Alicea: 0:16

Hello everyone. I'm Alicea.

Nathan: 0:25

I'm Nathan.

Daniel: 0:26

I'm Daniel.

Callie: 0:27

And I'm Callie.

Alicea: 0:29

Welcome to this week's episode of Adventures and Mouse capades.

Nathan: 0:33

This week, as you can hear, we've got Daniel and Callie on who recently embarked on their very first Disney cruise. Now, we're old hats when it comes to sailing with Disney, but there's something about reliving the excitement with folks who are just experiencing Disney cruising for the very first time. And we wanted to share that with y'all. Plus, they got to visit both Castaway and Lookout on the same trip. So you know it was a great adventure. So without further ado, welcome Daniel and Callie.

Callie: 1:05

Thanks. Glad to be here.

Daniel: 1:07

Yeah.

Nathan: 1:08

So what was Disney's influence on you two growing up? Did you go to the parks a bunch? Was Mouserc ize on from the Disney Channel every morning?

Callie: 1:18

Like Yeah, I grew up going to Disneyland a little bit, and then we moved to the East Coast. So I did a couple Disney World trips in college, but we've never taken our kids. And so this was really our first foray into anything Disney with our kids.

Daniel: 1:38

Oh wow.

Callie: 1:39

Yeah.

Daniel: 1:40

And for me growing up, Disney just met those movies. Um and so we I went to Disney World one time in sixth grade. Uh we did one day, and uh it yeah, it was it was really fun. Um but nothing really stood out because it was a quick trip and it my family um I mean Disney is is great. It wasn't necessarily a huge uh thing that we did consistently at all.

Nathan: 2:07

So yeah, no, that that makes that makes a lot of sense. Yeah.

Alicea: 2:12

Who was in your sailing party on this trip?

Callie: 2:16

Yeah, so this was a trip for my dad's retirement. He just retired from being an airline captain, and so he and my mom decided to take me, a three brothers and all of our families. Oh wow, celebration trip.

Daniel: 2:33

So there was a total of 17 of us.

Callie: 2:35

Yeah, 17 of us.

Daniel: 2:36

Uh not wait, eight kids.

Callie: 2:38

Eight kids.

Daniel: 2:39

Half of them were ours, and then uh the other half were cousins, and uh yeah, it was it was 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're ten and eight, and our girls are six and four. Um, and our ten-year-old is the oldest cousin, so all of our all of the cousins are all between um ten and how old three Shiloh's three. So it's a pretty narrow window of kids, but it it there was a lot of them, and it felt a lot of fun, a lot of energy.

Nathan: 3:19

Yeah, I was gonna just gonna say that. That is a a ton of energy going on.

Daniel: 3:24

Yeah. Some good energy, some not as good energy.

Nathan: 3:28

But was this everybody's first Disney cruise?

Callie: 3:31

It was. It was.

Nathan: 3:32

Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Callie: 3:34

And I think we were the biggest group on this sailing. Uh yeah, there's several.

Daniel: 3:40

At least at our meal time, we were the biggest group. Yeah. Okay.

Alicea: 3:44

And you were on the Disney Magic, which is the OG Disney ship. What brought you all to this particular itinerary and ship?

Callie: 3:54

Yeah, I think that well, my parents were the ones that picked it and planned it. But their thinking was that because 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 of it being a little bit smaller for our group.

Daniel: 4:16

Especially with the ages of all the kids. A smaller ship is going to be easier and safer for them, Um if we lose somebody or or whatever it may happen.

Nathan: 4:26

But and then you sailed out of Port Canaveral, right?

Callie: 4:31

We did.

Nathan: 4:31

Okay. Yes.

Daniel: 4:32

Is that the Orlando port? Well, near

Callie: 4:34

So we flew into Orlando. Yeah. We all stayed in a hotel that night, and then the next day took transportation down to Cape Canaveral. And that was really easy. We did private transportation. Okay. So um yeah, they just dropped us off right there, and it was like such a high getting on and seeing the boat for the first time, and the kids all with their Mickey ears. It was so cute and so exciting.

Daniel: 5:02

Logistically, it was a lot faster than I thought it would be. Um, we uh we got on there, the porters took our luggage, and I I feel like we just kind of got in line, went through, and oh, we're going on the boat now. It was it was pretty quick. It was I was surprised.

Callie: 5:15

Yeah, there was hardly a line.

Nathan: 5:17

Yeah. How did you do a lot of research before you got on? Did you know what to expect?

Daniel: 5:23

So uh the research that we have done was a lot of YouTube videos that like we just search, you know, what I wish I knew before going on my first Disney cruise or listening to a few episodes of y'all's podcast. Um and so we had some context and lot, you know, just it I feel like it wasn't uh more the the expectations we had weren't um wasn't of the whole experience, it was a lot of like individual, oh, at dinner, you we need to remember we can order more than one dessert if we want to. Or like yeah, lots of individual 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: 6:07

The kids, you know, really liked looking ahead of time of like, what do the water slides look like? And am I gonna be tall enough to ride them? You know, and things like that. Um like the themed dinners and making sure that we had outfits, you know, princess dresses that matched the Rapunzel's royal table and then Lumiere's Beauty and the Beast theme. So our girls, of course, had to have the Rapunzel dresses, the Belle dresses to have for those dinners. So there was a lot of YouTube videos, and you know, we went sort of at the end of our summer, and so on those like boring summer days, they would be 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: 6:51

Yeah. I think too, um, for me as a as a parent too, I did a lot of it, my own research of you know what's what to expect. Um, and a lot, I think I stressed more than I needed to about setting our kids' expectations for what it's gonna be like. Yeah. Um, because especially our our oldest, our you know, um, or really any any of our kids, they'll have expectations it's gonna be this way. And if it's not exactly that way, or it's different anyway, it's that's a it's a huge letdown and and and frustrated, even though we're doing something amazing. And so um I had done, you know, a lot of like I was trying to do more prep with our kids, you know, with my son who would like, I want to be in the pool all day long. I was like, the absolutely that'd be a lot of fun. There's a lot of other things going on, but as well as you know, I've I've read that you know the pool is kind of like kid sous. There's just a lot of people in there. And so it may not be exactly what you expect. So we did a lot of conversations around um trying to hold expectations loosely, specifically for our kids, um, that I think was all completely unnecessary, honestly. Yeah, basically everything was just so amazing.

Alicea: 7:57

But you never know.

Daniel: 7:58

Yeah.

Callie: 7:59

Yeah, you really never know. And when you're when you've been looking forward to something for so long and you have it built up in your head so much, you know, as it was our first time, we had no idea what it would be like. And it totally did live up to the hype. So it's awesome. We didn't have any concerns there. Yeah. Yeah.

Daniel: 8:18

Yeah. One little anecdote, what I have a I have like a health tracking ring. And uh about two days in, I got an 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 stress level on things. I was like, yeah, that sounds about right. Nice.

Nathan: 8:35

That is us. We can physically feel like our blood pressure drop by like 25 points when we drive onto Disney property, like especially in Florida. You go over under the arches and it says, like, you know, welcome to Disney World. And we both just have this physical, like, huh, yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Alicea: 8:54

It's exactly all right. So, first impressions, what did you think when you got on board The Magic?

Daniel: 9:02

So, one little piece of background for Callie and I, on our 10-year anniversary, when we we went on a cruise, not a Disney cruise, um, it was Norwegian, um, and it was an Alaskan cruise. Um, and so and it was a lot of fun. It was great, it was our first time ever going on a cruise. Um, so that kind of set a lot of expectations for me of like it'll be kind of like this.

Nathan: 9:26

Yeah.

Daniel: 9:26

Um, and I knew it's Disney, they do did, they do it all the best, you know, and it's gonna be better than that. But I think for me going on, I was expecting uh, I mean, what we experienced on Norwegian and like a little bit more, but I was I was I I was so I was I mean surprised isn't accurate because I knew it was gonna be a lot. It was everything was so overwhelming and just cool and like oh this, oh look at this, and so many moments with the kids of like, oh look over there, 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 and I, it'd have been so much so fun. But having it, um getting to see it all through our kids' eyes made it I I probably doubled the experience for us. Yeah. Um I'm I'm and we'll get into the different things we did each of the days, but for example, uh, you know, we went to several the musicals and things, and the last musical, um our daughter, our daughter, actually, all of our kids weren't sitting with us, sitting with 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 the aisle, 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 through their eyes as well, which is it was just made it so much more magical and fun and and emotional. It's just it was just so special to be able to experience that with them and seeing it through their eyes.

Nathan: 11:05

Were you were they all ready to have you know your your family name read out as you got on board and and the the applause line as you you came through?

Callie: 11:13

Yeah, we weren't expecting that. And so I was like, wait, they just said our name? Yeah.

Daniel: 11:19

Yeah. Yeah. It was like I yeah, I didn't even realize it, didn't fully realize it happened. I heard like the tail end of it. 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 thing that that y'all did when you got on board? Actually, did everybody, you know, all 17 of you get on board at the same time?

Callie: 11:47

We did. Yes. Yes. And so that was a little tricky because we w immediately went to cabanas to try to eat lunch at 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 cabanas and the line was crazy. And then the people that were working there, they were like, Oh, there's like no tables. If you go down to one of the restaurants, you can be seated and, you know, have a sit-down lunch. So we were like, great. So we went down there and, you know, there's 17 of us. We the tables aren't set up for 17. So they split us up into groups of three and four, you know. And so we're like, it's me and my two daughters and my niece at one table, you know, and they're and our boys, and then their cousin, and then there's I I'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 and you know, everybody's very hungry, but also very excited to be there in this amazing restaurant. You know, it's like Rapunzel themed and amazing. And but, you know, it took a little while to get food. So I had packed actually a couple card games in my bag. And that was so that came in so handy because my girls, you know, we were like, okay, like let's play Uno. And we just sat and played Uno. And we have a Disney like finding picture game. I pulled out that after Uno. I was like, let's do this. And so that was perfect. And then, of course, they ordered huge ice cream Sundays at the end of lunch, and they were like, this is the best thing ever. Sure. So that was fine. It ended up being fine, but it was 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 worse of like, oh okay, we're all being split up, and I I've got all these kids, and okay. And yeah, we sat down, like I was with the boys, and they were all in great moods. We got our food relatively quick. I was surprised. Um, and everyone was just thrilled. You know, our our my oldest son, he you know, ordered a burger and then he finished it. He was like, Can I can I just get another one? Like, oh, yeah, you can. And then we all got sundaes. So it was just it was a lot of uh it was a lot of fun that I was I was I was anticipating uh more 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 is yeah, like we both grew up, you know, of the okay, three more beans, then you can have your dessert, that kind of thing that both of us we didn't want to have um in our families, just like the the debate every single evening. And so that's an idea that we got actually from my brother that they do. But we have Saturday nights is dessert night. So you get dessert on Saturday nights. That's just there's no debating, it's just yeah, you get dessert on Saturday nights. We don't dessert any other night of the week. Okay. On Saturday nights you do. And uh yes, you don't have to eat anything. If you want to skip dinner and only have dessert, you can. You're gonna be hungry and probably get a stomachache, but you can so our kids are a little sweet starved. Um so when we we do things like this, it's vacation rules, you know, it's yeah, you can have us you 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 the same way, um, but I'm sure we had as a family, I mean, 10 gallons of ice cream at least, you know.

Nathan: 15:33

I'm the odd man out. I actually usually don't get the 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 just like 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 the cups up there on the top deck and fill up like halfway, and then I'd go over to the soft serve and then fill the rest of it with ice cream, so it'd be like a yeah, coffee. Afogato, whatever that it was delicious. 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 were adjoining, and so yeah, on the manifest, yeah, I it was me and the boys in one room and Cat and the girls in one room. We always left the doors open the whole time. And yeah, it was basically one big 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 same hall. And so it was really, really great.

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 much the balcony was um utilized. We it was it felt so good to be in the AC in the room that we just never wanted to open the door to go out. And you know, we're from Seattle, and so we're not used to the heat and the humidity. We both grew up in the South, but we have been acclimated to Seattle weather, and so we are not used to it. So honestly, it was great to have the views and you know, wake up to the sunrise, but I don't know if I would necessarily spring for that every time. If if it was a big cost difference, 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, leaving port or a different there were there are a few different times we would all we were all out there. Yeah, but it was like a couple times. 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, when you have adjoining rooms or even if you have a block of rooms that are all together, they can open that like um that sidewall, and you can just walk between all the rooms on the veranda.

Callie: 18:12

That would have been cool. I don't know if I would have wanted 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 some friends when we were um transiting the Panama Canal and we had three rooms all in a row, and so we just had this one giant 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 bit as a first timer, what was booking like? Did you use a travel agent? I'm guessing mom and dad booked everything for everybody.

Daniel: 18:47

Yeah, so Callie's dad booked it all. He used a travel agent with Costco. He did it all through Costco. Okay. And I I know that he talked to somebody on the phone. I don't know if he had a specific agent, yeah. Um, but that's what he used for booking. 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 at times that I was like, oh wait, what what I I had no idea of any of the details like leading up to it. And wait, where are we where we're doing this? How is this working? You know, it it was just all taken 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 some last minute changes that had to be made because of the room situation. We realized, oh, it's actually not like this. And we we we thought our rooms were a little different than we originally, and so there was a little bit of shuffling that we did about a about a week out. Um so I know that was a little tricky, um, but they were able to resolve it all.

Callie: 19:43

Uh, they ended up getting another room last minute, like about a week before. So yeah, it worked out. They ended up being on a different 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 retirement trip. 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 with the girls where they got to meet four princesses all at the same time. And that was great. That was they didn't really know what they were missing out on, you know. They didn't know about the royalty, they didn't know about the bibity bobbity boutique, you know. And so we could have, you know, gone crazy and spent lots of money. But our thinking was this is already going to be amazing without needing to splurge for all every little thing that we're just gonna enjoy it the way it comes. And that honestly was so great. Like the kids they didn't know what they were missing on, and they had such a blast without it, anyways. So we did the royal gathering, and we went to the Bibbity Bobbity boutique before that to get pixie dusted, and that was perfect, magical for the girls because they had no idea what that was, and it was so fun. And we are we've been home for maybe 10 days now, and they still have glitter in their hair from that. So they keep asking me after every bath. They're like, is it still there? I'm like, oh yeah, actually it is 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 are so many cool sounding things for the adults, but we honestly didn't have any time to do those without dropping our kids off or you know, finagling timing of dinner and the shows and all of that.

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 the pool all that that day. Yeah, nice.

Nathan: 22:13

Yeah. So you mentioned the kids' clubs. Like what did the what did everybody 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 the Oceaneers Club. That's amazing, which was which is great. Um now our oldest, so Benson, our oldest, he's about to be eleven. So he was kind of on the old end of that. And then his cousin, his cousin Everson, who's also 10, and then our oldest bishop, who's eight. The three of them kind of you know stick stuck together the whole cruise and did everything together. And and they would go, we would have them go a few times. Um they probably went almost every 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, but they also were at a level where our oldest um we actually brought one of our old um iPhones that um we don't use anymore and used on the Wi-Fi and and so had the app so he could message with it. And so we gave we had him have that, so we had him, he had a little more freedom to kind of so with the three of them to stay sticking together. We let them kind of do their own thing sometimes occasionally. So, and that was also kind of the first time that they had a little bit of that that kind of freedom. You know, all enclosed was safe, and yeah, um, so they really wanted to do that. So they spent a lot of time going and oh, we're gonna this this character's out. We gotta get their autograph, oh, we gotta get their autograph, oh, we gotta go meet Thor, you know, and everything. So um they they really, really did a lot of that, um which was a lot of waiting in lines uh that 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 kids really enjoyed it, I know. Um the girls just yesterday were 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 at some 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 only use utilized it maybe for an hour every day, and it would be we would get back from the pool or the beach, we would bathe them really quick, and then we would take them so that we could shower and we could get ready for dinner without kids. Because those are small quarters, you know, to be with four kids. So we would go drop them off so that we can have a little bit of time before dinner, and so we didn't use it that much.

Daniel: 24:52

And I think so much of what we were really enjoying and experiencing things that we obviously wanted the moments of quiet and like we took those, but we were really enjoying seeing everything through their eyes and getting to like participate in the awe and wonder with them that was just so fun. Um that you know, uh there were, you know, we we would uh in the afternoons we drop them off after we have and we get then we get ready, we take our time, and then we go walk around and go look at stuff. But we found ourselves even in those moments being like, oh, like there's there's uh there's goofy, goofy's that we should go get the kids so they can, you know, 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 uh Disney's original private destination, Castaway Key, they're in the Bahamas. It's a favorite spot of lots of DCL fans, ourselves included. What did you think? Did you have any shore excursions 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 and um 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 really weird experience for us because it was hot and rainy. I don't like this is this is what this doesn't work this way. I always does not compute, does not compute, yeah. There's never warm rain in Seattle, right? No. Um and so uh it was it was rained on and off. Um it wasn't rainy the whole time. Um, but so we did a beach day, but it was you know overcast. It was more of a you know a wet beach day. Um and actually I know that uh your parents and Chad and and uh uh one or two of his kids did the excursion, but they ended up getting canceled because of I think thunder. Yeah, I think that lightning down.

Callie: 26:51

But it I think in the morning it was not rainy the whole time. And so we had a great time at the beach. The kids loved the in the water playground. Um our six-year-old was like obsessed with climbing to that. She felt so big and proud of her for getting out there. And then our oldest two boys and their cousin, they did a lot of snorkeling out there, and so that was perfect for them because there was no waves, it was really calm. They were able to do you know, all of the snorkeling, which has you know the hidden statues down there with they came back and they were like, We saw all these things and telling us all about what they saw down there, and they saw a little fish too, and so that was a really great experience for them. They had never snorkeled before, so it was a really good first experience for them and really easy. They stood they stayed out there for quite a while, actually pretty impressed with their stamina at their ages, you 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 slides are into the go into the water, and we went over and we're so excited 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 and went swam back over and and went back and played on the beach. Uh I you know, I challenged him a little bit, like, are you sure we walked came all the way over 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 and checking them in there. And they went with their littlest cousins who are three and five. And uh so they went in there and then that's when it really started pouring. So we, you know, they were in there for maybe 30 or 45 minutes before it just started dumping and the excursion started getting canceled, and so we ended up grabbing them and going back to the boat earlier than we anticipated. But it was totally fine. I think that we, you know, we had a really great beach experience. The snorkeling, the lunch was amazing. And so we I feel like we did a little bit of everything that it 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 to it multiple times, but we're not used to the heat. We just simply and like full transparency, 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 the shops, and everyone was really hot, especially me. And uh it was a bright sunny day. It was beautiful. Um, and it was like we we want to go swimming in the pool. We want to go to the slides. And yeah, they hadn't really we hadn't had the opportunity to spend a lot of time in the pool yet. The day before it had been a rain, and when we got back to the boat, it was like you know, really raining a lot more, and so it was more inside that afternoon. Um, and so it was really the first day, like really spend some time at the pool. So we ended up going back in and we just hung out the pool.

Callie: 30:28

Yeah, and that was really great. And some people in our party ended 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, you know, I wish we hadn't done that. So, you know, like when you have kids, it just changes things because it's like, okay, my kids really didn't handle that very well, you know, or like that was a lot of walking, or we ended up in an area and we had no idea where we were, and we were trying to get back, and that was a little scary, you know. And so we were totally okay with our decision, and just having it be just us and our kids and not our entire party back on the boat was actually really 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 like Minnie's something.

Callie: 31:49

No, it's like the Donald Duck something.

Daniel: 31:51

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, uh everybody did that that slide, like our four-year-old, she just would do it and run right back up and get back in line and do it again, right? And she spent hours on that thing. She loved it. And then our our older boys, they they did they did the aqua dunk. Um with me, which was um that first day, I believe it was after Nassau, uh I was just with Bishop, our eight-year-old, and he was like, I'm gonna go do that 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 go by myself. I was like, okay, I'll I'll take a video and I'll watch, you know, and stuff. He went up, and I don't think he really knew what to expect. So he he was tall enough, and but he hopped in there. I got a video of him, and he came, 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 to go, bud. He looked at me with his eyes big, shaking his head, like, oh no. And so uh, and we laughed about it and things, and then the uh uh the our our cousin and my our my son, they both want to do it, they're both 10. They want to do it, but also oh I don't know, I'm nervous, and things, and I had done it to sh so that they could watch me do it, and then several of their other uncles had done it, and their grandfather had done it, um, and they were like, oh, maybe, and I don't know, and you know, back and forth, back and forth, and finally, like, okay, okay, we're gonna do it. And this this was actually on our last day that we decided 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 the top, and uh uh my our our 10-year-old, you know, it was his turn, he's like, Okay, he got in and was getting ready to get and then got back out. Like, hold on, you know, just you just you know, it's just he knew what to expect, he knew that his younger brother hate did not like it, and so there was a lot there, and so he finally got back in and he was nervous, 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 because everyone's waiting. Yeah, um, and so he got got in and like the the door shut, and I'm sitting there watching his face. I'm like, oh gosh, is he he's he'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's going 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 like raises both his arms, like, yeah! And then he was so proud of himself and loved it. It was so great. That was probably the highest moment 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 good for 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 the Magic in uh in November. In November. And uh yeah, I don't I don't know

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 you have a lot of company in terms of folks who don't get off at Nassau. There, there are a lot of Disney 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 our cruising career have tried some of the excursions around on Nassau, and it's more often than not a sea Day for us. In fact, the shopping we actually haven't been to because we've been doing a bunch of other itineraries that haven't necessarily hit Nassau, and all of 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, but it was still like halfway under construction, and it was like a rainy 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, and they had really great public bathrooms, and you know, there was a good mix of food and bars and shopping, but it just their outside 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's newest 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 have ever 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 obvious this 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 got there, we got out on the beach, and we were just in the water so much. And then we ended up doing the splash pad for a while too, and the slide there. The kids loved that water slide. We had lunch. Um, and there was a lot of other things that are there too, and the different, you know, activities and different, you know, stations and different stuff that that's going on that I kind of wanted to poke around and see, but we just ended up being in the water, and it was just 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 they went to the Serenity Bay, the 18 plus beach, and so he was able to do a lot of snorkeling there off of that beach, and he said that it was incredible, like there was a ton of coral, lots of really beautiful fish. They weren't allowing kids to go 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, so he did that, and so he said that that was incredible, and I think that just like it is so well done. Like, I got off and I was like, I feel like I'm in a Disney park, but it's real, like it's not 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, they have so many nature trails, and you know, I know they have like a 5k loop and you know things like that. And some people in our group they did do nature walks and paddleboarding, nature excursions, and pirate activity. There's a pirate activity that some 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 in their family. Um and so, you know, some of us in our group did some of those things, but I think that even if you don't, like us, it was just amazing. So amazing. Yeah. Yeah, it was so beautiful. The kids were like, This looks like mermaid water. I'm like, yeah, because this is where Ariel is actually from. Like it looks like Ariel water because 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 bit pink. That was something that our server had said to us like, look for the pink sand. So the girls loved that. And yeah, it was so nice. And I think it was a lot less crowded than I thought, too. I thought that it would be super hard to find a chair or an umbrella. And I think I don't know if it was just because they have enough chairs for everybody, or if it was because we were on the magic and there's just less people overall. But it was totally fine and not an issue for us. So, and we ended up our kids needed to sleep in a little bit more that day. And so we got off we got off a little 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 um on the way out. And we grabbed a wagon and used a wagon uh for the girls, and then we hopped on one of the trams and you know, went over. So it was it was pretty seamless. On the way back, we were all tired from the beach and things, and and you know, we were all in our wet swimsuits chafing 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 like bringing some more and things.

Callie: 40:27

So they were like, well, here, just whoever needs extra assistance, come over here and get on a golf cart. And I was like, okay, well, these three of our kids need extra assistance. Like our girls were not gonna be able to walk back, and then one of our sons was like chafing, or I don't know. He was uncomfortable somehow. And so I rode back on the golf cart with them, and that was great. Like there was they were like, Yeah, let's just have you hop over here, and they were totally accommodating. 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 the paths are it's a lot of kind of circles that all they connect in different ways. It was easy for me. Uh oh, wait, where are we going again? Oh, that you know, it there there weren't these direct routes that that are a lot more easy and obvious, as well as just the map in the app. Um, everything's numbered. And so I was like, okay, oh wait, this is 12. Okay, what's 12? Go over here, look, okay, a 12. Oh, this, okay. But where's the where's uh the thing? What I'm looking for? It's 14. Okay, where's 14? You know, that I I wish I would have just like, you know, on my computer before going, had looked at the the maps and just just familiarize myself with it a little bit. But it wasn't remotely a problem. It was um, it was just it was so so great. I just know we missed stuff there. I know you know that I I'm sure there 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 day after this on your way back north to Port Canaveral. Yes. Anything special stick out about your sea day? More time in the pool, I'm assuming.

Callie: 42:27

Lots of time in the pool. The boys, that was the day that all of the Marvel Avengers were out to take pictures with. So our boys spent the morning in line to see Thor, yeah, Spider-Man, Captain America, Black Panther. That was totally worth it for them.

Daniel: 42:45

They loved it. Yeah. So and they, you know, talked to them and interact with them and really enjoyed it. And they had gotten to see Spider-Man and Thor earlier in the week at the Oceaneers Club. Different things they gotten to interact with them there, which they liked, and so they got to you know see them again, which they they still waited in line and wanted to they didn't they didn't get their autographs before. And they they each had their own 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 stay inside 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 lot of 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, our 10-year-old was like, there's a place called Pinocchio's Pizza. Uh-huh. And he was like, Man, Pinocchio really 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 by the pool. And our kids are just at really great ages where they can be independent. And, you know, our four-year-old, she was like just going down the water slide over and over for like an hour and a half. And we would go with her sometimes, or her, you know, siblings would go, and even if they stopped going down, she would keep going down. You know, the kids loved being in 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 of freedom of like, oh yeah, I can go up to Pinocchio's and I can order a pizza on my own and get the thing and come back all my own and be able to do that and you know, manage all that on their 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 still figuring everything out, and then it was just like in your face 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 and magical. So we all really enjoyed that. And then Pirate Night was so much fun. Our group got really into it. My dad had like a whole wig and stuff. And so the kids thought that was hilarious because he doesn't have hair. And then he all of a sudden he has a little bit of hair. All of a sudden, he had all these dreadlocks, you know. So that's awesome. That was really fun. The deck party was great. And you know, the fireworks, it was so fun. And we really actually ended up getting really great seats. Uh you know, we were not seats, but we were standing right at the front. So the kids had a really great view of all the dancing and things. And so that was really fun. It was a late night. It it goes really late, but you know.

Daniel: 46:05

But that was kind of our mentality. Obviously, you know, we're on Seattle 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 you kids are doing okay, we you can absolutely can stay up, you know.

Nathan: 46:23

Yeah.

Daniel: 46:23

And so it ended up being, you know, they all aligned as far as like they all stayed up together. Yeah, we didn't have anyone needing 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 this point, because he's you know the 13, uh soon to be 14, has been like, look, when when you come back at whatever hour you're coming back in the middle of the night, don't wake us up, don't slam the door.

Callie: 46:52

I know. I looking on the schedule, I would see things in the you know, older kids' clubs starting at 11 p.m. I'm like, oh man, yeah. That would have totally been something our oldest would have loved to be a part of. I think seeing the things that they were doing. And he's two months away from being 11 and being in one of those older groups.

Daniel: 47:13

But if he had been able to be in there, his younger brother and cousin wouldn't have and there would have been you know, it's kind of it ended up being.

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 the tween group had been practicing? And we had seen flash mob practice, you know, in the itinerary. And so we were like, oh, this is the flash mob that they've been practicing for, and it was so cute. 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 to to go there. Oh. Oh. Just have to have parental permission for that.

Callie: 47:59

Yeah. We might have done that if he didn'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 been hard, really hard to separate that.

Nathan: 48:09

Yes. We've heard stories from you know, both from folks on our podcast and others that we've heard of that can be a very uh troubling issue when you have two siblings who uh, you know, with the age gaps, are forced to be in different spots. You know, um, there's some leeway to move kids up into a the like the older club, but there's zero leeway to move kids down. Oh interesting. Yeah. So that makes sense. Yeah, it can be it can be tricky. So it's it's something to keep in mind as as you move forward. Um it it may be issues at times. Let's move on a little bit. Let's talk about food. What did you guys think of rotational 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 I fully realized that we would have the same server that moved with us through the rotational dining. And that was she was so fantastic with us with our kids. You know, she knew that they were gonna order mac and cheese before they even said, I would like the mac and cheese, please. Um, you know, and so they got to know us and our preferences and our kids, you know, they would have the kids' drinks waiting for them, and she knew that the kids all like to sit together at the end of the table, 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 she specifically was like, hey, I put all the kids down here because Mickey's gonna come out and they'll be they'll be able to see better from here, you know, and things. And so they were yeah, so great.

Callie: 49:49

Yeah. Our oldest especially really loved not ordering from the kids' menu, but ordering from the adult menu and trying new things. And he's like such a little foodie, and he he loves to, you know, make recipes out of his own recipe book here at home and things. And so he totally got into the whole like, oh, I'm gonna get this appetizer and then this soup 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, but would you think I like that? What about this? And then I I I told our server's name was Daisy. I was like, I don't know, uh talk 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 liked to order two desserts every night. And so we would be like, I don't know, ask Daisy if that's okay. And so we would have to make him ask her. Of course. She's like, Yeah, get whatever you 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 to you. I told her, I was like, you I told him to ask you, so you're in charge. Yeah. And so she like, when he asked the first time, she was like, um I like made him wait for a minute and was like, sure. Yeah, she was she was British. She was um so uh sure. 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 that there was gonna be a show, and I didn't realize we wouldn't have to show that first night. It was later in the week. And so uh we so that was just a normal first dinner. And then the second night we were at Lumiere's. We were at Lumiere's, and that was great. Our oldest tried escargot for the 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 know if it was a snail, I would have said I like it. But knowing it was a snail, it got in my head, and I don't know if I would have it again, but I'm proud of myself for having it.

Nathan: 51:54

Yeah, yeah.

Callie: 51:55

So that was fun. And then we were back there again 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 usually like several tables pushed together. Yeah. At Rapunzel's, it was like, I think, one big table, or you know, it it made more sense, but at uh Lumiere's and at Animator's palette, it was clearly like, oh, these are some square tables and there's a circle table, and it's all kind of together, but it was we were definitely the biggest party 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 pretty soon. They're trying to like reset. Yeah, right, you know. Um but yeah, so we had yeah, it was Rapunzel's Lumiere's, Lumieres again but for pirate night, 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 just magical. It's my favorite.

Nathan: 53:06

Yeah. Fantasia soundtrack. The fanfare goes, and Mickey comes. Well, can't wait to go on the magic 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 film school, and I was a filmmaker for 10 years. Um, and so but like literally just seeing their like their edit and montage of all the pieces that that built together, I just like from an art perspective, the what they cut, how they cut it, and it was just so well done. And using a medium of having multiple screens showing different things, but similarly, they all work together was I thought just absolutely genius and um beautiful storytelling. Like it wasn't necessarily a you know uh act one, act two, act three narrative, but they were they wove an aesthetic of Disney that was just magic. It was unbelievable. I mean, by myself, I would have teared up just looking at it, watching it and everything. And then we're with the kids, I that 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 fun for them. And I made everybody coordinate that night. I was like, okay, our family is wearing red and black and white so that we can match the restaurant 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 just unbelievable.

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 person though, and I think that that one was a little more seafood coded because it's pirate-y. Um but I also really liked Lumiere's. I thought that that was really delicious. Everything was so good. I don't know if I could tell you 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 could tell you what I had, because it was just like this is all so good.

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 of thing.

Nathan: 55:41

We've got to try Pirate Night menu again. Yeah. It's it has changed within the last two or three years. The original or older Pirate Night menu was not anything really to write home about. And that was often would be when we would like book our polo dinner and have like the elevated dining experience on Pirate Night, because we're like, it's not our favorite menu. So we because it's that same Pirate 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 some sort of like blackened chicken Cajun pasta or something like that.

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, I mean, I want both. So my intention, I'm just gonna try both. I I finished both of them totally, of course. Right. You don't want to be wasteful. I don't want to wait. Yeah, exactly.

Nathan: 57:13

We get home, and the hardest thing for us is like, what do you mean I have to put my 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 a chance 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 playing sports. I just don't follow anything. Yeah. And so that was a little bit funny. But we just we wanted to get some drinks with uh Callie's brother and his wife, and so yeah, we popped down there. 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 more rushed than I hoped. I thought we were just gonna be able 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 in time. We were in there with the kids and 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 know cra different craft or different other quizzes or other activities, we ended up we were either at the pool or the kids were wanting to meet a character or you know, something like that. So we we we were aware of them and we popped in a few times for things. Um, but mainly we popped in if it was a dance party. So we did we did a lot of dancing.

Nathan: 58:40

Nice. Well, speaking of dancing, we of course can't skip the main stage shows. The Magic has Disney Dreams, Twice Charmed, which is an original twist on the Cinderella story, and Tangled, the musical. Did you make it to any of the shows, 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 well done. And so it started with the Cinderella, Twice Charmed, and it was like, oh my gosh, like the special effects, and you know, it's Broadway level. Yeah, and we're on a cruise boat in the middle of the ocean, you know, like this is wild how talented these people are. Yes, yeah, how well done. And the kids loved it. That was their first time ever sitting through a show like that. And so it was a great first time because you know, the the audience is full of kids. Yeah, you know, you're you're not having to be 100% quiet like you would if you were to go to a real Broadway show somewhere. And so it was a really great like intro into show etiquette and how to be an audience member. And the kids just loved it. And so we did, yeah, twice charmed, and then the next night was Tangled.

Daniel: 1:00:00

The musical That was Tangled was so another so well done you know uh the horse.

Callie: 1:00:07

You know, when you have the the lights that are floating, it feels so immersive. Like I started tearing up, like I feel like I'm in the movie, you know, like the lights all come out in the audience and they're just like all around you. And so that was really cool.

Daniel: 1:00:25

And for all the shows, the way that they engage the audience, whether they're just you know, you actors are running up and down the aisles or something, or the lanterns are coming out in the room, or you know, someone shows up out here. They just it was so well done. Yeah, so well done. Yeah.

Callie: 1:00:40

So and then the third night on Pirate Night, there was a ventriloquist that came, and she was hilarious. We didn't know what to expect. And she is like this middle-aged mom of five, but they were like, She's been with Disney for so long, she's won all of these awards, and we were like, okay, like we don't really know what to expect.

Daniel: 1:00:58

She had like five or six different characters she'd bring out.

Callie: 1:01:01

She was so hilarious, and like right at our kids' level of humor, our boys were crying, they were laughing so hard.

Daniel: 1:01:08

They were saying their stomach was hurting from laughing too.

Callie: 1:01:10

Oh, that's what our six-year-old said. She was like, when she said one joke, and it was like a poop joke. When she said this one joke, I my stomach was hurting, I was laughing so hard. And I was like, that is so great. And so that was really fun and unexpected. I didn't realize that we would have something like that too.

Daniel: 1:01:27

And she had one character she brought out that was like a three-year-old, it's supposed to be like a three-year-old. So there are a lot of, you know, I go poop on the potty, like you know, things that she said that and then just other, you know, three-year-old acting a little bit inappropriate humor that they just ate up that was the funniest thing in the world.

Nathan: 1:01:45

The variety acts that Disney brings on to fill out the longer cruises are so yeah, so amazing. Um we've had uh one that sticks out is is um John Armstrong is a magician, and he is just fantastic. And the way that all of these folks, like Disney doesn't just go find a ventriloquist or a magician or a whatever the act is, they find these folks who know how to tailor their performance and their content for the audience. Yeah, and it's just magical because then oftentimes you can have those same folks will then go do like a late night like adult set and D lounge or something like that. And it's and it's tailored towards you know, not the kids, you know. And I'm not not to say that it's like you know, risque or anything like that, but it's like we're beyond poop jokes. Like we can do some some more highbrow things. Oh, that's so fun. It's so well done. So well done. Yeah. I'm glad you liked it.

Callie: 1:02:51

That was fun. But I think our favorite was the dreams, which was the last night. And it was I don't know if you have seen that before, if it's on other ships or not.

Alicea: 1:03:03

I'm trying to remember which one that is.

Nathan: 1:03:06

It is we have seen it. I can't remember which other ship it is.

Alicea: 1:03:09

The old man on the flower?

Callie: 1:03:11

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 Peter Pan, and it just goes through this montage of all of these Disney 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 of the girls were like, It's Elsa, and it's snowing in the audience, and during the little mermaid bits, there's bubbles in the audience.

Daniel: 1:03:41

And the Lion King was unbelievable.

Callie: 1:03:45

Yeah, so they just brought out, you know, all of these, you know, our favorite songs that we grew up with, as well as our kids. And it was just so magical. And I was tearing up, and I was like, this is so beautiful. And then Minnie and Mickey come out at the end, and it's just like, oh, it's so great.

Daniel: 1:04:06

That was the show we actually did not have our any of our kids sitting with us in that show. And that was the show we kept looking to them like, oh, are you you want you know, like it was like it was the level of like we we were trying to watch it through their eyes, and like we wanted them to be sitting with us just because there were so many amazing things, like oh yeah, oh my gosh, there's Elsa, or oh my gosh, there's you know, all the different it was just so so special.

Callie: 1:04:29

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, and Anna's her favorite, you know.

Daniel: 1:04:36

She came, she kind of walked down the row to us in the middle of the show at one point to give us both hugs. She wanted to give us hugs.

Callie: 1:04:43

So full of emotion.

Daniel: 1:04:44

And she was like, My eyes are wet. Are your eyes wet? It's just like, oh yeah.

Callie: 1:04:49

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 great like final note to finish it all off. And I know that there was a sort of farewell party in the atrium after that, but it was a late night thing. And it was like, you know, we needed 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 was such a great like ending and highlight and you know, last hurrah type of thing. So that was really beautiful.

Daniel: 1:05:29

Well, and one of the nights we went to we watched a movie.

Callie: 1:05:32

There was one night where there wasn't a show after dinner. And so they were showing um Freakier Friday was had just come out into the theaters. And so that was being shown in the big theater. And then in the smaller movie theater, it was the new Pixar Elio. So we went and saw that with our kids. And so that was a great, like, okay, like, you know, it's just a movie night instead of a show.

Daniel: 1:05:56

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 on this or anything yet.

Nathan: 1:06:04

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 that day. Yeah. Um we've seen several uh of

Alicea: 1:06:19

Tangled was one of them, actually.

Nathan: 1:06:21

Tangled we saw on the ship for the first time. Uh Star Wars uh Rogue One. Oh, we saw um yeah, ended up with uh with like a five or six-year-old, I forget the uh how old Sterling was, um, completely latched onto K2SO and then you know about three three-quarters of the way through the movie, um that didn't turn out so well.

Alicea: 1:06:43

No, yeah. Nothing, I mean, it doesn't turn out well for anybody. No, that's true. That's true. It's not a happy ending.

Daniel: 1:06:51

On the Star Wars note, I will say I was we were at least the boys and I were disappointed. I'm a huge, huge Star Wars fan. Yeah. And we were we were disappointed there wasn't a ton of Star Wars stuff. There was one photo op that had a lightsaber, and that was the only Star Wars thing.

Callie: 1:07:06

Um Marvel thing. I know some of the other ships have more Star Wars things that are going to be.

Alicea: 1:07:14

Some here and there, I will say that there is usually some sort of character meet and greet in the kids' area at some point where they have um maybe Chewbacca or C3PO.

Nathan: 1:07:28

Or Ray.

Alicea: 1:07:29

Or Ray, but it's only in the kids' area. Anyone can go during that time and get the photo up or get the character meet and greet, but it's like it's only there unless they're doing a Star Wars day at sea, which I don't think they do at the end.

Nathan: 1:07:42

They haven't done one of those in years. Was this a Marvel Day at Sea? Or did there just happen to be Marvel characters? Okay. Okay. Yeah. Cool.

Daniel: 1:07:51

And those Marvel characters were doing different things throughout the time. They just didn't do the meet and autograph photo op. Yeah. Um, they had like they showed up at Oceaneer's Club a couple times for sort of.

Callie: 1:08:03

But that was the only time that Spider-Man came out.

Daniel: 1:08:05

Spider-Man did uh did a web slinging tutorial with the line for Spider-Man was crazy.

Callie: 1:08:13

Yeah. And everybody, you know, that was the only kind of photo op available for him.

Daniel: 1:08:18

But so you guys, you waited in line with the boys for Spider-Man, and you guys were at the end of the line. Yeah. So there's a cast member that was like holding the end of the line that you got to talk to.

Callie: 1:08:27

Yeah, and she's one of the um entertainers in the Broadway show, in the shows that night. And so that was really fascinating to get to talk to her. And then we saw her that night. We saw her. She was the main singer in the Lion King. And so that was really it was like, oh, I know her, and I feel so proud of her, and she's such a beautiful singer. And I was like tearing up. It was such a beautiful song. Yeah. She sang Circle of Life. And um so yeah, that was really interesting to get to chat with her and get a behind the scenes. I really liked chatting with different cast members and getting the behind-the-scenes look. We chatted a lot with our server, you know. Yeah. We're like, what is life like? And our assistant server, he his wife also works on the ship, you know, he's married. And um, so and our server, she has a boyfriend that worked on the ship, you know. So it's like, wow, it's like a whole world. You know, it's a whole yeah, city ecosystem that is like totally hidden behind the scenes, you know. But she's like, I love talking about it. We just can't bring it up, you know? So she was like, Yeah, ask me whatever questions you want. Yeah.

Alicea: 1:09:42

Would you cruise with Disney again?

Daniel: 1:09:45

I don't know, man. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. It was amazing.

Callie: 1:09:52

I think we're spoiled, you know.

Daniel: 1:09:54

I think we could do a different cruise.

Alicea: 1:09:57

Yeah. Yeah, that's kind of what happened to us. Yeah.

Daniel: 1:10:01

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 that again and be like, oh, I mean, well, Disney does it this way.

Nathan: 1:10:09

So this is kind of you know we recently just did an Alaska cruise with celebrity. Um, we cruised from Vancouver to Hawaii with Royal last year. And yeah, it it is impossible to not just go like, well, Disney wouldn't do it this way.

Daniel: 1:10:30

Uh uh.

Nathan: 1:10:31

We are maybe this is a little better than Disney, or but everything is just compared to Disney. It's just yeah, it's it's so good.

Alicea: 1:10:38

But it's our happy place. It is. A happy place.

Daniel: 1:10:41

Yeah, we would love to do another one.

Nathan: 1:10:44

Yeah. Nice. Well, you have a bunch more ships to try and lots more itinerary options. I mean, the world's your oyster.

Callie: 1:10:51

I know. I think it would be fun to take the kids on an Alaskan one, especially with the port being out of Vancouver. You know, we can just drive up and go out of there. I think that they would really enjoy seeing the glaciers and things.

Daniel: 1:11:04

We really enjoyed our Alaska cruise and getting to see Glacier Bay and just the beauty of that was just so fun.

Nathan: 1:11:11

Absolutely. And the character interactions in Alaska are pretty top-notch too.

Callie: 1:11:17

Are they?

Nathan: 1:11:18

Yeah, just imagine, you know, on Glacier Viewing Day, like they're all out on deck in their 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 for Alicea's patented Disney torture test. So um good luck.

Alicea: 1:11:37

This is just this is just your Disney favorites from basically everything under Mickey's umbrella. So you can choose from Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel, whatever you'd like. I'm gonna change it up a little bit since um you haven't really done the parks a lot. First off, though, favorite character.

Daniel: 1:11:58

I'll let you go for it. Mine's gonna have to be a Star Wars character.

Callie: 1:12:00

Mine's Belle. Specifically, like Village Belle that really loves to read and sings through the village. Yeah. Yeah.

Daniel: 1:12:10

Mine is one of any, I mean, a litany of Star Wars characters. Um, right now it would be Cassian Andor. Um because uh yeah, the Andor show is my very favorite Star Wars. It's very well done. Nice.

Alicea: 1:12:26

I haven't seen the second the next season.

Nathan: 1:12:28

Yes, we've also we've saved our second season. We will be binging that uh momentarily. We just started it. Excellent.

Alicea: 1:12:36

Excellent. Favorite movie?

Daniel: 1:12:39

So I mean, like I mentioned, I'm a big Star Wars fan. I could list any of the Star Wars movies. I'm not going to. Um, those are absolutely my favorite. But growing up, my very favorite Disney classic was Robin Hood. That was like that, that's the we had it on VHS. I know exactly what commercials come on, and we what parts, you know, because we taped it off of you know, off of like ABC or something. And um that was like our go-to uh Disney classic. Uh so so fun.

Callie: 1:13:12

I really love Encanto. It's a newer one, but my kids we they really went through a big Encanto phase when it first came out. And now I think we might have overdone it because now I'm like, should we watch Encanto? And they're like, let's watch something else. I'm like, but it's so good. Like whenever we're picking a family movie. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Daniel: 1:13:30

I think we overdid it.

Callie: 1:13:31

You do.

Daniel: 1:13:32

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: 1:13:43

Favorite Disney snack.

Callie: 1:13:47

Well, I mean, just getting off the boat right now, it's the soft serve. But I know it's different in the parks. You know, there's a lot more snacks available in the parks, but the soft serve ice cream on the boat was a daily, multiple times an afternoon snack for the kids. And we would put the kids to bed at night and we would sneak back down and get a late night going. Or two, or three.

Daniel: 1:14:13

Yeah. I would agree.

Alicea: 1:14:17

Um favorite character experience.

Callie: 1:14:21

I loved seeing the girls meet Minnie Mouse because we got to meet her the night we went to Animator's Palette, which was the night that I had dressed my whole family up to look like Minnie and Mickey. And so our youngest, she had the cutest little Minnie Mouse dress, and they both were wearing their mini ears, you know, just the classic red and white and black ears. And Minnie just loved seeing her in her dress matching, you know, like they had a really sweet, like they were both twirling together. It was just really sweet. And uh the girls, I think, just really loved meeting her the most. Yeah.

Daniel: 1:15:00

I would second that, but to to say something different. Um boys got in line to meet Stitch from Lilo and Stitch. And we were just we had seen him around different and I was just so I he was so in character and I loved it. Like, you know, the the the other cast members are helping, like, you know, corral or help, you know, the lines and stuff. Like Stitch would run off and he 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 when they 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 a little guitar thing. And so he like did a whole little guitar solo on that. It was just this great, you know, fun little moment that the boys just loved and thought was hilarious. That's awesome. That's awesome. I will say the character meeting that didn't happen that I think would have been the best is if Max had been on the boat. So Goofy Son. Because our kids love the Goofy movie. Yeah, okay. Um, and our our eight-year-old has learned the power line dance from I 2 I. And he like was hoping because we had seen like one video where like they had at they had a dance party in the atrium and they played that song, and Goofy was there and did the dancing and so he was like, I want to learn it in case we do that, so I can do it with Goofy and things, and so uh, but if Max had been there, and I I did a little bit of research and saw like there have he has been on cruises before, but yeah, but you know, not uh a guarantee by any means. Um uh that would have been really fun.

Nathan: 1:16:34

We saw Max at like an on-deck dance party.

Alicea: 1:16:40

Did we?

Nathan: 1:16:41

I forget.

Alicea: 1:16:43

I know we've seen him at the parks a bunch.

Nathan: 1:16:45

Yeah, I want to I want to say maybe it was on the wish. Like when we were on like early on in its run, they they started off a party, and I think Alicea, you were off with the kids doing something, and I went and like just got video of the party just because we're now content creators, question mark, and so get content. Um, it was really neat, and and uh yeah, but I haven't seen him a lot other than like rare appearances.

Daniel: 1:17:14

He's kind of a niche character, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But he happens to be our specifically Bishop's favorite. And yeah, yeah.

Alicea: 1:17:24

Favorite place on the ship.

Callie: 1:17:26

I think for me, I enjoyed the entertainment so much in the theater. It's not necessarily like the coolest or the best place, but the experiences that we had there were my favorite. Yeah.

Daniel: 1:17:40

I found myself if I was wandering around with one of the kids or Kelly and I were on a walk, I would gravitate towards the tenth deck near the front where there's like the ping pong and stuff. But even going outside of there, just being able to see where we're going and just the the wind, and it's just so beautiful and so fun.

Alicea: 1:18:00

I'm gonna uh take some questions from one of our other podcasts that we love listening to the DCL duo. Favorite sweet item on the ship.

Callie: 1:18:12

The yeah, cream brulee. There was a cream brulee cheesecake one night. That was delicious.

Daniel: 1:18:19

Yeah, for me it was the ice cream. Just it was it was delicious and just always there. So there you go.

Alicea: 1:18:26

And finally, favorite savory item.

Daniel: 1:18:31

Oh, at Rapunzel's I got the like the appetizer. I got like it was like the little cheese plate uh charcuterie board thing that I really thought was really, really good. I really liked it. Um there were a few, I mean, I didn't know what everything was on there. Um I know it said it in the menu, but the menu was gone and I was like, I don't know, you know, I don't know what this is. Um but it was really, really delicious.

Callie: 1:18:52

Yeah. I think that they did the appetizers and the soup courses really well. I really enjoyed the appetizers and like there was a really good brucetta one day. There was a several really good potato soups, which the only reason that sticks out in my mind is because potato soup is our six-year-old daughter's favorite food. That's what she requests for her birthday dinner and everything. And so every time it was on our menu, we'd be like, oh, Ardid, there's potato soup tonight, you know. And so she would order it along with her mac and cheese. And she would have that. And so it's like, okay, there's a little more variety in her meal tonight, not just mac and cheese and French.

Daniel: 1:19:33

Specifically, our four-year-old had mac and cheese for every single lunch and dinner. Yep. Every lunch and a single one. Yeah.

Callie: 1:19:40

As you do. Our server just laughed by the end of it. She's like, yeah, I know. I already wrote it down.

Nathan: 1:19:45

Yep. Well, congratulations, you survived.

Callie: 1:19:49

Oh, thanks. Oh, we thrived. Okay.

Nathan: 1:19:53

So what's next? You doing another cruise?

Daniel: 1:19:57

We would love to.

Callie: 1:19:58

We'd love to. Yeah.

Daniel: 1:19:59

We gotta buy a new minivan first. Yeah. That's our next big spend expenditure. Yeah. Details. Yeah.

Nathan: 1:20:07

But real life gets in the way of all our vacation plans. So I understand. What's that about?

Daniel: 1:20:11

But that would that would that would be it has set a very high bar that we would love to cross again.

Callie: 1:20:16

Yeah. And I think it would be really fun to take our kids to Disneyland. All of my brothers live down in Southern California. So I'm like, okay, we just need to go visit them and take them to a day because they've never experienced that. And I think that this is a great first way to experience Disney with them, just with their different ages. Because, you know, being in Disneyland, you know, I would want to experience everything through all of their eyes, you know. And my I know my boys are gonna want to go do different things than my girls are gonna want to do. And so I physically can't be with them, you know, like unless we do multiple, multiple days and we all just stick together the whole time. Um but I think that this is a really great first time into the Disney world. Uh not Disney World, but you know, the world of Disneyland.

Nathan: 1:21:07

Yes.

Callie: 1:21:08

And so I think that that would be a really great thing to do now is Disneyland and see how that, you know, compares for them and how you know there's so much more in the parks than there can be on a boat. And so just experiencing that with them, I think, would be really fun.

Daniel: 1:21:25

Yeah. And we had talked about maybe doing Disney World when we were in Orlando, like staying after ordering before. And we kind of just landed like we're we're already doing the cruise, we're making some amazing memories there.

Callie: 1:21:38

Yeah.

Daniel: 1:21:38

You know, like let's let that be what that is. We don't have to also then do also do Disney World too. Like we're already, we're already here, you know, set in a high, high bar. And so being able to uh do that would have been a lot of fun.

Callie: 1:21:53

But I think it would have been a lot uh too much to do it after the cruise. I think the only thing we could have done is maybe before, which my youngest brother and his wife, they don't have kids, they did do a couple of days before. And they got on and their first night, they went and got a couple of massage. They're probably like, you know, we've been walking for the last few days. Like we're gonna go to massage. Yeah.

Alicea: 1:22:15

So the way to do it is the parks first.

Daniel: 1:22:18

Yes,

Alicea: 1:22:18

and then relax on the cruise.

Nathan: 1:22:22

well, thank you so much for coming on.

Callie: 1:22:24

Yeah, thanks for having us.

Daniel: 1:22:26

This is so fun.

Nathan: 1:22:27

Absolutely. It was great to hear all about your your first time with the magic and and really ex you know, getting to live like you've been talking about, living like this dream and seeing all this pixie dust happen through your kids. Like, yeah, that's that's such a magical experience. I'm glad you guys got a chance to do that. And congratulations to your dad on retirement.

Callie: 1:22:47

Yeah, thanks. Yeah, I know. I'm it was such a gift for them to take us. And yeah, it was a really great experience. Unbelievable.

Nathan: 1:22:55

Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Well, thanks again. Yeah, thanks for having us.

Alicea: 1:23:00

Please remember we are not affiliated with Disney or their subsidiaries. These are personal opinions and suggestions based on our own experiences. We recommend working with a travel agent or contacting Disney directly to plan your perfect vacation.

Nathan: 1:23:14

If you have questions or suggestions or would like to be interviewed on our show to share your Disney experiences, please send an email to podcast at our mousecapades.com.

Alicea: 1:23:24

You can follow us on socials. We are at Our Mouscapades. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook threads, and YouTube.

Nathan: 1:23:30

And please give us a rating in review in your podcast app that really helps people find us.

Alicea: 1:23:36

Of course, don't hesitate to share us with your friends and fellow Disney lovers of all ages.

Nathan: 1:23:41

Thanks for listening. We'll be in your ears next week.

Alicea: 1:23:45

Thank you for flying Star Tours. Bye bye.