Royal Caribbean Wonder of the Seas | First Cruise Tips & Theme Park News

Jason: Grab your mouse ears and ready your wands, you're tuning in to 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 Dygon Alley, you'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 episode sixty-eight of Castles of Coldens. I'm your host, Jason Davis. We have everybody back today. Terry is back from her wonder of the seas. Rachel is back from Disney Magic in Alaska. Micah never left. And then I was back last week. So Micah's the lone non cruiser for the past. Micah worked. Yeah. I did. I did work. I did but I worked too. I worked while I was there. You did. My location wasn't quite as beautiful as yours though. It was pretty spectacular. I can't wait to hear about your experience and everything next week when we talk about that and you know, maybe what your your to do's and not to do's type stuff. I really Icy Strait. I've never been to that one. So we're actually looking at doing that cruise for the next next trip we did if we take one up there. Terry's gonna talk about her Royal Caribbean at the ⁓ second half of the show. I thought this was your husband's first cruise, not just both of y'all's first cruise. No, yeah, no, it's mine too. When you went on that massive ship as your first cruise. I feel like I'm kinda spoiled now. Like when y'all were talking about smaller ships, I was like, Do I wanna go smaller? Like I felt like everything was cozy and nice and I kinda liked this how it spread out. Like If I didn't want to do something over here, I had like plenty of options over here. That was like the positive of Star was like if you didn't want to be with everybody else, there was a place for you to go. And there was It's really weird that it's I think that they said there was like seven thousand people on the ship and then like twenty five hundred crew members, but there were still places that you could go, like in public, not just your room, but in public and you were like alone. Like you would walk through places and I was like, That's insane. If there's a ship you can do that on. Yep. It's always just crazy, those big ships like that, and then you can get away. So ⁓ we'll we'll start with news like usual, and we'll start with some some cruise news. Captain Maria Gozor ⁓ was named the first female captain for the Disney cruise line for the Disney Wish. I think that's newsworthy. That's pretty cool. That's awesome. What was what was one for ⁓ celebrity that made the huge TikTok phone? Yeah, Captain Kate. She had a cat. She had a Sphinx cat, I think. Or some sort of cat. I think that's the cool thing is like, you know, f the females d in those positions are usually more apt to do social media like that. You know, so it's seeing the behind the scenes and whatnot of what the ships are like and an everyday life. You're not gonna usually see the the male dominated people do like take his time like, ⁓ yeah, this is what I do. So it's it's cool to maybe we'll get that side of the Disney wish and a day in the life type stuff for her. Yeah. That'll be ex that that I mean, that would be fun 'cause I remember on TikTok and Instagram, I definitely followed like Captain Kate on there and saw her different things and it was kinda cool. Like she would show stuff from the bridge or like this is what we're doing today, this is the how we plan the day and I just thought it it really kinda gave you a look into like what does it mean to actually be the captain of like a ship like that. And it's I think a lot more work than what people think it's gonna be. Well social media wise, the Siobhan shared a video of the pilots that come up up to the bridge. It's a pilot. Yeah. The destiny was she posted that and like, here's the pilot coming to help the bridge and they pass our room. So that was really cool. Was like we're our room was on there if we had just ⁓ woken up at three o'clock in the morning to open the door. Yeah, so I'm surprised it took Disney this long to actually have a female captain. I f kind of figured it in It was Captain Minnie first. That's correct. No, but no, you're right. She's really smart. Like this captain. I mean, and not that you but she was an attorney before she was. Well, I didn't know that. That's crazy. Yeah, like she has like like a nautical engineering degree after she like became an attorney. So it's like w what can't you do? And now I almost feel like you you trust her more because you're like, ⁓ you're like you're you're for real smart. Like Yeah. I'll put my life in your hands for real now because like who c and she's kinda pretty. So you're like you just got all the you are genetically blessed. We're some of us smart. While we're talking Disney, the six Ravens, which is the Gideon's cookies company, their ⁓ new project, they re they released their menu. It's Like hot pockets, homemade hot pockets. They call them coffin. ⁓ C O F F Y N. And it's a hand pie from yeast rolls stuffed with savory foot fillings. Prices look like they're like okay. They're like eleven dollars. And then they have some size of sweets and drinks. So you're probably able to get your your coffin and one of the Gideon cookies in there. So this is like medieval type theming, I'm assuming. Yeah. It's like a wizard something or another. I'm trying to find the menu right now. Okay, so the only one I would like is the breakfast one. The Rooster's Roar. I think that's the only one I could eat. I was looking at the cheeseburger one. It looks like bar food just with a twist and a different name almost. Yeah, the Wizard's Wonders, the one you were talking about, Terry. It has mac and cheese with pickled peppers and pulled pork and barbecue seasoning. Yeah. It looks like it has ⁓ beer, a couple sweet treats. Yeah, they're they're nothing A sweet treat and then mashed potatoes. But yeah, they they don't have the cookies there. They just have the tarts Timtest. Yeah. A Gideon's chocolate chip tart filled with chocolate fudge and topped with the rans raspberry jam. Does seem like somewhere if you're a kind of a beer enthusiast that you would enjoy. Well, I wonder if you can customize them. IPA. That's also what I was wondering. ⁓ when he said pickled peppers like in the ⁓ Wizards Litter. I would not want those. Right. It's not a big pocket pre made. One without the pickled poblano peppers. Yeah. Yeah, but like do you think that it's already pre-made and you can't get it made to order? I don't know. At the bottom, hold on. It says something about allergy. Like the allergies to speak with a cast member. The location cannot guarantee any items or completely free of allergen. So I don't know if they can like are they fixing them in the back and then running ⁓ through like a toaster or are they like Are they just frozen? Like are they frozen and sent in and then they're frozen? But they might be prepped early in the morning. Yeah, that's what it that's what I'm thinking. Because the cookies aren't frozen. They make those every day and and they they have people back there cooking ⁓ Like the bread would be fresh every day. And they would prep just a certain number of each type, maybe. Or maybe they do make ⁓ to order. I guess it depends on how long they're No, it says like the the breakfast one is just served until they run out. Like they only make a certain amount. So they only pre done. Yeah. Yeah. The location for this is the old Art of Shaving building. It's our storefront. That's just a couple of stores down from where a Gideon's bakehouse is itself. So it's It's good it's it's gives you another option if you don't wanna stop and eat inside one of the restaurants in Disney Springs. It gives you some handheld like the It is a very like easy walkable type food. And and it's different. I mean it is different than like do you wanna go here and get like a sandwich or do you wanna go here and get pool pork? Like being from North Carolina, pool pork is good, but I just get tired of eating it and I yeah I for the place is not coming to my brain right now. What's the name of it, Micah? Yeah, polypate. I wanna call it I wanna call it polypocket and I knew that wasn't right. And it that's delicious, but being from North Carolina, we get pooled pork all the time. So like I feel like we either have a really good like barbecue place to go to or Mexican food, and that's kind of our only options to eat on She's really right. Those are our or steakhouse. We don't even have that. So I do like this option where you can like Like it's a handheld, you can carry it around, but it's not something you can like maybe go to your hometown and get. It's a special treat in in Disney. And what makes it better is like at night when you're at Disney Springs 'cause they're really good with the ⁓ entertainment, being able to go to different Yeah musicians they have and whatnot. So having something like this be able to walk up and watch the d guy playing the didri do or you know, the rock band, the rappers, whatever they have going on. You can just stand there and eat and not worry about you know, dropping your sauce all over the place from your hamburger. Mm-hmm. Yeah, 'cause I ⁓ this is a different thing for ⁓ Gideon's actually just ⁓ celebrated like their tenth anniversary the other day. In Disney Springs? And in general. ⁓ my that's been there for ten years. I was like, holy crap. They have the winter garden location, I think it is. And that's the ten year. But ⁓ yeah, this this stepping outside their zone. So they probably want to make sure that quality's what they want it to be and Changes you might want to do. Yeah. That's the Disney news that we have. We'll move over to my favorite stuff, the Universal. And it's your favorite. Yeah, not much was happening with Disney. Yeah, besides some partnerships. There's some cool like some little things. Yeah. Partnerships. Heinz is coming over now, visceral sauce for Disney, so you can have Heinz ketchup and mustard and all that instead of the brand. Well, yeah, I agree. It's great. It's they're making it bigger than what it is. Because it's Heinz. A new some new cloth lines and all that stuff. We'll have a lot of Disney news in a couple weeks when it comes to ⁓ D twenty three coming around. So that's that'll be a very Disney heavy episode. Over at Universal though, Thunderfalls at Universal's Island of Adventure is now closed. They're going to transform it to the signature dining that will be taking the place of Mythos. ⁓ that's supposed to close later this year or beginning of next year. I can't remember exactly when, but Thunderfalls is that quick service. Right when you're coming out of Toon Lagoon before you get to ⁓ Skull Island. It was okay food. I think I've eaten there once. I don't think I've ever gotten anything from there. It it won't be missed for me, but it won't I'm excited to see what they they do there. Mm-hmm. And then the refurbishment for Jurassic Park is like going really well from what I've seen with pictures, like all the animatronics are getting redone. So on the river adventure. On the river adventure. Yeah. So good. Are they gonna switch it over to Jurassic World or are they gonna keep it Jurassic Park? Because this based off off the book, since that's what the original idea was for islands, was literature. That makes sense. Well, even though they've gotten away from it. H H N stuff? Go ahead. No, I was just gonna ask how that does like I I didn't know if like Jurassic World, Jurassic Park. I know they're the same thing, but like if licensing is different of who gets what and all that. Universal owns it all. So I mean 'cause they have both there. They have like Velocicoaster and they have the like they have Camp Cretaceous and they have Jurassic Park. So they kinda have all of the versions or parts of the franchise kind of there. I like that. Yeah. It's very much over in Hollywood if if you remember that it's like very Jurassic World. Like they re they did redid Jurassic Park, River Adventure to Jurassic World and they kind of would lean heavily into that and they're keeping Park over here. I kinda wish they would do the Jurassic River Adventure the same as Hollywood because I love all the video screens and how they do the Mosasaurus thing at Hollywood. Like I just really like that part, but Yeah, it's it's the same ride other than that. Like they And they put the Andromeda's Rex or whatever they call it from the in the end instead of the Z Rex. ⁓ moving to the f the best time of year, the HHN announcements. We did get the confirmation of Evil Dead Burn as a house. This was at one I when I actually wrote the show notes, the rumor was that h this had already gotten pulled, that they something going wrong with the IP and the contracts and everything. They were gonna pull it. But they're gonna keep it. I'm going to give a disclaimer. There is A lot of people who hate when dead animals show up in a house and they go up and there's a dead dog in the movie somewhere. I haven't seen the movie. I've heard it's really bad, but there will probably be a dead dog in this house. Yeah, but it's gonna be fake. I mean, yeah, like the fake horse last year. Yeah, but was there a fake horse? That's that's the only time I got scared by an animatronic or just scared the whole time 'cause I was making jokes about the dead horse laying out there and then I turned around and there was animatronic in my face. I don't remember the dead horse last year. It was one of the last houses. One of the last houses we went to like 2 a.m. Okay, that's probably why I remember it was the demon the western demon. It was the western style house, like a train going through it or something like that. It was not that scary from the scary scaredy cat over here. It was not that scary. So a few years ago there was a the triplets of horror and there was a dead dog in that one where they had like the intestines of the dog across and people were very mad and they actually ended up taking the dog carcass out. I could tell you if it's accurate, like an anatomically correct. That's what we're gonna do. A dog on it. ⁓ wait, look, they that that's the spleen. They got the liver out there. I was just gonna say, is this the spleen? I'm pretty sure it's a feline spleen. It's the same intestines they use for kid for the the Humans and any other animals. I mean intestines look like intestines. I mean, there's not a huge difference to what those are like a liver looks like a liver. I mean, it's an organ. This is great. The we'll give you the the hard hitting information after this when we go through the Evil Dead house in October. I'll let you know if I can save the dog. She does need to go through the house and be like, That's wrong. That's wrong. That sounds an out of time to the house. Yeah. No. Dog would not still be alive and barking right now. I don't understand why. So we're waiting on one more house to be officially announced. ⁓ last week, though, Pandora started running an ad for an Ozzy Osborne-themed house. Like Sid Universal has not officially announced it. So it's If that's the case, then that's gonna be our last house and I'm excited for it. Actually there's a guy at work who's big into metal and he's a loves Ozzy and he's been wanting to go to H H N and needs a reason to. I'm like, here it is. Ozzy Osbourne. So I'm I'm excited for it 'cause that's good music. There gotta be bats in it. On bad things for H H N, Fortnightmares is a s officially a scare zone and this has gotten Fortnite video game. A lot of people are very mad at this because Fortnite isn't scary. ⁓ Should should I get my son to teach me how to do the gritty before I go so I can just do that the whole weekend? DJ do you think it do you think it was because like so they can get like teenagers in? Yes. Yes, I think that's one hundred percent promotional. They one of the people I follow on X has said that this is actually gonna go in the Central Park scare zone, so where the cat lady was last year. Okay. ⁓ but that was such a good scare zone. I w I want that to be like the one up front where all the statues were. Yeah, like small, not as much going on. Like you're walking in, it's not scary. Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna say 'cause they do have like skins that come out. With every Fortnite season and they sometimes are scary. So is that kind of what they're kinda do but that doesn't affect gameplay, it's just the skin you're wearing is scary. So what it would be is if the skin is linked to another IP, the Universal can't use it because they have to go to that IP to s get permission to use it in there. But they could almost do it like this is a Fortnite release for Halloween Horror Nights and they have specific things in the video game that's a little horror night. A little boo costume. That would be pr pretty fun. I'd play Fortnite for little boo. Yeah. There was a howl What? It sounds like a rapper. Little Boo. Little Boo. Little Boo. Little Boo. There was a ha there was a scare zone a few years ago. I think it was like two years before I started going. It was the show FaceOff. I don't know if y'all remember that show on Sci Fi where it was a makeup heavy show. I love that show. They do special effects makeup and that was everybody was like, Why is this a scare zone? Like I d I don't understand. I can see that. Like, I mean, the people were really talented, but some of the stuff was terrible. Yeah. I love the show. I watched it up until the it ended, so I loved watching that show. But I think like you said, they have to have some in there to draw a not HHN crowd. I get that, but at the same time as you've you fully enveloped this whole the theme of the event is throughout the park for the past three or four events. And this one They're you're like, this is gonna do the same thing. But Oddfellow and Jack don't really go into Fortnites too ma too much and I unless they release a skin for I was gonna say, what if it's a partnership within a partnership? Yeah. No, because Disney has the big leading thing. They put a bunch of money into Epic, which is Fortnite. So I don't know if Yeah, but Fortnite has like even wearing like a Kim Kardashian skin in there. Like they don't have an allegiance, I feel like, to a Kim Kardashian skin. And my kids put on this they put on the nude Kim Kardashian. You how she wears her body suits that look like Latex. They have ⁓ every color. And they'll put that on and go fight in their little games as Kim Kardashian in Fortnite to be funny. So I know what I'm wearing to H H N when we go. I'm gonna wear a latex bodysuit. Love it. So I think the bottom line for Universal is like every other business is it's money and people are aging out of certain stuff. So you've gotta you you've gotta constantly bring in a new customer. Yeah. And so you edge them in and you're like, okay, we're going for Fortnite, but we're staying for Evil Dead Burn House, Aussie House, blah, blah, blah. Getting them in the door to buy a ticket is numero uno. So the bad thing though with Fortnite, if it's gonna be in the Central Park scare zone is that That's a small area for a bunch of people to be in. It's it's super foggy usually. And you're gonna put all the teens in that? No, it's a small area so they don't have to like fill it out with a bunch of like stuff because Fortnite's not scary. They can take like a bunch of little things. Yeah, I don't think it's gonna be popular. I think it'll be more of like a walkthrough. Where it's like Okay, I don't feel like any the club one last year. Like that was very much like a pass through walk. Like you kinda like dance with it, but you're walking through. Like But mom and dad will buy the ticket for you and your friends to go there. So Universal gets the money, but there's not one last year and I they're conf they're saying that the club is coming back. But they that was actually really popular within the community last year. A lot of people are going in and hanging out. I wanted to go up on the little blocking dance. Like I she tried to be the cocoa dancer. So I think I think with the Fortnite stuff that what that's what you're going to potentially get is like Kit the teenagers hanging out in that area. Which on the ⁓ on the one hundred percent flip of that is that the the really big goers, I'm not so much on this side, but like the teenagers ruin the event in some cases 'cause they're so over dramatic in places and they don't they're not polite to people. They're always cutting lines and doing all that. So you mean their teenagers are acting like teenagers? They're teenagers. But they're you're you're You're you're old man yelling at the clouds right now, Jason. Like I told Matt last week. I was like, Welcome to forty. You're now old man. Get off my log. I do want the teens to come in and have fun and bring this event. Like keep it popular. They gotta keep it popular. Yeah. Right. But I just I want there to be I don't want the Tokyo thing, 'cause Tokyo just announced too today that or yesterday that they will have an eighteen and over house. And it's a separate tip separate event, like a separate ticket. But you go through that. I would love for Universal to go, okay, we're gonna try that here at at Orlando. But but I I want everybody to have a good time. I don't want kids I don't want kids running and walk. It's fun. I'm I'm not excited about Fortnightmares though. So I think it'll be quick, it'll be easy. It's a get people in the door situation, but it won't be overwhelming. Yeah, it's it's it's the last one on my scare zone list. If and it might move up depending on how well they theme it or not. I don't know how you theme a Fortnite scare zone. I think it's gonna be wearing skins. Honestly, I think it's just Well I'm talking about like the actual theming of the area, you know, like how do you build up around there for the scare? 'Cause I feel like that's how Fortnite is is purple. Yeah, they're gonna have a big blimp just flying over Universal every night. Yeah, it's a big blimp people can fall out of. They do have the impending like tornado thing that like what's that the storm that comes in when you play Fortnite? So maybe it'll be like a stormy something. I don't know. I don't play video games. I never let my kids play Fortnite. So I know nothing about Fortnite. I could tell you about Minecraft. But not Fortnite. We played PUBG. We didn't play Fortnite. Moving on to more HHN. Red Coconut, which is the club up in City Walk. It's on the second floor across from Cowfish. They're theme it to Dead Coconut Club Harvest. So probably gonna be incorporated into the alien abduction house that they have to expect corn and scarecrows, stuff like that. It's usually pretty fun. Beth likes to go in there and get her dance on. I like to sit there and drink. So And watch Beth dance. And watch your wife dance. Yeah. Like a good husband. Yeah, because I don't dance. I'm probably the worst dancer in the world. Then you and Andy will be Andy cannot dance. Awesome. Well not a great dancer either. Well me and Beth will dance and you and Andy can watch. Last bit of H H N news we have. ⁓ frequent fear passes are now on sale. Like we talked about last week, that they are just tickets this year. There's no express pass option for these how for these tickets. So, you know, say goodbye to those. But I haven't gotten mine yet. I usually I'm a really bad person. I usually wait until the last minute to buy mine. But I'm not going opening weekend this year. So it's all good. ⁓ they did announce a new RIP tour. You can choose between one and two. It's a five house RIP tour. They start at $300 per person. Now that should be noted. That it depends on the day that you go 'cause those RIP tours all fluctuate in pricing. So the dynamic day based pricing. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So five houses you can choose the north or the south, and that's the five houses you get. So it would probably be like the sound stages or the tents. Are they gonna and do you think do do they announce which houses are included? Yeah, that's what it is. Like the north north and south. You choose which one it is and I know, but is that do they release like the map or something first before you do it? They'll probably not. Do you don't know which houses you're choosing? I do not know that. I have not seen it. Terry knew that I was is Express Pass included after the RIP tour? So what? Is Express Pass included for the rest of your night after the RIP tour if you're only doing five houses? Not for the houses. It's only for attractions. And that's for a regular R R IP. And I assume for this R. I. P. I haven't looked too much into this one because if I do it, I'm gonna do ten house R. I. P. But ⁓ yeah, that's gonna be the the thing is I don't wanna do five houses if I'm doing R. Ip. I wanna do the house. I feel like it would be worth it if it included express afterwards. So like then you could go do the other houses not on R IP tour. Yeah, but that's that's been a thing for years. I've don't As long as I remember, RAP tours have never included R express for the house afterwards. It's always just been for attractions. Right. I mean, 'cause you don't really need it though, because if you're doing a regular RIP, they're gonna get you through all the houses plus again if you wanted to do it again. So Well, if you do the regular RIP, it is ten houses and you're put with a random group. If you pay for your private RIP, that's when they go and take you into the house as much as you want. Right. So that's the one I'm not doing the private, I do the group of ten and go in there with them because that's a little bit cheaper. And it's worth it because you go to the Jimmy Fallon bar and get a stand up there and oversee stuff. You get some free food. I'm looking at doing that the Sunday before the VIP trip that a bunch of us are taking. So the last thing we have is not theme park related so much, but it's baseball related, which could be big for the banana people if bananas are still big in banana fifteen years. The Orlando Dreamers is a baseball team they're trying to get to come to Orlando and they're if I remember the number right, it's nine hundred and forty five million dollars they're trying to get to build a stadium near Aquatica, which is the water park for SeaWorld. Puts it right dead in the middle of Universal and Disney. I think it's good for tourism, you know. Yeah. And the banana people, you know, if They sit there and say, Hey, we're gonna have the bananas in Orlando, they'll actually have a full state baseball stadium now versus ESPNY World and Disney will probably put a bunch of money into this stadium to kinda help it out. I mean, it's the dreamers for a reason. Yeah. Who who likes the bananas? Like who likes banana ball? Nobody on this podcast. Bananas are selling out football stadiums, so they're gonna need something bigger than a triple A Well, they still go to the smaller stadiums too. To make it more intimate. They still like to do the small stadiums. But that's gonna do it for news. We will be back after this for Terry's cruise trip as she scarves down cookies. 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 a hundred percent complimentary when you book a vacation package with one of our knowledgeable agents. Request a free quote to start the planning process at www.magical travel dot com. Mention our podcast to be connected with one of our agents you are listening to. And we're back. Terry just got back from Miami off the wonder of the seas. This was her her and her husband's first cruise ever. And I know I alluded last week that it was her husband's first, but I was misinformed. For once in my life I was wrong about something once. Also for some reason thought Terry had been on a cruise when he was younger. I thought for conversation on a cruise ship, like in college, you know, where they advertise where you take the cruise ship, but you like cruise to the Bahamas. It's not overnight. You like it's like it operates like a ferry. Yeah. Yeah. But I and it's like a out of commission cruise like so it's old and So I had technically been on a cruise ship, but I had never been on a cruise. Okay. And you went on a very large ship. You did? You went on an Oasis class, Royal Caribbean, which is the wonder of the seas. Which was not on purpose. I looked for a short itinerary because they do get sick deep sea fishing. So when I was doing my research, I wanted to do Royal Caribbean or something along those lines. And ⁓ this was the shortest itinerary and like the eight days of dates we had that we could actually not have something going on and we could get away. So off before recording we said that ⁓ you you told us your state room number you were on deck fourteen. Yes. And you had a veranda state room. An ocean view veranda. Not a neighborhood veranda. Yes. Big different ⁓ Yeah, I forget that Royal Caribbean does have the inside facing verandas and also just regular inboard staterooms that face the Central Park area and the kids' areas. Andy and I are going on the same ship, the Wonder of the Seas, in September. And I'm doing a seminar at sea with Royal Caribbean and our rep Roxanne and some other people. We have a neighborhood facing balcony. And they're very pretty. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've I've never had a a neighborhood facing I've never been on the LASIS class, so I'm very I'm looking forward. I can't wait to hear what you have to say about it. ⁓ so but yeah, I'm glad that you had an ocean view 'cause I think that for a first timer, that was perfect. Well that's what we had heard from one of my friends who's he's also tall. And he said the first time he went on a ship, his wife just got a random room and it had a small window and he's like, I felt claustrophobic, which I'm sure like like Andy would feel in a room. Like, you know He's like, so make sure he has a balcony where he can see the ocean. He's like, 'cause the next one we went on, he's like, it was a game changer. He's like, I didn't have like the claustrophobic everything's closing in on me feel feeling. And then with Matt, you know, he gets, you know, seasick. Someone was like, Well, make sure you can see the horizon, because that helps. ⁓ so that's why you went high up. That's why we went high up. That's why we went with a veranda. And I even texted, ⁓ when I was looking at the the layout, I texted Micah, ⁓ and I was like, okay, where on the ship do I want to be? What do I want above me? What do I want below me? And she did a great job of like, don't if there's a club, don't be under a dance club. Be wary, like of restaurants and like moving chairs. So I mean, and we couldn't have gotten a better room. I mean, I don't know what it was like if we were under those things, but we didn't hear anything. It's almost like Micah's a travel advisor. Yeah. It almost is just like You know, she knows what she's talking about. No, also, I think I also recommended more middle of the ship for less movement. And also, like if you can look at the deck plans, if you can have like other state rooms above you and below you, that's gonna be the quietest. Yes. So when she was asking about that, also I've heard, I don't know, 'cause I've been a lot of places, the lower you are on the ship, the less movement you feel too, because there's less like room. So 'cause you have like, you know, if you think about things on there, like if it's all the way up here, that's gonna rock more than down here. So when you said that has like motion sickness and you said deck fourteen, I'm like, I'm gonna do like lower. Yeah. Like more like eight. Yeah. Can you tell us your itinerary right quick that you like? Well, we left out of Miami and then we we had two days. So first day was Coco C, second day was Nassau. And then we docked back in Miami. So it's three nights total. Yeah. Like for me, three nights is not enough. And I know even for a first time cruiser, like that's just it's like you're unpacking your stuff and then you're packing it back up and like it's just it's too short. The four day that we just did with the Destiny, it was perfect because we we were able to kind of get used to everything, then pack it all up and get gone. Yeah. So we did a three night itinerary? It was three nights, yes, the shortest one I could find when we were starting to I'm going on a four night. So you'll have like like you said, it's it's a huge ship. We didn't do everything. Obviously we don't have time to we couldn't have. It was a good if he would have been miserable, then it was like, Okay, we didn't spend that much time on the ship. And it was short enough that like we like, ⁓ we've gotta get off now. You know, like we weren't like, Okay, it's time to get off. Yeah, sometimes at the end of vacations you're like This has been fun, but I'm really ready to get back home. I wanna do you know, I want my shower, I want my bed. It was a good like, ⁓ okay, now when can we book the next one? Yeah, it gives it leaves you wanting more if you really enjoyed it. If you didn't enjoy it, then it was like this is perfect 'cause I can get off. I'm done. Yes. Did you book a next cruise while you were on No, because my kids really want to do a Disney cruise. So we did not do a next that's this is the test drive before the Disney basically. I would say this is a good cruise if you're with people that maybe don't have a lot of time off, you know, so they can only get so much time off vacation wise. Or maybe they're they don't want to be on a cruise that maybe they're older or, you know, they have smaller kids. They don't want to be quote unquote trapped on a boat, ship. So you know, but other than that, if you're a normal family that cruises or vacations a lot, I would say three nights is not enough. If you need it's a great ship, but I like Rachel, I would enjoy it longer than the three nights. So real quick with their loyalty program, it's the Crown Crown and Anchor, isn't it? It is Crown and Anchor, yeah. And they're so Disney's is based off of cruise. So you get it's five cruises, then you cruise. Yeah. And it's after the cruise. So your first cruise is after your first cruise you get silver. After your fifth cruise you get gold. Royal Caribbean is per night, correct? It's not it per night. It also depends on what category you book. So ⁓ if a standard balcony or standard room is one point, if you book a suite category, it's two points per night. So they do have different point accumulation options. And right now there is a right now they're doing double, but I think by the time it's airs it probably will be over. They did it for a very short window for double points. So that but that is something to work towards like in the future that's something that they have done. Yes. And then Just ⁓ stuff we've talked about here right before we get into Terry's full on. A next cruise, Rachel, what what exactly is that? It gives you ⁓ a like a a little bit of a discount rate. Yeah, so you put two hundred dollars down for your next cruise and you know, just like future cru cruise credit for Disney cruise and stuff like that. But that they You mean placeholder? Yeah. Yeah. It's called next cruise for the Royal Caribbean placeholder for Disney Cruise line. Yes. And The big thing with Royal is actually a desk on the ship too. You can do it in the app, I I think, but there is an actual area on the ship where you can go and say, I want to do this. So just Yeah, you don't have to select the the nice thing about the next cruise is that you don't have to select it. Like you don't have to pick your itinerary and you can also gift it. ⁓ that is nice. So like if I was on it and I grabbed a next cruise, I could gift it to a client. So that is something that Royal Caribbean does do differently, which I kind of appreciate. Yeah, I was gonna say Disney is if you book you book it in your room, it is yours. You can book one. Somebody else in your room can book one, I think, and it can be T B A. So yes. So the way that works for well, are we switching to Disney? Or are you gonna be for like for comparison of like what one company does versus the other? So like Disney Cruise line like if I was a lead guest. I did pick a placeholder on my Alaska cruise last week. So I have one. If my husband wanted to or if I wanted to do two, like my mom did two placeholders, the second one is a T B D. But the kicker with Disney Cruise line is that if you have two placeholders and one is a T B D person, it has to be the same sailing, same dates. Right. So both placeholders have to be booked for the same exact thing. I can't do like one this year or one in six months. It's got to be the same sailing. Just wanted to give that out there for reference since the next cruise was mentioned, what that is, what that entails versus somebody 'cause we talked about Disney last week. We're gonna talk about Disney next week. That's kind of gives us ⁓ like a comparison of of these two brands. And they're they're pretty comparable when it comes to family cruising now. Royal Caribbean and Disney very much in the same market when it comes to trying to get the families to cruise together because the newer icon and Oasis class have really good kids' clubs and whatnot. Yeah, I am correct. Well, Terry didn't experience the kids' clubs on hers 'cause there were no kids in her in her party. So I'm going kid free as well. So Terry, let's adult this up. Yes. Great. And when I went online I was no kid, so we didn't even walk in. Terry, what did did you get drink packages? Did you do any extra dining? Anything like that that was over the price of your cruise? We did with money prices though. A drink package, because with Royal we did the deluxe that included alcohol as well because we were like, look, if we buy bottle water, I have to have diet soda all day. It's gonna pay for itself. And I with drinks, if we we I think we figured if we got I think we pre ordered it before the cruise, so it was like eighty dollars a day per person. And we did the math that if we bought like a bottle of water, two sodas and two mixed drinks a day, it would basically equal eighty dollars. So we were like we kinda be silly. And on Royal Caribbean, if I'm not mistaken There's a Starbucks literally on the cruise. That's not included. But all the other shops or cafes and things that serve the Starbucks coffees, but you can also get like your lattes, everything else, those are included. So it's Starbucks coffee, quote unquote, it's included, but the Starbucks restaurant is not included. So like someone like Micah who enjoys coffee, it's like a workaround that system. They probably serve Starbucks or yes. And like you don't have like the seasonal drinks, like whatever they have now, like the butterfly or whatever. Like you don't have the that's such a good drink. It is. On board. Well, if you upgrade your drink package, it is. So we got the one that included ⁓ Starbucks. And it was like you walked into an actual Starbucks, they the like where you've been mugs and stuff that had the Norwegian encore and all that. So yeah. Did you do the main dining or did you do specialty dining? We did main dining, but I did want to say with the drink package, if you do the deluxe drink package, you have to do it for everyone in your party. They don't allow so like if my husband and I went with our kids, we would have to buy it for all four of us. Well the kids because they're underage would be a freshman package. Yeah. Yeah. But Like they have to have a package of some sort for age. Yes. So, you know, I couldn't buy one and then Matt didn't then I go and buy two drink I get two drinks every time I go to the bar and hand him one. So Right. That's why they did it. Yeah. It was because people were sharing the package and then double ordering and then gifting. So that's why they made that role. They they used to make, I don't think they do it anymore, but if you're like sober and someone in that party, they don't care. Nope. They will not make exceptions. Nope. Because too many people weren't the system. Because too many people lied and said those things so that they only have to pay for one package. So yeah. If you're in a room with a non drinker, you will just pay a la carte for your drinks. Yeah. Yeah and that's 'cause like neither Matt or I are like big drinkers. Like we're not gonna go out and get drunk every night. We're not drink butter pool, pina colada every drink. So if we were with people like in our party, just say we had one big group, it wouldn't benefit us to for everyone the party. to pay for the deluxe package for us to drink because it just wouldn't be worth it. But so they will ask for each of your your ⁓ your sailing pack what do they call it? The sail, the pass, C pass. C pass. Every time. So I brought ⁓ with me because I adopted Rachel's method. I had telethides with me. Yes. So I ha I bought lanyards for like four bucks off Amazon and I deconstructed them and put ⁓ and like so Matt wore his little teletai, my hair twisty, all in the emotion like a lot of people like ask about ⁓ and I was like, ⁓ I made ⁓ Like a friend told me and at first Matt like, I'll keep it in my pocket. No, he didn't want to wear the bracelet. And he keeps stuff in his pocket. He got to where he just like kept it on his hand 'cause like every drink you get, they do make both people present their things before they will make the drink. So even if we were there together, they wouldn't swipe mine twice to hand one drink to him and one drink to me. Like you you both have to present them. So it does make it a lot easier if you don't want to wear the lanyard. Coming to the Cassian Cauldron's ⁓ merch shop that we will open. We do need to do these 'cause like everybody was like, Where'd you get that? I was like, I sat in my bed and I made them in Miami before we low price of twenty dollars per Yeah, right? Yes, exactly. If you don't like the Castle Cauldron's logo, it's gonna have the magical travel logo on the other side. There you go. Andy and I did not get a drink package. Well, like, we don't drink enough to justify the call. I gonna say if you don't drink, it's not if you're just gonna enjoy like a glass of wine with dinner or pay it off. Like if we were with the kids, honestly, like I said, we don't we don't drink a lot, but even with the kids we would drink less than we drink. Of course, 'cause you have to Because for with the kids. Watch the kids, yeah. Yeah. So that was what spoiled me on the star was because it was a media thing. They gave you a drink package? I got the drink package for free. So I didn't have to pay for it. And so I didn't have to scan anything. So I didn't even it was just walk up to the bar, grab whatever I wanted, and they just here you go. So I I never saw a bill, I never saw anything like that. It spoiled me. And that even goes into like the cokes and 'cause did I drink a lot? Yes. I didn't dr like over drink. I wasn't drunk the entire time. Yeah, but you've enjoyed yourself. Yeah. It was at breakfast I could go to the freestyle machine and grab my ⁓ Dr. Pepper and didn't even think about it. And now here I am, like and I've only cruised Disney outside of that one Royal where all that stuff's included besides the alcohol. And we pay a la car for that. But so It was Royal now with the deluxe drink package which alcohol, the freestyle cup like Jason was just talking about, is not included. You have to pay five dollars for the cup. But if you buy the drink package below that, that's just the so freestyle package. It's and then you do get the cup with it. So we each bought a cup for five dollars. It's worth it. Kids love it for the souvenir. We get back, you know. You have so many Disney cups and every cup you go to, but so that is not included, but it's only five dollars. So it's not a big deal. Did you watch the price of that? Like before we booked it, watch it? Or like did we like keep counting our head like as we were buying? No, no, no. Like did you like when you bought it for like the eighty bucks a person per day, did you after you bought it, like did you go back in and like watch the price? Because Yes. Okay. And ⁓ that was the best price point? Yes. And I'm pretty like we booked ours pretty late. I I say late because a planner, but we booked it in February for July. Yeah, okay. So those started coming out I will say around March, April. And They kept promoting it throughout, but I think I wanna say it went to like a hundred dollars. You know, it goes something closer. You did get a good price. Yeah, and then on the ship the first day within the first twenty-four hours, they still offer it, but it's yes, more than any of those. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. The reason I asked was today, ironically. So Andy and I bought the deluxe dining package for our wonder sailing because we were on the Either the independence or the freedom, we've been on both. And we're not a fan of the I mean, it's also a freedom class, but like we're not a fan of the main dining room. Yeah. So that's why I wanted to buy the special dining. So I bought it a couple months ago. I paid four twenty four for a four night sailing for Andy and I. That's total. Today I went on it. That was at thirty percent discount. Today it's fifty percent. I canceled it to get a refund because that's what you have to do. And then I repurchased it for three ⁓ one. Wow. Yeah. That's crazy. So the thing with with Royal Caribbean, unlike Disney, is that you can purchase it as soon as you deposit your trip. You purchase it and you pay for it at time of booking or time of purchase. But if a discount comes out, you have to cancel it, get a refund, and then you repurchase it for the discounted price. Yeah. So but definitely watch all those. They'll send you a million emails, but definitely w watch them. So I was I was on the Disney cruise like last week and I'm I'm getting like a push notification. Yeah. A forty percent on an on like an excursion. I'm like, you've gotta be kidding me. I already booked them. And I realized it was for Royal, not Disney, and like Disney doesn't discount them. Yeah. But I was like looked at it and I was like, no. So let let's talk food for a little bit. Yeah. You You said you did main dining. What did you think of the main dining forum? Because I have my opinion on star and Rachel obviously has her has it from the freedom class, yeah. We were not a fan. Yeah, neither am I. No. We I think they do it on purpose too. Mm-hmm. We went the first night and we thought about this. Exactly what you're thinking. ⁓ and it was like, I don't eat seafood. Like I'll eat like shellfish, but I don't eat fishy fish. And I got like a prime rib and Matt got like a New York strip, I think, because he didn't like the fish that they were offering that night. And they they were like real rubbery. Like the steaks were like, you know, medium cooked, so they're not over, you know, you didn't ask for and they weren't overdone. They were just not not the best cut. Yes. ⁓ the sides are great, things like that. my crab cake that I got as an appetizer was like the fried kind of crab crab cake instead of like a pan seared bump. style crab cake, which is a preference. I thought it was gonna be more lump style than like deep fried. So so from then on we that's a l we didn't do main dining anymore. That was the food the food situation. We had good waiter wait service on the car. I mean and I think that's also because it was, you know, media travel agent thing. But ⁓ the food just wasn't impressive. And every night it ended up like portion size was was kind of small. And then we go to the pizza place or one night we went and had Smash Burgers and then went down to main dining 'cause we had a huge table and it was only four of us. I think it could sit twelve. So it was me and Lynn and then two other people from another another group or I guess. So we were like, We're not gonna leave ⁓ cold. We'll just we'll go and sit and maybe snack on something, but we'll sit with ⁓ But it just the food wasn't amazing. Nothing write home about. No. So how many nights did you do the main dining one? Just the first night. And then where did you go the other two nights? Well, when you look at the Royal Caribbean app, it tells you every night like what the the you know, there's a couple of things like the New York strip and the chicken dish, I think, that stays the same. But they do ev like one night's Caribbean night, one night's Italian night, you know. Right. But we looked and the wind jammer, which is like the buffet. Yeah. All you can eat thing. does the exact same thing, just no like steak cup. They have like a carving station instead. So we were like, what if we the second night we're like, well what if we go up there and see what they have to eat and then if we don't like it, then we'll go to main dining. You know what I'm saying? So we went up there and we actually ate up there the the other two nights. Cause what we did like was that they have so much to offer. So like I think the last night was Caribbean night, which is not my favorite type of food. I'm not a big jerk chicken, that kind of spice fan. So I think I got that night, ⁓ some kind of pasta with the cheese bake situation. But I like it 'cause you can get like a small portion of a lot of different things. 'Cause there's rarely a time I eat like a sixteen ounce steak. So that was like the big thing about the main dining is that you get like a steak and not I'm like, let me have like a chicken tender, let me have some mashed potatoes, let me have A yogurt, you know, like I would rather have fifteen little things than a bunch of be and so we just ate there every night and you can just go in and out when you want and you were getting the same food. But without the awkwardness of sitting in the main dining. So 'cause we looked at the menus and they were they were the exact same things, like I said, without like the steak the or lobster tail option. You know, so ⁓ and one thing I will say I appreciate about the wind jammer buffet situation is that they encourage they have all the hand washing stations before you walk in there. A washi washi. Washi washi. Someone's never is Norwegian the one that made that, like the washi washi people. Wasn't that like a Norwegian cruise line thing and then it kinda moved over or was it just in general all cruise line? Can't remember. But I know I don't know, but I love it. I was like, I want every restaurant to greet me with I was like, I don't know when they like hire people who they choose to be the washy washy people 'cause they were the best people on the whole ship. They would dance, they would sing. But everyone washed their hands before they went in. I was like, this is the best public use of space I've ever seen in my life. That's the thing though, is like ⁓ every cruise ship, like when you're going in the buffet, it's you've got those sinks and everything. Everybody's gotta wash their hands before you go in. It's so great. I love that. I I told Matt that was one of my favorite ⁓ as lame as it sounds, that was one my favorite things of the entire cruise. Yeah, it was just like knowing people had clean hands. Well saying that like going to ⁓ from the Disney to to Royal and back to Disney. It was just somebody like, Please wash your hands, please wash your hands, please wash your hands. Yeah. And then you get to Royal and it's the washi washy and they had the music playing and all this per and the deck. And whatever song they had playing, they've like reworked the lyrics to somehow like wash your hands, washi wash you know, like it was like Rihanna. But they'd be like, washi, washi, washy, washy. Yup. And then like they wore a sash or or hats, and it was like, ⁓ my goodness, it was crazy. On Disney, I went to the buffet, washed my hands, went, and then I went to Cove to get coffee. And I walked in and I felt so awkward passing the stations with coffee. ⁓ and she looked at me like, I already washed my hands. I'm just getting it. I promise I wash them. I promise. I already wash up, I swear. Scan me. There's no germs. Okay, so ⁓ let's talk about the ship a little bit before we go to like perfect day 'cause I don't think we'll talk about NASA too much 'cause no one everybody I know. Overall, what did you think of the Wonder of the Sea? Wonder of the Sea's great ship. Nice, smooth. ⁓ we did massages one day and our massage therapist did tell us that she said 'cause we were telling her about Matt getting car sick. I mean, she's sick and everything. And she said the sh her previous contract was a seven day cruise that went through like Saint Martin and everywhere. And she said the further western Caribbean you go, the more unsteady it gets. She said there are points in there, like she said I had a clock hanging on my wall on like a a command hook. She said in some nights it would like you could watch the clock just sway, the round clock on the wall. So from that I would say even ⁓ if you are prone to seasickness, stay in the Western Caribbean, maybe. Like stay on this side. 'Cause that's I mean Eastern Caribbean. Eastern Caribbean. And the reason it's rough is because you're No, you want to say Eastern, which is the Bahamas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Eastern is like Casumel. Yeah, yeah. But you don't want to go any further east than the Bahamas. No. Like you said, when you got into like all the Saints, the B V I and US V I it gets the ADC. Real churny, you know, Wendy Churney. And so she says she had to change her contract from doing like the seven days that went well, she said when her contract was up. That's why she signed on with the wonder is because of the the little track it takes. My mom would get acupuncture on cruise ships to help with the motion sickness. Well, it's funny you say that because we had a script for Zofran, we had the patch, and we had the band that sits on your pressure point, the C band. I had the C bands and I needed them on on the magic. Matt said the C band never had a problem. So he was like, Well, maybe it's placebo. So he took it off our last night. And like after like an hour, I think it was like he was like, Give me my C band back. He was like, I thought it was maybe just the fact that I knew it was on there. He's like, but I'm getting a little woozy. And then we had turbulence on the way home and he said, Give me my C band like The three fingers. Yep. Hit that pressure point. So the acupuncture, the pressure points, all that stuff does it seems real woo woo, but it really does work. Absolutely. Yes. I know people who wear the C bands when they ride in cars. Yes. Scarly did that on the way to Niagara Falls and she was like, This is great. To wear yeah. Levi vomits all the time in the car. So we're definitely gonna use that. Anything special you liked about Wonder and anything you disliked about Wonder? Didn't really dis I'm honestly the main dining 'cause I asked Matt on the way home, I was like, Okay, I've gotta talk about this. So give me your top five, give me your top when they kind of coincided with each other. We loved every we love the space. Like I said, you could walk around and just have your own space even though there were ten thousand people on the ship. Everyone was super kind, the service was super kind to the point like ⁓ our steward, Raphael, knew our names the first day and he would give us hints and tips. Like he's like, Hey, order you're going on Cook OK tomorrow, put this outside your door, order room service tonight, you know, 'cause they'll bring the pastries. Like not the American kind of breakfast, but the pastries and everything they'll bring. He's like, do that. Get off the ship. They start serving food on the island between ten and eleven. He said, So you don't have to waste time unless you want a big breakfast, you don't have to waste time eating a big breakfast and fighting everyone. He's like, get something quick here to eat, get on the island and then eat lunch there. Love that your stateroom attendant told you that. Yeah. That's fantastic. Every day it's like he almost had like 'cause he he knew that we were not turning our luggage in last night 'cause we had an early flight and he was like, Okay, don't Put these tags on your luggage, you know, be at your ship ⁓ f ⁓ on level five at this time. He said you'll be able to catch an Uber to go. He's like, it should be no problem. Like I need to ask you a question. Did you do express walk off? We we did you leave your luggage outside or did you leave your luggage off? No. We did we we took our luggage off ourselves. Okay. What time did you get off the ship? We woke up at seven. We were in an Uber by eight o'clock at the latest. I mean it's Perfect because I just grabbed an eleven fifteen flight home. You'll make it. Perfect. We got to the airport at eight fifteen. ⁓ my god. Thank you. Because I grabbed an eleven fifteen and I'm like, I'm not doing a two o'clock flight and getting home at rush hour. So we changed ours. We were supposed to get home at nine PM because I didn't know when I booked the flights how long it would take us to get out ship. Then the more research I did, I saw we could get out at like nine PM at nine A. ⁓ I like, I don't want to spend twelve hours in Miami just So ⁓ I on the way to the airport, I rebooked our flights home and got us home. We had to labor in Atlanta, but we got home at five PM instead of nine PM. And so, but yeah, that was we got opted. I mean, literally because everything's like AI, when you go off a ship, you don't have to show ⁓ your your passport because you showed ⁓ that before when you got on and then it's linked to your C Pass. So we just we didn't have to wait for luggage. But there I will say there were people getting off with us that were getting their luggage. They just couldn't guarantee that your luggage would be there if you had early flight. I always carry off. Yeah. So I wouldn't risk it. But it took us like I always carry off. I will say it took us less than thirty minutes to get off it. And through customs. From our room to the airport. And through customs. Yeah. Like I mean literally we didn't stop walking off the ship until we got to the Uber. Like never stop walking. There was no crowd, there was no waiting in line. It was real easy. Let's ⁓ let's move over to perfect day right quick. ⁓ what were your thoughts on perfect day of Coco Kay? Was it was it crowded for you? What what ship did you have another ship in port with y'all? Did you did. It was the if I looked at all the names of ⁓ I could remember the name. Was it a big one or a little one? I don't what Let me bring up the ⁓ ship names and it was one other ship, it was not crowded. We did run a day bed for the day. I saw that. Where did y'all I would su I would suggest Where did y'all stay at then? Like did y'all go to family? Hideaway. Hideaway so you could be the adult only area. Yes. ⁓ And it no no no no, we were not in hideaway. It was when you walk off the ship and go right to your left, 'cause we were gonna do hideaway and then the more reviews I read about it, people were like, ⁓ kinda far away and View was not as great and all this other stuff. And where we were kids were allowed, but because we weren't in the ⁓ thrill park, the kids were not a problem. Like I mean So we did the same day bed and it was like two hundred or two fifty. It was very inexpensive for what it gives you. And my kids came and so it wasn't like it was a section of the beach where it wasn't crowded. No. Like it was only the day bed the day bed people. Yes. Did you have jellyfish? No. Mason got stung on his face. ⁓ what? Yeah. Thank God he had goggles on. He got stuck in the face by a jellyfish and the guy like the lifeguard came with like a vinegar type of spray. So here's here's one thing that I didn't like about Perfect Day is that Star is was the biggest ship that they had at the time. Now it's legend. But we're talking about, you know, fifteen people size difference. It's not it's not huge. But next to us was Symphony. So another OA it was an oasis class sitting next to us. So two massive ships that are sitting there and it just felt completely crowded on that island the entire time. Like hideaway, the the pool. I didn't even go over to the pool. Lynn just went over to the pool and it like it looked like they just put sardines in that pool with how many people were there. Well, see, we didn't do a pool. We did we stayed on the beach. So that I can't attest to. So the pools might have been crowded and we did walk around a lot of the island. We didn't walk around the whole thing. We didn't take the tram around the whole thing. But we did do like a nice walk just so we could see and take pictures and like people ziplining. Right. And all that stuff. And it is more ⁓ party atmosphere the closer you get to the other side. But we did go to ⁓ think it's called like the snack shack or something like that. It was on our side of the island. And they had tacos and those tacos slapped. I mean they were good. The Carnitas tacos I went back for more. The rice and beans, everything there. And it's all buffet style. You don't have to wait in line. You don't have to show your pass or anything. You just walk up, get ⁓ Seagulls there are very prevalent because people feed them even though there's literally ton of signs that say don't. And I I walked away to take a picture of an iguana and if Matt hadn't like scooped my taco real fast to him, a seagull was like in the dive pattern to take it. And one girl, I say little, but she's like fourteen. She was walking with a plate and the seagull came and dove to her plate. She like dropped it and freaked out and everything. And then all the seagulls came down. But that's literally the the biggest problem, if you want to call it that, that we saw on the island. I would I would give Perfect Day another try as a yeah. As a paid cruise, because I think that was a big thing was like 'cause we got hideaway for free. Yeah. They just they ref we actually paid for it and then they refunded everybody on the ship what they were doing on the on perfect day that day so that you could experience it. And then we toured everything with Roxanne. But I l I liked Cast the Perfect Day. There's a lot to do there. I just don't like the paywalls on Perfect Day. Like Castaway, I like to be able to just do go do what I want to. If I want to go on the and I I said it when I reviewed Star of the Sea, if I want to do water slides. I'm just going back on the ship and do water slides. I'm not gonna pay a thousand and something dollars per person to go in Thrill Island. It doesn't make sense to me. I Chill Island, that's where we're at. Yeah. I'm at Coco K in September with the Symphony of the Season. Okay. I think we're with the Anthem, maybe. I can tell you. I'm in ⁓ no my god. Crap. Because when you're getting off the ship, they do have photographers there. You know, take your picture and they do ask you, wonder or the and I think the other one we kept hearing was Anthem. I could be wrong. But even that, the photographers, like, after the first day, they were like, ⁓ Terry and Matt. Like what day what day were you there? June eighteenth? July eighteenth, I think. It was the date. Were you there on a Saturday? Yes. Because you were with the Allure. Allure. And you'll throw the A. That is a smaller ship. That was Yeah. That's the biggest thing you like to look at when you're planning these trips is your perfect day to see what ship even if you're in this in a small ship, make sure you're not there with an icon class. 'Cause that I'm there with an icon. It's it's gonna be a I will say I But this is when having something like that day bed is really important. So you're not like having to rush to find a chair or anything, like you have a spot reserved and available. The day bed comes with floats and it comes with your cooler of water. You know, so you get your day bed and your two loungers and your floats. So we kind of just went back and forth between all and it did rain a couple of times, like little sun showers. Do you you get a you get a waitr like a wait person? Yes. They're not like your dedicated one, but we had two or three that would just like cycle through and come through and you know, they would bring you whatever you needed. So and like when we were at lunch I got like oranges and went back and put ⁓ back in the cooler to stay cold. And then we snacked on those throughout the afternoon. And things like that. But I will say I did not go to the water park, so I don't know how far so to me it didn't seem crowded. But I also wasn't in places where you had to like wait in line for things. Right. Yeah, you were on a secluded part of the island where there's that many beds and many people. So like that's that's a smart move when there's two larger ships at port at the same time. Reserve your stuff. Because even like like I said, even though ⁓ we knew then that we didn't have to like wake up super early, even though we did naturally, but we didn't set an alarm to wake up and rush off the ship because we knew we had to like grab lounge chairs before other people did and things like that. So I would definitely recommend reserving something, whether if you have kids and you want to reserve your time at ⁓ thrill island with everything, or if it's just you and, you know, adults and you just wanna get somewhere to relax. I don't know what hideaway was like, but Chill was not crazy. There was they did announce like right after you got off the ship that they put a new secret bar on perfect day. And I that was perfect. It's like the garden bar or something like that. And it's off the path. It's a really cool like go go look it up on ⁓ social media. It's a little Yeah. Like it's a it's a hole in the hedges, pretty much. It's little signaling. And that's really cool. I will say our bartender from Coco Kay He knew us after and like I said, we didn't drink like we weren't the people that were there like every thirty minutes getting another drink, but like when we went inside to their bar that like the one that raises up in the middle of the ship. Yeah, the elevates from like f flour or five to like twelve, ten or something like that. He recognizes. And so Matt really liked him 'cause he made a really good drink. So, you know, we kinda went back and forth with him all week. Like I said, and the same photographers recognize you and Yeah. And that made us sit there and think, like, well, this does take but how long are their days? Like at at one point I was like, ⁓ my God, this guy woke up and he was at Cook OK before us to bartend all day and now we get back at night and he's bartending at another place on the ship. Like it's easily a twelve hour day for and they were all nice and polite and just really just I mean, wanting to talk. One complaint I did have was that like with Royal Caribbean, you get like five TV channels. You watch me on the ship? No, no, no, no. But I couldn't like stream anything like you know like when you're getting getting ready, you like stream like a background show or just like something to fall asleep. Like I don't I don't know. I'm like a TB on There's a guy at church and gave me a hack on how to do that and I had to remember to do it for October. Well, if you're on Ro Royal, I was like, Why is there BBC? Well Matt was like, Terry, it's Royal Caribbean. It's it's not American owned. I was like, ⁓ you're right It's all the Disney channels. Like, and you're not gonna sit there and go, Why is it all Disney? Yeah. We watch Disney movies the entire time. I'm a nerd. I'm used to going to Disney World and having to watch Disney the whole time, but I'm a nerd and I keep it on like the the map. That's exactly what we did then. We kept it on the map and and it's I only saw the map in Cove Cafe. See the map was fun because Rachel being up in Alaska, I was like, ⁓ there's the magic. Where's Rachel at right now? And then you know, we're thought of So sweet. Look at that. But it was like there there they are. We and we had people that we knew ⁓ over on the dream in the middle of being able to see all that where everybody was. Is there anything else you want to add about Royal Caribbean, maybe in general, whether it's perfect day or wonder or anything like that? It was a great first experience. Matt's okay on ships, kids are ready to book a Disney cruise. ⁓ Royal Caribbean couldn't made it easier To get on the ship, ⁓ before you go, you know, just scan your passport. Everything you can do in your app, do that because it makes getting on the ship seamless. Our getting on the ship time, quote unquote, was one thirty. Port arrival. Boarding time. Yeah. Was one thirty. But we had to start our our our hotel by eleven. So we just took over there 'cause we were like well, I didn't check in until like a week before. That's why you check in when your check in date opens. I know, I'm a slacker. And We took the Uber over there because we had to check out of our hotel. We're worst comes to worst. We'll we'll just sit on a bench and wait. And then we got there, it walked right on the ship. ⁓ yeah, that's the nice thing about going. I had a one fifteen port arrival time for Disney. And I had to say I told Andy, I said that was the easiest embarkation I've ever done because I didn't have to wait for a boarding group. I literally walked right on the ship. You know, I didn't wasn't corralled in like the waiting area. It was fantastic. So I don't poo-poo the the later port arrival times. I like them personally. If you want to get on the ship early to like either request something or get waitlisted, that's when you need to be on the ship early. Yeah. But if you just have everything good and before you even get on, you don't have to rush to get on the ship. Plus, the room is ready by that time. Yeah. So you don't have to walk around with your backpack or your, you know, anything else. You can walk right to your stateroom. So that's about about Rachel's about Vancouver at least versus Fort Lauderdale was that we got to Fort Lauderdale about the same time we got to V you know Vancouver when we did the Alaskan and we had to wait in the in the terminal and all that stuff and it just ⁓ my god Vancouver we got it we had to wait in the little time corral for maybe t fifteen minutes. But as soon as they let that corral go into the line, we never stopped moving until we got on that ship. And it was just like perfect. But with Royal Caribbean, the one thing that Disney needs to do that Royal does is the ⁓ safety muster. Yeah. Royal Caribbean doing it all on the app. And being walk over and scan your key and then you just check in at your little place and they're like, Did you watch everything? They look at it on your phone and they're like, Okay, you're done. Never had Norwegian Norwegians is the same way. When you do the online check in, you watch the muster then and then you just go scan your key card at your muster station. Make it so much easier. Cause then it you get it there's a huge announcement over those the speakers of like so and so, so and so and so and so. You haven't done it. But you're not here. Yeah. So you gotta do this. Disney I I hate taking time out of my day 'cause we had to explain to Travis, hey, we've got we can't go swim right now. We gotta go do this muster and Yeah, we took we promised him we'd swim before we when we first got on the ship and we couldn't because we had to do that. So Disney needs to learn from that. But that's that's the biggest thing. Well, I think that's gonna do it for this week's episode. Can't wait to go on it. I'm so like Terry gave me excited to go on it. If anyone has any questions, leave them in the comments. We'll answer. But it's great. We did the intense water show, which is really awesome. Y'all need to watch that. One of my favorite things was karaoke. I mean just to watch people I know that could be on any cruise ship, but it never fails 'cause you're only getting played the greatest hits and people suck and some people are awesome and everyone has a great time. And we did do one of the stand up comedians and he was great. His wasn't my type of comedy. That makes sense. Like he was good but just not my brand of Yeah. Comedy. So you could appreciate it but you can love it. Yeah. Yeah. But other than that, like Like I we didn't have enough time to do everything that there was to do. Yeah, those big ships, like even the star when we did that, it was we were go, go, go the entire time. We still didn't see everything. So it was just like and that was. And one thing, like they had like kids like curfew was like one AM for kids like under eighteen. They had like three different curfews. It like under eighteen, then eighteen to twenty one, or something like that. And I was like, under eighteen, they should be in way before one AM. Yeah. I was like in mom mode. I was like, Why are thirteen year olds out here running around till one a.m.? Get them. My kids are here, but these kids need to be back in their state rooms. This is true. The Oceaneer Club didn't close until midnight most nights while we were on the Destiny. So it's So yeah, that's gonna do it for this week's episode. Terry had a sounds like it was a great trip. I wish we could have gone into more of it. ⁓ book yours as soon as possible with one of us. Or anyone at Magical Travel. It's it's a great time. ⁓ next week's episode's gonna be Rachel's trip report from Alaska. She was on Magic and we're having an agent that was on the Wonder. Her name is Her name is Amber. Amber. And she was on the Wonder, like I said. So we're gonna get they're pretty much the same itinerary, but size for one port. And that's the magic goes to Icy Strait, the Wonder goes to Juno. So we'll get a con compare and contrast on what those ships are like going to Alaska, which one would be better for your family. You can get a hold of any of us at magicaltravel.com to plan your Royal Caribbean Disney or any type of vacation you want. Please go find us on social media as Castles Goldman's anywhere. And remember to rate us on ⁓ Apple, iTunes, Podcasts, whatever it is, Spotify. And that helps us be a little bit more visible. And until the next time, we will see you on the next episode. Bye.