Sailing away on the Disney Fantasy cruise turned out to be an adventure we'll never forget, and we couldn't wait to bring you all the magical details. Picture this: seven nights of pure Disney delight, character meals that had us like never before, and the enchanting sparkle of fireworks over a boundless ocean. Our latest episode is a treasure chest of experiences, from the glamour of themed dinners to the excitement of exclusive after-hours events at the parks. Come along as we reveal how we sailed through every hiccup with that renowned Disney finesse, and get our insider tips on making the most of the Disney dining plan.
You know the joy and nostalgia that hits you when you step into Disney World? Multiply that by a hundred—that's the Disney Fantasy cruise for you. Our journey was a whirlwind of character encounters, with everyone from Cinderella to Captain Minnie, and we were swept up in the charm of it all. As we regale you with stories of rough seas met with high spirits, and mixology classes that taught us more than just how to shake a cocktail, you'll also hear how being a Disney Vacation Club member added an extra sprinkle of pixie dust to our experience. Trust us, this episode will have you considering your next Disney adventure before the final credits roll.
Wrapping up our saga, we highlight those unmissable cruise moments that made us wish we could stay at sea forever. A Toy Story themed breakfast with Woody and the gang, a formal night that had us rubbing elbows with superheroes, and that unforgettable Superhero-themed fireworks show—we cover it all. Our serving staff at the Royal Court deserves a shout-out for making every meal feel like a royal banquet. Whether you're a seasoned cruiser or contemplating your first Disney voyage, our tales from the high seas are sure to enchant, inspire, and fill you with that warm Disney glow. Join us and discover why the Disney Fantasy is more than just a ship—it's a floating haven of dreams.
Sailing away on the Disney Fantasy cruise turned out to be an adventure we'll never forget, and we couldn't wait to bring you all the magical details. Picture this: seven nights of pure Disney delight, character meals that had us like never before, and the enchanting sparkle of fireworks over a boundless ocean. Our latest episode is a treasure chest of experiences, from the glamour of themed dinners to the excitement of exclusive after-hours events at the parks. Come along as we reveal how we sailed through every hiccup with that renowned Disney finesse, and get our insider tips on making the most of the Disney dining plan.
You know the joy and nostalgia that hits you when you step into Disney World? Multiply that by a hundred—that's the Disney Fantasy cruise for you. Our journey was a whirlwind of character encounters, with everyone from Cinderella to Captain Minnie, and we were swept up in the charm of it all. As we regale you with stories of rough seas met with high spirits, and mixology classes that taught us more than just how to shake a cocktail, you'll also hear how being a Disney Vacation Club member added an extra sprinkle of pixie dust to our experience. Trust us, this episode will have you considering your next Disney adventure before the final credits roll.
Wrapping up our saga, we highlight those unmissable cruise moments that made us wish we could stay at sea forever. A Toy Story themed breakfast with Woody and the gang, a formal night that had us rubbing elbows with superheroes, and that unforgettable Superhero-themed fireworks show—we cover it all. Our serving staff at the Royal Court deserves a shout-out for making every meal feel like a royal banquet. Whether you're a seasoned cruiser or contemplating your first Disney voyage, our tales from the high seas are sure to enchant, inspire, and fill you with that warm Disney glow. Join us and discover why the Disney Fantasy is more than just a ship—it's a floating haven of dreams.
We are back from our seven night cruise aboard the Disney fantasy. Great food, great fun and great friends were the story of the trip and we'll share all of that this week on episode 178 of the Make you Fall podcast.
Speaker 2:Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Mickey file podcast. I'm Scott, and with me is my lovely wife Karen.
Speaker 1:Hello everybody.
Speaker 2:We're back. We are back. I don't want to be back. I'm kind of sad when we got back to Saratoga and I we were unloading right from the bus, right giving our bags to Bell services, because our room wasn't ready, because it was like 930. It was early, it was like 1030. But the person in Bell services was like how are you today? I'm like, is it weird that I'm kind of disappointed to be here?
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:To our favorite place at Disney world.
Speaker 1:And then we're sad to be there because we had to get off the ship.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a fun week.
Speaker 1:It really was. It was long, and then other parts were really short and other parts, like some of the days, lasted really long and other days were gone.
Speaker 2:Well, we were up late a lot.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So that didn't help.
Speaker 1:True.
Speaker 2:But anyway we're back, so we'll talk about some of it, whatever gets us to an hour, and then we'll bring it back the next week. There you go. There is a little bit of news this week. I think there's just a little bit of news this week, but also we were gone for eight days, so there may have been stuff we just missed. True.
Speaker 2:Because we had internet but I found we were not getting like no, all the stuff, no, no. No, so let's talk about a few things and then we'll get right into our trip report.
Speaker 1:Okey-dokey Country Bear Jamboree's last performance, sadly, was Friday, january 26th.
Speaker 2:And, from what I understand, earlier than it was supposed to be yeah.
Speaker 1:Apparently, the last couple performances were technical issues.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they shut it down. Our friend Andy had sent me a picture of the line outside at like 9.30 in the morning.
Speaker 1:Oh really.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Where was it to?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I mean it just like you ever been there, you know, right, it's never outside the building, right, Right, this was outside the building.
Speaker 1:Well, everyone's sad to see it go, and when we went it was very full.
Speaker 2:I guess he didn't send me a picture. He just said people were lined up outside and the first show wasn't till one o'clock. That's what it was.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:But yeah, lined up outside waiting on Country Bear Jamboree.
Speaker 1:Right, which was never a ride. You waited for you just like, oh it's getting ready to start, let's go. We need to get cooled off in air conditioning.
Speaker 2:It was funny because of the type of people we hang out with a lot. We made the joke the other day that it may have taken four years, but WDWNT was right. Country Bear Jamboree's is closed. Country Bears is closed. We're opening pretty soon now. I've seen videos already of them recording the songs. I don't remember how long it's supposed to be shut down, but it really isn't very long.
Speaker 1:No, I don't think it is In a big river. Grill and brewing works on the boardwalk closed on January 21st. They do have a food track located basically at the entrance of it right now.
Speaker 2:And from what I understand, there's four or five food tracks that will be rotating posting up there.
Speaker 1:Which is good. We have some options, so it's not like one is getting all of everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah just I don't know. I've heard mixed reviews. We'd been there, I think, twice and it was fine both times.
Speaker 1:It wasn't anything special, it was just yeah.
Speaker 2:The food was good. It had a bunch of different beers.
Speaker 1:That part was nice. It was a nice place to hang out. It was. I haven't seen anything as far as why, but there wasn't even any warning it was closing down. No, it was pretty much here, it's closing in three days. There you go.
Speaker 2:I'm assuming that means it was probably a third party vendor that just shut down. But yeah but yeah, there wasn't any warming warning for it. It just shut down and I don't know, maybe they'll put in a bakery or a sandwich shop or pizza window I know, I know they had a bakery that sold sandwiches and now they're and now they're like six months behind on a new bakery that sells sandwiches.
Speaker 1:After our dates have been added for Magic Kingdom, hollywood Studios, epcot, for dates may through August. For Walt Disney World guests, they could start booking already. If you're not staying on property, you can start booking technically today, the 31st. There are AP and DVC discounts on this.
Speaker 2:And I'd like to get out in front of this yes, if there is an after hours event and you don't have tickets for it, they will throw you out.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I want to be the first person to answer because it's going to be the thing on all the Disney Facebook groups now for the next seven months, right? If we have dining reservations they're not just going to make me leave, right? Yes, yeah, they are.
Speaker 1:People are paying money for this event, right? Oh, oh, way to get on top of it there, babe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm just trying to get out in front of it. Yeah, we're here for that yes, exactly. Dvc News 2023 was the best year for direct sales since 2011. But there was a big drop in December for some reason.
Speaker 1:Holiday.
Speaker 2:Yeah, November and December are always down Right. Also, everybody knows that Polynesian is coming pretty soon.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Cabins of Fort Wilderness are literally coming from when we're courting. Well, the day that this podcast comes out, cabins of Fort Wilderness will be for sale. Yep. We heard, for $225 a point.
Speaker 1:We don't know what the incentives are yet.
Speaker 2:Right, but that's a 50-year contract at least. Yeah, yeah, it's a full 50 years. Polynesian won't be Polynesian's only, I mean only, but only until 2026, 2066. Right, because apparently that's going to be on the same condominium association, right? We're going to be paying big money for those for 43 years, 42 years, right? So I want to buy cabin points. I just want to stay at the cabin. I really don't care where the points come from.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, yeah, we won't be able to book there until April, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's what it is. Yeah, anyway, that is that's all the news. Yeah, very little news, very little news. Yes, so we made our big trip. We did Already January's over and our big trip is over. Yes, we got there on Friday the 19th, my mom's birthday. Yes, and I mean we kind of took our time, but not really. I mean we got over there, I don't know by noon I think. I think so Right around then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was before that actually. Okay, yeah, it was a little bit before noon. We got there probably around 1130-ish.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess so. So we took two cars because we had a lot of baggage, because we had three days at Disney and the cruise Plus an AD cruise, right. So we had a lot of bags and we had, you know, disney stuff and cruise stuff. And we had two dogs half the way over and half the way back Right. So we took two cars, right. We met at Saratoga and decided to take the bus, mostly because we hadn't taken a bus since, like June, when trails end open.
Speaker 1:Right and we were going to Magic Kingdom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which takes you to the gate instead of the TTC, right? So we did that. We got over there. It was like, I don't know, it was maybe a 15 minute wait for the bus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it wasn't very long.
Speaker 2:And then Saratoga is closer than people realize to Magic Kingdom, so we got there pretty quick, right Went inside. Of course, the slowest gate through the tap styles was the pass holder gate. Yep, that's always the case anymore. I don't understand it.
Speaker 1:And I'm going to add mine. Please just get them out of line and take them to another turnstile. I don't understand that.
Speaker 2:So you get up to the turret, tap style and it turns blue. For whatever reason, you don't remember what finger you used. You don't actually.
Speaker 1:Right, give them one more time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what happened the following weekend? You're trying to get in on a Saturday on a Pixie pass, right, but whatever. So they you know the, we've all seen it the cast member puts their hand up and somebody in a flat outfit comes over to see what's going on. Right, get them out of the line. Don't block effectively two sides of the tap style by doing it all right there at the tap style. Move them just around the corner where 10 more people can go through the line, right, while you're Figuring to find out that they actually can't be there that day or whatever the issue is. But Move them over so you don't, because it just keeps happening. It's in between two and they effectively blocked off for tap styles. Trying to fix this one family's Yep Mistake, right, whatever the mistake is, but anyway. So we got into the park and went Fairly directly to country bear jamboree Yep, watch the show. It was, you know, country bear jamboree.
Speaker 1:Yes, there was a lot of clapping.
Speaker 2:You know it's funny. A couple of years ago we went in there with a hundred of our friends. It may not have been a hundred in the theater, but we were the biggest group in the theater, right it? Was like a morgue. The other day we were in there with 200 randos. We were clapping, laughing, singing, smiling. Yep. They were into it and I think you know a lot of people knew this was.
Speaker 1:We got a week Yep we had a week and it was our last, our last hurrah for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because it closed on Friday, we didn't get back till Saturday, right? So, yeah, we went and did that and then we left, yeah, and then we went back to the bus. We actually had a 430 dinner at Hollywood and Vine and Hollywood studios Right, fantastic dining package Yep.
Speaker 2:So we took the bus back to magic to, from magic Back to Sarasota yeah, Saratoga, back to Saratoga, and got in our car and went to Hollywood studios, right, and part of that was that I was still using the scooter and we were leaving that with the car while we were out of town. So it didn't make sense to take a bus and then still have to get back to our car to take it over to Jason's Friday night, right, so we drove the car, right. It's amazing how much time everything at Disney takes. Yes, because literally three hours flew by.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Four hours flew by. Yeah, we barely made it to Hollywood Studios on time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was about four 15 foot.
Speaker 2:And at that point still did not have a room, so we had not like unpacked or any of that. Right Hollywood in mind was really good it was delicious.
Speaker 1:I like the variety of the types of foods.
Speaker 2:I thought they did a really good job with that. They had stuff for kids, they had stuff for even, like you know, different types of palace, they had some curry things, they had salads, they had pork and chicken and fish and beef. Carving station Right, two carving stations.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because one was turkey, one was beef right, yeah, new York strip.
Speaker 2:They said yeah, yeah, I guess it probably was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it was all very good, very fresh. Yeah, cast members were.
Speaker 2:The characters were great. The character interactions they really were. You know it was tax and tip 80 bucks, right, but that was also a phantasmic dining package, so we had a reserved seat to phantasmic Right. Left the restaurant, we tried to go to Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway and we get into the last room where, like two rows from getting into the ride vehicle and lights kind of turned up and they made the please remain seated. A cast member will be with you to assist you, right, we're like really. So, yeah, for whatever reason, they shut that ride down and, I assume, evacuated at least some of it, right, so we did get a anytime lightning lane, went and did Millennium Falcon on that, right, so that was cool.
Speaker 1:And then I think we did Rise after that, you know it was at that point, dark.
Speaker 2:It was dark anyway, yes, and we went into Millennium Falcon. Now we had lightning lane for it, but we basically walked all the way back to Millennium Falcon and they put just the three of us. We had our own and ship, yeah, ship, yeah. I guess people aren't riding that like they used to. Yeah and yeah. Then we left there. We went to Rise of the Resistance. That was cool, actually, the whole ride working. Yeah, you know, no B mode.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Which was good, and in the meantime got Mickey and Minnie's again. So we were able finally to go ride that, and at that point it was time to high tail it over to.
Speaker 1:Fantastic, fantastic, which we did have to high tail it A little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they said so that it started at 9 30. 9, 30. They told us we had to be there by nine. We got there like at nine Right, got our seats right in the middle. They were doing a very good job of keeping people outside the ropes. Yes, they weren't, you know, hadn't paid to be there, and it's such a great show.
Speaker 1:It's a wonderful show, and even the line for the concession, which was literally right behind us, was fairly short.
Speaker 2:Usually they're lined up Cause I want a popcorn, of course, so we saw a couple of Shirts at one of the little merchandise carts going, you know, up to the top, right, we saw a couple that we liked and they didn't have Jason's size. They didn't have my size, right, I wasn't too sure I was going to buy the one, but so I didn't look real hard. But Jason saw one he liked and they didn't have his size, and we all said it's gotta be somewhere in the park because, right, you would say you wouldn't just sell this merchandise for like an hour and a half every night.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's Disney. They're all about merchandise. I did not see it anywhere else.
Speaker 2:No, and Jason's been looking and hasn't seen either one of those shirts anywhere else in that park. Yeah. So that's bizarre.
Speaker 1:Yes, One of the things you forgot to bring up is we're doing. We did the dining plan, disney dining plan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so because we were there one night, we decided that was a good time to test it out, right, right. So how much? How much was the? This was the regular dining plan. It's down on a quick service and.
Speaker 1:It was 94, 28 per person.
Speaker 2:Okay, so 95 bikes.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I can't remember if that's plus tax or if that includes the tax.
Speaker 1:That included the tax.
Speaker 2:That's why it's a weird number, right? So we got the sit down meal. Right.
Speaker 2:We each got at at a Hollywood and Vine Right. We each got an alcoholic beverage with dinner Right, and we got the faint has been dining package Right. The next morning we got up. It was time for our cruise. Yes, we had breakfast at the artist palette Yep At Saratoga, while we were waiting for the bus Right, which is our quick service. Right, and we each got a canned. You got a Bloody Mary and I got a beer. Well, I had to start the day.
Speaker 2:Now, if I didn't have the dining plan, I wasn't going to get that drink at breakfast. Right, I wasn't. But we beat the dining plan. Yes, we for sure spent that and we got what we wanted.
Speaker 1:Right, and then we had the refillable cups and a snack. We got the. Oh, we got the refillable cups Right which we used, and they were good for another for the week when we got back Right and we each and we grabbed a little snack, which was what? Fruit and cheese or something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got like a cheese board and a fruit salad Right From there, mm-hmm, and I think I got those the night before. You did Right? Yeah, so I guess, right, we got those a night before so we'd have something when we got back into the room at night, right?
Speaker 1:So we definitely beat the For that. It was worth it. Yes, we definitely beat the dining plan on that one.
Speaker 2:Now skipping ahead. When we got back in town and we were spending one night, we had plans with a whole bunch of friends to do yak and yeti Mm-hmm, and looking at that menu, be honest with you, yak and yeti didn't cost enough to justify the dining plan Right. So we did not do it the second day, correct, the second half of the trip, right, second part of the trip. But for the first night, knowing what we were doing, it actually was beneficial. To do it Right, and it was one of the things that I was discussing with our friend John was. I bet you start seeing a lot more people doing splits days again. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:You know, because you get that almost free day. Mm-hmm. But splits days are a good use of it.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'll say that Very much so.
Speaker 2:So Saturday morning we kind of started on this. Saturday morning we woke up, we had to have our bags outside of our room, so we were taking the bus.
Speaker 1:Right and they had at 7 am.
Speaker 2:They said Not outside of our room, right yeah, inside the door at 7 am.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:With the tags on them. Mm-hmm. Okay, right, and so we had everything lined up there ready to go for Bell services. Yep, and because we were leaving our cars, we actually got them to bring the golf cart up and take us to up to the carriage house. Right, the bus cost us about $180 for the ride there and back, for the ride there and back and them handling the bags and all of that Cause once, right.
Speaker 1:Cause. Then, once the cart took them up there, we didn't deal with them again until we, until they delivered them to our state room.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, which was pretty late yeah.
Speaker 1:It was late, but that was really nice, because last time we had to get them in there, they had to take them. You know, we had to get them out of the car, they had to take them, blah, blah blah, so we didn't have to deal with that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, they came and picked them up and that was it. We didn't see them again until they arrived outside the state room door Right, had we driven and I know this because our friends Pat and Sandy drove it was $158 to park our car in the garage Right. So not having to drive ourselves halfway across the state and back was worth $22 to me and deal with our own luggage. Right.
Speaker 1:That was worth it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was totally worth it, and the Disney bus was cool, even the one we had before that was either Academy or Mears, I think it was Academy. It was Academy, but it was still you know, but they had the videos planned. The driver was super cool. The driver, you know, yeah, I mean the driver was super cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they did have to stop at two other resorts on the way Old Key and Riviera.
Speaker 2:Right. So we got on the bus at nine o'clock Saturday from the Carriage House at Saratoga Springs Right, it went from there to Old Key West and from Old Key West to Riviera, correct. Now, the good thing was we were at Saratoga, so we were on the bus, had seats, didn't have to move again, right, everybody else had to come in with their carry-on bag and deal with it on what was already a crowded bus. The majority of the people on that bus were from Saratoga. Yes, by far like more than half the people on that bus were from Saratoga.
Speaker 1:Right? Well, it's, and it's a bigger resort, so that makes sense, Right.
Speaker 2:It was funny because the lady behind us was complaining about how cold it was.
Speaker 1:Right, and she was from where Boston, yeah.
Speaker 2:All our friends from up north they make fun of us come down here and complain that they're cold.
Speaker 1:Because Florida cold is different than anywhere.
Speaker 2:Right, yep. So it was just funny to hear her and she started and I finally was like all right, I can't just let it go. I have to know where are you from. Yeah, she's from Boston. I was like I have figures. Yeah, because all our friends from Connecticut and Maine and same thing, yep.
Speaker 1:So, and because we rode the bus, we automatically got early boarding group. Boarding group five yes, automatically, we got before 10.
Speaker 2:We came in the line. They put us in the platinum line for a Castaway club to go through the initial screening Right. So we were in there very quickly. Like by the time we got upstairs to the terminal they were already calling groups one through three. As we walked in we had time to basically go to the bathroom and our group was called Right.
Speaker 1:We did go up and ask.
Speaker 2:About an upgrade.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just to find out if there was an upgrade available. We actually pondered for about 30 seconds and I'm like, no, this is just silly.
Speaker 2:So it was the same basic room that we had, but concierge level, but it was $3,000 more.
Speaker 1:Right If it was a bigger room. If it came with other things, I probably would have considered it more. Yeah, possibly, but I'm not sure if we would have had the same experience that we had.
Speaker 2:No, we would not have that for sure, right, all right. So, speaking of that, so you get into the bullpen. You know queue line deal to get on. It's a snake, just like every other attraction at Disney.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But they did have the picture right before you went on the photo ops, so we got our picture made Right and then we went through the tunnel and got on the boat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and from the time we picked us up, the time we got on a boat, it was what they picked us up at nine. We had to be on the bus at nine. We were on the ship at 1145.
Speaker 2:Right. Right, including all the screening and everything else. Yes. So that worked out really well. Mm-hmm, I'm probably just gonna do that every time from now. Yes, I mean, you gotta see if it's a four day crew, four night crews maybe not, cause that was only $80 a park, right, and the bus, I'm assuming, is still 180. So, yes, but it worked out. Great for a seven day cruise. Yes, great for a seven day cruise. We come in, you know, across the gang plank, yes, like what you call it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And of course they ask your name and they announce you know, attention to the fantasy, the Smith family. And you walk out, you know, and the crew is all there clapping Mm-hmm. So it's a really cool little opening thing. You could hear it much better on this boat than you could on the Wish.
Speaker 1:They used microphones on this boat. They didn't on the Wish.
Speaker 2:I did not remember that.
Speaker 1:I looked. I went back and looked at the video and that's what the difference was. Each of the crew had microphones, cause they had two going alternating one, you know, one and the other. Yeah, so there was not really a gap.
Speaker 2:Well, that was just silly not to have microphones. I know the Atrium is very different than the Wish, but it was not less impressive. I really liked the old school, ritzy 1940s feel. You know. We were reminded you of Hollywood Studios Very fancy, a lot of gold and all of that. So we got on the boat and there was a bar right by the Atrium, the Bon Voyage bar lounge. What a bar. It was a bar, I mean whatever they call it, it was a bar Right.
Speaker 1:And you're like we're home, yeah.
Speaker 2:And we met our friend Gabby. Uh-huh. So it was great because we knew we had. I mean, they were pretty clear right up at the beginning your rooms won't be ready till 1.30.
Speaker 1:Right, and last time they said on the Wish, they said two and they announced this one. It was 1.30. Yeah, so we had rooms on the. Wish Right. I think that's the reason.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So anyway, we went up there and sat down and started celebrating our crews and our friends. We were in touch with them. Our friends Ken and Judy came on, probably after about an hour behind us, right, and then Pat and Sandy came in just a few minutes behind them, right, a few minutes maybe behind them. So that's where we all met up, and very shortly after that it was 1.30, time to go to the rooms. I think we may have decided to go eat first, right.
Speaker 1:Before we went to our room Right, because I think we realized we were gonna be in danger.
Speaker 2:We were in danger, so we went upstairs, all the way upstairs 11th deck, which was Flo's. V8 diner. That's it. Yeah, it was a food court and they had sandwiches, hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, right, mostly. I mean they did have some salads and stuff too, but it was all very good for that type of food and I never had a hamburger from there, but I had over the course of the week about everything else. Yes, it was all very good. Man, later in the week, especially sea days, there were some lines.
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, there were.
Speaker 2:At that place. But yeah, we ran up there and got just the quickest of quick service stuff and then headed down to our room and it was ready. Same problem on this ship as the wish when everybody is trying to get somewhere, whether it's dinner or a show, or to their rooms, first thing the elevators become just Very congested. Yeah, yes, so it took a little bit, but we got to our room.
Speaker 1:Right Now, one of the things we started to realize as far as because we were midship, but midship closer to aft that if the midship elevators were really busy or go to aft, and sometimes that was able to get us where we needed to go, right or forward to mid to aft or whatever, just kind of move it around because it really wasn't that long of a walk between them.
Speaker 2:No, and from where our room was, it was just a few state rooms different for us to go Up. The aft elevator is the mid elevator. Right, so keep that in mind when you're trying to get up and down. The ends of the ship are never as busy as the middle is, obviously.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:We had our muster call where everybody had to go to whatever station you were assigned and listen to the 10 minute deal about how to put on life preserver and where to meet if something happens.
Speaker 1:And ours this time was outside. Last time, on the wish, it was not.
Speaker 2:No, last time on the wish we were in the Walt Disney dining room.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in the Roy side, I think, the 1928 dining room 1928.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're right in the Roy side, but this time it was. Yeah, we were on deck. Now, that wasn't for everybody. Junien, ken, I know we're inside, but yeah, we were outside. Yes, so that was cool. We planned ahead because we knew it was coming and made sure to get to that floor before everybody else was trying to get there, so we didn't have to do stairs Right. So that was cool. We got to watch a lot of safety drills this week. Yeah, it was really cool. Yeah, almost right after that was the I think they call it Sail Away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sail Away show or something Show where Mickey and Minnie Donald and Daisy Goofy, chip and Dale Pluto All come out in their sailor outfits and a little song and dance thing Shoot off some.
Speaker 1:What are they streamers?
Speaker 2:Right, right, and then the horns blow and you're off Right Like right at the end of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we go back to our state room and wave at people.
Speaker 2:It's very cool how many people. There's a lot of bars along the channel leaving Port Canaveral to get out to the ocean and they're all out there waving at all the cruise ships that go by. So we, through the combined knowledge of having been on a cruise ship, on a Disney cruise before, and also our travel agent Thank you, mandy. Thank you, mandy. We got on the starboard side again, so we were on the side coming out with all the bars, so we got to wave at them At Port Canaveral, right, but at all three of the ports of call afterwards we were on the pretty side, yes, so it was awesome. We had some really cool views that we'll talk about as we go through days here.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:But starboard side is the way to go. For this itinerary where it's at yes, by then it's, you know, five after five. Yep, we had dinner at Polo, pretty much right at sunset, which, wow, that's underrated.
Speaker 1:Yes it is.
Speaker 2:Polo, like the whole. It's all windows, so you get to watch it. And then, of course, there was the outside deck by the bar outside of Polo.
Speaker 1:Those pictures came out great.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So here's how we knew already that we made a good call, stopping to meet in Gabby. You get to Polo and of course they were like please go sit in the lounge and someone will be right here, and so you would go on outside to take pictures. I was sitting inside Because it was beautiful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no right. I was sitting inside and Natalie, our server, came to get us, Yep, and I said you know, I said let me grab her she's. She went outside to take pictures of the sun. She goes oh, let's go out there. Well, I'll take pictures of you. So she got great pictures of us on the deck. But we're coming back in and she goes. She says to me she goes.
Speaker 2:So I hear you met my friend Gabby this afternoon and we're like okay, it turns out they were roommates prior to this, prior to this cruise. Actually, they were roommates and they had seen each other sometime in the last little bit there and she had said you have this couples coming tonight. If you get them, be good to them.
Speaker 1:And she also told her that you go by Scott, not John, Because you know that's a whole thing, Right?
Speaker 2:So it was great. Yes, and she was. We've been to Apollo a few times. Yes, not, I mean, the servers are great. They all have great personalities, they're really good at their jobs and they should be Right. She was a little more. I was like casual, relaxed.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:You know, I guess she knew we were cool or whatever. Right, because Gabby told her, yeah, we had a really good time with her at that dinner and unfortunately, we even requested her because we had Paulo come in two more times. Right, we requested it and didn't get her.
Speaker 1:Yeah so.
Speaker 2:But I didn't see her, so I don't know if she got sick, or that's what I'm thinking.
Speaker 1:Had some time off, or something but yeah, because she even said I'll see you on Thursday and Friday. Yeah, so I'm not sure what happened. Yeah, I think she may have gotten ill, but we didn't want to ask her Because the weather was rough a couple of times, a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the weather was rough, the whole cruise. Wind was rough, the whole cruise. Like we didn't have a lot of real rain Right, we had some, but the wind it was like solid 25 mile an hour and Pat said at one point it was getting up to 50. And basically coming right into the side of the ship. So the ship was rocking, yeah, basically the whole week. Yeah, nobody in our group had any problems with it, and I'm not even sure that anybody in our group was wearing patches or anything. Yeah, I know, I know Judy said she had some draminine or boneine or whatever, but didn't even use it. Right, we didn't even have anything.
Speaker 1:No, the only thing I like I said at that one breakfast the woody's thing. It was bothering me a little, but then I was fine once I ate something. Yeah, I think it's just the position I was sitting is what it was.
Speaker 2:So it was definitely a little rougher than what we had been on before, but Right, it was still manageable. But I mean it was just it's been windy, yeah, really windy down there. There were fronts coming and they had all kinds of pictures every night.
Speaker 1:Every night different forms, all the backdrops you know the characters.
Speaker 2:Yeah they changed characters. So the first night you got pictures with Cinderella and, I think, rapunzel.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:I missed Rapunzel. Okay, you got pictures with Cinderella.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I got a personal one with Milan, like selfie with Milan.
Speaker 2:Right and we both got pictures with Captain Minnie.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm. Well, with the Cinderella one, I was wearing my frozen outfit, so it was blue and it matches the same color as Cinderella's dress, so it made sense I needed to go see Cinderella.
Speaker 2:There's a trivia question for you. Yeah, how many captains are on a Disney cruise ship?
Speaker 1:Oh Four.
Speaker 2:The real captain, or maybe it's. I think it's five, sorry, okay, the real captain Captain Mickey, captain Minnie, captain Hook and Captain Jack Sparrow.
Speaker 1:Oh, Very good baby.
Speaker 2:So, and if it's a Marvel cruise, it could be six. Apparently, captain Marvel showed up on one of them. Yeah okay, but man, speaking of trivia, there's like trivia games every 45 minutes on this ship there were, but they were fun All over the place. It was a lot of fun. Some of them were that movie quote.
Speaker 1:One was that was terrible, awful, okay, and then one other thing they had DVC at the DVC desk, the booth or desk, whatever is. You go by there and they would give you a little bit of DVC merch every time for everyone in your cabin.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the first day it was like a little slang backpack.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh no, it was a lanyard. It was that snacks, oh, okay so the second day was the backpack Right. Some days it was buttons and like chapstick and Right, what was it? A little Captain Mickey tattoo.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but they had stuff for you every day and the people working the booth actually couldn't sell. You couldn't even discuss pricing or anything about DVC with you, so they were not pushing you to buy. It was really a thank you for being a DVC member. Being on the cruise Right, remember, we're here when you wanna buy points for the cabins.
Speaker 1:But I'm okay with that, 100% yeah.
Speaker 2:Sunday was a day at sea, so one thing we did is every night we would put on the door, I guess, a room service request for like hot coffee, hot tea and and some breakfast items.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like a little fruit in like English muffin and some toast, just to have something Right. Mainly it's cause I wanted my coffee every morning Right. And they delivered it, and then you put on the thing. You have to put it out there by 3 am and you pick what half hour slot they would come.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that we had them coming like 7.38. Right.
Speaker 1:Which is perfect.
Speaker 2:So Sunday our food came. That was great.
Speaker 1:And I sat out there on the our veranda drinking my coffee and I think I did a live that morning.
Speaker 2:You did, and we just kind of hung out in the room until, I don't know, 1130 or so. Well, after 12, cause that's what it opened, I guess. No, it opened at 11 up there. Right. So around 1130 and we went up to Cabanas, which is the like buffet lunch.
Speaker 1:Right, and they have the different stations that have things. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right Anything from crab legs to hamburgers.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Lots of desserts, of course.
Speaker 1:But it was nice cause you could pick and choose. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that was the day that we kind of bounced around, all six of us, from trivia game to trivia game in some configuration or another, not winning yeah.
Speaker 1:We came really close one time.
Speaker 2:We did. We didn't embarrass ourselves, but we weren't great at it. No, we had a mixology class at the meridian, on deck 12. That's right outside of Paula, that's the bar Right. And so we had John from Philly Peans. That's how he introduced himself.
Speaker 1:That's how he is Introduced himself. That was pretty good.
Speaker 2:Because he had the two assistants. One of them was from like Indonesia and the other one was from I can't remember where. Yeah, he said he was all the way from Philly Peans.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:It was funny, he was very good, very, very knowledgeable, very knowledgeable, mm-hmm. Funny, you know. So we had, like there was a champagne cocktail, a martini, some kind of gin drink.
Speaker 1:Right, which I surprisingly liked.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was good. Yeah, I can't remember what the fourth one was. And then the fifth one was for us to do a cheers, and this was different. I mean, prior to that it was the same, but different as the one we did on the Wish Right, you know it was a different variations of a gin drink, a champagne cocktail, a martini, mm-hmm, but this one, the fifth one, was shot. Yes, and he had us come up in two groups to the bar and pour the shot ourselves.
Speaker 1:Right. He kind of walked through originally how you needed to do it to have a layered shot and they were supervising.
Speaker 2:Right. But as far as I could tell, everyone did it right. Yeah, even on the rockin' ship.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because it was rockin'.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we made B-52s, Mm-hmm. And then everybody, when you were finished, you went back to your seat and we did a cheers, we did and had our shots. So it was a really cool ending to the experience. Yeah, it really was Honestly and very informative Mm-hmm and worth the price, considering it was all alcohol drinks, you know for the price?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they were higher in. I mean, they're the you know top shelf. Yeah, it wasn't.
Speaker 2:Right, I mean it was.
Speaker 1:You know cattle, and I don't remember which gen it was.
Speaker 2:I can't remember.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But it was a very fun time. I liked those classes.
Speaker 1:They're really cool, they really are.
Speaker 2:They had the Aladdin live show, and I was at that point a little bit tired and had homework to do, so you went to the show Right and the shows they always have two.
Speaker 1:So you have the early show for the late dinner and then you have the late show for the early dinner.
Speaker 2:Right, so the Aladdin live show was basically the same show they had on the wish and I know you liked that. Yeah and then we met for dinner at the enchanted garden. It was formal night, yes, so you know everybody was dressed up more. The rest of the week was pretty casual, but that was formal night.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there were some really dressed up people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then at like 10 o'clock they had these celebrate, these supers show and fireworks. So they had Mr and Mrs Incredible Frozone. I can't remember if they had the other kids.
Speaker 1:I don't. I don't think so. Oh, wait a minute, I've got still pictures here, and they had Jack.
Speaker 2:Jack.
Speaker 1:Yes, but he was like running around.
Speaker 2:I think it was just the four. He was a puppet. Oh, and Edna, yeah, edna mode. Yeah. So, mr and Mrs, incredible Edna Frozone and Jack Jack. But Jack Jack was a puppet, which was actually cool, right. And so he kept like vanishing and appearing here and appearing there all over the top deck and finally they found him and got him, and then we set off fireworks to celebrate.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it was a little interesting. We were in a bad spot where we ended up being they were firing them right behind us. Yeah, they were two right behind us, over our heads, and we were on the wrong side of the ship. So we had to, when they started, we had to kind of wiggle over to get out where we could actually see them. I was surprised because they were shooting them into the wind, yeah, like the wind was howling from the direction they were shooting them in. Knowing that that's what they did, we adjusted for the second one, tuesday, yes, of the Jack Sparrow Pirates, pirates.
Speaker 1:Fireworks. We made sure we had the right spot for that one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and again, they had all kinds of pictures and because it was a day at sea, they had characters out all day long. Yes, pretty much yes, from Mickey and Minnie to princesses and kind of different characters.
Speaker 1:And different outfits, that type of thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so it was a really really cool time. Mm-hmm. Monday was also a day at sea. Yes, we had the Woody's. I put roundup breakfast on my notes. I can't remember what it was called. I don't think that's actually what it was.
Speaker 1:No, I don't think that was the actual name, but we get the right idea.
Speaker 2:But anyway, they had a Toy Story themed Woody themed breakfast at the animators' palette restaurant yes. So that had Woody Jesse Bullseye.
Speaker 1:Right, and that's it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those three. Yeah, it was breakfast. Breakfast is pretty quick on those ships, right, you know, dinner, they have two dinners 6.15 and 8.30, right, or 6 and 8.15. I thought it was 5.30 and 8.15, but I can't be wrong, maybe it's that, but breakfast they did like 7.30 and 8.10. Right, they turn over pretty quickly on that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we did that. We did more trivia all over. I liked the way this boat was set out, like on the fourth deck aft, there was this whole area they called I think it was Euro.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Europa, europa. So they had the Skyline Bar. Ooh la la O'gill's Irish pub.
Speaker 1:La Piazza.
Speaker 2:La Piazza, which was kind of a bar that then all the other bars came off of Right, and then the tube. The tube which was like an underground British club theme Mm-hmm so, and the trivia and all the games, the arts and crafts, everything were like rotating around those places in that area.
Speaker 1:Which is good. So that way it kind of keeps it kind of contained Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:And then you know you've got everybody up at the pools, the aqueduct, the Right, then there was the sport.
Speaker 1:Then there was the sports goofy sports thing. They had the little pup put up on over 13.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a little pup putt, golf course Right. So it was all very cool up there, but so we spent a lot of that day doing trivia games too. Yeah. Again, a lot of photo ops, a lot of characters around. So we were sitting at the Bomb Voyage bar, our favorite place, yeah, and and Chip and Dale. Chip and Dale just walked up and, like stopped at a wall right behind where we were sitting and posed to start taking pictures. And the.
Speaker 1:So there was no line, right. And the handler goes wow, chip and Dale, they're just stopping here to check things out. Yeah, and you know, and from a way of saying you want to have pictures, you can't, they're just stopping to check out the wall, right, it was really cool.
Speaker 2:So I got my picture taken with them. Yeah, that was fun. We had dinner at the Royal Court that night. Mm-hmm. So the first dinner we had at Enchanted Garden, it was neat like the ceiling changed color slowly through the night, Like kind of representing sundown Right and then the setting sun and the lamps opened up like the flowers were opening.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the lamps were shaped like flowers and the petals opened and they changed colors Right Through the night. Royal Court was like Cinderella's Royal Table. Yeah, without the princesses, right, you know, but it was that theming. Yeah, very much set up like that the castle dining room kind of thing, mm-hmm. It was also very nice because we had our own table.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had a private table.
Speaker 2:We didn't do the community dining thing.
Speaker 1:So it was nice.
Speaker 2:We got to make friends with the couple that was on their honeymoon, sitting next to us, but you know we had our own space.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was really nice and our serving staff was amazing.
Speaker 2:Zeltan and Danilo were our direct people. Mm-hmm, rupesh was the head server, right, and all three of them were fantastic. Yeah, I mean really knew how to treat people. Mm-hmm, you know, if you couldn't decide between two things, they'd bring you out the duck with a side of the lampshank, right Well, the couple next to us were doing the same thing. Yeah, they had no problem with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they had, you know, your iced tea ready to go. They had my water, they had a wine glass ready for me. Yeah, I mean they took very good care of us.
Speaker 2:Right, and our steward was Aaron A-E-R-O-N. He was great too. He was Really helpful. So he left, you know, the towel animals on the bed every night, mm-hmm. And the chocolate. And he gave us more towels, I think because you wouldn't you didn't get rid of any of those things we kept stacking them up on the sofa.
Speaker 1:I stacked them up. Yeah, well, the ones that I could stack up, I stacked up on the sofa, right, because they were so flipping cute they were.
Speaker 2:He did some really neat ones, mm-hmm. That Monday night he also changed our pillowcases. So you had a mini, mini mouse pillowcase and I had one with on one side Iron man and Captain America and on the other side it was Iron man and the Hulk.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was really cute. We were like aww.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was very neat.
Speaker 1:Because we had a towel character and the pillows, yeah, and he kept leaving tons of chocolates.
Speaker 2:Tons of chocolate.
Speaker 1:I think the least we had at one time when he left him was like four.
Speaker 2:Right, and a couple times it was like 10. Yeah, so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you put your glasses on it, you put one of your Guinness Holding you know one of the towel things were holding your Guinness. Yeah, it was pretty funny he was. He did a good job.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I think that puts us through Monday. I think that's a good place to stop for this week. Yeah, we're coming right on an hour. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:And the next day was when we got to the British Virgin Islands. Yes, so I think we'll talk about that next week, yep, so that is gonna do it for this week. Thanks for everyone for listening to this week's episode. Don't forget to check us out on Instagram, where we are at Mickeyphile underscore podcast. Facebook is the Mickeyphile Improvement District, so come join us there. You can join in the conversation. All our pictures and stuff get put on the group and on the Instagram feed. Lots of reels and all that kind of thing. Podcast is available anywhere you can find podcasts. The best way to support the show is to subscribe, like, follow, tell your friends, tell your family, anybody you know that likes Disney, to give us a listen please, yep. And if you would like to reach out to us for any reason, use our email address mickeyphilepodcastatgmailcom. Goodbye, good night everybody, thank you.
Speaker 2:Talk to you later.