruise and one of the things that I had them watch was a little mermaid because naturally you're you're going on a ship and I'm texting my family back and forth and I'm going. You know what None below is such an underrated gem just because the rest of the songs in the little memaid mermaid are such bangers but that everybody forgets about that None song. 55:31.40 Sam Um, yeah. 55:45.46 Sam Yep. 55:47.32 Claire And so when we got there and the little mermaid starts and they just they have fleshed out None below. You know I'll tell you a tale you know and they're they're literally going to be telling you the tale and they're getting stuff out of the out of the treasure chest I thought that was stellar. 55:53.73 Sam Um, yo. 56:01.88 Sam Um, yeah. 56:03.48 Claire I Ah I know some people don't like that too much I thought it was genius and like the way that the entire ensemble the this chord structures that they had and I'm a music nerd. Um, so when you have just the right voices singing just the right notes. It really hits you in the feels. 56:20.27 Sam Um. 56:21.88 Claire And I had that a couple of times with that song. So we we all loved it. But I especially wanted to point out that first song the life entertainment on this ship was wonderful and I I want to see more of that I'm really upset. We didn't get to see the sailaway party. Um, because I just I literally just watched Adam Hatton's ah video from his crewise. And he showed it and he was just like crying the whole time and the song and the dancing I'm like why didn't I get to see that stupid brain. But yeah, it was amazing. 56:43.71 Sam Um, ah, stupid rain honestly though, honestly while the sale party is good. Nothing compares to what they do in that Walt Disney theater so I will tell you? Yes, yeah I mean is a is it a. Cute saloway party sure but am I okay with missing sal louisie parties any any day of the week honestly it's ah, not not the same ah caliber as what you get in that in that theater. So but I love it. I love how much you loved it because you and I are kindred spirits in that I'm I'm obsessed with. 57:05.79 Claire Okay. 57:15.48 Claire Specific. 57:21.71 Sam All things in the theater and in particular thought that sees the adventure and little mermaid were fantastic productions. Yeah. 57:26.77 Claire agreed agreed 100% but and no yeah I want to hear your question. 57:29.60 dclduo Now I'm I'm oh good good. Oh no, no keep going if you're going to keep talking about the shows I was switching gears for a None but keep ah go ahead and keep talking about shows. 57:39.18 Claire I wasn't going to talk about shows I was going to talk about my encounters with famous people. 57:44.40 Sam Oh yeah, yeah I think we got to go it. 57:45.45 dclduo Yeah, well let's yeah, yeah, you still you set that up so you mentioned some famous people on board. What were your encounters with them. 57:52.85 Claire Well, the first night we were waiting for our main dining seating and or late dining seating and we were sitting in the bayou which was a beautiful space just the the greener that they have on the ceiling. The fact that it was wide open like that was just beautiful. 58:07.80 Sam Through this. 58:11.19 Claire So we were just sitting in there and all of a sudden I catch I look over and I I'm like boy she looks familiar and she's wearing a mask and she just walked right behind my family who is oblivious to it and I turned to them and I said that was Jody Benson and they turned and oh my gosh. What's Jody Benson we were. 58:21.12 Sam Um, yeah, but it was. 58:30.79 Claire Convinced She was going to come out for the the little mermaid showing she didn't which was unfortunate. We were kind of hoping she would. But I guess she did in other Cruise line sailings and she was actually there to sing for the travel agents of course which was fine. Um, but it was. 58:43.50 Sam Yes. 58:49.29 Claire Amazing to just see her in the wildlight that and the same thing happened before we got into the cruise terminal we were in this big old line and there was a group of people in front of us who were like before they got into the terminal they wanted to use the bathroom so they were going over and my mom went up to them and said can we cut in front of you because it looks like you're not. All assembled yet and they said oh yeah, go ahead. So we go around them and all of a sudden I look and I went oh my gosh. That's so she gomas she's America Chavez in change in the multiverse of madness and my my family didn't believe me except that. 59:15.20 Sam No yeah. 59:21.74 Sam Yeah, and then she's in the show in the marvel the Marvel worlds of Marvel oh sorry yes, you're right? sorry I'm thinking Ms Marvel you're right? Both teenage both teenage superheroes. But. 59:27.16 Claire Actually no, that was Ms Marvel that right? But we've ran into her twice and I we're just awkward people so we didn't try to go up to her and say anything. But she was in line with us with the ah in the aqua mouse and then she was also near us at the dance party the pirate dance party so it was just crazy and I think at the pirate dance party I was we were leaving with my parents and I turned and I swear and this hasn't been confirmed I haven't seen it anywhere that dule hill. 01:00:02.15 Sam Don Stay most oh oh now you're speaking Brian's favorites yeah oh my god. 01:00:05.23 Claire No, do late hill was there I know it's like the west way man I am all for it again. Didn't couldn't confirm that and I didn't see anything on social media. But there was a sports center anchor Jay Harris was on the wish with us and he. 01:00:21.41 Sam Oh cool. 01:00:24.60 Claire He like did that pov perspective on the aqua mouse so we actually saw him sitting in the in the raft with the go pros sticking up and there were of course a couple of pod or vloggers and people that I recognized um ah Peter and kitra from ordinary adventures were there and. 01:00:39.66 Sam Um, you. 01:00:41.83 Claire I'm like silently freaking out and we saw them so many times and my brother said you should go talk to them. They would be so nice and they're like no, that's intimidating what if we see them again. It would just be awkward. So as we as we're getting off the ship there they are and so my brother has. 01:00:47.41 Sam Um, ah. 01:00:57.66 Claire Been talking to them off off and on because he doesn't have any association with them and they're just they're his age and I finally talked to Kitra and so I still felt really awkward because I'm just that kind of person but just seeing all these people that I recognized was very weird but really neat so it was it was. 01:01:04.37 Sam Ah, ah, nice. 01:01:13.83 Sam Yeah, well, um, that that is awesome that you got to see them all around Jody Benson was did perform for the travel agents as you said they did a sort of a marketing event for them. 01:01:16.28 Claire Cool time. 01:01:29.80 Sam And so she sang part of your world for them and then she stayed on for the Maiden voyage and she did a performance. She was actually one of the shows in the mainstage theater. So instead of having a variety act like a Juggler or Magician or something like that in the main. 01:01:37.88 Claire Oh. 01:01:45.49 Sam While Disney Theater we had a night with Jody Benson which was as you can imagine phenomenal um, and then um, what's his name bill from the voice of Goofy Farmer yeah he was also apparently at the the travel agent. 01:01:53.23 Claire Farmer. 01:02:01.47 Sam Um, marketing event or whatnot and we we've we've heard that from ah from a couple of different travel agents including ah Karen Shelton who is the owner of our sponsor my path unwinding travel. So yeah, so they they did get to um I wouldn't say. Bill didn't perform but he did the voice of goofy for them and Jody not performed for them. So. 01:02:19.99 Claire Of course he went. Yeah, we got a couple we did get a couple of the tory of the travel agent perks because they had the open houses for both their Royal suite and the wish or the Tower Suite. Ah and so we just kind of slipped in and got to see those. Spaces without anybody in them and you know I'm dripping in my swimsuit and just gazing at all this stuff that I will never be able to afford and I've just you know? Oh yeah, I'm totally a travel agent. Yeah, not really, but I'm still here that I thought that was a cool little perk. 01:02:52.60 Sam Ah, yeah, definitely. 01:02:57.49 dclduo Well I am curious I'm curious about your take on one of the bars on board which is hyperspace lounge Did you make it in there. 01:03:08.17 Claire Well, the way I won this cruise was they posted a Twitter that said how would you spend your time on the cruise and I posted a picture of the hyperspace lounge and they said I want to get a drink at the hyperspace lounge but I did not get a drink at the hyperspace lounge. As far as I knew when I was on the ship I thought that you would stand in a line and they would let you in That's all that I had suspected even in the app it kind of said. Okay hyperspace lounge is going to be open from four thirty to I don't know midnight or 1 am or something so day. None 01:03:33.64 Sam Please. 01:03:47.00 Claire I was waiting and actually there was a significant amount of people that were also waiting outside the lounge um with me including the husband of one of the radio deejays who was you know they had invited a lot of radio personalities to actually broadcast from the crews. So while his wife was doing that. He was waiting in line with us and then there was ah a line building up behind us and then the the lady comes out she says well there was supposed to be reservations and the reservations are all booked so you will not be able to go in and I thought well that I didn't. 01:04:17.75 Sam Yeah. 01:04:21.95 Claire Know that I didn't know they were taking reservations. They did let us go in and then you know we sat in the bayou which is directly across from hyperspace lounge and like for 20 minutes nobody went in while I was sitting there. It's like we could. Gone in and just had like a quick drink or something or we could have literally just sat there and not ordered anything and just enjoyed the fact that the the screen was changing I think that was the main thing we wanted to see was the screen changing to all those you know and spot the crazy. You know? oh there's the x wing. Oh there's the mandalorian ship. 01:04:49.70 Sam Yeah. 01:04:52.28 Claire We didn't get to do that So I'm I was a little disappointed but then I heard from other people that it wasn't that great in there anyway. So it's like I guess I didn't miss out on too much. 01:04:56.90 Sam Yeah, yeah, I'd say you didn't miss out on too much I I think that it I I'm not sure exactly what happened on those preview cruises except to say that I don't think they had their sort of system up and ready to deal with reservations. 01:05:14.62 Claire Who. 01:05:16.81 Sam But then they I think gave reservations basically to like vips at least that's that's a perception I get um some other folks that we talked to that were on the preview cruises were just lucky and you know when they they went they asked if there was room they said you know there isn't right now but you know. There might be and then they sat in the bayou and then they actually came over and got them because there was room. So yeah, so it it can happen. They have a system now they have a reservation system in place and it seems like not everyone who wants to go in is necessarily getting in. But if you make the reservations on the first day. Ah. 01:05:39.50 Claire All. 01:05:55.35 Sam You will get in. It's if you wait until later, you might not get in. Yeah. 01:05:58.52 Claire He it. It's fine I'm okay with it I'm at peace with it just because the rest of the ship was great and it kind of showed that just that small little space that is kind of themed to Star Wars but is it really theme to Star Wars I mean the screen is certainly theme to Star Wars but. 01:06:12.38 Sam Yeah. 01:06:17.35 Claire But nothing else really is I'll I'll do oga's Cantina any day and I've actually done that and had a great time. 01:06:21.45 Sam Yeah, do Ogas a or or visit the kids club during the open house because their Star Wars room is on point. 01:06:29.15 Claire Yes I did see that and I got to see the animatronic porg that that made my day that was great. Oh and I did I did go down the slide that was really fun. 01:06:33.68 Sam Um, yeah, nice. Yeah we we we did that too only during open house hours for our listeners you can um, they'll they'll let you go if the entire kids club is on open house hours. Then you can then adults can go down the slide but you can't do it if only portions of the kids club are open house because it does let off into the secure kids area. 01:07:01.60 Claire And be prepared that slide is fast. 01:07:06.46 Sam But. 01:07:08.99 dclduo Well I'm also curious just ah well what else Sam I was I was gonna ask about merchandise but I'm not sure that that's really needed. Okay, um, what about? yeah, any cool souvenirs from the. 01:07:18.24 Claire Well I did I did get a couple things. 01:07:18.30 Sam Um, no yeah, ask any cool souvenirs. 01:07:28.31 dclduo He said again. So not sure what the shopping situation was like on board but any cool souvenirs from the trip. 01:07:33.47 Claire They had a lot of inaugural sailing things which I thought was awesome. But now I'm realizing is probably what they're going to be doing for the next like six months. It's fine but I did purchase a cup for myself that says inaugural sailing Disney wish and then my parents bought me a picture frame. 01:07:43.66 Sam Me. 01:07:52.71 Claire Which I thought was really sweet and you know says is not-girl Sailings Disney Wish on it. Um, we did get to do ah one of the crafts and it was like using permanent marker on this, you know, really thin piece of wood. And but it was an anchor so we designed it and I had my parents sign it and I wrote you know your wishes cruise on it. So You know that was a little freebie that I got so it was really cool to see all the different types of things you could get um we got postcards for my nieces and nephews who I didn't take on this cruise. But. 01:08:09.91 Sam So. 01:08:24.82 Claire With full disclosure I want to take them on a cruise. Are you hearing that Erica and Jared um someday I will and so I got them postcards. We also got some magnets I know my brother. Um. Flirsed a little bit on a few other things. Oh and my mom always gets a Disney towel whenever she does a Disney vacation so she did make sure she did make sure to get a wish towel. 01:08:44.64 Sam Um, oh nice, cool. Well, that's awesome I I Hope you're um I hope your nieces start you know, bugging you about what whens what is this crews going to happen. 01:08:58.67 Claire They don't need to bug me. They need to bug their mothers and their fathers. Yeah I I You don't need to persuade me too much you you just have to tell me where and when and I will show up. 01:09:02.70 Sam Ah, there you go? Ah nice. Awesome. 01:09:13.57 dclduo Well I know Sam has got a rapid fire round waiting for you but I just wanted to ask really quickly a question about the wish which is your top None favorite things from sailing on board. And 3 things you'd tell Disney to change for their next ship. 01:09:32.39 Claire Top 3 okay this I have a whole list of things I don't know how to narrow that down. Okay, let's do this number 1 definitely is the magic of the cast members. You can tell that they are working their tails off to. Make this an enjoyable experience for everyone and they really do it. Well we had wonderful servers. We had suri from the Philippines and Paul from st lucia they were both incredible and just made it the meals for us. My dad was just you know going back and forth with them. 01:09:52.70 Sam Is. 01:10:10.30 Claire Cast members were wonderful I Love the aesthetic and I know it wasn't as nautical as other ships are but I really liked that brightness that I felt throughout the ship and it might be something that. Other people don't like I thought it was It was lovely and just to see everything as pristine as it was even to the point of things were just getting installed as we were there. It was just beautiful and that Grand Hall I don't know. 01:10:36.25 Sam Yeah. 01:10:42.84 Claire When I go onto other ships I'm going to be comparing everything to that grand hallul because it's it was just marvelous and just the the Kisska night and the the you know the so this is love that kind of thing that they do with the lights. It was just beautiful and then the None thing I would say. 01:10:55.84 Sam Yep. 01:11:02.18 Claire Is the live entertainment I thought that everything that they did was top notch and I'm I'm listening to vocal performances I know when you are flat I Know if you're not hitting a note and they did a wonderful job. 01:11:06.35 Sam Um. 01:11:21.21 Claire Of putting everything together and making it into a solid like especially sees the avenger they made that into a solid throughline of a performance unlike harmonious at epcot which I did also watch and it was very segmented and not done very well. This was you know people were singing. 01:11:28.82 Sam A. 01:11:39.54 Claire Live and inpersonate it just sounded wonderful. So I think those those entertainments features that we got to see the pirate party and sees the adventure and the little mermaid were just lovely I Love seeing that kind of stuff and I'll never say no to live entertainment. 01:11:52.39 Sam Oh yeah, yeah, and and I love that they also have the the stuff on the Grand Hall stage Even those you know little kind of moments with the the characters there I think it's just phenomenal. That's an an additional thing. They don't have. That on the other chips. There's no stage in the you know in the atrms and the other shifts so that that was really cool to experience. 01:12:15.76 Claire Which they didn't do a lot of that for us for our cruise like I was watching another video of of Cruise that was like last week and they had like a band up there. They didn't do that sometimes they had characters up there. 01:12:19.47 Sam 3 01:12:30.58 Claire But otherwise it wasn't really being used for anything and I think there was like some game that was also there we didn't see that either. So I'm glad that they're utilizing it. But I really need to go on a real cruise to kind of get the the whole gamut I think that's part of my below 3 I'd guess you'd say. Was We didn't get the full Disney wish experience and to be fair. That's what you were meant to expect except they did. They didn't really tell us that because they their communication was so awful before this cruise Um, that. 01:12:50.33 Sam Is. 01:12:59.87 Sam Are. 01:13:05.25 Claire I I do wish that we had been able to see a few more things. Ah, another thing was I I know the elevator situation people aren't a fan of I thought the elevators were fine except for the fact that some of the elevators went all the way up to 14 and some of them didn't and it was always a guess to know which one was going where. 01:13:19.97 Sam Are here. 01:13:24.58 Claire So that was kind of an issue figuring out where you needed to be and how you how you needed to get there and then the storage space in the stateroom I Wish that they had more like pullout areas where you could kind of like a drawer even in the closet where you could pull something out and put it inside. That's. 01:13:32.82 Sam Yeah. 01:13:44.41 Sam Um, yeah. 01:13:44.63 Claire That's kind of how I travel I think those are it although my brother would be remiss if I didn't mention that I cast away key if you go to Serenity Bay make sure to bring water shoes because it is rocky going in that water. 01:13:53.18 Sam Um, yeah, you know I forget that because we we haven't been to Serenity Bay in so long now it's been a while since we've been on a cruise without our sun and so um, yeah, but I forget that Serenity Bay is quite rocky. The family beaches are really not rocky. So it's not something i. 01:13:59.26 Claire Sister 50 01:14:13.17 Sam I Remember to bring with me usually. 01:14:13.29 Claire Yeah I didn't even think about it until I got in the water I went oh this is not like white Sandy Beach over here. Oops forgot to tell them that but it was 1 little thing out of the the castaway key experience. We didn't do any ports and honestly. 01:14:20.66 Sam Um, yeah. 01:14:31.70 Claire If we had we probably would gone the Nasa and from what I've heard about Nasa it was probably a good thing. We didn't go to Nasa so I didn't mind that we had a whole day at sea I thought that was a plus as well. 01:14:40.14 Sam Yeah, for sure. 01:14:42.32 dclduo Well Sam I think we have reached that point in the show where I need to throw it over to you for a little rapid fire. So why don't you take it away. 01:14:50.65 Sam Yay! Thank you all right? Claire you've done rapid fire before but you did not get to do Disney Cruise rapid fire you only got to do general Disney Rapid fire so now we're going to do a Disney Cruise rapid fire and I'm going to ask you your favorites from the wish. So you've got to tell me your favorites. Not your brother's not your mother's not your father's favorites. Okay, these are Claire's favorites got it all right? What was your favorite rotational dining all right? What was your favorite. 01:15:12.48 Claire All right? got it. Mine was aarendel. 01:15:25.55 Sam Bar on the ship. 01:15:25.90 Claire I Really like the bayou that it was just pretty and if we had gotten anything there. We would have gotten the bnie and I heard that they benies were pretty good. 01:15:35.38 Sam Yeah, yeah, favorite show Slash live entertainment. 01:15:41.30 Claire Oh that's a hard 1 lu mury was great, but overall the best lab entertainment was the pirate parlay party. The the girl who the girl who played red had a voice like a rock goddess and. 01:15:48.25 Sam Um, oh wow. 01:15:56.99 Claire The guy that kind of partnered with her. Also you know had 1 of those shrieky voices that are needed for those 80 s hairbanger songs and they just were incredible. 01:16:04.89 Sam Awesome I Love that answer I Thought that was a phenomenal deck party too. It's much better than the old deck party All right favorite onboard activity. 01:16:10.92 Claire No. 01:16:17.10 Claire I really liked the I like I said I did I couldn't remember what it was called but the family quiz that they had um where it was a parent and a child. We almost got to go on it but when she kind of mentioned hey do you want to. You know we need people on here. So ah, you know of parents and then a young a young and and I thought that they meant a child so we didn't raise our hands and then they picked None adults anyway, it oh each of the going on but that was that was a fun one. You know it was less riskske than match your ma ma yourbba was a hoot and a half. Um, but that one was a little more mike. 01:16:52.10 Sam Ah, fair enough fair enough favorite space on the ship to relax. 01:16:52.83 Claire My style. 01:16:58.22 Claire I Really like the mickey pool and it's weird to say that it's a pool because you think pools are going to be crazy insane but just sitting there watching finding Nemo in the sun it was. It was very lovely. 01:17:10.95 Sam Um, awesome Favorite savory food item. Obviously all right favorite sweet food item. 01:17:17.60 Claire Chicken Fingers Of course. 01:17:23.85 Claire Oh no, that's hard. Okay, no, it's not I purposely got room service for us None day because I kept telling them we could and then I finally just called got picked up the phone and said we want 4 Mickey bars and they said right away and my. Parents were just flummox. They thought that was incredible. Um, so that micy bar in the state room watching cast away key in the rearview mirror that was the best it does it really does and you know the chocolate that gets on your bathrobe sorry disney. 01:17:49.75 Sam Yeah, it just tastes better in your room right? and. 01:17:57.35 dclduo Um, yeah. 01:17:57.62 Sam Ah I love it all right now. My last question is a bucket list cruise so you could go anywhere on the world. Anyway, sorry, let me say it again. My last question is a bucket list cruise you could go anywhere in the world on Disney Cruise line can even be a place Disney Cruise line does not currently go to where do you want to go. 01:18:22.53 Claire I'd go from San Francisco to Hawaii to Japan and then I would go to Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea and then I fly back to the states and. 01:18:30.40 Sam That sounds fun I'm ah I'm there Claire that happens I'm going with you. Ah I'll be out. Yeah I'll be your roommate sorry Bryan. 01:18:37.20 Claire I Would love a partner. Thank you. 01:18:41.63 dclduo So so did you catch the cruising Bug claire. Are you going to go back on a ship or was this a one and done for you. 01:18:47.84 Claire I would like to go back like I mentioned before the fantasy has always been a ship that I have seen in videos and especially the animator animator's palette I want to do that so badly and I know you can't just go on a cruise for 1 01:18:59.20 Sam E. 01:19:03.45 Claire Thing, but that the rest of the ship the itinerary that it goes to like Jamaica I want to go to Jamaica um I think I do want to go back on a cruise my whole family. They said you know when's the next cruise kind of thing and well my. 01:19:05.64 Sam I mean. 01:19:15.42 Sam They say when are you going to win another one Claire. Ah. 01:19:20.31 Claire My dad does because people keep asking him oh are are you gonna go on another cruise and my dad will respond if it's free. So I guess I will but there's just so many things that I'm doing in the next couple of years covid allowance allowing I want to go to Japan I was supposed to go to Japan um in 2020 for the Olympics. 01:19:24.51 Sam Ah. 01:19:40.30 Claire But it's been pushed off I'd like to do that and then I also want to go to France for the olympics there in 24 so I think I might have to push put my money to other things. But yeah I do want to do a cruise eventually. 01:19:43.92 Sam A. 01:19:52.18 dclduo Well, we just appreciate you coming on and sharing the behind the scenes look at the year of wishes sailing you were on and also sharing your thoughts as a none time and only time cruiser you know I have None more question for you since you're the none person we've talked to you who has sailed on the wish. But this was your none experience with a cruise line so you have not been on Disney before and you haven't been on a ship before how hard or easy. Did you find it to navigate around the ship. 01:20:20.70 Claire I found it pretty easy I mean they've got maps everywhere so and and you know here's you know the arrows pointing this direction so you go there I did get mixed up a couple times but overall the navigation was was okay, it was good. 01:20:34.41 dclduo All right? Well again Claire thank you for coming on and sharing your experience. You've mentioned that you have a vlog and possibly a blog as well. Do you do you want to let folks know how they can find and connect with you and fall along with your amazing travels. 01:20:49.51 Claire Yeah, if you go on to Youtube and the easiest way is just to go in the search bar and type cnat so n at um, you'll find my Youtube channel. It's a travel channel. So I'm starting my summer series actually um in August and then. Come September my Disney vlogs are going to start being posted on Tuesdays so I'm editing right now and it is a ball to edit all that stuff. Um, so I'm looking forward to showing it off to people. 01:21:15.40 Sam Um, awesome. Well, we're excited to to see your videos I'm I'm looking forward to that? yeah. 01:21:18.78 dclduo Nice, nice. 01:21:24.71 Claire Sweet. Thank you. 01:21:26.29 dclduo Well Claire just once again, thanks for taking the time out of your day and sharing your experience with our audience. We really, really appreciate it. 01:21:34.37 Claire I'm glad that you let me do this have a great night. 01:21:36.13 Sam Thanks you too. 01:21:37.40 dclduo Alright.