232. Second Sailing, Same Ship: Does Disney Destiny Hold Up?

One Disney Destiny sailing isn’t enough and Wes proves it by coming back for round two with a first-timer friend and a fresh set of eyes. We talk through what actually improves on a repeat cruise once you know the layout, the timing, and the hidden “gotchas” that can make or break your plans on a Wish-class ship. Think limited-capacity venues, growing rope drop culture at the most popular lounges, and why some entertainment still takes strategy even when you’re determined to slow down and soak it all in.

We also get delightfully specific: GTY (guarantee) stateroom realities, the rotational dining order that puts Pride Lands on the last night, and which meals overdeliver. Wes shares why 1923 remains a favorite, why Worlds of Marvel is better than its reputation, and why Pride Lands can be both incredible and frustrating thanks to volume, lighting, and sightlines. Then we go big on entertainment, including a candid Hercules review, a real-world warning about balcony box seats, and how missing puppetry can change the feel of a marquee show.

The headline comparison is the dream combo stop: Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point and Castaway Cay on the same itinerary. We stack them up on beach, water, theming, and flow, plus a surprising Castaway cabana-area moment that feels closer to the calm, shallow vibe people love about Lookout. If you’re planning a Disney Cruise Line vacation, this is packed with practical tips and honest takes that help you choose priorities and set expectations. Subscribe, share this with your favorite Disney planner, and leave us a review with your pick: Lookout Cay or Castaway Cay?

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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.

Instagram, Threads, Facebook: @ourmousecapades
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ourmousecapadespod
https://OurMousecapades.com
[e-mail]

Episode Transcript

Intro (00:03):
Please stand clear of the doors.
Please stand clear of thedoors.

Alicea (00:23):
Hello everyone.
I'm Alicea.

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

Wesley (00:26):
And I'm Wesley.

Alicea (00:28):
Welcome to this week's episode of Adventures and
Mousecapades .
Today we are welcoming backfriend of the show, Wes, aka the
brains and brawn behind version5571, who just returned from
another sailing aboard theDisney Destiny.
Yes, another one.
Since we've already covered hisfirst Destiny experience back
in episodes 205 and 6, this timewe are digging into what drew

(00:53):
him back, what felt different orbetter on a repeat visit, and
how the ship held up on roundtwo.
Plus, he got to experience bothof Disney's private island
destinations on the samesailing.
So we're putting lookout keyand castaway key head to head,
and you don't want to miss that.
So without further ado, welcomeback.

Wesley (01:15):
Guys, so good to be here.
Thank you so much for theinvite.

Nathan (01:19):
Absolutely.

Wesley (01:20):
Good to know I didn't wear out my welcome.

Nathan (01:23):
Absolutely not.
Yeah.
No, we uh uh enjoyed ourconversation.
I enjoy following you over atversion 55.71 on all the socials
and stuff.
And yeah uh uh we we definitelyneed to pick your brain on
magnet designs, that's for sure.

Wesley (01:39):
Yeah, let's get into it.
Before the call here, uh it'swhat I was doing because there's
another sailing coming up, andI'm under a deadline to get
these things out to the printerso I can have them in time
before we leave.

Alicea (01:52):
Yeah,

Nathan (01:53):
gotta meet that work back schedule.

Wesley (01:55):
Quote, work, quote.

Nathan (01:57):
Yeah.
So can you remind our guestskind of who you are and what
your relationship is withDisney?

Wesley (02:04):
Yeah, um, I'm a lifelong fan.
I this is a deep, this is adeep question that can go on.
That can go on for some time.
Okay, so the Cliff Notesversion.
Um, I grew up in SouthernCalifornia.
We, you know, went toDisneyland, it was a family
affair.
We loved it.
Um we we sailed for the firsttime in 2005 uh and then didn't

(02:30):
return until after the pandemicwhen I had a wife and kids, and
we've kind of been going realsteady and strong since then.
Combined between uh DisneyCruise Line and Royal Caribbean,
we've done 10 cruises in thelast about two years.

Alicea (02:49):
Oh my gosh, that is amazing!

Wesley (02:51):
Yeah.
Right, amazing experience,yeah, it's for sure.
Um, you know, I've worked, I'veworked for Disney, I've worked
in Florida and I've worked inCalifornia.
Um, and I've visited DisneylandParis, we've been to Aulani,
and of course we've been on thiswas my eighth cruise, my eighth
Disney cruise.

Nathan (03:10):
Wow.
Um 10 cruises in two years.
Squad goals.
Squad goals.

Wesley (03:15):
It's a lot.
It's a lot, but I have I had agoal that I wanted to be
Platinum, a Platinum Castawaymember before the next Disney
cruise ship comes out.
So before the before theBelieve goes on sale, I want to
be Platinum so I can get like aneven better chance of booking
those early sails.

Alicea (03:35):
That makes sense.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, for this cruise, who wasin your sailing party?

Wesley (03:42):
For this cruise, um, it was just me and my best friend
from way back in childhood.
His name's Doug.
Uh we've been buddies since aslong as I can remember, to be
honest.
And but as we got older, he gotmarried and had kids and moved
away and had work and all kindsof stuff, same with me.

(04:03):
So we hadn't hung out for anextended period of time like
this in over 20 years.
Wow.
So for this particular sailing,my wife and kids couldn't make
it, and so I invited Doug.
And when I when I was gettingready to invite him, I was, you
know, getting my sales pitchready, and I had all the bullet

(04:24):
points of things that I wasgonna try to sell him on the
all-inclusiveness, the food, theislands, the relaxation, the
whole thing.
And before I even finishedpopping the question, so to
speak, it was an immediate yes.
He was in, and there was nolooking back, um, paid in full,
ready to go.

Nathan (04:43):
Excellent.
So, what kind of stateroom didyou guys have?
And and like what was thetheme?

Wesley (04:49):
So we booked kind of late into the process.
I think it was only a fewmonths ahead of time.
So I was trying to save Dougsome money.
He's a frugal gentleman.
And so we just booked a GTY,like an Ocean View State Room or
Ocean View, uh Deluxe OceanView GTY.
And we got put in, we wereassigned 8504.

Alicea (05:13):
Okay.

Wesley (05:14):
Which people who are very familiar with deck plans on
wish-class ships might knowalready that it's kind of one of
those corner rooms near thefront that it has a slanted
portholes.

Alicea (05:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wesley (05:28):
It sleeps four, but it's kind of like that bigger
situation.
So you walk in, there's thebed, and then off to the left,
past the bathrooms, there's likea bigger sitting area.
Yeah.

Nathan (05:38):
Nice.
Yeah.

Wesley (05:40):
So it's kind of it was a lot of it was a lot more space
for just the two of us than whenwe travel with the five of us
normally.

Nathan (05:46):
Yeah.
Kind of a nice, nice perk youstumbled into there.

Wesley (05:49):
Yeah, lots of activity space.

Nathan (05:51):
What was the theme of the room?
Like who what was the the movieor the characters?

Wesley (05:55):
Brave.

Nathan (05:56):
Nice.

Wesley (05:58):
You're supposed to know all of them.
You're supposed to know all ofthem already.

Nathan (06:00):
I yeah, I have the whole map memorized.

Wesley (06:06):
No, I seen you've seen the spreadsheets.
I've seen the spreadsheetswhere they list all the things.
I still I there's no way I'mever gonna remember all of that.

Alicea (06:14):
No, no, I don't, I don't, I don't dive that deep
into it.

Wesley (06:17):
No, but it was Brave.

Alicea (06:20):
Okay.

Wesley (06:20):
I was a little I was excited about the stateroom type
and like the differentconfiguration, but we had Brave
on the Maiden Voyage too.
Uh so I didn't get to seeanything new on this one.
But there's nothing wrong withBrave.
It's a win.
Brave is a win, so I I like it.

Nathan (06:37):
So when you book a guarantee room, you're not
specifying a specific roomnumber or location.
You're just saying, hey, I wantthis type of room or better.
Sometimes Disney will bump youup.
Um how far in advance doesDisney give you that room
assignment, or or did you getyours?
I know it can probably vary,I'm sure.

Wesley (06:58):
Yeah, it varies quite a bit, actually.
But for me personally, on thissailing, we got our room
assignment about four weeksahead of time.

Nathan (07:07):
Okay.

Wesley (07:08):
Maybe five weeks.
I feel like it was pretty,pretty far out compared to maybe
some some other people thatI've heard speak about it, where
they get their room assignmentcloser to to sailing, but yeah,
about five about five weeks out.

Nathan (07:21):
Nice.

Alicea (07:22):
So you just talked Destiny with us back in
December.
Uh, what was it that pulled youback so quickly?

Wesley (07:29):
Well, pulled me back so quickly to the destiny was I
couldn't wrap my head aroundeverything on just one sailing.
There was so much I'm gonnacall it like extra stuff, but it
you know, all the immersion,all the shows, all the
storytelling, all the heroes andvillains.
In addition to all the crewstuff that you get already, with

(07:53):
the already the goodentertainment, already the good
recreation in the pools and theadult spaces, uh, there was just
too much.
There was just too much, andthere you know, the maiden
voyage was relatively short, youknow, it was only four days,
right?
Four nights.
So I, you know, when the chancecame up to go again, it was
something that I wanted to getback into and kind of just kind

(08:15):
of settle in it for a little bitlonger.

Intro (08:18):
Yeah.

Wesley (08:18):
Um, the first time around on the maiden voyage, you
know, there's all the hype,there's all the excitement,
there's all the people.
Yes.
And I wanted to, and you know,I was getting pulled in
different directions all thetime, and the kids were there,
and they wanted to do this, andmy wife wanted to do this, and I
wanted to do this, and there'sjust if you've ever been on a
Disney cruise, there's justalways too much to do.

(08:42):
There's always too much to, youknow, on paper, sometimes I
think, oh, I don't know, is isthis gonna be enough?
Is this all I'm gonna this isall I'm gonna do for like four
nights?
And then you get there and it'sthat's never enough time.
So yeah.
So the thing that brought meback was just wanting to have
more time to kind of marinate alittle bit in some of the spaces

(09:04):
and do some of the things andand revisit some of the things
that you know just went by sofast.

Nathan (09:10):
Yeah.
Was this a four or afive-nighter?

Wesley (09:12):
It was a four-nighter.

Nathan (09:14):
Okay, another four-nighter.
Was there anything specificthat you were chasing, like food
or vibes, or or or ports, or orspecific entertainment?
Or was it more of let's justsee what I stumble into and have
a fun time?

Wesley (09:28):
Doug, my buddy that went with me, he's a first-timer.
He had never been on DisneyCruise Line before.
So there was a little bit of Iwant to watch him and see like
what his reactions are to justeverything that's happening
around him.
Um, but yeah, there weredefinite things that I wanted to
do again, and some things thatI didn't do the first time that

(09:50):
I wanted to get into.
For instance, I wanted to see‘With Great Power a Marvel
comedy show’.
I wanted to see that again.
We went to Palo Brunch, whichwe didn't do on the maiden
voyage, so I got to go to Paloon the Destiny.
And then there are still, evenstill, after two sailings, eight
nights on this ship, there werestill some things that I wanted

(10:11):
to do that I just didn't get achance to do again.

Nathan (10:15):
Oh no, you'll have to go back.

Wesley (10:16):
Yeah.

Alicea (10:18):
Oops.
Yeah.

Wesley (10:19):
Such a tough situation I've put myself in.
Yeah.

Alicea (10:22):
Yeah.
Um, how different does thedestiny feel when it's no longer
new to you?
Uh, did anything land better oror worse on the second visit?

Wesley (10:32):
Yeah, it's funny.
I was walking around and I keptthinking, I don't know, it felt
familiar, obviously, because Ihad been there.
So I knew where everything wasand kind of what to expect
around certain corners.
But I don't, I I tried hard tonot take it for granted, you
know, that I had been therebefore and that I had done it.
And so every once in a while,as I was as I was walking

(10:54):
around, I did have to remindmyself like this ship is only a
handful of months old.
You know, this is still thenewest Disney Cruise line ship
in North America, right?
And for all intents andpurposes, the newest Disney
Cruise line ship for most of usthat is attainable.
So uh it's yeah, I felt alittle giddy, like kind of

(11:14):
walking around, like this is asgood as it gets right now.
This is as new as it gets, youknow, we're still they're still
kicking the tires on stuff, butit it was it was a bit surreal
kind of thinking, you know,back, oh, this is where this
happened on the Maiden Voyage,or this is where, you know, we
saw this for the first time, oror I I know we have to get to

(11:35):
this thing right away becauseit'll fill up.
Yeah.
And I want to and I want to getthe whole thing this time, you
know?

Nathan (11:40):
Yeah.
Did some of those experiencesfrom the maiden that were just
kind of like almostoversubscribed or just like real
impossible to get to?
Was any of that easier to dothis time around?
Have things kind of calmed downa little bit?

Wesley (11:57):
Uh I I'm glad you brought that up because some,
you know, the crowds and thelines and the so-called like
rope drop culture that is kindof sneaking in on some of these
wish class ships because thespaces are so cool and everybody
wants to experience them, butthey have limited capacity and
availability.
So the oversubscription to someof the places is still ongoing.

(12:19):
And you know, it's still withinits first year.
I mean, November, December,January, February, March, April,
May.
Six months in, yeah, I stillcouldn't get into, and because
maybe I didn't make it a bigenough priority, but I still
couldn't get into DeVil’s to see‘treblemaking’.

Nathan (12:37):
Wow.
Yeah.

Wesley (12:38):
You know, some of the people that I was with that I
met while while we were on thissailing, you know, sat in
DeVil's for over an hour beforetroublemaking started, you know,
just to make sure they got aseat.

Alicea (12:50):
Yeah.

Wesley (12:50):
As it got closer to showtime, you know, they they
asked them, can you scooch?
Can we fit, you know, one ortwo more people in here?
Because we're trying tomaximize the space.

Alicea (13:00):
Yeah.

Wesley (13:00):
Space in there is really, really small.

Alicea (13:02):
Yeah, that is that's a small area.
Same on on the other ships,like same for is it Scat Cat?

Wesley (13:09):
Yep.

Alicea (13:09):
And um Nightingales.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.

Nathan (13:13):
Yeah.

Wesley (13:13):
So that's one on the list for next time for next time
because it still eludes me.
But it's to their own creditthat it was popular and
something that people want toexperience.
I've only heard the best thingsabout this show.

Nathan (13:29):
Yeah.

Wesley (13:29):
And people want to experience over and over because
it's different every time.
Yep.

Alicea (13:34):
Do they only offer it once?

Wesley (13:36):
No, they did offer it multiple times.

Alicea (13:38):
Okay.

Wesley (13:39):
But it's still difficult to get it.
Yeah, but still difficult, notonly because there's a queue,
but difficult in the fact thatlike I'm not gonna give up.
I don't know when the showtimes were off the top of my
head.
But for instance, I'm not gonnagive up castaway time or
lookout time.

Alicea (13:56):
Yeah.

Wesley (13:57):
Or, you know, and then on the on our sea day, when I
think there was two versions ofthe show, uh, you know, we were
in Palo for three hours, andalso Hercules is on the last
day, and there's three showingsof that.
So there's a lot, even on a seaday, when oh, you're just on

(14:18):
the ship and you can be hyperfocused on the certain things
that you want.
I'm still kind of runningaround with my head caught off,
trying to like do all the do allthe things that that I couldn't
get to do otherwise.
If it was a seven-nightsailing, it might be a bit
easier to get in on some ofthis.

Nathan (14:34):
But yeah, well, and frankly, that's why we're doing
a seven-night sailing our firsttime on the destiny coming up in
June.
Uh, they're starting to do it.
Looks like they're gonna bedoing uh uh one seven-night
western and a seven-nighteastern kind of per quarter.
Yeah.
And yeah, so we're on the firstiteration of those in June, or
at least the eastern one inJune, and and very much looking

(14:57):
forward to that and having moretime.
But you know, the real solutionhere is to get on these ships
when they have like uh aneventual, like a Europe crossing
or a Panama Canal or somethinglike that, and you've got two
weeks, and then it's just likesoak everything in, and
everything's so much morerelaxed.
But yeah, we'll get there.

Alicea (15:16):
And who knows when they'll start doing those with
the wish class.
Yeah, yeah, it'll be well.

Wesley (15:20):
Oh, the wish, right?
Because the wish is going to umgo into Europe next year.
That's right.
Next year.

Nathan (15:25):
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
But the wish doesn't have thislevel of of entertainment and
offerings, and it it's nice, butit's

Alicea (15:33):
it doesn't have the storytelling aspect.

Nathan (15:35):
No, no.

Wesley (15:36):
But following the same pattern, you know, just a few
years after the wish goes in 27,the destiny will follow in a
handful of years after that.
So that's a good point.
Put that on your calendar ifyou want.

Alicea (15:47):
We have not done any type of transatlantic yet.
Um, we've done Panama Canal,but someday we'll do
transatlantic.
We love sea days, and that'sjust perfect.
Perfect.

Wesley (15:58):
Yeah, that's yeah, it is perfect.
And they're always such a goodvalue, like per day when you
break it down, right?

Nathan (16:03):
Yeah, 100%.

Wesley (16:04):
Yeah.
No kids, so you can't take kidson those.
They got school and everything.

Alicea (16:08):
Yeah, that's okay.

Wesley (16:09):
Oh, okay.
Oh no, no resistance fromAlicea on the no kids thing.

Alicea (16:14):
Nope.
They're used to it.
We do that to them a lot.
They get to go on vacationswith us, and we get to go on
vacations without them.

Nathan (16:21):
Yeah.
Look how benevolent we are.
Yeah.

Alicea (16:26):
Was there a space experience or moment this time
that kind of made you say, okay,this is why people repeat going
on ships.

Wesley (16:35):
On this ship in particular, I think the okay,
we're gonna keep doing this, arethe storytellers and the
immersion with the like thevillains.

Nathan (16:45):
Yeah.

Wesley (16:46):
Particularly in the Grand Hall, where it's on full
display for everybody.
Because there are some momentslike that, but they're adult
only, like the Marvel comedyshow or treble making.
These are much smaller, andthey uh I believe they have wide
appeal against the lines andthe inability to get in on them,

(17:06):
but very few people get toexperience it as a ratio of the
total number of people who areon the ship.
So the things that happen inthe in the Grand Hall, starting
with Zaya and Gamble and TheLegend of Loki on embarkation
day, just really grabs yourattention.

(17:27):
And and it's one of thosethings where I'm like, this
can't be real, like this isactually happening type
situation for me.
I mean, it's a simple retellingof you know Asgard and Thor and
Loki, but just the dramatics ofit all and the comedy of it

(17:48):
all, and then the intensity ofthe music and the lighting and
and the entrance of Loki fromyou know up the stairs, like on
deck four coming down, yeah, ismakes a real impression, even
for like an old-timey guy likeme.

Nathan (18:07):
Was that impression bigger the second time around?
Because you knew some of whatwas gonna happen, or did were
you finding new things where itjust made a bigger impression?

Wesley (18:17):
I just think like on the on the first time, and everyone
kind of experiences thingsdifferently, but the first time
I saw it, my my eyes are likegoing back and forth.
Like, am I supposed to bepaying attention here?
Do I look here?
What am I?
I I'm trying to like so hard totake everything in that
inevitably like I just miss somethings.

Nathan (18:37):
Yeah.

Wesley (18:37):
So this time I was able to hold a bit more composure and
and revel in the things that Iknew, but then pay attention
where I knew I needed to payattention and kind of take in
some of those extra moments thatthat I might have gone by too
quickly last time for me to likekind of catch, catching my so

(19:01):
to answer your question, I don'tknow, I don't know what the
answer to your question is, butwas it more captivating or not?
It was equally as captivating.
It didn't lose, I think thepoint you're trying to get, it
didn't lose anything justbecause it was the second time
I've seen it.
It was equally as uhtantalizing for somebody who who

(19:23):
is into that kind of thing.
The other point is like thecast was different, like
Zaya and Gamble, they'redifferent cast than than on the
than on the Maiden Voyage.
So I'm I'm trying to followlike their idiosyncrasies like
between each other, like as aduo, like how the how do they
play off each other, how andthen quickly like comparing it.

(19:44):
Like, is it how does it compareto who I think now is is like
the standard of Zaya and Gamble,where the Maiden Voyage couple,
because that's who I knew fromthe beginning, and so like uh
inevitably you want to comparethem, right?
Are they as good?
Are they better?
They would have done this, butthese guys did this particular

(20:06):
thing better.
And the answer is really it'sall good, it's everything
everyone's good.
They're so good, they're notgonna end you, you just don't
end up as these storytellers onthese ships, you don't just
accidentally become Zaya or agamble.
So these people are good andthey're quality and they are
different.
And for a minute I was like,mmm, because it wasn't, but then

(20:28):
once you get used to like theirparticular spin or shtick on
the back and forth.

Alicea (20:34):
Yeah.
They have to make it their own,but still staying within the
parameters of the characters.
But there's little things thatthey could do to to change it a
little.

Wesley (20:44):
Yeah, exactly.
Like Gamble, for instance, thistime he I'm terrible at
accents, so I think it was likemaybe a Scottish accent.
Maybe somebody will probably bemad if I if it's not, if it's
like an Irish, but I don't know.
I'm telling that anyway, it waslike a UK-ish accent.
And he like really leaned intoit sometimes, and it like really

(21:07):
came out.
And at first I was like, oh,the original gamble, he didn't,
he wouldn't have done that.
And then I was thinking, is hemaking it like is he faking it?
But then as I saw him more, hehe wasn't, he just kind of
leaned into it a little bit morefrom time to time.
And after a while, it was like,I see what he's doing, and it's
like it it accentuates like thejoke or like you know the

(21:30):
levity of it all, and uh and itbecomes the new standard.

Nathan (21:35):
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We had an entertainment host,uh uh assistant cruise director.
What was Dean's role?
No, he was the club host, whichis a role they don't have on
the DCL ships anymore.
He's from Ireland, and uh likewe just it became a drinking
game.
Every time he said a three, itwas a tree or a turty tree and a

(21:58):
turd.
Like yeah.
It was we had so much fun onthat cruise.

Wesley (22:03):
Yeah.
Did Yeah, similar, similarthing.

Nathan (22:06):
Yeah.

Alicea (22:06):
Yeah.
Did you notice any details thistime that you completely missed
on your first sailing?

Wesley (22:12):
Well, I'm pretty, I don't know, we don't know each
other that well, but I'm prettydetail-oriented.
So I pretty much saw all thedetails.
Um, the funny thing is likewhen you notice something, and
then I notice it more, right?
The first time like you seesomething, then you start seeing
it kind of everywhere.

(22:32):
Yeah.
But we talked about this lasttime.
Like, I try to pay attention,especially to like the carpet.
There's so much good carpet.

Nathan (22:38):
Yeah.

Wesley (22:39):
There's so much good like wall textures and lighting.
And my favorite thing issubtlety and and like the
Disney-ness of it all.

Nathan (22:52):
Yeah.

Wesley (22:52):
I like the things that are I like the things that you
have to kind of look for andkind of seek out for them to and
then they become apparent andthey become obvious.
You know, this is this is inthings, especially like in 1923,
where you know, it's like oldtimey, like 20s styles, vibes.

(23:13):
But then of course there'sanimation maquettes and drawings
and things all around.
Where if you're just walkingthrough the restaurant, you you
pass them and you can kind ofpick up on them a little bit.
But if you stop and look, thenthe story in the whole case
becomes something that youshouldn't miss.

Nathan (23:34):
Yeah.

Wesley (23:35):
But it's impossible.
You can't like stop in themiddle of dinner and go by
because the space is so youcan't like it.

Alicea (23:41):
But you want to.
Like, yeah, I want, yeah.
I wish that was open during theday.
Because it's not.
Like, I just want to spend ahalf hour in there and look at
everything.

Wesley (23:50):
Even in the windows outside, you know, there's some
windows with some really niceset dressing in them where you
can kind of get lost in likesome history and yeah, and uh
like culture there for sure.

Nathan (24:01):
Well well, speaking of the restaurants, how did
rotational dieting, how did thefood hit the second time around?

Wesley (24:07):
Let's go.
Okay, we can can we skip piratemenu?

Alicea (24:12):
Yeah.

Nathan (24:13):
We always skip pirate menu.
That was the last time we wentallowed.

Wesley (24:16):
Yeah.
I'll come to the def I don'twant to talk about it in depth
because everyone it's the same,it's the same, but I will come
to the defense of Pirate Menu.
Like I like it, I'm not gonnaavoid it.
I know it's not for everybody,and that's fine.
I like it.
So my rotation was 1923, Worldsof Marvel, Worlds of Marvel,

(24:39):
Pride Lands.

Alicea (24:40):
Okay,

Nathan (24:41):
cool.

Wesley (24:42):
I don't like this rotation.
Um, I don't like this rotationbecause I don't want to go to
Pride Lands on the last day.

Nathan (24:53):
Yeah.

Wesley (24:54):
Because as I kind of already mentioned, like it's
already so jam-packed.
And if for any reason I can'tget off my butt after Palo
brunch and go to Pride Lands,then that would be a problem for
me.

Nathan (25:08):
Yeah.

Wesley (25:09):
Personally.
So that wasn't ideal, but youknow, I persevered and I still I
still made it and ateeverything I wanted to.

Nathan (25:18):
I'm proud of you.
I'm proud of you, Wes.
You would have been.

Wesley (25:22):
Um 1923 was great.
Yeah, I think I ate exactly thesame thing on this cruise as I
did on the last cruise, and Ihave no regrets about that
whatsoever.
So I had the Filet mignon in1923.
It was noticeably smaller thanbefore, but still enough.

Nathan (25:45):
Yeah.

Wesley (25:46):
It was like noticeably small.
Because when we went on thewish too, it was like, I feel
like it's gotten smaller everytime, every time, from the wish
to the destiny to the my mostrecent sailing.
I feel like it's gotten, I feellike it's gotten smaller.
But it's it's good.
I think the consistency betweenlike the textures and the and

(26:07):
and the flavors are still there,and it really worked.
I don't know, it just works forme.
Like it comes uh like I'm umit's good.
But I know what you want.
It's good, it's very good.
Me and my buddy also shared thepork tenderloin,

Nathan (26:20):
okay.

Wesley (26:21):
Which I thought was really great as well, and was
quite large.
It had like two shanks.
Do you call them shanks?
I don't know.

Nathan (26:29):
Sure.
Sure.

Wesley (26:30):
The bones like the little chops.
Maybe it was a chop.
Yeah, maybe there's two chopsor two shanks.
There was two of whatever theywere called, and it was it was
tasty, man.

Alicea (26:41):
How did Pride Lands hold up the second time you saw it?

Wesley (26:45):
Okay, so Pride Lands is Pride Lands is problematic to me
because of a few things.
One, we talked about this lasttime, it's Pride Lands is incre
is incredibly loud.
It's too loud.
We even sat farther away thistime than we did on the Maiden

(27:07):
Voyage, and it's just too like Isat at a table with not just me
and Doug, but with six otherpeople that we had gotten to
know over you know, Pride Landswas last.
So three nights we had gottento know these people, and we
were having good conversation.
Like and you can't, and thenit's weird.

(27:29):
And then in Pride Lands, myseat happened to be situated
where my back was to the stage.
So not only could I not seewhat was happening, I couldn't
hear what was happening at mytable, and I just had to
basically stare at somebody Ihad just met three days ago.
Oh which I tend to make thingsmore awkward than they should

(27:52):
be.
So maybe that was on me.
But I mean, and it wasn'tweird, like we everyone was
friendly and sure, and it wasfine, but like the drums would
come with like you know, wewould we would hear the drums
kind of start to go, and I waslike, all right, well, I'll see
you in 10 minutes when thisset's over and we can resume
what we were doing.

(28:12):
In addition to that, like thelights go way down.
So they rush to get your foodout to you before the set
starts.

Nathan (28:21):
Right.

Wesley (28:22):
And then the set starts and the lights go down, so you
can't hear anything at yourtable.
I couldn't see the show, and Icouldn't see my food.
Now, the food was bonkers good.
Like I love, I got the same,like I said, I got the same
thing as I did last time.
And it was the shrimp currythat comes in a little pot, and

(28:42):
there's rice and like some breadand a little cucumber salad.
Excuse me, my dog needs the dogwants out.

Intro (28:53):
A few moments later.

Wesley (28:55):
So the shrimp curry is fantastic.
I would eat that every night.
It's so good.
It's a little bit spicy, it'sfull of flavor, the texture is
good.
If I said the filet mignon in1923 was gonna be smaller, the
quantity of shrimp in this dishis just right.
Like it's it's a good, it's agood meal.
So I wanna love I want to likeit so much.

(29:18):
Yeah, I love The Lion King.
It's one of my favorite movies.
You know, I I grew up in likethat, like Aladdin, Beauty and
the Beast Lion King era, and Ilove it so much.
And the new cast was good.
Yeah, I think the new cast kindof suits the vibe and the tone
a little bit better.
Okay.
The lead was a female in thefirst cast, and there's a male

(29:41):
in the second cast, and I justthought his voice was a bit more
baritone-y, yeah, and itsounded really good.
It should be in a differentvenue.

Nathan (29:52):
Yeah.

Wesley (29:52):
I don't know.
I don't want to say that.
I don't know.
This isn't like a hot take.

Nathan (29:56):
It's just it's not a hot take.
We've talked to several peoplewho have been on The Destiny,
and almost to a person, they allhave the same impression.

Alicea (30:04):
It's too loud in there.

Nathan (30:05):
It's fantastic.
We love the food.
We love we love the content ofthe show and what's being
presented.
It's just too loud.
They

Alicea (30:14):
Arendelle’s like that too.

Wesley (30:16):
I want to sing along, I want to like participate.
Like there's dancers that kindof come from like the outskirts
of the restaurant and come up onstage.
So it's a little uh yeah,there's a lot going on, and I
want to be more a part of it.

Nathan (30:29):
Yeah.

Wesley (30:29):
But I also I don't know.
I don't know.
There's a mix of somethingthat's off.
I'm not an expert enough toknow how to fix it, but yeah, I
want to like it.
Okay, I mean, I'll just have togo back and try it again and
see if I can't crack I can'tcrack the case on this one.

Alicea (30:46):
Uh and you were at Marvel for two nights, right?

Wesley (30:49):
Yeah, yeah.

Alicea (30:50):
Was that was that okay?
I know a lot of people, that'snot their favorite.

Wesley (30:57):
I know it's I think Marvel gets a bad rap a little
bit.
Because if you have kids withyou, there is something to
occupy the children the whole,yeah, pretty much the whole
time.

Alicea (31:10):
That's true.

Wesley (31:10):
They're either watching the group show or there's like
this like trivia thing going onwhere you have to push the
button on the point.
Yeah, yeah.
And that works for adults too.
Our table full of adults likewas also entertained and
occupied the whole time.
And the food is neither greatnor bad.

(31:31):
It's yeah, it is what it is.
Oh, but you know what reallystood out to me this time there
was that there's there's likethese rolls, and I'm really bad
at the names of the rolls.
It was like reddish.

Alicea (31:43):
Oh, like the marbled, the red, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.

Wesley (31:47):
Yeah.
That roll is really good.
If you it because when they putthe bread down, there's like
one or two of them.

Nathan (31:53):
Like be quick, be quick-handed on the on the red
roll.
All right, good to know.
We'll have to let we'll have tolet our son Sterling know that.
Uh so they like doing breadreviews now.

Wesley (32:04):
So uh the bread, the red one, get them on the red one,
man.
Yeah.
Ten out of ten or five out offive, or I don't know what kind
of scale you guys use, but it'sgood out of good.

Nathan (32:15):
Yeah, I don't know.
He seems to change it everytime.
Yeah.
All right, so this is the bigone.
You hit both lookout andcastaway keys on the same
sailing.
Obviously, not on the same day.
That would be kind of insane.
Experiencing them back to back,though, what stood out
immediately as you areinevitably comparing the two?

Wesley (32:38):
The way it was planned out worked in my favor because
we went to lookout key first andthen castaway key.

Nathan (32:45):
Yeah.

Wesley (32:46):
So, from my perspective, it got better as the days went
on.
Okay.
Now, like I said, I was with mybuddy Doug.
He has never been to any ofthese places, he had no idea
what to expect.
There was no spoilers, I didn'ttry to prepare him for
anything.
Yeah, we just showed up andwalked a half a mile.

Nathan (33:05):
Yep.

Wesley (33:05):
And that that was his first like impression.
And when it was all over with,and we went to dinner on that
night with our new friends atour table who were very
delightful.
We discussed like which one wasbetter, and he liked Lookout
Key better based solely on thefact that like once you get over

(33:26):
the journey, yeah, that youknow, basically the reward is
worth the journey here.

Nathan (33:31):
Yeah.

Alicea (33:32):
That beach and water.

Wesley (33:33):
The beach.

Alicea (33:34):
Oh my gosh.

Wesley (33:35):
It's crazy.
Yeah.
And what what was particularlyinteresting about Lookout Key
and being there with him for thefirst time is again, we didn't
discuss anything.
I didn't tell him anythingabout nothing.
Nothing.
And we get in the water andwe're hanging out, and he goes,
This water is so soft.
And I was like, that's exactlynow.

(33:56):
Again, we've been friends forlike our whole lives, and we
have similar, we're likesimilar, but again, we didn't we
hadn't really hung out in thisdepth for this length of time in
20 years.
But like we're still like,yeah, we're like almost the
same.
I say, Yeah, the water is, Idon't know what's happening.
The water is soft, it's notlike beach harsh salt water,

(34:18):
yeah.
It's like soft, smooth bathwater.
Yeah, yeah, you know, and helike couldn't, he couldn't get
over, he couldn't get over howlike soft and velvety the sand
was.
He started putting it like onhis head and like on his
shoulders.
He burnt, he sunburns easilytoo.

(34:40):
So he's like, let me just putthis, but that's how that's how
cool it was.
And you know, we we we hung outat Serenity Bay, which I didn't
do the first time, and it'sexactly the same as the family
beach.
It's literally right nextthere.
There's no difference.
You can still see and hear thechildren, and that's fine.

(35:01):
I'm not offended or put off bythat at all.
There's less coral and likesnorkeling opportunities like at
Serenity Bay, but it'sadjacent, it's like right there
if you wanted to do it.
So it's no big deal.
So we hung out at Serenity BayBeach, and man, it's easy to
float in that water.
It was probably the best likeambient temperature and best

(35:24):
water temperature.
And I think I've been therethis I don't want to mess this
up, but I think this is myfourth time at Lookout.
And this is by far the best,the best time.

Alicea (35:39):
Nice.

Wesley (35:39):
And I was trying to think and decide why I thought
it was the best time, and Idon't want to say it was because
I was by myself without myfamily, because I want to be
there with my family.

Nathan (35:50):
Yeah.

Wesley (35:51):
But it might have been because I because I could just
do whatever, because I couldjust do whatever I wanted.
Yeah, all I wanted to do.
Yeah, I don't have to.
There's not something in theback of my mind where I'm I
mean, my kids are getting older,they can swim perfectly fine.
I don't have to worry aboutthem at all, like at the beach
here in California.
I definitely don't have toworry about them in the in this

(36:13):
calmer, you know, calmer water,shallower water at lookout key.
But they're still there and Istill have to think about them.

Nathan (36:20):
Yeah.
Yeah.

Wesley (36:21):
Or is my wife hungry?
Does my wife need an ice cream?
She probably needs an icecream.
She definitely needs a DietCoke.
Should I get her a Diet Coke?
I'm just gonna stay here untilshe says she wants a Diet Coke,
and then I'll go get her a DietCoke.
But I kind of also want a DietCoke.
Maybe I'll go get Diet Cokesjust to have them.
I don't have to think about anyof that kind of stuff.
I'm just I just lay in thewater and then eventually we're

(36:41):
like, we should get food.
And I'm like, yeah, let's goget food.
So we ate at the Serenity BayBeach Barbecue.

Alicea (36:51):
True true?
Is that what it is?

Wesley (36:53):
It's not true, true.
I don't know what it's called.

Alicea (36:55):
Okay,

Wesley (36:55):
it wasn't true true, and it wasn't true true too.
Okay, it was whatever they callthe Serenity Bay Beach.
Whatever the Serenity Bay is.

Nathan (37:01):
I think it may just be Serenity Bay Barbecue.

Wesley (37:03):
I think it is Serenity Bay Barbecue.

Nathan (37:05):
Yeah.

Wesley (37:06):
I think you're right.

Nathan (37:07):
I could be wrong though, but it's true.
If you say anything with enoughauthority in your voice, you're
good to go.

Wesley (37:14):
Alright, I'll I'll work on that.
We went to Serenity BayBarbecue.

Nathan (37:18):
There you go.

Wesley (37:19):
Good.
And we got the ribs, we got thechicken sandwich, I got the
fruit, and the mac and cheese.
The mac and cheese at Lookoutis still the worst mac and
cheese of all the mac and cheesethat you can get that's
available on Disney Cruise Line.
The chicken sandwich was good.

(37:41):
The ribs were good.
The fruit was also good.
Something I didn't know lasttime that I did that I found
that I saw other people doingand that I participated in
myself is that you can order asteak.
Yeah.
I didn't know that.
So I ordered a steak, two ofthem, one for me, one for Doug,
and they bring it out to yourtable.
I mean it's nothing special.

(38:02):
It's just like a I'm also notgood.
I'm not good at a lot ofthings.
I keep saying this, but I'm notgood at like meat cuts.
So I don't know what it was.

Nathan (38:11):
It's part of a cow.

Wesley (38:12):
But it's steak.

Nathan (38:13):
Yeah.

Wesley (38:14):
And so they brought it out.
It was good.
It was fine.
The thing that I noticed, andit could be a Serenity Bay
barbecue issue because theydon't have the big fans over
there like they do at the otherat the other True True
barbecues.
They have these big fans that Ithink help with the fly
situation.

Nathan (38:32):
Yeah.

Wesley (38:33):
They didn't have those big fans at Serenity Bay.
So there were tons of flies.

Nathan (38:38):
Oh still.

Wesley (38:39):
We're like a year and a half going on two years at this
place, and there's still liketons of flies.
I think it's seasonal though.

Alicea (38:47):
Yeah, we we didn't have a fly issue when we were there,
but there was a bee issue.

Nathan (38:52):
Yeah.
There was bees all over A.
Everything, especially at thebars.
Yeah.
Especially because of all thoselike fruity drink mix-ins and
stuff like that.
The bees were going wild,especially around the uh the
Serenity Bay Bar over there.
Don't let me get they weresuper friendly.
There was just a lot of bees.

Alicea (39:12):
There's just a lot of them.
Yeah.

Wesley (39:13):
Oh, the bees were nice?

Nathan (39:14):
Oh, yeah.

Alicea (39:15):
They weren't attacking people.

Nathan (39:17):
No, drunk.
One of them got drunk, uh, fellinto Alicea's drink.

Alicea (39:21):
Yep.

Nathan (39:21):
And but we stayed with him.
We fished him out.

Alicea (39:25):
Yeah.

Nathan (39:25):
We made sure he sobered up before he flew away.
Because don't let friends flydrunk.

Wesley (39:30):
No.

Nathan (39:31):
Yeah.

Wesley (39:31):
That's very you're very responsible.

Nathan (39:33):
Right.
We're the best kind of a Disneyadult.
So if if Castaway is thecomfort food of Disney Cruise
Line, what role does Lookoutplay, do you think?

Wesley (39:47):
Lookout is still need Lookout is it's still too early
to tell.
Lookout still needs to likestretch its legs and like really
embrace and embody who it couldbecome.
Like it's a weird, like earlyadolescent, awkward person right

(40:07):
now.
You know what I mean?

Alicea (40:08):
Yeah.

Wesley (40:09):
Like the plants are coming in nicely.

Nathan (40:12):
Yeah.

Wesley (40:12):
The, you know, it's getting fuller.
You can, you know, the wood iswearing a little bit, and I love
that.

Nathan (40:20):
Yeah.

Wesley (40:20):
I hated the new, I hated the newness of it.
But at the same time, like Iwould have so much FOMO if I
didn't go there as immediatelyas I could.
So that's on, you know, that'son me because I wanted to be
there when it was new, but Ialso knew that I wasn't gonna
necessarily like fall in lovewith it when it was new.

(40:44):
But I wanted to see it becauseI like to see the evolution of
it.
So the newness of it is kind ofwearing, you know, the like I
said, the wood is gettingweathered, the plants and trees
are growing.
It is really spread out.
I

Alicea (40:59):
yeah, it really is

Wesley (41:01):
just like this a little bit too.
However, again, we walked tothe far south end of the island.
And to me, this is thehighlight of the whole thing.
This is why I would pay all themoney and fly across country
and walk a half a mile to thetram and take a you know
10-minute tram ride and thenwalk another 0.75 miles from

(41:25):
Serenity Bay to the bottom ofthe island, yeah, is to just see
what's happening down therebecause it's different.
When the tide comes in, it'syou can only go so far.
But when the tide is out, youcan walk around the bottom, and
you can go all the way over, youknow, basically to the other
side of where the lighthouse is.

Nathan (41:45):
Right.

Wesley (41:46):
It's up on the hill, but you can walk around like on the
sand side, and you can see theship, and you can see the
cabanas over there.
They're still too far.
You can't quite.
I mean, you could walk all theway over to the cabanas if you
were feeling really ambitious,but we're not, so we didn't.
But this is where like thenature and the landscape and

(42:06):
it's ever-evolving, like thelight is different every time.
This is the this is thehighlight for me, right?
The combination of the just thenatural beauty of the place
that you're in, which is like ablessing.
It's it's so amazing that itexists and that we can go there,

(42:26):
and that I have been theremultiple times is wild to me.
I love that so much.
And then, like, there's likethe little cave that everybody
talks about, which is if it's ifyour camera's on a wide angle,
it looks like more of a cave,but if you're not in a wide
angle, it just looks like alittle overhang.
So don't be fooled, but it iscool.
And we saw a crab.

(42:47):
I don't know if you saw like myInstagram story, like we saw a
big crab, like a big crab, andhe was just hanging out, he was
running around, and like we wereplaying tag for a little bit,
and it's just so cool, it's justso cool to be there, and then
and then at one point peoplewere on a kayak excursion.
So we're down here, we're likeyou know, ankle deep in water

(43:11):
that's warm, the perfecttemperature, the sand you can
barely feel because it's socozy, and then there's kayakers
in the middle ground, and thenin the background is the ship,
and it's it's fantastic.
I'm so glad we got to go there.
I'm so glad that Doug got tosee it in this particular, like

(43:33):
this particular iteration of itbecause again, it's it's
different.
It was windy one time, it waslike super windy one time when
we were there, it was like superhot one time when we were
there, it was kind of coldanother time, and this time it
was absolutely just right.
It was perfect.

Nathan (43:49):
Awesome.
It's goldilocks.

Alicea (43:51):
Yeah.
So, what was the highlight foryou on Castaway and what has it
keeping your top spot?

Wesley (43:58):
Oh, Alicea, I was so glad you asked this.
Again, the thing that sells meon Castaway is it follows all
the same visual tricks andstorytelling that you get when
you go to Magic Kingdom orDisneyland.
You can see it from afar whenyou're on the ship.
Then you get off the ship, andthere's just these little visual

(44:21):
peekaboos that you get as youprogress toward as you get
deeper into the island.
It's so great.
To me, it's perfect.
You can see like the sailboatsfrom like Marges Barges, right?
There's the the boats and thesailboats and the little paddle
things.
And then you keep walking, andthen there's like a store, and

(44:44):
then there's like some hammocks,and you keep going, and then
there's like this jungle gym,and then you keep going, and
then there's like some foodplaces and like a water play
area, and then there's a bar,and then you get to the other
side of the bar, and there'spelican plunge, and it just
keeps going.

Nathan (45:00):
Yeah.

Wesley (45:00):
And it and and at each new little twist and turn of the
walkway, like there's somethingnew to see and to discover and
to do.
Whereas on lookout, it's likeyou're just getting from A to B.
You're just like, I gotta getto the end of this thing.
And I know there's somethingspectacular there, but it's like

(45:21):
an uphill battle, you know, toget there.
And at Castaway, it just keeps,it just keeps coming, you know
what I mean?
It just keeps you got MountRust more.
It's just everything.
Everything just keeps coming.
There's characters along theway.

Alicea (45:34):
Yeah.

Wesley (45:35):
I don't know.
Like, am I wrong?
Do you what do you think?
What do you think?

Alicea (45:39):
I I like Castaway more for the theming and how it's not
compact, but it's more compactthan Lookout is.

Wesley (45:46):
Yeah, for sure.

Alicea (45:47):
If if I could have the beach and the water at Castaway
that we do at Lookout, I wouldnever leave.

Nathan (45:54):
Yeah.

Wesley (45:55):
Alicea, today's your lucky day.
I have something for you that Ididn't know was gonna happen.
But we ever, you know, you'veheard about the new cabanas,
right?
The Mickey, they renamed theold ones Sam Castle, and the new
ones are Mickey and MinnieCove, whatever.
There's new cabanas.
So my buddy, Mike, he owns atravel agency, best day ever

(46:20):
vacations.
He invited me to go see hiscabana.
He had a cabana in Mickey andMinnies.
Oh.
So I was like, and he's like,hey, what are you guys doing
today?
I was like, ah, we're gonnaride bikes, we're gonna do it.
He's like, well, stop by later.
Stop by the cabana later on.
I was like, you got it, pal.
You don't gotta ask me twice.
And so we did our things, wedid the bike ride, we had our

(46:43):
food, we hung out in the water.
The water was great, the waterwas clear, like more clear than
I have remembered it in morerecent times at Castaway.
It's still like a little bitrocky, like right when you get
in.
But it was great.
The water was great, the foodwas great.
We went all the way to theMickey, what was it called?
Mickey and Minnie's cabana,Mickey and Minnie.

(47:04):
Something like that.
Mickey Mickey.

Nathan (47:06):
Mickey Mini.
You know?
Yeah.
The other ones next to SerenityBaby Castaway.
Yeah, the other one.

Wesley (47:12):
So we get out there, and it's like that new again,
right?
All the plants are small,whatever.
And I was like, okay, just butyou want to see this.
So we got there, we got to thecabana.
They're just like the othercabanas, pretty much.
You know, they're new, they'reabout the same size.
They're kind of they're likelightly themed with like some
Disney characters, you know,like Fab Five type characters.

(47:33):
And then and then we get out tothe beach side, and we get down
to the water, and the sand isit's not lookout sand, but it's
nice.
It's like it's soft, and it's alittle bit less granular,
right?
And for about 200 yards, thewater was about two feet deep,

(47:57):
and it was clear, and it waswarm, and it was like a bay.
There was no, it's on the otherside of the island, so it
doesn't get the wind, right?
So it was calm and smooth thewhole time.

Nathan (48:09):
Wow.

Wesley (48:10):
And we stood out there for probably four hours and hung
out with some of our newfriends and with Mike, and we
played with the kids, andthere's little fishes that we
try to catch.
Someone found a sand dollar.
I think this is where our otherfriends found like the sea
cucumber.

(48:30):
There's sea cucumbers outthere.
Yeah.
I thought it was delightful, itwas like it was the antithesis
of what the family beaches areon the other side of Castaway.
Yeah.
So now Castaway has like thesefamily beaches with like the
water playgrounds out there, andthen on the other side and then
those cabanas, but then theother these new new cabanas have

(48:51):
like a totally different typeof beach that kind of speaks to
what people kind of love aboutLookout Key.
The sand's not pink, it's notlike it's not like um powdered
sugar, you know.
It doesn't like um, yeah, itdoesn't have any like
regenerative properties.
It doesn't, it's not like thefountain of youth sand, but it's

(49:14):
cool, man.
It's cool.
And we saw a pelican.

Alicea (49:17):
Oh, cool.

Wesley (49:18):
Nice.
And he was plunging, and Ithought, oh, I get it now.
Pelican plunge.
Pelican plunge.
He was diving down, he wasdiving down and like trying to
get some fish.
He was eating all day.
Alright, it was just a reallygood experience.
It was just a really goodexperience.

Nathan (49:34):
Yeah.
I I love what you were talkingabout earlier with just the the
worn-in, lived-in feeling ofcastaway is just it's something
else.
And that's what I you know, youwould you would ask like our
opinions of stuff.
Uh, I I still prefer castawaybecause of that worn, lived-in

(49:55):
feel.
Lighthouse point lookout key isgreat.
I it's just, you know, myfavorite uh vacation growing up
was a cabin that had water andelectricity, and that was it, on
top of the dunes on Cape Codfor like two weeks.
And there was no TV.

(50:16):
We just had a radio for somemusic, and just completely
disconnected from the world andrelaxed.
And like this was a you know, Idon't even think there was
insulation on this place, likeit was just uh, you know, just
the most basic cabin you canimagine, and that was glorious.

(50:37):
And castaway reconnects me withthat feeling every time I'm
there.
Yeah, I don't need the new andfancy.
In fact, like the theming andeverything, like lookout is
beautiful, but there's thereisn't the uniqueness of it.
It's like, okay, here's thesame octagon design of a
building, and oh, that thatone's blue instead of pink or

(51:00):
whatever.
Like it's just it's toocookie-cutter to me.
Maybe that'll wear in overtime, but yeah, castaway just
flows better and feels betterfor me.

Alicea (51:11):
And it has a theme.
And yeah, lookout doesn'treally, other than it's it's
meant to be educational.
So you learn about the culture,you learn about the island.
Yeah.
Um, I just kind of wish theyhad they had found another way
to do that.

Nathan (51:27):
Yeah.

Alicea (51:28):
Like I I'm all for learning about it, but it could
have been Disney's so good atstorytelling, they could have
found another way to do that.

Wesley (51:37):
Yeah.
I think that's the thing.
I think that's the biggest kindof disappointment because you
know, you know what they'recapable of.
Yeah.
As far as like story, visualstorytelling goes.

Alicea (51:48):
And they try to.
And and there's go the extra.

Wesley (51:52):
And it and there's just lots of room for future
enhancements.

Nathan (51:57):
We're we're in we are Disney adults in parent mode.
We're not angry, we're justdisappointed.

Wesley (52:03):
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.

Nathan (52:05):
You're not living up to your potential.

Wesley (52:08):
It's just very face value.
Yeah.
It's just very face value.
People ask me, what do you likeabout Lookout Key?
The beach.
Well, guess what?
The beach was there beforeDisney was there.
Yep.

Alicea (52:18):
Yep.

Wesley (52:18):
Yeah.
Like, what is Disney bringingto the equation here?
And I think so far it's justthe fact that they take you
there and then you can goexperience the thing that was
already there.
And if that's all it is or everwill be, then that's fine.
I will gladly pay money to gothere because it's great.
Yep.
But I enjoy the castaway-nessof castaway key.

(52:43):
Yeah.
Right.
Like if you're there, if you'rethere for the first time and
you're like rummaging around andyou're like, why is there a
runway?
Why is there a runway backhere?
And what's all this old likesea stuff?
And then you're on the runway,and then there's like, what's
this trail?
There's this trail that goesinto like these trees.
Where does that go?
Oh, there's a lookout tower?

(53:03):
Oh, well, let's climb thelookout tower and see what we
can find.
And it just keeps giving youthings and reasons to be there.
Yep.
And look how we went to thebeach.

Alicea (53:14):
Yep.
That's that's about it.

Wesley (53:19):
I love them both.
Don't hate me.

Nathan (53:22):
No, we do too.
And it's not like it's not likewe're saying lookout is bad.
We're just saying lookout is a9.5 and castaway is a 10.5.

Wesley (53:34):
There you go.

Nathan (53:35):
There you go.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
All right, Wes, we've talkedabout food, we've talked about
all sorts of stuff.
What about the entertainment?
Specifically, Hercules.
What do you think of the brandnew kind of marquee show there
in the Destiny?

Wesley (53:49):
I'm so glad you brought this up because so far
everything has been kind of likeon par.
My experience has kind of beenon par from Maiden Voyage till
now.
Yeah.
Going back and seeing Herculesagain, I'm not gonna say it was
this is tough because I don'twanna, I don't wanna.

(54:10):
Everyone is so talented, theothers in this show.
And they can do things that Ican never do or will never do.

Nathan (54:18):
Yeah.

Wesley (54:19):
Um, Hercules is not my favorite show.
I'd rather see Frozen, I'drather see Beauty and the Beast.

Nathan (54:26):
Yeah.

Wesley (54:26):
Um I haven't seen Moana, but I continually hear good
things about Moana.

Nathan (54:33):
Yeah.

Wesley (54:34):
As it stands now, Hercules is you know, is not top
three.
I'd rather see even some oflike the like compilation shows.

Nathan (54:45):
Yeah.

Wesley (54:46):
You know, like Golden Mickeys.
I probably watched GoldenMickeys.

Nathan (54:50):
I love the Golden Mickeys.

Wesley (54:51):
Now look, there's still three, there were still three
showings on our sailing.
There was the matinee and thenthe two dinner shows.
And we went to the matinee,which I think is a mistake.
The the if if you happen, Iknow a lot of people like late
dinner, but if you have earlydinner, I think the 8:30 show is
the best show to go to.
It's the least crowded.

(55:12):
Oh, we should, we had earlydinner.
We should have gone to thelate, to the late show.
But here's my here was here wasmy mistake, and then I'll tell
you about the show and why Idon't think it was this kind.
My mistake was I likeromanticized like sitting in
like the little box seats on theside in the balcony.

Nathan (55:33):
Uh-huh.

Wesley (55:34):
You know, I don't know, maybe it's like I want to be a
Muppet, maybe I have a thing forAbraham Lincoln.
I don't know what it is, but Iwanted to sit there and they
were available, so we sat there.
Okay.
And it's close to the stage, soyou can see stage things,
right?
You can see the lift go down.
Yeah.
You can see some people in thewings on at least one side of

(55:55):
the stage.
And like technically, I want tosee that stuff because I think
it's cool.
The speaker for the music waslike right in my face.

Nathan (56:05):
Oh.

Wesley (56:06):
It's like on the side of the stage, and it was just like
right there.
And I was so close to thatspeaker that it drowned out some
of the dialogue, which iscoming from a different set of
speakers in the theater.
Yep.
So I didn't get all thedialogue that I should have.
It was there, it was justdrowned out by the music
speakers.

(56:26):
So don't sit in the those boxseats on the balcony.

Nathan (56:31):
Don't be Statler and Waldorf, is what I'm hearing.

Wesley (56:34):
Correct.
Not in this situation.
In other situations, it mightwork out for you.

Nathan (56:39):
Yeah.
And maybe don't heckle during alive performance either.

Wesley (56:42):
Don't heckle.
No.
No, that's never that's neverpart of my suggestions.
Um, okay, the cast.
Obviously, second cast ofHercules.
I don't know any of thesepeople's names, but really good.
Really tell, really telling.
You know, they sing good.
The the Hercules actor, notquite as strong as as the

(57:04):
original.

Nathan (57:05):
Yeah.

Wesley (57:06):
I think that's goes without saying, right?

Nathan (57:08):
Like, yeah.
I mean, the the folks who getto sit and develop the show and
kind of become the iconiccanonical version of the show.
There's something special aboutthese people.

Wesley (57:21):
Yeah, there's something special about the first cast for
sure.

Nathan (57:23):
Yeah.

Wesley (57:24):
All across the board, not just in these, in these big
musical Broadway style stuff.
On the night that we sawHercules, yeah, we didn't get
some of the puppets, some of thepuppetry.
I

Nathan (57:35):
interesting.

Wesley (57:36):
Right?
Puppetry is a big, yeah, islike the big like show stopping
thing, right?
So we got um the Hydra, we gotthe what do you call a horse
that has a man body?

Nathan (57:46):
I know the answer to this.

Wesley (57:50):
Um this is a test.
I know, I obviously know whatit is, but I was just testing
you.

Nathan (57:55):
Alicea had to step away as we're recording this, and
she's gonna yell at me.
Is she for not knowing?
She'd be she's probably yellingat her radio right now.

Wesley (58:06):
Well, she should have stayed because that's a centaur.

Nathan (58:10):
There you go.
That's it.

Wesley (58:12):
Uh, the scent there was the centaur, then there was the
hydra puppets, but then thetitans were missing, and so the
B show for when the puppetsaren't working is just like this
animation in the far back partof part of the stage.

Nathan (58:27):
Weird.

Wesley (58:28):
And so not only could we was it not cool because the
titans weren't out, and they'rereally cool.
Yeah, they should always bethere if possible.
It's like a big part of theshow, and so not having them was
kind of a bummer, but then alsothe animation was really set
back, and from where we're wewere sitting, we couldn't see it

(58:48):
out.

Nathan (58:48):
Yeah, because you're in such an oblique angle, yeah.

Wesley (58:51):
Yeah, exactly.
Um and then the other thing isthe fights.
I'll say this like the fightscenes, aside from the puppets
not being there, they're justnot.
I know it's a kid's show, butbut it's not even coherent.
Uh it's not even you don't evenknow really what's yeah what's

(59:15):
happening.

Nathan (59:16):
I wonder if that again is the blocking and everything,
because you are you are makingyour your staging and your
acting for the audience infront.
And if you're over on anextreme wing, you're gonna see
that they're swinging at stuffand not even coming close.
Yeah.
Maybe Wes, maybe Wes, you'rethe problem.

(59:38):
Maybe your desire to sit in thebox seats.

Wesley (59:42):
Maybe you're not wrong.
I am a problem a lot of thetime.
But I get it, I get theblocking is made for people in
front, but but the first time Isaw it, it was also the it was
this, it was the same.
Okay, you know what I mean?
The that those parts were someof the weakest parts, and that's
like he's like Hercules.
He's supposed to be like, youknow what I mean?

(01:00:04):
Like strong, and and maybe ithas something to do with like
the limitations of the movementof like the puppetry.
Oh like the centaur, forinstance, he's like, yeah, his
movement is limited, and that II think maybe that just slows
down the action scenes a littlebit.
Other than that, it's I meanit's still a good show, it's

(01:00:26):
still worth going to see.
It's still good.
Um, but it's definitely not myit's definitely not my favorite.

Nathan (01:00:34):
Well, we'll be on in a few months, and I will come back
and I will text you and let youknow how and why you were
wrong.
And then please we'll have it,yeah, yeah.

Wesley (01:00:44):
Yeah, please.
We can we can take thisdialogue offline, as they say,
and yeah, tell me about it.

Nathan (01:00:50):
Wes will never be hearing from again on this show.
No, I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding.
So after two Disney Destinysailings in a fairly short time
span, has your opinion of theship changed overall?
And is this ship now uh onethat you'd actively seek out

(01:01:13):
again?
Or do you need to immerseyourself back in everything else
that is DCL, at least to ushumble North Americans?

Wesley (01:01:24):
There's no reason for me to not go on to Disney Destiny
for a third, fourth, fifth time.
There's still, like we said,there's still things that I need
to do.
There's still things that I'veseen twice now that I want to
see a third, fourth, or fifthtime.
It's just good.

(01:01:44):
It's just good.
Despite the things that I don'tlike about wish class ship
layout design, you know, as aseparate issue, this is where
this is where it's at.
Now, let me bring this upbecause this I think is
important as we look ahead.
Like, there's one more of theseships coming to North America.

(01:02:05):
There's obviously the theJapanese version of this ship,
and then we're gonna get intosomething new.
As much as I love like theimmersiveness of some of these
spaces and bringing some themepark attributes onto these
ships, like haunted mansionparlor, you know, Star Wars
stuff, yeah, you know, all thesethings that I think you would

(01:02:27):
typically think more of liketheme park things.
All these things are great.
The reason why I loved DisneyCruise line from the beginning
was that it was a cruise linedone by Disney with like their
certain panache for like serviceand attention to detail.

(01:02:49):
And those things are separate.
You know, putting an individualIP in a space does it's not
gonna do it for me forever.
The thing that does it for meforever is the classic cruise
liner theme.

Nathan (01:03:08):
Yeah,

Wesley (01:03:09):
right?
The theme of the cruise shipthat I want is cruise ship.
Yeah, because I want to go on acruise ship.
Yeah, I don't want to go on afloating tiki room.

Nathan (01:03:21):
I think this is why, yeah, 100%.
I think you've articulated whatI haven't been able to, and and
that for me, the treasure andthe wonder are my favorite ships
on Disney Cruise Line.
We haven't been on the Destinyyet, we will in a few months.
But I still put the wonderahead, and it's got its quirks,

(01:03:46):
it's smaller, it doesn't havesome of the amenities and things
like that.
But what it does have is thatclassic cruise liner feel and
the nautical theming and the theart deco um styling or or no,
is that one art nouveau?
Whatever the art something, theartistic styling.
Um, I it just speaks to me, andI it is my happy place.

(01:04:12):
It is it I love going on thetreasure, I love the treasure,
yeah.
But if you made me pick whetherI'm gonna go on the treasure or
the wonder for the exact samecruise, I'm like itinerary, I'm
probably gonna pick the wonder.

(01:04:32):
It's just me.

Alicea (01:04:33):
That's where we differ because I and everybody's
everybody's very different onhow they like this.
I am very much IP driven.
Um, and I don't know if it'sjust nostalgia and just growing
up with that stuff, but I lovethat Disney has brought that
into it.
Now, I still love the wondertoo, but I think having that
additional theming stuff to tolook at and really dive deep

(01:04:57):
into, that's just something thatI enjoy.

Wesley (01:05:00):
It's such a conundrum, isn't it?

Alicea (01:05:03):
It is.
I don't care what they do, Iwill go on them anyway.

Wesley (01:05:06):
Yeah.
Well, don't say that too loudlybecause they probably have some
really weird things that theywant to do that I don't want
them to do.

Alicea (01:05:13):
Oh, like the adventure?
Right.
Yeah.

Wesley (01:05:15):
Like put like put theme park attractions on ships.
Let's not say that too loudly.

Nathan (01:05:21):
In Disney's defense, they largely inherited those
decisions.

Wesley (01:05:26):
In my defense, they didn't have to.

Alicea (01:05:29):
This is true.

Nathan (01:05:30):
Very fair.

Wesley (01:05:32):
Anyway.
Very fair.
No, but Alicea, like on TheWonder, there are, you know,
there's Tiana's, which is aheavily themed restaurant.

Alicea (01:05:40):
There's a show.
That's my favorite restauranton any of the ships.

Wesley (01:05:43):
That's that's mine too.
I've I've liked Tiana's a lot.
I was very impressed by it.
I don't know what I wasexpecting, but like I'm not a
big like Princess and the Frogguy, but that was a party and I
I enjoyed it.
Yep.
French Quarter Lounge.
It's like This is again, thisis I'm being predictable now,
but like it's a subtly themedarea.

Alicea (01:06:06):
Yeah.

Wesley (01:06:06):
And I just think that's the best.

Alicea (01:06:09):
But it's still IP.

Wesley (01:06:10):
Yes, a hundred percent.

Nathan (01:06:11):
But Cadillac Lounge is Cadillac Lounge is top notch.
Yeah.

Alicea (01:06:17):
It's fantastic.
And that's not IP at all.
I don't know.
I like it all.
I I veer more towards the IPjust because it's what I'm
familiar with.

Nathan (01:06:27):
Let me put it this way.
If you said I had to take fivecruises and they had to be on
either the treasure or thewonder, I would do three on the
wonder and two on the treasure.

Wesley (01:06:40):
Interesting.

Nathan (01:06:41):
And I'd I'd be Pearl, and that would be great.

Wesley (01:06:46):
Are you just two short or five short?
What are you?
I'm I maybe six short.
No, I think after this nextwell, we have several already
booked.

Alicea (01:06:54):
I think I'm 19, so you're six.

Nathan (01:06:57):
No, you're 20 now.

Alicea (01:06:58):
Am I?
I don't know.

Nathan (01:06:59):
I think you're 20 now, which means I'm 18.
Yeah.
And then we have two common.
Yeah, so five more.
I'll be pearl.

Wesley (01:07:08):
Keep bragging.

Alicea (01:07:08):
Yeah.

Nathan (01:07:10):
Okay, Mr.
10 cruises in two years.

Alicea (01:07:12):
You're gonna get there before we are.

Wesley (01:07:14):
Apparently, I got a lot of I got a lot of catching up to
do.
Oh, hey, you think it's all funand games, but I need to be, I
got goals.

Alicea (01:07:23):
Our problem is we do the longer ones.

Wesley (01:07:25):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, well, yeah, you gotta yougotta work up to it.
One of um my new friend Sarahwho was on this sailing with me,
she has done 11 in two years.
So she she's even more harcorethan I am.
Yeah.

Nathan (01:07:40):
Now we're we're waiting for either the wonder or the
magic to be semi-permanentlybased down by uh your neck of
the woods there in SouthernCalifornia.
And we're hoping for some someshorties that we can do some
some back to back to backs andjust crank out some some sailing
numbers because we gotta getthere and uh yeah.

Wesley (01:08:01):
Well, I'm with you, man.
If once once they once thewonder or whatever like gets to
San Diego like semi-permanently,it's it's game over.
Like I'll have to move, I'llhave to move farther away.
Like it's not gonna be.
So it'll, you know, it's theship that I have sailed on the

(01:08:39):
most.

Nathan (01:08:40):
Same.

Wesley (01:08:41):
And yeah, there's just something unique about it that I
I I don't get it.
I don't get it.
Like the ships got bigger, theadult pool area has gotten
smaller.
I don't get it.
There's just some things aboutthe new ships that I just don't
understand the the logistics orlike how how they came about

(01:09:02):
because the restaurants on thesmaller ships, even the Dream
and Fantasy, don't feel smaller.
Like square foot per personthat they put in there.
Yeah, they feel like there'smore room.
Uh, but then you get to PrideLands, which is just tight.
Yep.
It's like unnecessarily tight.
I don't know.
I don't know.

(01:09:22):
I'm not a cruise shiparchitect, I don't know how it
works.

Nathan (01:09:24):
But well, Disney's gonna start designing the next class,
so we'll we'll just have to seewhat happens.
And Disney, if you'relistening, the three of us are
happy to give our input.

Alicea (01:09:35):
Yes, for sure.

Wesley (01:09:37):
What one thing of note on the Destiny this time, the
adult pool area cove bar closedthe whole time.

Nathan (01:09:44):
Yes.
I yes.
Did they have to redo the poolor something like that?

Wesley (01:09:48):
I asked somebody because like it was blocked off, we
couldn't even go back there.
And I haven't seen if somebodyelse has said like what exactly
is going on.
But somebody, a crew member onthe ship was like, Yeah, they
just took the whole thing out.
Yeah, like there's no pool backthere.

Alicea (01:10:01):
Yeah, right now.
Well I heard it had to entirelybe redone and retiled and
everything.
Um, and they're not giving anytimeline on when that's gonna be
ready, so that may still bedown when we're gone.
Yeah.

Nathan (01:10:11):
Yeah.

Wesley (01:10:11):
Well, she said she said it had been the four cruises
before us, and she had no ideawhen it was gonna be.

Nathan (01:10:17):
Yeah.
Well, I'm sure they're havingtroubles getting any work done
because they're not pulling thatthing into a dry dock, and
they've already sold the room,so it's not like they're gonna
keep going to kick people off.

Wesley (01:10:28):
They were like there was like saws or hammers or
jackknifts or something.
There was like some very toolnoises going on back there.
And I don't know, related ornot, but the hero zone, I think
they fixed it later on in thecruise, but the AC had broken
the hero zone.
And and for the moment, youhave to walk through the hero
zone on the second on the secondlevel of the hero zone to get

(01:10:50):
to the cove cafe.

Nathan (01:10:52):
Oh, yeah, okay.

Wesley (01:10:53):
And it was blistering hot, and the basket ball court
was missing from the hero zone.
Oh, you know, it like comesdown and you can see it when
it's up, but it was it wasmissing as well.

Nathan (01:11:04):
Well, they'll figure it out, I'm sure.
Yeah, yeah.

Wesley (01:11:07):
Yeah, I'm sure.

Nathan (01:11:08):
Well, Wes, tell us what's going on in the world of
version 5571.

Wesley (01:11:13):
All kinds of stuff.
We've been going on cruisesbecause I'm trying to like I
love taking photographs.
I'm a kind of a photographerand videographer by trade, so I
love like capturing content andunique moments and like people
experiencing what we love to do.
So I'm doing that.
The website is pretty much likeup and running.

(01:11:34):
I've got blog articles aboutlike trip reports and um things
coming to the cruise line intoDisney Parks that I'm trying to
give like my opinion forwhatever it's worth on.
Uh I'm still trying to build aversion tracker and I've worked
with some really talented peoplebehind the scenes who know a
lot more about like databaseconstruction and SQL inquiries

(01:11:57):
and a lot of boring stuff that Idon't know.
Um but I also want to know.
So I've also enrolled in someclasses and I'm learning how to
do some of this stuff myself sothat I can get out.
It's gonna be a process, butwe're getting there.
Um, and then we've alsopartnered with a travel agency
to help get people who kind ofshare our enthusiasm for

(01:12:21):
cruising to get them out thereand to get them to experience
these things as well.
So you can find all of that atversion5571.com.
And that's what we're up to.

Nathan (01:12:33):
Awesome.
Well, we'll link that in in oursocials and up on the show
notes too.
So, Wes, it was so amazinggetting to talk to you again.

Wesley (01:12:43):
Yeah, it had been like a whole six months.
I know.
And we should just make thislike a semi-annual tradition,
all go on some cruises so we cancome talk about it.

Nathan (01:12:53):
Absolutely.
Or or even the rare park visit.
I know you live right there,but if you have

Wesley (01:12:59):
I was gonna bring that up.
I saw you were at Disneyland,which is a mere 20 minutes from
my house.

Nathan (01:13:04):
I know.

Alicea (01:13:04):
We are really we didn't have a ton of time.
No, we didn't.
I have one of my coworkerslives down there and and tried
to get together with her, andshe's just like, I have no time.
I'm like, okay, okay.

Wesley (01:13:15):
That's fair.

Alicea (01:13:16):
One of these days.

Nathan (01:13:17):
Yes.
I understand.
Well, you're about to go flyover our house in a week and a
half.
So it's it's you know, wave asyou go by.
Yeah.
I will.

Alicea (01:13:24):
I will.
We are gonna try and be downthere for um October for Oogie
Boogie for days of the year.

Wesley (01:13:29):
Oh, yeah.
We've we went last year and itwas great.

Alicea (01:13:31):
Nice.

Wesley (01:13:32):
What like are you trying?
Are you like an early, are youlike an August Oogie Boogie kind
of person?

Alicea (01:13:37):
No, we're gonna try based on um uh Sterling has um
October 12th.

Nathan (01:13:44):
That's your birthday,

Alicea (01:13:45):
this is my birthday.
Yeah, he has he has that dayoff of school, so we're gonna
try and make that a three-dayweekend then.

Wesley (01:13:51):
Nice, nice, nice.
Yeah, maybe I'll see you then.
Yeah.
We would love to go to OogieBoogie and so on.
It's a lot of fun.

Nathan (01:13:57):
Awesome.
Wes, thanks again for comingon.
We will talk to you again soon.

Wesley (01:14:02):
Nate, Alicea, thank you so much.
I appreciate it.

Nathan (01:14:05):
Well, as we wrap up, a reminder that we're not
affiliated with Disney or any ofits subsidiaries.
Everything you hear on thisshow is based on our personal
experiences, opinions, andquestionable snack choices.
We are, however, proudlyaffiliated with fun.

Alicea (01:14:22):
And powder soft sand.

Nathan (01:14:25):
Ooh.

Alicea (01:14:26):
If you're planning a Disney vacation, we always
recommend working with a traveladvisor or reaching out to
Disney directly to help make themagic happen.
And if you enjoyed today'sepisode, please take a second to
rate and review the show.
It really helps other Disneyfans find us.

Nathan (01:14:41):
If you have a question, a topic suggestion, or a Disney
story you'd love to share,please send us an email at
podcast at our mousecapades.com.

Alicea (01:14:51):
You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads
at Our Mouse Capades, and onYouTube at OurMousCapades Pod.
And don't forget to share uswith your friends, your family,
and Disney fans of all ages.

Nathan (01:15:03):
Thanks so much for listening.
We'll be in your ears nextweek.

Wesley (01:15:07):
Thank you for flying Star Tours.
Bye bye.