199. First Voyage Magic

Episode Transcript
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(00:16):
Hello everyone.
I'm Alicea.

Nathan (00:25):
I'm Nathan.
I'm Daniel.

Callie (00:27):
And I'm Callie.

Alicea (00:29):
Welcome to this week's episode of Adventures and Mouse
capades.

Nathan (00:33):
This week, as you can hear, we've got Daniel and
Callie on who recently embarkedon their very first Disney
cruise.
Now, we're old hats when itcomes to sailing with Disney,
but there's something aboutreliving the excitement with
folks who are just experiencingDisney cruising for the very
first time.
And we wanted to share thatwith y'all.

(00:53):
Plus, they got to visit bothCastaway and Lookout on the same
trip.
So you know it was a greatadventure.
So without further ado, welcomeDaniel and Callie.

Callie (01:05):
Thanks.
Glad to be here.

Daniel (01:07):
Yeah.

Nathan (01:08):
So what was Disney's influence on you two growing up?
Did you go to the parks abunch?
Was Mouserc ize on from theDisney Channel every morning?

Callie (01:18):
Like Yeah, I grew up going to Disneyland a little
bit, and then we moved to theEast Coast.
So I did a couple Disney Worldtrips in college, but we've
never taken our kids.
And so this was really ourfirst foray into anything Disney
with our kids.

Daniel (01:38):
Oh wow.

Callie (01:39):
Yeah.

Daniel (01:40):
And for me growing up, Disney just met those movies.
Um and so we I went to DisneyWorld one time in sixth grade.
Uh we did one day, and uh ityeah, it was it was really fun.
Um but nothing really stood outbecause it was a quick trip and
it my family um I mean Disneyis is great.

(02:03):
It wasn't necessarily a huge uhthing that we did consistently
at all.

Nathan (02:07):
So yeah, no, that that makes that makes a lot of sense.
Yeah.

Alicea (02:12):
Who was in your sailing party on this trip?

Callie (02:16):
Yeah, so this was a trip for my dad's retirement.
He just retired from being anairline captain, and so he and
my mom decided to take me, athree brothers and all of our
families.
Oh wow, celebration trip.

Daniel (02:33):
So there was a total of 17 of us.

Callie (02:35):
Yeah, 17 of us.

Daniel (02:36):
Uh not wait, eight kids.

Callie (02:38):
Eight kids.

Daniel (02:39):
Half of them were ours, and then uh the other half were
cousins, and uh yeah, it was itwas a it was a big party and a
lot of fun.
A lot of fun.
Yeah the ages of all the kids,so our four kids, um, we have
two boys and two girls.
Our two boys are eight.
I'm sorry, our well, they'reten and eight, and our girls are

(03:01):
six and four.
Um, and our ten-year-old is theoldest cousin, so all of our
all of the cousins are allbetween um ten and how old three
Shiloh's three.
So it's a pretty narrow windowof kids, but it it there was a
lot of them, and it felt a lotof fun, a lot of energy.

Nathan (03:19):
Yeah, I was gonna just gonna say that.
That is a a ton of energy goingon.

Daniel (03:24):
Yeah.
Some good energy, some not asgood energy.

Nathan (03:28):
But was this everybody's first Disney cruise?

Callie (03:31):
It was.
It was.

Nathan (03:32):
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.

Callie (03:34):
And I think we were the biggest group on this sailing.
Uh yeah, there's several.

Daniel (03:40):
At least at our meal time, we were the biggest group.
Yeah.
Okay.

Alicea (03:44):
And you were on the Disney Magic, which is the OG
Disney ship.
What brought you all to thisparticular itinerary and ship?

Callie (03:54):
Yeah, I think that well, my parents were the ones that
picked it and planned it.
But their thinking was thatbecause it was the smallest
ship, it would be less crowded,the beaches would be easier to
manage and have less people.
And they just liked the idea ofit being a little bit smaller

(04:15):
for our group.

Daniel (04:16):
Especially with the ages of all the kids.
A smaller ship is going to be easier and safer for them, Umif we lose somebody or or
whatever it may happen.

Nathan (04:26):
But and then you sailed out of Port Canaveral, right?

Callie (04:31):
We did.

Nathan (04:31):
Okay.
Yes.

Daniel (04:32):
Is that the Orlando port? Well, near
So we flew into Orlando.
Yeah.
We all stayed in a hotel thatnight, and then the next day
took transportation down to CapeCanaveral.
And that was really easy.
We did private transportation.
Okay.
So um yeah, they just droppedus off right there, and it was

(04:53):
like such a high getting on andseeing the boat for the first
time, and the kids all withtheir Mickey ears.
It was so cute and so exciting.
Logistically, it was a lot faster than I thought it
would be.
Um, we uh we got on there, theporters took our luggage, and I
I feel like we just kind of gotin line, went through, and oh,
we're going on the boat now.

(05:13):
It was it was pretty quick.
It was I was surprised.

Callie (05:15):
Yeah, there was hardly a line.

Nathan (05:17):
Yeah.
How did you do a lot ofresearch before you got on?
Did you know what to expect?

Daniel (05:23):
So uh the research that we have done was a lot of
YouTube videos that like we justsearch, you know, what I wish I
knew before going on my firstDisney cruise or listening to a
few episodes of y'all's podcast.
Um and so we had some contextand lot, you know, just it I
feel like it wasn't uh more thethe expectations we had weren't

(05:47):
um wasn't of the wholeexperience, it was a lot of like
individual, oh, at dinner, youwe need to remember we can order
more than one dessert if wewant to.
Or like yeah, lots ofindividual little little tidbits
here and there.
Yeah.
Um and so I I don't know,expectation-wise, I I was I was
blown away the whole time.
It was just so fun.

Callie (06:07):
The kids, you know, really liked looking ahead of
time of like, what do the waterslides look like?
And am I gonna be tall enoughto ride them?
You know, and things like that.
Um like the themed dinners andmaking sure that we had outfits,
you know, princess dresses thatmatched the Rapunzel's royal
table and then Lumiere's Beautyand the Beast theme.
So our girls, of course, had tohave the Rapunzel dresses, the

(06:30):
Belle dresses to have for thosedinners.
So there was a lot of YouTubevideos, and you know, we went
sort of at the end of oursummer, and so on those like
boring summer days, they wouldbe like, Mom, can we watch
YouTube videos about the cruise?
You know, and I'd always like,Yeah, of course.
Like I want to, too.

Daniel (06:51):
Yeah.
I think too, um, for me as a asa parent too, I did a lot of
it, my own research of you knowwhat's what to expect.
Um, and a lot, I think Istressed more than I needed to
about setting our kids'expectations for what it's gonna
be like.
Yeah.
Um, because especially our ouroldest, our you know, um, or
really any any of our kids,they'll have expectations it's

(07:14):
gonna be this way.
And if it's not exactly thatway, or it's different anyway,
it's that's a it's a hugeletdown and and and frustrated,
even though we're doingsomething amazing.
And so um I had done, you know,a lot of like I was trying to
do more prep with our kids, youknow, with my son who would
like, I want to be in the poolall day long.

(07:34):
I was like, the absolutelythat'd be a lot of fun.
There's a lot of other thingsgoing on, but as well as you
know, I've I've read that youknow the pool is kind of like
kid sous.
There's just a lot of people inthere.
And so it may not be exactlywhat you expect.
So we did a lot ofconversations around um trying
to hold expectations loosely,specifically for our kids, um,
that I think was all completelyunnecessary, honestly.

(07:55):
Yeah, basically everything wasjust so amazing.

Alicea (07:57):
But you never know.

Daniel (07:58):
Yeah.

Callie (07:59):
Yeah, you really never know.
And when you're when you'vebeen looking forward to
something for so long and youhave it built up in your head so
much, you know, as it was ourfirst time, we had no idea what
it would be like.
And it totally did live up tothe hype.
So it's awesome.
We didn't have any concernsthere.
Yeah.
Yeah.

Daniel (08:18):
Yeah.
One little anecdote, what Ihave a I have like a health
tracking ring.
And uh about two days in, I gotan al or it's like day three or
four, I got an alert that said,like, you you've reached a new
low average for your stresslevel on things.
I was like, yeah, that soundsabout right.
Nice.

Nathan (08:35):
That is us.
We can physically feel like ourblood pressure drop by like 25
points when we drive onto Disneyproperty, like especially in
Florida.
You go over under the archesand it says, like, you know,
welcome to Disney World.
And we both just have thisphysical, like, huh, yeah.
Yeah, exactly.

Alicea (08:54):
It's exactly all right.
So, first impressions, what didyou think when you got on board
The Magic?

Daniel (09:02):
So, one little piece of background for Callie and I, on
our 10-year anniversary, when wewe went on a cruise, not a
Disney cruise, um, it wasNorwegian, um, and it was an
Alaskan cruise.
Um, and so and it was a lot offun.
It was great, it was our firsttime ever going on a cruise.
Um, so that kind of set a lotof expectations for me of like

(09:24):
it'll be kind of like this.

Nathan (09:26):
Yeah.

Daniel (09:26):
Um, and I knew it's Disney, they do did, they do it
all the best, you know, and it'sgonna be better than that.
But I think for me going on, Iwas expecting uh, I mean, what
we experienced on Norwegian andlike a little bit more, but I
was I was I I was so I was Imean surprised isn't accurate
because I knew it was gonna be alot.

(09:48):
It was everything was sooverwhelming and just cool and
like oh this, oh look at this,and so many moments with the
kids of like, oh look overthere, oh guys, oh oh my gosh,
look, do you see this?
And you know, it just so fun.

Callie (10:02):
Well, and seeing it through our kids' eyes makes it
so much more special.

Daniel (10:07):
That was, I feel like the biggest I mean theme for me,
at least in our time.
It was if it was just you andI, it'd have been so much so
fun.
But having it, um getting tosee it all through our kids'
eyes made it I I probablydoubled the experience for us.
Yeah.
Um I'm I'm and we'll get intothe different things we did each
of the days, but for example,uh, you know, we went to several

(10:29):
the musicals and things, andthe last musical, um our
daughter, our daughter,actually, all of our kids
weren't sitting with us, sittingwith their aunts and uncles and
cousins and stuff.

Nathan (10:40):
Yeah.

Daniel (10:40):
And we found ourselves, both Callie and I constantly
looking down, looking down theaisle, like see, oh, are they
watching this?
Oh, oh, they see, you know,like wanting to like, oh, I I
want to like, oh my god, yeah,like talk to them and point
things out and like you know,yeah, just because like we're
naturally seeing it all throughtheir eyes as well, which is it
was just made it so much moremagical and fun and and
emotional.
It's just it was just sospecial to be able to experience

(11:03):
that with them and seeing itthrough their eyes.

Nathan (11:05):
Were you were they all ready to have you know your your
family name read out as you goton board and and the the
applause line as you you camethrough?

Callie (11:13):
Yeah, we weren't expecting that.
And so I was like, wait, theyjust said our name?
Yeah.

Daniel (11:19):
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was like I yeah, I didn'teven realize it, didn't fully
realize it happened.
I heard like the tail end ofit.
I was like, wait, wait, what?
Yeah, that was really cute.

Callie (11:28):
I was like, how did they know?

Nathan (11:30):
Yeah.

Daniel (11:33):
I don't know.

Callie (11:34):
Wow.

Nathan (11:36):
It's pixie dust.
It's yep.
So what was the first thingthat that y'all did when you got
on board?
Actually, did everybody, youknow, all 17 of you get on board
at the same time?

Callie (11:47):
We did.
Yes.
Yes.
And so that was a little trickybecause we w immediately went
to cabanas to try to eat lunchat the buffet.
And there were no tables

Daniel (11:58):
well, it was already 1: 30. And we had all the kids
that hadn't eaten yet.

Callie (12:03):
Yeah.

Daniel (12:03):
And so we were like, okay, we need to get to get
ahead of this.

Callie (12:06):
Yeah.
So we were going up to cabanasand the line was crazy.
And then the people that wereworking there, they were like,
Oh, there's like no tables.
If you go down to one of therestaurants, you can be seated
and, you know, have a sit-downlunch.
So we were like, great.
So we went down there and, youknow, there's 17 of us.
We the tables aren't set up for17.

(12:29):
So they split us up into groupsof three and four, you know.
And so we're like, it's me andmy two daughters and my niece at
one table, you know, andthey're and our boys, and then
their cousin, and then there's II'm not sure how to end up
working out.

Daniel (12:44):
And then all the adults were at their own tables.

Callie (12:46):
Yeah.
We had all the kids.
Well, not all of them, but andyou know, everybody's very
hungry, but also very excited tobe there in this amazing
restaurant.
You know, it's like Rapunzelthemed and amazing.
And but, you know, it took alittle while to get food.
So I had packed actually acouple card games in my bag.

(13:07):
And that was so that came in sohandy because my girls, you
know, we were like, okay, likelet's play Uno.
And we just sat and played Uno.
And we have a Disney likefinding picture game.
I pulled out that after Uno.
I was like, let's do this.
And so that was perfect.
And then, of course, theyordered huge ice cream Sundays
at the end of lunch, and theywere like, this is the best

(13:29):
thing ever.
Sure.
So that was fine.
It ended up being fine, but itwas different than what we had
expected.

Daniel (13:37):
And um and I, as we like were being seated, I was
anticipating it being way worseof like, oh okay, we're all
being split up, and I I've gotall these kids, and okay.
And yeah, we sat down, like Iwas with the boys, and they were
all in great moods.
We got our food relativelyquick.
I was surprised.
Um, and everyone was justthrilled.

(13:59):
You know, our our my oldestson, he you know, ordered a
burger and then he finished it.
He was like, Can I can I justget another one?
Like, oh, yeah, you can.
And then we all got sundaes.
So it was just it was a lot ofuh it was a lot of fun that I
was I was I was anticipating uhmore stress that was great.

Nathan (14:20):
They hadn't even found the the uh ice cream soft serve
station yet.

Callie (14:24):
No, not yet.
That came later.

Nathan (14:27):
But they did find it.

Callie (14:28):
Oh yes.

Daniel (14:29):
Uh and a little background on our family way we
do dessert in our family isyeah, like we both grew up, you
know, of the okay, three morebeans, then you can have your
dessert, that kind of thing thatboth of us we didn't want to
have um in our families, justlike the the debate every single
evening.
And so that's an idea that wegot actually from my brother
that they do.
But we have Saturday nights isdessert night.

(14:50):
So you get dessert on Saturdaynights.
That's just there's nodebating, it's just yeah, you
get dessert on Saturday nights.
We don't dessert any othernight of the week.
Okay.
On Saturday nights you do.
And uh yes, you don't have toeat anything.
If you want to skip dinner andonly have dessert, you can.
You're gonna be hungry andprobably get a stomachache, but
you can so our kids are a littlesweet starved.
Um so when we we do things likethis, it's vacation rules, you

(15:14):
know, it's yeah, you can have usyou can go get another ice
cream, sure, go for it.
But they're just like you know.
So I'm sure, I mean, I'm thesame way, um, but I'm sure we
had as a family, I mean, 10gallons of ice cream at least,
you know.

Nathan (15:33):
I'm the odd man out.
I actually usually don't getthe soft serve.
I'm just weird like that.

Alicea (15:38):
You just had it for the first time like last year.

Nathan (15:41):
Yeah, I did.
That is very weird.
I've been on like 15 cruises,I've had like one ice cream
cone.
Oh wow.
I love ice cream, it's justlike never at the top of my list
of things to go do.

Callie (15:52):
Um I don't understand that.
I don't understand that either.

Daniel (15:56):
I actually what I was doing, um, I would go and get
coffee in you know, one of thecups up there on the top deck
and fill up like halfway, andthen I'd go over to the soft
serve and then fill the rest ofit with ice cream, so it'd be
like a yeah, coffee.
Afogato, whatever that it wasdelicious.
Cool.

Alicea (16:16):
What kind of room did you guys have?

Daniel (16:19):
So we had um, we ended up actually having two rooms
because we have four kids.
Yeah.
Okay.
Um and so uh they wereadjoining, and so yeah, on the
manifest, yeah, I it was me andthe boys in one room and Cat and
the girls in one room.
We always left the doors openthe whole time.
And yeah, it was basically onebig room.

Callie (16:37):
But they were the deluxe veranda rooms.
Okay.
Okay.
So we had a veranda.

Daniel (16:43):
And we had everyone in our group, we all our doors were
all next to each other down.
Oh, perfect on the in the samehall.
And so it was really, reallygreat.

Nathan (16:50):
Did you get your state room hosts to open the
balconies?

Daniel (16:54):
We did not.

Callie (16:55):
No.
Honestly, I don't know how muchthe balcony was um utilized.
We it was it felt so good to bein the AC in the room that we
just never wanted to open thedoor to go out.
And you know, we're fromSeattle, and so we're not used

(17:15):
to the heat and the humidity.
We both grew up in the South,but we have been acclimated to
Seattle weather, and so we arenot used to it.
So honestly, it was great tohave the views and you know,
wake up to the sunrise, but Idon't know if I would
necessarily spring for thatevery time.

(17:37):
If if it was a big costdifference, I might just do a
window instead next time.

Daniel (17:43):
No, we used the the balcony when you know when we
were like, you know, leavingport or a different there were
there are a few different timeswe would all we were all out
there.
Yeah, but it was like a coupletimes.
Yeah.

Callie (17:53):
And we would go out there to put sunscreen on the
kids.

Nathan (17:56):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, next time if you go, whenyou have adjoining rooms or
even if you have a block ofrooms that are all together,
they can open that like um thatsidewall, and you can just walk
between all the rooms on theveranda.

Callie (18:12):
That would have been cool.
I don't know if I would havewanted my nieces and nephews to
come in our rooms.

Alicea (18:18):
Well, thats fair.

Nathan (18:19):
That is totally fair.
But we did that with somefriends when we were um
transiting the Panama Canal andwe had three rooms all in a row,
and so we just had this onegiant veranda for all six of us,
and it was just that's amazing.
Yeah, it was fun.
It was fun.
Yeah.
So circling back a little bitas a first timer, what was

(18:41):
booking like?
Did you use a travel agent?
I'm guessing mom and dad bookedeverything for everybody.

Daniel (18:47):
Yeah, so Callie's dad booked it all.
He used a travel agent withCostco.
He did it all through Costco.
Okay.
And I I know that he talked tosomebody on the phone.
I don't know if he had aspecific agent, yeah.
Um, but that's what he used forbooking.
And we actually

Nathan (19:02):
So it was really easy for you.

Daniel (19:03):
It was so easy.
Really easy for us.
It was, yeah.
There were there were levels attimes that I was like, oh wait,
what what I I had no idea ofany of the details like leading
up to it.
And wait, where are we wherewe're doing this?
How is this working?
You know, it it was just alltaken care of, which was
wonderful and amazing.

Callie (19:21):
It was a really good nice.

Daniel (19:23):
We did I know that uh I could have talked to him about
it, but I know there were somelast minute changes that had to
be made because of the roomsituation.
We realized, oh, it's actuallynot like this.
And we we we thought our roomswere a little different than we
originally, and so there was alittle bit of shuffling that we
did about a about a week out.
Um so I know that was a littletricky, um, but they were able
to resolve it all.

Callie (19:43):
Uh, they ended up getting another room last
minute, like about a weekbefore.
So yeah, it worked out.
They ended up being on adifferent f level than us.
Right.

Daniel (19:55):
Their room did, yeah.

Callie (19:56):
But yeah.

Nathan (19:58):
Well, you know, the parents always deserve to have a
little bit of their own.

Callie (20:01):
Yeah, they need a little peace and quiet.
Yeah, it's their retirementtrip.
So yeah, exactly.

Nathan (20:07):
Nice.

Alicea (20:08):
Did you book any onboard activities?

Callie (20:12):
So our onboard activities we we didn't do much.
We did the royal gathering withthe girls where they got to
meet four princesses all at thesame time.
And that was great.
That was they didn't reallyknow what they were missing out
on, you know.
They didn't know about theroyalty, they didn't know about

(20:33):
the bibity bobbity boutique, youknow.
And so we could have, you know,gone crazy and spent lots of
money.
But our thinking was this isalready going to be amazing
without needing to splurge forall every little thing that
we're just gonna enjoy it theway it comes.
And that honestly was so great.

(20:55):
Like the kids they didn't knowwhat they were missing on, and
they had such a blast withoutit, anyways.
So we did the royal gathering,and we went to the Bibbity
Bobbity boutique before that toget pixie dusted, and that was
perfect, magical for the girlsbecause they had no idea what
that was, and it was so fun.

(21:16):
And we are we've been home formaybe 10 days now, and they
still have glitter in their hairfrom that.
So they keep asking me afterevery bath.
They're like, is it stillthere?
I'm like, oh yeah, actually itis still there.

Daniel (21:32):
And they love that.

Callie (21:33):
They love it.
I swear I'm washing their hair,but it doesn't to their scalps.

Nathan (21:39):
So this is this is exactly why I am anti-glitter,
but it's okay.

Callie (21:44):
So that was really sweet.
And for us, you know, there areso many cool sounding things
for the adults, but we honestlydidn't have any time to do those
without dropping our kids offor you know, finagling timing of
dinner and the shows and all ofthat.

Daniel (22:04):
So we're we only had one day at sea for this for this
itinerary.
And so um and we were at thepool all that that day.
Yeah, nice.

Nathan (22:13):
Yeah.
So you mentioned the kids'clubs.
Like what did the what dideverybody think of the kid of
the kids' clubs?

Daniel (22:20):
Yeah, so everyone, all the kids were all the within the
same age group for theOceaneers Club.
That's amazing, which was whichis great.
Um now our oldest, so Benson,our oldest, he's about to be
eleven.
So he was kind of on the oldend of that.
And then his cousin, his cousinEverson, who's also 10, and
then our oldest bishop, who'seight.

(22:41):
The three of them kind of youknow stick stuck together the
whole cruise and did everythingtogether.
And and they would go, we wouldhave them go a few times.
Um they probably went almostevery day for at least a little
while.

Nathan (22:54):
Yeah.

Daniel (22:55):
Um, but they weren't thrilled with it.
It was fun, it was great, butthey also were at a level where
our oldest um we actuallybrought one of our old um
iPhones that um we don't useanymore and used on the Wi-Fi
and and so had the app so hecould message with it.
And so we gave we had him havethat, so we had him, he had a

(23:15):
little more freedom to kind ofso with the three of them to
stay sticking together.
We let them kind of do theirown thing sometimes
occasionally.
So, and that was also kind ofthe first time that they had a
little bit of that that kind offreedom.
You know, all enclosed wassafe, and yeah, um, so they
really wanted to do that.
So they spent a lot of timegoing and oh, we're gonna this
this character's out.
We gotta get their autograph,oh, we gotta get their

(23:36):
autograph, oh, we gotta go meetThor, you know, and everything.
So um they they really, reallydid a lot of that, um which was
a lot of waiting in lines uhthat I thought probably was not
very fun, but they loved it.

Nathan (23:48):
Um as long as they're having a good time, that's all
that's important.

Callie (23:52):
Yeah, they felt really big, I think.

Alicea (23:54):
it's just that little bit of independence, right?

Daniel (23:57):
Exactly.
But but the rest of the kidsreally enjoyed it, I know.
Um the girls just yesterdaywere quoting something that they
learned from their pirate song,something that we're like, I've
never heard that before.
That they learn from there atsome like mini mouse pirate
something, you know, one day.

Callie (24:16):
Um but they would they would leave with a million
crafts that they did each time,you know.
And we would honestly we onlyuse utilized it maybe for an
hour every day, and it would bewe would get back from the pool
or the beach, we would bathethem really quick, and then we
would take them so that we couldshower and we could get ready
for dinner without kids.

(24:38):
Because those are smallquarters, you know, to be with
four kids.
So we would go drop them off sothat we can have a little bit
of time before dinner, and so wedidn't use it that much.

Daniel (24:52):
And I think so much of what we were really enjoying and
experiencing things that weobviously wanted the moments of
quiet and like we took those,but we were really enjoying
seeing everything through theireyes and getting to like
participate in the awe andwonder with them that was just
so fun.
Um that you know, uh therewere, you know, we we would uh

(25:14):
in the afternoons we drop themoff after we have and we get
then we get ready, we take ourtime, and then we go walk around
and go look at stuff.
But we found ourselves even inthose moments being like, oh,
like there's there's uh there'sgoofy, goofy's that we should go
get the kids so they can, youknow, or yeah, that kind of um
that we found ourselves doing,you know, fairly often in those
moments too.

Nathan (25:34):
So your first stop was Disney's, you know, you're on
the original ship, you hit uhDisney's original private
destination, Castaway Key,they're in the Bahamas.
It's a favorite spot of lots ofDCL fans, ourselves included.
What did you think?
Did you have any shoreexcursions or was it just a
beach day?

Callie (25:55):
We didn't have excursions, but some people in
our party did.
They rented paddle boards andum paddle boats, I think.

Daniel (26:04):
And uh it was it was a rainy day.
It was a rainy day, right?
Okay, and that was a reallyweird experience for us because
it was hot and rainy.
I don't like this is this iswhat this doesn't work this way.
I always does not compute, doesnot compute, yeah.
There's never warm rain inSeattle, right?
No.
Um and so uh it was it wasrained on and off.

(26:27):
Um it wasn't rainy the wholetime.
Um, but so we did a beach day,but it was you know overcast.
It was more of a you know a wetbeach day.
Um and actually I know that uhyour parents and Chad and and uh
uh one or two of his kids didthe excursion, but they ended up
getting canceled because of Ithink thunder.

(26:48):
Yeah, I think that lightningdown.

Callie (26:51):
But it I think in the morning it was not rainy the
whole time.
And so we had a great time atthe beach.
The kids loved the in the waterplayground.
Um our six-year-old was likeobsessed with climbing to that.
She felt so big and proud ofher for getting out there.

(27:12):
And then our oldest two boysand their cousin, they did a lot
of snorkeling out there, and sothat was perfect for them
because there was no waves, itwas really calm.
They were able to do you know,all of the snorkeling, which has
you know the hidden statuesdown there with they came back

(27:32):
and they were like, We saw allthese things and telling us all
about what they saw down there,and they saw a little fish too,
and so that was a really greatexperience for them.
They had never snorkeledbefore, so it was a really good
first experience for them andreally easy.
They stood they stayed outthere for quite a while,
actually pretty impressed withtheir stamina at their ages, you

(27:54):
know, 10, 10, and 8.
Yeah, they did great.

Daniel (27:58):
And then our our eight-year-old and I, we went
over to where the water slidesare into the go into the water,
and we went over and we're soexcited to go do it, and walked
over there.
And as soon as we got in line,he he just said, Um, no, I don't
want to do it anymore.
And so we walked back out andwent swam back over and and went
back and played on the beach.
Uh I you know, I challenged hima little bit, like, are you

(28:18):
sure we walked came all the wayover here and it looks really
fun?
Nah, I don't want to.

Callie (28:22):
Yeah.
Okay.

Daniel (28:23):
That's fine.
Fair enough.
Yeah.

Callie (28:25):
And then after lunch, we ended up taking them to the
kids' club on the island andchecking them in there.
And they went with theirlittlest cousins who are three
and five.
And uh so they went in thereand then that's when it really
started pouring.
So we, you know, they were inthere for maybe 30 or 45 minutes
before it just started dumpingand the excursion started

(28:49):
getting canceled, and so weended up grabbing them and going
back to the boat earlier thanwe anticipated.
But it was totally fine.
I think that we, you know, wehad a really great beach
experience.
The snorkeling, the lunch wasamazing.
And so we I feel like we did alittle bit of everything that it

(29:11):
had to offer.
And then we were it was okay,you know.

Alicea (29:15):
So next up was Nassau.
Did you get off the ship?

Daniel (29:20):
We did for a little bit.
For about 30 minutes.
Okay.
And just and we've alluded toit multiple times, but we're not
used to the heat.
We just simply and like fulltransparency, I am a sweater.
And so I I when I was outside,I was like, I'm I'm wet.

Callie (29:38):
You're not a sweater, you just sweat a lot.
I sweat.
You're not a sweatshirt.

Daniel (29:43):
Well, not well, that's that's my joke.
Um but yeah, so uh the we yeah,we did get off get off the
boat.
Um, we looked at a few of theshops, and everyone was really
hot, especially me.
And uh it was a bright sunnyday.
It was beautiful.
Um, and it was like we we wantto go swimming in the pool.

(30:06):
We want to go to the slides.
And yeah, they hadn't really wehadn't had the opportunity to
spend a lot of time in the poolyet.
The day before it had been arain, and when we got back to
the boat, it was like you know,really raining a lot more, and
so it was more inside thatafternoon.
Um, and so it was really thefirst day, like really spend
some time at the pool.
So we ended up going back inand we just hung out the pool.

Callie (30:28):
Yeah, and that was really great.
And some people in our partyended up exploring past the
initial shopping area at Nassau.
And some of them were like,Yeah, it was great.
And some of them were like, youknow, I wish we hadn't done
that.
So, you know, like when youhave kids, it just changes

(30:49):
things because it's like, okay,my kids really didn't handle
that very well, you know, orlike that was a lot of walking,
or we ended up in an area and wehad no idea where we were, and
we were trying to get back, andthat was a little scary, you
know.
And so we were totally okaywith our decision, and just

(31:12):
having it be just us and ourkids and not our entire party
back on the boat was actuallyreally fun because we were able
to just be with our kids a lot,and they you know discovered
their intense love of the slide,uh the very twisty slide.
Um, what is that called?

Alicea (31:32):
I don't know.
The yellow one.
The yellow one.

Nathan (31:34):
Is it the Slidosaurus Rex?
No, the Aqua Dunk?
The the one that's a good one.
No, the Aquedunk also was.

Callie (31:41):
That's the free fall one.

Daniel (31:43):
That's the fall one.
That's the fall one.
It's like the um it's likeMinnie's something.

Callie (31:49):
No, it's like the Donald Duck something.

Daniel (31:51):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I mean, uh everybody didthat that slide, like our
four-year-old, she just would doit and run right back up and
get back in line and do itagain, right?
And she spent hours on thatthing.
She loved it.
And then our our older boys,they they did they did the aqua
dunk.
Um with me, which was um thatfirst day, I believe it was

(32:14):
after Nassau, uh I was just withBishop, our eight-year-old, and
he was like, I'm gonna go dothat slide.
The the big one.
I was like, Oh, oh, okay, okay,great.
And he just ran up there.
He was like, I'm I'm gonna goby myself.
I was like, okay, I'll I'lltake a video and I'll watch, you
know, and stuff.
He went up, and I don't thinkhe really knew what to expect.
So he he was tall enough, andbut he hopped in there.

(32:37):
I got a video of him, and hecame, you know, came down, came
out the bottom, was you know,it's like five seconds long.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I was like, Yeah, way togo, bud.
He looked at me with his eyesbig, shaking his head, like, oh
no.
And so uh, and we laughed aboutit and things, and then the uh
uh the our our cousin and my ourmy son, they both want to do

(33:01):
it, they're both 10.
They want to do it, but also ohI don't know, I'm nervous, and
things, and I had done it to shso that they could watch me do
it, and then several of theirother uncles had done it, and
their grandfather had done it,um, and they were like, oh,
maybe, and I don't know, and youknow, back and forth, back and
forth, and finally, like, okay,okay, we're gonna do it.
And this this was actually onour last day that we decided

(33:23):
they decided to do it.
And so I got in line with them,and we all went up there, and
and our eight-year-old bishop,he was like, Okay, I'm gonna do
it again too, and came with us.
And uh, we got up there to thetop, and uh uh my our our
10-year-old, you know, it washis turn, he's like, Okay, he
got in and was getting ready toget and then got back out.
Like, hold on, you know, justyou just you know, it's just he

(33:44):
knew what to expect, he knewthat his younger brother hate
did not like it, and so therewas a lot there, and so he
finally got back in and he wasnervous, and I was like, Hey,
but you don't have to do it,absolutely don't.
If you want to go walk by down,you can, but if you want to do
it, you gotta do it now becauseeveryone's waiting.
Yeah, um, and so he got got inand like the the door shut, and

(34:04):
I'm sitting there watching hisface.
I'm like, oh gosh, is he he'she's good, right?
And then he drops, you know,just like all of a sudden he's
gone.
And I was yeah, you know, he'sgoing to the side, I'm like, oh
no, is he gonna come out?
That was really a bad choice.
And he he came out and likeraises both his arms, like,
yeah! And then he was so proudof himself and loved it.

(34:25):
It was so great.
That was probably the highestmoment in the cruise.

Callie (34:31):
It was like so confidence boosting for him.

Nathan (34:33):
Oh, sure.
Yeah, sure.
I I would not do that, so goodfor him.

Alicea (34:37):
You're not gonna do it?

Nathan (34:38):
Nope.

Daniel (34:40):
It's it's really fun.
It was really fun.

Nathan (34:42):
Sorry to disappoint you, Alicea.
Well, we're gonna be on theMagic in uh in November.
In November.
And uh yeah, I don't I don'tknow

Alicea (34:50):
I'd love to try it, but I don't know if I can yet.
Yeah, we'll see.

Nathan (34:53):
Yeah, we'll see.
We'll see.
Oh man.
Um I will say that there youhave a lot of company in terms
of folks who don't get off atNassau.
There, there are a lot ofDisney Cruise fans when they do
one of those uh Bahamas cruises,are like, look, it's another
sea Day.
And and we early on in ourcruising career have tried some

(35:17):
of the excursions around onNassau, and it's more often than
not a sea Day for us.
In fact, the shopping weactually haven't been to because
we've been doing a bunch ofother itineraries that haven't
necessarily hit Nassau, and allof that shopping area was still
under construction.

Alicea (35:34):
Yeah.

Nathan (35:35):
Uh while in our more recent cruises, I think our last
one, some of it was open, butit was still like halfway under
construction, and it was like arainy day, and we're like, yeah,
no.
Yeah.

Callie (35:45):
Not worth it.
Yeah, I did.
It was really nice.
It was really well done, andthey had really great public
bathrooms, and you know, therewas a good mix of food and bars
and shopping, but it just theiroutside air conditioner was
broken.

Daniel (36:01):
It was uh yeah, it was in the summer.
Yeah, yeah.

Nathan (36:06):
Yeah.
So your last stop was Disney'snewest private destination,
Lookout Key at Lighthouse Point.
What did you all think?

Callie (36:16):
Oh man.
That was the best.

Daniel (36:18):
It was the best.
That was the best beach we haveever been on.
Oh, yeah.

Callie (36:23):
The sand felt like powdered sugar.

Daniel (36:26):
Oh it was a gorgeous day.
And it was like it was obviousthis is all brand new.
And it was it was so nice.

Callie (36:34):
Yeah.
Um really nice.

Daniel (36:36):
It was a yeah, beautiful day.
And we were just, yeah, we gotthere, we got out on the beach,
and we were just in the water somuch.
And then we ended up doing thesplash pad for a while too, and
the slide there.
The kids loved that waterslide.
We had lunch.
Um, and there was a lot ofother things that are there too,
and the different, you know,activities and different, you
know, stations and differentstuff that that's going on that

(36:59):
I kind of wanted to poke aroundand see, but we just ended up
being in the water, and it wasjust it's the best beach ever.
It was amazing, it was so nice.
It was incredible.

Callie (37:11):
Yeah, and uh uh one of my brothers and his wife, they
don't have kids, and so theywent to the Serenity Bay, the 18
plus beach, and so he was ableto do a lot of snorkeling there
off of that beach, and he saidthat it was incredible, like
there was a ton of coral, lotsof really beautiful fish.

(37:31):
They weren't allowing kids togo out to snorkel just because
of tides, I guess, that day.
And so he was like, Yeah,they're letting the adults over
on this beach, but you know, sohe did that, and so he said that
that was incredible, and Ithink that just like it is so
well done.
Like, I got off and I was like,I feel like I'm in a Disney

(37:53):
park, but it's real, like it'snot pretending to be the
Bahamas, we're in the Bahamas,but done by Disney, and it was
so well done and so beautiful,and they have so much like it's
so connected to nature, theyhave so many nature trails, and
you know, I know they have likea 5k loop and you know things
like that.
And some people in our groupthey did do nature walks and

(38:17):
paddleboarding, natureexcursions, and pirate activity.
There's a pirate activity thatsome of them did.

Daniel (38:24):
Scavenger hunt or something.

Callie (38:25):
Yeah, we didn't do that with our kids, but I think it
was good for the little ones intheir family.
Um and so, you know, some of usin our group did some of those
things, but I think that even ifyou don't, like us, it was just
amazing.
So amazing.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was so beautiful.
The kids were like, This lookslike mermaid water.

(38:47):
I'm like, yeah, because this iswhere Ariel is actually from.
Like it looks like Ariel waterbecause it's this is yeah, the
Caribbean.
So it was just gorgeous.
And the kids were like, Oh,look, when the water hits the
sand, it turns a little bitpink.
That was something that ourserver had said to us like, look
for the pink sand.

(39:08):
So the girls loved that.
And yeah, it was so nice.
And I think it was a lot lesscrowded than I thought, too.
I thought that it would besuper hard to find a chair or an
umbrella.
And I think I don't know if itwas just because they have
enough chairs for everybody, orif it was because we were on the
magic and there's just lesspeople overall.

(39:31):
But it was totally fine and notan issue for us.
So, and we ended up our kidsneeded to sleep in a little bit
more that day.
And so we got off we got off alittle bit later than the rest
of our group did.
10 or something like that.
10 30 or 11, honestly.
But even getting there.

Daniel (39:52):
The walk, you know, the there's a long walk from the
boat.
Um, that they did just fine umon the way out.
And we grabbed a wagon and useda wagon uh for the girls, and
then we hopped on one of thetrams and you know, went over.
So it was it was prettyseamless.
On the way back, we were alltired from the beach and things,
and and you know, we were allin our wet swimsuits chafing

(40:15):
from walking and things.
There was a level of like,okay.

Callie (40:18):
The kids were a little over it and they didn't want to
walk back.
And there were no wagons.

Daniel (40:24):
No wagons were all gone at that moment.
They had they were likebringing some more and things.

Callie (40:27):
So they were like, well, here, just whoever needs extra
assistance, come over here andget on a golf cart.
And I was like, okay, well,these three of our kids need
extra assistance.
Like our girls were not gonnabe able to walk back, and then
one of our sons was likechafing, or I don't know.
He was uncomfortable somehow.

(40:50):
And so I rode back on the golfcart with them, and that was
great.
Like there was they were like,Yeah, let's just have you hop
over here, and they were totallyaccommodating.
So that was nice.

Daniel (41:01):
I will say I wish I had looked at the map of everything
like before we got there.
Um because the way that thepaths are it's a lot of kind of
circles that all they connect indifferent ways.
It was easy for me.
Uh oh, wait, where are we goingagain?
Oh, that you know, it therethere weren't these direct

(41:22):
routes that that are a lot moreeasy and obvious, as well as
just the map in the app.
Um, everything's numbered.
And so I was like, okay, ohwait, this is 12.
Okay, what's 12?
Go over here, look, okay, a 12.
Oh, this, okay.
But where's the where's uh thething?
What I'm looking for?
It's 14.
Okay, where's 14?
You know, that I I wish I wouldhave just like, you know, on my
computer before going, hadlooked at the the maps and just

(41:45):
just familiarize myself with ita little bit.
But it wasn't remotely aproblem.
It was um, it was just it wasso so great.
I just know we missed stuffthere.
I know you know that I I'm surethere were things that that uh
we were we would have enjoyed,but we also really, really
enjoyed it.
It was just a perfect day.
We all got really sunburned.

Nathan (42:08):
Well, you'll you just have to leave some stuff to do
the next time when you go back.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So did you you had a sea dayafter this on your way back
north to Port Canaveral.
Yes.
Anything special stick outabout your sea day?
More time in the pool, I'massuming.

Callie (42:27):
Lots of time in the pool.
The boys, that was the day thatall of the Marvel Avengers were
out to take pictures with.
So our boys spent the morningin line to see Thor, yeah,
Spider-Man, Captain America,Black Panther.
That was totally worth it forthem.

Daniel (42:45):
They loved it.
Yeah.
So and they, you know, talkedto them and interact with them
and really enjoyed it.
And they had gotten to seeSpider-Man and Thor earlier in
the week at the Oceaneers Club.
Different things they gotten tointeract with them there, which
they liked, and so they got toyou know see them again, which
they they still waited in lineand wanted to they didn't they
didn't get their autographsbefore.

(43:05):
And they they each had theirown book they wanted to get
autographs in.
So perfect.

Callie (43:09):
And since I had gotten so sunburned the day before, I
was like, great, I will stayinside this morning and wait
with them and be with them.
So that was totally fine.

Daniel (43:18):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then yeah, we spent a lotof the afternoon by the pool um
doing the water slides.
Water slides, yeah.

Callie (43:29):
Eating lots of ice cream.
The kids were, you know, our10-year-old was like, there's a
place called Pinocchio's Pizza.
Uh-huh.
And he was like, Man, Pinocchioreally knows his pizza.

Daniel (43:41):
Like that was like his joke, he really enjoyed saying
to everybody.

Callie (43:46):
So we loved getting food from Cabanas and taking it out
to a table and just sitting bythe pool.
And our kids are just at reallygreat ages where they can be
independent.
And, you know, ourfour-year-old, she was like just
going down the water slide overand over for like an hour and a
half.
And we would go with hersometimes, or her, you know,

(44:08):
siblings would go, and even ifthey stopped going down, she
would keep going down.
You know, the kids loved beingin the pool and watching the
movies and floating.
So they enjoyed that a lot.
Yeah.
Yeah.

Daniel (44:21):
And even like with the food, our I suppose our older
kids really enjoying a level offreedom of like, oh yeah, I can
go up to Pinocchio's and I canorder a pizza on my own and get
the thing and come back all myown and be able to do that and
you know, manage all that ontheir own.
They really enjoyed.

Callie (44:38):
Yeah.
Yeah, that was fun.

Daniel (44:40):
Yeah.

Alicea (44:41):
Did you all get to go to any of the special deck parties
like Pirate Night?

Callie (44:45):
Yes.
We did.
We did all of the deck parties.
Yeah.

Daniel (44:49):
So the both of them.

Callie (44:51):
Right.
There was the leaving cast.

Daniel (44:55):
Sail away.
Sail away.
Sail away party.

Callie (44:57):
That was very fun.

Daniel (44:59):
And that was such a great, like, you know, we still
didn't quite we're stillfiguring everything out, and
then it was just like in yourface so much.
It was just like, oh my gosh,this is so exciting.

Callie (45:10):
All the characters and hearing the horn blasting, you
know.
And that was just so fun andmagical.
So we all really enjoyed that.
And then Pirate Night was somuch fun.
Our group got really into it.
My dad had like a whole wig andstuff.
And so the kids thought thatwas hilarious because he doesn't

(45:32):
have hair.
And then he all of a sudden hehas a little bit of hair.
All of a sudden, he had allthese dreadlocks, you know.
So that's awesome.
That was really fun.
The deck party was great.
And you know, the fireworks, itwas so fun.
And we really actually ended upgetting really great seats.
Uh you know, we were not seats,but we were standing right at

(45:55):
the front.
So the kids had a really greatview of all the dancing and
things.
And so that was really fun.
It was a late night.
It it goes really late, but youknow.

Daniel (46:05):
But that was kind of our mentality.
Obviously, you know, we're onSeattle time.
We went, we were in, you know,what is that, East Coast or uh
East Coast time.
Um so there was a little bit,it made it a little easier, but
it was also it's vacation.
Yeah, absolutely.
As long as you guys are youkids are doing okay, we you can
absolutely can stay up, youknow.

Nathan (46:23):
Yeah.

Daniel (46:23):
And so it ended up being, you know, they all
aligned as far as like they allstayed up together.
Yeah, we didn't have anyoneneeding to go back and go to bed
early or anything.
Um cool.
But it was so fun.
Yeah.

Nathan (46:34):
We've actually gotten to the point where we the our
message to Sterling at thispoint, because he's you know the
13, uh soon to be 14, has beenlike, look, when when you come
back at whatever hour you'recoming back in the middle of the
night, don't wake us up, don'tslam the door.

Callie (46:52):
I know.
I looking on the schedule, Iwould see things in the you
know, older kids' clubs startingat 11 p.m.
I'm like, oh man, yeah.
That would have totally beensomething our oldest would have
loved to be a part of.
I think seeing the things thatthey were doing.
And he's two months away frombeing 11 and being in one of

(47:13):
those older groups.

Daniel (47:13):
But if he had been able to be in there, his younger
brother and cousin wouldn't haveand there would have been you
know, it's kind of it ended upbeing.

Callie (47:23):
I do like it a lot of the things they said, they just
looked so cute.
Like, and during Pirate Night,was it Pirate Night when there
was like a flash mob that thetween group had been practicing?
And we had seen flash mobpractice, you know, in the
itinerary.
And so we were like, oh, thisis the flash mob that they've
been practicing for, and it wasso cute.

(47:44):
Yeah.

Nathan (47:45):
That's awesome.

Alicea (47:46):
I will I will note that the I think it's um edge is for
the next group up.
Uh-huh.
You can sign in 10-year-olds toto go there.
Oh.
Oh.
Just have to have parentalpermission for that.

Callie (47:59):
Yeah.
We might have done that if hedidn't have his younger brother
that he wanted to stick with.

Daniel (48:04):
That's right.
They're just choosed apart,they do everything together.
And so that would have beenhard, really hard to separate
that.

Nathan (48:09):
Yes.
We've heard stories from youknow, both from folks on our
podcast and others that we'veheard of that can be a very uh
troubling issue when you havetwo siblings who uh, you know,
with the age gaps, are forced tobe in different spots.
You know, um, there's someleeway to move kids up into a

(48:32):
the like the older club, butthere's zero leeway to move kids
down.
Oh interesting.
Yeah.
So that makes sense.
Yeah, it can be it can betricky.
So it's it's something to keepin mind as as you move forward.
Um it it may be issues attimes.
Let's move on a little bit.
Let's talk about food.
What did you guys think ofrotational dining?

Callie (48:53):
Oh, we loved it.

Daniel (48:54):
It was so great.

Callie (48:55):
It was so great, and I we loved having the same server.
I didn't I don't know if Ifully realized that we would
have the same server that movedwith us through the rotational
dining.
And that was she was sofantastic with us with our kids.
You know, she knew that theywere gonna order mac and cheese
before they even said, I wouldlike the mac and cheese, please.

(49:18):
Um, you know, and so they gotto know us and our preferences
and our kids, you know, theywould have the kids' drinks
waiting for them, and she knewthat the kids all like to sit
together at the end of thetable, you know.
So that was so fantastic.

Daniel (49:34):
And our oldest even at the um the animators palette,
you know, they put she shespecifically was like, hey, I
put all the kids down herebecause Mickey's gonna come out
and they'll be they'll be ableto see better from here, you
know, and things.
And so they were yeah, sogreat.

Callie (49:49):
Yeah.
Our oldest especially reallyloved not ordering from the
kids' menu, but ordering fromthe adult menu and trying new
things.
And he's like such a littlefoodie, and he he loves to, you
know, make recipes out of hisown recipe book here at home and
things.
And so he totally got into thewhole like, oh, I'm gonna get

(50:10):
this appetizer and then thissoup and then this entree.
Can I have two desserts?

Daniel (50:15):
You know, like come by and I'd be like, What are you
guys ordering?
I think I'm gonna get this, butwould you think I like that?
What about this?
And then I I I told ourserver's name was Daisy.
I was like, I don't know, uhtalk to Daisy, ask Daisy about
it.
And so he would like ask her,Oh, I'm thinking about this,
what do you think?
It was so cute.
It was so cute, yeah.

Callie (50:30):
Yeah, and then he would be like, Can I get two desserts
too?
You know, because Daniel likedto order two desserts every
night.
And so we would be like, Idon't know, ask Daisy if that's
okay.
And so we would have to makehim ask her.
Of course.
She's like, Yeah, get whateveryou want.

Daniel (50:46):
Well, she teased him at first.
She she came and asked us,like, is it is two desserts okay
with you guys?
You know, yeah.
And I was like, That's up toyou.
I told her, I was like, you Itold him to ask you, so you're
in charge.
Yeah.
And so she like, when he askedthe first time, she was like, um
I like made him wait for aminute and was like, sure.
Yeah, she was she was British.
She was um so uh sure.

(51:08):
But yeah, it was that was cute.

Callie (51:11):
So we our first night we were at Rapunzel's Royal Table,
but I anticipated, I knew thatthere was gonna be a show, and I
didn't realize we wouldn't haveto show that first night.
It was later in the week.
And so uh we so that was just anormal first dinner.
And then the second night wewere at Lumiere's.

(51:32):
We were at Lumiere's, and thatwas great.
Our oldest tried escargot forthe first time and really proud
of himself.

Daniel (51:40):
Yeah, excellent.
And he liked it too.

Callie (51:42):
He did.
He was like, if I didn't knowif it was a snail, I would have
said I like it.
But knowing it was a snail, itgot in my head, and I don't know
if I would have it again, butI'm proud of myself for having
it.

Nathan (51:54):
Yeah, yeah.

Callie (51:55):
So that was fun.
And then we were back thereagain the next night for Pirate
Night.
But with it being Pirate Night,you know, it had a different
menu.

Nathan (52:03):
Yep.

Callie (52:04):
So that was really great and uh really delicious.

Daniel (52:09):
Each one of our dinners, I mean, we were the biggest
party that was there.
And so we had it was usuallylike several tables pushed
together.
Yeah.
At Rapunzel's, it was like, Ithink, one big table, or you
know, it it made more sense, butat uh Lumiere's and at
Animator's palette, it wasclearly like, oh, these are some
square tables and there's acircle table, and it's all kind
of together, but it was we weredefinitely the biggest party

(52:31):
that was there.

Callie (52:31):
We were usually the last party in the dining room.

Daniel (52:34):
Yeah, we were always the last party.

Callie (52:35):
We were always the last ones they would like turn the
lights on, you know.

Daniel (52:39):
Okay, it's because we had the early dinner.
Um so and I always I was like,we've got to get out, they've
got people coming in here prettysoon.
They're trying to like reset.
Yeah, right, you know.
Um but yeah, so we had yeah, itwas Rapunzel's Lumiere's,
Lumieres again but for piratenight, and then Animators
Palette.
Okay, and that was so fun.

Callie (52:58):
That was so fun.

Daniel (52:59):
Uh the the whole show, and then Mickey coming out, and
everything was just it was justmagical.
It's my favorite.

Nathan (53:06):
Yeah.
Fantasia soundtrack.
The fanfare goes, and Mickeycomes.
Well, can't wait to go on themagic again.
Yeah.

Daniel (53:12):
I mean, e for me, even like so my my background is in
film.
Uh that's my degree is filmschool, and I was a filmmaker
for 10 years.
Um, and so but like literallyjust seeing their like their
edit and montage of all thepieces that that built together,
I just like from an artperspective, the what they cut,

(53:34):
how they cut it, and it was justso well done.
And using a medium of havingmultiple screens showing
different things, but similarly,they all work together was I
thought just absolutely geniusand um beautiful storytelling.
Like it wasn't necessarily ayou know uh act one, act two,
act three narrative, but theywere they wove an aesthetic of

(53:57):
Disney that was just magic.
It was unbelievable.
I mean, by myself, I would haveteared up just looking at it,
watching it and everything.
And then we're with the kids, Ithat much more so it was yeah,
it was I was just in in awe.
It was so well done.
So well done.

Callie (54:13):
Yeah, that was really fun.
And for the kids to see Mickey,I don't think that our kids
knew Mickey was coming.
I don't think so.
Yeah, so that was really funfor them.
And I made everybody coordinatethat night.
I was like, okay, our family iswearing red and black and white
so that we can match therestaurant and take good
pictures.
So yeah, that was fun.

Daniel (54:35):
And our faces that was that was the day that um we were
uh all got sunburned.
So our faces were red too.
So perfect.

Nathan (54:42):
That was that was fully planned, I'm sure.

Daniel (54:44):
Yeah.

Nathan (54:45):
What was your favorite restaurant or menu?

Daniel (54:49):
I mean, atmosphere, I mean it was the
Animator's Palate.
Yeah, it was I was justunbelievable.

Callie (54:57):
Um I think my favorite menu might have been the pirate
menu, actually.
I thought it was so good.
I I'm a big seafood personthough, and I think that that
one was a little more seafoodcoded because it's pirate-y.
Um but I also really likedLumiere's.
I thought that that was reallydelicious.
Everything was so good.

(55:18):
I don't know if I could tellyou what I had each night.

Daniel (55:22):
I guess it was all so I loved every single thing I had.
And I don't know that I couldtell you what I had, because it
was just like this is all sogood.

Alicea (55:31):
Yeah, that's that's why we take pictures, otherwise we
wouldn't.

Nathan (55:35):
We should have.
Yeah.

Daniel (55:36):
Oh, and we did a lot of sharing too of oh, then we try
that.
Oh yeah, yeah, that kind ofthing.

Nathan (55:41):
We've got to try Pirate Night menu again.
Yeah.
It's it has changed within thelast two or three years.
The original or older PirateNight menu was not anything
really to write home about.
And that was often would bewhen we would like book our polo
dinner and have like theelevated dining experience on

(56:02):
Pirate Night, because we'relike, it's not our favorite
menu.
So we because it's that samePirate Night menu in all of the
restaurants.
Yeah.

Callie (56:08):
Oh, gotcha.

Nathan (56:10):
And so we just knew that was the one that we'd that we'd
skip.

Alicea (56:13):
And now let's do that in February.

Nathan (56:16):
Okay.
Yeah.
Sounds like a plan.

Callie (56:18):
It was kind of like there was a lot of Cajun dishes,
you know.
Like, I think that I got somesort of like blackened chicken
Cajun pasta or something likethat.

Daniel (56:28):
I do not remember what I'm saying.
I don't remember.

Callie (56:30):
But I remember thinking, oh, this all sounds really
good.

Daniel (56:34):
Yeah.

Callie (56:34):
So and I definitely miss my nightly cheesecake.
The cheesecakes were so yummy.
And the kids got Mickey bars.
Or what was it?

Daniel (56:47):
Uh Daisy always recommended.

Callie (56:49):
Uh the creme brulee.

Daniel (56:52):
Yes.
Creme brulee.
I had that more often than not.
I mean, I ordered two desserts,I think, every single meal.
Well, um as you do.
Because it's like, well, Imean, I want both.
So my intention, I'm just gonnatry both.
I I finished both of themtotally, of course.
Right.
You don't want to be wasteful.
I don't want to wait.

(57:12):
Yeah, exactly.

Nathan (57:13):
We get home, and the hardest thing for us is like,
what do you mean I have to putmy own lap uh napkin in my own
lap?
Like this is horrible.
Uh-huh.
Yeah.

Alicea (57:24):
How about the lounges?
Did you all get to try get achance to try any of those?

Callie (57:28):
We went to one once.

Daniel (57:30):
Yeah, we went to dinner.
There was uh sports trivia,which is funny because I I like
I am not a sports person at all.
Um I really enjoy playingsports.
I just don't follow anything.
Yeah.
And so that was a little bitfunny.
But we just we wanted to getsome drinks with uh Callie's
brother and his wife, and soyeah, we popped down there.

(57:50):
Was that at the pub at O'Gills?
We did.

Callie (57:54):
But then we kind of ran out of time before we had to go
get the kids for dinner.
And so it was a little morerushed than I hoped.
I thought we were just gonna beable to like sit and relax.

Daniel (58:04):
But we did the D lounge a few times and did they had a
silent disco at one point intime.
We were in there with the kidsand some other dance parties and
that kind of thing.
We did.

Nathan (58:13):
Yeah.

Daniel (58:14):
Um, but most of the like pub and lounge activities, we
were you whether it was you knowcra different craft or
different other quizzes or otheractivities, we ended up we were
either at the pool or the kidswere wanting to meet a character
or you know, something likethat.
So we we we were aware of themand we popped in a few times for
things.
Um, but mainly we popped in ifit was a dance party.

(58:36):
So we did we did a lot ofdancing.

Nathan (58:40):
Nice.
Well, speaking of dancing, weof course can't skip the main
stage shows.
The Magic has Disney Dreams,Twice Charmed, which is an
original twist on the Cinderellastory, and Tangled, the
musical.
Did you make it to any of theshows, all of the shows?

Callie (58:56):
All of them.

Nathan (58:58):
Nice.

Callie (58:58):
Yeah, I think that was one of my favorite parts.
It was so excellent and so welldone.
And so it started with theCinderella, Twice Charmed, and
it was like, oh my gosh, likethe special effects, and you
know, it's Broadway level.
Yeah, and we're on a cruiseboat in the middle of the ocean,

(59:20):
you know, like this is wild howtalented these people are.
Yes, yeah, how well done.
And the kids loved it.
That was their first time eversitting through a show like
that.
And so it was a great firsttime because you know, the the
audience is full of kids.
Yeah, you know, you're you'renot having to be 100% quiet like

(59:42):
you would if you were to go toa real Broadway show somewhere.
And so it was a really greatlike intro into show etiquette
and how to be an audiencemember.
And the kids just loved it.
And so we did, yeah, twicecharmed, and then the next night
was Tangled.

Daniel (01:00:00):
The musical That was Tangled was so another so well
done you know uh the horse.

Callie (01:00:07):
You know, when you have the the lights that are
floating, it feels so immersive.
Like I started tearing up, likeI feel like I'm in the movie,
you know, like the lights allcome out in the audience and
they're just like all aroundyou.
And so that was really cool.

Daniel (01:00:25):
And for all the shows, the way that they engage the
audience, whether they're justyou know, you actors are running
up and down the aisles orsomething, or the lanterns are
coming out in the room, or youknow, someone shows up out here.
They just it was so well done.
Yeah, so well done.
Yeah.

Callie (01:00:40):
So and then the third night on Pirate Night, there was
a ventriloquist that came, andshe was hilarious.
We didn't know what to expect.
And she is like thismiddle-aged mom of five, but
they were like, She's been withDisney for so long, she's won
all of these awards, and we werelike, okay, like we don't
really know what to expect.

Daniel (01:00:58):
She had like five or six different characters she'd
bring out.

Callie (01:01:01):
She was so hilarious, and like right at our kids'
level of humor, our boys werecrying, they were laughing so
hard.

Daniel (01:01:08):
They were saying their stomach was hurting from
laughing too.

Callie (01:01:10):
Oh, that's what our six-year-old said.
She was like, when she said onejoke, and it was like a poop
joke.
When she said this one joke, Imy stomach was hurting, I was
laughing so hard.
And I was like, that is sogreat.
And so that was really fun andunexpected.
I didn't realize that we wouldhave something like that too.

Daniel (01:01:27):
And she had one character she brought out that
was like a three-year-old, it'ssupposed to be like a
three-year-old.
So there are a lot of, youknow, I go poop on the potty,
like you know, things that shesaid that and then just other,
you know, three-year-old actinga little bit inappropriate humor
that they just ate up that wasthe funniest thing in the world.

Nathan (01:01:45):
The variety acts that Disney brings on to fill out the
longer cruises are so yeah, soamazing.
Um we've had uh one that sticksout is is um John Armstrong is
a magician, and he is justfantastic.
And the way that all of thesefolks, like Disney doesn't just

(01:02:09):
go find a ventriloquist or amagician or a whatever the act
is, they find these folks whoknow how to tailor their
performance and their contentfor the audience.
Yeah, and it's just magicalbecause then oftentimes you can
have those same folks will thengo do like a late night like

(01:02:30):
adult set and D lounge orsomething like that.
And it's and it's tailoredtowards you know, not the kids,
you know.
And I'm not not to say thatit's like you know, risque or
anything like that, but it'slike we're beyond poop jokes.
Like we can do some some morehighbrow things.
Oh, that's so fun.
It's so well done.
So well done.
Yeah.

(01:02:50):
I'm glad you liked it.

Callie (01:02:51):
That was fun.
But I think our favorite wasthe dreams, which was the last
night.
And it was I don't know if youhave seen that before, if it's
on other ships or not.

Alicea (01:03:03):
I'm trying to remember which one that is.

Nathan (01:03:06):
It is we have seen it.
I can't remember which othership it is.

Alicea (01:03:09):
The old man on the flower?

Callie (01:03:11):
No, it's about a girl who's going to her first day of
middle school, and she's Yes,okay.
Yeah, so she's visited by PeterPan, and it just goes through
this montage of all of theseDisney songs and princesses, and
you know, Elsa was in the show,which she hadn't been on our
ship at all.
And so that was a huge all ofthe girls were like, It's Elsa,

(01:03:34):
and it's snowing in theaudience, and during the little
mermaid bits, there's bubbles inthe audience.

Daniel (01:03:41):
And the Lion King was unbelievable.

Callie (01:03:45):
Yeah, so they just brought out, you know, all of
these, you know, our favoritesongs that we grew up with, as
well as our kids.
And it was just so magical.
And I was tearing up, and I waslike, this is so beautiful.
And then Minnie and Mickey comeout at the end, and it's just
like, oh, it's so great.

Daniel (01:04:06):
That was the show we actually did not have our any of
our kids sitting with us inthat show.
And that was the show we keptlooking to them like, oh, are
you you want you know, like itwas like it was the level of
like we we were trying to watchit through their eyes, and like
we wanted them to be sittingwith us just because there were
so many amazing things, like ohyeah, oh my gosh, there's Elsa,
or oh my gosh, there's you know,all the different it was just

(01:04:27):
so so special.

Callie (01:04:29):
My four-year-old, especially.
I was like, every you know,when Elsa came out, I was like,
oh my gosh.
Or Anna was in it too, andAnna's her favorite, you know.

Daniel (01:04:36):
She came, she kind of walked down the row to us in the
middle of the show at one pointto give us both hugs.
She wanted to give us hugs.

Callie (01:04:43):
So full of emotion.

Daniel (01:04:44):
And she was like, My eyes are wet.
Are your eyes wet?
It's just like, oh yeah.

Callie (01:04:49):
She's our little empath.
Yeah.
She she loved it.
Yeah, it was really beautiful,really, really well done.
Yeah.
It's awesome.
And that was a really greatlike final note to finish it all
off.
And I know that there was asort of farewell party in the
atrium after that, but it was alate night thing.

(01:05:10):
And it was like, you know, weneeded to finish packing to put
our suitcases out by 10 p.m.
And so we just skipped that,but I was like, I'm totally fine
skipping that because this wassuch a great like ending and
highlight and you know, lasthurrah type of thing.
So that was really beautiful.

Daniel (01:05:29):
Well, and one of the nights we went to we watched a
movie.

Callie (01:05:32):
There was one night where there wasn't a show after
dinner.
And so they were showing umFreakier Friday was had just
come out into the theaters.
And so that was being shown inthe big theater.
And then in the smaller movietheater, it was the new Pixar
Elio.
So we went and saw that withour kids.
And so that was a great, like,okay, like, you know, it's just

(01:05:54):
a movie night instead of a show.

Daniel (01:05:56):
Um that was fun too, because that right now, um, when
we were on the cruise, I mean,it was that movie is only still
in theaters, it wasn't out onthis or anything yet.

Nathan (01:06:04):
And so they do what they call uh premEARS at sea, with
of course E-A-R-S.
Um and you get first run shows,like if it's coming out that
day, it's it's on the ship thatday.
Yeah.
Um we've seen several uh of

Alicea (01:06:19):
Tangled was one of them, actually.

Nathan (01:06:21):
Tangled we saw on the ship for the first time.
Uh Star Wars uh Rogue One.
Oh, we saw um yeah, ended upwith uh with like a five or
six-year-old, I forget the uhhow old Sterling was, um,
completely latched onto K2SO andthen you know about three
three-quarters of the waythrough the movie, um that

(01:06:42):
didn't turn out so well.

Alicea (01:06:43):
No, yeah.
Nothing, I mean, it doesn'tturn out well for anybody.
No, that's true.
That's true.
It's not a happy ending.

Daniel (01:06:51):
On the Star Wars note, I will say I was we were at least
the boys and I weredisappointed.
I'm a huge, huge Star Wars fan.
Yeah.
And we were we weredisappointed there wasn't a ton
of Star Wars stuff.
There was one photo op that hada lightsaber, and that was the
only Star Wars thing.

Callie (01:07:06):
Um Marvel thing.
I know some of the other shipshave more Star Wars things that
are going to be.

Alicea (01:07:14):
Some here and there, I will say that there is usually
some sort of character meet andgreet in the kids' area at some
point where they have um maybeChewbacca or C3PO.

Nathan (01:07:28):
Or Ray.

Alicea (01:07:29):
Or Ray, but it's only in the kids' area.
Anyone can go during that timeand get the photo up or get the
character meet and greet, butit's like it's only there unless
they're doing a Star Wars dayat sea, which I don't think they
do at the end.

Nathan (01:07:42):
They haven't done one of those in years.
Was this a Marvel Day atSea?
Or did there just happen to beMarvel characters?
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
Cool.

Daniel (01:07:51):
And those Marvel characters were doing different
things throughout the time.
They just didn't do the meetand autograph photo op.
Yeah.
Um, they had like they showedup at Oceaneer's Club a couple
times for sort of.

Callie (01:08:03):
But that was the only time that Spider-Man came out.

Daniel (01:08:05):
Spider-Man did uh did a web slinging tutorial with the
line for Spider-Man was crazy.

Callie (01:08:13):
Yeah.
And everybody, you know, thatwas the only kind of photo op
available for him.

Daniel (01:08:18):
But so you guys, you waited in line with the boys for
Spider-Man, and you guys wereat the end of the line.
Yeah.
So there's a cast member thatwas like holding the end of the
line that you got to talk to.

Callie (01:08:27):
Yeah, and she's one of the um entertainers in the
Broadway show, in the shows thatnight.
And so that was reallyfascinating to get to talk to
her.
And then we saw her that night.
We saw her.
She was the main singer in theLion King.
And so that was really it waslike, oh, I know her, and I feel
so proud of her, and she's sucha beautiful singer.

(01:08:49):
And I was like tearing up.
It was such a beautiful song.
Yeah.
She sang Circle of Life.
And um so yeah, that was reallyinteresting to get to chat with
her and get a behind thescenes.
I really liked chatting withdifferent cast members and
getting the behind-the-sceneslook.
We chatted a lot with ourserver, you know.
Yeah.
We're like, what is life like?

(01:09:10):
And our assistant server, hehis wife also works on the ship,
you know, he's married.
And um, so and our server, shehas a boyfriend that worked on
the ship, you know.
So it's like, wow, it's like awhole world.
You know, it's a whole yeah,city ecosystem that is like
totally hidden behind thescenes, you know.

(01:09:31):
But she's like, I love talkingabout it.
We just can't bring it up, youknow?
So she was like, Yeah, ask mewhatever questions you want.
Yeah.

Alicea (01:09:42):
Would you cruise with Disney again?

Daniel (01:09:45):
I don't know, man.
Absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely.
It was amazing.

Callie (01:09:52):
I think we're spoiled, you know.

Daniel (01:09:54):
I think we could do a different cruise.

Alicea (01:09:57):
Yeah.
Yeah, that's kind of whathappened to us.
Yeah.

Daniel (01:10:01):
We went on uh another cruise, you just the two of us,
which is really, really great.
Yeah.
But like if we were to do thatagain and be like, oh, I mean,
well, Disney does it this way.

Nathan (01:10:09):
So this is kind of you know we recently just did an
Alaska cruise with celebrity.
Um, we cruised from Vancouverto Hawaii with Royal last year.
And yeah, it it is impossibleto not just go like, well,
Disney wouldn't do it this way.

Daniel (01:10:30):
Uh uh.

Nathan (01:10:31):
We are maybe this is a little better than Disney, or
but everything is just comparedto Disney.
It's just yeah, it's it's sogood.

Alicea (01:10:38):
But it's our happy place.
It is.
A happy place.
Yeah, we would love to doanother one.

Nathan (01:10:44):
Yeah.
Nice.
Well, you have a bunch moreships to try and lots more
itinerary options.
I mean, the world's youroyster.

Callie (01:10:51):
I know.
I think it would be fun to takethe kids on an Alaskan one,
especially with the port beingout of Vancouver.
You know, we can just drive upand go out of there.
I think that they would reallyenjoy seeing the glaciers and
things.

Daniel (01:11:04):
We really enjoyed our Alaska cruise and getting to see
Glacier Bay and just the beautyof that was just so fun.

Nathan (01:11:11):
Absolutely.
And the character interactionsin Alaska are pretty top-notch
too.

Callie (01:11:17):
Are they?

Nathan (01:11:18):
Yeah, just imagine, you know, on Glacier Viewing Day,
like they're all out on deck intheir Alaska gear.
So yeah, that's really fun.
Yeah, it's pretty soon.
It's pretty good.
It's pretty good.
Well, it is now time forAlicea's patented Disney torture
test.
So um good luck.

Alicea (01:11:37):
This is just this is just your Disney favorites from
basically everything underMickey's umbrella.
So you can choose from Disney,Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel,
whatever you'd like.
I'm gonna change it up a littlebit since um you haven't really
done the parks a lot.
First off, though, favoritecharacter.

Daniel (01:11:58):
I'll let you go for it.
Mine's gonna have to be a StarWars character.

Callie (01:12:00):
Mine's Belle.
Specifically, like VillageBelle that really loves to read
and sings through the village.
Yeah.
Yeah.

Daniel (01:12:10):
Mine is one of any, I mean, a litany of Star Wars
characters.
Um, right now it would beCassian Andor.
Um because uh yeah, the Andorshow is my very favorite Star
Wars.
It's very well done.
Nice.

Alicea (01:12:26):
I haven't seen the second the next season.

Nathan (01:12:28):
Yes, we've also we've saved our second season.
We will be binging that uhmomentarily.
We just started it.
Excellent.

Alicea (01:12:36):
Excellent.
Favorite movie?

Daniel (01:12:39):
So I mean, like I mentioned, I'm a big Star Wars
fan.
I could list any of the StarWars movies.
I'm not going to.
Um, those are absolutely myfavorite.
But growing up, my veryfavorite Disney classic was
Robin Hood.
That was like that, that's thewe had it on VHS.
I know exactly what commercialscome on, and we what parts, you

(01:13:00):
know, because we taped it offof you know, off of like ABC or
something.
And um that was like our go-touh Disney classic.
Uh so so fun.

Callie (01:13:12):
I really love Encanto.
It's a newer one, but my kidswe they really went through a
big Encanto phase when it firstcame out.
And now I think we might haveoverdone it because now I'm
like, should we watch Encanto?
And they're like, let's watchsomething else.
I'm like, but it's so good.
Like whenever we're picking afamily movie.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.

Daniel (01:13:30):
I think we overdid it.

Callie (01:13:31):
You do.

Daniel (01:13:32):
I Encanto is also wonderful.
I love Soundtrack.
Yeah.
So I love the soundtrack.
No, the soundtrack is so good.
It's so good, yeah.

Alicea (01:13:43):
Favorite Disney snack.

Callie (01:13:47):
Well, I mean, just getting off the boat right now,
it's the soft serve.
But I know it's different inthe parks.
You know, there's a lot moresnacks available in the parks,
but the soft serve ice cream onthe boat was a daily, multiple
times an afternoon snack for thekids.
And we would put the kids tobed at night and we would sneak

(01:14:08):
back down and get a late nightgoing.
Or two, or three.

Daniel (01:14:13):
Yeah.
I would agree.

Alicea (01:14:17):
Um favorite character experience.

Callie (01:14:21):
I loved seeing the girls meet Minnie Mouse because we
got to meet her the night wewent to Animator's Palette,
which was the night that I haddressed my whole family up to
look like Minnie and Mickey.
And so our youngest, she hadthe cutest little Minnie Mouse
dress, and they both werewearing their mini ears, you
know, just the classic red andwhite and black ears.

(01:14:44):
And Minnie just loved seeingher in her dress matching, you
know, like they had a reallysweet, like they were both
twirling together.
It was just really sweet.
And uh the girls, I think, justreally loved meeting her the
most.
Yeah.

Daniel (01:15:00):
I would second that, but to to say something different.
Um boys got in line to meetStitch from Lilo and Stitch.
And we were just we had seenhim around different and I was
just so I he was so in characterand I loved it.
Like, you know, the the theother cast members are helping,
like, you know, corral or help,you know, the lines and stuff.

(01:15:22):
Like Stitch would run off andhe they like chasing him down,
like, no back this, you know,they were like so in character,
it was so good.
Um, and then the boys uh whenthey got in line and met him,
um, like our our eight-year-old,he had the pen he had he wanted
to sign with was actually alittle guitar thing.
And so he like did a wholelittle guitar solo on that.
It was just this great, youknow, fun little moment that the

(01:15:44):
boys just loved and thought washilarious.
That's awesome.
That's awesome.
I will say the charactermeeting that didn't happen that
I think would have been the bestis if Max had been on the boat.
So Goofy Son.
Because our kids love the Goofymovie.
Yeah, okay.
Um, and our our eight-year-oldhas learned the power line dance

(01:16:06):
from I 2 I.
And he like was hoping becausewe had seen like one video where
like they had at they had adance party in the atrium and
they played that song, and Goofywas there and did the dancing
and so he was like, I want tolearn it in case we do that, so
I can do it with Goofy andthings, and so uh, but if Max
had been there, and I I did alittle bit of research and saw
like there have he has been oncruises before, but yeah, but

(01:16:29):
you know, not uh a guarantee byany means.
Um uh that would have beenreally fun.

Nathan (01:16:34):
We saw Max at like an on-deck dance party.

Alicea (01:16:40):
Did we?

Nathan (01:16:41):
I forget.

Alicea (01:16:43):
I know we've seen him at the parks a bunch.

Nathan (01:16:45):
Yeah, I want to I want to say maybe it was on the wish.
Like when we were on like earlyon in its run, they they
started off a party, and I thinkAlicea, you were off with the
kids doing something, and I wentand like just got video of the
party just because we're nowcontent creators, question mark,

(01:17:06):
and so get content.
Um, it was really neat, and anduh yeah, but I haven't seen him
a lot other than like rareappearances.

Daniel (01:17:14):
He's kind of a niche character, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
But he happens to be ourspecifically Bishop's favorite.
And yeah, yeah.

Alicea (01:17:24):
Favorite place on the ship.

Callie (01:17:26):
I think for me, I enjoyed the entertainment so
much in the theater.
It's not necessarily like thecoolest or the best place, but
the experiences that we hadthere were my favorite.
Yeah.

Daniel (01:17:40):
I found myself if I was wandering around with one of the
kids or Kelly and I were on awalk, I would gravitate towards
the tenth deck near the frontwhere there's like the ping pong
and stuff.
But even going outside ofthere, just being able to see
where we're going and just thethe wind, and it's just so
beautiful and so fun.

Alicea (01:18:00):
I'm gonna uh take some questions from one of our other
podcasts that we love listeningto the DCL duo.
Favorite sweet item on theship.

Callie (01:18:12):
The yeah, cream brulee.
There was a cream bruleecheesecake one night.
That was delicious.

Daniel (01:18:19):
Yeah, for me it was the ice cream.
Just it was it was deliciousand just always there.
So there you go.

Alicea (01:18:26):
And finally, favorite savory item.

Daniel (01:18:31):
Oh, at Rapunzel's I got the like the appetizer.
I got like it was like thelittle cheese plate uh
charcuterie board thing that Ireally thought was really,
really good.
I really liked it.
Um there were a few, I mean, Ididn't know what everything was
on there.
Um I know it said it in themenu, but the menu was gone and
I was like, I don't know, youknow, I don't know what this is.
Um but it was really, reallydelicious.

Callie (01:18:52):
Yeah.
I think that they did theappetizers and the soup courses
really well.
I really enjoyed the appetizersand like there was a really
good brucetta one day.
There was a several really goodpotato soups, which the only
reason that sticks out in mymind is because potato soup is
our six-year-old daughter'sfavorite food.
That's what she requests forher birthday dinner and

(01:19:15):
everything.
And so every time it was on ourmenu, we'd be like, oh, Ardid,
there's potato soup tonight, youknow.
And so she would order it alongwith her mac and cheese.
And she would have that.
And so it's like, okay, there'sa little more variety in her
meal tonight, not just mac andcheese and French.

Daniel (01:19:33):
Specifically, our four-year-old had mac and cheese
for every single lunch anddinner.
Yep.
Every lunch and a single one.
Yeah.

Callie (01:19:40):
As you do.
Our server just laughed by theend of it.
She's like, yeah, I know.
I already wrote it down.

Nathan (01:19:45):
Yep.
Well, congratulations, yousurvived.
Oh, thanks.
Oh, we thrived.
Okay.
So what's next?
You doing another cruise?

Daniel (01:19:57):
We would love to.

Callie (01:19:58):
We'd love to.
Yeah.

Daniel (01:19:59):
We gotta buy a new minivan first.
Yeah.
That's our next big spendexpenditure.
Yeah.
Details.
Yeah.

Nathan (01:20:07):
But real life gets in the way of all our vacation
plans.
So I understand.
What's that about?

Daniel (01:20:11):
But that would that would that would be it has set a
very high bar that we wouldlove to cross again.

Callie (01:20:16):
Yeah.
And I think it would be reallyfun to take our kids to
Disneyland.
All of my brothers live down inSouthern California.
So I'm like, okay, we just needto go visit them and take them
to a day because they've neverexperienced that.
And I think that this is agreat first way to experience
Disney with them, just withtheir different ages.
Because, you know, being inDisneyland, you know, I would

(01:20:41):
want to experience everythingthrough all of their eyes, you
know.
And my I know my boys are gonnawant to go do different things
than my girls are gonna want todo.
And so I physically can't bewith them, you know, like unless
we do multiple, multiple daysand we all just stick together
the whole time.
Um but I think that this is areally great first time into the

(01:21:02):
Disney world.
Uh not Disney World, but youknow, the world of Disneyland.

Nathan (01:21:07):
Yes.

Callie (01:21:08):
And so I think that that would be a really great thing
to do now is Disneyland and seehow that, you know, compares for
them and how you know there'sso much more in the parks than
there can be on a boat.
And so just experiencing thatwith them, I think, would be
really fun.

Daniel (01:21:25):
Yeah.
And we had talked about maybedoing Disney World when we were
in Orlando, like staying afterordering before.
And we kind of just landed likewe're we're already doing the
cruise, we're making someamazing memories there.

Callie (01:21:38):
Yeah.

Daniel (01:21:38):
You know, like let's let that be what that is.
We don't have to also then doalso do Disney World too.
Like we're already, we'realready here, you know, set in a
high, high bar.
And so being able to uh do thatwould have been a lot of fun.

Callie (01:21:53):
But I think it would have been a lot uh too much to
do it after the cruise.
I think the only thing we couldhave done is maybe before,
which my youngest brother andhis wife, they don't have kids,
they did do a couple of daysbefore.
And they got on and their firstnight, they went and got a
couple of massage.
They're probably like, youknow, we've been walking for the
last few days.
Like we're gonna go to massage.

(01:22:14):
Yeah.

Alicea (01:22:15):
So the way to do it is the parks first.

Daniel (01:22:18):
Yes,

Alicea (01:22:18):
and then relax on the cruise.

Nathan (01:22:22):
well, thank you so much for coming on.

Callie (01:22:24):
Yeah, thanks for having us.

Daniel (01:22:26):
This is so fun.

Nathan (01:22:27):
Absolutely.
It was great to hear all aboutyour your first time with the
magic and and really ex youknow, getting to live like
you've been talking about,living like this dream and
seeing all this pixie dusthappen through your kids.
Like, yeah, that's that's sucha magical experience.
I'm glad you guys got a chanceto do that.
And congratulations to your dadon retirement.

Callie (01:22:47):
Yeah, thanks.
Yeah, I know.
I'm it was such a gift for themto take us.
And yeah, it was a really greatexperience.
Unbelievable.

Nathan (01:22:55):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Well, thanks again.
Yeah, thanks for having us.

Alicea (01:23:00):
Please remember we are not affiliated with Disney or
their subsidiaries.
These are personal opinions andsuggestions based on our own
experiences.
We recommend working with atravel agent or contacting
Disney directly to plan yourperfect vacation.

Nathan (01:23:14):
If you have questions or suggestions or would like to be
interviewed on our show toshare your Disney experiences,
please send an email to podcastat our mousecapades.com.

Alicea (01:23:24):
You can follow us on socials.
We are at Our Mouscapades.
You can find us on Instagram,Facebook threads, and YouTube.

Nathan (01:23:30):
And please give us a rating in review in your podcast
app that really helps peoplefind us.

Alicea (01:23:36):
Of course, don't hesitate to share us with your
friends and fellow Disney loversof all ages.

Nathan (01:23:41):
Thanks for listening.
We'll be in your ears nextweek.

Alicea (01:23:45):
Thank you for flying Star Tours.
Bye bye.

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