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Episode 347: Tom’s Trip Report, Big Thunder Reopening & La Poutinerie
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On This Episode
Tom is back from his recent vacation and he has brought along a special guest, his wife Karyn, to help with the trip report. They share a full trip report from their last-minute five-night sailing on the Disney Fantasy. They discuss the ship’s unique "homey" atmosphere, the high level of service they experienced compared to their time on the Disney Treasure, and what it was like navigating 60 mph winds and 15-foot seas on their final night. Tom and Karyn also recount their relaxing follow-up stay at Disney’s Vero Beach Resort, highlighting the magical cast member interactions and a special coloring session with Pluto. DVC formalized penalties for violating the commercial use policy for renting points. The guys discuss the excitement surrounding the reopening of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Magic Kingdom, which features a brand-new track and a lowered height requirement of 38 inches. New Star Wars merch coming to Disneyland includes a protocol droid head popcorn bucket. Disney plans to bring the walking Olaf robot to all the parks and cruises. EPCOT’s Refreshment Port will transform into "La Poutinerie," hosted by Air Canada.
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Transcript
Introduction of the Welcome Home Podcast
00:00:08
Speaker
This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, broadcasting on the DVC to all points unknown. If you're within the sound of my voice, you're listening to Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC.
00:00:24
Speaker
Music
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello and welcome home. This episode of Welcome Home is brought to you by DBC Rental Store. Thank you for joining us on episode 347 of Welcome Home, a Disney Parks and Vacation Club podcast.
Tom's Voice and Recovery
00:00:39
Speaker
I'm Tom, here Trevor. How's it going, Trevor?
00:00:41
Speaker
Hey, pretty good. back Yeah, you're back. And and you know, i know you're sick, Tom, but because you have a bit of a cold, yeah actually gives you a little bit more of that announcer voice. It's funny you say that because because Karen, my wife, has been saying to me all day, she's like, oh, you're Basie today. i'm like, yes, perfect for the podcast. Yeah. Like, I mean, because, you know, Trevor's usually got the good voice here and I got like the whiny voice. But yeah, I'm a little deeper today. Yeah. And and that's kind of nice. Yeah. So I did bring home, ah you know, one souvenir from my trip and that was a cold.
Karen's Perspective on Their Trip
00:01:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:16
Speaker
You know, when you're on a ship with thousands of other people, this is the thing that will happen. Although, for whatever reason, that I'm the only one in my entire party who got sick. Somehow my wife and daughter avoided it. And, you know, our travel companions avoided it as well. um You know, what are you to do? It is what it is. But, you know, partly because I'm sick, Trevor.
00:01:37
Speaker
And but, you know, not really. I mean, I'll look for any opportunity to to to do things like this with with my wife. But we do. I did bring a special guest ah with me. and And that is my wife, Karen, who obviously came on the trip with us. I hope so. um And has a better memory than me. ah But also just, you know, she she can offer a little bit of a different perspective. ah But she's claiming Trevor. She's never been on the show. And I don't think that's true. I think she has. But I think it's been a long time.
Family Vacation Highlights
00:02:07
Speaker
I think I recalled there was a point where I believe you're on the show, Karen, by the way, welcome to the show, Karen. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, I'm pretty sure you were on the show. there were I'm pretty sure was it was an episode that I missed because I know that there was one point where you had yeah you and Karen did a show because you you needed to have somebody on the show and i wasn't able to attend. That sounds right. This was like years ago. but Yeah, it was a long time it actually entertaining?
00:02:38
Speaker
Was it actually entertaining? I mean, literally. don't remember. i I would hope so. I mean, literally all you and our daughter do is is spend your time roasting and trashing me. so That is true.
00:02:52
Speaker
Yeah, that's all they do is give me a hard time. so ah ah Which I'm sure there'll be plenty of in this episode. Yeah. So I'm, I'm looking forward to this recounting of your, your recent adventures.
00:03:07
Speaker
Yeah. I, yeah. So for those that don't know, and I don't know, Trevor, if there's anything you want to talk about before we get right into this. Let's get right into this. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So for those that don't know, we took a nice little vacation here. And this was a last-minute cruise that we had booked on the Disney Fantasy. a five-night cruise. it five nights and, I guess, six days or whatever. They don't really measure it by days. It's by nights. So it's five nights at a Port Canaveral going to Nassau, Bahamas, and then the two private islands.
00:03:41
Speaker
but you know Disney's two private islands. after the After the cruise is over, we also had booked a two-bedroom villa at Disney's Vero Beach Resort, which is about an hour and a half from Port Canaveral Drive, which is great. And and it was it was is a lot of fun to drive there. We'll get into that. But, um you know, so that was what this trip was.
00:04:03
Speaker
We got back yesterday. Took us 13 hours to drive home yesterday. Yeah. It really rough. Yeah, be ah it was it was it was a rough one. So and and of course, I'm dealing with a cold, right? And I'm surprised Karen didn't record me going into various fits of road rage while we were because they were laughing.
00:04:24
Speaker
my My wife and daughter in the backseat just laughing at me road raging. Yeah. I mean, it was pretty entertaining, I will say. And we were getting a little slap happy at the end of it with two hours left. And keep in mind, we had our dog with us as well, who decided that he needed to sit on my lap for the last two, two and a half hours.
Cruise Boarding Experience
00:04:45
Speaker
Now, given he's 10 pounds, so it's not like you don't act like he's like a 50 pound dog. I mean, he's tell he's a tiny little man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Still, though, when my dog does the same thing where it's like you you cannot get physical space between you and them, even when you're like, leave me alone. You're annoying me. Yeah.
00:05:02
Speaker
I'm actually surprised he's not with me right now, to be honest. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, ah you know, so. OK, so let's just start at the beginning. Yeah. So, you know, we we drove down, of course, and and we've talked about I have talked about this many times on the show. Right. My mom lives about an hour and a half outside of Port or about a little over two hours outside of Port Canaveral. Right. So we generally and about an hour and a half from Disney. Right. So whenever we do anything Disney related or cruise related, we go to my mom's. Right. We go to my mom's first.
00:05:35
Speaker
And then we drive, you know, we go the day before we stay overnight, we drive the next day. So we did that. You know, it really, the funny thing is Trevor, the drive down totally uneventful, like didn't hit traffic once.
00:05:47
Speaker
Couldn't, couldn't, except the only problem was the dog was more of a pain that the the way down than, than the way back. But the dog was being, I don't know, all sorts of anxious and crazy. He's, he's old and he's, he gets a little anxious. Yeah.
00:06:00
Speaker
Yeah. cares I mean, that's fine. And, for you know, like you said, you know, you know, having having uneventful travel to wherever you're going, I think is better than starting off a trip with like, yeah, yeah things going wrong. I would totally agree.
00:06:15
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So that was, you know, it was it was a good way to start. Right. Definitely a good way to start. So we got up bright and early on ah Friday morning. And what when did we leave Karen? Like 830, something like that? ah It probably 8 830. Yeah.
00:06:31
Speaker
Yeah. So we we left 830. ah And I had a whole scheme, Trevor. And I've talked about this on the show, right? we The big thing going into this trip was we booked last minute. So we had the late dinner seating, which is 815. Now, up we had you know my daughter who's seven, her best friend who's seven, and then her brother ah you know ah her best friend's brother who's five.
00:06:56
Speaker
Right. Those kids are not staying up till 815 for dinner. Like it's just especially with a full day of activities. There's no way. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's not even like ah like staying at home doing nothing. Yeah. Kids will they'll crash hard. Yeah. My my daughter goes bed at seven o'clock normally. Right. Like so. Right. 815 is just out of the question. So my plan was get there early.
00:07:18
Speaker
See if we can get on the ship before our boarding time, which was 1215. And go directly to the there's there's a place where they set up where the manager set up on the ship where you go and you ask for you can ask for a change if you don't get it. You know, if you don't get the wait list.
00:07:36
Speaker
And Trevor, I don't know if you're going the question before. i said No, but no, no. Keep going. got no So so we got there ah probably quarter 11. The weirdest thing, though, it was dead. Yeah.
00:07:48
Speaker
dead yeah like when we went there for the treasure trevor the terminal was bananas it was like it's it's it was like uh you know going to the airport uh you know like on christmas eve like right like right karen i mean i'm not exaggerating that it was no you're not it it literally took we didn't even have to wait we pulled right up they grabbed our luggage and we were able to legitimately stand there and get online and get ready to go in Yeah, like immediately, which when we did the treasure last year, we it took us 20 to 30 minutes just to get to the place to drop our bags off.
00:08:26
Speaker
Easily. Yeah, easily. Just sitting in traffic trying to get there. So we pull up and I look and I'm like, why? There's nobody standing in line. There's no cars in front of us. Like, are we in the right place? Like, you know, because this is weird. But no, mean, we were. And, um you know, that was fine.
00:08:43
Speaker
So, ah and Karen, please just jump in if you have anything to add to this. I know I talk a lot. Yeah. You? No. Yeah, I know. I'm just going to enjoy this back and forth between the two. oh yeah Yeah, you are. We've been together nonstop for you know with almost two weeks, so she's tired of me. I'm ready for him to go back to the office on Tuesday so I get some
Comparing Disney Ships: Fantasy vs. Treasure
00:09:06
Speaker
time to myself. Yeah, and that's that's exactly right. um but So we get all you know we get unloaded, we get you know we get we get in line, and Karen tries to sweet talk a cast member to get us in early, but the cast member's like... well I tried so hard. Yeah. You did, right? um
00:09:22
Speaker
So, but we didn't need it because they, and that's what the cast member said to her. She was like, listen, we're going to be letting everybody, you know, you guys are going to get in early anyway. Which she kind of like Karen, she kind of insinuated that the cruise wasn't full. Right. That was. Yes, she did. But what's interesting about that, though, is that our friend who was with us ended up having to go to guest services and it actually had a sticker up there that said the cruise was full. So I'm not really sure. I'm not sure. um But we we definitely had a really good time in line, though. We met some amazing Canadians. Yeah, that's I was going there next. So so I ah and ah Karen, I'll let you add all sorts of flavor to this. I just want to get to where how we got to here. So I i I'm just standing in line and I'm not the person to talk to people in line. Karen knows this. I ah don't generally socialize with people in line. That's just kind of talk is not his thing. Not not a thing I like. Yeah, I know. I know that, too. i've I've gone around Disney with you. Yeah, you know, I'm not a small talk person. i just I'm just not. Right. So like I and i avoid it. But I'm standing in there and there's a family of four behind us and they're wearing ah black shirts with the Canadian flag on them with Mickey Mouse in the middle.
00:10:36
Speaker
And I'm looking at them and I'm like, i got to take a picture of this and send it to Trevor. Like, I mean, right. And i I did send it to you. yep Um, and you know, so we start talking to them and it turns out Kara, they were from Halifax, Halifax. That's right. Oh, okay.
00:10:55
Speaker
Far. you Yeah. Far outside of Canada. Yeah. Yep. But some of the legitimate nicest people, we talked to them for quite a while. They were even engaging with our daughter. It was, it actually made the time go really fast. It was really kind of nice.
00:11:13
Speaker
It was. And then at the end, they gave us. ah So they gave us a what was the card? It was they gave us a card with three pins in it, Trevor, that had it was a pin of the Canadian flag, a pin of the province, and then a pin of the city.
00:11:29
Speaker
Right. Oh, nice. Yep. And they they specifically said. that they give that to people when they're on the cruise. They obviously made them up ahead of time. And they give them to people that are just like very kind, mostly crew members, though. So but they told us, though, that we were just so kind. You know, I i complimented how nice they were and how yeah we joked that we wanted to move to Calgary with you guys and yeah how much we just love the idea of Canada. And we were telling them about our next trip coming up, too, and how we're going to visit you.
00:12:01
Speaker
And all of a sudden we are waiting in line for security and they tapped us on the shoulder. And I mean, we, we probably talked to them for a good 20, 25 minutes. We talked to them for a while. Yeah, for sure. And like, we just were kind of talking about, you know, DVC stuff. We were talking about other cruises. Like they had been on the fantasy before. So they were, you know, I think yeah they had been on it like three or four like three times. Yeah. They, yeah. But they were literally the nicest. fan They were so nice. Yeah. And it was just, you know, honestly, that like when you're you're in a situation like the like being on a Disney cruise or even being in the parks, you it's you you tend to find like-minded people like that just because if you're already doing that activity in the first place, you already share one thing.
00:12:42
Speaker
You know what i mean? it is It's like you already have a... Yeah, you're in line for the same thing. So that's already common ground. Exactly. You already have that common ground and you already have that kind of, you know, fandom thing. And and so that was cool.
00:12:56
Speaker
Um, but yeah, so we get on the, is anything else with the Canadians? oh The funny thing was, I mean, we we we, you know, you expect to see the same people on vacation, especially on like a cruise ship. And, and that was true. We did run into a lot of the same people repeatedly, just not them. Yeah. It was so weird how we didn't see them again. went to the Canadian club on the secret Canadian. It's about the secret Canadian club that they have on all cruise ships.
00:13:27
Speaker
You got to, you got to do a couple of verses about Canada and then, uh, you can go on. You got to sing it in French. Oh, that's the key. You got to do it in French. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Anyway, no, but we did see them again briefly. i ran into into into one of them and the popcorn line for the theater to see Hoppers, which we will we will get into in a bit here. but um Yeah. So, so, Kara, anything else you want to add on that before I keep moving on here?
00:13:57
Speaker
No. Go ahead. Okay, cool. Cool. All right. Let's do this. So, you know, we get on the ship. ah The ship's beautiful, right? I mean, all the Disney ships are beautiful. the the treasure the ah The treasure and one of the themes of this trip report is going to be how different are experience was with the fantasy than the treasure and not it's so interesting because there's to me it's not one is better than the other it's almost like comparing apples to oranges in some ways exactly right yeah it's it and i can't hear explain it you're you're understanding what i've tried to express to you about the difference between disneyland and disney world yeah no but that's actually a good point that's that's actually a really good comparison it's the same thing like it's not that one is better than the other they both have their yeah things to them and it's not fair to compare them and i would agree with that because the fantasy just has a vibe that i can't really describe right like it just it it's a karen i think you called it like like homey kind of like Yes. It reminded me a little bit more of DVC, to be honest, because felt so like comfortable going in. And not to say that the treasure wasn't, because they're very similarly sized ships, but there was just something about it that just made me feel comfortable the moment I stepped on and just felt like I was at home. You felt like you were home.
00:15:28
Speaker
Yeah. I felt like I could get ah around a little bit better, And I'm now understanding why people were upset about the wish class changing the elevators because that midship elevator was very important for us. I i see. I don't know that to me
Dining on the Disney Fantasy
00:15:46
Speaker
that I disagree because that that criticism to me meant nothing. Like I i didn't I didn't feel like mean, I'm not don't really sad about it, but it was nice to have. I just don't care where the elevators are. They're elevate. I don't know. i don't I just don't care where they are.
00:15:59
Speaker
I don't know about that, Tom. I'm i'm very much... a I can see the point of having things in certain positions can matter on a ship. I guess it just doesn't matter to me. i am Fair. totally Yeah, that's fair. I'm not saying it shouldn't matter to anybody. I'm just saying it doesn't matter to me. you know um So, yeah. i Listen, it's...
00:16:21
Speaker
it's just It's kind of different, Trevor, though. And one of the reasons why is... like So, for example, the the theming, it's just... Obviously, every ship kind of has its own theme going on. But on the treasure, everything down to the the cat the little cafes...
00:16:42
Speaker
is ip right which i don't have a problem with i actually like right like i i like that there's the mulan themed cafe right that's that's on the ship because it i like that the the haunted mansion bar exists on on the treasure like i like all that they don't do that on the fantasy as much right they're still theming don't get me wrong it's just like go ahead karen i'm sorry No, it just it reminds me more of DVC because we even mentioned this and we'll talk more about it about Vero. But it's just you have those little places of Disney that you know that this is a Disney cruise. But then you also have some cafes. You have some of even the restaurants that are not people that aren't a huge fan of Disney, I think would still be OK because it's not all in your face.
00:17:32
Speaker
It's in your face, but on a not in your face. right like It's not not as much as the treasure, for sure. Can I maybe make a comparison? or or i I'm going to try and relate this back to how I perceive the different resorts. and and By the way, this is this is my perception. Anyone who you know doesn't agree with this, totally fair. It's just how I see it.
00:17:50
Speaker
I feel like it's the difference between staying at like the All-Stars resorts versus staying at a deluxe resort. that like I know like deluxe obviously is like you know you're paying more and all that, but Deluxe resorts tend to, while there is very clearly like overt Disney things throughout them, you can also kind of get lost in the idea that you're that you're just you're just at a resort. And you're like, yes seemeded it's themed to something, but it's not it's not like Mickey Mouse hitting you in the face. Whereas like All Stars is like you go to All Stars and it's like...
00:18:22
Speaker
Like yeah everything, like you cannot turn your head without seeing some sort of eyepiece, like even like going to the food court is just like hitting you over the head with it. So it sounds like maybe that's kind of the difference between the ships. I would totally agree. Not that the treasure is wrong for doing that. It's just design choices, right? It's so it's just different, honestly. And there are...
00:18:44
Speaker
I understand why some people maybe don't love the IP stuff. Fine. But I'm also going on a Disney cruise and I kind of expect the Disney IP there. Like that's where I want the Disney IP to be. Right. But at at the same time, i will say the spaces that were not IP that were original on the fantasy, we also really enjoyed.
00:19:05
Speaker
Right. They were beautiful. Yeah, they were great. I mean, the adult areas, the there's a whole bunch of different adult bars and they are all wonderfully themed and they're not in any way Disney at all.
00:19:18
Speaker
Right. Exactly. I actually i really liked how the bars were set up. So essentially in the fantasy and I'm going to guess that some of the older ships this is similar to. But they had all of the adult areas in one area. And during the day, kids could go and join. But at night, it turned into 18 plus. So they had like five different bars and lounges yeah that were just all in one part of the ship. And one of them ranged from like a British pub to an Irish pub to a beautiful garden. There was a champagne. lot And it just again, it was beautifully done. yeah it just wasn't in your face. Disney.
00:20:00
Speaker
Yeah, and and I mean, Trevor, you should look up the the bathroom hallway in the adult area on the fantasy because oh my gosh we were making a lot of jokes about that one. I actually almost got stuck in one of those bathrooms.
00:20:11
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's a very interesting artsy design. I have to say that. ah But i and i I was jokingly saying that every time we were walking through it, I felt like I was being birthed. Like, because it just, it's it's very, it looks, yeah.
00:20:26
Speaker
I don't know how describe It's different. um Anyway, back to... Keep going. i'm I'm going to look this up. you you good Do some Googling there and see what you can find. But okay, so maybe we should go day by day. but So that was our initial impression. So i i i go going back to the first day.
00:20:43
Speaker
I immediately go go. Sorry, I was going to say i immediately go downstairs. go We're going take care. That's what I was going to say, too. You immediately go down and and our daughter and I hang out. I immediately go downstairs and I start talking to the manager of the they have the managers of the restaurants down there. And one of them, you know, we we talked to you quite a bit because he came to our table every night. ah And, you know, I, i ah you know, as I mentioned on the show, I slipped him a hundred dollar bill. I'm just kidding. Really didn't do that. I thought about it. i love It was funny on the discord, though, because I forget who said it was like, did you did you slip the money? I was like, and I don't i don't think I responded to it because I thought it'd be funny or not to. um But no, I did not. I just we put our name on on a wait list. And I said, listen, you know, we got a five year old and two seven year olds not going to make it to dinner.
00:21:31
Speaker
If you guys can make this happen, we would really appreciate it. And listen, we also knew too that we had seven people in our party. That's hard to seat seven people. Even yeah Disney is prepared for larger parties like that. To ask for something like that is a hard ask. And I and i understood that. And i told that I said to the guy, listen, if you guys need to split us up, we would rather eat early and be split up than have to eat late.
00:21:59
Speaker
So lo and behold, i don't know what, maybe an hour two later, Karen, we get, we, you look at the app and I hear a squeal from the other room ah because Karen, Karen no look goes on the app and notices that we, we did get the earlier ah dining, which was really a lifestyle. I think it really made our trip. I mean, cause we, we loved dead the rotational dining on the fantasy and we really wouldn't have been able to do it if we hadn't gotten the earlier time.
00:22:27
Speaker
No, it would have been a lot harder.
Cruise Challenges and Highlights
00:22:29
Speaker
and We would have had to utilize the kids club more. we would have maybe even, you know, had to do more of the poolside food, which was still very good. It was, yeah. But one of the things that you love about Disney cruises, though, are the actual experiences in the dining rooms because they are so different than if you were to go on, ah you know, another cruise line because they're all themed and the food. oh I can't wait to talk about that.
00:22:54
Speaker
you talk about the food anytime you want. um Yeah. so So that was great. We got that. We enjoyed sitting on our balconies. And, and you know, the room ah was in a great spot. Rooms were great. Can't really say too much about the rooms. I mean, it's it's very similar to the treasure. Not not a huge difference there.
00:23:09
Speaker
Well, I have to say one thing about our room because, again, we were such a large party and we also – you know, booked later, we were able to get connecting rooms, which was incredible for us. But also we were in the front of the ship and we could see where the officers would come um when we were docking, although they didn't really dock on our side, but they would come out to the wings and we were right next to it. So every time we would come out there, they would see us and wave at the kids and they were just so sweet. It was really a cool experience doing that. Yeah.
00:23:42
Speaker
i Yeah, that that feels like ah unintentional extra pixie dust, right? Exactly. It's not that you needed it. But yeah, that's certainly that's a very nice thing to have.
00:23:53
Speaker
I will say, too, though, that this and this is going to come into play later in this conversation. um Being on the very highest deck you can be on on all the way in the front of the ship also has disadvantages if the seas are a little rough. Yeah. Yeah. Which they were.
00:24:11
Speaker
Yeah. I did see you you wrote about this on Discord. Yes. We will talk about it. Yeah. this This part is honestly something that this is a lot of the reason that my wife and I go back and forth about cruising. It's like for her, i don't think she could handle what it what it sounds like you guys went through with high winds and all that. No, she would have a really hard time, especially our last night.
00:24:34
Speaker
Yeah. So and we'll we'll kind of go through that. But I mean, listen, no joke. It was pretty much the whole cruise was decently rough, right? Like it wasn't there was one night and day where it was completely and totally smooth and we didn't even know we were on a ship.
00:24:49
Speaker
That was really the only respite we got. um But you know that's not to say it wasn't great. And I do think she'd still be okay because there are lots of people on board that wear like the patches and the and the you know all the different things. for I mean, there there are ways to get around it for sure. But I totally understand the concern, true too. I'm not trying to discount that because I know you guys have major concerns around that.
00:25:10
Speaker
yeah um But so I don't know what. ah So what first night care we did. and what was it? Royal table. Royal court. Royal table. Yeah. Whatever. Is a royal table? I think it was royal court.
00:25:22
Speaker
Okay. um And we met our server and our assistant server. Oh, my gosh. I wish they could listen to this because I want to give them the most amazing props because they were just amazing. Incredible. Yeah. So I think you you probably remember, Trevor, when i when we came off the the treasure, one of my...
00:25:46
Speaker
issues with the treasure was the service was not what I expected it to be, especially for Disney, right? Disney and and, and, and everybody will tell you that the things that stand out for Disney, you know, for Disney cruise line, the food, the service,
00:26:03
Speaker
That kind of stuff. We just didn't get the service we wanted on the treasure. Now, we we understood. yeah Sorry, I recall with the treasure, um it's it was a fairly new ship. And when yeah we yeah talked about it, yeah you assumed that it was like a lot of new staff kind of getting into the groove. so Yeah. Absolutely. just And just to say, Trevor, what our expectations are, because you haven't done a cruise, right? The great thing about Disney Cruises, and that they're the only ones that do this, is that you rotate through three different restaurants through your trip and your servers come with you.
00:26:34
Speaker
So they move to each restaurant with you. And so they get to know you and your family and what you want want and what your likes and dislikes and all that stuff. And so what you kind of expect is okay, I ordered a Diet Coke on the first night, right? Well, every time after when when I got to the table, there was a Diet Coke sitting in my spot, whether I wanted it or not.
00:26:57
Speaker
Like that's, that's what they do. Right. And that's what, that's what the service is supposed to be. Right. Like our kids got Shirley temples on the first night. They had Shirley temples on the table waiting for them every time we got to the to dinner every night. Like, and you know, or like one of the kids like catch up with every meal. And as soon as they brought out his meal, they also brought out the ketchup. Like that's what you expect.
00:27:19
Speaker
That's the level of service you expect. Yeah, that that is next level for sure. Right. yeah I would never assume that. No, but that's what you get. And it's nice, too, because the way that they do the food, bringing out the food, because, you know, there's an appetizer, there's a soup, a salad, an entree and a dessert. Well, they have such a way of organizing it that we get our appetizers. And a few minutes later, our kids are already eating their main course. And so it really helps the dinner actually move along, too, especially with little kids, because they're not waiting there, bored, you know, trying to wait for their food. They have it spaced out in such a way that even though they're not eating the same thing the same time with us. they're still eating and being entertained. Our assistant server one night, actually two nights, she had different types of riddles that she was giving us to keep them entertained. And of course, Disney in general, they always have something going on within the restaurant to keep you entertained too.
00:28:21
Speaker
Yeah. And so in the the Royal court is, is kind of themed to, it's it's like themed to princesses. I assumed as such, i was, i was trying to guess what, if there was a specific princess or if they just kind of had the,
00:28:34
Speaker
the gambit of princesses going on. There's no actual princesses in the restaurant. It's just kind of like, it's very much Cinderella. Oh, okay. Yeah. It's very much themed to Cinderella, I would say.
00:28:46
Speaker
Got it. Right. I mean, Kara, what do you say? It's Cinderella. Yeah. I think I saw like a mural for Cinderella and Belle in the back where we were sitting. So it's, but primarily like our last night there, our servers wore an outfit that looked like you were going to the Royal ball.
00:29:04
Speaker
so Yeah, the outfits change every night for the servers. In fact, I asked our servers, I said, how many different outfits do you have? And what is, i think Afri said 11. They have 11 different outfits. That's crazy. Well, and i I was curious, too, because I know when you work at Disney World or Disneyland proper, They have like seamstresses. They have a costume area. And I was curious how that worked on the cruise, too, because of all of these different costumes and outfits. And they actually have one on board, too. So she just has to go pick up her, you know, her costume a certain amount of time before. And she made a joke that, yeah, if you're you're late, they close at a certain time. Yeah.
00:29:47
Speaker
Then let me tell you, ah you kind of have to figure out a different solution. yeah um And so thankfully, um she never had that issue. But it was it was nice. This go around, though, too. I felt like we had a better relationship also yeah with our staff. You know, we talked to them quite a bit. um Our friend's daughter is in a Spanish immersion program and she speaks Spanish fluently.
00:30:10
Speaker
And so um we noticed, though, that um our assistant server, when we talked to her, also spoke Spanish because she grew up in Spain. And so it was really cool seeing that interaction even between her and my friend's daughter.
Exploring Ports and Onboard Activities
00:30:23
Speaker
So I just felt like we got a better connection, even though we weren't on the cruise nearly as long as we were with the Treasurer.
00:30:30
Speaker
Yeah, I would agree. That was really the biggest downfall the treasure. And listen, we're not going to say we're never going on the treasure again because, mean, I think bad service is not. I still love it.
00:30:43
Speaker
Yeah, no, it was. We still they were they were very nice and they were. I just think they were in a little over their head. That's all. I think what the big difference is, Trevor, is the fantasy's been around a long time. Our server had been on the fantasy for 10 years. so So these people know the ins and outs of exactly how the cruise functions, all that. And and, you know, I'll say this, too, is it like I get like your sentiment about like you didn't have as great at the time on the treasure. I mean, I've had.
00:31:11
Speaker
I've had multiple trips to Disney as well, where it's like, I can do the same thing five times and it can be hit or miss. I've had like at a garden grill, I've had like the most amazing waitstaff. And then I've had other ones that were like, yeah, they were just kind of there. Like, like and it and wasn't that they were like awful, but it was like, you could just tell like, you know, sometimes as you catch people on a bad day or,
00:31:37
Speaker
it's just It's a timing thing, right? like Yeah. so I get it. it's yeah And we didn't have a bad time on The Treasure. I don't think our bad service attracted from our trip in any way. It was great. so right We just had a different experience on The Fantasy because this is kind of what we expected. Yeah. yeah This is what we expected from The Treasure. but you know And we kind of sound bougie.
00:31:59
Speaker
Sorry. no, no. But it's it's what you expect on a Disney cruise. It it is. I mean, it's part of the main part of the allure, you know? if If I'm going on a cruise and it and I'm being told that like things are, you know, all include, or so I shouldn't say all inclusive, but like it's pretty those that you yeah that you're getting certain things included with it.
00:32:17
Speaker
You know, I kind of assume that, you know, or you know, if they're selling it to me as like, Hey, this is like an upscale thing. It's not going to be like me walking up to a quick service and just, you know, grabbing a burger. Like I i do expect a certain amount of like, you know,
00:32:32
Speaker
um formality to it. I was trying to find the right word. I guess it's like like it's more of a formal thing. It's not meant to be like casual all the way through. Yeah, i listen, i a Disney cruise is is a luxury cruise. Okay, it is. right like it's And that's what you expect.
00:32:49
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, it's it was great. I mean, we absolutely love the service. The food was great. I don't want to go through each and every restaurant. I mean, we really ah the other two were Enchanted Garden, which we went to twice, which is um it's it's like a it's it's like eating it outside in ah in a garden. It's I don't know how else to describe it. It's beautiful.
00:33:11
Speaker
It's beautiful. It's got is it inside or is it outside? It's inside. It's inside. It's it's inside, but it's like eating outside. Yeah, kind of. yeah yeah Well, it was it was interesting, though, because there were like these lights that would change colors and they had these um blooming flowers. Yeah. Yeah.
00:33:31
Speaker
And they blew like a Alice in Wonderland kind of vibe? Kind of. Yeah. Okay. But basically, but na it's not as like weird. As you eat, it gets darker and the lights start to bloom and and they change colors. It's pretty cool.
00:33:47
Speaker
Neat. Yeah. And then Animator's Palette, um which is is you know ah one that shows up on ah on a bunch of other ships. And on this particular ship, they have a a thing with Crush. So it's like turtle talk with Crush at dinner.
00:34:02
Speaker
So like literally, we were sitting at our table and Crush pops up on the screen and starts talking to to Karen and asking her questions. It was pretty cool. yeah so on like There's like a screen nearby? like All around the entire restaurant. whichs the entire All of the walls in the restaurant are screens.
00:34:21
Speaker
okay So think of like ah the restaurant being put into different sections. So all of the there were all of these different screens. But then Crush would come and talk to different sections and he would pull out certain people and he pulled out myself. And then, of course, I brought Autumn into it as well. And that was just that was so cute. All of the kids just love the fact that he was talking to us. And it was really fun.
00:34:48
Speaker
And the food there was great. The Animators Palette was actually my favorite food, I think, of the trip. i Different people varied on this, you know, like within our group. loved it. I loved it, too. But I think ah other people at our party liked Royal Court maybe a little bit more or in China Garden a little more. I just I loved all the food at animators palette.
00:35:09
Speaker
It was it was all it was all really good and the experience was just a lot of fun. We were actually really sad. We didn't have that one for two nights, but I think part of it was because we switched her.
00:35:20
Speaker
we we basically got the least. ah i well in my mind, we got the least attractive rotation, essentially. where Because you know we're only there for five nights, so we do two restaurants you know for two of the nights and then one one restaurant for one of the nights. I'm assuming that most people probably want to do Animator's Palette for two of the nights because it is the most interactive and fun one and want to do the other two for you know one or two. And we just, I think, because we switched, we ended up with with that, which is fine. Again, we we had a great time.
00:35:51
Speaker
with that makes sense yeah yeah i mean yeah so um i'm just trying to think of some of the so you know a first day uh we you know we we wake up the next morning trevor where we're at uh at ah where were we was lookout first so oh no nasa was first nasa was first uh nasa bahamas right very pretty area sure you know really nice pulling in okay we didn't get off the ship but we We decided to stay on the ship.
00:36:19
Speaker
I kind of think that was one of the best decisions that we had done because ok we i feel like we needed a day to just explore the ship and enjoy the pool. And just, you know, our kids ended up going to the kids club ah quite a bit, actually, throughout.
00:36:36
Speaker
And it just gave us a chance to kind of ease into the trip instead of having to go, go, go. And you know typically, Trevor, and this is why I've said before, i kind of only want to do the seven day ones because the seven day ones, you get at least like two sea days. And on sea days, you can just explore the ship and do the things on the ship. But this trip, we really we only had one sea day. Everything else was port, right? it was it was You were in a port each day. And so like you didn't we didn't really get the opportunity to check out the ship as much as we wanted to.
00:37:08
Speaker
Yeah, so I'll be honest. I agree with that. Like my like i I understand the whole point of like, yeah, cruises hit different ports and it's like you you're also exploring the ports as you are are as much the ship. But i I kind of share that same sentiment with you that.
00:37:23
Speaker
For me, like if it's somewhere new, I really want to spend a lot of time just exploring that place. And yeah, like I i would do the same thing. Like if if if I was in your position and they're like, oh, we we've hit a port the first day i'd be like, I don't care. I'm just, you know you know, let me figure out the ship for a few days. and there's There's an insane amount of stuff on the ship to do.
00:37:44
Speaker
Right. Like it's. You're not bored ever. No. there's no There's no boredom, right? like It's constant activity, right? So there's constantly characters. you know The other thing, Trevor, is the characters are just pop up all the time, right? We'd be walking down the hallway, and all of a sudden, you know Daisy walks by us, and she's taking pictures with the kids. and you know like Not a scheduled thing at all. She just is there, right? That's how we saw Jasmine.
00:38:09
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, and and it's hard it's interesting, Trevor, because... One of the things I noted on this and this trip, and I don't think I really kind of comprehended on the last trip, is how different the character interactions are on the cruises than they are on the parks.
00:38:26
Speaker
there can be like a hundred person line and each one of those characters take a very long time with the kids. Like, i mean, we were with stitch for five minutes. I mean, just easily, if not easily five minutes and stitches doing all sorts of different things with them, messing around with them. You know, you're with the face characters and they're, you know, it's, she's, they're talking to Mulan for, and you know, Mulan's asking them questions and she, you know, our, the kids are asking questions back.
00:38:54
Speaker
It's such it's so much more of an intimate experience with the characters than you get in the parks because the parks are like churn it out, you know, like next, next, next.
00:39:06
Speaker
Yeah, you don't get that. I think that's amazing. That is a downfall, unfortunately, of Disney World specifically, because yeah you're right. Like, like it's it's that organic. you know, you weren't expecting it and all of a sudden it's, Oh, there's a character here and you have, you know, it's, there's a big difference between waiting, you know, 20 minutes to meet a character and you're, you kind of build yourself up like to meet that character, but it's also, you're just kind of getting pushed through a line versus yeah like you said, that, that inter or that interaction that wasn't expected.
00:39:37
Speaker
i get that. Cause I've had those interactions and I know I keep referring back to Disneyland, but that's my only, yeah point of reference to anything you're talking about but it like it's the same thing like you you don't expect it but you know you you know you know running into characters is the coolest thing and yeah obviously they they realize that on the uh on the ship that it's it's very valuable I mean, our kids got to dance around with Chip and Dale for like five minutes. Yeah. they While Chip or Dale were signing like all the stuff that they brought, they were like just like they were literally doing like a little dance party. and it was
00:40:12
Speaker
So even like when you wait in line for the character, they still give you that really large chunk of time. So you have both the the random character interactions, but also those times where... they You wait in line and they just give you this like amazing interaction. Like my kid's never going to forget that.
00:40:29
Speaker
Right. And that's and all the stuff that she did with Stitch. And I think that's a big difference. So even when we got off the ship at one of the islands, I think it was Castaway. We even saw Chip and Dale handing out towels. You know, when you're in the parks. Yeah. You're walking in and the Chippendale
Arrival and Stay at Vero Beach
00:40:46
Speaker
are just handing out towels. They're just like dancing. Yeah. And even at the parks, I remember there was one time when our daughter was really little and she saw Winnie the Pooh. And we just walking by would have loved to have able to get like a high five at the park.
00:41:01
Speaker
They wouldn't even do that because they had to get to their spot. Whereas literally, as Tom said, we were waiting in line for something else and we would see another character and they would come up and just give high fives, hugs. They would take so much time and you know they had to be somewhere else. But these characters and the people, the cast members were just incredible. Yeah. I like to joke, you know, the handlers, but like they were just so accommodating. The handlers interact with that. Like the handlers at Disney World ah just kind of like, you know, bring them from place to place. Like the handlers here like are talking to them like in character. Like it's a whole they have a whole rapport.
00:41:39
Speaker
Right. Like it's a whole thing. Right. So it's going to say, you know, even if they had somewhere to be, it's like, what are are they worried that people are going to leave? like Yeah, I know. Exactly. There was one point where were just standing at the elevators. who was walked by? Was it? It was Jasmine. yeah It was Jasmine. Yeah. Jasmine walks by. She takes pictures with our kids and then continues on.
00:42:01
Speaker
like And there were a bunch of other kids that were like, because she was going to her meet and greet. But yeah. You know, it's it's just that kind of stuff that is really a huge difference on the ships. um But, you know, and I don't want to get bogged down in that, but I just so ah Bahamas. No, it's it's fair. Like it stood out to you guys. And that's what you're here to talk about is what stood out. So we hung by the pool that day. ah Really? I mean, that's probably what we spent most of the time doing is hanging in the pool that day. I'm trying to think what ah what did we even did.
00:42:32
Speaker
outside I think that's when um we made those bags for the kids to my friend had this amazing idea because again you're not bored on a cruise even when you have a port they have so many different activities besides just the the meet and greets they have adult only activities they have kid-friendly activities and so we would try and go to all of those but our kids really wanted to go to the kids club so we walked around and in one of the bars They had an arts and graphs and we made little signature drawstring bags for our kiddos. And that was like the star of the trip because our kids would just have their backpacks on and then they can use it this summer when they go to summer camp or they're, you know, around and they have all of these different signatures. And instead of just a book that, you know, you're going to just put somewhere, this could actually be used and they could be like, yo, look at me. I got a backpack. Yeah.
00:43:23
Speaker
Yeah, i I want to note that I did not participate in that in that ah craft because I'm not crafty. That's exactly why you should have, Tom. No.
00:43:35
Speaker
Sorry. You had plenty of comments, though, on mine, Trevor. had lots of comments, yeah. I fixed your Mickey Mouse, okay? Yours were too small in proportion. I fixed it. I just made it bigger. I just helped a little. I just helped a little. Sure. So the total about face, by the way, from the treasure to this trip, our daughter loved the kids club on the ship. Now, part of it was she had a little bit of a challenge with her cousin being with her last time who was younger than her.
00:44:02
Speaker
And it was a little more difficult for her because, you know, she wanted to go and do her own thing in the kids club, but her cousin wanted to do some of the younger things with her. And so that made it a little bit difficult. This time she's with her best friend.
00:44:15
Speaker
They had a blast. They loved the kids club. but I mean, she i like they kept asking to go. Yeah. They kept asking to go, which yeah makes sense that, you know, if if you're given an opportunity to go hang out somewhere with your best friend, like, I mean, yeah. And the kids club do that the kids's club is awesome. Like the kids club on this ship was really, really cool.
00:44:36
Speaker
The only this was the only thing I will say negatively, and I hate to use that word, but the only thing that really stunk this time was they when you go to the kids club, they have, you know, the cruise app and you can do messaging through it and you don't have to pay for Internet to be able to use it. Well, for whatever reason, this trip, I don't know if it was weather or what. I mean, because the weather was kind of.
00:44:59
Speaker
yeah But we literally could not get messages from the kids club because what would happen is if our daughter wanted to get picked up, typically she would go to one of the counselors and they would message us saying, hey, so-and-so wants to get picked up.
00:45:15
Speaker
Well, it wasn't working at all. So that first night they wanted to go to the kids club after dinner. They were exhausted and kept asking to get picked up. We maybe were gone an hour. Right, Tom? Like not hour an hour and a half. But they came. And let me tell you, those kids gave us the biggest is hard time.
00:45:33
Speaker
They were like, you told us that we can message you and we're tired So, okay. So what like it was just a technical? yeah yeah The chat system did not work the entire cruise for everyone. It was some sort of technical issue they were having, but everybody was complaining about it on the ship. Oh, okay.
00:45:54
Speaker
Yeah. It's it's listen, i I mean, I don't know if the other cruise companies have a chat thing within their apps. I don't think that they do. Most of the time you have to just rely on like, a you know, like using like RCS or using like WhatsApp or something like that.
00:46:09
Speaker
But and Disney does have it and that's great, but it just wasn't working. And and and that's disappointing, but it is what it is. It didn't ruin our trip by any means. No, it was just frustrating. Yeah, I can imagine.
00:46:23
Speaker
All right. So um let let me ask this, because i know you kind of touched on going to ports. um Did this crew stop at the new because there's Castaway Cay and then there's the new island, which I cannot.
00:46:36
Speaker
The name's escaping Look out. Yeah. so Lighthouse Cay. Yeah. So day two. ah Oh, by the way, funny enough, the one thing we didn't do on this entire cruise, the weather got really bad at the end of that first day.
00:46:48
Speaker
ah Got real foggy, got real rainy. I think there might have been a thunderstorm. ke Correct me if I'm wrong. I think so. um And so like they closed down everything on the pool deck. So we actually never got a chance to go on the aqueduct, which is the water coaster that's on.
00:47:05
Speaker
I know it was really disappointing. We're all kind of bummed about it. But it is what it is. um So day two, I would say, i so what, that night we probably went and 80s trivia care at at the tube, right? Yes, we went to the tube and did that, and then we picked up the kids and went to sleep because we knew that the next day would be. Yeah. 80s music trivia, which we failed very hard at. I was really disappointed myself, honestly. But anyway, ah so next day we go to Lookout.
00:47:34
Speaker
right, Trevor. So the whole thing with the long dock, whatever. It's not that bad. It's not that big of deal. I don't understand what the, like, I've seen pictures of it. I don't see what the big deal is about it. So essentially, Trevor, what happened was, you know, with a with Castaway, they ended up going closer, obviously damaged some of the the life, the coral, you know, and whatnot So they wanted to make it so that it was longer.
00:48:01
Speaker
I will also say that I've heard some, um there was actually one of the cruises right before us couldn't actually dock a castaway because of the wind, because of how close the dock is to the island. So Lookout essentially has a 10 minute walk.
00:48:16
Speaker
to the first tram stop. 10 minutes? 10 whole minutes? Oh my goodness. I shared the picture though. you thought It looks really long. and it and it It does. When you're when you're on it it feel you know it does feel pretty long, but it's it's really not a bad walk. And they have golf carts for those that are you know that that can't make that walk. They also have wagons so you can pull your kids if you don't want your kids doing it. You can pull your kids in wagons. like It's fine. like I don't know. Sorry. i like You put on so many more miles in the theme parks. I don't see why you thats this is such a big deal. like agree
00:48:53
Speaker
It really shouldn't be. And it it was so easy. Yeah. So I'm going to say that and we're we're almost we're almost running into an hour here. and we haven't even like We're not even close to the end. So we get it we should start speeding some. okay but But you talked about all the things that were important. so Yeah. let me talk about Let me say this about Lookout.
00:49:11
Speaker
i've been I grew up in New Jersey. Yeah. going to the beach. We would go to the beach all the time. We'd go to the ocean all the time. like That's what we did. And I've been to a bunch of different beaches on on our cruises you know that we've done. But just also you know ah in Florida, other places.
00:49:28
Speaker
I have never been to a beach that was as incredible as the beach at Lookout. It is the nicest beach I've ever been to. It is absolutely stunning.
00:49:41
Speaker
The water is stunning. The sand. don't know how to describe the sand, Karen, but the sand. The sand is so incredibly soft. And it has little pink flakes in it. Very fine, It's like you're walking on powdered sugar. It's so hard to describe because I've never stepped on a beach like that. Right? And...
00:50:04
Speaker
you know Usually you get bunch of shells and like broken pieces of stuff. and just this Literally, the sand is kind of pinkish because it has these crushed up shells in it. And so it it really it's just got this really fine quality to it. And i you could just stand on it and just enjoy like the feeling on your feet was just incredible. And then the water is just beautiful.
00:50:27
Speaker
ah the The way that the the beach is set up. I mean, we stayed on the on the beach the entire day. put it this way, Trevor, my daughter got her first really bad sunburn, unfortunately. She did. yeah she And I was trying to say, I was like, listen, kid, you've made it seven years of life without getting sunburned. It was going to happen eventually. mean, I am a lobster. It's okay. My son didn't make it that long, so yeah yeah. She made it pretty far without getting a bad sunburn. and so And even though we reapplied, but listen, she was in the ocean all day long. Like literally the whole day.
00:51:02
Speaker
um Oh, we saw a dolphin. We did. Like literally a dolphin just jumped out of the water like right in front of us. Oh, Tom, you forgot to mention too that when we first docked, we were sitting out on our balconies and saw a turtle. that was pretty cool.
00:51:17
Speaker
but like yeah You know what? I feel like Lookout and Castaway are the same exact type of thing where we were describing the two different ships. You can't really compare them because they're very different and they each have such amazing... things like I would say for me, Lookout was more of a, I want to be at the beach. I only want to be at the beach. I just want to stay there because of just how beautiful and serene. Whereas Castaway is more of a, okay, I can do other things. Like Tom and our daughter went on a bike ride. We went on a paddle boat. There were other some other things that we didn't necessarily need to just sit at the beach.
00:51:56
Speaker
Yeah. And that's that's the big difference, right? Is like the lookout, it's a real beach, right? and And what I mean by that is at Castaway, it's a protected cove.
00:52:08
Speaker
So you have the ocean there and you have the beach, but there's no waves. There's no... There's a there's like fish and stuff, like small fish and stuff like that, but there's really no creatures. it's It's very calm. It's almost like taking a bath versus like going to a wave pool. you know like it more More so a pool than ah yeah than like being on the ocean. Exactly. And Castle Beach is almost more about activities than it is about about the actual beach. Whereas like Lookout is a beach beach, right? And ah truthfully, it's funny because we wanted to see like the performers on Lookout you know because they have like the some of the locals, they have like performances.
00:52:43
Speaker
with like their cultural you know kind of dances and stuff like that we didn't even get to any of that like we just literally just stayed on the beach all day we went back and got food when we got food uh it just so happened like a thunderstorm rolled through for like 10 minutes so it was actually perfect because we were already undercover for that which was great um but that was we loved lookout look that was awesome uh i want to go back so badly was that the same day we saw aladdin or was that the next day No, that was the same day, and we have to talk about those shows. Yeah.
00:53:17
Speaker
Yeah, so we saw Aladdin and Frozen while we were on the ship. um They were both fantastic. ah Aladdin, i you know i almost I think I like the Aladdin more, which is funny because...
00:53:29
Speaker
Frozen is really the headline show on the ship, but Aladdin was so good. I mean, so many like fireworks, like literal literal fireworks on the on the on the stage, and like the the person that performs as the ah as as the carpet is like an acrobat, so like they're doing flips all over the place, and the genie's hilarious. Yeah, yeah genie gets to break the fourth wall in the Aladdin stage show. Yeah.
00:53:57
Speaker
our kiddos had such a like amazing time and keep in mind too we went to this after dinner right tom yeah it was this was late so it was later and so we thought you know the kids wouldn't enjoy it yeah yeah but oh my gosh genie like they they made ah connections to you know the whole six seven and bluey he was doing bluey theme song he was you know it was yeah it was funny As a former like theater person who used to act, just the way that they choreographed this and, you know, the stage is not humongous. You know, it's they were able to fit so much into it. And same with Frozen 2. The actors and actresses were incredible. yeah But Aladdin definitely captured our daughter so much more. She loved the genie. She was giggling, loving life. It was so sweet to see.
00:54:51
Speaker
They were, I mean, Aladdin was great. Frozen was great too. It just was different because Frozen is not like, Aladdin was like straight up funny. Like, you know, and, and Frozen has the funny parts with Olaf and stuff like that, but it's, it wasn't, it's not the same, right? Like, and, and it was, I mean, they were both really, really, really well done and really, really, you know, they're just, they were great. I mean, they're,
00:55:12
Speaker
what you expect from a Disney production on a ship. The nice thing about frozen is they did have it during our sea day and they had a matinee, which so Trevor, usually what you, you, you end up doing, they usually have two shows and you kind of do it based on like you do the early show. If you have the late dinner and you do the late show, if you have the early dinner, that's typically what you do. But because they had a matinee, we, we were able to do it and not have to worry about the dinner piece because you know, it's,
00:55:39
Speaker
Doing the late show with the early dinner is, again, it's it's still tough for us. The kids were, listen, I did basically... With younger kids, you're you're fighting against them you're winding down. Yeah. yeah i was like towards the I don't know, maybe the last 20 minutes of Aladdin, my daughter turns her around and she goes, can we leave? And I was like, no. Like, we got to finish this out. Eat some more popcorn. Yeah. Eat your candy and shush it.
00:56:03
Speaker
ah No, i'm just kidding. ah No, but we we got we got all the way through. um But yeah the matinee was nice. It was nice that the matinee was there. I will say i was so proud of our daughter this trip because um she and i both stayed awake for Pirates Night. which I know Tom talked about the last time and it was the same show, but watching it through our daughter's eyes was really cool. And keep in mind, the show didn't start until 1015. So again, yeah our daughter was in bed tonight a little after seven. So yeah that was late for her. You know, we sent them to the kids club first. And also it was so windy that we were actually worried that the fireworks weren't going to happen. And then somehow magically, right before the show started, the winds completely stopped.
00:56:51
Speaker
It was like weird. It was weird. It was almost like you know how some people seem to think that Disney World has a giant dome around it. That's literally what it felt like for a second. it was like, wait, can Disney control the weather? The Disney Cruise Dome. that They have a bubble around the cruise ships, too. Seriously, though, because it was like so windy. like yeah And then all of a sudden it just stopped. cold.
00:57:12
Speaker
yeah I mean, not like cold where you guys are with snow right now, but it was cold. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. but It's awesome. I mean, listen, the fireworks at sea are really, really cool. And the pirate show is really cool.
00:57:25
Speaker
ah it was I'm just glad we got to experience that again. It was it was a lot of fun. So, Tom, should we talk about Vero? Because I know that you wanted to... We're really far into this, and you guys haven't even touched on Vero yet, so... And I'm so excited to talk about it. yeah you The last thing I want to say is that our very last night, ah where they were... for So we had pretty... It wasn't great weather the whole time. And this actually leads us into the Vero discussion, so because it it it affected our Vero vacation, too. So...
00:57:57
Speaker
ah The very last night they made an announcement, which I did not hear. I heard secondhand from another person that wasn't even in our party. I just a random person I talked to in the elevator, um which again, weird because I don't talk to people, but ah they they were forecasting 50 to 60 mile per hour winds ah the last night. And ah and also ah what was the 12 to 15 foot seas, which easily.
00:58:22
Speaker
is not great. like No, definitely not. Really not great. Right. And I will say the last night was very rough. It was, I had a very difficult, difficult time sleeping. I wasn't getting seasick. It just was really, really aggressively choppy. And, you know, we were, you know, and I also haven't had this issue before where getting off the ship where I still feel the ship.
00:58:48
Speaker
I felt the ship for two to three days after we left and which never happens to me. So, and it was just from that last night, I think. So, but listen, they handled it great. Everything was fine. You know, i don't, I don't, I'm trying to think if there are any other points we need to mention from the careers, but, um but the reason I mentioned this is because that same weather, when we, when we were going through that weather, we were basically going by the coast of Florida, pretty close to the coast of Florida.
00:59:20
Speaker
And we going by where Vero beach is. So Karen, I don't know if there's something you want to mention there, but I, when we got off the ship, we decided to go straight to Vero.
00:59:33
Speaker
And as soon, as soon as we got there, it started downpouring, like not just a little rain, not downpour months. yeah like And, and also extremely high winds, just like, just like we had on the, on the ship.
00:59:51
Speaker
um You know, we're talking sideways rain here, you know, like blow open the doors rain like there were people running inside and the doors are getting blown open and papers are flying all over the place like it was that kind of weather.
01:00:05
Speaker
and So no outdoor activities kind of weather. Yeah. No. And listen. But I will say Disney did what Disney does best, though. They did. Yeah. So we so let me mention this. So we we we we drove down the Jimmy Buffett Memorial Highway from, and I'm not joking, that's actually the name of the road, um from Port Canaveral all the way to Vero, which was actually kind of a nice drive because it was it was great driving on the, ah you know, on the Good care. What were you saying along the coast? I assume. Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was gorgeous. Yeah, it was. It was great because it was literally just like a straight shot down. it was right on the you know, we got to see all these little beach towns on the way there, like, you know, Cocoa Beach and all these other places. So the drive was fine and it was a little rainy and very windy. ah But, you know, so we get there. The cast members um were excellent.
01:00:55
Speaker
You know, literally, know, I've never seen this, and I don't think they even do this at Hilton Head. But when we go to check in, the woman checking us in has a has an iPad in her hand. She takes us over to a table that's in the lobby and sits down with a map and explains the resort to us, explains where everything is.
01:01:12
Speaker
Like, literally, she sat with us, what, for 15 minutes, maybe, Kara? Like, walking through everything. And I was like... okay, this is great. I mean, this is really amazing, you know what you expect from DVC. ah you know in the in these kind In these kinds of systems scenarios, I don't expect this in the big resorts, but these, Vero and Hilton Head are so small and intimate and just different than the other resorts. They have a different vibe. They're laid back. They're relaxed.
01:01:40
Speaker
They're minimal Disney, right? care i mean i but I mean, there's still Disney there, but it it yeah if you weren't paying attention and you didn't know, you probably could you know figure you probably wouldn't think that you were at Disney as much.
01:01:53
Speaker
Yeah, it feels just more like a beach-type resort with a little bit of Disney sprinkled in. Oh, and so part of, by the way, the high winds and the ah the the rain was also a high surf warning. So we went out to check out the ocean at our beach resort and found that the ocean was extraordinarily angry ah and was because it was high surf. There was essentially no beach.
01:02:22
Speaker
So like the part of the beach that is usually the beach that you sit on at Vero Beach was all ocean. It was just all of the waves were pushing up and yes yeah. Yeah.
01:02:34
Speaker
Yeah. So listen, so we we got that really great service. But Carrie, you mentioned like Disney does what Disney does. Yeah. So our kids were starting to get a little antsy and, you know, because we didn't have our room yet. We were trying to figure out lunch. We checked but the room wasn't ready yet. So we're sitting in the lobby. 10 o'clock, whatever it was.
01:02:55
Speaker
Yeah. We're sitting in the lobby. Next thing you know, a cast member comes out with a huge bucket of like crayons and markers and coloring stuff. Okay. Typical Disney. But then all of a sudden, guess who walks in?
01:03:07
Speaker
Pluto. Pluto is just hanging out and comes over immediately to our kids, starts messing with them, signing things, coloring with them. walking around he did a ah fun little joke where he tried to go outside and the wind blew him back in you know and just they did the most magical thing that is what I love about Disney with our daughter it's those kinds of moments she's not going to forget that kind of stuff I mean know it was literally sitting with her coloring I mean that was literally what was happening
01:03:39
Speaker
it It actually reminds me when we were in the Polynesian um we and we were there for a hurricane and think it was in it sos October or November. I can't remember. This was a couple years ago now.
01:03:52
Speaker
And i know what you're talking about. Like we, you know, obviously my son was older at the time, so he wasn't like looking for the characters. But I remember like walking to the lobby And what you're describing, like, you know, seeing the characters and they weren't like just like lining up and doing like the normal character meet stuff. They were like down on the floor with the kids and stuff like that. so Exactly. Yeah, I get it. And I get that's like, you know, that that's a ah huge thing for people.
01:04:18
Speaker
For younger kids, too, that like, you know, I mean, sorry, but your daughter gets to go to her friends at school and be like, yeah, well, you know, Pluto hung out with me, you know, one day. yeah like Exactly. don't get to You don't get to say that usually. Like, yeah. Yeah. No.
01:04:36
Speaker
Yeah, i i that was great. ah And so another thing that we decided to drop our bags off because the room wasn't ready yet. So ah we we dropped a couple bags off with you know with concierge and we were also having groceries delivered too.
01:04:52
Speaker
And so we decided, well, listen, it's like, but, you know, the kids were playing, they had Nintendo switches, like the whole room that was filled with Nintendo switches. So the kids the kids were playing some video games, you know, they were doing whatever. And we were all just kind of hanging out, you know, relaxing.
01:05:06
Speaker
And we decided to go to lunch. And while we're at lunch, our grocery order gets delivered and our room is, you know, our room becomes ready at like one o'clock or so. We get back from lunch. So I start driving. We're in the car. Yeah. I'm driving back from lunch and I get a call from the front desk and she goes, you know, she says, Hey, we got a grocery delivery for you. We noticed that your room is ready.
01:05:31
Speaker
um And I know you have a couple of bags with us. ah Do you want me to just bring those up to your room? And i I was like, yeah. And she's like, well, you know, just so you know, there's a $6 charge for the groceries. I'm like, yeah, yeah. It's, you know, fine. Whatever. Right.
01:05:44
Speaker
So without us even asking, When we get back to the room, our bags are in the room already. The groceries are in the room and put away. in the fridge and freezer in the fridge oh man and i'm like this is awesome the and this is trevor if you uh you know people say this all the time about hilton head and it is true that they have the nicest and best cast members i feel this way about vero beach now too because we had the similar kind of treatment at vero as hilton head this it's just like that kind of thing of again anticipating what you need and just doing it and not
01:06:21
Speaker
You know, I didn't have to do anything. They just brought the bags up and it was it was done. You know, it's great. Yeah. And I will also say the room itself. So we got a ah two bedroom and it was right on the end, which was great. So we didn't have to worry about our kids making too much noise. It was on the first floor. And frankly, yeah, we were. I will say it was the best well-stocked villa we've ever been at. I mean, we've, you know, when we've stayed at other, like when we were in Animal Kingdom the one time, You know, we wanted to make some snacks and things and they they had it. But like we were able to make full meals, you know, a little challenging at times just because of the size of stuff. But like we made a whole spaghetti dinner. We made tacos one night and it it just it felt, again, so homey. And I know that's what DVC wants. They want you to feel like you are at home. And this place, I want to go back again.
01:07:19
Speaker
had such a great time. And even though we didn't get to go to the beach, we still had the pool there, which the kids loved. They had bingo one day during the pool.
Florida Travel Insights
01:07:28
Speaker
And even when it rained, and unfortunately, the slide they had was under renovation. But frankly, mean, that would have added to it. But it didn't hurt the trip at all. It was a bummer. It was a bummer that the slide was being renovated. But...
01:07:42
Speaker
but is But hey, these are all things, like you said, you know you you go back and there's new things to look at that you didn't do the last time you went. Well, and the weather persisted for that next day. And so we we did so we tried to do we did like a little nature conservation center thing. And then we did get some time in the pool. But was a heated pool, which was good because it was kind of chilly out. It was like mid-70s. But the pool was 82 degrees at all times. And Trevor's here thinking, really? That's chilly? Okay. Yeah.
01:08:10
Speaker
No, I'm sure um yeah the water is warm. Once you get in, it's fine. Yeah. Yeah. We never did get to the beach at Vera Beach. um But our friends did the last day when we left, though, because that was one of the best days.
01:08:24
Speaker
That was, of course, that was my surf warning finally ended. And so that you could actually go down to the beach. You couldn't really do. I mean, like I said, there was like literally no beach. for those couple of days that we were there. So, um, yeah. So, but listen, Vera was amazing. We loved Vera. I think it was, uh, you know, we, I think we definitely want to check it out again.
01:08:43
Speaker
I honestly, Tom, I know we haven't discussed this, but I feel like Vero is one of those places that we go do Disney for a few days and then end the trip at Vero if we could. Because it's so just nice. It's relaxing. It's quiet. It's a smaller resort. Very you don't feel overwhelmed. I didn't, even in the pool, i didn't feel like it was that busy.
01:09:06
Speaker
and it's a big pool. And it was spring break, too Yeah. Yeah. I was actually I wanted to ask this earlier about, like, you know, the cruise ship and just in general. I yeah ah like I'll admit I have not spent a lot of time in Florida during spring break, but I feel I'm wondering if it's there's certain things in Florida that people gravitate towards for spring break. But then other things like a cruise or maybe going to Vero are not as.
01:09:33
Speaker
busy or or maybe like, you or but because I guess spring break is usually like people like, you know, kids taking a break from school. Whereas like going on, going on a cruise and stuff, I don't know that a lot of families are thinking about that kind of stuff for spring break.
01:09:49
Speaker
Yeah. yeah I mean, that's just i don't know yeah how I look at it. But I mean, I could be wrong, but it just it's from what you're describing. It sounds like you guys may have found a nice little pocket where you know people aren't as focused on those particular areas that you were going to. I'm wondering if we got that reservation because so that the slide renovation was a one-week renovation. It just happened to be while we were there.
01:10:12
Speaker
And I'm almost wondering if people found that out and then canceled their reservations. I would bet people would do that. Which to me is sad because the resort is so beautiful and so worth it.
01:10:24
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, that's the same reason that, you know, and I try not to advertise it too much either. But when there's stuff going on at the Polynesian and people are like, oh, you know, the Polynesian is too busy. I'm like, yeah, it's too busy. Don't go here.
01:10:37
Speaker
yeah afterm sure that works really well Just ignore the Polynesian. You don't want to go there. They're doing construction on the pool. it's you know you don't Don't go to the Polynesian. I do want to see what you mean.
Cruise and Resort Comparisons
01:10:50
Speaker
Just to wrap this up in a nice little bow, I do want to circle back to the cruise for a minute because I know some people are wondering this and I talked about it on the last podcast. We did get my daughter to go see Hoppers on board, which is where we saw our Canadian friends one last time. It was so good. It was great. It's good movie. Yeah, it's great movie. Really funny.
01:11:10
Speaker
I don't know if she actually enjoyed it or not. She said she did, but she also had a... She said she did. She had like a shower push look on her face the entire time we were there. But who knows? I don't know. she Maybe she loved it. Maybe she didn't. But we did see our Canadian friends there one more time, which was nice.
01:11:26
Speaker
i So I wanted to just like say this, though. As far as... And Karen, i this you're not prepared for this, but I'm going to do this anyway. Things I liked better on the fantasy than the treasure ah were, i think, the non-IP bars and the fact that the the adult areas were all together in one place.
01:11:52
Speaker
Things I liked less on the fantasy than the treasure. The treasure to me, the the ah buffet is too small on the on the fantasy. it's The buffet is way better to me on on the treasure.
01:12:06
Speaker
As is the foods the pool deck food, I think is also better on the treasure. But I don't know what your thoughts are, but that's what I was thinking. I think Marceline's Market is better than Cabana's.
01:12:17
Speaker
Cabana's a little too small to me.
01:12:20
Speaker
what do you think here? Oh, this is challenging. Thanks for putting me on the spot. That's what I love it. i I would say the overall feel of the fantasy I actually liked better. I understand why people love this ship. yeah um I just I got this comfy cozy comfortable feeling when I was there. i I felt like I could find where I was going a lot easier believe it or not. But
01:12:53
Speaker
But I it's hard, though, because I do think it's apples and oranges. um i' actually if the vibes are better. The vibes are better. Like you yeah you can say that.
01:13:04
Speaker
Yeah. I also personally liked the food better on the fantasy. um The dinner choices, I ah was in love with all of my food. um There were some people on a Facebook group that we were on that were talking about they didn't like the food, and I have absolutely no idea how they felt that way. um I mean, granted, I eat everything and anything, but it was so good.
01:13:29
Speaker
I think I did like, though... the bars at in the treasure just because i love those rides you know love bar treasure haunted mansion yeah you you can't yeah you can't deny they're the coolest but ultimately though like i would gladly go on either one i'm so excited that we're going to go on the wonder so we have another one under our belt next year and i just honestly tom and i even joked earlier we wish we could book another one right now
01:14:02
Speaker
Yeah, we we it's it's a little addicting, Trevor.
Sponsorship and Disney Vacation Club
01:14:05
Speaker
Be happy you're not doing it. claim Yeah, i I get what you mean. Like, even though, yeah, you're right, I'm not going to get on a cruise anytime soon, but I see where the appeal comes in everything you've been describing.
01:14:18
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. all right. Well, we're going to wrap this up with with my wife, Karen here. Karen, thank you for for you know taking the time. Thank you so much. um Thank you guys for having me on. i appreciate it.
01:14:30
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And I joked with her. was like, oh, maybe you'll actually listen to an episode of the podcast for once. Wow. Wow. I promise I'm not that bad of a wife, guys. I just hear him talk about it all the time. That's really all it is. She's tired of hearing my voice in general.
01:14:48
Speaker
I don't listen to our podcast either because I don't want to hear myself talk. So do i I get that. Neither do you, Tom. So don't even. All right. On that note. Thanks, Karen.
01:15:00
Speaker
Bye, everyone. All right. So that was my trip, Trevor. So let's, but, uh, you know, we got yeah a few other things to talk about since stuff happened while I was gone. So let's see. a This week, our sponsor is DBC rental store. DBC rental store is a key holder vacations company that offers magical vacations at an incredible value.
01:15:18
Speaker
Save up to 60% off retail rates at premium Disney resorts. DBC rental store now includes deposits as low as 25% the time of booking and and a built-in cancellation policy for every reservation. And as always, DVC Rental Store pays out the most to members looking to rent their points. Want to learn more?
01:15:34
Speaker
Go to DVCrentalStore.com slash welcomehome or call 1-855-DVCRENT. That's When you speak to them, be sure to let them know the Welcome Home sent you. Okay. promise you I wasn't smart enough to do a nice transition from our ad into this DVC news. I didn't do this on purpose, but...
01:15:52
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, so, yeah, we we have a little bit of DVC news here. And to be fair, this is this is a bit late, you know, just because of the timing of of, you know, Tom being on his trip and everything. But I think it's still fair that we at least cover it. debt feel like we have to.
01:16:07
Speaker
Yeah, so so Disney Vacation Club ah did expand the... um the terminology around their commercial use policy. And they've actually put some formalization behind ah penalties for people who violate it. Now we've talked about this on discord because, cause you know, we have a great group of people on discord that, you know, love getting into these conversations. And I think the conclusion that we came to um or or sorry, I'll start from the, the general sentiment of this is that if you're doing a whole bunch of reservations, know,
01:16:41
Speaker
um on your with your DVC points and you're not actually using them, Disney is going to start looking at that and going, you know, if you have this this DVC contract, but you're never actually booking um booking stays for yourself or it's always for somebody else, they're going to start flagging that and they're going to start looking at um limiting your ability of to do more with your with your DVC points. so So things as far as like
01:17:12
Speaker
They could stop you from doing online booking. They could stop you from um ah being able to... Change your... Yeah. the Yeah. Reservations, so only your name of the owner. Your home resort. Yeah. so Yeah, like you only do home resort. on They may even go so far as canceling future reservations, removing the ability to modify reservations and stuff. Because i like the thing about this policy is that when you read it, it like for most of us, like even if you're renting points, you're not...
01:17:45
Speaker
like In a year, you're not booking 20 rental trips. like It's like you rent out your points once a year. But then you know even if it's like, yeah, this year I rented out my points, but then next year I'm using my points. Disney's not, they're not coming after people for that.
01:18:02
Speaker
Also, I did see in the the wording of this new policy that they still do account for the fact that people do use brokers. So you know even yeah yeah you know talking about our our sponsor of the show, and I know there's other places out there that do rentals as well.
01:18:18
Speaker
um that's you're not going to get penalized for using a broker because the broker doesn't actually like take your points and own them. They're just connecting you with ah with another person to rent out your points to them. Which, like I said, again, if if you have enough points that you know they can very clearly see a pattern of like you're you're using this for commercial use, meaning that you know There are people that have been booking Disney or you know DVC resorts just for the sake of you you know you buy a contract and then renting it out after over so many years.
01:18:59
Speaker
Technically, is profitable. and you know i seek you know I could see people you know making that into... you know, a side hustle or something like that. But Disney is trying to really lock down or lock that down.
01:19:12
Speaker
And, and I think this policy is really good for us because sorry yeah my hope with it is that, you'll see less of those. And and I know you like you and i have both seen this at various points, Tom, like, like not with us specifically, but we've seen a lot of the, ah the general sentiment in the community and, yeah you know, people trying to book certain things. it's like, Hey, I can't get, I can't get this resort for one night.
01:19:39
Speaker
What's going on. And then, and then it's like, you can tell that it's like, Or like there's a there's like a section of days that are clearly blocked out. And it's like, and like even at 11 months, you should be able to find availability, like even for your home resort. Like there's there's some resorts where it's like you can struggle to even find 11 month bookings because people are getting in there and doing things like walking reservations. That's where the part about, you know, constantly modifying reservations comes in is that if they see that, you know, somebody is constantly
01:20:11
Speaker
walking a reservation i can see them trying to be like hey no don't do that right like these are hard things to police yeah right like yeah yeah but and but yeah but the reason that they put the the verbiage around it is that it gives them a platform to actually like they're not going to go and like do a a wide scan but if like there's a person that they need to focus in on this gives them something to say hey This is the policy. but you You know this, right? Yeah. yeah and And so just to be clear, like DVC is okay with us renting on our points, right? Yes. That's allowed.
01:20:47
Speaker
perfectly Perfectly allowed and they're totally fine with it. They are fine with us having that flexibility. This is if you're renting out 20 or more per per year or and the majority are used by somebody other than you or there's overlapping dates or there's you know like there's all sorts of things. like This is not going to impact you as a personal owner renting out your points. You can still rent out your points. You can still rent points.
01:21:11
Speaker
There is nothing stopping you from doing that and there are no problems with doing so. This is just like you just said, it codifies the, they're they're trying to stop the people that are doing this as a business. Yeah. and And I found this part because I saw this earlier and I was trying to try to find it here as as I was talking. um They actually ah they have the very specific verbiage around this that says commercial purposes includes a pattern of rental activity or other occupancy by an owner um other than DVD and its affiliates that the board and or Disney Vacation Club Management LLC, the management company,
01:21:48
Speaker
in its reasonable discretion could conclude constitutes a commercial enterprise or practice. So again, they're, they're not just like, this isn't like a blanket thing where it's like, Oh, you've, you've rented out your points 20 times and now we're going to come get you. It's like, they're looking at patterns. They're looking at behaviors from certain people that, you know, yeah like, like, sorry, it's pretty obvious when it's like,
01:22:14
Speaker
You can look at, you know, across dis you know you know dvc um ah contracts and it's like, Hey, this guy's, you know, you know, he's booking something every six months or he's booking something like every three months and he's got a ton of points, but you know, when they look further into it, it's never him.
01:22:32
Speaker
Right. Like, like, you know, they, they can, they can start zeroing on these people that, you know, it's very clear that they bought a bunch of points at, you know, you know and at some point or they've managed to get together, you know, multiple contracts and,
01:22:46
Speaker
And there's very clear intent to rent them out. Right. So, yeah so again, for anybody listening to this and going like, Oh my gosh, like, you know, Disney's, you know, cracking down and we can't have, you know, you know, no fun allowed, you know? Yeah. Yeah. That, that is not what's happening here. So I get,
01:23:01
Speaker
I get why they did it and I get why, you know, I'm glad that they put um at least a frame around it that, you know, I don't see, i don't see anybody who is using DVC in a common practice, which I feel like is the vast majority of, you know, people listening to the show, you know, ourselves, i would hope so you know, that you're, you know, you're not, you're not dealing with like 2000 plus points, but you know But using them outside of your family, I guess, is the thing. like I guess if if you if you got thousands of points, which I know some of our listeners do, but they you know they they use them for their family. like and And this also isn't even like, you know hey, you know you you can kind of draw the lines to where it's like, oh, you know somebody has a DVC contract.
01:23:52
Speaker
But they're always like, you know, letting their their brother-in-law use it and stuff like that. Like you can kind of figure out those patterns from yeah absolutely from everything they're talking about here. it's not It's not meant to just like arbitrarily penalize people. It's meant to give them the ability to zero in on, you know, you guys are kind of, you know some of you are unfortunately...
01:24:11
Speaker
you know taking the nice thing and you're abusing it. using it and you know This is why we can't have nice things. This is why we can't have nice things. Always because of the people that abuse them. so yeah Listen, I don't think that this is a huge deal as far as like...
01:24:27
Speaker
impacting regular members. The only people that should be sweating this are the people that are, you know, operating large companies renting out points. I think if you're concerned about this, you know that you're renting out your points a bunch. And i mean, come on. Yeah. Yeah.
01:24:47
Speaker
Yeah. I'm not the one that I feel, i guess if if you want to justify it fine, but I'm not the person you should justify it to, because I just want to use my points for my vacation and enjoy myself. have problem renting out points. Like rent out points. Yeah. but yeah i rent to I've rented out points. I'm going to do it again. It's, you know, yeah, yeah exactly.
01:25:05
Speaker
Anyway. All right. So let's move on to some fun stuff because we also had we had a great announcement this week that Big Thunder Mountain opens back up on May
Theme Park Updates and Attractions
01:25:17
Speaker
3rd.
01:25:17
Speaker
So that's that's just a couple weeks here. Yeah. That's exciting news. Yeah. Track all the all the effects are fixed. There's going to be new effects. I'm so excited.
01:25:30
Speaker
Yeah, you know, the the the first, the the Rainbow Cavern that you go into, i I'm very curious how that's going to... yeah Like, I feel it's a very overlooked element of the ride because it like it happens very fast at the beginning of the ride. and But there's a lot of cool things happening in that cave that, you know, people don't necessarily realize. They're they're trying to showcase them here and in some of the concept art that it's like...
01:25:54
Speaker
I feel like it's going to be brighter and you know more obvious what's going on in there because you couldn't see some of the effects at at certain points. like No, for sure. yeah i I still can't get over the Barnabas T. Borbion that is Tony Baxter. and i Yeah.
01:26:14
Speaker
I just the if he doesn't have this hanging in his house somewhere like I want this on a shirt. I just love this picture. It's hilarious. And I also just appreciate the fact that they are honoring ah the Imagineer who designed it. I just think that's really cool. And it also has an ah a connection back to the adventure or yeah what is it called? The Society of Explorers and Adventures. Yes.
01:26:38
Speaker
Yes. um ah ah Yeah, it does. and and they And this isn't the first time that they've done this. um You know, they they did this with um ah joe Joe Rody on one of the versions of Tower of Terror is a version of him.
01:26:57
Speaker
Yeah. I think it's the one in Tokyo Disney. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So and it's it's a really also kind of a really funny picture like that. It's very similar.
01:27:08
Speaker
ah So, yeah, i just I just love that they did that. Every time I see it, it kind of it gives me a good good smile. Now, the one thing about this, about Big Thunder finally opening up, and this is... torn...
01:27:23
Speaker
i'm pon or you know what, maybe I'm overthinking this. So when when they redid, when they redid the finale in Disneyland, I made sure that I didn't watch anything about it beforehand because I wanted to witness it firsthand myself because the, the the final, the final, uh, lift hill in Disneyland is way better than the one in Disney world. yeah And I'm hoping that the, uh, the,
01:27:53
Speaker
that with all the updates and everything that, you know, either they have the same finale or something similar to it, which, yeah i hopeful you know, it was very cool with how they like, ah they, they tried to do it or it's not, it's not as effective in Disney world. And again, it's just because it was, you know, it's been around a lot longer and whatnot.
01:28:13
Speaker
um The, the exploding barrels and everything are super cool. And I'm conflicted if I should wait until the next time that I go, which or watch it is going to be a while, or if I just go and watch it on YouTube. And I'm not sure yet. yeah I haven't decided.
01:28:31
Speaker
ah You know, the other, the there were two parts there were two interesting things to me in this announcement, Trevor. One, the of course, the the the open date, right? But the second one is that it's reopening with a lowered height requirement.
01:28:45
Speaker
Yeah. Which is really, i don't I can't remember them ever lowering a height requirement like that. like i i It's now going to be 38 inches. yeah Yeah, it went from 40 to 38. So it's it's come down two inches, which, i mean, is pretty huge for kids.
01:29:05
Speaker
yeah Now, I have to wonder if, like, ah you're right. I don't know a lot of the background on this, but I know, like, the the height requirements kind of came from, like, ah is it OSHA? or It's one of those...
01:29:19
Speaker
Um, like it's a, it's a safety, it's a safety thing. Like it's, it's not that Disney's just like arbitrarily deciding these things. They, they have to go through like safety approvals. Don't they? i mean, yeah, the, the thing that I, or I guess what I'm wondering, like, it doesn't look like the cars themselves have had any major changes to them. Like it's still the single lap bar. It's still the same thing. yeah That's what i was wondering if maybe they changed the restraint, you know? Yeah. It doesn't look like it, but i wonder if maybe just the, uh,
01:29:49
Speaker
you know, with the reevaluation of the, the, the requirements you You know, maybe they just realized that, you know, for that type of restraint, they didn't have to keep it at 40. And maybe it's one of these things where, you know, Disney got it certified at a certain point and they may have erred on the side of caution where they were like, oh yeah yeah, you know, this is recommended to be between 36 and 38. We'll just go to 40 just to make sure. And maybe when they re-looked at it, it was like, oh, it it could actually be, you know, you know, 38 is still within the acceptable window. That's...
01:30:22
Speaker
That's speculation. I don't know if that's... I hope that that's the case and it's not that they toned it down a little bit. right because I don't see how you could. They replaced the entire track, though. i mean like It's all brand new track.
01:30:36
Speaker
But it's not like it has brakes. It's... i Listen, i I'm with you. i like the But it's you know part of the... And the reason I'm saying that is because to me, part of what I love about that ride, you're not going that fast, but it feels so out of control. And it feels like at any point that you could go flying off the tracks. you know like And that's the charm of Big Thunder, I feel like. And hopefully, we don't lose I don't think we would lose that. I think they understand that that's part of it. And and i don't think that that would...
01:31:05
Speaker
you know, that they would lower the, the required. I don't think that's that important to them to lose like the, the, the soul of the ride. You know what i mean? Yeah, I don't – I mean, because, like, the ride itself fundamentally hasn't changed. Like, the track – even though, yes, you're right, they replaced, like, pieces of the track. No, they replaced the whole track. The whole track. Sorry, but I say, like, it, like – It's the same. It took the pieces out, but it was – it's still following the same paths. It's still same – ride Like it's going the same way. So like, yeah i don't see how like them replacing the track. It all of sudden make it feel like, you you know, when you like, when you dip down underneath the, the rock, like you like it looks like you're going towards a rock and you dip down. It's like, I don't see that suddenly becoming smoother.
01:31:53
Speaker
And I guess that's the other thing too, is it's like maybe maybe part of it is the way that the trains themselves are on that. Like maybe it's not the track itself, but maybe there's something else to the trains that, know,
01:32:05
Speaker
you know, underneath or something that we're not seeing. Yeah. I don't know. i I really hope that they don't. I mean, i don't know I hope they don't change that be part of it. And I don't think they will. I don't think they are. I think they just reevaluated the safety and are are fine.
01:32:21
Speaker
yeah They realized they could do it at 30. But this is great for kids, though, that are right on that edge. like Now they're going to be able to ride this ride. And and i'm I'm happy for them because this is, to me, i mean it's my favorite Disney ride and and always probably will be. I just love it ah for so many reasons. And i'm I'm so excited it's re reopening and it's gotten a new paint job and is is looking as good as it's been. I mean, they they redid this entire ride. This was a complete total redo. They ripped down some of the boulders and redid them. I mean, they they did a lot of work. so now the
01:32:52
Speaker
The only downside of the fact that they've lowered the height requirement is exactly what you're saying. is put people on it you know More people are going to be able to ride this ride, which means that it'll have.
01:33:06
Speaker
You're right. I hate those times. Raise it back up again. Make it 48 inches. for you Yeah, right. right yeah Now, I was kind of hoping they changed the lap bar situation because, you know, usually the problem in my family is that, ah you know, I'm a little bit ah larger than my wife. And so the lap bar basically sits like six inches from my my wife. And she's like, you know, it's going to fly out of the the ride all the time because the lap bar doesn't go all the way down. It would be nice if they went to the individual ones. I think that's a little bit But, you know, it is. just it's fine Yeah. You should just have a good old-fashioned seatbelt. you know
01:33:39
Speaker
There you go. There you go, seatbelt. All right. Well, anyway, i'm excited for that. Yeah. It's going to be great. ah So ah i put this this this Star Wars stuff on here, ah Trevor, because i yeah there's some more ah may may May the 4th merch.
01:34:00
Speaker
And one of the things on here.
01:34:05
Speaker
i'm trying to. Okay. So the the very first thing I saw was this C-3PO popcorn bucket. Popcorn bucket with light up eyes. Which is the, sorry, it's it's a severed head of a droid that you're carrying around. I'm actually kind of surprised it took them this long to do this because I think this is amazing. I kind of love it.
01:34:29
Speaker
Sorry, they they clearly delineate as well that it's not C-3PO. It's a salvage protocol droid bucket. So it's a generic protocol droid. It's not 3PO.
01:34:40
Speaker
yeah But, I mean, every protocol droid looks like 3PO. Yeah, exactly it's exactly what it is. But I think it's cool, man. I think it's kind of hilarious, actually. I i love it.
01:34:53
Speaker
I just think it's a neat design. Yeah, it is very cool. The light up eyes are very haunting for sure. little bit. This is something I would like. It would be in the back in the hotel room and I would fall asleep and I would wake up and scare myself in the middle night because it's staring at me. And its eyes lit up even though you didn't turn them on. Yeah. Yeah. For some reason they were on and I didn't realize it. And yeah. That's funny. There's also a Bantha sipper with built-in sound effects.
01:35:26
Speaker
Okay. I don't really know if I want to drink out of a Bantha, but okay. Yeah. yeah it's a choice um yeah and then the the lightsaber swizzle sticks are kind of funny but yeah i yeah i i kind of like that though i think those are fun i thought those have been around that's i don't think that's a new thing right they're not i don't know if i've seen them before i feel like i've seen lightsabers that like go into drinks but i i don't know maybe i'm maybe i'm wrong But I really want to talk about this DJ R3X mug. His name is Rax. I'm sorry. DJ Rax. I'm losing my mind.
01:36:07
Speaker
Yeah. But it kind of looks like a Tiki Room mug, almost. That's what it is. It's a Tiki Room mug. yeah i But they say it's at Oga. So so it's not it's not specifically like Tiki Room, but it has...
01:36:24
Speaker
It has a very similar vibe to it. Yeah. I, I, the, the DJ Rex thing is, I just think it's, it's cool that they're doing that. I can't believe I just read that that way. I i clearly it's been a long three X. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, to be fair, like, unless you knew Rex from original star tours, like a lot of people, I know, but but Rex was quite a long time ago.
01:36:47
Speaker
So I do. I just, I just brain no work. ah But listen, this is a cool looking bug. I like I would get this. This is this is very cool.
01:36:58
Speaker
Yeah, I like it for sure. Also, Jabba's sail barge bucket is a popcorn bucket, right? So light up elements and hidden characters. What? it could Cool looking, but I still want the protocol droid bucket. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I see. I thought you were creeped out by the protocol droid one. I think it's awesome. Yeah, but I would still take that over over this Jabba one. The Jabba one's kind of just boring because it's just like all brown and like, also, I'm not carrying that around.
01:37:28
Speaker
It might looks very cumbersome with the sails on the top and everything. Yeah, it's a lot. That's a lot, right? Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to, I would, yeah, the the problem with this is that looking at the way that the strap and everything is on it, I'm sitting down on like Little Mermaid or something, and this thing is stabbing me in the side when I sit down. Yeah, that's exactly what's happening. Yeah. So, yeah, because of that, I would i would take I would take a protocol droid bucket over this one.
01:38:00
Speaker
Okay, okay. Yeah. And, I mean, there's a couple other things on here, too. um the the the there's where what's so What else is here? um It's an indoor mug.
01:38:12
Speaker
there' this ah There's a couple tumblers that are kind of basic. Yeah, I don't think the rest of it really needs to be talked about in detail. I really just wanted to talk about the popcorn bucket. Yeah, the 3PO one, like said, the eyes are like...
01:38:29
Speaker
they're staring into my soul as I'm looking at it, but it's, it's still a cool, it's still a cool popcorn bucket. i agree. Um, let's, we, we got a couple more things here. We, we've been at this for quite some time and I know you're running out of steam. So, um, real quick. Um, so, you know, Olaf, we've seen lots of videos of Olaf at, uh, um, Disneyland Paris. Yeah. Um,
01:38:53
Speaker
It sounds like the intention is is that you will actually see Olaf coming to the North north American parks and ah the cruise lines as well. Which is something I've been complaining about for a while, is that all the Asian parks get all the cool things. And that's why I put this on here. Because we're actually, and you know and also Disneyland Paris too, they get all the cool things. We're actually going to get this eventually.
01:39:17
Speaker
This is, we're going to have robot Olaf. Here's the thing. And if you watched any of the Imagineering stuff, ah videos around this, they can mass produce these things through 3d printing now so quickly that it's like, like they could make a ton of these, you know, and, and, and spend them all over the world. Right.
01:39:35
Speaker
the ah yeah i'm I'm just envisioning that episode of The Simpsons where they go to the itching scratchy land. There's an army there's an army of Olafs attacking guests. Yeah. yeah throw Throwing his ah his his ah carrot nose as a weapon. um yeah Yeah. Listen, yeah, I know I get that. they But they also mentioned, by the way, in this article that at the Lion King expansion at Disney Adventure World, they may also have lion robots.
01:40:03
Speaker
And they also mentioned the possibility of a robot Sven. So, huh yeah. So, I mean, we're talking full on walking robots. And listen, they've done that before, right? I always go back to Lucky. ah You know, if you you know about Lucky, ah Lucky was one of the first, ah you know, out there. and And it was, you know, so it's not the first time they would have a walking animatronic walking around the park.
01:40:28
Speaker
ah You know, that's that's that large. You know, Olaf's a little different. He's got two legs. You're talking about... a big thing like Sven, I mean, that's, that's some pretty heavy duty technology to do that, right? Like that's not an easy thing to do.
01:40:42
Speaker
I feel like Sven to me as, as an animatronic would be very similar to toothless in Epic universe.
01:40:53
Speaker
So, they They have like what you're talking about. Like there is a there is a meet and greet with Toothless and Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon. He doesn't walk around though, right? No, he doesn't. Yeah, Toothless doesn't. yeah But he's like in an area. But he's he is a very...
01:41:09
Speaker
you know, amazingly detailed, like life-size animatronics. So um I could see them doing something like that. I could see it being like a meet and greet where it's like, you know, you're meeting you're meeting with Sven and Kristoff or something like that. That's what I think is going to happen. I don't think it'll be like, I know that they're kind of lumping it in with the the free roaming Olaf, but i don't think I don't think you'll see a free roaming Sven the same way you see a through a free roaming Olaf.
01:41:36
Speaker
I mean, they're calling them walking robots, though. They're calling they're saying they're they're going to build more walking robots. so Yeah, I know, but I feel like the logistics of it, those they'll still try and limit it to, like, he may be, like, freestanding, but it'll be him in a like in a closed area, not just wandering around the park.
01:41:56
Speaker
Yeah. I think their biggest concern at this point is that someone's going to hug Olaf and then just run off with him. Honestly, like that's like they kind of said that actually they said ah he's so popular that we have to ensure both from a security perspective as well as an operational one that we can ease him into the park.
01:42:13
Speaker
So yeah I feel like you would have to be the boldest person to like think that you could get out of a Disney park carrying Olaf like you can't run fast enough.
01:42:28
Speaker
Yeah. I didn't have nobody notice. Yeah. what look Like, like the yeah, that's what I mean is that like, even if you picked them up and started running, and're not going to be hard And the handlers like that in the immediate area, like didn't react fast enough.
01:42:42
Speaker
You don't know how many people that are between you and the gate. like i just I'm just thinking to myself, they should program into Olaf, ah like a fake self-destruct sequence. Olaf will will self-destruct in 10, 9, you know, like if he's getting getting carried off property. Yeah.
01:42:59
Speaker
i'm I'm going to cite a, um a sci-fi horror movie that may, I don't know, don't know if, or all all I can picture is, um was it, was it Donald Glover? No, not Donald Glover. Um,
01:43:13
Speaker
What's his name? don't um Donald Sutherland. Sorry. ah Different Donald. Yeah. Donald something. Very different Donald. Yes. Yeah. Very different Donald. but Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, um where i just had a vision of him like shrieking and pointing. And I could see like Olaf doing like Olaf, just letting out like this high pitch shriek. i the streak yeah Yeah. That's I'm just like, I think that'd be really kind of funny if they did that. But yeah, I listen, this is all great stuff. I'm excited for this. yeah
01:43:49
Speaker
Bring it here. Yes. And last last but honest thing. And I knew you were going to put this on here. We can't avoid it. I know. Okay. So, okay. So, so air Canada, i'm I'm going to lean into this with, this is sponsored by air Canada, which is one of our prevalent, um,
01:44:08
Speaker
Great. Airline in, you know, as it says, it's Air Canada. It's not my favorite. I fly WestJet, but that's because WestJet is actually local to where I live. But Air Canada is hosting the or they're relabeling refreshment port to La Putinerie.
01:44:30
Speaker
Which, listen, so it's that you already get most of the poutine that they offer at the refreshing point. But not much is changing other than the theme and the sponsor. Right. Yeah. but But so here's my only thing is it better be lot poutineries and not like loaded fries that, you know, kind of passes us poutine. So this is my thing. If if Air Canada is doing this yeah and it is, you know, being properly represented, don't give me like there are a lot. let Let me say this first. There are lots of variations on poutine. We get them up here. you know You know, you can get all the the extra, you know, you can do the pulled pork. You can do all these crazy different ones. But
01:45:11
Speaker
fries, gravy, and cheese curds are there in some capacity. When they start, like, I've seen people label things as poutine where it's like there is no fries, there is no cheese curds, there is no gravy.
01:45:25
Speaker
Don't call it that, right? And so if I'm going to La Poutinerie, I'm expecting them to hold a certain standard to it. That's my thing. They should have some sway there, right? Absolutely, yeah. They'd better bring it, just saying.
01:45:42
Speaker
better bring it just just saying I had to say this, the the description that Air Canada put out does not make me feel confident that they're going to do that, Trevor, because it says a taste of Canada at Epcot. ah La Patinerie hosted by Air Canada brings a a Canadian classic with a twist.
01:46:01
Speaker
The twist part is where you, you know, there's no cheese curds or like, yeah, yeah that's that's what I'm saying. Like they leave that open to be like, okay, well, it doesn't have to be poutine. It can be a twist on poutine.
01:46:13
Speaker
But to to your point, though, i listen, it's I'm just saying that all they're doing is theming a little bit more with Canada and, you know, and then they're going to I mean, the poutine that you buy is already there. already there. it It makes sense because it it is literally right next to the the Canada Pavilion. like yeah It doesn't hurt that they're you know, is clearly now sponsored by a Canadian company and, you know, they can lean on in on it a little bit more. and I guess, you know, with with the name being there, I feel like,
01:46:44
Speaker
I feel like they should be able to give you what you expect to get from that. Because like I said, a lot of other boosts, I feel they you know people do. And sorry, that the this is just me and my hang up with it. is you know People try to get too bougie with it and they try to be like, oh this is you know you know revolutionary.
01:47:05
Speaker
you lost poutine as soon as you started ditching. It's three ingredients. yeah And like, as soon as you start ditching those ingredients, you've lost it. Like, yeah I get it. Like yeah you can add to it. It's an additive thing. Like I've had, I've had various forms of poutine where it's like, you know, they put stuff on top. Like, I mean, pulled pork poutine is, is good. I enjoy that one. There there's other, there's other variations of it that I've seen, but I still, you know, the base is still fries.
01:47:35
Speaker
cheese curds and gravy like it's yeah not hard like it's it's really not that's my problem is it's like it come on guys it's not hard and and if air canada messes it up i will i will stand there and disapprovingly look at them and go really yeah now this is now the the canada pavilion though extends further out now basically so that's that's kind of cool yeah ah Eventually we'll we'll take over the Imagination Pavilion.
01:48:05
Speaker
so ah All right. Let's, let's wrap this up. It's been a long, it's been long one. Yeah. This has been a very long episode, but I'm glad that we did it. I'm glad that you guys. i somehow spell voice I'm shocked. I don't know. Yeah.
01:48:20
Speaker
But, but yeah, you know, i'm I'm, I'm glad Karen was able to come on and you guys were able to share, share your trip and I'm glad you even in spite of weather and all that, you know, and you know, I think we say this all the time is that,
01:48:34
Speaker
you know, you know, being at Disney for bad weather is still better than being anywhere else. So agreed. Listen, we still, the weather did not deter us. We still had a great time. I was sick for the whole Vero beach part and that still did not deter us. I still had a great time despite being miserably sick. So yeah. Yeah. But yeah. And you know, glad that you guys are, you know, looking forward to the next one. Cause you know like you said, it's,
01:49:02
Speaker
it It sounds like it's a very addictive thing. And, know, I, I don't want to say never, but I don't, I don't know that we'll get on a cruise. I would like to, you know, after listening to you guys talk about it, I would really like to at some point, but I i also don't want to make my wife miserable by doing so. Yeah, I think you guys could do it. I see people with all the stuff on and like, I think there's ways. And if you go to different parts of the ship, it's not nearly as bad. It's we were in the absolute worst spot for for for bad seas. So that's really part a big part of it. So anyway, yeah, let's wrap it Yeah. So, yeah, I guess we'll start wrapping this up here. So, you know, after everything that we talked about on the show, if you have your own questions or if you want to share your own trip reports or anything like that, ah you can always find us at our email address, which is welcomehomepodcast.gmail.com. You can also reach us through our website, which is welcomehomepodcast.co.
01:50:05
Speaker
And you can ah you know you know you can reach us or you can contact us through there. And also, ah the website is also a great way to check out the episodes. if ah or I mean, I guess if you're listening to this, you you've found us already. But you know we do have links to the episodes and the store and and all that kind of stuff on the website. Yeah.
01:50:24
Speaker
So, you know, check that out. But also outside of the website, we are on social media. So if you want to find us on Facebook, you can find us there as Welcome One Podcast. You can find us on YouTube as Welcome One Podcast. You can find us on Instagram as Welcome One Picks.
01:50:37
Speaker
And, uh, Yeah. If you want to help ah support the show, you can go to store.walkinwomenpodcast.co. Like i said, it's also from the website. You can link to the store there, but or you can go straight to the store. We got lots of great stuff on there, including hats. if you haven't you know If you've been out of the loop for a bit, we do have hats now. You can get them on the store. We have hats.
01:50:58
Speaker
If there's something that you see or or that you would like to see on the store, you can also drop us a line and let us know. We yeah we have the ability to add more stuff to the store. so um So yeah, just let us know if there if there's something missing from there that you would like to ah to order. we We'll definitely work with you on that one.
01:51:16
Speaker
um And then also, if you want to help support us through Patreon, um you can find us on patreon.com slash welcomehomepod. Our Patreon supporters get an exclusive logo that you can only get on Patreon. And anyone who supports us through Patreon also gets access to the Discord server, which as we talked about um earlier in the show, we have lots of great conversations on there. um There's actually sometimes previews of um stuff happening.
01:51:44
Speaker
from upcoming shows that happened there and just, um, a lot of behind the scenes stuff. Um, I shared a private ah photo from my vacation, that Trevor turned into ah a moat on a, yeah yeah I mean, I, I had to turn that into an emote because it was, yeah,
01:52:01
Speaker
It was awesome. um So yeah, if you're wondering what we're talking about, that's on the Discord. And so, you know you know, check that out. And, ah you know, last but not least, if you're listening on iTunes or Spotify or anywhere, you can leave us a five-star review. Please do so. It just helps. ah It helps other people like yourself find the show. And, you know, we we just want to get it out there to more people. And also, if you want to let us know what you think about the show, you can write us through you on iTunes and and just tell us how you think we're doing.
01:52:31
Speaker
Yeah. And also just, you know, tell, tell your friends, right? Like, i think that's best way to find podcasts. Hey, this is awesome podcast. You should, you should check it out too. So ah don't forget to subscribe. You know, that's the other way you can do it, right? Subscribing. That's important too. So you can be reminded every time we release an episode, you can find our podcasts on Apple podcasts, Amazon music, tune in Spotify,
01:52:51
Speaker
YouTube, YouTube music, just about any podcast app that's out there. You can find us a huge. Thank you to our sponsor DVC rental store for sponsoring this episode. And of course, a key holder of vacations for, you know, just being our friends for a long time, even when they were world of DVC. And then before that, just DVC resale. They've been through a bunch of names, but they've been with us for forever now. So please check them out. ah Join us next time for more Disney parks discussion. Of course, more DVC talk. We hope to see you all real soon.
01:53:21
Speaker
This is Skipper Albert A. Wall, the voice of the jungle, signing off from Welcome Home Podcast on the DVC. We do a hug when we head to church.
01:53:33
Speaker
How she can cuddle, she's no man's affair. I look around from all the poles, found her in her sugar bowl. We look out, here goes my ball and chain.
01:53:44
Speaker
The ball and chain.