242: Sunrise Runs, Shared Fun, One Big Family: The Rise & Run Cruise Recap

A cruise ship can feel like a floating city, but it gets a lot smaller when you spot your people. We’re back with the full recap of the inaugural Rise and Run cruise aboard Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas, and we’re sharing what surprised us, what we’d do differently, and the moments that turned a trip into a four-night running community meetup.

We talk through the send-off at Pop Century (yes, Pluto shows up), the bus ride to port, and that first step onto a ship that feels more like Vegas than a quiet getaway. Then we get into the practical stuff you’ll actually want if you’re planning a cruise: buffet and crowd strategy on embarkation day, how the muster drill works on Royal, where to find calmer adult-only spaces like the Solarium Bistro, and what a sail away party is like when it’s loud, long, and unapologetically high energy.

From there, it’s the good stuff: our group cruise run on the Deck 5 track (wind tunnels included), Nassau choices and the Royal Beach Club reality check when the weather doesn’t cooperate, a medaling celebration inside the Pesky Parrot tiki bar, and the Aqua 80s show that had us talking long after curtain call. We also share what it’s like to record a live podcast on a ship, plus the onboard chaos of Price Is Right Live and an escape room win.

We wrap with Perfect Day at CocoCay highlights and a look ahead to Cruise 2.0 with a listener survey to shape what comes next. If you love runDisney community energy, running travel tips, and honest trip debriefs, hit play, subscribe, and then share this with a friend who’d absolutely join the next adventure. What would your dream podcast cruise look like?

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Transcript

Welcome Back And Listener Support

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Good morning, Rise and Runners. This is Jason coming to you live from the Pesky Parrot, where we drop it like it's hot on the Rise and Run podcast cruise. Happy running.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

Live from the Pesky Parrot aboard the Utopia of the Seas. Jason, thank you so much for that engineer.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Hey, hey, hey, hey. I'm back.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

He's back, baby.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

I'm back. He's back. Yeah. Good to see you. Where have you been? Oh, golly. I'll get to that in a minute. Uh, good to see everybody. I missed y'all. I genuinely did. And the funny thing is, for listeners, I've been on two of the last four episodes, but I really haven't been, because we recorded them at different times. So it's good to be back. And a thank you to my friends here who've done a wonderful job in the last couple of weeks keeping things rolling. I knew they would, never had a doubt, but I am happy to be back with you. Uh let us see. That was Jason from the Pesky Parrot from the cruise. And speaking of the cruise, that's our topic for the week. We're gonna revisit what happened on the inaugural Rise and Run Cruise. But first, welcome to episode 242 of the Rise and Run Podcast. And I'm here this week with Greg. Hey, hey, hey, who you've already met. With Alicia. Hello. With John. Hey, how you doing? And with Jack.

SPEAKER_03 2:11

Hiya.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Friends, it's good to see you. I really have missed you. I'm I'm happy to be back here.

SPEAKER_03 2:16

If you enjoy the Rise and Run Podcast, please share us with your friends and introduce them to the Rise and Run family. We want to share in their Run Disney journey. So please remember to follow us on Facebook at Rise and Run Podcast and IG at Rise Run Pod. Check out our YouTube channel and visit our webpage Rise and RunPodcast.com. If you have any question, comment, race report, or just want to introduce an upcoming episode, go ahead and call us at 727-266-2344 and leave us a recorded message.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

We also would like to thank our Patreons whose support helps keep the Rise and Run Podcast rising and running. If you would like to join our Patreon team, please be sure to check out patreon.com slash rise and run podcast. And patreons, uh, you should have received notification over uh this past weekend of another uh Greg-only episode. And uh if you haven't had the chance to listen to it yet, definitely go ahead and uh and and dial that one up because it is an extension of last week's episode all dedicated to listener questions, but a special ode to my friend Tom from the We'll Run for podcast. Uh oh. Because as I explained on that episode, if there is one thing that Tom loves to troll me about on his podcast, it's the fact that we have a Patreon. Uh, you know, there was even a uh a scandalous Instagram story that was made the other day where uh it was a it was a photo of Gritty uh dressed up as uh Benjamin Franklin, and yet somehow it incorporated myself and having the Patreon or whatever. So, what better way to honor Tom than to answer all of his questions in an episode that he doesn't have access to? So, Tom, if you would like to get the answers to your questions, I think you're gonna have to become a member of the Rise Run Patreon. And if you want to do that, visit patreon.com slash rise run podcast. I love it. But regardless, I know we're having some good fun here with Tom, but Patreons, again, we really do appreciate all of your support that you give us each and every single week. But we actually have a new members uh that we would like to welcome into the family. And uh first we'd like to welcome Beth Ann, who upgraded to the plastic cheese level, and Ella who joined the hey, how you doing level?

SPEAKER_01 4:42

How you doing? I love it. Thank you, Patreons. Thanks very much. We appreciate y'all and welcome Beth Ann and Ella. Friends of the Rise and Run Podcast, sponsored by Magic Bound Travel. It's good to see our Magic Bound Travel friends, many of them on the cruise we're fixing to talk about. Hey, you know, we're golly, let's take a look here. We're 23 weeks away from resuming the Run Disney season. Sounds like a long time, doesn't it? Great time to get your reservations in for next year's runs. So contact our friends at magicboundtrabel.com. They got a no obligation form you can fill out to request information about lodging for this year's races. Magicboundtravel.com is their website. Check them out. We got an apology slash alibi from last week. One me. One here. One me.

SPEAKER_02 5:43

It was my fault.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Well, that's all right. That happens.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

But uh no, the this apology uh goes out to our friend Jennifer. Bob, I have to give you a lot of credit because to organize the race report each and every single week is such a daunting task. And but the fact that we had a doozy of one last week, I'm sure I was bound to miss one. And of course, out of all of the races, I did miss um again, Jennifer participating at um Flying Pigs. Jennifer, I'm so sorry about that. Was she there? But uh she was, yeah. She did the uh the 10K and the half. Um her report is that uh she walked the 10K and then she uh was a pacer for the 330 group for the half. Um and apparently she stopped at a beer table uh in the final mile of the half. And according to her, it sounds like she was the only pacer uh to actually stop at said beer table. So uh she uh thought that that was really cool. Um, but this is a big redemption uh for her because um, Bob, as you're well aware, yeah, uh because you ran with her last year. Sure did at the end of this race last year, she ended up in the ER. So the fact that she uh crossed the finish line and was able to celebrate as opposed to going to the emergency room. Jennifer, we're incredibly proud of you.

Bob’s Recent Races And Galloway Tribute

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Yeah, she did a great job on that pacing too. She came in real, real well on that three and a half hour pace. Yeah, she she probably was the only pace group to stop it. She wasn't the only person to stop at the beer tent. I know that. There was more than one beer section. People just pouring basically shots of beer. That's a that's a great race. I know you went over it last week. Yeah, Jen last year, it was kind of warm and muggy. It was overcast and muggy. It's the kind of day that sneaks up on you. And she did finish, she did cross the finish line. I was running with her and with Allie without a knee. It was on the way back to her car that Jen fell out and ended up in the ER. But I'm glad all's well that ends well. And I'm I'm really proud of her. She did a great job this year. So congratulations, Jen. Uh hey, give me got give me five minutes, friends. I want to talk with you. I haven't talked with you for a while. Let me see if I can go over the last couple of weeks. Um, of course, springtime surprise was wonderful. I was so happy to see everyone there. The cruise we're gonna talk more about here in just a few moments. That was exciting also. I left from the cruise and headed to the Jeff Galloway weekend. We had a 5k event on Saturday. Uh that bloody 5K was hilly. People talked about Dollywood. I'm imagining it was very, very close. And what got me about it wasn't so much the uphill, because you can walk the uphills. The downhills were so steep that I got up Sunday morning and I was sore. I was sore in my glutes because of the pounding of going downhill. Found out that Jeff had used that course around this park for his first ever marathon distance. He ran 10 laps of this thing.

SPEAKER_04 8:55

That's insane.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

But he did it. Then uh Sunday was just memorial service. Uh a sincere thank you to all of our friends who emailed me, put comments in the Facebook group. I promise you I did read all of them. I went through there were about 400. I I referenced it in the little talk I gave. There were there were nearly 400 responses. Uh I I clearly I started to make notes on all of them, but it was obvious I couldn't do that after a while. So I just tried to I tried to summarize the tone and the overarching concepts and overarching ideas I heard from everyone. The most important of all being the line I concluded the presentation with is that so many of you said that Jeff changed your life. Um it was a little intimidating, but um will always be grateful to the Galloway family for asking me to be there and to make a presentation, but I knew that I wasn't there to make a presentation for me. I was married to make make a presentation on behalf of this running family, the Run Disney family, and specifically the Rise and Run family that Jeff loves so much. I had two things that made me nervous. Number one, I didn't want to disappoint the Galloway family. Number two, I didn't want to let you our friends down. I thank you for the feedback that I got from the feedback that I heard from everybody. Uh it was it was positive. Not that I'd think everybody would come to me and say, Bob, that was awful. What the heck were you doing? But I I do it made me feel better. So I'm grateful for that. That was very emotional. Uh we left from there. We spent some time with family in Kentucky. We ran up, we drove up to Cincinnati for the flying pig half. And again, I know you covered that last week. I didn't make a race report. I should have, shame on me, but I was busy. Uh that is a great event, friends. If you get a chance to go to it, it's becoming one of those events that the Rise and Run family shows up at in some large numbers. Congratulations to Emmy Hartman. I know you talked about it last week, Greg, who does, I mean, that's her Super Bowl weekend. And she, along with just a small staff of, they call it uh Pigworks, that puts on these three or four races a year. Uh they they supplement with volunteers for flying pig, but it's fantastic. It's a the expo is legendary. Uh the giveaways are great. The on course support is fantastic. It's not New York, it's not world major, but it is awesome. Uh two years ago when I was there, the weather wasn't great. This year, this year the weather was fine, except the coldest temperature I saw here in Florida over the winter was 39. And when I say saw, I mean, oh look, Becky, the man on the TV says it's 39 degrees outside. Let's not go outside. It was 35 at race start. I wasn't really ready for it. I had this cold. Thank goodness things started to get better. If the race had been Saturday, I'm not sure I would have started, but it wasn't. It was Sunday. I I took off. Uh I ran with my buddy Alan and some others whose names I'm going to forget, so I'm not going to do that. I love running with Alan. It's a blast. It's hilarious seeing the two of us together, but it's a lot of fun. It's a good course. You hear about the hills. I only do the half. And from about mile six to about mile eight, yeah, baby, that's a big hill. That's a serious, no-nonsense hill. But once you crest it, you stay at that peak. That's actually not the highest point. I think the highest point's like mile nine and a half or something. But you've done most of your climbing. There's not much left to do. And once you get to mile 10, it is just about downhill the rest of the way. And that's a great way to finish a half marathon, is downhill. So it's always the first weekend in May. Highly recommended. If you get a chance, Emmy always gives us a discount code. We'll talk about that later on this year. Flying Pig's a great event. Uh and we turned, came on back home, and uh here we are. So thanks for listening. I have missed you over the last month, but I'm happy to be back.

SPEAKER_04 13:36

Caution Runners, change of topic ahead.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

Well, let's take a look at our training calendar. Now, of course, there's not a lot of training updates to talk about. Just so you know, Wine and Dine is 23 weeks away. 23, less than half a year. Or it's almost time. Space Coast is another great event over in Cocoa, Florida, Cocoa Beach area. They are down to less than 100 spots remaining for the marathon. Now, typically, Space Coast runs the marathon and two different halves, north half and south half. For the last couple years, they have not run the north half. They've just run the south half. But yeah, don't have any discount codes for Space Coast, but it's a great event. And if you're interested in going, you'll find a lot of Rise and Run friends there. A lot of uh customized training friends there also. Bird in hand, 120 days away. Uh one of the highlights of last year's bird in hand was our get together dinner after the race at help me out.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

Shady Maple.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Shady Maple. Good stuff. We doing it again this year, guys?

SPEAKER_02 14:48

I think we have to.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

I think it's uh I think it's become legendary. I think I can see us looking at a hundred people there this time, to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

I mean, last year we filled up four tables. Who knows how many we'll fill up this time?

SPEAKER_01 15:00

I think we had sixty something last year. Wasn't it 65, something like that?

SPEAKER_02 15:04

It was a lot.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

I think we're gonna have more this year. More on that later. Uh it's it's a lot of work. I appreciate John and Greg working on that. And uh I'll go ahead and take the credit for it, but you know, John and Greg do all the work. Hey, friends, they're they're used to it. Okay. They're used to it. Happens all the time.

SPEAKER_10 15:27

Come on, I I worked, I worked in corporate.

Training Check In And Offseason Mindset

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Hey, when I was uh when I was in leadership positions in the army, all my soldiers knew what what we meant. I said, you know what means guy, don't you? Yeah. We do the work, you take the credit. I said, Yeah, that's it. It was all fun. Let's see. Hey, back on a serious note. I was Facebook posts, Facebook updates. Our friend MJ lost her mom last week. I'm so sorry to see that. And MJ, our condolences from the entire Rise and Run family. That's very difficult. And we feel for you. Our prayers, our thoughts are with you. And just know that we're here if you need anything, if we can help you with anything. Hey, but listen, so long as we're talking about training, we have any training updates, guys?

SPEAKER_10 16:17

I ran yesterday. I want to get back, start you know, building up for burning hand, because that's the next big one on the race schedule for me. And I have a couple things coming up locally, like five Ks, but and I got a Garmin. I don't know, and I start my run. It says recommended workout. So I'm like, oh, let me try that. So I said, I never did these before. I always I was always like norm. So you gotta try to do so many minutes in an average pace. I rocked it did in got two miles in in a nice flat 12 minutes, which was what they wanted. Two miles in 12 minutes. That's pretty good. No, no, 12 minutes ago.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Oh, two miles at 12 minutes a mile. Okay. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_10 17:06

Which was which is what they wanted there. So I thought it might have been downhill. Uh what did I know? I I was driving. Uh yeah. Uh yeah, so uh it was pretty good. I felt good afterwards, and it was and I felt going after Strava. That's Strava. Strava said it was my fastest two miles this year. Great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

That's good.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

John what with this thing with Garmin, is this kind of like like I I see like the big thing right now with Strava is like Runna, like the the AI like coaching app or whatever. Is this like Garmin's edition of this or or just a or just a feature? I guess it is.

SPEAKER_10 17:48

It's but I you know I I don't know if you ever says a Garmin.

SPEAKER_09 17:53

You hit run and it says recommended and it knows your paces from your data on your it's not the same as the runner because that is AI and that's like it's pulling in data from other things, trying to be a running coach. Um this was a thing before that on Garmin. Um and I don't always get it, John. Do you always get it when you start your watch?

SPEAKER_10 18:19

I think so. I mean, I usually ignore it because I was like, okay, today's recommended is this, but you know, if you're following one of our plans, okay, I need to run more than five miles today. I just ignore it.

SPEAKER_09 18:32

Okay. Maybe I changed something on my settings because I I used to see it all the time and I don't see it anymore, but I definitely know what you're talking about. And I did one years ago. Um, and yeah, it went pretty well. I'm glad it went well for you this time.

SPEAKER_10 18:46

I might try some of those. It's like it says it's today, it was a base building uh um exercise of this one.

SPEAKER_09 18:54

I decided to write out my schedule through Marathon weekend. Um, I know a lot can change from now until then, but I just wanted to kind of have a plan um adding in some strength and cross-training and different things and um been doing that, tracking my food, and I've I'm feeling pretty good. I did a tempo run today, um, similar paces to John. And um overall my body has been feeling good. So fingers crossed it stays that way because we all know if you've listened to the podcast that I've had a lot of issues with my back and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

So good. I haven't done anything special. I I listened to you talk last week about the uh what do you do now, the season's over between now and wine and dine, and my best answer is whatever you want. There's nothing wrong with taking a little break right now. I I'm not taking a break, although I got other things going on. I've missed some training runs. But uh the biggest things are don't don't just stop. Don't give up all the hard work that you've put in so far. It's okay to take a little break, but don't get away from it completely and then start all over again. Try to do your weekend runs if nothing else. Take it easy on the weekday runs, go out and do your weekend run. Uh how do you stay motivated? One of the ways I do it is I think about y'all. You motivate me. You motivate me by knowing that you're out there and that you're trying, and I don't want to let you down, so I'm gonna get my tail out there too. So that's what I've been doing. I did not get out today, but I will get out Thursday. I got out last Saturday, and uh that's what I'll do until we pick up the schedule in full.

SPEAKER_03 20:51

About two, two and a half weeks ago, I ran my first half marathon since well, the longest, the last big race was marathon weekend, the marathon for me. So it felt good to get back into double digits, and I did the teardrop half marathon. Oh yeah. Oh my gosh, I was flying after like mile six. I mean, I I don't know what my splits are, and I don't know how if if people do the same thing like I do, but I don't like to have my watch on me. I don't like to have really anything that can tell me the time or what my splits are because I just want to just be in the moment and feel it and know that I'm feeling it because I've trained for it. And it felt so good. I really felt like I was flying, like Titanic, Jack, I'm flying. And um, it's crazy because I because you see the halfway split from your first six miles because the first bit, oh my gosh, there's some good hills. And then once you get after six miles or whatever, it's all downhill for the most part until the last little bit. And it was a big difference between my first half and my second half. But I'm I'm very happy. Um I got a two-hour, one minute and fifty-two second half. And um, so I got my proof of time and then um I let myself kind of chill for a week, and then I had something really weird happen, so I haven't been running something new. Uh so I have a tendency, for whatever reason, more recently, I've been sleeping with my arms over my head, and apparently I didn't know this that you can compress like a nerve, and I started feeling like pain around the arpid area, and then it started like it would go away, like come and go, and then it would go into my my bicep, and then it like last week it started going behind my elbow, then I started feeling it through my forearm. No, and then it went to the pinky and the ring finger and the back of my shoulder. It kept getting worse and worse, and it felt like I was tingling and I was losing my feeling and my uh my left arm a lot more. I was like, whoa, this is weird. And so now I have like a a head, like one of those like weight blankets where I put my arm underneath it so that I know if I'm moving it. Yeah, so it's definitely gotten better, but like Chat GPT told me to keep it light and not lift any weights for a little bit. So that's what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Dr.

SPEAKER_03 23:29

Chat, yeah, because I was like, it said like if it kept getting worse, because I kept saying it's getting worse, or like I would probably go see a doctor, is what I said. Um, but also like if it continues getting worse, which it did, I mean, but I have radon, so I lose feeling in my hands and feet all quite often. Like it's not unusual, but this was like a different kind of like it the fact that it just stayed with my pinky and my ring finger, I was like, this is just weird. Um anyways, so yeah, so I was gonna go see a doctor if it got even worse, but it's starting to to dissipate, so I've been walking more, and walking seems to help it. So I've learned don't sleep with your arms above your above your head, you guys, because you can potentially compress a nerve that may not like it.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

So uh but I just have this visual now of Jack like sleeping like in like the NFL referee like feel field goal, touchdown pose or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

It's literally the crazy thing is I never used to sleep like this. I don't know why it all of a sudden it started happening, but like it's like literally my arm is like encasing my head. Sometimes my my my forearm is like covering my eyes, kind of deal. I I like how I'm trying, I'm showing you guys and no one can see what I'm doing, but like, yeah. But yeah, so that's not good, you guys. Don't don't don't do that. I've learned a lesson because it kind of did it with my right arm too, but it wasn't as nearly as bad as my left arm, and I knew that one was the more consistent one.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

But on a positive note, no, I was gonna say, is that the old deal, Jack, where you go to the doctor and say, Doc, it hurts when I do this, and the doc says, Don't do that.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

Yeah, and it said, like, like even chat GPCT said, like, here's some exercises. I only did the exercises like twice. So I wouldn't go with it, but um, on a positive note, though, so this weekend, now that I'm an official resident of Florida, which is why I wasn't on the cruise. I'm sorry I missed it, and I was I wish I could have been there to enjoy it with you guys. Um, but yeah, so I'm gonna go take my first official run here in Orlando. I'm very excited. I'm gonna make it a Disney run, and I'm gonna take you guys along on one of my first videos for YouTube because I'm very excited about it. It feels weird to have Disney in your backyard.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

Yeah. So you're doing a training run, right?

SPEAKER_03 25:51

Yeah, I just want to keep up the miles like what you were saying. Like it's hard to get out there and run. And um, I also want to put out another challenge, and I know Lexi did this challenge a while ago, but if anybody wants to start, I want to try doing 10,000 steps a day, um, starting on Thursday, because honestly, that can help you get ready for the marathon because it keeps a nice good pace, whether you're doing running or walking or whatever, you know.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Right. Helps your endurance. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 26:20

Caution runners, the topic is about to change right now.

SPEAKER_03 26:26

Well, you guys, I am so excited to hear how the cruise went. The rise and run inaugural uh cruise, where obviously Greg, John, Alicia, and Bob all got to go and hang out with you guys. And I think that's so freaking epic. Um, so we're gonna chat and see how it went.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 26:49

So I know starting off, you guys went to all met up at Pop Century to do a little meetup. Now I have a note here that says there is a surprise special guest who showed up to see you guys off. Who was it?

SPEAKER_02 27:03

Well, it was pretty funny because you know, and John, you made this comment to me the other day. Like gathering that pop almost kind of felt like an additional like race weekend meetup that we have at Disney Springs. But this time it was at the Pedals Pool Bar at Pop Century, and instead of cookies, we all had our luggage. Um but all of a sudden we were we were just waiting on uh final AOK that our charter bus had arrived, and then all of a sudden, who comes walking along uh the back way but Pluto?

unknown 27:41

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_03 27:43

No way.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

And then you know, so you know, guess we you know, we're coming up to him or whatever, but then all of a sudden, you know, Pluto turned and looked at us and you know, just saw this big group standing there, and then all of a sudden, you know, he you know, you know, we're doing like Simon says type things, but then all of a sudden, you know, we were like all cheering, and then he was like, you know, and then he would put his paws down, like get quiet, and I'll get loud, and you know, he kept going back and forth, and and everyone was was eating that up. So the the the joke that I like to make is that um you know our friends at Magic Bound, you know, really went the extra mile to to schedule this you know special character meet and greet send-off when actually it was just serendipitous that you know it happened in real time. But it's really cool to see stuff like that at the resorts, and I'm glad to see that you know Disney's doing that, that you'll be able to you know interact with the characters outside of the uh the theme park setting. I thought it was really cool, and it was the the perfect send-off for us.

SPEAKER_03 28:43

Makes it so special. Okay, well, now that you guys got all hyped up, what is this about a party bus feeling to the port? Give me some information. I have to know. I missed out on a party bus.

SPEAKER_10 28:54

You missed a lot, Jack. I clearly Magic Bound procured a bus for us, uh, a charter bus that's to bring us to the port. Uh so basically we had to walk back behind one of the buildings. It wasn't in front of the we couldn't pick the bus up in front of the building like where normal buses come. We had to go to the parking lot behind the 60s parking lot and meet up. And we're all sitting there still, you know, getting on the bus, you know, sitting down. It's like a little party going out. Everybody's talking, getting excited, recapping their weekends, recapping some of the plans they wanted to do on the bus. And some of it just relaxed and you know, watched their phone or got got got updated because you know, pretty soon we won't be having phone service.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

Not that I think that they listen, but just wanted to give uh a shout out to the management team over at Pop Century for the fact that they, you know, worked with Magic Bound to, you know, because not everyone was staying at Pop. So, you know, we had to get like let through security, you know, from you know, those of us that were coming from different resorts to grab the bus, and they were very cool about that, and you know, just being very accommodative in terms of you know letting us you know park the bus in a non you know heavily trafficked guest area and such like that. And the fact that, you know, in the event that they would have given us a hard time, I think we could have probably just dropped Myra's name and then like everything would have been a-okay, but no, it all worked out really well. And you know, like you said, John, it was nice just to be able to you know make you know new friends on the bus that you know we you know maybe it only had the chances like say hello to and just you know have like nice conversations and but then also you know catch up with you know friends that have been established for years now. And now I mean yes, it was a party bus. Now, were there strobe lights and loud music the entire time? No, there wasn't. But I mean it was yeah, no stripper call, Jack.

SPEAKER_03 30:52

Why would that went to a into a direction I was not expecting, Bob on the on the bus, on the Vegas bus, you know.

SPEAKER_10 31:03

No, and and what was also good about Pop Century was if you drove there and you wanted to leave your car, you could have left they're letting you leave your car at the resort, which I think was a great thing because it's not it's not like we're going on a Disney cruise. We were we were going on a royal cruise. So they and I said if you could we could leave your car there, they had a special spot to park it, and you know, so you didn't have to worry about parking at the Cape That's so nice.

Boarding Utopia And Sail Away Comparisons

SPEAKER_03 31:35

Wow. Okay, I was wondering how that was all gonna work out, like with like parking and stuff. So that's really awesome. Okay, so now you guys get there to the port. Um what was your guys' like first impressions walking on the utopia of the seas? Because this is some of your guys' first time, or is it everybody's first time?

SPEAKER_01 31:57

Uh I think I'm the only one who'd been on before.

SPEAKER_09 31:59

Oh, okay, okay. So my first impression was that it was big, which I knew going into it that this was a very large ship, bigger than I had ever sailed on before. Um, but I was keeping an open mind. Um my mom and I um didn't take the party bus. Um, and so we we got on the ship um and headed up to the buffet um to get food. Um, and then after we we found some food, um I ran into quite a few people um around the ship. I know John and um Diane came by, um, I saw Rachel. Um anyway, there's quite a few people that I saw um just hanging around to say hi um before we moved into um our sail away party later. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:54

Because I had been on before, I knew not to go to the main buffet. I went to the buffet in the adults only area, which while still plenty of people there, wasn't nearly as crowded, and they served the same food. So that was nice in one way, but then again, I didn't see as many people as Alicia did. It worked out for us.

SPEAKER_10 33:18

My my first impression was I walked onto the ship, I thought I was walking into a Vegas uh casino.

SPEAKER_09 33:25

This was really I think it's important to say this is John's very first cruise. Yeah, first cruise experience ever.

SPEAKER_10 33:32

Yeah, yes, it was my first cruise. My first cruise on a big boat. Like I took cruises around Manhattan and those things that they have here, but I didn't go out to sea for anything like that, you know. But so I walked in, I'm like, wow, this is like going to a Vegas lobby with all the uh lights and the shops and all this other stuff, and it was loud, like a lit, like like like being in Vegas. So that was my first impression, and it's yeah, it was a big ship. I didn't think I was on a ship, I was in like a mall or promenade in uh in in Vegas.

SPEAKER_02 34:05

I can see that. I remember being on the bus and you know making that final approach, and I think one of the first ships that we actually saw from a distance was the Disney Wish. And I mean, obviously, in terms of what the Disney fleet looks like now, with now remove the the adventure that's over in Singapore, but I mean that is Disney's biggest boat. I've been on the Wish before, and it's it's pretty, you know, it's a pretty massive vessel. And then you you drive a a couple more minutes, and that's out of view, and then you know, there's the utopia that smacks you in the face and makes the Disney Wish look like a tugboat. Wait, not a tugboat, but all right, not a tugboat, but I mean it's bigger. Yeah, it's it's much bigger. And then I I think I ended up like pulling it up on my phone or whatever. You know, I thought the wish was big, but apparently when you compare like the tonnage and like the passengers or whatever, Utopia can hold I think it's like 2400 more guests than the wish or the treasure or the destiny or whatever. So that that was pretty striking. So I remember walking on, and John, like same thing as you like you know, the the promenade there on deck five was loud and concophonous, and I remember, you know, like I knew you weren't gonna get the Disney, like, welcome, you know, family, you know, blah blah blah blah blah. But I remember like standing there, and my wife turns to me and goes, Okay, so where do we go now? And I'm like, I don't know. Like, I mean, I I made sure to watch like a bunch of YouTube videos leading up to the cruise so I could like at least get a sense of the ship, but even then, like right in that moment with all the people getting onto the ship or like getting their vacation started, I it was hard for me to like where the heck's even the elevator bank and stuff like that. And then, you know, like you, John, made our way up to the buffet. But I mean, if I have a tip for like a future cruise, and if if it is on Royal Caribbean, is that I think we should like almost get to the ship a little bit later because it, I mean, the buffet, the the the windjammer buffet is enormous and there's tons of seating, but in that first initial get-go, it was really, really difficult to be able to find a table. But the minute that they announced, I think it was at either 1 or 1.30 in the afternoon, they made the all call that rooms were ready, and then all of a sudden, like that, it just like emptied out, and you you know had your choice of seating. So I'm like, I would gladly take a later lunch next time around to be able to avoid that uh that little bit of mass hysteria. But yeah, it was it was very interesting walking onto my first ever oil ship.

SPEAKER_03 37:05

Due to its size, did you guys feel like at any point it felt overcrowded?

SPEAKER_09 37:11

Initially, I did. I went, whoa, this is a lot of people, whoa, this is crowded. They're like they were making announcements overhead in the in the Winjanberg buffet, like, once you're done eating, please leave because people need a space to sit down. Um, which other cruise lines will do kind of similar things. They'll come around and be like, hey, let's move through. It's always busy the first day. Um, but after that point, no, I didn't ever feel like there was too many people, except for one time I did have difficulty getting an elevator. They had special elevators where you like press the button of the floor that you were going to. Um, and it would tell you, like, hey, go to elevator A. Um, and then you would wait there and it would take you to the floor rather than an actual button in the elevator. And there was one day that there was a lot of people after um an event or something of that nature, and none of us could get elevators because everybody was trying to get to the same floors.

SPEAKER_02 38:14

It was all those Georgia Bulldog fans.

SPEAKER_10 38:17

Right. Yeah, there was there was a big Georgia Bulldog uh cruise there too.

SPEAKER_09 38:23

But other than that, I felt um felt like things were dispersed pretty well. Um that was one thing Royal did well, is they had a lot of different venues with different things to try and disperse the people around the ship.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

Yeah, you guys need to make a note. The next time you get on, follow me to the adults only buffet. I can't remember the name of that lounge up there right now.

SPEAKER_02 38:44

Uh the uh solarium, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 38:47

Solarium Bistro is the uh it's kind of it's not a secret, but it's less crowded. Now, if you got children with you, you're out of luck. But I just act like a child and I'm okay.

SPEAKER_03 39:01

So now that you guys have gone into the boat, how does a sail away party compare to the ones at Disney? Now I've I don't have much experience with boats, I've only gone on a sailing twice. Um, and both times was on the same boat with Disney. So how is this really comparable to that? I'm just curious. I've I've never been on any other cruise. Love to know.

SPEAKER_01 39:25

I think it's louder and longer than the Disney cruise ships.

SPEAKER_10 39:30

And again, I I I have not been on the Disney cruise like this my first cruise, but it was like a Vegas pool party. It was wild, wild.

SPEAKER_09 39:41

We're like people in the water being like, yeah, and like yes, there was people in in the pools that were down below. We were up on deck 16 for our meetup, um, so we could see down to the decks below us, and yeah, there was definitely people in in the pools, um, and the music was loud. Um having done other cruise lines, Disney does kind of keep it short and sweet. Like this is the time period that we we have. Here's the show, we're done with the sail away party. Um, other cruise lines tend to be louder and longer. Um, but this this was like John said, it I have never been to Vegas, but like, yeah, that's kind of how I would describe it as well.

SPEAKER_02 40:28

I I think the reason why it was probably longer is and and and this is probably you know, you're gonna hear a lot of comparisons on this episode comparing Royal versus Disney, and where on Disney, you know, there is a dedicated time for the mustard drill. Like you have to report, you have to check in, you have to sit there and go through the whole the whole presentation that takes anywhere from 30 to to 45 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 40:56

Really still doing that?

SPEAKER_02 40:58

Yeah, they're still doing that.

SPEAKER_09 40:59

Yeah, it's the only cruise line that makes you do it still.

SPEAKER_02 41:02

Yeah, where with Royal, I think I think we all did this, either like at the pedals pool bar or on the bus on the way over, through the app, you just watch a couple of safety videos, and then you just have to go to your muster station to they and then they check you off and they're done. So, because of that, it offers more time for that sail away type party, and I think that's why it's a lot more extended than than say Disney.

SPEAKER_03 41:31

Wait, so okay, so now I'm curious. So you were saying that they check you off. So there is a team member or a cast member standing at your mustard drill station that will check you off that shows that you did the videos. Yep.

SPEAKER_09 41:43

So the app tells you that you've checked out the videos, you go to the station, um, everybody has their specific area. The app tells you, and you go there, you check in, they scan your stuff. Um, and then ours made us wait, and then they as a group kind of said, like, hey, make sure if there's uh a time period where you need to come here, like the alarm will sound, and then you don't need to bring your life vest. Um, and that's what most cruise lines do except for Disney.

SPEAKER_10 42:14

Oh yeah, and they show you how to put a life vest on if you didn't know how to.

SPEAKER_06 42:18

Right. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 42:21

I don't know if they I don't know if they could tell whether you saw the videos or not. I I don't know where that was checked.

SPEAKER_09 42:27

It it alerts them if you don't do it because I saw people that hadn't done it and they were saying, please go watch you. Interesting.

SPEAKER_10 42:35

Because they were calling them out all during the the all during the sail away party. They were still saying, you know, please get to the mustard drill. We can't have the ship go until you get there. You're holding up the boat. Let's go.

Vow Renewal And Swag Bag Shoutouts

SPEAKER_03 42:50

So what else happened on that first day? Did you did we did was there anything planned specifically, or is it just kind of like a welcome? Yay, we did it, we're here.

SPEAKER_02 43:01

Well, there was a surprise that occurred during the sail away party um because apparently word gets around, Jack, that um once you officiate one wedding that leaves you open to be able to uh do vow renewals as well, too. So um our friend Judy, who uh does a wonderful job of helping us with our merch, she had reached out to me uh a couple of actually a couple months before the sailing, and on the day that we set sail was her and her husband Jim's 35th wedding anniversary.

SPEAKER_06 43:43

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 43:44

So but the hysterical thing though is that apparently leading up to the cruise, Jim had approached Judy and said, Hey, do you want to do anything special for? our anniversary as a Val renewal and she was like absolutely not I have zero like and like gate and like gave him the business about it but secretly was talking to myself and was talking to Magic Bound to see how we could get this to work. So once the uh once we had a a big enough group together um you know Judy was great she she wrote up everything that I needed to to say because I mean you know clearly I don't know Jim and Judy as well like as I know you and David. So yeah so she wrote the little script for me and of course like maybe like 30 seconds into starting this that's when like the music got cranked up to 15 and I couldn't even hear myself talk. So I I was like everyone getting closer and then we did the Val renewal renewal um you know pictures were taken it was glorious but yeah yeah so that was a lot of fun so again to to Jim and Judy congratulations on on uh on 35 years but no I think we all we all just hung out and we we um distributed our swag bags um so everyone got um you know the the reusable bags that we've had on our website for a while that's great for post race to be able to put you know your Gatorades in the snack box in and everything like that. And then we had stuff from a lot of our you know sponsors or affiliates you know associated with the Pomecast you know Tom Stokes gave us um you know a coupon for uh a discount off of his latest challenge Mona from Mona Moon Naturals gave us lip balms uh we had stickers made we had magnets made for the cruise so it was just you know Hannah from start line oh yes yes Hannah yeah with the temporary tattoos as well um you know so it was for us the the idea that we wanted to do this as a thank you to all the listeners for not only their support of the podcast but then also you know being able to to make this cruise happen which I want to thank I want to thank those affiliates too and uh let's let's add fluffy fizzies in there also who had giveaways in the bag and then later at the um recording of the episode and and really and you mentioned it already but Judy did all that work stuffing the bags and that was uh she did a hundred bags so that was a lot of work yeah and and nobody mentions those highly prized uh designer rise and run sunglasses the sunglasses yeah they're like ray bands yeah they were like something they were like I was you know every year we get the wristbands and the buttons well the company that makes those for us had this great deal on sunglasses they ended up being a dollar a pair I think we got ripped off but it was something to put air in an air and give away so but uh but a sincere thank you to our friends and affiliates who did that absolutely very nice and we appreciate you very very much now we have our next first official full day on the cruise epic right yeah yeah now the first official full day you guys did something and I'm so sad I missed it which was the Rise and Run cruise run.

SPEAKER_01 47:20

Where did you complete the run and how to go well I think most of us not everybody but I think most of it did it all of us yeah all of all of us on the podcast uh did it on the deck five running track which is actually quite nice and you want to get an idea how large this ship is it's like 2.2 laps to a mile it's like 0.4 something a little over four tenths of a mile once around the ship that's how big it is and of course it's fun when you're running on a ship because depends on what direction you're going in your garment goes nuts or whatever timepiece you're using uh but I had I had fun with it we got caught in the wind tunnels yes you get to venturia back and oh man you get so being so small when I would get back there I'm like okay I gotta slow down a little bit or I get blown off. Oh yeah it was significant. I admit it it was significant to me too Alicia but yeah I have more mass so it wasn't quite as bad. But I that's where that's what we all did. And I we had friends out there we had several friends out there that we saw uh not not super early the sun was up but probably about seven seven thirty in the morning we were out there.

SPEAKER_09 48:34

Yeah it was really fun to see a lot of friends as I was going around I feel like every lap I saw somebody new um got to say hi um I took a picture with a couple people and um got to see all of you which was great. I know that Greg was chasing me.

SPEAKER_02 48:48

Yeah chased you for about three laps because at I I started running with my wife and then she was she was feeling a little bit in her shin so she's like I'm just gonna walk I'm like that's totally fine and then as I I think I had a goal that I wanted to do like at least a 5k and at one point I passed Meredith and she's like oh Alicia's just up ahead I'm like because you you were the only one that I hadn't seen at that point.

SPEAKER_09 49:12

Yeah but the way that our intervals were working we just I could not catch up with you and then finally like on like my third turn I had made the turn and you were about halfway down the deck but it was still too far for me to like yell at you so I like kicked it into overdrive and then got up to you and then you did yell yes and then I did yell yes uh yeah I was I I would pass Meredith and I'm like well the first time I passed I said is Greg out here and she said yeah and then I saw her again and I was like is he still here and she was like yeah and I'm like okay well he's the only person I haven't seen I I think you were literally like the opposite side of the ship every time probably yeah it was yeah it was it was cool I I got one of those straight line runs on the ship yeah I mean it was pretty cool I uh according to Garmin I did 17 miles in one hour so I was probably you're kicking it man I was kicking it you know you did those two six minute miles not long ago yeah yeah so I mean yeah so of course you know it was just cool to have because you know I like because it's just every time you caught the GPS this boat's going and it's it was just it was pretty funny.

SPEAKER_10 50:28

Uh of course that's not really I'm typically we're typically faster than that I know but it's okay yeah yeah I know yeah it was pretty cool I and then uh toward the end we saw the uh the harbor master come over to to start coming on the boat to uh bring us into the port.

Nassau Day And Royal Beach Club Review

SPEAKER_02 50:45

Yeah I was really impressed the I mean the fact that a majority of us did it out there it was you know like you said Bob we were there like 7730 and we were I think you know like I said making like the final approach to Nassau that day. Yep I was blown away by the number of cruise ships that were already there and like end docked like you know the like the wish was like two ships down from us and they clearly had already dropped anchor and and everything. So but but that was cool to see um you know the Royal Beach Club that you know I know Bob and John you guys are going to talk about here in a little bit um but I know a couple of our friends ran into an issue I think they did it after breakfast and I think they were doing like a safety and security drill or something like that. So like half half the running track was closed. So I'm I'm not exactly sure how they ended up going about doing theirs but um but I I did hear that some people did run into a little bit of trouble with that. It's it's it's also deck five the course right which is a deck it's which where the promenade is so you know so that that's probably why and that's that's where all the uh the uh life boats are yep you guys so not everybody started at the same time oh no no correct yeah it would it would have been crazy it's only a two-lane track one lane's for run technically run rent lanes for runners one lane's for walkers got you yeah so that that's why we had decided because you know we had seen videos online and I know um you know from Magic Brown our friend Taylor like she had done a video a couple of months back you know showing off the running track and we once we saw there was only two lanes wide we were like this just has to be a choose your own adventure type situation as opposed to like an official start time and such.

SPEAKER_01 52:31

Okay so this is a day at port Nassau what'd you guys ultimately end up doing well I mean there uh going to Nassau there are several options there are excursions that the cruise line runs you can also find excursions right there in Nassau but but Royal has a relatively new now this was not open in October when Becky and I went the Royal Beach Club I think it o I think it opened in December I think.

SPEAKER_02 52:59

In December?

SPEAKER_01 53:00

Okay yeah the Royal Beach Club and to get to the Royal Beach Club you take a small boat a small launch it sails around and goes over to this it's it's not it's not an island so I can't call it a private island but it's exactly the same idea. Relatively long strip you do have access to the beach you have access to the Atlantic Ocean there. There are several pools there's a pool where they're playing loud music there's a pool where they're not playing loud music there are several places to get drinks several places to get what I call bar food you know burgers and fries and shrimp and stuff like that. The problem i it was fine but the weather didn't cooperate yeah the winds were kicking and I'm I didn't have an official reading but my guess would be 35 miles an hour or so. It was windy that day it surely was so the first place I mean Becky likes the beach I get that that's cool. So the first place we went to was their beach area it was so windy that number one you could not get into the water or nobody did because the waves were too high. And number two the wind was blowing the sand it was it was just not pleasant. So we came back in just a little bit and they had uh little bungalows cottages that you could rent we did not rent them but because they were there they provided a little bit of a break to the wind when you sat by the pool. So it was okay. Uh we sat there for the day and we just kind of hung out. If I go back or when I go back I'm I don't know what you think John I'm probably gonna pass on this one. I mean I can sit by the pool and get drinks and food on the ship just as well as I can at this Royal Beach Club. It's kind of not fair. I think if the weather had been better yeah we would have enjoyed it a whole lot more but it was what it was.

SPEAKER_10 55:08

I would give it a second shot actually because I mean it wasn't it was fair it was an extra price of course so it was an extra price.

SPEAKER_01 55:17

Oh yes yeah it was and I don't know how much it was because I rolled it into the drink package.

SPEAKER_10 55:25

Yeah so I didn't have the drink package on the ship but which so but on this day I did get the drink package because it was only$10 more on so I think it was like$89 I won the spare sales it was like$89 for the Royal Beach Club$99 for the Royal Beach Club with internet and the drink package.

SPEAKER_01 55:48

Yeah that's right you didn't get internet there too I forgot about that.

SPEAKER_10 55:51

So I'm like uh no brainer you know one drink you you you you made yourself oh yeah you know your money back but yeah it was pretty I mean it was pretty cool I mean going back to Bob I mean would I do it again I would probably give it another shot the weather was probably one of the deciding factors. Did we have fun?

SPEAKER_01 56:09

Yes we did fun you know but the weather did I think make it a little less you know desirable well I was going to say the funny a funny thing is that when they when you leave you get back on that small ship now you have to exit through the gift shop. Okay. Yeah right exactly right they don't you you leave directly from the ship and you go to the Royal Beach Club but when you come back from the Royal Beach Club they drop you off so you have to walk through the uh Nassau uh straw village well you walk right past the straw not really it's just no you walk right past it you really do but then you walk through whatever they have done in the years since I've been going there they have done a lot to improve that port that is much much nicer than it's been in the past but it's it's sort of strap city.

SPEAKER_10 57:06

So the one thing there so we did we did explore the island a little bit or not what not at the island the peninsula actually it was more of a peninsula because it was because our boat was docked and out of my room I was able to see the whole private beach island. But they do have the world's largest swim up pool bar in the world at this place. I looked I the pictures of this thing are I have and the size of this thing was massive so it it is a fun place though if you're there at a party or want to have a good time. I mean it was fun but I mean like I said I would give it another shot maybe that next cruise maybe maybe one after that if we do it again.

Medals Lanyards And Aqua 80s Show

SPEAKER_02 57:48

But yeah it was it was fun um so I really like NASA I know it's not everybody's favorite um but unfortunately I had not the greatest experience we always um decide what we're gonna do day of um and this time we did go to senior frogs that's just on the way um which we've gone to before I'm not really sure what was going on with senior frogs that day like the bartenders we know some of them like they recognized us but the drinks were not they were not wait hold on hold on hold on hold on hold on I didn't know you drinks are are are you are you telling me that you and senior frogs is like norm and cheers like you walk in and like Alicia not that much but there's definitely people that I know their names and um if I'm like oh remember like we were here we sat over there they're like oh yeah um but for some reason the drinks were not hitting the same I don't know um so unfortunately wasn't the best experience but um I always like walking down um NASA is kind of nice so the area that Bob was talking about there's um areas to just buy some merchandise um and then you can go out and there is the biggest job market um but I like getting to see um some of the local area um and yeah I don't know I was I was still glad that I got off the ship that day um but it wasn't as good as my other couple of times I've been to NASA in the recent months um it must have just been an off day yeah so I I guess I was the only one that did not get off the ship that day um but I just spent most of the day Bob I took your advice and I went to the solarium uh the adults only section and let me tell you that that is a wonderful wonderful place because it's you know it's a bunch of glass windows and and such so it's a situation where like I feel like you could get a little bit of color but at the same time you don't have to like lather up in sunscreen and and to in a certain extent it's like quasi-temperature controlled. Yeah uh you know they had not like big square Olympic sized swimming pools but you know they had like smaller wading pools and hot tubs and such so it was like just the perfect vibe in terms of like what I was looking for and plenty of loungers and and such and then as the day went on just more and more of the Ryzerun family showed up and at one point you know I I know we probably took over like one of the hot tubs you know there was just like a whole bunch of us there. You know and again it was just so you know it wasn't a planned activity it was just very organic very casual and just again chatting with friends that we've made in the past and getting to know new friends from all parts of the country and such you know it was just a lovely time uh and yeah I I really really enjoyed that entire adult section of uh of the ship it was great you guys are getting me excited I gotta go on this cruise next time so after you guys were leaving port when did you guys have your meddling ceremony what'd you guys do for it exactly so what we decided on is we went to this one bar that is on the promenade called the Pesky Parrot and this is probably the closest like Disney type level experience I guess you would say that you could find on this ship. So it was a very very well themed tiki bar. You know it definitely gave you trader sand meats um like the tiki room yeah kind of vibe to it there's actually an an audio animatronic of a parrot that like says random phrases from time to time. So we just thought that that would be a cool area and again it was yes it was part of our schedule but it was like hey you know when you get the chance come on down Bob brought all the medals down and then we just started passing them out and you know some people wanted to actually be meddled uh you know by the four of us and and got photos and such but again it was just another excuse for us to be able to all get together and not only celebrate the cruise but the run Disney season and such so yeah I I think I think people were more excited just to be together with one another as opposed to getting the medal but at the same time it was a it was an extra Adam awesome uh bonus and it was also dress your best night too so a lot of us were like not not well some of us were dressed to the to the nines I was about six about six and a half yeah they were they were six and a half yeah they were they were addressed to the nines so they were all like some some of them some of the ladies were in gowns some of the guys were in suits so it was uh it was a nice little place to be we took over half that bar I think yeah we did yeah it wasn't hard to do you're right though yeah and then if you really wanted to they had a photo pass photographer outside by the stairs taking pictures but it's not like Disney that they they charge you like yeah can you imagine going up to one of the royal photographers and like here scan my magic like what sir what is this yeah well they do have wristbands there so that's true they do so if you wanted so if you wanted instead of having your C Pass you could have bought a magic band let's say and use that for your room key and all that other stuff. But you know I was I'm kind of glad that no one in our group really did that because one of the things that Magic Bound provided for all the cruisers were custom lanyards. Yeah so uh you know it had like a little card in the front that you know had like one of the logos that John had made and you could stick your your CPAS cart but then the actual lanyard itself had our logo had the Magic Bound logo you know it was multicolored so it was just cool to be able to see people wearing those around the ship or like if you were ordering a drink you know you would just see these like big lanyards dangling off of like servers trays and stuff like that and you knew it it was our group and it was also a really good identifying factor too especially for our friends that we might not have known as well right it was good to be able to say oh hey they're part of our group you know let's make sure that we're interacting with them and and getting to know them better. There was a couple times I walked into an elevator and there was people in there that I didn't know as well but they were wearing the lanyards and I'm like oh hey although apparently because of the lanyards John what was your experience someone thought we were so I was there there was a post out there that someone posted that with their lanyards and the way we are they go what is the Rise and Run is that some kind of religious group they were asking uh guest services I think what we were I mean maybe they wanted to join who knows who knows yeah I mean on this cruise like I said you had us there was the Georgia Bulldog Nation group I mean there was hundreds of them uh but then my favorite one was there was a senior class trip on our cruise yeah and the best part about it was a lot of them were staying on my deck right around my room and the funniest part was so it believe it or not so where where my room was towards the front of the ship our buddy um JJ and Valeria they had a state room about five rooms down from me and at one point we bumped into each other in the hallway and JJ comes over to me and he goes Greg I have to ask you why is this chair sitting here and we had learned early on it was that the chaperones that were on the trip they all had to take two hour stints sitting in this chair to make sure that the the the high schoolers weren't up to any shenanigans or anything like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:54

So that's so funny.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:55

JJ got a got a good kick out of that one.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:00

Oh, what do you what do you do for two hours just sitting there?

SPEAKER_10 1:06:04

A lot of them were just reading books. Make sure the kids don't be be running around at 11, 12 o'clock at night. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:10

No, that's true. Well, good on them. I love that they did that. Well, what else happened that night? I think there was some kind of big show, like an aqua show. What was that?

SPEAKER_10 1:06:23

There's an aqua show like every night, I think, almost on that on the on the ship. Oh. It's called Aqua 802 water show. And it was right up my alley. That was all 80s music. So I was like, I like knew everything. It's like take it going back to Vegas again. Yeah, that's that's legit. Yeah. Uh yeah. If you're anywhere ever seen the the the Circus Soleil show O in Vegas, it's kind of like a mini version of O with the diving and the uh our aerobatics into a water pool and and dancing. But I give them a lot of credit in this show. So at the end of the show, there's a high there's a there's a tight walker rope walker that that walks across this. So like most places you're stationary. Now you're on a boat that's going up and down. You have winds that are blowing side to side, and this guy is walking a tightrope across this whole little event area.

SPEAKER_09 1:07:27

So first I just want to paint a picture for our friends who weren't on their cruise and for Jack. So in the back of the ship, there is a I mean, it's a decent pool, but it's relatively small. Um and yes, they're dancing um in the water, doing diving, um, that sort of stuff. And then above it, there is what John's talking about, the tightrope. I actually went the next night. So you guys, I think, all went together. I went the next night with Rachel and a couple of our other friends. Um on my night, the tightrope walker went up there and he started to go across and he shook his head no at the crew, and and they were like, go, go. And he tried again and he was like, No, it's too windy. Um, so he got down, and you could tell, like he does this every night, but you could tell he was scared. Um to be honest, it was windy. Um so I didn't get to see him walk across the whole thing, but he did about like probably a third of it that we got to see. Um, but yeah, in general, like commend those people for what they're doing um with all of the stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:39

No, I don't want to take anything away be because it's a big deal, but they are tethered. Okay, they're not gonna fall to their death. They can fall off the rope, but but they do have a safety line, so they have that going for them. Nevertheless, it is remarkable. I didn't see it this time, I saw it the last time we went. It's uh it's a great show.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:59

Well, Jack, we were all thinking of you because again, since all the the music was themed to the 80s, but the opening um, I guess, graphics package was Back to the Future, and it was showing the DeLorean. So everyone knew that you were there in spirit with us.

SPEAKER_09 1:09:18

I just wanted to say one more thing about it. I honestly wasn't gonna go to the Aqua show, um, but then on the the second night, Rachel had already gone with you guys, um, but her mom wasn't gonna be able to make it in. So she was like, You come join us, and so I decided to see it. And honestly, it was one of the highlights of my trip. I just thought honestly that they were gonna be diving the whole time, and it was a lot more than that. Um, and it kind of reminded me of the blue man show, like where they're like hitting with water and lights and stuff at the beginning. And yeah, I don't know. It was it was a really cool experience.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:57

Well, one of the neat things about it is the if you consider the pool the stage, it moves in so many directions in that the the I call them the kids because everybody's young to me, but the young dancers literally get lifted up and they come out of the water because what what's happening is the platform they're standing on is coming up in the water. So they may be maybe six feet deep, and the next thing they're only six inches deep. And it's really it's a great show. So it it as Alicia said, one of the highlights. I didn't do it this time, but it is one of the highlights of the trip.

Live Podcast Recording And Audience Fun

SPEAKER_03 1:10:34

So now moving on to your guys' third day, this is the live podcast recording. How'd it go? What do you like? Tell me about it.

SPEAKER_09 1:10:44

I forgot that Greg hadn't done a live recording with us before.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:49

Um this is like our third one.

SPEAKER_09 1:10:52

Right. Let's let Greg um share his experience.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:57

Yeah, I mean, when we kind of had like our little like debrief session the uh the other day, I had admitted to you guys that this was this was the only time during the cruise that like I felt like I was like quote unquote like working because I was getting I was getting all of the our mobile podcast recording gear set up and be again another shout out to Magic Bound working with the meeting event planning team of the Utopia. They were able to provide us at no charge a conference room that I make it. This ship is so big there is a conference center on deck three of this. Like it's crazy, and it was the perfect size for us. They pro you know, they set the chairs for us, they provided a table, and then they did have uh Bluetooth uh microphones set up that were attached to the the speakers that were in the ceiling. So, of course, I was a little nervous because we were recording our stuff to our recorder, but then so we had that microphone in our face, but then we also had to hold the the overhead speaker microphones, and then I wanted to make sure that there wasn't going to be any feedback or echoing in our recording. But Alicia and I we did a test, and the moment that I I knew that there wasn't going to be an issue with that, then I was able to like calm myself, but then John started playing the theme music that that he got composed for this, and then all of a sudden, like my knee pits started sweating, and I was like, Oh my god, like I I have to make my corny jokes in front of people live. Like, I don't have to make like the four of you laugh, I need to make a whole room of people laugh. And how is this gonna hit? But overall, it was fun. You know, I it goes to show that we've been doing this for so long that even in the live setting, like we all knew exactly what to do. We were giving ourselves both, you know, in terms of the four of us, like both audible but non-audible cues as well, too, that we knew you know to keep going or move on to the next thing and such. Uh, it was really great to be able to get our friends involved. I mean, obviously, if I could go back and do it all over again, I would have asked for one more microphone so that we could have passed it in the crowd. Right. But Bob, you did you did a great job in terms of relaying if we could if it wasn't coming through in the recording really well, you know, reiterating what they were saying, right? You know, and we were able to get that incorporated throughout um the springtime recap. But no, it it was definitely a highlight of uh of the cruise for me for sure. And I'm just I'm glad that so many friends had a great time with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:36

Yeah, it went well. I mean, we've done three, I've done all three of them. Uh you did one, Jack. So, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:45

I did two.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:46

Did that's right. I'm sorry, yeah. Yep. So you know what they're like, and it was fun, and we did have a we'd had quite a few people there. So I appreciated our friends participating, and I think uh I think our friends did have a good time. We tried to get them involved as much as we could, and we really got him involved with the tribute contest, and that was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:10

That was a lot of fun. Jack, you were the answer to a lot of the questions.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:13

Yeah, really?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:15

You need to listen to the episode, Jack.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:17

I I know, but I'm saving it for a long run. I haven't. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:21

Um, I got you, yeah, yeah. Have you listened to the Thanksgiving episode yet, Jack?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:26

Actually, yes, I have. I think I've actually listened to it twice.

SPEAKER_10 1:14:29

I thought maybe you were saving it. Oh, so that that that that that that's where the views came from. Okay. Now it it was uh it was really fun. I mean, I think that one of the highlights of the live podcast was the audience participation in this. I think they they I think this said they think they had a really good time. I think they felt engaged and that they were part of the whole show, which I think really made it uh special for us and them, I think.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:56

I agree.

SPEAKER_09 1:14:57

Like Greg, I I felt kind of nervous. Um, and I mean, I did that when we did the last um live recording too. I felt kind of nervous. But then I looked out and I went, we talk about it every week of like these are our friends, this is family. And I literally just looked out at everybody's faces, smiling back at us, and immediately that feeling of nervousness went away. I was like, I'm I'm talking to my friends, they're here to support us. And um, yeah, I it was fun to be able to do that again.

SPEAKER_10 1:15:28

Oh, and also let's not forget at the podcast recording, Pam from formerly a flippy feassies, now from Zen Grove, she brought out uh towels, rise and run towels, those, those, those little towels that uh Michelle Michelle made for for the group. And then also she brought out soaps and uh other stuff from Zen Grove that with that able people were able to pick up and bring. So I want to thank Pam again and uh Michelle for uh doing that for us.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:56

Yeah, yeah, and then we we capped off the recording. Like you know, Bob said we did the um we did the trivia contest and we had our winners and we gave out Disney gift cards. We had an overall winner, so uh big shout out to Vanessa and Sarah for being the overall winners, but then we had a three-way tie for second, so we had to go to double elimination on that. So that was fun, and then uh that's when where we also announced the winners of the door decoratest, so that was a ton of fun. So, and again, thanks to uh Diane and Becky and Meredith and Brad and Maggie for being our judging committee for that. All those folks definitely got their steps in because going from door to door across a massive ship like that, uh they they earned their cruise medal uh just that way alone. But to be able to see the creativity that you know that everyone had. I mean, especially um, you know, the the overall winner was Heather. I mean, and she did like so many deep cuts, like she had stuff made up that you know, talked about family feud with with Will Run for, and the number one answer was Nacho's. And uh, it was you know, she just like I said, she went to the extra mile with that, but just the the creativity of everybody. Yeah, I was impressed. It was really, really impressive.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:14

Yeah, sure was. I didn't see them all. I walked around uh our deck uh 14. I think we had more people on 14 than any other deck. Yes, that was a majority of people, yeah. Yeah, and uh it really was neat. A lot of folks did a lot of good stuff.

Price Is Right Live And Escape Room

SPEAKER_03 1:17:28

So later on that day, there was a price is right live. I know Greg participated in some way, how to tell me, please.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:39

This was I I wasn't exactly sure how they were gonna go about doing this event. Uh and uh big thanks to our friend Rob, who um him and I were in the beer line together after the 10 miler at springtime, and he had just been on the utopia. So he was giving me the lay of the land in terms of like how the the show was produced. And I thought it was going to be a situation where like it was you know, you had to be loud and raucous, and then they would like draw you up on stage, but everything was actually done through your phone. So it was like all you know, the the different pricing games and stuff like that. So then it was all based on like closest without going over, but then if people had the same answers, then it was based on how quickly you submitted your your answer because you had you know you had to register on your phone leading up to the show and such. Um, but no, I I I thought they did they they did um a really nice job with it. I I I have some beef with a guy named Daryl because uh Daryl got called up for the first pricing game, and then later on what was it?

SPEAKER_09 1:18:56

They he got a dollar, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:59

Oh, that's right, yeah. So they to be able to do the the the final spinning of the wheel and such, you got to spin your own wheel on on your phone, and again, whoever had the highest got to to come up, and this guy got a dollar spinning the wheel and got to come up on stage for the second time. So I was incredibly envious of him. I can't remember the woman's name though. Um, but there was one woman that got called up on stage, she won a pricing game, and the um the cruise director who served as the host was like, so you big fan of the show, and she's like, No. I'm like, get off of stage, I will gladly take your place. Um, but I I was really, really bummed that it was this it was the second pricing game. I missed it by one dollar, and I wonder if I would have gone one dollar more if I would have ended up on stage. But I I know um she won the uh the door decoring contest. Heather, I for the one game, she actually got a perfect bid, but there was somebody else that got a perfect bid and submitted it faster, so that's why Heather wasn't able to. So we all we were very, very close to having rise and run representation up on stage, but unfortunately, uh none of us got up there.

SPEAKER_10 1:20:20

Okay, I've I have a problem with Heather, not not Heather, but but uh that was for the Atari 2600. And first of all, they wanted the price of the Atari 6 2600. First of all, they showed the Atari 2600 Jr., which which sold for$50 when it came out. They said this Atari came out for a buck fifty. Actually, the Atari 2600 came out for$199, which I did bid. So I'm kind of upset about that. I got shafted on that whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:56

John, have you written a strongly worded letter to Royal Caribbean?

SPEAKER_10 1:21:00

Yes, I did. Okay. I I also said what do you call Daryl? Should not have been up there twice.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:05

Amen.

SPEAKER_10 1:21:05

And he goes, I know, and next time I said, for in compensation, Greg needs to host this show for us. Okay, I'll I'll allow that. That would be cool.

SPEAKER_09 1:21:15

Fun fact Um, John knows this because I was sitting next to him, but Greg, you were not by me. Um, I also got a dollar and was on that that wheel that ended up kicking Daryl. And I was like, I mean, I want to get up there, but I also was like, what is gonna happen if I get up there and Greg does? I was like, I may lose my spot on the podcast.

SPEAKER_10 1:21:41

Uh audio gets tried. Why why is Alicia's audio always cutting out everywhere? Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:48

Wait, so what do you guys win if you a car? No, you don't.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:54

Well, so the the pricing games, the way that was set up is if you won, you won statement or state room credits. Ooh. But the ending thing now, this is how you had to pay to play this version, was you had to guess what like the people up on stage were going to spin in terms of like you know, getting to a dollar and such. And I'm gonna it's very, very hard to, but you would have to pay enough to get enough chances, and then I think it's if you matched three perfect bids or something like that, then you would win a car. Odds of that, the odds of that happening were not very high, but apparently Maggie was telling me afterwards that on one cruise a couple of months ago on a different ship, I think, somebody actually did win a car.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:49

That's amazing. You guys weren't joking.

SPEAKER_09 1:22:52

I know there was at least you also could win if you got two of the people exactly, you could win fifty dollars. And I know there was at least one of our group that got that. Not like the host group, but like our group. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:09

So was there anything else that day that kind of was a top hit for the day?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:15

Well, I didn't make it to price and right because I had promised some folks I'd go in the escape room with them, and that was fun. I'd never done that before.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:23

They have escape rooms on the cruise?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:26

Did you have to pay for it?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:27

Yeah, it was it was an extra charge. It wasn't crazy, uh 30 bucks or something, I don't remember. There were about 15 people total working in the escape room, of which about half of them were Rise and Runners. So there were other groups, but everybody came together and worked together, and I again I'd never done one. It took me a couple minutes to kind of catch on to what was going on, but after that, I think I helped out and we did very well. We solved it. I think going in, I think the record for the day was uh somebody had solved it with 11 minutes left. And I think we solved it with like 12 minutes and 15 seconds left. No, no, no, it's the other way around. We we were not first, but we were second, but only by about a minute or so. And so it again it was fun. I would do it again. I think the folks I was with had a good time. I think nearly everybody contributed, and uh it just went really well.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:25

I love that. All right guys, with one day left. Tell me how the day went. What did you do? What were some of the highlights on your last full day on the cruise?

SPEAKER_01 1:24:37

Well, I I think their private island is if if I had we we always we started out saying we're gonna we end up comparing Royal with Disney. Two things I like better about Royal the adults only area, the solarium. I like the Royal area much better than the adults-only area on any of the Disney ships I've been on, and a lot better than the new bigger Disney ships. And the other one I like, I like Coco K better than I like uh Castaway K. Uh I walked on in October I walked around Coco K, so I saw what was there. Again, the downside there is a lot of the Coco K stuff is an upcharge. And one of the things that we did that was an upcharge was the they call it Hideaway Beach, it's the adults only area. At Castaway K, that's included in your charge. At uh Coco K it's uh it is an upcharge, but it was nice. Uh again, there was a beach there, the weather see there you go. A lot depends on the weather. The weather was a lot nicer. The weather was warm but not too hot, and uh so therefore the beach was nice, the pools were terrific. If if the Royal Beach Club has the world's largest swim up bar, then the one at Coco K isn't much smaller because they had a huge pool, water was pleasantly warm. We just had a good time. There were a bunch of Rise and Runners there, and uh and it was fun.

SPEAKER_10 1:26:05

Yeah, I agree. That that hideaway beach was a good experience. I would definitely do that again. Yeah, if if you had the drink package on the cruise, your drinks were included. This one it it did not offer any other extra. But they they were they were pretty good there, and uh and like something else that was pretty cool, like you didn't have to bring your room key up to to get to get to get anything to drink. You just said, Oh, I'm in room 8120, and they'll just charge it to your room. Because they figured why are you gonna have your room key in your pocket? I know some people did, but you know, and they they were they were they were fine. We had like I liked the pool, it had little tables in it. We could sit down and relax and hang out at the tables. It was uh it's like it's it was like it was an infinity pool that overlooked uh the the I don't know what what side of the I don't know if it's a bay or an ocean or what it is.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:59

Yeah. It's uh ultimately it's all the ocean.

SPEAKER_10 1:27:01

So so yeah, uh overlooked the ocean. That little swimming area if you want to go swimming, which it was it was warm enough to go in if you wanted to go swimming. Yeah, uh food courts again, nice food courts. Uh everything else was pretty uh it was good. It's it's far, it's far from the ship. So, but do they do have shuttles that bring you back and forth, so which was fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:23

Yeah, so my uh my day, a perfect day. I I I agree with you guys. I this was one of the aspects that again comparing to Disney, I I have not been to Lookout yet. I've only been to Castaway. And I I would say that walking around there, the theming of Castaway is probably a little bit better than that of Perfect Day, but at the same time, the you know the vibes and the layout and and and everything was very, very comparable. I was very, very impressed with it. But this was definitely a highlight part for me. So uh a bunch of friends and I, we had decided that um you know because royal offers so many sales of various things throughout the year that they were they were running um a sale on like their basic cabanas and for the for the one section of the uh the island and you know when you divided it by eight people it really was not that that pricey by any means whatsoever so that we just decided to do that and so that's what I thought I was doing and then a friend within this group and I'm I'm not gonna name a name because I I do not want to draw attention to them or embarrass them or whatever but they pulled a fast one on us and they actually upgraded us to a cabana in the uh the Cocoa Beach Club which is uh again similar to the adults only section an upcharged area but I guess if you purchase a cabana in this area then you know your admission into it's technically included you know it it had us right by the water there there was a a lovely infinity pool there there's actually a full-fledged sit-down restaurant in the Cocoa Bay area with a menu and um you know the staff there told us that you could order whatever you wanted including surf and turf and I was like well I'm gonna try that and let me tell you that steak was better than any steak that I had um I had on board and it was just it literally was the perfect way to end the trip and to end the season and and end this first cruise and such you know just to be surrounded by you know people um you know that just absolutely mean the world to me and to be able to share those memories with them and again to that person who pulled the fast one again you know who you are thank you very much and from the bottom of my heart for for your extended generosity I I cannot thank you enough for the memories that that we created that day and um I'll I'll I'll hold on to them forever. So but you know we did walk around other parts of the island as well too you we we explored some of the shops and then I learned that similar to like a Disney ship or even the the on the utopia itself that there's self-serve ice cream so yes we just like as we were walking to the shops I saw the ice cream machine so I made myself an ice cream cone and then I finished that one and then as we were walking our way back to the Cocoa Beach Club uh I had another ice cream cone and it was cool oh jealous so uh but no I like I said I I was very very impressed with with perfect day and uh you know because I think there was also a celebrity ship there um along with the utopia so I mean obviously a lot of people but you know in terms of my experience walking around uh you know it to me it didn't seem overly crowded or anything like that but I I will admit for as much fun as I had at the at the cocoa beach club I wish I could have spent a little time in the hideaway beach club because I heard that our our holler hype buddy Troy from Spring Hill Florida got a new nickname that day that he was no longer Troy from Spring Hill Florida but that he was uh Troy from spring break and I would have loved to have to have uh seen uh the the the fun antics that that was going on over there with you guys yeah Troy was having fun yeah we were all having fun over there yeah we were there were several of us we're playing beer pong we're playing beer pong in the pool you know all that was Becky was yeah Becky was trying Becky was coaching yeah yeah basketball everything yep good day so that day I I've been to Perfect Day I call coquet before um and my mom and I we intended to get off the ship but we went up to um the pool deck because where they were handing out towels on a lower deck um it was a really long line so we were like we were up by the pool we're like okay we'll just go get towels there to take off the ship and we looked around and we're like there's really not a lot of people out here.

SPEAKER_09 1:32:17

It wasn't super loud. We're like okay well we're gonna go sit on the beach down there and soak up the sun and get drinks or we can just stay on board where we are right now. We already have our bathing suits on. So we ended up just staying on board and honestly I was glad we did that because by the time we like walked off the ship and did all of that it would have taken a lot of effort and we were already in a place that I could relax. And having all of the food issues that I have what I would have gotten on the island was tacos and what I was getting on board was like the Mexican um little cantina place anyway. So it really wasn't different food um for me. So overall um I really enjoyed my day on board but honestly that part of an island is amazing. So yeah I recommend it to people.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:12

Well it sounds like you guys had an absolute blast. Again I so totally wish I could have been there to join with you guys because you guys since you weren't there. I told Greg jokingly that like watch you guys do it in two years and somehow at that point who knows maybe my husband and I we might be pregnant and then I can't get on the cruise again I don't know yeah planning Jack. Yeah yeah family planning but anyways I'm glad you guys all have fun it's always fun to hear about great adventures like that and to be with the Rise and Run family and getting to hang out with everybody it just sounds amazing. Um so glad you guys have fun and out of curiosity did you guys do any kind of like little farewell thing before you guys disembarked?

SPEAKER_01 1:34:06

Yeah there was one last get together uh for a photo and about I don't know about half the folks showed up so that was that was it I and you kind of hit it Jack the best part of it was that everybody who went and I've said many many times when we were planning for this cruise I know there's no perfect time I know there's no perfect solution that anybody and everybody can make it I'm delighted that so many people did make it and I want to thank you all for who made it there for showing up. And we will do it again Greg may talk about a survey we got coming up here in just a minute but you made you made the party and we were glad to be there with you.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:53

No Bob I I I agree with you wholeheartedly there. It what I what I loved about it is that and I think we had made this comment even before we got on the boat that this was a trip that felt like a four day long meetup at Disney Springs. Oh I love that and obviously we know how much joy that those events bring us each and every race weekend and the fact that we could find a new way to capture that same feeling in the bottle was just awesome and the fact that you can do it in paradise on a cruise ship and you know like I said I mean even though we had like a very light you know timed schedule you know with the recording and and such to me just some of the best memories were just those things that happened organically like I know after Price is right at one point like I changed into my bathing suit and went up to the solarium and there were two whole rows of loungers that were just filled with Rise and runners and then all of those people ended up in a hot tub and then Troy's pulling out his phone because he bought the internet package and is and we're we're holler hyping people on their training runs from the hot tub. Oh that's funny it's just it it's it's memories like those that I I will uh that that I'll cherish forever. I'm glad we had the opportunity uh to be able to uh to make this trip happen you know I I remember Bob when you first mentioned this that like hey this was an idea and then Magic bounds here to support it and I'm like you're crazy like there's never gonna be a rise and run cruise people aren't gonna want to go on vacation with us and the fact that we had close to a hundred people yeah like that that's just that's amazing and again speaks to to the just the the support level of this community and and not only what you all mean to us is just showing through in spades this entire this entire trip and I can't wait for the next one and we'll talk about that in just a little bit but I I want John and Alicia to give their final thoughts.

SPEAKER_10 1:37:07

I I I I had a great time I think it was uh it was fun meeting new friends I mean on on the cruise making new friends uh hanging out with different people that that that we that I I've never hung out before with you know I think it was a really good I think I think we had a really good time I think uh like you said Greg yeah Ryzen Run cruise who's gonna cru go on a cruise that's you know who's gonna spend like who's gonna run a race weekend and then come on a cruise right afterwards you know and come spend two weeks away from their home a bunch of people did and I think that was that was really great and really I want to thank them for coming on that that that's what made this that's what made this boat really s sail.

SPEAKER_09 1:37:49

Yeah I agree. I anybody that I told outside of the podcast people that I was going on this cruise and that we had um around a hundred people that were coming they were like whoa you have that many people that are are listened to you like people can't believe that you have so many listeners. But also they were like that's so cool and my response was always yeah there are our friends or there are our family um we love to support one another and yeah overall I didn't know what to expect um having not ever been on a group cruise other than um one other time and that was a way smaller group um but it was amazing and thank you again to all of the people who were able to come on the cruise it was a lot of fun.

Announcements And Community Race Report

SPEAKER_02 1:38:33

Alicia like you were saying you know everyone that you know we had talked to just you know had glowing things to say and but I will and and I'm hearing the exact same thing but the other thing that we're hearing is well when's the next one gonna happen so we're not ready to announce anything by any means whatsoever. But what we're gonna do over these next couple of weeks is we are going uh to gather some data. So we will be posting this on our Facebook page I'll make sure that Bob pins it as well too it's a data collection survey. So and this is open to anyone you know regardless if you were on this cruise or not we want everyone to fill this out because what we're interested in is questions like do you want to do Royal Caribbean again? Would you rather do Disney or another cruise line we want to know how long how much um you know would be within your budget do you want it attached to a race weekend do you want it to be separate from a race weekend so like I said please fill out this survey we're gonna gather the data we're gonna then sit down with Magic Bound travel because depending on when this is going to happen we might have to start planning this sooner rather than later. So like I said get that survey filled out and then we will get the gears in motion and hopefully maybe within the next I don't know six to 12 months or so maybe we can make a big announcement here on the on the podcast that uh podcast cruise 2.0 will officially happen but we're we're so excited that the first one happened and we can't wait for the future.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:11

Caution runners change of topic ahead okay a few announcements friends I need to get in touch with our friend Alec at Kauaian Pizza Apparel in regards to the 5K at Marathon weekend is only 237 days away and just in case you're counting all right we'll get our penguin shirts and we'll announce when they're ready. Looking ahead to upcoming episodes next week we're gonna go back a little bit and review two of the world majors that occurred while we were busy sailing the seven C well we were only selling one C but anyway the Boston and London Marathons. So we'll have recaps on both of those two weeks from now special guest Fireman Rob joins us on the Rise and Run podcast. This is a Zoom Thursday instructions are posted on the Facebook page they should already be there so we hope to see some of you this evening and now please stand clear of the door it's time for a race report aboard mantengancy Alejado de la Cuenta The Race Report sponsored by our friend Tom Stokes at Stoked Metabolic Training Stokes.fit slash rise and run coaching Tom's got a summer challenge coming up he's made that announcement on the Facebook page get in there good deal honest to goodness it's a good deal so check it out on the Facebook page now if you want to do it registration ends tomorrow the 15th so take a look for that and highly recommend it. But let's take a look at this week's rape report over the weekend there was a big event in Arizona this the it's the Cocodona 250 was this week but there were several races among them the Sedona Canyons 125 miler Alicia was there. Alicia had crewed her husband's 250 last year so she signed up for the 125 as soon as she got home her previous long race was 50k but she entered this one really confident because she had a good training period so important friends especially on the longer events uh learned a lot about herself during the race her idea of limitations now totally broadened zero issues the whole race except of course the pounding at her feet and the blisters that came from a 125 mile event everything else held up well hats off to her crew for providing amazing support and she finished in a little over 63 hours which is a PR first 125 miler that's amazing congratulations I mean and what a place to do it in Sedona is just gorgeous congratulations Alicia also out there our friend Jason did the Flagstaff Crest 40 miler part of that same weekend his first time at that distance so of course that's a PR mostly a trail race in and around Flagstaff a little over 3000 feet of climb beautiful course set out with five goals met them all got to pet about two dozen dogs met lots of new friends patched up a few blisters on other runners' feet good for you Jason not sure I could do that but you did so good for you had the absolute best time uh check out Jason's full report on his YouTube channel Beyond the Limit. Not at Cocodona but also over the weekend Megan was in St. James New York for the St. James Five Miler on Saturday at the Naval Air Station in Fort Worth the Fort Worth Navy 10 Miler and Five Miler Rachel ran the 10 miler a flyover of F-18 sent them on their way I guess that's better than a starter's gun that's pretty cool. Entire course was around the tarmac and the hangars of the base so pretty flat also pretty hot awesome seeing fat Albert from the Blue Angels on the course that's a C-130 a modified C-130 that they use for that they had a few other character stops. Seeing Monty and Caleb near the finish line help Rachel turn on the jets get it get it for the Navy get it okay good this is a theme for her because she uh magically turned on jets at the end of the 10 miler at springtime so this is a new thing for her yeah but there were really jets there this time oh I know yeah anyway final sprint did a PR with a finish time of 153 good job Rachel in Lenore City Tennessee hope I'm pronouncing that right Megan ran the Spirit of Kona 5K I figured the spirit of Kona 5k would be in Hawaii I was wrong Megan set a three minute PR and finished third overall female that is awesome out on the West Coast the Seattle beat the bridge 8K Lindsay and Lacey ran this one from Lauren uh quick aside here Rise and Run family this was a tragedy of enormous dimension this uh what happened to Lauren and you responded so wonderfully well I am afraid in the last couple of weeks I've been so busy I lost track of where we are on our 50 states. I'll try to catch up on that we did hear from Lauren's cousin Lee who made a Facebook post saying how much he and the family appreciated the outpouring of love I'm never disappointed my friends proud to be part of it. But let's get back to the race that Lindsay and Lacey did. They ran along the water and over the bridges it was gorgeous little nervous about beating the university bridge but they sailed through that and finished in Husky Stadium at the University of Washington. Ashley ran the Through the Zoo 5K I'm sure it was at a zoo I'm not sure what zoo it was at Morningstar was in Jacksonville for the Madre's Fiesta 7K she convinced all of her kids and her husband to come with her course was gorgeous fives were great the race director was hilarious. At one point he yelled at her said this isn't a Disney race told her to get moving great race coming off a knee injury terrific food at the post race party for Morningstar in Virginia Beach they had the 10 miler and 5K we had a bunch of folks there Michael and Terry did their second ever 10 mile run since the other one was springtime surprise and involved a lot of character stops this was a 10 mile PR Alexis was there and said the route got a little wonky with passing the finish line three times before getting there but it was a great course she also completed the 5K virtually early in the week so she got the Live the Life Challenge and the Beach Bum medal for completing a shamrock race and one of those races. She Alexis ran a five minute PR Christy had fun. She ran a PR having a great experience is just important and this weekend was a great memory for her great race with a nice after party Samantha did the 5K despite a little bit of rain it was a good race and her best postpartum run yet and Hannah Marie did her second fastest 5K also had a great time despite the little bit of rain which in this case actually felt nice this is her first time doing this specific race really enjoyed the course family event at Chesapeake Beach Maryland the Shatter the Stigma 10K Andrew Joseph Catherine Carrie and Levi all there event those are neat we have those here X rail lines that are now running slash recycling slash skating trails a combo of boardwalks over wetlands and paved trails. Let's see Joseph walked the race with Levi who's 13 so that 17 year old Andrew could run with Carrie Carrie ended up shaving a little over two minutes off of last year's race time doing intervals felt good enough to walk back to run in with Andrew who had dropped back just a little bit about uh with about a mile to go and then she got to walk in with Joey and Levi while cheering on other runners love the family affairs great event in Chesapeake Beach Maryland there was a dirty German 50k at Pennypack Park in Philly say that real fast Pennypack Park in Philly there you go Martin did it his first ultra that's a PR an off-road mini dopey he calls it an off-road mini dopey with a bratwurst pretty cool hotter hypes I always pick out somebody so many of you mentioned the hotter hypes this time Martin mentioned the hotter hypes helped carrying for carry him for miles 21 to 31 which is when he needed it most in New Britain Connecticut Sue with her running friend Nancy did the race in the park 5K for breast cancer research great time connecting and running together PR and fun town number 59 for Nancy in Hamilton Massachusetts Heidi did the Barnes and Blood Blooms half marathon, nice weather for this event. Tacos at the finish. Didn't like running with the traffic. There's quite a bit of that. Hoping for a proof of time for a Disney World Marathon. Not yet, Heidi. You still got time to do that. In Atlanta, Sherry ran the North Side Hospital Atlanta Women's Four Milers. Amanda and Nicole were in Dayton, Tennessee for the Strawberry Chase 10K. Amanda paced Nicole to her first 10K PR for Nicole. Back in 2010, this was Amanda's first 10K. She's participated most years since then. Molly did a vacation race. The vacation races at Yosemite was a half marathon, half marathon number 10 for Molly. Beautiful scenery, of course, out there in Yosemite. Wonderful weather. Moving to Sunday, out in Portland, Oregon. The Portland Sea Dogs, Mother's Day 5K. Caitlin did this one. Her kids were able to jump into the kids' fun run at the last minute. They had a great time. Caitlin was able to get a PR today, shaving one minute and 40 seconds of her previous 5K PR. Outstanding. Caitlin, I actually have a Portland Sea Dogs baseball cap. At one point I was collecting minor league baseball caps. I thought the Portland Sea Dogs was pretty cool. So I've got one of those. I was surprised at the number of Mother's Day running events that we had. I thought it would be a light day, but we had a fair number. Let's see, there was a Mother's Day 5K and five miles somewhere in South Florida. Chelsea and her son Jensen, who's six year old, six years old, did this one. Jensen asked mom what he wanted, what she wanted for Mother's Day. She said she wanted him to run a race with her. So they signed up for it. And he, this is Jensen's first ever 5K. Jensen, this PR bell is for you, buddy. Six years old, hot day. He finished in 42 minutes. That's a great job. At mile two, he said, My mind says I should stop, rip off my bib, and stop running. But mom told him that every single runner's been there. He pushed through and knocked this race out way to go.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:24

I love seeing those photos and the fact that that's what he wanted to do with his mom. I thought that was absolutely precious.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:29

I agree. I don't know the location here. I know it's in Florida. I think it's in Claremont, Florida. The Dreamfinders Homes Mother's Day 5K. Because our buddy Ravi, our man in South Florida, told me he ventured out of South Florida for this one. Pretty large race and on their Mother's Day. Lots of families there. Mary ran this one with her mom. That was cool. Extremely hilly. It's Florida. It's all relative. It can be hilly over there in Central Florida. So therefore, not all that much fun. One point someone yelled out, This is not honoring mothers. This reminds them of the labor pains they went through. Mary and Mom persevered. And they finished. Julian was Julie Ann was also there jogging on the grass and the sand at the beginning. And Ann was a little rough. She's constantly looking down at the ground so that she didn't fall. Let's go to Pennsylvania, to Copley, Pennsylvania, specifically. The Mother's Day Run the Roses 10K. Shamika PR by nine minutes. Great job. You get a shirt, you get a medal, and if you're a mom, you get a rose and some cookies. Chrissy and I think it's Alyssa or Alisa. I'm not sure. So I'm going with Alyssa. Hope I'm not wrong, my friend. They did the 5K. They stuck together and finished in under 30 minutes. That's a that's a uh that's a benchmark time for a 5K under 30 minutes. And a PR for Alyssa. The Run the Hook event at Gateway National Park in Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Kelly and Bob ran the 5K. It didn't rain, but the sun took its sweet time coming out, so it's kind of foggy, cool and damp, persistent mist. Uh last year, this was their first race ever. Kelly's training continues to pay off. I love reading that. So despite having to extend a few walk intervals to dry her glasses, she managed a new 5K PR. In Columbus, Ohio, Amanda ran the hometown half marathon. Stepdaughter also ran it and got first in her age group. Big deal. The metal is a license plate. It's a full-size, it's huge.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:53

That's awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:55

Great photo. Oh, they had a half marathon in Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Mother's Day half. Noelle was there, enjoyed two and a half hours of nature, didn't push it, just enjoyed the opportunity to be able to run. Lauren was there too. Beautiful day for a race. Heidi and her mom ran the 5K. Heidi's kids participated in the kids' race. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. The course was beautiful along the shores of Lake Michigan. Maybe someday Heidi will get the kids to do a Disney event. In Poughkeepsie, the Hudson Valley Half Marathon, Annie celebrated her 54th birthday and PR'd this half.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:34

What a great birthday present.

Closing And Happy Running

SPEAKER_01 1:55:36

Yeah. And and I'm going, it's uh I I can pronounce Dutch words, I can pronounce French, it's the British words that get me. I think it's Abenham Amble impressed in the UK. Ian did it. Now, Mother's Day is this week in the UK. It's the 15th. They call it Mothering Sunday, so it's off by a week. Uh Ian did this along the River Ribble in Northwest England. I love this description. It was surprisingly lumpy as the course had a few steep climbs, but it was a good test as he's building up to full dopey training. Shocked to come in under an hour. That's great. Congratulations on that. 59 minutes, which was a seven-minute course PR. Let's wrap up the race report in Somerville, Massachusetts, with the mom's run. M period O period M. I don't know what it stands for, but Sophie and Audrey did it with their mom Robin and younger sister Muriel. They ran the 5K. Their friend Chase and her mom. Deb did the 5K walk. Her nephew, Audrey's son, Chester, did the kids run. Mom got third place in her age group. Way to go, mom. Audrey and Sophie did some slightly longer run intervals than normal. Came in just under 38 minutes. Pretty happy with that time. Another family affair on Mother's Day. And that finishes the race report. Friends, and if you run, you know you are our friends. That wraps it up for episode 242 of the Rise and Run Podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. We're certainly glad you joined us. It's good to be back with all of you. And I'm glad we've met again. But until we meet again, happy running.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:34

The Rise and Run podcast discusses general information about Run Disney and it's in no way affiliated with Run Disney or the Walt Disney company. Any information about discuss all Disney podcasts is not a colour flight. It is always confused with medical flight.