Norwegian Cruise Line with Myka | Family Vacation Review

Jason: Grab your mouse ears and ready your wands, you're tuning into Castles to Cauldrons, your ultimate guide to the magic, the thrills, and everything in between. From strolling right down the middle of Main Street, USA, to dodging fire breathing dragons in Diagon Alley, we've got your theme park adventures covered. And now, sharing their hottest takes and best tips, here are your hosts, Jason, Micah, Rachel, and Terry. Welcome to Castles Coltons. This is episode 59. 59. Yeah, I'm your host Jason Davis here with Micah, Terri, and for the second week in a row, we feel honored, Rachel. Still with us. I'm still here. Had to change up our schedule a little bit to make sure she could be with us tonight. I so loved. You should. Thank you. It's so weird when it's just the three of us, like when it's my dad and Terry and me, because it's like something else not here. There's a missing piece that's usually right there. That's not there. Thanks. I don't know how much I may leave that, but it makes me feel good. You should believe it. We always talk about like, man, we wish Rachel was here. Like we do say it. The biggest thing is like the pre and post banter is like, we get there and talk a while and it's like. We know what's going on with our lives. And while you're in our group text and whatnot, but it's still like, you don't get to come in and talk and you know, voice stuff. Yeah. mean, we've been shooting the crap for about 50 minutes now. I know. I worried I wouldn't get here in time. We always tell the people who come on to guest with us, like, Hey, we started this time, but expect us to start recording in about an hour after that. So that's usually how it goes. We have to get warmed up. You do. The chemistry flowing. Well, I mean, that's, that's the thing is like Rachel's been out for so long. It's kind of like, she stepped back in and it's just like nothing happened. Like she wasn't gone. Thanks guys. So we can't replace Rachel ever. Nope. we might like Siobhan, but not Allison because we don't want people who don't believe in the moon lander. I'm going to keep going on that. Leave poor Allison alone. When we go to training, Allison, if you're listening to this episode in September, we're going to Cape Canaveral and you can all the way. And do the Kennedy Space Center. Yeah. And we can see moon rocks. I love when she'll be like, do you get there from the moon? She'll be like, is that the studio where they filmed it? What type of camera? So let's start with universal news right quick. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about Lost Continent starting to get walls behind for Sinbad. They've since extended those walls to Poseidon's Fury, which has been closed for like three or four years. think the last time I wrote it or walked through it was the first training for Universal I did with Magical Travel. I know I it in Gwinnie 2. Yeah, I think that was the year it shut down. Mm-hmm. So it's been just sitting there. I liked it. Yeah, it's fun. Yeah. it was, it's a beautiful facade. mean, with Poseidon's arm coming out with the trident and all that stuff. I love it. I hate that it's going to be demolished, but you know, hopefully bigger, better things. We talked about what we thought would go there a couple episodes ago, we won't go into that. Interesting. I think coming out of the universal annual pass system, they're going to start giving $5 merchandise credits when you spend $10 or more. at Universal Orlando Resort locations. I don't have anything else on that. That's just what they had posted on their website. That's a really cool incentive. Disney doesn't do anything like that. They give you the discount, but this is a discount like giving you money back on top of the discount for Universal. And for the minimum just to be $10 and you're $5 back. mean, that's, that's really something. It's 50%. mean. $10 or more. That's a Coke. Yeah. I was going to say it does not take long to spend $10. And then you get that $5. I wonder if it like how much it stacks or anything like that. If it's just over a trip over a day. Like you can only get $5 once a day. Yeah. Instead of every single time. I really want to see what the, you know, small words are for that one so that we can see really, because I'm an annual pass holder. I'm the only one in the group for Universal that this actually affects. But still to get $5 back off of per... I mean, that's 50 % off if I'm buying something for Yeah, cuz then you're gonna be like, okay I'm just gonna buy this one thing at my $5 back go back and buy that, you know, go back and buy it back or use more than one day Yeah, and I always buy my universal my HHN shirt. So throughout the year buying these things I can there's a crew enough dollars where I Can get that for free? Yeah, we know who's gonna be buying our stuff now. I mean we already Used him for I know we did I mean, I was the rude one that was just like, here, let me use your thing and just grabbed his lanyard. Yank him around. And again, sweet Daphne. Jason, is it okay if I use your discount? And I was like, maybe I should have asked a little bit nicer, but this was like at the end of our trips. I was a lot more comfortable at that point. It's we get together as all sisters and they're just going to just grab whatever. Just here, here's the lanyard go. If I had money in my lanyard, they'd probably take it too and say, let me just use take your money, just your discount. We wouldn't take your money. No, just the discount. Just the discount. That's all we want. We just want to you for your discount. have ethics. Hello. Now when you pull my annual pass and they say, oh, you have $50 credits. Yes, please. No, I wouldn't See, we'll just use your annual pass and then it's up to you to accrue your points. of it that way. We're just helping you now. Done. Have more money so you can spend it on Travis and Beth. I'll just screenshot for... September, whichever one's go for the whole week. My annual pass QR code so you can scan it. See that's the good thing about being like family and friends in like my Disney experience with other annual pass holders is that like I can view things and use discounts. I didn't think about that because where we, well since we did Disney with Siobhan in September, like it'll be like all this stuff. pops up and I'm like, yeah, Siobhan's going to be there at this time or whatever. It's like, look at that. I didn't know. The fun thing is like Universal doesn't care. Like Micah scans my annual pass. They're not saying, ⁓ well, this is a dude's name. But when I'm there, didn't know your pass. It was like you had to pay, the annual pass holder had to pay for it. So my mother-in-law standing right there wanting to use my discount. And I'm like, well, here's my card. They scanned it and they're like, ⁓ well you had to pay for it. I'm like, Okay. And he just hands me your credit card and I go, there you go. I paid for it. Yeah. universal superior in there and you'll pass this. I'm curious to see what Disney does if they follow suit with something like this or even to that. Okay. Moving on to Disney. Did y'all ever play the pirates adventure game over in adventure land? you know anything about that? But it looked like fun. Like we'd played it once. It was pre Travis. They give you clues, you go around, it's interactive. was kind of like the soldiers. Yeah. And you go over, it's just in that little area. They had it going for a long time since COVID, but they got rid of the fast pass. At the end of this thing, you always got a fast pass to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. They have brought that back. So now you can go do this. They took it away again on Sunday. They took it away Sunday. Oh my God. They did. they said it was supposed to be, they said it was supposed to be like just a little pixie dust for the people that completed all five of the adventures. And then it got out on social media. And so then they had to take it away. So I haven't watched, I haven't watched any of that stuff, but I did see they brought it back. I was glad they brought it back because it was a cool little feature, but the fact that they've just continued it. Social media ruined it. there too many, were they giving? Too many away. So were they giving out too many fast passes or lightning? I think so because it was supposed to be like a little pixie dust from what I read. It was supposed be like a little pixie dust that happened to the people that completed all five challenges. And then when people were getting that and they were posting it on social media, so then they were getting a huge influx of people coming to play the game to do all five of the challenges just to get the free lightning lane to Pirates of the Caribbean. So they had to take it away because it was too much. Instead of it being like a full of eggs, was a lot. Well, what did they think was going to happen? be quite honest, what did they think was going to happen? If an offer comes out and it's posted against social media before it even drops, what do they think a free light and lean was going to occur? When they us that it's confidential and we're not supposed to people know. But know, corporations drop stuff, leak quote unquote stuff like that all the time. So it does become viral. So it does catch on. So more people flock just like they did. So the fact that they're like, ⁓ wait, too many, that's poor planning, I feel like on their part. Unless it wasn't like Most people would kill for that kind of drive to something. Right. Maybe it wasn't like an actual like higher up Disney thing. And it was just like some of the cast members who are allowed to give things away and were doing it. And then it got out there and they're like, ⁓ wait. That was more than what we thought. know, I think that's, that's, that's now a price thing though. That is they are selling Lightning Lane. So I would think, it's a higher up decision. Everybody. you're, that's more than. I just feel like it's bad publicity to take it away that soon. Just say too many people are doing it. So a multi-billion dollar corporation, we're going to pull it away. You know, just let it ride for a couple of days and like, okay, well that pixie dust has now floated away. We'll do something different in couple, I don't know, just to cut it. Do you think it was like a money thing or do you think it was like an inconvenience thing with the, like the lightning lane rides, like the line being too long? It's probably a both thing. Because you think the influx of lightning lane people going in, that really makes trouble for the standby wait time itself. Cause you know, it's like a hundred to one lightning lane going in versus a standby going in. And then on top of it. All those people didn't buy lightning lane. So whatever the magic kingdom costs those days that had this available, was that, that times those people. So they lost a lot of rep. mean, you're talking about thousands of dollars. Yeah. Like I said, seems like extremely poor planning. Cause you know, like you said, they should have like, if they were going to do something like that, maybe a sign times like 500 go to this time period, 500, you know, like you said, so there wouldn't be such an influx at one time, two pirates. So like, okay, well I got my lightning lane, but now our time is at 6 PM. Maybe I won't use that because we'll be gone by then or something. Maybe it would just been like the cute little kid running around dressed as a pirate, you know? well y'all just did the pirate adventure and your dress is... Jack Sparrow, here you sell some fast passes, the lightning lanes to go into the ride real quick. And it just be a one off type thing now and then. That was, I'm glad you said something. Like I said, I hadn't heard anything about them taking away. So that's, even though it's right here in the show notes, I didn't read that far. You didn't read my little extra part that says this has been discontinued already for the free lightning lane. I you would think that Disney who's kind of catching it left and right these days for being kind of out of reach for a lot of people with their costs. you know, cause everything else is so expensive and then they're throwing out discount after discount and you know, specials and promotions and everything that any goodwill online or anything they got for something like that, they wouldn't just squash so immediately. Especially if they weren't losing thousands of dollars a day still in the long run. did cost you? Yeah. So that seems a little short-sighted. feel like. And speaking of, low attendance type stuff. 27, we've got the announcement for Lake Shore Lodge should be opening there. This is the new, uh, DVC hotel that is being built on the old river country. Originally called Reflections, I think it sounded like it was going to be like a, uh. That sounds like a senior center. A senior center or a rehabilitation type thing. Yeah. was like, that's horrible. committed there, Lefterty. Whatever you're doing, you're committed. I put the picture in our notes of what this supposed to look like. It doesn't look like that for what they're actually building. Yeah, that's us trying to find real pictures of it. Yeah. I mean, this is artist rendering of what they put out. For me, we got on this a few episodes ago where we talked about how bland all the rooms look. You're building this right next to one of the beautiful, most beautiful resorts on property to me, which is Wilderness Lodge. And this looks like a Holiday Inn. Like the theming just looks so bland outside even just how the buildings look, like it's like you just drive down through somewhere and it's like, ⁓ there's another hotel. Like when we were driving through Miami, like to go on our cruise, like it looks like just like the hotels that are hanging out on the way there. Why didn't, I mean, I know obviously you don't having to answer for this, sure, but why, since it's a Lakeshore Lodge, should they not continue the Wilderness Lodge theme? make it more like, yeah, like you're on a lake. Montana. Yeah. Lake houses. Easily could have made it Yeah, I think they wanted to make sure it was completely separate in name and look of Wilderness Lodge, because now you have Wilderness Lodge, the hotel, and then you have two anchors of DVC with with Boulder Ridge and Copper Creek. So you've got a lot of DVC over at Wilderness Lodge. And I think if you said, Hey, Lakeshore Lodge is going to be another part of Wilderness Lodge. just makes that resort too big. Cause this is about a thousand rooms is what they said. Maybe you shouldn't have put the word lodge in there. Or build it so close to it. Yeah, right next to it with the same word, but no, don't associate the two. Why would you ever do that? I bet you too, when it comes to the end of the day, when the boats start running. People are going to confused. Yeah. Lake Shore Lodge thinking they're going to their right. They're one and the same. I mean, I think it's a good use of space. Yeah. I mean, the river country was just an abandoned theme park that had been abandoned since early 2000s. So they needed to do something with it. Heather and I were talking about that. We pulled up the map to see what it looked like. And she goes, it was like Lakewood. Yeah, they just circulated the white water into it. Yeah, she was like, there was like a beach and it was like lake, because I was like, put up the map to see like where it was. And we were like, spent some time talking about it and like, look at old photos. So it's really cool that they're able to repurpose that location. Yes. And that land. So I'm glad about that. I do think people will get confused with it being there. again, putting the word lodge in there and like close to wilderness lodge and then being like, These are two separate entities. Kind of lends itself to confusion. Maybe it's because it's like the theming looks lodgish. Like you're driving down I4, like this is going to be something on an international drive or something like that. I don't, I don't get wilderness from this. Just like I don't get Polynesian from the tower they just built over at the poly. But you're saying that they're putting function over form. Like they're. This is not Disney. Like we talked about how the sport part of what. big and looks good. Even when you bring it up to Saratoga and Oakey West, Grand Floridian, those all look different from a regular hotel besides Grand Floridian because it's based off another hotel in California. They look like hotels that you would- look like their titles. This does not look like a Lakeshore Lodge. No, if it's a Lakeshore Lodge, I would expect to look like a lake house, like with a tall like apex. roof with like the big window. Like I was in Minnesota on a lake or like where it's tranquil and it's not like a hunting lodge or wildlife lodge, like a wilderness lodge, but it is still like maybe a log cabin, but it still has that lake house feeling. would argue that even if you could do the lobby area, just those designs of like a mountainous type. Yeah, like you're on a lake. It would look better than what they have. But I just, I'm not a fan of it. I'm not a fan of what Disney's doing with the hotels in general. Let me just go right there. Find it. Like I see that they're trying to put like a contemporary modern feel on a lodge. Like I look at that and I see like wood, but I see modern. I see what Terry's saying about like, I thought it would be more lake-ish. get that. I do, but then I'm thinking lodge. think wilderness lodge and I think masculine. think woodish. Yeah. So like I can see, I can see, I feel like they try to make it like a modern, like a modern type of style. driving through Jackson Hole and you could definitely tell the newer houses from the old houses because the newer ones were the modern box type houses. But like she said, it's going to be in like white or black or gray where they are around us. I don't know how they are around you guys. They were more neutrals or dark browns. So they still had the same design, like that modern looking house that stands out against any other traditional house you look at. But it was just a more neutral tones. So maybe that is what they were going for here. And maybe they go for a more neutral look that way if they want to change it up in 20 years, it's not like the contemporary where you're stuck with that crazy look and there's no way to modify it almost without tearing it down and starting over. This is also Disney we're talking about. They're not going to modify the outside of the buildings the way they are anyway. We're talking about it. just said the contemporary. I'm just saying. If it's there for 50 years. It looks outdated and it's always like that dated. And apparently it's getting a lazy river as well. It's getting a lazy river. Bioreconstruct has pictures of the lazy river. I do love the lazy river. I do too. Will I stay here? If I can find a room, I might stay here once just to see. It's not high on my list, but I'm just not a fan of the- Now they'll let you strap a cooler into a float like they do on other river rafting things and you can float through your lazy river with your cooler strapped to your float strapped to you. That would be amazing. This is definitely not a universal cookout. Is he saying party is down to a minimum? This is the DVC. That's the other thing like that gets on nerves is like the new hotels they built are DVC. Let's build some regular just cash hotels that you know, you don't have to sign a 50 year contract for. Value? Value hotels? That value would be great. Another value somewhere. Or they're by ESPN. that big place would crawl from pop century. It'd perfect. Last bit of news is going to be SeaWorld, which is the second time we talked about SeaWorld on this show since we started. 59. Eric Hunt. Yeah, only two references to the Sea World. Eric Hunt, who is, was the universal creative that was over designing Super Nintendo World and Mario Kart has been hired by United Parks, who owns Busch Gardens, Sea World, the Sesame Place, that whole conglomerate of theme parks. I'm, I find this an interesting hire. Because we all know SeaWorld is like struggling to get anybody to come into their parks for whether it's the, what was it, Black Fish was the documentary a few years ago. Well, SeaWorld definitely has a PR issue. They're like the ugly stepsister of theme parks and everything like that. apparently they have all this money to get all these people in there. But their concert series has brought back a lot of people and now they're bringing, this guy couldn't have been cheap. And if he did the Super Mario. world and it's so immersive. That's a great world. I'm not a Super Mario fan. Like I like it, but I'm not a fan. That's a great world and epic. So if they can bring him in to revamp some stuff, think they're, they must be going in a positive direction. you see world before the whole movie came out with when everything kind of went down for them. Um, they had done the empire penguin ride, which was the first trackless ride in Orlando. They were trying, that's a highly detailed land. Now it was a horrible ride. was very bad ride, but they tried and it was like, whoa, you walk in this very bland, like it looks like Six Flags. So you're walking through a park and it's just like very bland. The speakers are not like if you're walking from one land to another, you can still hear the music from the other land as you're walking through. So it's very cross contamination when it comes to the sounds. And it's like, okay. So the fact they went outside, we need somebody that can bring this up. Now, let me say I haven't been since they've opened the Sesame Street area, which I hear is like an amazing detail and everything like that. These new roller coasters they have. look great. Some of those roller coasters look really great. I'm curious as to what Eric's going to do with Busch Gardens and SeaWorld in general. What are we going to get land-wise? Obviously we're not going to get like IP stuff, but we're going to get probably some really good theming to these lands that they continue to add on to. animals and things, I think you have a lot of theming without needing a ton of IP. Right. mean, you said penguins and things like that. That's, you know. And then you had like, when the, when the posters is Mako and you go through a shark tank when you're going through the queue and stuff like that. So it's all, it's still a theme, but it's, it's pretty cool. I understand that it is a roller coaster, like roller coasters through it. Like in Atlantis, in Bahamas. When you go through the water slide. Yeah. I think what SeaWorld had originally announced, I don't know that they're still holding true this, is that they're going to end the shows in the near future. And all those shows will just be turned into enclosures so that as these animals age and die out, that they can get rid of them and use that for other things. So maybe that's what this is. Maybe Eric's going to start theming these stadiums to be themed to better enclosures for the animals and for the guests to experience the animals in a better state. don't know. I'm just, I was interested in the fact that SeaWorld went out and got somebody that's very creative, brought them on board so that they can do what they do best in a pretty failing theme park area. So they've got to have an investor or they've got to have money coming from somewhere for every new thing they keep pumping out every year. would almost argue that probably Busch Gardens is the really the big thing that pushes that. Like that's the moneymaker for the company. Yeah. Because you know West Virginia, Busch Gardens, that's one of the big roller coasters in America. Like that theme park has a lot of the big roller coasters. The people and they did Iron Gwazi down in Tampa, which was a big hit. So I think that's what really draws the money in for me. It's not SeaWorld so much. And Discovery Island is a big draw. Or Discovery Cove. I feel like when we go in September, we need to take a day trip down to SeaWorld. Yeah, Discovery Cove. Discovery Island is Disney. Yeah. I'm up for it. like going. Their coasts would be great. I'm fine with riding rollercoasters. We need to go do some investigative journalism. SeaWorld. And hope the YingYing twins are there. I'm even fine. It's Joey Fatone. What are you talking about? I could get down with Joy Patone too. Love and Sink. I'm going to Discovery Cove because it's all-inclusive type thing so we can have our drinks and... you remember the Dolphins there? Yes you can. will never do that. It frees me out. I want to it so bad. We did it at not for us. I want to do it in like Jamaica. They made it illegal in Mexico. where they're going to start phasing it out where you can't do it anymore. went swimming with the dolphins where Corey was talking to the dolphins in the boy meet the world episode. That's fun. Isn't that an Epcot? When you're a kid and you don't realize that they weave those episodes into like TGIF shows to make you want to go to Disney World, you just thought it was cool that every show went to Disney It was like the same week to like full house for two weeks. Who else? Roseanne went for a week. still think of Steve every time I watch the Indiana Jones show in Hollywood studios. The big rock falls. It's Steve. Like it's a dream. Yeah. And I was like, that shows how long they've been doing that show. Yeah. They've done it for such a long time. Yeah. this quick word from Terry and magical travel. Are you dreaming of your next adventure, but overwhelmed by planning? Magical travel has you covered. With over 22 years in the business, we specialize in Disney destinations, Universal Studios, cruise vacations, and all-inclusive resort getaways. Our services are 100 % complimentary when you book a vacation package with one of our knowledgeable agents. Request a free quote to start the planning process at magicaltravel.com. Mention our podcast to be connected with one of our agents you're listening to if you like what you hear. we're back. Micah, she just got back not too long ago off on the Norwegian cruise line. And this was the first, this was your first time on Norwegian, correct? Yes. So she's going to tell us all about Norwegian, what we need to know, how, like what involves, does she have fun? Does she not have fun? No, no, How was it? I haven't been on a cruise since 2019. So pre-COVID was the last time I was on a cruise and the only cruise line I've been on is Carnival until this point. So this is all I have to compare it to. We went all good news from there. If you're preparing to get to Carnival, everything's better. Yes, no, I told you I have like pros and cons, things that I liked better from one to the other. The reason we chose Norwegian out of all the cruise lines was because my mom was supposed to go with us and they're one of the only cruise lines that have solo cabins. So they have like studios that are great and they're actually pretty like fairly priced. And also if you do a solo interior or ocean view or balcony, you're not necessarily paying like double occupancy. They do make it a little bit easier for solo travelers. So that was the reason we chose Norwegian. Unfortunately, my mom got sick before we had to go. This is why travel insurance is so important. She was able to cancel the week of, and we're going through her travel insurance to get things back. So she was not able to go with us, but the reason we chose Norwegian was because of their solo cabins. Also, they just, they have freestyle cruising. Something like Disney, you don't have the option of like at anytime dining. You have to choose like early dining or late dining. Norwegian does not have any set dining unless it is specialty dining that you book. anytime from the dining room opens at 5pm to the last one will close around 930 for the main dining room. There's three main dining rooms you can choose from. You can go at any time. So we never had to wait. you sitting with other families during that? We never got sat with another family. Okay. When we would go as a family of three, they would set us at a four top table. Some of the nights when Kova was at the kids club, Robert and I would be sat at a two top table when we went. They have one large main dining room. I know at least on the Norwegian Encore that we were on, they have one like pretty big like main dining room that's very typical of a cruise. And then they have two smaller main dining rooms, which are across from each other. They all have the exact same menu every night or not every night, but. All three of them will have the same thing. originally booked an interior room and Norwegian also has a way like as you are getting closer to the cruise, you can bid to upgrade your room. And we are a family of three. We have a lot of stuff. We went with an interior because we don't spend a ton of time in our room. And we were just like, that's what we'll go with. was the kind of, you know, the least expensive option to go during spring break because that's just the more expensive time to go. We. bid to get an ocean view room. actually bid on interior, ocean view and balcony and we ended up getting a balcony room. So we were able, it was just a regular balcony room. The one positive that I did really like about our room, cause I've done balcony rooms on Carnival as well is I know the newer Carnival ships have this, but not the ones I was on is the shower is a glass door and it actually doesn't feel super tight. Like I didn't feel super squeezed into the shower. Like on Carnival the curtain is like sticking to you and like you're trying to do things. There's just not a ton of space. think that's something that a lot of the cruise lines are trying to move to too, because Disney was like that with the wonder, the dream, they have the cloth curtain, but everything I've seen from Destiny and I think Siobhan had confirmed it on here, maybe it was Rachel, so that it was a glass door shower and then the of the sea was a glass door shower, which like you said, Especially when you don't have a split bathroom like Disney, that shower filled that much bigger just because you have a little bit more room. Yeah, as to put this in perspective, Micah is not a big person at all. So she was touching the shower curtain. Yeah, she's pretty tiny. I Carnival felt like when you're trying to shower in an RV. Like, know how tiny, like in a camper, like it's very much the same. I felt like Norwegian, like I just had more space. in the shower, the bathroom felt a little bit more spacious. The room itself felt a little bit smaller, so they gave a little bit more space to the bathroom for the room itself to be a tiny bit smaller. The amount of like USB plugs around the room, there was one beside the bed light, like the lights beside each side of our bed, which was great where I could plug my phone up at night. They had multiple outlets over at the vanity. The balcony was a normal thing. The Kova had the couch that made out into a bed, which from the first night, it never got made into a couch again. It was just a bed the entire time. Yeah. The only other part for like the stateroom that I missed from Carnival to Norwegian was on Carnival, they make you a talley animal every single night. Norwegian only did that the last three nights and that's very entertaining for a child to come in and find a different talley animal. Food wise, again, I only have Carnival to compare it to. When you go to the main dining room, it's mass production food. It's okay. It's not fantastic. It's nothing to write home about. It wasn't bad. Like we didn't go hungry. but it's not like, ⁓ my gosh, this is fantastic food. Like I feel that's probably where Disney has an upper hand because they do have set dining where they know this many people are coming to the dining rooms at this time. Norwegian has no clue how many people are gonna be in the dining room between five and seven PM. Like it's freestyle as they call it. Like anyone can go at any time. So they don't know how many people. And we did one specialty dining, Cagney steakhouse. Very good. Cause it was included in the free at sea. So we got one specialty dining credit. The food was really good there. The steak. I've said this before, I don't know on the podcast, but Rachel and them have heard me say, my husband makes a really good steak. His steak is better than what was at the steak house. I, we would have paid to go. Yeah. Like it wasn't bad. I still got a steak. My husband got lamb chops. He really liked them. Yeah. He liked lamb chops. My appetizer was like this, like bacon. That was really good. My husband got. I think clam chowder or something. He said it wasn't bad, but again, my husband makes a better steak at home. Kova pretty much would eat at the buffet before we would go to dinner because he would just pretty much ate his weight in pizza on this cruise, like cheese pizza. He just ate a ton of that. didn't want to do the kids club at first because again, he's an only child and sending him somewhere where he doesn't have friends. He wanted to be with his parents. Once he made friends on the cruise, he was fine. Like he did that. I'm trying to think of other things. So they had the go-karts on board. And one thing that I don't think they advertise is for us to let Kova do the go-karts, you have to look in their like Navi or whatever the name of their thing is. I don't remember the name of their like little daily ship thing. We could only have Kova do it during a very specific time when they have the doubles on the, on the go-kart track. Gotcha. It's only for like an hour. yeah, because he can't drive one. He's not tall enough and you have to have a driver's license to drive one of those. But it would only be for like an hour or a couple of times on the week we were there. So if we missed that time, we missed it. It was like from 430 to 530. And then Robert and Koval went up at like six o'clock and they're like, you missed the doubles. And we were like, okay, well, we're done with that. A ridiculous amount of money, I think in the Galaxy Pavilion, which is like where all the AI games are, where they do all those different things. It's like $9 a pop. for those different things. Robert said one of them only lasted 20 seconds and he was a little upset on that. They do have like an arcade program, like where you can buy like a pass for the arcade for your kid, but only certain games can be played with the arcade card. And it costs almost $300 for this arcade pass. And you would have to play almost a hundred games to make it worth it. So I was like, it's not worth it. We'll take Kovan and let him play a couple of games here and there and we'll be nowhere near the price of what the arcade thing was. So tons of parents, I'm sure don't want to deal with that and just give the kids the pass so that they can just go play whenever they want to. But if you do the math, you'd have to play a lot of skee ball to make it worth that. Yeah, $300 for that. It's a lot. So we also upgraded our free at sea to free at sea plus, which then includes the high speed internet, which includes streaming. includes Starbucks. So Norwegian does have Starbucks on board, so I could get unlimited Starbucks. You get top shelf liquor, which Robert took more advantage of with like drinking whiskey and going to the different like bars and stuff. They do not skimp on the alcohol in your drink. Like my first day on there, like I feel like on some places where Pretty much a Norwegian, everyone has the drink package because of how they're free at Sea Works and when you're doing things. So they do not skimp on the alcohol. Unlike somewhere like Carnival, where not everyone's going to have the drink package. Sometimes the drinks felt watered down. Like I remember when I drank my strawberry margarita, I took a sip and I was like, Whoa, like that is a strong drink. didn't take a lot. They didn't care. And you would walk up to the bar and say, I want one mudslide and they'd hand you two because you have the drink package. like they just. very much was just drinks were very easy to come by. It's negative about the bars and stuff was they would close or they would open later. Like sometimes a lot of these places didn't open until 4 p.m. So you have like the entire day on like you only have like the pool bar or like the lobby bar. Even like the brewery place didn't open till later, which he was like, it's a brewery. I feel like that should open at lunchtime and not like 4 p.m. Right. But they were very strict about no kids in there. Like we just walked in to see Robert and they kicked me and Kova out real quick. When we walked in just to come tell Robert something. went to... I can't say that I need that though. Yeah. No, I mean, and it was like... understand. Yeah. And thankfully it wasn't busy then and I was just, I just need to go tell my husband something. Like literally my kid kicked me out the door. Yeah, no, not about like the adult section. Like I can understand that because that's happened in Cove Cafe on DCL where like a baby baby was pretty whisked out. I get that. I, cause like now you're seeing these reports that like people are suing these cruise lines for all of their serving over adults. Yeah. Yeah. And like, so I can understand that and I can respect that. I'm not a huge drinker. Yeah. I'm a social drinker. I don't want to be hung over. like, exactly. That's kind of like my stance on it, but I think they're taking a good approach to it because they don't want to get sued. Like these other cruise lines are getting sued for over serving and people are getting injured. Yeah. Yeah. I can understand that. That was his only negative of like, we paid for the drink package. I want to be able to use it. I was like, I don't care because like, again, I'm probably not getting my first drink until one or two o'clock in the afternoon. Like I'm not. I'm not the mimosa drinker in the morning or Bloody Mary or anything like that. Yeah. We did, we had, how many stops did we have? Four stops. So one of them was Great Sturrup Key. It's going through a lot of renovations right now. The pier was, has been working, but while we were there, they had it shut down again because they had the cranes and stuff out on it. The water was very rough on the tender. I mean, like ours was like hitting the water hard. Downside, when we went to get off, they, know, they, if anyone's been on a cruise, you have like an all aboard time. Like the last tender that's going to go back to the ship. They had to extend that time because it was taking the tender so long to get to and from the boat. We probably stood in line to get in our tender for almost an hour. And it was like stretched out across the island because they just couldn't move them. And we were in. port with another Norwegian ship as well. that's their private island, That's their private island. And you can see Perfect Day from Norwegian's private island. And let's just say when you have a kid that loves waterslides and he's staring at Perfect Day going, why aren't we there? Why are we at this one that just has a beach? Why are we not there? I said, well, their waterpark's not open yet. And it's from what I understand that Norwegian's not charging extra for their waterpark when it opens, but perfect day, have to pay extra to use the water park. I'll say perfect day is pretty crowded too. So, all their ships are massive. We paid for a clamshell on the beach at Great Sturkey. We didn't really venture very far away from the beach. Kova had a great time, him and Robert snorkeled. They have a great pool there now that has a swim up bar. And that was probably one of the only times I got kind of tipsy on the ship or on the trip. And I wanted to just take a nap in my clamshell, but... the lady next to me left her phone in her bag and the alarm was going off the entire time I was trying to take a nap. I was really tempted to like dig through this woman's bag to turn her alarm off, but I didn't do it. The island was great. I've only, again, Carnival, I've only been to Half Moon Key that they have. I'm excited to see what it looks like when they get all the renovations done. Cause it is a little bit like, just like when you go to Disney and all the walls are up, like seeing those big cranes and the temporary pier beside the permanent pier that's going to be there. Like it just, It's an eyesore, like when you're looking at those things, but it's fine. We still had fun. We did Jamaica. We did zip lining in Jamaica. Ooh. Which was a great time. I'm terrified of heights, but Kova really, really wanted to do zip lining. And we had a nice talk with him of this is not an inexpensive excursion to do. You're not going to get there and chicken out. Like you're going to get there and do it. Even if you're scared, you got to do it because we're paying for you to do it. I was the one that almost chickened out, not him, but I still did it. I saw your pictures. Like I thought that was great. Yeah. I would never known that you had a fear of heights like that. Gosh, like I think actually the worst part was when you get there, because we went to a place called Mystic Mountain in Jamaica where they have, like we did like this bobsled thing that's like a Alpine coaster or like those coasters. The worst part was riding the chairlift. It's a 15 minute ride from the bottom to the top on this. And like, I'm just like, and Koba keeps leaning over and I'm like, sit back. Sit back, do not. And Robert's like, he's not going to fall out. I was like, I don't care. Sit back. That part was more scary than the actual zip lining. It's not a fear of heights. It's a fear of falling from heights. Right. Like airplanes don't bother me. Roller coasters don't bother me. I don't want to, yes, I don't want to fall and go splat on the ground. That is 100%. That is the fear. That was fantastic. The tour guides from there. Great. Our one tour guide, her name was. Miss Queen and she was very honest of like, do not take anything out of anyone's hands. Do not tell them your name. You can barter for everything. Like stick with me. I'll make sure everything's like, okay. Like she was just very, very much like don't trust anybody. Where did you book these excursions through NCL? I did. So this one was through NCL. And then when we were in Cozumel, we booked a speedboat tour. that Robert and Kova did. I stayed on the ship. And that was our last port day. Robert and Kova did the speedboat tour through Norwegian because only two people could be in the speedboat and we didn't want to have to just have one of us by ourselves. So I just said, y'all go have fun. I'm going to read. I'm going to go to dog breed trivia, which I won. I won dog breed trivia. Of course. I would expect that. I got a death stare from a woman who thought she was going to win, but I beat her by one. Well, obviously that's what you do for a living. I know. I was like, if anyone asked me what my job is, then they would understand. You're cheating. should have just said you're a travel advisor and then you could like, I would have hid my profession. Well, no one asked. And also the downside between Carnival and Norwegian, again, I don't know if this is different on Carnival now. On Carnival when you win trivia, you get like a medallion or what they call a ship on a stick, like a little trophy. On Norwegian, I got bragging rights. She was like, good job. And then they moved on to the next thing. And I was like, but where's my, like, I want something. I want to show I won. of gift stuff? Yeah, Like, couldn't you have had a cocktail or something? I didn't win anything other than bragging rights. Or Starbucks. Mika won the trivia for dumb breeds. did. And the only breed I got wrong, I got 19 out of 20, the only breed I got wrong was the Finnish Laphund, which nobody knew what it was. Like, what is this breed? It's not one that anyone sees. Well, until now, one's going to come in this week to your office. Yeah. And I'm going be like, ⁓ I know what that is. Yeah, right. There you go. And then the only port that we did not book an excursion through Norwegian was Grand Cayman. Grand Cayman is a really safe area to be. It's a nice island. And I actually have a vet friend who went to vet school in Grand Cayman. It's St. Matthews. It's the name of the university there. And she volunteered at a place that's called the Grand Cayman Turtle Center. and they rehabilitate green sea turtles there. so we rode public transportation, which was a dollar 50 a person from the port to the turtle center. I booked the tickets through the turtle center and we got there and we swam with the green sea turtles. You could snorkel with them cause they're like year old turtles that have been bred there and raised because they're trying to bring them back from, you know, extinct, not extinction, but like just where they have low numbers and all the stuff that happens. They have great educational things that they teach you about there. And then they also have a saltwater pool and a water slide. So, Kova got to do that. So, that was one of Kova's favorite things to do was the Turtle Center. Downside to Grand Cayman, everything is very expensive there. We got like, we got chicken tenders, Robert got conch fritters, I think a sandwich. We both got a drink and we got Kova a drink and it was $110. ⁓ So like we knew this that it was not going to be cheap to get stuff like Grand Cayman is just expensive, but everything tasted good. I mean it was great. Grand Cayman is like, cause I mean we've all been to other places where you drive around and it's not the nicest areas or it just looks very run down. Grand Cayman doesn't really look that way. Like when you're driving through, like we drove through in the public transportation, we drove through lots of like residential areas and places like people were getting on and off that were working there that would get on and off the bus as we were going. And it's not the same. I'm trying to think questions for Norwegian as I'm thinking of anything else, if you guys have any questions. I know you mentioned about like your stateroom and the bathroom, ⁓ which is great. Cause I think that Norwegian does a great job with their bathrooms and the shower and not having a curtain. What did you think of like the common spaces, like the atrium? So when I was on, but I was on the Aqua on NCL. And I thought the, I like walked, and I was expecting like an atrium like DCL. Right, like a grand atrium that's big and pretty. I was like, ⁓ this is the atrium. Okay. So what did, I just kind of wanted to know like your thoughts of like the common spaces. So even something like Carnival, they have huge atriums too that go up many, many, many floors. Like you could be up three or four floors and still see down into the atrium like on Carnival. I felt like it was really small. Yeah. Like we walk in and there's like the bar there and then they have like the area where they have like a screen up where they're doing some trivia. And then the Starbucks is off to the side and the shore excursion desk and guest services. But it just felt like just lobby of a hotel kind of is kind of the feeling I got from it. was nothing like you walk in and be like, Ooh, look at the centerpiece. Now there's a picture, like we took some pictures and that area that had this really pretty centerpiece. That was like where some of the restaurants and bars were. And I thought that was a prettier space than where the atrium was. But also Norwegian does not, when you're getting on the ship, they split you by floors of like where your stateroom is and you go into the ship in different spots. So you can go to your muster station and scan your card. Cause they kind of put you in that area of your muster station. So we came onto the ship just like on a random deck, like, then kind of just. into the middle of the ship. there was nothing like, know, DCL, they announce your name and you come into the atrium and it's like this whole thing. Norwegian, just like kind of popped in on deck five and then came around the corner and there's a bar there. Like, and then they tell you, ⁓ where's your muster station? F7, go down this way to the Manhattan room and let them scan your card, scan everyone in your room. So, I mean, like that part was just, spaces were nice. Like I said, the Manhattan room itself was beautiful. It was like a normal. main dining room of a cruise ship, but then taste and savor, the smaller ones were very small. Like one floor, kind of dark. I also felt like the service on Norwegian was really slow. Like we, like when we would sit down for main dining room, like it would be a solid hour and a half, two hours of trying to eat. And that's a lot of time to sit down, to do things. Let me ask about the muster right quick. Was that something you did pre-cruise? And then just scan it because like Royal Caribbean when I did the star you did everything on the app And then you went to the muster station scan like you just said so I wish that something did we would do I wish Disney would just get away from Everybody go to your muster station. We're gonna go through the muster right quick. Yeah, dude on the app So yeah when I checked us in on the app I watched the video three times because I was the one checking us in so I watched and it does not let you skip the video it has to watch the entire video So I watched the video three times when I did the check-in and then we went and just scanned our cards. And then they make an announcement before you're sailing, like they're literally saying names. You haven't scanned into your muster station yet, go. If not, you got to do your own private muster tomorrow morning while we're at Great Sturrup Key and you're going to miss getting off the boat early. Like they literally were like, you have to come tonight or you have to come tomorrow. You will not be allowed off the boat. when they scan that card. I'm sure other cruise lines do this because Kova is a little bit older and likes to scan his own card. Last time he was on a ship, he was two. He's now eight. When he would scan his card, it doesn't make the same sound like an adult's card makes because they have to make sure an adult's with him. They have to actually click a button on the screen that's like, yes, an adult is with him. And then I have to scan my card to prove that I'm with my child. So he can't get off the boat or the ship. I'm sure somebody's going to get mad at me for calling a cruise ship a boat. I also really enjoyed that in the casino, they had a very specific room that had a door for the smoking people. Like it wasn't just like an open smoking. That's good. Yeah. Like on carnival, it's just smoke everywhere in there and you just smell cigarette smoke there. Like literally there is a door that closes and only the people that are smoking are allowed to go in there. And you're only allowed to smoke if you're playing games in the casino. You're not allowed to just go in there and smoke. That's great. Yeah. So that was great. We are old and did not go to any of the shows. We were in bed by 930 almost every night. So you have no, you don't know anything about the shows. I wanted to go, but like I would be like, okay, I'm going to go. then I'd be in such bed at nine. is that, so I've learned me personally that I prefer late dining on a cruise because then I'm out and I You know, so I do the show first, then I go to dinner, then I'm out. Whereas if I do early dining, I do dinner, then a show, and then I'm like in bed. Right. I think like, is it because of like you had like anytime dining where you just kind of like, so I'm just curious. No, I honestly think it was because most of our port calls were 7 a.m. So we're having to be up at like six o'clock in the morning or earlier so we can go get breakfast and be ready to be off the ship. Well, you had excursions. So is that why your port call was so early? Well, mean, the ship getting there, so Great Sturrup Key first tender was leaving at 7 a.m. And so we had stuff. So we wanted to be off because we some of our port calls were like early coming back. Like all the board time was like three o'clock. So if you wanted to do things, you had to be in like on the island or doing whatever you were going to do pretty early. Yeah. So you would actually get time there. The latest one we had was Cosmo, which was 9 45. So that was our latest port call. ⁓ And Robert and COVID didn't even have to meet ⁓ on the pier until like 11 15 or something for their excursion. So that was our latest one. But I really think the most of it was because we had such early mornings. And that we were kind of waking up early that it's really hard to be like, ⁓ I want to stay up till 11 o'clock to watch the show when I need to be up at 530 in the morning. So I'm getting a beach bag packed and making sure we're getting breakfast. And you had a kid with you, which I feel like. automatically makes you go to bed a little earlier because you know you're doing kind of twice as much work and then like if you don't eat you can grab a granola bar and Starbucks and go if you're running late. But a kid, you you want your kids to eat, you want them to wake up, get ready, they're grouchy if they go to bed late, you know. Do they have multiple show times like DCL does? one show. It was like just 8.45. Yeah. So if they would have had an earlier show, I 100 % would have went to like, if there would have been a six o'clock show, I would have been there. Like no problem with that. But they only had one show time. And I really, they had like Deal or No Deal and Wheel of Fortune. And then they had like the Choir of Men. Yeah, like they had some really great stuff I wanted to go see. But again, I get really cranky when I'm tired. And yeah. You want wear yourself out on vacation that you're trying to enjoy. And then you have to come back and go right back to work, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And we went out of Miami, but we flew into Fort Lauderdale because it saved us a lot of money to do that. Even with how expensive, I feel like the lifts and stuff were like a lift from Fort Lauderdale into Miami. And we had to, since we had three big suitcases and there three of us, we had to get the XL. So we'd have an XL. So we just had to spend more money anyway. I feel like it's an hour, it's like an hour Uber. It's not bad. It wasn't bad. And we landed really late that Friday night. Like our flight was delayed. So we didn't even get to our hotel to almost 1230, like technically Saturday morning. into Port of Miami, like I've heard some horror stories lately about the construction and stuff. We didn't really have an issue other than our Lyft driver didn't speak English. And I kept telling her, like when I was trying to get on there, nowhere on my Norwegian stuff, like check in, embarkation stuff, did it say which terminal we were at? I even tried Googling which terminal we were at so I could pick it on there. She took us and dropped us off at the terminal next to it and we had to walk one terminal over with our luggage. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You did a no-no and flew in the same day? No, no, no, no. We flew in Friday night. Technically we were supposed to land at like 10 PM Friday night. And our cruise left on Saturday. we flew in Friday. where did you stay? Where did you say for stayed at a home to suites in Darrell, Miami. I'm thinking you're talking about the Uber from the airport to your hotel. no, no, no, no. Okay, okay, you're talking about the hotel to the port. Yes, hotel to port. Got it. I'm like, you flew in the same day? absolutely not, because our flight was delayed going down there. rick-ski. No, I would never. Never, never, You're a devil. I was like, No, I would not. That's a no-no. And then flying back. No, no. No. flying back, we didn't fly back till Sunday. So we stayed at a home to suites in Fort Lauderdale. So we got there at 10 AM and had to wait till 4 PM for our room to ready. So we just hung out at the hotel. That was a great time. ⁓ I mean, that part, just Miami's just chaotic because there's so many cruise ships there and everything, but we got through very quickly. liked how my passport was already scanned in the Norwegian app, like when I did the check-in. So it was. Super easy. She scanned our passwords, handed us our room keys and was like, okay, have fun. And then we walked up the, or went up the escalator. They gave us a group number to board. We sat there maybe 10 minutes and then they called our group. And like we had a, um, arrival time of 10 or of 11 to 30. So that long. Overall, you enjoyed the cruise. Would you recommend this to other families over a carnival? Yeah, like if you were selling carnival to one or Norwegian to one, who would you carnival to and who would you sell Norwegian to? So carnival to me, so Kova was two the last time we went on one. So we weren't as worried about things at that point he's exposed to. He's not going to remember. I sometimes feel like on carnival, I would be like Kova, you can't be on the pool deck because they're having a twerking competition or. those types of things. Like it's just definitely more like party all the time on Carnival. They're known for more of a party atmosphere. And Norwegian was more family. Like definitely like even the music they played on the pool deck was very family friendly. They had a bicep, like a women's bicep competition, like women being strong. Now, did some of the women like start to dance a little pervokatively because everyone has the drink package? Yes, but it wasn't the same atmosphere as like carnival has. I would definitely recommend like carnival's great. Like if you're in your early twenties and that's what the kind of party atmosphere you want and you can afford to go on carnival, great. Norwegian. felt more family friendly, like COVID did by the end of the week was enjoying going to Splash Academy, wanted to go do that, enjoyed spending time with his friends there. To the point we got one of the mom's phone numbers and we would text and be like, are your kids going to the kids club? Yes, yes they are. Okay. They want COVID to come. Perfect. COVID will come down to the kids club. So Robert and I did get a few like date nights, like to go have dinner together, but I would say I would do Norwegian again. I would want to do. Maybe one of the ships that have a little bit more to do, like they have one water slide and it's like a water slide you have to sit in a tube and they only have one water slide. One of the, our first ski day, the kids pool was closed the entire day. So, Kova couldn't even get in the kids pool that one day, but the adult only pool was open. So, the kids are watching all these adults get in the adult only pool. That's right beside the kids pool and none of the kids can get in, but they did have the splash pad type thing open and the pool. or the water slide, but the line for the water slide was ridiculous because the kids could only do that. ask about how long the line was. So it really long. only one. Yeah, since there was only one. And of course, while we were in port in Miami, Kovace's icon of the seas, and he's like, again, why are we not on that ship? I was like, I get it. That one looks really cool too, buddy. And we were next to Norwegian's brand new ship Luna, which also looked beautiful. We docked next to her in Cozumel as well. Like the ship was just beautiful. But I would pick Norwegian personally for myself over... carnival. That's cool. It's not like you a really you guys one really good thing that Kovas favorite part of the trip, this is my most favorite part of the trip as well, what Kovas told me. I was asking him, because as moms do or even dads, what was your favorite part, Kovas? What did you have the most fun doing? And he looks at me with no prompting and said, spending time with you. And I was like, I was like not lining. was like not zip lining. he was like, no. He goes, but really close second unlimited ice cream. That was, yeah. mean, come on he got that $300 arcade card right did not get the $300 arcade. He also. He loves her and loves spending time with her without that $300. Without the arcade. Right. the arcade card. Without the arcade. Kova's one negative, because I asked him if he had any negatives from the cruise. And this is very much the most eight-year-old answer ever. That the ice cream machines were not open at breakfast. He could not get ice cream at breakfast. I love that answer and I feel like that would be a Scarlett answer because Scarlett is a fan of the free ice cream. That's fantastic. But I just want to say you're doing something right as a mom for that to be his own answer. We were sitting on our balcony enjoying our, you know, my pina colada and his virgin pina colada. He kept those people busy with those virgin pina coladas and we were just sitting on our little balcony together, just having mommy COVID time. And I was just like, This was like our last sea day and I was just like, what, what's been your favorite part? Like, what have you enjoyed the most? And then he says that and I was like, really? That's your favorite part? Like then I'm like over here wanting it. I was like so close to wanting to cry. So close. And I was just like, okay. You're doing a good job. I was like, thank you. I was like, he's like, I've just really enjoyed being to spend all this time. And I was like, thanks. Thank you so much. He was also my sunscreen buddy, but like he was good at applying sunscreen. It sounds like I had a great time. I've enjoyed it. listening to everything and the experience but maybe we'll do a Castle of Cauldrons NCL cruise or I don't know a magical travel cruise on NCL. mean I really want to go on Royal Caribbean like that's our kind of our next one we really want to do is Royal Caribbean. Well that's gonna do it for today's episode. We'll be back with you next week. If you want to get a hold of us, we're at MagicalTravel.com. Any of our great agents over there will be glad to help you with anything that's going on. Whether it's an NCO cruise, or RCL cruise, Disney cruise, anything like that, we can help you. ⁓ You can find us at Castles of Cauldrons on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. Sorry about last week, we did not have a YouTube video for the podcast. We had some technical difficulties. This should be going out fine. but anywhere else we're all Castle of Cauldrons. Until the next time, we will see you on the next episode. Bye.