Adventures and Mousecapades: A Podcast About Disney
Two Seattleites addicted to The Mouse: Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, Disney Vacation Club. We love traveling to experience Disney magic, and enjoy talking to others who share our passion for all things from the House of Mouse.
Adventures and Mousecapades: A Podcast About Disney
195. From Parks to Ports: Navigating Disney Magic with Kids
What happens when a meticulously planned Disney vacation collides with unexpected illness? Travel agent Sara returns to the podcast to share her remarkable journey combining Walt Disney World parks with back-to-back Disney Cruise Line sailings on both the Magic and Treasure.
The adventure begins with a red-eye flight and her family's first experience using Disney's Disability Access Service, providing valuable insights for parents of neurodivergent children. When both Sara and her daughter fall ill during their park days, we discover how Disney's medical services save the day with surprising efficiency and reasonable costs. Her firsthand account demystifies what happens when sickness strikes far from home—valuable knowledge no travel guidebook adequately covers.
As the journey shifts to the high seas, Sara offers a rare perspective comparing Disney's oldest ship with their newest. The Treasure emerges as a clear favorite with its thoughtfully designed spaces and immaculate theming, while both Castaway Cay and Lighthouse Point receive detailed reviews. Shore excursions provide unforgettable moments, from making friends with a bee named Waxy during a conservation tour to a heart-pounding encounter when a stingray jumps on Sara at Stingray City.
Beyond the adventures, Sara shares wisdom only frequent cruisers discover: the magic number for cruise length, why family cabanas are worth the splurge, and how Disney's newest entertainment offerings like the Moana stage show are raising the bar for cruise entertainment. Whether you're planning your first Disney vacation or your fifteenth, Sara's candid experiences offer both practical guidance and the inspiration to embrace the unexpected moments that often become our most treasured memories.
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Adventures & Mousecapades is a passion project from Alicea & Nathan Novak - two Seattleites addicted to The Mouse. We are not affiliated with Disney, nor are we travel agents. Opinions are our own.
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Hello everyone, I'm Alicea.
Nathan:I'm Nathan.
Sara:And I'm Sara.
Alicea:Welcome to this week's episode of Adventures and Mousecapades.
Alicea:This week, we welcome back on the show our good friend Sara, who just had one of the most amazing Disney vacations we can imagine, and we've had our fair share of some epic trips. They had four days in the parks in Walt Disney World, followed by a five-night cruise on the Disney Magic and a seven-nighter on the Treasure. That said, it was not without its challenges and we wanted to have her on to share her story. Welcome back, Sara!
Sara:Thank you, happy to be back.
Nathan:Yeah, it's so great to have you. Can you remind our listeners you've been on two or three times before.
Sara:Twice.
Nathan:Yeah, can you remind our listeners a little bit about your Disney background? You've got a couple of amazing kiddos and you do Disney a lot, right?
Sara:We do do Disney a lot. So I have an eight and a six-year-old and I've grown up on the West Coast, so Disneyland has been my home park. And it all started when my third birthday happened at Disneyland. So I've been a Disney lover ever since. But my true love is cruising. I went on semester at sea in college. It wasn't my first cruise, but I was hooked after that.
Nathan:So you've become a full-time travel agent or travel advisor, I don't know the lingo's out there. Was this classified, this trip, was this quote/ unquote research?
Sara:This was a hundred percent a business trip, absolutely, you know. I think it's really important that any travel agent is consistently going to the places and the destinations that they are really interested in selling, because I want to be able to give my clients the most recent, up to date and you know firsthand experience that I can get.
Nathan:Absolutely.
Alicea:Was it just you three on this trip?
Sara:Sort of. So it was partially a solo trip, but not really a solo trip. So the first portion we did with my kid's half-sibling. We met him and his mom in the park. My kids have a lot of half-siblings.
Sara:That's a story for another day but it has to do with using a donor to conceive my kids, and so we did Disney World with them. And then on the last day of Disney World, a couple of their other half siblings came in. There was a fireworks cruise that happened for some, didn't happen for others, and then we all got on a cruise together on the Magic and we were joined by several other single moms by choice.
Sara:So that part we did with other people and then the sailing on the treasure was with two other single moms by choice, but we were kind of more on our own for that one.
Nathan:Got it. So lots of plug and play of lots of different relationships and friendships and family- ships and all sorts of stuff. Nice!
Nathan:Disney's running a promotion where you get free tickets to the water parks the day of your resort check-in. You took the red eye from Oregon to Florida to take advantage. How'd that go, Sara?
Sara:Well, that wasn't the plan. I would not have planned that. Initially, our flight was supposed to get into Disney World at like 3.30 pm and they changed the itinerary and we weren't going to get in until 7.30 that night. And I just don't want to get to the parks that late and then turn around and do a rope drop the next morning. So our only other option was a red-eye. I've red-eyed with my kids before.
Sara:It's been fine... It was not as great this time. You know, you live and learn, right?
Sara:But we did get there and I have to say we did a mobile check-in. Our room was ready when we arrived at 9 am.
Nathan:Oh, wow.
Sara:Which was incredible. We went straight to the room kind of unpacked and had planned to go to Blizzard Beach. Because that's the only way you're going to take advantage as a West Coaster of that free park day in the water parks is, if you take a red eye, so perfect opportunity. We decided to lay down for an hour to take a nap, and three hours later we woke up and decided we were not going to the water park, we would stay at the pool. And we did.
Sara:And it was great, and my daughter got an ear infection in the pool.
Nathan:Oh, no!
Sara:What can you do?
Nathan:Yeah.
Nathan:So you got a good (?) night's rest? You finally got to hit the parks the next day.
Sara:We did.
Nathan:You had four days, did you hit all four parks?
Sara:Well, that was the plan.
Nathan:Okay
Sara:We... my immediate family hit three.
Nathan:Okay
Sara:We started off big at Hollywood Studios and had a really fantastic day there. It was actually our first time using the DAS pass.
Alicea:Okay.
Sara:So my daughter qualifies for DAS and it was our first time using it and it was really fantastic. We paired it with a lightning lane multi-pass and it was a great combo. We didn't do that for every park, but we did it for Hollywood studios and for Magic Kingdom.
Sara:And it was great.
Sara:It works very similarly to lightning lanes in terms of not having to wait in the long lines. It was a great day, we had a wonderful time and I I started to have like the long lines. It was a great day. We had a wonderful time and I started to have like a sore throat by the end of the day, but the day was really great. We did not stay for Fantasmic.
Sara:We had Fantasmic VIP seating from. We did the sci-fi drive-in lunch, which was so good. That place is so underrated, the food was so good and is so underrated. The food was so good and the atmosphere is 10 out of 10. Um, so we had Fantasmic tickets, but we were tired, so we decided to skip it and go back to our hotel.
Nathan:How was the DAS pass, like, process? They've made a bunch of changes to that, like there's uh this and this was, I think, a year ago there was a big hubbub in the Disney community. What was your experience of going through it like this this time around?
Sara:Yeah, so that's a great question. I was terrified, to be totally honest, you know I've heard some horror stories. I have several friends who have used it in the past, several travel advisor friends that have used it in the past and, honestly, I didn't even realize that we qualified. My daughter is probably on the spectrum, but we haven't completed her testing yet.
Nathan:Got it.
Sara:And they're like you qualify, you should apply. So I did and I think the big thing with going into the interview I had a great experience with the interviewee. She I think the big thing with going into the interview I had a great experience with the interviewee. She was fantastic. She asked really direct questions, not about a diagnosis, but about what it looks like when we stand in line.
Sara:And so being able to answer those questions. What are the challenges with standing in a traditional line? My daughter's a runner. She gets, you know, dysregulated and then starts getting mad and you know, hurting me.
Sara:So those are all challenges to standing in a traditional line and so I was able to talk through those and she asked some very pointed questions which I could answer and then we were approved and then she walked me through all of the other accommodations besides DAS for the parks, which was really helpful, and they send you a really nice guide that has like quiet places in the park and sensory places in the park, so those tools are really helpful as well.
Nathan:That's amazing. I didn't... I mean, it makes sense that they'd have those other things, but I never... I mean we, you know for for we are lucky enough to not have to be in that situation, and so, yeah, I didn't even realize that there was those other things.
Sara:Me either!
Nathan:That's pretty great!
Sara:It was. It was a really great experience and I would you know it's nice because I have that firsthand experience now to explain to my clients and we did. We have an upcoming Disneyland trip and we applied for it there as well and got a got approved there, and the process was very similar. It was faster at Disneyland than at Disney World, but the kind of questions that they asked were the same.
Nathan:And for those who don't know, DAS is disability access services and it's just accommodations that Disney can help you out as a family for individuals who need some help being in lines.
Sara:Yeah, and it's not for mobility services anymore. That's the big change that they made, is it's not for mobility and if you have a hard time standing, they're gonna find other accommodations for you. It's mostly for people that are neurodivergent that have trouble with standing in a traditional line for other reasons than physical.
Alicea:And when you qualify, it's not just for that single trip, is it? It's good for a longer amount of time, or do you have to do that every time you go to a park?
Sara:So that I'm actually not clear on. It was a big deal that they have extended the length of how long it's good for. But they told me in the interview that it was only good for that trip and if we came back even in that window we would need to reapply. So I don't know the firm answer to that? I would have to find out, yeah.
Alicea:That was just something I heard and if they, if they told you that, then obviously if folks needed to reapply, then they should try that yeah.
Sara:But there wasn't a long wait. I've heard that people are waiting for hours for their interview. I was in an interview within 10 or 15 minutes. It was very fast, very efficient.
Nathan:And then you just call in, I'm assuming, and then you're in queue for an interview?
Sara:You do it. You have to log into your my Disney Experience account on a computer I assume you could do it on a phone too and they ask you some questions and then it says are you ready to get into the queue? And you say yes and you answer a couple of other questions and then you just sit in the queue and the the person that is applying for the DAS has to be present, so like I started the interview and then went and brought her in uh, okay, got it makes sense, cool.
Nathan:Well, thank you for sharing. That's...
Alicea:yeah
Nathan:Yeah, yeah it's, it's super, super...
Sara:it's a really great tool if you need it.
Sara:It was a game changer. Yeah, it was a game changer.
Alicea:From the remainder of your park days, are there any highlights?
Sara:Oh yeah. Well, my daughter is finally tall enough for all of the rides, so we all went on Tron for the first time, which was incredible. My son did it with no hands. I have the picture to prove it. It was great. It was my son's favorite ride.
Sara:My daughter and I still prefer Guardians of the Galaxy, but Tron was incredible. You know, if I'm being really honest, by day two I was starting to get sick, and day three was the worst we got. By the end of the day, we finally made it back around to Ratatouille.
Sara:Yeah, and it was going to be our last we, it was our end up caught and we'd just gone around the world showcase we were at, we were going to go out the international gate and get on the Skyliner and we're in line. We're walking up to Remy and or, um, to Ratatouille and I was like I, I can't stand in that line, I'm just gonna go sit by the exit, and I don't really remember oh, I don't remember how long I waited.
Sara:I sat there. I was like you know by then. I was like in a fog. So I was like I'm gonna go. We're gonna go home and go to bed yeah like five o'clock, oh um, but it was great. You know, we were there over the 4th of July, so Epcot was actually our 4th of July day and we did Magic Kingdom on the 3rd, because they do the fireworks on the 3rd and the 4th at Magic Kingdom and on the 4th at Epcot, but we didn't stay for fireworks for any of them.
Sara:It was just it was good for me, because I'm a very type A, I'm a planner and I'm a rope drop to fireworks kind of girl and that was not this trip and it was OK and we still had a really incredible time.
Nathan:How were the crowds on the 4th?
Sara:It was not bad. I was truly expecting it to be a lot more crowded on both days. In fact, we canceled on the 3rd. We canceled the Ohana dinner reservation because we were afraid to leave the park and not be able to get back in, but I don't think that would have been a problem. It was really not that bad. But on the 4th at Epcot, you know, typically at Epcot I say get a spot an hour, hour and a half before. There's lots of places to see the fireworks, you're going to be able to find a good spot. Four hours before people were staking out their fireworks spot. So I think if we had stayed for fireworks it would have been a lot of just sitting and waiting yeah that's why we didn't wait.
Nathan:It isn't necessarily fun in the Florida heat and humidity and yeah, yeah all right.
Nathan:so we've danced around it a little bit. Unfortunately, you and your daughter got sick. A complete bummer and definitely a fear that I think many of us have. You're traveling, you're going cross country for those of us on the West Coast. How did you get medical help for you? You were feeling sick. You know Addie had the ear infection, Like how did you get help while you were, you know, at a Disney resort? How did that work out??
Sara:Yeah, Disney is great. I mean, I knew that there were services and I tell clients about them, but I had never experienced them. So it's great, I experienced everything for my clients, so they don't have to...
Nathan:See it's just research, Sara, it's just research.
Sara:And I had trip insurance, so I knew we were fine.
Sara:So the first thing I did is I woke up and I thought I had strep throat. I get it a lot and I thought I had strep. So I called guest services and they told me the option. They have a concierge that will come to your room or there is an urgent care and the urgent care sends a van. It's free. They pick you up at your resort and then they whisk you off to urgent care and bring you back when you're done. And it was great.
Sara:I was back to the resort in less than two hours from the time I left I went first thing in the morning and they did a bunch of tests and I didn't have COVID. Um, I tested negative for strep, but I that happens to me all the time, so they're like it looks like strep. We're just going to give you antibiotics. They have the antibiotics there, so you don't have to go to a pharmacy. Um, it was very easy and they brought me back and I went on my merry little way, rested for the morning, and then we went to the park later and it was great.
Sara:The next day by evening I was like I don't think it's strep because the antibiotics are not working. Then the next morning I couldn't get out of bed. I was just too tired to get out of bed, and so we had a connecting room... with my kid's my kids half sibling and so we. I texted her. I was like, just go to the park without us, we'll meet up for our dining reservation. I like... I can't do it. She's like we'll, we'll check in in an hour. In an hour. I was like, just go, we'll find you later. And then a couple of hours later I changed our dining reservation because there was no question we were not going to the park.
Sara:So I opted to have the concierge come to my room, which you know. I was a little bit scared about what the bill would be, even with trip insurance, but I will say it was about $550, including the doctor coming. She immediately determined I had the flu with flu test and she gave me a bunch of medication that she had with her. If they don't have what you need, they have a pharmacy that delivers.
Nathan:Oh, wow, okay.
Sara:And she gave me everything I needed to turn that in to insurance. When I got home both medical insurance and trip insurance and they were lovely. She was just incredible. So in hindsight I wish I'd done that first maybe, but I was getting on a cruise the next day. And so she was like I'm going to get you on this cruise. I promise you will feel like a whole new person tomorrow. Today is going to suck, but tomorrow you're going to be great. And you're going to be able to answer the health questionnaire honestly.
Sara:And I was. That was the big thing... I'm not lying on the health questionnaire for the cruise!
Sara:And um so, um, you know, it was true, it was a horrible day, um, but I felt better. And right as we, my, my family, was leaving to go to the fireworks crews, my daughter says Mommy, I have a sore throat. So we called concierge back to the room because I didn't feel good enough to go to urgent care.
Sara:And so a different doctor came and treated her and their bedside manner was just so good. They let her play with the stethoscope and listen to her heart and look at her eyes and her ears and um. They determined that she had an ear infection and um gave her meds as well. They had child medication on board as well and um all was well.
Nathan:That's awesome. So they don't take direct insurance but they give you all the paperwork to go file that on the back end.
Sara:Yeah, you have to. Um, where the urgent care did take my insurance and I just paid my regular copay. Um, but the concierge you have to pay out of pocket, but all told, both of our visits were about a thousand dollars. Ironically, the most expensive park day, and we didn't even leave our room. My son to go to the fireworks cruise, though, and he said it was really good.
Nathan:Awesome, that's good, good, good, good good.
Alicea:I looked it up because I was curious how crazy busy the parks were on July 4th. The predicted crowd overall was a 6 out of 10. The overall crowd observed for that day was a 3.
Sara:Yeah, it was not crowded
Alicea:Which is really low and you were at Epcot for that day was a three. Yeah, it was not crowded, which is really low, and you were at.
Sara:Epcot that day.
Alicea:We were at.
Sara:Epcot.
Alicea:And that was the busiest park at a full six. Magic Kingdom was a three, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom was a two.
Sara:Well, and I think that that would be different if Epcot did their Fourth of July fireworks both nights too.
Alicea:Yeah
Nathan:oh yeah.
Sara:Y ou know they kind of pushed the crowds away from Magic Kingdom on the 4th to go to Epcot if you're there for more than one day. But apparently a lot of locals annual pass holders go to the parks for the 4th of July, which makes sense. Yeah.
Alicea:Well, you're feeling much better the next day. So off to Port Canaveral and the Magic. Did you use Disney transportation from Pop Century to the ship?
Sara:We did not. I'm a big DCL fan, but we had 10 people, so we opted to do an away... an Away We Go van and have a private van and just a little moment for the kids to connect and it was really fun.
Sara:You know we all had different port arrival times. The other people I was with were first time cruisers, so we we just went to the latest port arrival time. We were on the ship, you know, within 20 minutes of getting there. It was so easy. They do a great job there at Pier 8 getting you on the ship.
Alicea:What was your itinerary for this five night sailing?
Sara:It was the best itinerary ever. We went to Nassau and most of us stayed on the ship, and then we went to Castaway Cay and Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point. And then we had a sea day. So it was really, you know, my new favorite itinerary. I could, you know I could do without Nassau if we want to have another sea day. But, it does get some people off the ship. So, you have a little bit less crowd at the pool.
Alicea:Have you been on the Magic before?
Sara:Yes, so that was actually our first Disney cruise, so it was fun to get back on the Magic for a little bit longer than our first cruise, which was kind of short. You know, I also just got off the Wonder two months ago, and so it was really fun to be able to compare those two ships, really truly kind of back to back, because I think the Wonder is aging a little bit better than the Magic which pains me to say, because I do love the Magic.
Nathan:Yeah, that was going to be our, our kind of our next question, like what? What's your impression of how the Magic's holding up? I mean, we're we're closing in on 30 years here.
Sara:Closing in on 30. She just turned 27. You know, for her age I think she's doing very well. She's still a beautiful ship. She's very well maintained. We had a little issue with our um Miranda door and I kid you not, they must have checked on us like eight times to make sure it was fixed and I was like I promise it's good, it's fixed. Um, but you know, just the um, she's just showing her age a little bit more.
Sara:I think she is going in for a short dry dock next year before she um goes to Alaska. So I think that that's that's good Um, but I just love the size of that class of ship. It just feels so intimate and you really get to know the cast members that are working and we had a great time.
Nathan:Good, good, good good.
Nathan:I heard the kiddos did Bibbidi-Bobbidi on board. Did they love that?
Sara:They did. So my daughter had just done it on our last cruise, and so we took her dress, which is a great money-saving tip. You take the dress back and you don't have to buy a new dress.
Sara:You just get the makeover for her. And then my son and one of his half-brothers did night makeovers, which, if you've ever done anything with two, well one's nine. So an eight and a nine-year-old boy. I mean it was high comedy at Bibbidi-Bobbidi. Luckily we were like the only people there the three of them but their fairy godmothers were fantastic and they made it fun for the boys. They learned how to sword fight, they did remove the sword from the stone, and so the boys really had a good time. And then, you know, they proceeded to sword fight all over the ship, which made for some really great photos.
Nathan:That's awesome.
Sara:It was very fun.
Alicea:You got to hit both Castaway and Lighthouse Point on this one. What did you guys do at Castaway?
Sara:At Castaway we had a cabana
Alicea:Nice!
Sara:So one of the great things about doing Disney Cruise Lines a lot and helping people do them a lot is I know some of the tips and tricks and so we were able to score kind of a last minute cabana.
Sara:It's my second time doing it, so I consider myself a professional now at scoring a last minute cabana and I really love that experience of kind of having a private place to leave your stuff. And the interesting thing about this time of year which I guess I hadn't really realized about Castaway is the water is a lot lower than when, like more enjoyable to be in but the water itself is so low and our cabana was down at the end of the family beach and when the tide went out there was a giant mud flat. Well...
Sara:I mean, it was a giant sand flat. And when the tide was in, it was like three inches of water, but it was really good for the kids who were playing in the sands and it was also very fun for snorkeling, because you're that much closer to the giant statues, most of them we could touch or stand on, which was really kind of fun for the kids.
Sara:So we snorkeled, we took our own snorkel gear and we snorkeled, and then, you know, the kids spent some time on the Pelican Plunge, which is the water slide into the ocean, and we just spent some time relaxing. It was a good day.
Nathan:Nice. What was your thought on Lighthouse Point? Was this your first time there?
Sara:It was my first time and I wish I could tell you I was feeling good that day because I was not. Our day started out, so we got off the ship early and first impression you guys have been there, right?
Alicea:We have not yet.
Sara:Oh gosh, okay, so photos and video make that pier look insanely long yeah and when we pulled up alongside of it. First of all, we docked on the port side, which is fun for people on the port side that don't usually get a, that don't get a view at Castaway so those people had a really great view of Lookout key.
Sara:The pier does not look nearly as long in person which was I was like, oh, that's not a big deal. It took, you know, about 10 minutes to walk. We there were lots of wagons when we got off, so we put our stuff in a wagon and just enjoyed the pier. We got on the shuttle, got to to the beach right as the skies opened up the dark black skies.
Sara:That whole week we had a lot of thunder and lightning really fun storms, but, um, it was warm rain, um, and the thunder and lightning was far. They never cleared the beach. So that beach is incredible, absolutely incredible. The water is beautiful.
Sara:Now, we could not get in the water for about two hours, I think, because they had spotted... wildlife.
Nathan:Okay.
Sara:Uh-huh. So, they kept us out of the water and then they had a boat going back and forth and checking and all the lifeguards were out there. They let people kind of wade up to their knees. Yeah.
Sara:But if you went in any farther you got. You know. Tweeted at. A whistle and tweeted by the lifeguards. And then, once they were decided that it was all clear, we were able to go in the water, got it. But wildlife, the food you know it's very similar to Castaway the food and the lunch experience. I feel like there's more seating at Lookout and it's kind of more spread out.
Sara:Like there's more seating at Lookout and it's kind of more spread out, so the areas might have fewer tables in them but there are more areas with tables. Very similar to Castaway in that term. But we loved it. We're going back a couple times next year and I'm excited because I will feel better, because also that day we went back and I wasn't feeling good by the time we left, right after lunch, because I just was. I was worried about making it back to the ship on the pier and I did end up getting a tram ride back.
Sara:They were like are you OK? I was like maybe...? Go over there there's a tram. So I did take the golf cart back which before you get on one of those golf carts you need to know that they drive so fast down the pier. It's a little frightening because they are driving so fast down that pier. They are on a mission and those.
Sara:It was kind of interesting. We were talking to the driver. He is a local to the island and he just comes into the Disney beach to work, which is different than Castaway, which was kind of fun.
Nathan:Yeah.
Sara:But as soon as we got back on, I went to the medical center because I needed more. I needed more medicine, I needed more steroids because I had bronchitis. At that point, yeah yeah, it was so good...
Sara:But! The medical center was incredible. I was also afraid about the bill. Medical center, because again, you pay out of pocket.
Sara:I came away. It cost me $120. And that included three medications and a nebulizer treatment.
Alicea:Oh wow. Okay.
Sara:So I was afraid to go to the medical center yeah. And they were so fantastic I would highly recommend. If you don't feel good, you just go.
Nathan:Right, or, if you don't feel good, take a cruise.
Sara:It seemed like a good idea.
Nathan:You're going to get cheaper health care on a cruise ship.
Sara:I did think about that actually, when I got the bill I was like this is the cheapest medical care I've had in a really long time.
Alicea:Wow, all right.
Nathan:Circling back to Lighthouse and Castaway, which one's your favorite?
Sara:Oh, I really think it's Castaway. You can't compare it to the beach at Lookout. The sand is pink. It is the finest sand. Like, if you hold it up in the water, it literally disintegrates out of your hand. It's almost so fine, it's a powder. The sand is incredible. The water is so clear, but you can't beat Castaway for the ability to just walk off the ship and be at the beach and just the ease of not having to get on a shuttle and wait unless you want to.
Sara:So I think that's why Castaway pushes me over. And then the other thing is the day we were at Lookout was the photos and videos I've seen. It's been very, very calm. Yeah. And our day we had waves so people wanted to kind of snorkel at that family beach. Yeah. But it was, you couldn't really snorkel. So that protected area at Castaway, I feel like especially if you have little kids, is really good.
Alicea:Yeah, yeah, yeah, we've heard that from some other folks too that there's no barrier there. So if it's a if it's a rocky day, it's a rocky day and it gets pretty nasty.
Sara:Or if there's wildlife,
Alicea:yes, yes, if there's wildlife.
Nathan:I mean I would love it. I grew up on the ocean and so I like swimming and floating around and playing around in a really nice swell. But I get how many people would not like that at all. Kids, Like I said.
Sara:I get it Well, and it's not like a beach where you could like body surf or boogie board. It's just enough to be Kind of annoying, because it's not big enough to have fun. Yeah Right, yeah, yeah yeah. But it was fun. Everybody drug the chairs down to the edge of the water and kids were all making friends. That's good Building sandcastles. It was really. It's a beautiful beach.
Alicea:You could still build sandcastles with that type of sand.
Sara:Yeah, okay. If it's wet enough, cool yeah Back. Yeah, it's wet enough, okay yeah.
Alicea:Back on board. You got to do brunch in the private room in Palo. What was that like?
Sara:Well, that was very fun and it was not my first time in the private room, so we've done the private room now on the Wish and the Wonder and the Magic, and it's such Palo already is so special yeah.
Sara:And the food is so special, yeah, and the food is so incredible. And if you are traveling on the, if you're traveling with a group and you're planning on doing Palo, I highly recommend reserving that private room. Every server that I've had in the private rooms has said it's vacant most of the time because people don't know it exists, so each ship holds a different number of people.
Sara:The newer ships hold less, but um the Magic and the Wonder, both hold between I think it's 8 and 14 people, and so you have you know in a your own private server and it's just, it's a whole experience and it just adds that extra little magic to the Palo brunch.
Alicea:It's... we've done that once way in the before times in 2013, we met an extended family that was on the trip and they basically pulled us into their group.
Nathan:It was actually Tim and Audie, you know you know we met them as we were getting on board for our uh first, uh first Panama Canal crossing out of Miami. And yeah, we met in the terminal and they just adopted us and it was great and we got invited with their whole extended family to private dinner at Palo.
Alicea:They added us to their dinner rotation.
Sara:That's incredible.
Alicea:We got to their table then. Yeah, we were a part of their rotation. It was so fun.
Sara:I love that, the connections that you make on Disney cruises are so fun.
Nathan:Cruise Friends are the best friends w e've met...
Sara:... some of the most interesting people. It's just really really neat.
Nathan:Yes, cruise friends are the best friends, for sure.
Alicea:Okay, so you made your way back to Port Canaveral and had a night between sailings. Where did you stay?
Sara:We stayed at a Wyndham that's on the beach, okay, and it was just very. We wanted something very low key and right on the beach and we spent most of the day at the pool. And what was really fun is they were practicing unbeknownst to me because I just didn't do any research about. We just knew we were not leaving the hotel. Right.
Sara:They were practicing for the air show that started the next day. So we were getting all these very low flyovers over the hotel and the pool, and that was really fun, the hotel and the pool, and that was really fun. And then we also just drove around Cocoa Beach just kind of exploring because, I haven't really spent time...
Sara:You know you go to the cruise ship and then you go home, so I hadn't really driven around that area. So it was just kind of nice to explore and get the lay of the land.
Nathan:Yeah, we inadvertently got to spend a week there in Cocoa Beach a few years ago. It was absolutely fantastic. We missed a cruise because somebody, I won't name any names, but she's 20 and lives in our house, got COVID.
Sara:I might have met her.
Nathan:We had to skip our very first attempt at sailing on the Wish.
Sara:Oh, no!
Nathan:Yeah, we found a VRBO rental for a week and it had a pool and it was great and we had such a fantastic time down there and we go down to the beach. I think we saw a SpaceX rocket launch, from right near where we were staying and, yeah, we were still able to... we had rented it for two weeks and then Kaitlyn tested negative and we were good to go.
Nathan:We were able to go take our second cruise, so it all turned out okay.
Sara:It's a great little area. You know we had planned to do Kennedy Space Center but then we decided we would just be too tired after the cruise we just wanted to relax because that's such a day you almost need to. You know it is a night on the front and back and it's a pretty.
Nathan:I mean it's, it's not horrible, but it's probably a 45 minute to an hour drive from Cocoa beach because you can't go right up the the coast there. You have to go inland and then up and then back out onto the outer islands there. So, yeah, you probably made the right call.
Sara:Yeah, another trip.
Nathan:Yes, exactly.
Alicea:Would you recommend that hotel to others?
Sara:I would. It was good, it was clean. They had a really great free breakfast that was included. You're paying beachfront prices, but you're going to pay that kind of anywhere. I wish I could remember the name of it off the top of my head, the full name, but it's the Wyndham that's on the beach... Okay there's two there there's one on the beach, there's one not on the beach and they have the same name the full name is this the full name is the same.
Nathan:Of course. Thenks Wyndham!
Alicea:Did they have a shuttle to the um port?
Sara:They did, but I did not use it because we were with another family and they were going back to the airport. So together we rented a car, which was great. There was a shuttle that picked us up at the cruise terminal and took us right over to the car rental, which was right there, and we were on our way with just a few minutes.
Nathan:Nice.
Sara:And so they dropped us off at the port the next day.
Nathan:Nice, all right, so that next day you get back to the Disney terminal there and you get on board the fantastical, amazing Disney Treasure. This was your first chance to be on the Treasure... first impressions? What was it like jumping from Disney's oldest ship to their newest?
Sara:Well, it's really made me think, rethink. Um, you know the recommendations that I made. The Treasure is so beautiful, she is so perfect, her every space. You guys have been on her so you know every space is so well thought out, and I was on the Wish in March, so I have also a very recent comparison to the other ship that's currently in that class and the Treasure is just heads and shoulders better is better than the Wish. The Wish is a beautiful ship, but every space on the Treasure is just so well thought out.
Sara:And she's so beautiful and the detail everywhere is incredible, like the carpet. I have a whole, probably 30 videos just me filming the carpet around the ship because it was so pretty. Yeah, they just did. They hit it. I mean, they have big shoes to fill with the Destiny and subsequent ships, because that's the new standard.
Nathan:Yeah, 100%.
Alicea:Did you get to see anything with Coriander and Sage?
Alicea:Oh that, look there...
Sara:I don't know.
Nathan:Oh, you need to get back on the Treasure, Sara.
Sara:Well, obviously I need to get back on the Treasure. That is not up for discussion, but when is the question?
Nathan:So Coriander and Sage are the two kind of, adventure hosts I think is their billing.
Sara:Oh yes, yes, we did, we did the Adventure Tea! We did the Adventure Tea so we did.
Sara:You know I had a moment...
Sara:Oh, we did the Adventure Tea, so we did they. You know I had Gathering, a moment. Yes, they came and we've done now the Royal Gathering no... not the Royal Gathering the Magic Court Royal Wonder Tea, which Dream is the Meet Fantasy. And activity on. They have Royal Picnic have Olaf's Wish, Yeah, wonder, the dream and the fantasy.
Sara:And then they have olaf's royal picnic on the wish yeah I've done that, and now we've done the royal adventure tea got it and it's different because they actually come and you go on a full adventure around the atrium before you go into the restaurant
Alicea:I saw that and I was wondering what that was, because it's coriander sage, followed by just a whole slew of kids. And I didn't know what was going on. I was like, oh, this is kind of cute.
Sara:Okay, that's the beginning of the tea. So they go on this whole adventure and they give them this whole storyline before you go in and get seated at 1923.
Sara:That experience is really fun. Now that we've done them on all the ships, we probably won't do them again, but I highly recommend them. It's so fun and when you get into the restaurant it's a whole entertainment, it's a whole show and the princesses come, and when you're on the Wish, Olaf comes and you come away with a whole suitcase of swag.
Sara:You have to figure out how to get home. But yeah, it's very fun and they were very fun.
Alicea:Yes, and this is one of the rare times where the adult price for this is... it's the cheap fare compared to the kids.
Sara:Very cheap it's only $75 as opposed to $250 per child.
Alicea:Is it worth the price tag?
Sara:You know, I think it is worth the price tag once, okay? It would be hard to justify the price tag twice, because part of what you're paying for is all the swag. So, on this we've got, they got like this um fabric sash like an adventure sash. They got um an adventure, um crossbody tote like a backpack, a crossbody backpack, kind of like the old castaway backpacks, that kind of style, and it has an emblem from all the different princesses that you might see your experience might be different depending on what princesses are available to come to the tea. So they have, I think, like five different emblems. And then you have like a key chain and they got a really beautiful autograph, an activity book, a set of binoculars, um, you get your photo with all of the princesses at the end in a big eight by ten thing yeah they deliver to your cabin um, frame, um.
Sara:I feel like I'm missing something else that they got. I mean, oh yeah, they got a little shoulder, one of those magnet shoulder, um,
Alicea:shoulder pal
Sara:yeah, a shoulder pal. And they got Pascal from Rapunzel which is very fun. So you know you're, you're, that's what you're paying for with the kids, it's not just the experience, but all the swag that you're taking home. But you get a whole trays of um snacks and treats and it's really fun, but it's probably for most people a one and done.
Nathan:Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense, that makes sense.
Alicea:So is that the the one thing that you saw, Coriander and Sage at?
Sara:I feel like we saw them someplace else, but now I'm trying to think about where we saw them.
Alicea:You definitely need to go on again and try and see anything and everything you can with them, because they are amazing.
Sara:They were so funny. They're amazing, they were so funny yeah.
Alicea:They do an adults-only retelling of, or kind of retelling, a choose-your-own-adventure of the Indiana Jones movies.
Sara:Oh boy.
Alicea:It's hilarious. They do a jungle cruise excursion in the middle of the atrium and that's all ages and that's all ages.
Sara:Yes, part of my problem on the Treasure was, um, I just didn't, um, I didn't do as much night life activity. Well, truly, I, you know my kids are still little enough that after dinner, if we go to the show, that's kind of all that they have in them. It's time to go to bed. Sometimes they can do the kids club for 45 minutes or an hour, but we pay the price the next morning.
Sara:So as my kids get older, I'm looking forward to more nighttime activities because the schedule is so jam-packed with fun stuff at night for it is For adults, it is.
Nathan:Well, you'll get there, yep. Someday and make sure you check in with Coriander and Sage, okay? W e love that they're bringing that kind of element of we've called it on other episodes like streetmosphere, Like you see it, you know, in the parks. They're bringing that to the ships and it's just so fantastic
Sara:Yeah, we did notice that with characters too. There were a lot of characters out on that ship and we experienced them in a way that we haven't on other ships, where they're just wandering around, taking photos, and they're not on the schedule. And that was really fun. We met several characters that way nice and it was a lot more laid back and kind of fun you had some shore excursion highlights on this seven-nighter.
Nathan:It was a western caribbean itinerary. You let your kiddos pick your excursion in Cozumel...
Sara:Sure did!
Nathan:What did they go with?
Sara:Sure did. They selected the National Geographic... um. They selected the National Geographic Bee Rescue Tour. And it was either that or snorkeling at shipwrecks.
Sara:So this is what they chose and it was actually really good. I figured anything with National Geographic in the title was going to be done very well, and we went. They get you on a little bus. It was very small, which was nice. I think there were maybe only 15 or 16 people on the tour. It was a very small. There were some other kids, um, and they bus you almost to the other side of the island. If you've ever been to Cozumel, they really have like one road and so you're almost to the beach on the other side.
Sara:We did go... They drove us over to the beach so we could see it on the way back. But out into the jungle and it's just, it's really fascinating. It's a bee rescue center and this woman founded it 10 years ago when she discovered that when bees are found on the island, the fire department is called and they kill them all with hoses. They hose them down and kill them.
Nathan:Oh my gosh.
Sara:And yeah, and so she was the first bee rescue place on the island. There are a couple of them now, but she goes out and she rescues the bees and bring them back, and what was fascinating was how many different types of bees that she had. Some of them were so small. They looked like flies. I would have thought they were a fly. Most of them do not sting, but they're all honeybees, so we got to try probably like 20 different types of honey.
Sara:And different things that they made with honey. We got to crush cocoa beans and make fresh cocoa powder and then mix it with honey, and then we made hot chocolate and put honey in it. So it was a very hands-on, really very fun. It was a very fun excursion and my kids loved it. That's awesome and they made friends with a bee. A bee came and landed on another kid and he gave it to one of my kids. His name was Waxy and he stayed with my kids for about an hour.
Nathan:Oh, my gosh
Sara:And um the people at the bee center were like this is not normal, you have to post on social media about this because this is not normal behavior. But they had to actually take the bee from my kids and put it back in the hive because it would not, it would not leave it would not leave. They fed it, they put some honey on my daughter's hand and the bee came and ate it all.
Nathan:Wow
Sara:It was wild, it was wild, so it was very fun highly recommend if you're like don't need another beach day if you want something that's educational and fun and really hands-on.
Sara:Highly recommend
Nathan:that's awesome
Alicea:Yeah. What did you do in Grand Cayman?
Sara:So at Grand Cayman we booked and canceled a number of excursions.
Sara:I had a real hard time narrowing it down. Ultimately, we went on one that took us to Stingray City and then Starfish Beach. So you get on a little bus and then Starfish Beach. They take you to a boat that takes you out to the sandbar that is known as Stingray City. And I love the little history that you get when you do these excursions. Disney doesn't just hire people to take you on excursions. You get history of the places and how Stingray City came to be. It did not used to have stingrays at it. They were having a problem in town with cleaning the fish when the fishing boats would come back they were having this huge problem with. I think it was raccoons.
Sara:No, it wasn't raccoons, Some animal they were having problems with Squirrels, maybe I don't know, I don't know, I don't remember. Don't quote me. I was on vacation.
Nathan:This won't go public, Sara, don't worry.
Sara:Okay good
Nathan:Nobody listens to this.
Sara:So they told the fishermen, you have to go out to the sandbar to clean your fish, and so, and have them cleaned before you come back to the town. Well then, all the stingrays showed up, got it, and they never left. So, now it's a place for tourists to go have stingrays. I would not recommend it for anybody less than maybe my daughter was kind of like the youngest age I would recommend so they anchor on this sandbar with like 20 other boats.
Sara:Yeah, and everybody just gets into the water and it's like kind of deep water yeah you've got waves you've got people and they're stingrays everywhere.
Nathan:Oh my gosh
Sara:They're everywhere. And then you have the tour guides are like throwing stingrays in your face, like so you can pet them and hold them, and it was kind of a lot, it was kind of stressful. Um, my kids are great swimmers but they had life jackets. Not everybody chose to life jacket. Their kiddo, my kids had, like their, you know, their masks on. They're trying to look and it was just.
Sara:It was a lot, but it was very fun. They made sure that we got pictures taken with them, we kissed them, we held them.
Sara:One crazy thing did happen, though, and like we were done after that... So I'm holding my daughter and they gave us all squid because we're gonna feed the stingrays now okay and then they're they're taking the stingray around to eat everybody's squid and they said hold it above the water. if you put it in the water, the fish will come eat it.
Sara:So I'm trying to hold it up. She's trying to hold hers up. I'm trying to to hold her. There's like waves, there's stingrays everywhere. A stingray jumped on gosh, like came out of the water. I didn't know they could do ! that Came out of the water onto me, took the food from my hand. I'm like take it, go. And my daughter, like threw her food and then it whipped around and the tail hit her in the face and it was terrifying. I was like, oh my god, are you, are you okay? Are you okay? And it was just, it hit her goggles, but she was fine five. But I was like okay, we're getting out now yeah, we're done and we're getting out um.
Sara:If son loved the excursion yeah, my daughter was a little bit, not so sure um, but gosh, it was incredible to see them, and they were everywhere.
Sara:And then they we get back on the boat and they take us to... They took us to starfish beach, which isn't so much of a beach, but there are tons and tons of starfish to see and, um, you can't take them out of the water, which is it's kind of a protected area, but it is um the seaweed season, so the water wasn't very clear there, but we had lunch.
Sara:And it was like a traditional Cayman Islands type of lunch, kind of like a chicken, almost Jamaican and then they take you back to the ship and it was a full day and I highly recommend that too. But Stingray City, really, I mean, I would almost say like the older kids might even be better yeah.
Nathan:Speaking of Jamaica. I think that was your other stop. Did you get anything to do anything there?
Sara:We, we did not. We've actually been to Jamaica before and we did have a really fun excursion planned and I canceled it so that we can stay on the ship because there was just so much I felt like we had not yet done on the ship that we can stay on the ship because there was just so much I felt like we had not yet done on the ship that we just wanted to enjoy a ship day, and I'm so glad that we did that.
Sara:I'm so glad that we just stayed and, um you know, did the Aqua Mouse over, and over and just hung out in the pools and got some. You know it was a great day.
Nathan:Yeah, and that's actually a big difference, where one of the bigger differences between the Eastern and the Western Caribbean itineraries is that you get three ports of call plus Castaway on the Western, and you just get two plus Castaway on the Eastern, so there's an extra sea day when you're talking about the Treasure, where you know the ship really is a highlight. Like it's kind of nice to have that extra day on shore excuse me, on the ship.
Sara:Yeah, I knew what you meant. Well, and that in Jamaica. You know Jamaica is a great place. I highly recommend going on an actual vacation to Jamaica. I've done it now a couple of times and we love it there yeah but everything is far from the ship yeah, so we didn't want to sit on a bus for 45 minutes or an hour going to our excursion that time was better used on the ship yeah, yeah cool, we did have a surprise port oh, uh-huh, do you? Yeah, we had.
Sara:We had a surprise port they, on the night before we were going to Cast away, they made an announcement that there was a medical emergency on board. Yeah. And so we, um we made an overnight stop at Lookout Cay on the way to Cast away, so we were delayed getting to Cast away by about 45 minutes. I don't know exactly when we stopped at Lookout Cay. I did not hear it.
Sara:Um, I didn't hear us pull into port, but apparently we got there and they did a medical transfer, um to the person um there got it so that was an but the crew did a great job of, you know, getting Castaway open faster than normal so that we didn't have a significant delay getting off the ship.
Nathan:Nice, well, and that's I... We did an episode comparing the two spots a long time ago. Well, not a not a long time ago, but a little bit ago. And like the Lookout and Castaway aren't exactly close. Like, they're, I want us to like 120 or 140 miles between the two. So that was probably earlier in the in the evening, and then they must have hauled butt to get up to Castaway.
Sara:Well, we did, it was, I mean it was, we did not. We didn't port until after we went to bed, and I think I went to bed at 10 or 1030, maybe a little. We went to a show that night. So you know it was a later night for us and we had not gotten to look out, but you know we were, we were moving. We were moving that night and the next morning before we got to Castaway, because when I woke up we were still not at Castaway.
Alicea:How was your second stop at Castaway?
Sara:It was so good I was I was feeling 100% better.
Sara:Um, you know, we got off as soon as they said we could and rushed over to the family beach and, you know, claimed a spot. You kind of have to do that on the family beach there early if you want, you know, to be up close by the water. But we had a great time. We just relaxed. Everybody was very laid back by that point in the cruise and we went snorkeling again and it was good because I actually felt great and we got to see all the different things that we couldn't find the first time or we got too tired to find the first time. And the coolest thing that we found was this giant shell with an animal in it. I think it was a conch.
Sara:But I don't know for sure, but it was giant so big and it was a conch, okay, but I don't know for sure, but it was giant, so big and it was really cool these people picked it up for my kids to like see it and touch it. Yeah, um, and it was. It was really neat. It was very fun to see very cool.
Nathan:Well, speaking of things that are giant, you know the Disney Treasure, has some new shows on it. Uh, well, it has A new show on it...
Sara:A new show yeah.
Nathan:What did you think of Moana?
Sara:Okay, Moana needs to be on Broadway.
Nathan:It's that good?
Sara:It is that good. Just the way that they... I mean, I kind of knew what to expect because I'd seen the special on Disney Plus about the making of it and it still blew me out of the water.
Sara:I don't want to give any spoilers but, the way, the way that they use those puppets was just incredible, and we were in the second row, which was incredible, and it just... You know, we don't necessarily go to all the shows anymore because we've seen, I'm sure you know, once you've seen them, sometimes you're like, oh, I'm going to do something else, but that one I wish that we had gone to the early show, the two o'clock show, because we probably would have gone back again. It was that good.
Sara:And I'm very excited to see that they're doing the oversized puppets for Hercules on the Destiny, because that's going to be incredible too. Amazing.
Alicea:Yeah, we've seen just from the socials that Disney has posted. It looks so good.
Sara:Incredible, yep yep
Sara:And did you see that, the cabanas that were being built? Yeah are available for booking now, starting in December.
Nathan:Ah, I had not seen that yet. That was my suspicion that they looked like they were tracking towards late this year.
Sara:And they're family cabanas. surprising, everybody.
Nathan:All of them are family cabanas?
Sara:There's 28 family cabanas and one of them is a grand cabana, and they're not quite double the price of the family beach at Castaway in price
Nathan:Wow.
Alicea:Interesting.
Sara:Yeah, for the first six people yeah.
Nathan:Huh, because why?
Sara:I don't know, but they're calling it Mickey and Minnie's Cove. Um, so it'll be. You know, I'm excited for more details to come out to see because they look. When I was there I was like gosh, those look just about done yeah um, but you still can't really tell how many there are, but they're 28 and I'll be interested to see what the plan is for lunch, if they'll have to take the shuttle back over to cookies too. Yeah, because that for lunch, if they'll have to take the shuttle back over to Cookies 2.
Sara:Because if they're kids, they're not going to the Serenity.
Nathan:Yeah it looks like there was a big cinder.... We were there in April and there was a very big cinder block building that was being built. I kind of want to think kind of behind, where the cast or the serenity bay, um kind of cookout place, is I wonder if that will be a dedicated food spot for those family cabanas maybe yeah maybe interesting it would be.
Sara:It would have to be pretty small, though, if it's just serving those cabanas.
Alicea:Right, yeah Right. I was hoping those would be available mid-November.
Sara:December 5th.
Alicea:Yeah, dang Sorry, oh well. Oh well, so you previously sailed on the Wish. What did you think of the spaces that are different between the two ships?
Sara:You know, Treasure just did everything better in my opinion. You know there's no comparison. You cannot.
Sara:Hyperspace Lounge is cool, but it doesn't compare to the Haunted Mansion
Nathan:Correct.
Sara:Like it, just it doesn't. And the other spaces, you know, the thing about the Wish is they're just not memorable, they're beautifully done. Yes. But they're not memorable, whereas every space that we went into on the treasure I was like, wow, this is incredible, I'm just going to sit here and look around.
Sara:All of the detail. You know we spent a lot of time doing family crafts and stuff in the Jungle Cruise themed lounge. Skippers, and you know, every time we sat there, I purposely selected a different place to sit, because it was all new it was a whole new experience. You know, it was really neat.
Nathan:Anything you hope they change with the Destiny, which I don't think they're going to do a ton of of new differences, but maybe the the future to Wish class ships that are coming. There's another one that's, I think, in 2028, that'll be here in the in the North American market, and then there'll be one for Japan. Any kind of structural changes that that you'd like to see them make?
Sara:You know, I know it's so controversial. People either love or don't love that class of ship. I really do like it. It took me a minute to like navigate my way around but once I got it, I was like oh, I actually really like this yeah um, it's I, she's just very community focused and not as many nooks and crannies.
Sara:I do like the nooks and crannies, but um, there's just, it just feels more open.
Sara:the one thing I hope they I know it's not going to change on the Destiny is I feel like we need a revamp of the restaurants. You know we have so many repeats across the fleet.
Sara:And the ones that are unique, like Coco was so good, yeah, so good, and I picked, I requested a dining rotation. We got it, and so we were at Coco three times nice and just it's so special and 1923 is beautiful and the food is incredible. But we've done it now on two ships and it's going to be on a third ship, so it would be fun to see something different there, yeah, or something different in the marble space yeah they're all cool, but that's what kind of one of the draws, in my opinion, of going on the different ships is experiencing those unique spaces.
Nathan:I mean definitely the Marvel restaurant is going to be the Marvel restaurant on the Destiny.
Alicea:It has to be on the Destiny.
Sara:Oh for sure
Nathan:That's not going to change.
Sara:And we know we're getting Lion King in place of Coco, which I think is you know, we don't have any Lion King rides at any of the parks.
Nathan:Not yet. It's coming in Paris, paris, but as of now, we don't have anything.
Sara:And that's been one of you know it's been one of the biggest movies for Disney ever. It's kind of funny that we don't have a lot of theming for it so. I'm excited for that along those lines.
Nathan:What do you think about doubling up on the Haunted Mansion bar?
Sara:It's cool enough. I think it's okay.
Nathan:All right.
Sara:I was surprised, yeah.
Nathan:I came up with an idea. I think this is a few shows ago now. I think, yes, they should do the Haunted Mansion bar again on the Destiny, but it should be the Muppets version, yep.
Sara:Wow
Nathan:You can take the Muppets out of our parks, but oh, by the way, they're on the cruise ship now. Hey, you want to stop doing discounts for your sailings, DCL? Put the Muppets on a ship.
Sara:You're going to need to cut this out too. Um, but I did...
Nathan:[Voiceover] Sorry folks, we went a little bit too far inside baseball here, so we're going to skip ahead just a little bit.
Nathan:[A few moments later.]
Nathan:o me, this tells me it will be an 11 ship fleet. Eventually yeah, the three of the new class. Two of those are replacing the Magic and the Wonder.
Sara:They're going to have to. Well, they need to replace it.
Nathan:But everybody's like, oh no, those aren replacing the Magic and the Wonder there's, they're going to have to. They're well, they need to replace it. But everybody's like, oh no, those aren't going to be the replacements, cause Disney said it's going to be 13 ship fleet.
Sara:So then like five minutes,
Nathan:Right yeah exactly. Exactly.
Sara:five minutes.
Nathan:The third one of those will come out, and then you'll have a season of the new hotness with the 13 ship fleet, and then you'll have a grand send-off season for the Magic, and then a retirement season for the Wonder.
Sara:Yeah, yeah so there's well, I mean they've already Galveston already said yes, that when they sign that new contract with Disney they're going to be bringing over bigger ships probably the Dream and the Fantasy, at least the first couple years. But they're going to have enough of the big ships that we could see the Wish move over down the road I don't think it's going to be immediately, but I think down the road we might see a very different distribution of ships.
Alicea:And I know they haven't released the itineraries yet, but people are doing research online because they can see where the ships are gonna be, because all of that's public, right? So you can kind of piece stuff together.
Sara:Yeah, and I'm hoping that it means we're going to get a ship on the West Coast.
Alicea:I hope so
Sara:More especially with them, adding Catalina.
Nathan:Well, they've committed to a full year season in Catalina with two, yeah, so yeah, I think it's going to be good.
Nathan:Yeah.
Sara:It'll be good for West Coast 100%, 100%.
Alicea:You've been on a bunch of DCL ships, now which one is your favorite?
Sara:Well, you cannot compare it to the Treasure.
Nathan:Hands down.
Sara:Hands down the Treasure. I think second would be the Wonder. She's a beautiful ship. I love the little ships. Her theming is so good, it's just very different than the Treasure. You're going to get a very different experience on those two ships, but that's also what I really love is that there is a ship for everybody and every type of travel. Yeah, but the Treasure I mean, you can't compare. I can hardly wait to figure out when I can get back on her,
Nathan:Anything else stick out in your mind that uh, from your trip that we haven't talked about?
Sara:There was a very strange encounter with bees on our ship.
Nathan:On the ship?
Sara:On the ship. I will find the photo and send it to you.
Sara:Um, but there was a swarm of bees. That appeared on the pool deck, on a pool chair. And I don't know what they did with it. I never heard the end of the story, but there was a swarm of bees on the pool deck, which I've never heard of happening on a cruise ship when you were in port. I think it was in while we were in port.
Nathan:Yeah, which do you remember where?
Sara:it was on the Treasure. I think it was when we were in Grand Cayman, otherwise they could have called the bee rescue place yeah but like where did they come from? I don't know yeah no, it was a really great um.
Sara:You know, the day that we got on the ship, on the Treasure, my daughter was like I'm ready to go home and I was like sweet girl, I kind am too, but I'm really looking forward to getting on the Treasure. We've now done on Disney Cruise Line a two night, a three night, a four night, a five night and a seven night In that order, which was not on purpose, but it just really reiterated for me that I don't love a cruise that's shorter than five nights. We have a couple that we're doing next year. I didn't pick the itinerary on any of them, or we probably wouldn't be but when you go, when you make that jump from a five night to a seven night, it's just a different pace of vacation and you can truly relax and settle in and really take advantage of all the things that the ships have to do. And, that being said, we didn't even get to like three quarters of the things that we wanted to do on the treasure.
Sara:You, just you can't fit it all in and relax on vacation either at the same time, but it's just a better pace. I think it's a different type of traveler too.
Alicea:Everybody's just a little bit more relaxed yeah, which I like yeah, yep yep. I joke with Nathan that the next time we do the Treasure it needs to be a back-to-back
Sara:Well, I've thought about it, I'm not gonna lie.
Nathan:So now we have a back-to-back on the Treasure and we're demanding like an 11 or 12 night on the Celebrity down South...
Sara:I'm gonna have to sell a kidney...
Nathan:Right exactly!
Alicea:I'd rather do the Treasure back-to-back before the Celebrity something...
Nathan:All right, we don't we don't need both kids, do we?
Sara:They don't... We don't need to pay for college no, none of that.
Alicea:No, she's almost done none of that. She's got that covered yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sara:There's just something so great about that ship I just cannot stop thinking about how am I gonna fit that in? And there are so many other places in the world that we want to go to and so many other things that we want to do but I, just I, my heart is cruising. And easy cruising.
Nathan:Yes, yes. So, speaking of what's next, what's your next Disney trip?
Sara:Well, in a few days we are leaving to go. We're actually going on a Royal Caribbean cruise out of LA, and when my daughter found out there were no Magic Bands, she declared Royal Caribbean is the worst. We'll see how that goes.
Sara:It's going to be great because we can compare kids clubs and experiences for kids across different different cruise lines. And then we're going to be doing four nights at Disneyland and really excited to celebrate the 70th anniversary at Disneyland and and then we are getting on the Disney Destiny in March for For a four-night sailing. We're going to both Disney Islands and leaving out of Fort Lauderdale, and then in April...
Nathan:And skipping Nassau!
Sara:Skipping Nassau, it's a big day.
Sara:And then we're doing the same itinerary on the Dream in April. And then we are doing Alaska in July on the Wonder
Nathan:wow
Sara:Which I'm so excited to take my kids to Alaska. I've been waiting until they're old enough to kind of enjoy some of the excursions and it's time yeah,
Nathan:That'll be fantastic. We really liked our alaska cruise on the Celebrity Edge. I really, I really want to do that with Disney but...
Sara:Yes, you know, Celebrity is a great option If you, you know, I feel like my kids are a little too young for Celebrity. I have friends that have taken kids my kids's age Celebrity, and on the right itinerary. I feel like Alaska could be that right itinerary, right? You're not spending as much time in the kids club because you're out in port, but yeah, I can't wait to get on some Celebrity ships.
Nathan:For our early teen, 13-year-old son Sterling, the Celebrity ship was just not his jam and it was fine when we were doing, like you said, all those excursions. But there's several sea days on those Alaska itineraries and it was just yeah, it wasn't not his favorite cruise.
Sara:So well and you've raised Disney kids that are used to being entertained in the teen space, the vibe and the edge of the kids club, and that's hard to... You just don't get that on other cruise
Nathan:Sterling didn't understand why we just like hung out all day at the martini bar Like it just wasn't his jam.
Sara:So yeah, it's our jam.
Nathan:Exactly 100%.
Sara:And truthfully, I don't want to go on a cruise to get rid of my kids and not vacation with my kids, but I also really appreciate having built-in childcare and not having to cook or clean. I did do laundry on both of our cruises, um, so I did that, but it's kind of fun, because you're on a ship. It's different.
Alicea:Sara, you are a travel agent. What do you specialize in and how can people find you?
Sara:I am a full-time travel agent and, I specialize in all things Disney. So Disney world, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line. And all cruise lines I book a lot of, you know, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Virgin Voyages, Princess, Holland America, kind of all those things and you know I have extensive worldwide travel experience personally, and so I've also helped a lot of clients travel kind of off the beaten path around the globe, so I can really help with just about anything, and if I'm not the right fit, I can usually refer you to somebody who is a better fit for your destination if it's not something that I feel super comfortable with. I have a Facebook business page. I'm Magical Adventures with Sara. I'm also on TikTok, I dabble in Instagram, but it's really just dabbling and so I have a link tree that has all of those links available as well that I can share.
Nathan:Excellent, awesome, and we'll make sure that gets in our show notes too.
Nathan:So thank you so much for coming on with us, Sara, tonight. It was such a great pleasure catching up with you again, and we can't wait to hear more about all of your magical adventures, for sure.
Sara:Thanks. It's always such a fun time to come chat with you guys, so thanks for having me back.
Nathan:Absolutely.
Nathan:Please remember we're not affiliated with Disney or any of their subsidiaries. These are personal opinions and suggestions based on our own experiences Well, ours and Sara's. We recommend working with a travel agent, just like Sara, or contacting Disney directly to plan your perfect vacation.
Alicea:If you have any questions or suggestions or would like to be interviewed on our show to share your own experiences, please send an email to podcast at ourmousecapadescom.
Nathan:Go ahead and follow us on socials. We're at Ourousecapadescom. Go ahead and follow us on socials. We're at Our Mousecapades. You can find us on Instagram, facebook Threads and YouTube.
Alicea:Please take a moment and give us a rating and review in your podcast app. It really helps people find us.
Nathan:And, of course, don't hesitate to share us with your friends and fellow Disney lovers of all ages.
Alicea:Thank you for listening. We'll be in your ears next week. Thank you for flying star tours. Bye.
