Main Street Talk - A Disney World Podcast

Disney Dream Cruise Experience and Latest Disney World Updates

• Nick Garcia • Season 2 • Episode 26

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In this episode of the Main Street Talk podcast, we kick things off with the latest Walt Disney World news, including New Year’s Eve fireworks at Magic Kingdom, updates on Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, Epcot’s Cheers to the New Year fireworks, changes to water taxi services, and the debut of Zootopia: Better Together at Animal Kingdom.
We then dive into our recent Disney Dream cruise experience, sharing highlights from onboard entertainment, dining, excursions, and our thoughts on the ship overall. We also talk about the exceptional service from our wait staff and stateroom attendant, and offer tips and tricks for future Disney cruisers.

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Nick:

Hello everybody. Welcome to this week's episode of the Main Street Talk podcast, your go-to podcast for all things Walt Disney World related. All the news and the updates and tips and tricks. I'm your host Nick, and as always with me is Joni.

Joni:

Hi everyone.

Nick:

So we are back. Sounds like we haven't talked to him in a while. It's been

Joni:

Welcome home to the Midwest. Been

Nick:

10 days since our last recorder or

Joni:

I know.

Nick:

that. We back from the Disney Dream. Yeah,

Joni:

we are.

Nick:

um, yeah, we're back to the 40 degree weather. We're coming from 85 degree weather

Joni:

just in time for trick or treat. Yeah. Oh,

Nick:

Oh, we did make it back in time for trick or treat. Barely, but we made

Joni:

we,

Nick:

so yeah, we're back from the Disney Dream. We were on the boat for five days. We're gonna, get into our experience since this was our first Disney cruise, we're gonna kind of break down our experience. So this week we will not be doing a spotlight on attraction or movie or tip or trick.'cause we thought while everything's fresh in our mind, we wanted to talk about, well,

Joni:

you said it's news heavy too, so.

Nick:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we haven't done the news in like 10 days, so, um. News is not as much as I thought there was gonna be. I thought I was gonna be working on it for hours. Yeah. Um,

Joni:

So I gave him a break over the week. I didn't make him work while we were

Nick:

on vacation. Yeah. So thank you Disney for not bombarding, news on me the last 10 days. I wanna give a, a shout out though to our, some people on our ship that really made our experience much, much better. That was our state room attendant, COIs from Indonesia and our wait staff were absolutely amazing. It was Reva, he was our head waiter and Lloyd. He was, he was a waiter

Joni:

server, and then our assistant server was

Nick:

assistant was Derek. And they were just,

Joni:

it treated us like, I honestly feel like we made friends out of

Nick:

We, we did. And they really treated us like we were family and, we just can't thank you enough. And they said they might be listening. So. Hi guys.

Joni:

Hi. Hi. It's nice to see it again.

Nick:

They, they, they couldn't have been any better. I know. They were really, they gave us puzzles to do. Yeah.

Joni:

They, it was almost like it was as if we'd known them for Yeah. For a long time. And they're very, very kind and humorous and

Nick:

yeah, we we're gonna get more into him a little bit later when we talk about him, but yeah, Derrick thought he was gonna out, dad joke me and, that just, that just wasn't gonna happen. So, sorry Derrick. You gotta come better with better dad jokes. The first joke he told me was, why does, I can't remember exactly. Why doesn't the bike stand up by itself? Oh, that was it. Why doesn't the bike stand up by itself? I said, come on, you gotta gimme better than that. I know this one'cause it's too tired.

Joni:

didn't get it. I said, because it got its stand kicked.

Nick:

See? Yeah, we're gonna get in. We're gonna, we will get into them. Those guys more later, they were just wonderful.

Joni:

Fabulous,

Nick:

fabulous. Let's get into the news and then we'll get onto

Joni:

Magic Kingdom.

Nick:

Our cruise experience. Yeah. At the Magic Kingdom. So, magic Kingdom, every year they host two nights of New Year's Eve fireworks, and this year is no different. It's gonna be the same on december 30th and December 31st, guests visiting the park will have the chance to watch Fantasy in the sky. Two performances of the fireworks are scheduled every night, one for seven 30 and one for 1150. they do it twice so the kids can see it as well.'cause I don't

Joni:

So there's really four showings

Nick:

right? Yep. Over two days. Fantasy

Joni:

in the sky. I've not seen those.

Nick:

I have not either. I've seen YouTube that'cause honestly, I don't think I'd ever go to Magic Kingdom on New Year's

Joni:

I I have no desire to. It is, yeah. Yeah.

Nick:

I need a little

Joni:

power to you brave ones that wanna do that, but I

Nick:

I can't do it.

Joni:

That's not for me either.

Nick:

And three more November dates. Maybe

Joni:

it from Bay Lake one time

Nick:

We could do that.

Joni:

or somewhere where you can see them. Yeah.

Nick:

Yeah. Three more November dates for Mickey's very merry Christmas party at Magic Kingdom have sold out. I'm not gonna go over'em all'cause there's. quite a few sold out and quite a few left, but you can just get on the website, but that makes a total of 10 party nights sold out.

Joni:

Hmm.

Nick:

And ironically, I was doing the news the other day and. I was gonna say, the holiday decorations are going up on November 2nd. Oh.

Joni:

Oh.

Nick:

But today's November 2nd. November 2nd, and I saw pictures already.

Joni:

so they're already

Nick:

The tree is not up at Magic Kingdom, but all the res and stuff on Main Street and all that stuff is up. So from Halloween to Christmas, in a matter of 24, 48

Joni:

just hope this year that when we go, on our, uh, trip next month, that our tree is up at Animal Kingdom

Nick:

It it should be. We just missed it last

Joni:

just missed it. We were one of the later.

Nick:

Yeah, I think we, when we go last year, November 16th of the 22nd or something like that, we just missed it by a few days.

Joni:

Don't they rotate those around or is it just like a random drawing

Nick:

heard there's a lottery system. Okay. I don't know if that's ever been proven true.

Joni:

just wondered if they kind of did it on a rotation like you were first this time, so now you get to be second or, you know.

Nick:

Yeah. Anyway.

Joni:

keep your fingers crossed. We get to see it.

Nick:

I, we will. We'll see it.

Joni:

I'm anxious to see it. Okay.

Nick:

Okay. And the Jungle Cruise has debuted a new prop and joke at the Magic

Joni:

Oh, I wonder if it's gonna use Derek's kickstand joke.

Nick:

I know the joke. I know the prop, but yes, I'm not gonna tell anybody. Okay. Um, you

Joni:

tell me.

Nick:

I didn't, I'm not going

Joni:

I wanted, okay.

Nick:

You gotta keep your eyes. Peeled in your ears peeled. There is a new prop and there will be a joke to go along with it. Okay. So if you're there, keep an eye out.

Joni:

Okay. An eye and an ear. Yeah,

Nick:

Eye in an ear. Eye in an ear. That's it. From Magic Kingdom. Oh,

Joni:

okay. Wait, when does this new joke start? It's already started so people ride this ride are already, are already hearing it.

Nick:

think, I think it's already already implemented

Joni:

If you've been on the ride, let me know the joke

Nick:

And at Epcot. So Epcot also does New Year's celebration. It will happen on December 31st. It's gonna be featuring dance parties throughout the world, showcase and cheers to the New Year fireworks, which start at 11:54 PM

Joni:

Okay.

Nick:

Okay, don't be late 11, don't 1155. You're too late. Be there at 1153. No, they start 1154. Wow.

Joni:

So there's quite a bit going on.

Nick:

Yeah. And they

Joni:

thing, right?

Nick:

Huh? No, no, no, no.

Joni:

For the new year fireworks. Nope. Okay.

Nick:

If you still, they still will do Luminous as well, but it's gonna be shown at six 30.

Joni:

only at one. Okay. But it's called Cheers to the New Year's at 1154. 54 and Luminous at six 30? Correct. Okay.

Nick:

And at Hollywood Studios. I have something to say about this after I say it, but Guest, yeah, I know what you're gonna say. Guest attend. Same thing. Guest attending Hollywood Nights this year will be giving a keepsake ornament as they leave the event.

Joni:

Yeah. Thanks Disney.

Nick:

What did we get? We didn't

Joni:

didn't get an ornament. We didn't get

Nick:

ornament. We didn't get an orna. We got,

Joni:

I would love to have an ornament. We do a Disney Christmas tree every year, and all that has on it is ornaments. We've gotten from the parks and we got a couple on our trip this time, and we would love to have an ornament. Jolly Wood night. Disney,

Nick:

we got marshmallows. Yes

Joni:

we did. They were champagne flavored and I must say

Nick:

I

Joni:

not like them.

Nick:

They were not very good. They tried.

Joni:

Well, I'm sure some people love

Nick:

Yeah.

Joni:

You put'em in hot cocoa and it tastes like champagne,

Nick:

I didn't really care for'em. I think I ate

Joni:

I don't really care for champagne though. No. So,

Nick:

Okay. In that animal kingdom, And more have been revealed for Zootopia better together, which opens on November 7th. Woo. And they did release,, a preview video.

Joni:

Okay.

Nick:

you can go on their website and see that. So, and this is exciting news Animal Kingdom box. So the baby tiger that was born and debuted in January? He made the cover of Time for Kids Magazine. Aw.

Joni:

Aw.

Nick:

He or she, I can't remember if it's a he or she. I think it's a he. How

Joni:

sweet. I love news like that.

Nick:

So yeah, box O on the cover of time. That's it for Park News. There was more,

Joni:

birthday coming up pretty

Nick:

Yeah, I got the highlights in, like I said, I couldn't put everything in, but, there's a lot of miscellaneous news. So starting with the miscellaneous news, the complimentary water taxi service from Magic Kingdom to Fort Wilderness and Wilderness Lodge has changed. Follow me before, there were two separate boat routes. One that went between Magic Kingdom and Fort Wilderness, and another that connected Magic Kingdom to Wilderness Lodge.

Joni:

Okay.

Nick:

Now both resorts are sharing a single route,

Joni:

it's just gonna go full circle. One

Nick:

boat, the boat leaves. Magic Kingdom makes a stop at Wilderness Lodge first, and then continues on to Fort

Joni:

Well, that makes sense. That's what the buses do at Animal

Nick:

Yeah. Um, so they, they went from two. Two boats to one, basically.

Joni:

Yeah.

Nick:

So if you're heading there soon, just make a mental note of that, that, um, that has changed.

Joni:

Wilderness Lodge will always be first. Just like jumbo's fir. Wait, which one's first at Animal King? Is it?

Nick:

I think it was

Joni:

It's Kanis First they do the DVC first. Okay. And then they circle back to jumbo.

Nick:

Okay.

Joni:

And

Nick:

this is rumored. Nothing has been set in stone, but people look for this every year, and this is what they have found. The rumored Christmas parade filming date, magic Kingdom's Festival of Fantasy Parade will not run on November 8th and ninth. This is possibly due to. The filming of the parade, the magical holiday celebration on ABC's, uh, Christmas Day special.

Joni:

I would love to be there for that though. Yeah.

Nick:

so November 8th and ninth, not set in stone. You know, just have people out there looking at every little hint of something going on, and, that's what they're coming up with now. Okay, is exciting. For the first time ever, Disney is selling holiday popcorn buckets and sippers online.

Joni:

same price.

Nick:

I believe so. I believe so. That's nice money. You gotta pay shipping, but you can grab the solely Santa popcorn bucket for 32.9. Wow.

Joni:

Yeah.

Nick:

Or the Donald Duck holiday tree, LightUp sipper for 24 99. Okay. Solely the popcorn bucket is dressed in a Santa hat holding gifts and a sack full of presents with Mike Wazowski peeking out from the presents. The Donald Sipper is decked out like a Christmas tree with, colorful lights and a candy

Joni:

You know, I'm not into the sippers, but I just might have to get Donald.

Nick:

There was a cool sipper on the boat.

Joni:

Yeah. Well, we got a cool bucket on

Nick:

we did get a cool bed. It's right behind you. I'm

Joni:

I know, I was wondering. I That's not a new one though, is it?

Nick:

I don't, it's at the parks. I'm not sure if I've seen it before.

Joni:

We have the Mickey Ghost and he has a light up,

Nick:

Pumpkin

Joni:

of candy.

Nick:

Yeah,

Joni:

And you can hit the button a couple times. One for just his body. One for just the bucket. Bucket.

Nick:

Yeah, it's pretty

Joni:

And then a third time for both. But yeah, we love it

Nick:

and we, we got it in the theater and the guy came around, he's like, Hey, you want some popcorn? I said, yeah, I want a container of popcorn. And Joanie said, no, we want that bucket.

Joni:

Yes I

Nick:

We want that mickey bucket. I said, we don't have room in the luggage. He said, looked at me and said. I want the Mickey bucket. So

Joni:

and so. We bought a luggage,

Nick:

we bought a luggage on the boat,

Joni:

extra luggage to get all of our gifts home. Well, because we also did the

Nick:

the robe, the

Joni:

and the, the romance package because we, even though a little early, we did celebrate our anniversary

Nick:

and, freakier Friday, we will be available on Disney Plus on November 12th. So that's coming out. Joanie watched that on the plane

Joni:

I did. And it was actually, um. Being shown in the Buena Vista Theater on the boat.

Nick:

it was,

Joni:

We did not watch that. We opted for another movie, which we can talk about now or later if you want to, whatever. But I did watch Freakier Friday on the plane on the way home. Yep.

Nick:

the, my Disney Experience app updated when we were gone and I got home and I did not, I had not research any new yet, and I was kind of lost.

Joni:

didn't know what he was going

Nick:

I didn't know what was going on. So it has updated, they put my day and future plans, they combined them to a tab called My Plans. So it allows you to select different dates and view the plans for that day. I did not know that I was stumbling around

Joni:

you're looking around for the special tabs. I

Nick:

and then it, and yeah. And then in my mind I'm like, well, they must have changed this. Then when I sat down the other night and started doing the news, I'm like, well, there it is. They changed

Joni:

Yep.

Nick:

And the Walt Disney Company is donating$1 million to support relief and recovery in Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa. The funds will help Disney cast and crew in the area and support organizations like unicef, USA, world Central Kitchen and Good 360 to provide food, shelter, emergency supplies, and other essential aid to affected communities. So we were, we were on the boat Melissa was in the Caribbean. And, you could not tell. They kept us very far away. With that being said, it hit Jamaica hard and we want to send out our, you know, thoughts and prayers to Jamaica for speedy recovery. And another thing I want to say before we get into the cruise thing was about the staff is there was a lot of staff from Jamaica on

Joni:

lot of staff on all,

Nick:

yeah. On all cruise lines. Cruise lines. But while we were there, there was several from Jamaica and

Joni:

our

Nick:

how they, one

Joni:

one very close to us specifically.

Nick:

And how they kept their, smiles and their, and their, their dedication to, to what they do was absolutely amazing. And you know, in the back of their mind they were

Joni:

Well, yeah.

Nick:

Yeah, we just want to, we were lucky that we were able to be on a boat that could avoid it and others were not so fortunate. And we just want to make sure that, you know, we know that and we are thinking of that.

Joni:

Yeah, for sure.

Nick:

Well that's it for the news I have. Okay.

Joni:

So

Nick:

do you want to get onto our, our cruise experience, our first Disney cruise experience? Sure.

Joni:

I went ahead and listed our, um, attendance and, um, wait staff, but you've already gone over them so well Go ahead. I just want No, no, no, no. I just wanted to have them as a record, um, in here. Sure. And along with the photograph that we got with them because they were so special and fun to be around, they were, they definitely made our experience and our time a lot more enjoyable. They're only, serving dinners. So it was a rotational dining.

Nick:

Yeah. So our state room attendant again was Les. He was from Indonesia. We did not get a picture with him because, they're busy. Yeah, they're extremely busy. He would've, if we would've asked him

Joni:

Of course. But it was cute'cause every time we'd pop out or you know, kind of go down the hallway, we weren't far from an elevator, but he would always be like, hi. He would always see us,

Nick:

doing

Joni:

And yeah. And we stopped him and talked to him and I, he would make us little, um, towel animals. And I requested him not to mess up

Nick:

He did? Yeah.

Joni:

animals. And he's like, well, it was a crab. It was a crab and um, he

Nick:

moving it around the room.

Joni:

Yep. He didn't touch it until I actually unfolded it, and then he made it into something else. Then we got a snail and we got a mouse and we got a pirate. We got a crow. Yeah. It's cute stuff.

Nick:

So, yeah, K was from Indonesia.

Joni:

Uhhuh.

Nick:

He was great. Absolutely wonderful.

Joni:

Thank you, Cole.

Nick:

Thank you. Yes. And the first day, I don't know what happened with our bag. It, it was late in the day, like it was getting pretty late that we did not have our bag. So I went out in the hallway and just peeked around. He was like five 30 at night, six 30 or something like that, and he was out there and I said, Hey, you know, we don't have our bag yet. And he said, oh, you don't. I said, no. And he said, okay, lemme see what

Joni:

Oh, he said buy six. That's where you're

Nick:

is that what he said? Okay. And he said, well, let, let me go see what's going on. And I think within five minutes he was at our door with our back.

Joni:

Well, I think it had been released because I, I know what happened, and I'll tell you in here in just a second, but, it had been released, but it just hadn't been picked up from our state attendant yet because they were helping other people, you know, because you can request certain sheets, you can

Nick:

request, right? Yeah. Different

Joni:

blankets. You could, I mean, you can request different things. So I'm sure he was busy doing stuff like that, but. Um, so I have a bum knee and I had a, uh, red light, a portable travel, red light therapy that's just like the size of a small flashlight and it's battery operated.

Nick:

Probably got flagged.

Joni:

Yeah, it did get flagged because there was a sticker on our tag that said it was inspected by canine. So that's why our bag was delayed. Okay.

Nick:

Well, with any, any rate, he had our bag with us within five minutes. Yeah. And then again, our wait staff was rova. He was from Jamaica, Lloyd from the Philippines, and Derek was from Honduras. Mm-hmm. So again, thank you to everybody that, um, and

Joni:

we're gonna post a picture of, we got a photo with the boys, um,

Nick:

Reva Lloyd and Derek. Yeah. We're gonna post a picture. Last day he gave us a puzzle to solve and uh, they kept coming

Joni:

Well, and then they

Nick:

giving us crap. Oh, you almost got it. You almost got it. No, we don't.

Joni:

Well, and then they sang, happy anniversary to us,

Nick:

sing Happy

Joni:

Reva says, do you know why I'm here? And I said, it's because I said yes. And he started laughing. I mean, it was just fun. They just made it so, light and friendly and, you know, you could joke with'em. And it was just a great time. I really appreciate it. It wasn't, it wasn't all, um, I mean, it was, it was classy. It was dressy.

Nick:

Mm-hmm.

Joni:

But. You could be yourself. Right? You didn't have to like, I don't know, how do I strive

Nick:

Lloyd did say to us on the first day, he said, part of working on a Disney cruise ship is anything lower, than excellent in Disney's eyes is poor.

Joni:

Yeah.

Nick:

So that's what they strive for and they exceeded excellent. They really did.

Joni:

Yeah.

Nick:

So, thanks guys. Yeah. All right. Let's go on

Joni:

And hope, hope everybody gave you excellence. Yeah.

Nick:

I don't know. Anybody couldn't. That was, that was great.

Joni:

so the first impressions of the ship, what you got

Nick:

you got? My first impression of the ship when we walked on, it was, it was elegant. The, the atrium's, very elegant. Mm-hmm. I, and that they have that smell. I've always heard about the Disney cruise smell and that smell hits ya. And it is a nice smell. I liked it. I liked the feeling how they announced your name when you walk on,

Joni:

announce your name. Nick took us a short video of us walking in and having us announced and then got, the large, statue of Donald and, you know, the, just the different tiers of the floors. Um,

Nick:

Yep. I think balconies, I think Mickey. Mickey was Mickey up on the balcony?

Joni:

left balcony. Mm-hmm. Um, it's a little bit smaller than what I had anticipated.

Nick:

the atrium is small

Joni:

but it's big enough.

Nick:

Yeah.

Joni:

it's big enough. Definitely

Nick:

and it's very elegant.

Joni:

Yeah, it is. I liked it.

Nick:

I did.

Joni:

And as we said, our state room experience, um. Cola has helped improve that. But Nick also did a video.

Nick:

took a video of our state

Joni:

our state room, so we're not gonna touch too much on this. You know, we have the veranda. Mm-hmm.'Cause Nick's gonna post the video and go into more detail, but it was really spacious.

Nick:

it. It was when

Joni:

were 95, 38. They chose our room for us. Right. We had a good view.

Nick:

view. Um, the

Joni:

balcony was big enough for the two of us. It had accessibility for four beds. We only obviously used the one, but the couch folded out and then the,

Nick:

mm-hmm.

Joni:

Bed dropped. I don't know what kind of bed that's called, but it drops from the ceiling. Yep. Um,

Nick:

The split bathroom.

Joni:

Yeah, the split bathroom is huge. I didn't, you know, I was like, uh, that's not that big of a deal, but after having it, I don't know if I can go on another cruise line again.

Nick:

know what we're talking about. Disney has split bathrooms on the majority of their rooms. Not all, but the majority of'em, which means you have a toilet and sink in one bathroom and in the other bathroom you have a shower. Tub, a tub combo with and a sink. So you can have multiple things going on at once. You know of getting ready for the night or if you're in the shower and somebody, you know, has to use the restroom. You're

Joni:

or you know, if you're bathing kids and someone needs to use the bathroom. That was huge. It was absolutely huge. Um,

Nick:

we can both get ready at the same time.

Joni:

absolutely plenty of storage space. There was two closets.

Nick:

the bed was very high. Way high off the

Joni:

Yeah, I wanna know

Nick:

of luggage under there.

Joni:

wanna know where these mattresses and stuff come from because I got home and we have a purple mattress. Mm-hmm.

Nick:

It's those

Joni:

And I'm sleeping better on the Disney beds

Nick:

it's the Disney

Joni:

I am at

Nick:

pillows. I don't know where Disney gets their mattress and pillows.

Joni:

looked at the tag. Yeah,

Nick:

Yeah. But they're, they're amazing. Yeah,

Joni:

absolutely amazing. I'm sure everybody is, can agree with that. Fabulous

Nick:

dining adventures. We've already touched on the staff, but they. Honestly they make your dining experience. But as far as steaming goes, we had the, the Royal Palace

Joni:

three restaurants that are, that are included in the dining, but then they have a couple of paid options on the dream. Right?

Nick:

So the main dining halls, rotational dining, we had the Royal Palace. Um. Animators Palette

Joni:

and Enchanted

Nick:

Enchanted Garden. We started out an enchanted garden. They were all great.

Joni:

I, I liked it.

Nick:

They were all great.

Joni:

know, there's the chandeliers in the enchanted garden. It comes, they, they look like flowers coming from the ceiling and the partitions all have greenery, vine leaves and whatnot. Looks like it's growing up. The lighting just makes it look like you're, sitting outside with like some sort of a cover over you. It's just faintly coming through. It's just great. It's really,

Nick:

That fountain of, Mickey

Joni:

a fountain

Nick:

that Mickey or mini right in the middle?

Joni:

I

Nick:

remember. We can't remember which one it was,

Joni:

that's where we got our photo

Nick:

Yeah, we got, yeah, we, you get our picture taken in front of the fountain. And then there was the royal palace, which is more of like a, what you would expect it to be. Cinderella style.

Joni:

It had all the, it had bell. I mean, you go around different parts. There's big paintings of all the princesses. The bread basket had cutouts of

Nick:

Cinderella.

Joni:

Of Cinderella. The China had, little. They were very faint. Mm-hmm.

Nick:

Mm-hmm.

Joni:

know,'cause the China was ivory color, but then they had white decor around them that you could see like the carriage. And just all the little details like that were just absolutely amazing. And the food was

Nick:

fabulous. Food was great in

Joni:

you know, I, I only tried one thing that I didn't care for, but that's just because it's my personal opinion to it. But everything was phenomenal.

Nick:

Is that the duck? Yep.

Joni:

Not a duck fan. I love Donald Duck. And maybe, uh, yeah, no duck for me.

Nick:

And then the third was animators palate, which was it's kind of like if you've ever been to, uh. Turtle Talk with Crush at Epcot. It's kinda like that. There's TVs all over the place. And there they, there's live actors that

Joni:

well, and they rotate on the TVs. They

Nick:

do rotate throughout the'cause. It's a big restaurant, but you'll see, like sharks swimming by in the TVs. You'll see it on this TV over here, and then you'll see it on another one over there.

Joni:

there. Yeah. It's like different views of the ocean. There's starfish in there, there's little fish that come up and little turtles that'll do things. But what I thought was really cute about that too was the pillars are pencils and paint

Nick:

Yeah. And there's art around there. There's art of, you know, like Disney art. Um,

Joni:

and in case anybody's, and in case anybody's wondering, they, the shirts that the wait

Nick:

the shirts are amazing. Absolutely amazing.

Joni:

You cannot buy them. We've already asked.

Nick:

already asked, and Lloyd actually said. Somebody every cruise asked me.

Joni:

so

Nick:

he said, I can't even take it home.

Joni:

So

Nick:

leave it here when I

Joni:

There you go. Could you imagine though, if everyone purchased one, you'd have a bunch of.

Nick:

of, oh,

Joni:

Guests, you'd have a bunch of

Nick:

More bread over here, more, more soda over here

Joni:

have them sitting down in dining and it would be hard for the head servers to know where their, where their wait staff is at. Are they sitting? Are they waiting?

Nick:

So, I got a couple questions to ask you before we move on. Dining adventures. Okay. And this is what we're talking about. What was your favorite themed? My favorite dining hall.

Joni:

sakes. I don't know. I seem to like immerse myself in all of'em. As far as the ambiance and the environment

Nick:

environment. Yeah.

Joni:

So I, I really liked, I would, I would probably say the Enchanted garden

Nick:

That was your favorite.

Joni:

Very close to animator. I mean, they're all so, so close, but in order I would go Enchanted, animator and Royal.

Nick:

Okay. What was your favorite dinner you had? I, at the dining, at the dining halls.

Joni:

At the dining halls. My goodness. I had so many. Um, well, they had a prime rib that was absolutely to die for. You didn't even need a knife to cut it. I've, I had chicken, I've had the steak. I've had, oh my, I, I don't know.

Nick:

I know mine my favorite theming. I'm gonna answer my own questions. My favorite themeing was animators palate. I really like that. And we forgot to mention about the animators palate. You get a butter knife that's actually shaped kinda like a, a paint

Joni:

brush. Yes.

Nick:

And they do sell those in the gift shop

Joni:

people were taking them. So they do sell'em, don't take'em. Yep.

Nick:

They're, they're really

Joni:

you'll go to Disney Cruise Jail.

Nick:

Um, so my favorite was animators palate, and my favorite thing I ate there was on night number one and Channing Garden was at steak. That steak was delicious, probably, I'm gonna say,

Joni:

If

Nick:

the best steak I've ever had. Definitely one of the best. It was

Joni:

everything was delicious. Absolutely everything.

Nick:

Okay, so entertainment. Disney is known for their entertainment. That's, that's what they do. They're an entertainment company. What'd you think?

Joni:

The live entertainment I you, as far as like shows and different things like that. You talking about all the parties, you talking about All of it. All of it. I. I enjoyed it. I mean, it didn't go as far as like, obviously it's an older boat. It didn't have like the ice rinks, you know, like the big ones here are having. But for that boat, I think it's quaint enough and it's, it's personable enough. They had the characters come out and dancing in the crowds with people. Mm-hmm. Um, and then they would do a rotation. And then the Beauty in the Beast Show was, I cried

Nick:

Beauty in the Beast Show was, don't miss it. Amazing. Don't miss it. I mean, it was, it's, it's a wow factor. Goosebumps. It's, you know, it's the mo it's the story of the movie.

Joni:

Just the

Nick:

but just the way

Joni:

the scenery changes and scenery

Nick:

changes and, even when Beast and Gas on, you know, at the end are fighting. Yeah. The, the, there was actors spinning around the stairs, like so, so like different camera angles. It was so, so cool. And it starts snowing in the theater when it's snowing on stage. just what you would expect from Disney. Just, just, um, top, top notch

Joni:

And then they had another live action show, um, believe, yeah. That incorporated many different, magical experience shows or movies that are out. What did it have just to touch a few? It had, it had a insert from

Nick:

Beauty and the Beast. Mary

Joni:

Poppins, lion King

Nick:

It's, it's, Jeanie is along the adventure on this, on this show. He's one of the main characters in the show,

Joni:

he does a fabulous

Nick:

does, he did really good.

Joni:

And he actually had some crowd involvement too, like

Nick:

Yeah,

Joni:

he, yeah, he did, he incorporated. So a few people from the audience.

Nick:

So, yeah, that was really good. Yeah.

Joni:

Had a magic show. Magic show that was, I still am blown away as it was John Armstrong and he's been, he wowed, pin and teller. Yeah. He's been doing it since a young, young age. Yeah, it was great. And then he actually had, um, you know, just to touch on a little, he had a, where he would go in and teach the kids how to do magic tricks. Yep. And then he had an adults only we, we were involved in something else, I think with a sail away or the, uh, see real soon party was going on when he was doing his show. So we didn't do that. Yeah. Or we were doing something else. There's lots of activities.

Nick:

Um, from time you wake up, time you go to bed, there's

Joni:

yeah, and Nick and I only did the, obviously adult themed ones, but there's tons of stuff going on for, for kids, all the way up to tweens and teens. So we didn't have those schedules to work around. So I bet it would be more difficult if, to try to incorporate everything. Just have a good time. Just do what you can. Don't feel like you have to do everything.'cause there's, you know, and a lot.

Nick:

there's a lot to do. They, and they had a movie theater on board, like a full movie

Joni:

Buena Vista

Nick:

you'd go to, you know, your local movie theater. Huge movie theater.

Joni:

And they had a popcorn area preludes right outside. You can

Nick:

area. Um,

Joni:

and zippers.

Nick:

we were on Halloween cruises. There was a lot of Halloween theme movies. We went and watched one movie. We watched Hocus Pocus two.

Joni:

POCUS two.

Nick:

Um, okay. I, I didn't care for it, but the theater was cool. It wasn't, wasn't packed. We went to a late movie and, then the the Sailaway party, that was really fun. That was a lot of

Joni:

Mm-hmm. Yeah. The Sailaway was neat. I think the see her real soon was fantastic.

Nick:

Yeah. The end party, the see, so basically it's like a farewell party and it's, it's you know, they come out and say thank you, and they dance, all the characters are out. And then they, he came out,

Joni:

well, well, first of all, let me go, let me back up. We, there's a couple of days that we had where, where it was available that you could, reserve the royal gathering. I highly, highly recommend doing that. We

Nick:

We did it on the day

Joni:

We did it on the day one because day, day two.

Nick:

Our first full day. Yeah,

Joni:

Because you can get, there's Ariel, there's,, Cinderella, Cinderella, Tiana, Tiana, and, uh, Rapunzel. Rapunzel. You get to all of them photos. Your littles can meet'em because they do have other meet and greets throughout the days.

Nick:

The lines get long,

Joni:

the lines are long and you can get'em all four done in a matter of 10 minutes.

Nick:

Yeah.

Joni:

And then that way you can focus on, because the characters have their cruise gear, they have their Halloween gear for

Nick:

the crews.

Joni:

and then they have their pirate

Nick:

Yep.

Joni:

Yeah. So

Nick:

you want a picture of Captain Mickey, um, pirate Mickey, and then Halloween Mickey,

Joni:

it's three different

Nick:

and then you times that by five of the characters. That's 15 characters. Yes. Plus not including Chippendale and you

Joni:

And Yeah. Yeah. And so I would highly recommend doing the royal gathering. It's not extra, it's just on a reservation. Reserv.

Nick:

reserve it.

Joni:

Get in there and get that. Another one that they do have is, there's Mulan showed that was not in the, in the four lineup. Yeah. And then over in the kids. The only reason I know this is because for one, watching videos, I can't say which characters are on each time, but I, we did have a brief encounter with Darth Vader

Nick:

At the elevator. Elevator. So

Joni:

So

Nick:

random. We, he wasn't listed anywhere?

Joni:

No. Well, because he's on with

Nick:

the He was in the kids.

Joni:

So he was on his way over to see

Nick:

the corner and there was Darth Vader.

Joni:

Yeah.

Nick:

he was big.

Joni:

Yeah, he's very tall. Very, very tall. And he had one of his little shipmates with him. Not

Nick:

Yeah. Directing him around.

Joni:

not a storm trooper, but you know, that

Nick:

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a captain or rubble captain

Joni:

So the, but, so the kids in the, but teens and whatnot get different characters meeting over there. I'm sure there was some Marvel characters, Spider-Man and Thor and different things like that. I'm sure met over there with the kids. But there's a lot of meet and greets. So whatever ones you can compile into shorter trips, I highly recommend

Nick:

short meet and greets. 15 minutes. Yeah. And the cast members do a real good job.'cause like, let's say Mickey is meeting on the balcony and then Donald's right after him, there's a line forming and then they will be very, there's somebody out there saying, Mickey's line ends here. Donald Line starts here. Yeah. So there's no confusion. They're very good about directing all

Joni:

They have multiple meet and greets going on, and they're usually on deck three, four, which is nice. Um, they, they'll have some, you know, other obviously with the kids, but that's what I liked. I think what I appreciated is a lot of the activity was all

Nick:

on three and four.

Joni:

it was all to one.

Nick:

Most of it, except for deck 11, there's some stuff going on, but that's the pool deck, so there's always stuff going

Joni:

I didn't feel like I was literally running from one end of the ship to another, like back and forth, like four aft you know, five forward. Yeah. Everything is like mid, mostly within the atrium area, so, but it was, it was fun.

Nick:

Alright. And the ca, we've already touched on this, but the cast members and service, can't say enough about, about the service.

Joni:

All of'em, every encounter we had guest services, every old person in the stores, every everybody that we encountered. Yeah. Even, even going into the restroom, there'd be an attendant in there and they were just so friendly.

Nick:

Mm-hmm.

Joni:

So I just say return kindness. I

Nick:

I had a, a maintenance, cast member. He was like sweeping up the floor and he saw me going into the bathroom and he opened the door for me. So just little things

Joni:

you know. And these people, these cast members, they work hard. They do, they work long and they work hard. And um, uh, something I wanna mention that I was told is that Nick and I were both told is that your boarding day and your disembark day are the longest days for them because they go to bed. I'm not kidding. Like some between midnight, two o'clock in the morning and they have to turn around and get up at four or five o'clock in the morning because they serve breakfast, breakfast and then they have to clean up. And then you've got the new guests coming on for the day and they have to start all over. So they're up. So

Nick:

So your, your first day getting on that ship, they've been up a long time

Joni:

They've probably

Nick:

two or three hours

Joni:

three hours on your first boarding day, so

Nick:

please

Joni:

Don't be entitled because you're not, everybody puts their pants on the same way, be kind. You wouldn't want somebody to treat your children or your family member rudely. So just please be nice and respectful. That's all I gotta say. And I know I say it a lot, but I can't stress it enough. I

Nick:

Yeah, that's true. Very true. The pools and recreation. The pools, the, the only day we went to get into a pool.

Joni:

a pool,

Nick:

It literally started, it rained 20 minutes on our whole trip and it started raining. Yeah. So we went to the hot tub in the adults area, but the main pools, um,

Joni:

Donald Shape and Mickey Shape. Mickey

Nick:

and Donald's shape on this boat. They were both, they're both good pools. They're

Joni:

but they're kitty.

Nick:

but they's, a huge TV on the top deck that is playing Disney movies the entire time of the whole cruise.

Joni:

sat and watched a little bit of Winnie the Pooh. We did.

Nick:

did. And the, the adult areas is, is nice. It wasn't overly packed.

Joni:

Yeah.

Nick:

I mean there was times there

Joni:

they have, they

Nick:

but it wasn't overly packed.

Joni:

And I like they have the hot tub that kind of is right up against the window. Yeah. You can see outside. That's nice.

Nick:

And the dream has one, they call it an attraction, or no, they don't. I think that's the other one. It's called the Aqueduct, and it's, it's a slide. I went on it a couple times. Joni went on it once. I liked it.

Joni:

liked it. I tried to get Nick's video, but it was so bright out that I, my eyes were, I got his feet and I thought I was on him. I was not. So we will not be doing that. But they also had another one. They had the little kitty slide.

Nick:

Oh, yes they did. Yes. Yeah, because I kept telling Joanie, we're gonna go on the aqueduct to get ready for the big slide. Mickey's hand is holding up that water slide act, the kid slide,

Joni:

It's cute. It.

Nick:

Excursion, imports a call. So. We have been to Cozumel before. So we were only off the boat in Cozumel for maybe an hour. We just did some shopping.

Joni:

Yeah. We didn't go out outside of the

Nick:

We went, we

Joni:

We didn't do any excursions. Yeah.

Nick:

Cozumel. We kind of wanted to enjoy the boat while there was less people on there.

Joni:

So we just got off, did our little bit of shop and got back on, had our lunch and

Nick:

yeah. Went back

Joni:

what we wanted to do.

Nick:

do. Yeah. So, and then, um, our next stop was Castaway Key, which was great. Disney's Private, an owned island in The Bahamas. There's all kinds of stuff you can do on there. Water, water, sports, and, bike riding. They

Joni:

had, um, what are, what are those boards called that you stand on and. Like Moana does. I don't know what they called. We saw a couple of kids doing that and we were calling them the little wayfinders. We

Nick:

were on a pat, we did a paddle boat for about a half hour.

Joni:

I'd like to try that big bike though, one time. And you know what I really, really wanna do? And we debated doing it this time, but we decided to just do the one I wanna do the submarine one.

Nick:

Was that in Cast? I think that was in Cozumel, wasn't it? No, I don't remember. There was one in Castaway Key.

Joni:

Yeah. And then they also have another one that might be kind of neat, but they, they seemed like they were going rather quickly. I don't know if that was just because they were returning, but they have glass bottom boats.

Nick:

I one you were, when we were in Cozumel, I

Joni:

it on the side. It's like glass bottom. But my thing is the one I saw, it was going pretty speedily.

Nick:

One came by the ship. I was out in the veranda by myself.

Joni:

I'm thinking, how are you supposed to see anything if it's going that fast? So hopefully, I'm thinking they were on their way back so that people on there were able to enjoy, you know?

Nick:

Yeah, MC Castaway Key has several different parts of the island. Um, we spent most of our time at the adults only,

Joni:

We stopped at the, we stopped

Nick:

We stopped.

Joni:

or No, the, the one before Pelican.

Nick:

There's shopping on the island.

Joni:

Uhhuh, there's

Nick:

lunch. They serve lunch on the island when lunch was

Joni:

And it's, it's Disney, so there's no cost of the lunch. Yeah.

Nick:

Yeah. It's free lunch. One's included in your crews, I should say. And the shopping. Most of the shopping on the island, use your state room card to buy. There was a couple like bohemian shops, you know, local shops. I guess that didn't look like they were affiliated with Disney. We didn't buy anything, but I don't know if they would accept the state room card. Well,

Joni:

Cozumel did not

Nick:

no. Cozumel is all privately, you know, store

Joni:

We used our personal bank cards.

Nick:

All right, let's talk about

Joni:

cards. Let's say one thing that we didn't say, unless this is where you're trying to incorporate it. Let's talk about at the see a real soon party. Yeah.

Nick:

getting,

Joni:

had get into the, oh,

Nick:

Yeah.

Joni:

yeah. Okay.

Nick:

That was next on my list. Sail Away party. We touched on, what's the Halloween

Joni:

the little special thing that went

Nick:

I know, we'll, we'll talk about it. Halloween nights are their celebration of Halloween. They had the Mickey's Masquerade party Uhhuh that was a lot of fun. It's on the top deck. They all come out in their costumes and they sing, all kinds of Halloween songs. It's a big dance party.

Joni:

Captain Hook comes out.

Nick:

Captain Hook

Joni:

Oh wait, is that No,

Nick:

no, no. It was Pirate night.

Joni:

Oh yeah. Duh. So

Nick:

Josh. So yeah, these were just all the characters in their costumes. It was a big dance party is what

Joni:

is what it was. That the one they get out on the middle because they were out intermingling in with the

Nick:

crowd. Yeah, yeah. They were out in the crowd.

Joni:

in the crowd. It was a lot of fun.

Nick:

Yeah, it was, it was a lot of fun. So, uh, and then they gave, they gave out bags of candy. Mm-hmm. To, all the trick or treaters. We did not trick or treat.

Joni:

No, no, we did not. We just opted for the empty bags and then we gave'em to the oldest grand boys.

Nick:

Yep.

Joni:

And,

Nick:

pirate Night. Pirate Night's fun.

Joni:

Pirate night is a lot of

Nick:

Pirate night, you get fireworks at sea. Yeah, you get a whole Jack Sparrow show, um, captain Hook

Joni:

and they will actually tell you for the fireworks. Let me back you up a little bit for the fireworks. They will tell you the side for this particular boat, the side that you wanna stand on, is

Nick:

they light'em off. Starboard, you want to start stand on the opposite side.

Joni:

Yes. And um, we op, we were up on the,

Nick:

went to the duck above the pool. Yes. The very top, well,

Joni:

we watched him

Nick:

deck, but Yeah. And we had a great view.

Joni:

So, because I think if you're on the other side, you're more prone to having the slide and

Nick:

you'll get a, a block view somehow.

Joni:

Yeah. but anyway, hey, you're on a Disney cruise ship and you're watching Fireworks at Sea, so I think that's cool no matter where you are.

Nick:

so, yeah. Pirate Knight. The theme of that little show is Captain Hook takes over the ship or he tries to take over from Captain Mickey, and then there's a big fight, or not fight, but a big thing. And, but he dressed up like a pirate. And on this ship, I don't think it's on all ships. But on this ship, they do provide you, when you get back to your state room to go get ready to go out for the night, you have pirate bandanas on your bed

Joni:

for each paid person in your room.

Nick:

Yep. A Mickey Pirate bandana. But yeah, you dress up like a pirate. We both dressed up.

Joni:

There were people there that were literally like, I had to do double takes. I mean, there were grown adults that looked like

Nick:

like very well. Yeah, like

Joni:

like Jack Sparrow. Oh, and Jack. Jack Sparrow's. Actually another person that you get to meet on the ship too.

Nick:

Yeah. Oh

Joni:

For the pirate. Um, I forgot to say that. And then they have Stitch and Yep. Yeah.

Nick:

So Pirate Knight's, a lot of fun. Mm-hmm. And then the Sea Real soon party, we kind of touched on it, is their farewell

Joni:

they have, um, Tiana, Cinderella?

Nick:

Yeah. They all come out.

Joni:

I think only three princesses came out. That was it. Ariel did not

Nick:

Then all the characters come out and then,

Joni:

she? I can't remember. Yeah.

Nick:

then, like Jonie was, I know what you're thinking. Then they, the cruise director comes out. Our assistant cruise director in our ship came out and he said, okay, here's 10 minutes. Here's your last chance, meet and greets.

Joni:

We had no idea what to expect. We didn't know what was going on. So all sudden we just saw all the characters up on the stage and all of a sudden the character just split off into their own area.

Nick:

They started walking around the whole atrium and they each had a spot. And then the cast members

Joni:

the ropes, dropped the ropes,

Nick:

and it was. Chaos.

Joni:

It was

Nick:

absolute. It was absolutely nuts. There was these, but it was organized. Organized. The cast members were getting people through and taking pictures for families. It was like speed dating. It was, and they were like, come on, come on, come on. Okay. Go, go, go. Come on, come on, come on. Go,

Joni:

What they would do is they'd get a family up there, they'd take the phone, they'd take like four pictures and then hand them the phone as they were grabbing the next party's phone to take theirs.'cause they were trying to get as many

Nick:

right. Trying to get as many families up

Joni:

And then the director kept coming out and, oh, five more minutes and everybody just kept going, going, going. But they literally, I mean, how many were there? There were four. There were, there was probably.

Nick:

it was

Joni:

10 or 11 or 12 meeting

Nick:

We were watching this, so the, the, the party was taking place on the atrium, on, on, um, deck three. We went up to deck five to watch it so we could look down on it. And I think that was the best spot to watch at.'cause you could see everybody, like it was like. Nuts. Yeah, it was crazy.

Joni:

We just kept looking at each other in awe with jaw drops. We're like, what is going on right now? But it was so cute looking at all these families just running around

Nick:

Yep. Little kids running

Joni:

for hugs

Nick:

the next. No, no, no. Just a quick picture. Very quick

Joni:

But you know what? I had made a comment to you that every single family that went up there took fabulous pictures. Like everybody was paying attention and the pictures were fa were, they looked like they were gonna turn out. Wonderful. Yeah. On such a quick notice. So yeah, I guess spontaneity is the best. Yep.

Nick:

so yeah, that's kind of our takeaways on the bullet points we have. Uh, one thing we didn't touch on was the, well guess we kind of did, but the activities, trivia game shows. Karaoke magic

Joni:

show,

Nick:

magic show,

Joni:

action shows. It just, just

Nick:

in so much to do, you can't do everything. Because some of these things overlap anyways and bingo.

Joni:

Oh, Nick won Bingo.

Nick:

on bingo. I basically won our money back for playing. Bingo.

Joni:

But it was fun.

Nick:

adult themed game shows. So the ship, what I did like about for

Joni:

kids, did you say Karaoke for kids? Well, karaoke. Well karaoke. But

Nick:

The thing I did notice about this ship all, not all. I would say most of the bars and lounges.

Joni:

or

Nick:

On one end of the ship. So they keep that away. They keep it separate and, and it's kind of cool how you go because you just start walking, then you go to this place and this ship called the district, and then each lounge and bar leads into the other one.

Joni:

Yeah, they had a pink champagne bar. They had a evolutions, that's where a lot of the games took place. They had a, what was it? 6, 8, 7,

Nick:

District lounge. Um,

Joni:

lots of, we did, we don't, we don't drink. We did kind of peek and look and whatnot.

Nick:

a lot of

Joni:

a lot, but, but there was a lot of adults hanging out in that area, but it was,

Nick:

Yeah. So they keep the bars for the most part separate. And then we didn't touch on, if you are an adult and you wanna see the Oceaneer Club, which is the kids' club, you do that on your first day because you, you're not allowed to. You're not allowed to after that. And we're so glad we did.

Joni:

Yeah. We did it and we didn't even have children with us. But it was such a huge,

Nick:

it's huge. It's like the, almost the entire deck. Five I or no, I can't remember what deck it was, but, it's huge.

Joni:

Yeah. They have a spot for, for infants and the, the paintings and just the, to, it's just so unique.

Nick:

something for every, they have a nursery on board

Joni:

there's cribs there. I mean, and they have special, you know, criteria that you have to

Nick:

follow, right?

Joni:

different things like that. But they literally have everything from infant to.

Nick:

Teenagers. Teenagers,

Joni:

it's split up into different categories. They've got a Marvel room, they've got a Star Wars area. They've got, what was the little bathrooms doors that you saw? They have a toy story room that, I mean, it's just so cute. And then they have a, Mickey and Minnie came out on stage dancing in the Oceaneer Club and started meeting with the kids and dancing and singing and whatnot. It was so cute.

Nick:

activities, like we said for kids are all day long too. Yeah. Um, just. So, yeah,

Joni:

But I mean, as we said, we didn't have littles with us on this trip. So if you, if this is something you're gonna take advantage of, I'm sure there's a lot of information that we can't give you'cause we don't know. Mm-hmm. So definitely I. You'll learn a lot more than what we're able to give information on, but definitely, it's, it's really, really neat. So I remember one hearing, one man come, there was a, a show getting ready to start for the Halloween tree in the atrium lighting where the grave,

Nick:

the Halloween show? Yeah.

Joni:

And, he came out and he said, there's even stuff in there for her to do. And he was talking about, you know, a little. Little child that was sitting in the stroller that they were unaware of it. So there's just literally something for everyone.

Nick:

And there is, um, I overheard people talking about it. I didn't look into it. I can't remember what the name of the club is called. It's 1720 or 1820. Basically it's for teenagers, a 20-year-old that's too old to do something and too young to do others. They have their own special club too,

Joni:

18 to 20

Nick:

and I, and they make friends. I did hear, when we were at the pool deck, I think I heard. Oh, we were in the hot tub, I

Joni:

They're adults, but not old enough to drink

Nick:

One of the other moms has said, well, yeah, we finally ran into whatever her son's name was and they hadn't seen him in a while, and they're like, he's got a whole crew.

Joni:

Yeah. I mean, that's what it's all about. You go on and make

Nick:

They make friends and, probably found each other on social media, I'm sure. And,

Joni:

Yeah. And we, we got our door. We got our door magnetized by a couple of guest

Nick:

We got,

Joni:

Yeah. Um, we

Nick:

got a couple rubber ducks and a sad mickey.

Joni:

let me back up a little bit more too, because when we did our mustard drill, this is going way back to the first day, but when we did our mustard drill, we did run into a couple of, of gals that were in our line with us and, we had actually, Nick had had shirts made for us that have our, logo on it and a QR code that takes you right to our podcast. And the gals behind us actually recognized it and asked if they could scan it. And Jordan has listened to us before and her and her friend Shannon, we met on the boat and then we ended up sitting next to them at, beauty and the Beast, or was it Believe Yeah, it was Believe. Oh, believe, yeah. And

Nick:

yeah, so we,

Joni:

And we ran into'em at the store. So it was fun. It was, it was nice to meet the girls. Hi Jordan and Shannon.

Nick:

hi. Hope you had safe travels back. And

Joni:

So anyway, I just had a great time. I would do it again. I did buy my little Donald Duck miniature statue and I planned to, go on all the Disney ships and

Nick:

Well, we, we bought a placeholder, so you can also buy your placeholder holder, while you're on the ship. You have to do it while you're on the ship. You put$250 for the placeholder basically. You're giving Disney$250 saying, I wanna book again. And they're saying, okay, thank you. Here's, you have 10% off of your next cruise. You have 24 months to use it. If you don't use it, it's fully refundable. Don't get that confused with as a deposit. So when you do go to use it, you still gotta pay a deposit. You're just basically saying, Hey, we want to come again. And Disney says, well thank you. Here's 10% off

Joni:

Yeah.

Nick:

is basically is what it's, I would definitely, I'm sold on Disney cruises. I,

Joni:

Yeah.

Nick:

I know they're more expensive than the other cruises, but like I said, Disney is an entertainment company first and foremost, and they show that even on the ships

Joni:

Even being a, a place full of children. I mean,, I love people, young, old, whatever, but there was a nice mix. Yeah. I mean, even the kids were respectful. They were so cute seeing'em in their outfits. I Oh, their costumes. I had never seen, I had not seen a boy go to Bibby Bob. There's a Bibby bob on the boat. I've never seen a boy, but I saw two princes that went to Bibb Bobi. Mm-hmm. And it was just. It was, it was cute.

Nick:

The, the costumes. I'm, I'm glad we went on Halloween. Just because the costumes mm-hmm. The costumes were so, so cute that I remember one that stands out was, the Family of 101 Dalmatians and the girl was probably five and she was Cruella man. She was, she was done up, she was a perfect cruel. Yeah. I saw a Little Mermaid family, you know, dad was

Joni:

Incredibles. There was some Incredibles. Yeah.

Nick:

it was. Every Disney character you can think of was probably represented at, at the co. Somebody wore a costume.

Joni:

the couple, just a couple with, no child with them was dressed as Christopher Robbins and Winnie the Pooh.

Nick:

Yeah,

Joni:

He was, he was carrying around a little balloon with his little short yellow shorts

Nick:

on

Joni:

and red T-shirt. And his wife, or significant other was, or friend perhaps was, uh, Christopher Robbins.

Nick:

Yep. Jonie was Snow White and I was dopey.

Joni:

yeah, well, I also had a Rapunzel dress and I took a Cinderella dress and I actually had a cast member, one of the shipmates that was in the white garb. I don't know, a crew member. As I'm boarding the elevator, their glass elevators, and she mouthed to me. I'm pretty good at mouth reading. She mouth, I love your outfit. And so I curtsied her as I was going off the elevator. So it, you know, they make it magical for kids and adults alike. So if it's magical for us, can you just imagine what it does for these little hearts?

Nick:

I can't even imagine.

Joni:

what an experience,

Nick:

Yeah, it's totally different experience from the parks, which we weren't expecting it to be the same, but it's, it's completely different.

Joni:

Yeah. It's nice to be able to have a quick place to go to, to relax if

Nick:

oh yeah, you can just go right up to your room and, you know, take a

Joni:

there's not a lot of, there's not a lot of seating around the atrium. Well, there is. Off to the side. Off

Nick:

to the sides. But even like on the upper decks, um,

Joni:

there isn't

Nick:

like looking down the atrium, there's really no seating, no plenty of places to sit on the top deck or the pool deck. We didn't mention the quick service restaurants on the pool deck. There's four of'em there. And, they have my taco place, a burger place, a sandwich place. I don't remember the other one, but,

Joni:

We had tacos.

Nick:

Yeah, we had tacos.

Joni:

And you can take food. We saw people bringing food into the theaters. Oh, yeah. Taking, taking'em out to the pool area. Yep. But yeah, we had tacos. Next time we go, we're only gonna order one a piece though, because they load'em so full that it's almost like you're feeding a family of four on one plate.

Nick:

But so yeah. Overall takeaway, we bought our placeholder, so we're going again. We're definitely going again. Yeah. Like I said, Disney's known for entertainment and that's, that's where the money is, the extra money and free soda. You get free soda on the ship.

Joni:

Yes. You

Nick:

Every other cruise line you have to buy a soda package.

Joni:

Yes, you do. Well, I would do it again. We are gonna do it again. Yeah. And if you have an opportunity, it's, I mean, it's not, it's not, you know, if you save up for it, if you're able to save up for it. I mean, we had to and it was just the two of us going.

Nick:

Yeah. And there, you know, with Disney, even with the parks and everything there, there's always some kind of promotion or just

Joni:

it was a lot more relaxing than a park.

Nick:

Oh yeah, for sure. We park your go, go, go. You know, here you can sit down in a pool lounge and,

Joni:

And a lot less people.

Nick:

So yeah, that was our, Disney Dream experience. Anything else to add?

Joni:

I don't think so. I think we've pretty much covered everything and we've. Been talking a long time. These people are probably like

Nick:

I know.

Joni:

Where's the end?

Nick:

So again, thank you to all the staff, especially the people that, directly had directly with us, COIs, Reva, Lloyd, and Derek. Thank you so much. In fact, when we were leaving. Our breakfast, the last, the very last. Right before we got off the ship, Derek said, well, I'm gonna be on the dream until March. If you book another one, please request me. So yeah, if there's nothing else to add, I think that's gonna do it for this week's show. You can go to our website is Main Street talk pod.com. You can find all of our links on there. The Facebook page is Main Street Talk. Facebook Group is Disney World Tips and Tricks. Our Instagram is Main Street Talk podcast and you can book your next Disney vacation with me, nick.Garcia@academytravel.com. My services are free and we are affiliates of the Magic Candle company. There's a link on the website and use code Main Street talk at checkout for 15% off. And like Joanie said, within the next couple weeks, I'm gonna be posting a, video of our room. So if you're curious of what a veranda room looks like on the Disney Dream, we will have that up on our YouTube channel. That's Main Street Talk on YouTube. Got something

Joni:

have one more little tidbit to enter in here. There's just so many things. It was a week full of things to do, but if you are a DVC member, don't forget to go get your free gift every day. You get a free gift every day. So stop by whatever deck, whatever ship you're on.

Nick:

They,

Joni:

I don't know. It's, I'm sure it varies.

Nick:

Mm-hmm.

Joni:

the gala told us that it varies depending on the ship, but, they'll have a time posting on when you can collect your gift. Yep.

Nick:

Don't, it's nothing huge, but they're, they're nice

Joni:

It's re it's, it's a nice thing to

Nick:

Yeah. Yeah. Kind of saying thank you and they, every time we went to'em, they said Welcome home. Yeah. So. Alright, well that's gonna do it for this week's show. Okay. We'll be back next week with our regular, spotlights and movies. So until then, we will talk to you real soon.

Joni:

Bye everyone.

Contributor

Joni

Host
Contributor

Nick

Host