857 · 50+ Disney Cruise Line Insider Hacks | The Ultimate Guide

0:00And now Disney cruise line invite you to come with us ladies and gentlemen boys and girls welcome back to the W W Radio your information stage hall what if I told you that your next Disney cruise already has upgrades built in you just might not know where to look yet there are little insider tricks on every Disney ship that completely change your cruise if you know that they exist and where to look hello my friend and welcome to W W Radio from

1:01somewhere a little different this week I am Lume Angelo and this week I am not in the home studio I'm not even at home you might be able to tell by the background music we can hear it I am actually on board the beautiful the spectacular the classic Disney magic recording live and if you listen carefully you might be able to hear the music the buzz the ocean while you can't hear the ocean breeze the sound of chicken tenders everyone enjoying themselves and if you know you know there's just something different about the Disney cruise and the more you cruise the more you enjoy the more you learn the more weight you might gain up to but you also find out some of these little lessons that make every voyage memorable and enjoyable and special but what if we could take your cruise from great to OMG how did I not know about this sooner we're talking about the hacks not talking about the obvious stuff not get it earlier packs on

2:03screen I mean the real like insider moves a little known tricks the secret snacks yes they exist the pro tips and the things that experience cruisers do that make you feel like you've unlocked key codes for your next Disney cruise and I could not think of a better person to have this conversation with then someone who literally helps families sale smarter every single day she's my good friend cruise experts my sailing buddy especially for the last four weeks and captain of her own ship over at mouse fan travel she is of course Becky Meckin I can't wait to hear all these acts I have a feeling I'm gonna learn a thing or two because some of the information that we get from from others when we've asked the question you learn a lot because there's things that aren't obvious there's things that seem like they should be obvious but you don't think about so I also think that there's you know we've cruised a lot and we're very fast it's 30 days high five we didn't kill each other we have yet there's

3:06so far that tomorrow's still another day but you know I think also to back I think there's probably a lot that you know that you take for granted you know these are some of the like you shouldn't miss this and nobody tells you these things so whether you are planning your whether you're sailing with us on a future cruise where you're planning your first or your tenth get ready to take notes because I promise you're gonna hear at least one thing that's gonna make you go wait you can do that so we are trying to have hopefully put together the ultimate Disney cruise line hack list and I tried to make this as organized as possible as I was brain dumping some of like my favorite tips and tricks and hacks and I also reached out to you our WDW family for some of your best of the best and you showed up and genuine generously shared so I'll be giving I'll be including yours and obviously giving you credit along

4:09the way and if we miss any or if you have my OMG my brains are gonna fall out of the head when you hear this hack call the voicemail at 407 at 900 9391 that's 407 900 WDW1 or you could message me on Instagram or on Facebook you can come over to the clubhouse and I tried to think about this Becky in some semblance of an organized like I like you did because I am not organized so I have stuff all over the place on my list I do this is not this is not gonna be a top 10 I don't want to even tell you how many I have listed here I'm gonna try and go at least in some logical order but I'm sure later on go oh yeah I forgot about this one so I'm gonna let you go first because one I'm wildly curious what you have to share and you know you also come from a unique perspective from the travel aid inside because you don't just have your personal experience but you've got thousands of experiences from other

5:11people who you've helped book vacations for that I'm sure have shared some of theirs with you as well so in terms of like know before you go the pre-cruise money saving best hacks before you even like book your crews are get on board so my number one I still we talked about it for years and years and years but people still don't know it is when the when the itineraries release when they go on sale the day they go on sale that is the very rock bottom price you're going to get so a lot of people don't realize that they raise the rates as the ships fill so on day one if you know you're gonna go you know the ship you want you know the itinerary you want you want a book on day one and you want a book as early on day one as you can because some of the most popular itineraries at 9 a.m. could be one price and at 2 p.m. can be hundreds of dollars higher per

6:12person than they were at 9 a.m. so it's really important to have a great relationship with a good travel advisor that knows the ins and outs of Disney because there are ways that we can grab it if you have status with you're gonna get booking windows that open up earlier for you so if you've sailed with Disney cruise line before you are going to be certain status which gives you access first and to get those itineraries that everybody's looking for and if you again this is for people obviously maybe having cruise before if you do book early like you don't have to worry because you're not locked in like it's fully refundable up until a certain point correct as long as it's not concierge concierge you're locked in you do put down a deposit and that deposit is non-refundable however outside the concierge yeah if you even think you want to go don't worry about it put down the deposit if you decide you can't go then we can cancel and you'll get fully refunded anything else like pre-cruise

7:13before you go like booking time before you even step foot on board looking time sorry like like but like as you're starting to book like what you should be thinking about or some hacks that people should think about I think one of things you need to do is really consider not just itinerary and don't just and don't discount the ships because some of them are maybe a little older Disney cruise line girl don't talk about my magic that she is not old she is like a fine wine she is very experienced however dude just tell the way we're not making it weird she's classic she's very classic and I think a lot of people on some cruise lines yeah you probably do want to steer clear of the older ships Disney cruise line is known for keeping its ships immaculate this is the oldest ship in the fleet it was in 1998 the only thing that shows it to me is that they still have a hairdryer the bathroom

8:13stuck to the wall other than that this is a very beautiful ship its classic design so don't just think oh well I like that itinerary but I don't want the older ship don't think that way really examine the the ships the itineraries and what's going to fit best for you because these smaller ships by their might not have all the bills and whistles that the others do I am so happy on board this ship less people so if you don't like crowds this is a good ship to come on there's only a couple of places that will give you some tips and tricks about how to handle the people here on board but I really think that you should put a lot of thought into the experience you want I agree a thousand percent we we're gonna talk more about the ships on another podcast because I I love the magic I thought it was maybe just sentiment and nostalgia but having sort of been with her this past these past few days on on Marvel they'd see out of

9:16Galveston for the very first time I remember why I love this ship and the when this inner sister the wonder to and it was really cool because we did get to see destiny just a couple of weeks ago so being able to compare and contrast right next to each other this has been very unique in a great opportunity I love you all ships for different reasons but there's a few I love just a little bit more all right I'm gonna just quickly go through some of my like pre-crues money saving tips jump in wonder when I say something stupid and I didn't say if I said when when I say something stupid or if there's anything that you want to add because you talk about booking early for the best possible rates I know sometimes people come on board and they hear and they see things about placeholders so you can get 10% off a future cruise at a reduced deposit even if you have a travel advisor you can do that while you're on board you can take advantage of that and then transfer it over to hypothetically your mouse and travel advisor it's actually easier than that when you book your placeholder you no longer have to go to a desk if it's been a while

10:19for you to have done placeholder you can do it right in the app and in the app itself it asks you do you want to use the same travel agent and it's a yes or no and sometimes we know that some people will prefer to take it themselves but you can still transfer it within 30 days if you prefer so if you use your travel agent you weren't happy with them you want to use another one just say no and then contact the travel agent you want to use and they can travel at transfer it but it has to be within 30 days but make sure you pay attention to that question because we have it all the time where people come back and they say well didn't you see the confirmation that I booked and asked to book with you online and we go back and find out that they accidentally hit no instead so we have to go through that process so somebody sent me this I don't you tell me if this is is true or not when you are booking if you select just a quote unquote guaranteed cabin sort of turn-type and let Disney assign your room you can save money that way as opposed to asking for specific type yes

11:22those are called guarantee rates there are pros and cons to guarantee rates you can save a lot of money this is why I bring you along you can save a lot of money if you want to do it this way that's the pro it used to be that another pro is you could possibly get an upgrade for free however because the ships are so full it doesn't happen as much as it used to one time the con is big for some people the con is that Disney chooses your state room for you and you have no choice once they choose that state room you can't move it so it could be next to the laundry room it can be under the pool it could be under a nightclub it could be anywhere that you may or may not want to be so if you don't have any preference you don't care where the location is whatsoever a guarantee is a perfect thing to save money if however you're a little picky like you want to be near your staircase I know you like to be near your staircase I'm sorry I had a little cough in my throat for me I might want a good guarantee

12:27comes here is that works too but you really have to make sure that you're going to be okay with it because seriously once they give you that state room you can't call in go hey can you change me that's where the savings comes because you're willing to give up and that's where the other side of the coin for the other hack is that you should check the map and you should request certain state rooms it's why a travel agent the travel advisor is vital because if you want a bigger room if you want a certain location if you want larger veranda certain rooms have larger this is where having somebody that has experience or saying hey these are what some of our preferences are can you sort of help try us try and find and request a certain state room or even a certain part of the ship like I just like to be close to the elevator it's because when we do these cruises we're in and out of our state rooms like grabbing stuff and running up and down like a lunatic or for you trying to get up to command is you know if we're going to reveal all of our dirty secrets the other thing too in terms of of rates is keep in mind that there are also special rates

13:28available like for Florida resident military last minute rate sometimes right when they're trying to fill the ship if you have a little bit of flexibility I wouldn't I wouldn't wait till last minute but so last minute rates are a little bit of an anomaly you because Disney has so many places to go for last minute filling of of cigarettes like to cast members or to travel advisors or to people in the industry they don't run a lot of last minute rates you do see them sometimes but I wouldn't count on it don't wait until last hoping that you might get last minute rate but they are out there so if you are like you said Florida resident military there are rates available there they're not on every sailing they are on specific sailing specific dates so ask your travel advisor to check that out the other thing too to keep in mind is we all know that sometimes there are some sailings that they just come out with it may not be known in the

14:28area so a great example if you're looking for a really good rate right now Galveston outgoing out of Galveston has really good rates but San Diego does too Santiago there is a lot of competition in that area so they are going they're sailing out of San Diego and I've seen some amazing rates that are coming out of that it's not I don't believe you Becky but I've never sailed out of San Diego and I sort of feel that in order to speak to this eloquently maybe we should look at San Diego yes the other thing too and this is where not sort of having that sort of just guaranteed safe room but there are if you know you know there are sometimes if you know where and when to look and who to ask there are some upgrades that you can get sometimes before you get on board or like once you get to the port or once you get on board you can go to guest services and say hey you know give me a little wink and say are there any upgrades that are available today and sometimes you can get a discounted upgrade to a better cabin

15:32if and I've heard stories with people like we upgraded the concierge for what would normally be pennies on the dollar absolutely it's rare again but it's I always ask right if if if I'm in a standard state room and I do want to check concierge when you first check in just say hey are there any upgrades available on this sailing most likely the answer is going to be no but there's that possibility in that chance and I have been able to be upgraded a couple of times in the past 10 years or so so if it's something that you're looking to do ask the question I mean even if it's not a concierge even it's not to concierge it's like from an inside state room to a branda you never know as an upgrades might be there absolutely the other thing too and I know a lot people have have shared this one with me when I first posted it this isn't about sort of booking it's just like as you're starting to think about getting on board and saving money and budgeting is really important a lot of people like to buy Disney gift cards or go to get services and sort of load their onward

16:34credit and be like okay son you've got 50 bucks to spend like have at it and when you hit that limit you hit that limit and by son I may mean husband and or wife as well a lot of people will do that with cash too you don't just need to have a gift card you can say hey you always have to have at least cash or a credit card against your account but if you're trying to watch your your pennies watch your spending or if you want to gift your husband or your kid you can always add to the account and then monitor it using the app and see exactly where you are and you're spending the other thing too again before you go before you get on board and it's it's very very popular outside the state is I think becoming a lot more popular is it we use this a lot for groups download what that for not only be able to chat with each other you don't need to buy the internet package you can use the onward Wi-Fi to and you can use this with other messaging apps you can use it with iMessage you can use it with Facebook messenger so that you can message each other or message people at home

17:35back home without having to buy internet package just by connecting to the DCL guest network it is limited to text only messages so you can't send pictures you can't do videos unless you do a paid internet package but it's really nice to be able to stay in touch with the people back home unless you don't want them to get in touch with you don't tell them that you have what that do you remember the times when you didn't have internet on a ship and you could like really take a vacation I'm gonna yes and I I long for these days I'm gonna tell you a very quick story just to show you how old I am and how stupid I am to very very early on in my early days PB prebecky I was on a cruise with my family and I was young and I thought I was in love and I had a girlfriend back home who you know was crazy this is way that Becky forget internet forget messaging they didn't even have like phone I had to go to the radio room I had

18:40to go to radio call my girlfriend back home it was like I did it was like that seeing from European vacation oh you don't have to know what your mom I'll hold I'm like yeah I did I'm not with that woman anymore thankfully but there you go so what's up I have so many questions that we will hold on for that for later I'm gonna move on speaking of upgrade hacks some of the upgrade hacks you can do right in your state room you can upgrade your state room without having to quote unquote upgrade your state room how I'm gonna tell you these are some of the favorite things that I'd love to bring go to Amazon you don't even use my affiliate like go buy those little magnetic hooks all the state walls are metal the ceilings are metal can I tell you something I don't like no no no no get your confession here I didn't know that until like recently

19:40even in the hallways so if you want to hold decorations you can hang your badge your hats your wet swimwear you can like if you want to put up decorations whatever it might be there are so vital some people talk about you know putting them on the walls hang them on the ceiling yeah so you can you know dry things if you brought this is a thing else you can do like an over-the-door organizer if you don't want to maybe have it inside the bathroom you can hang it outside as well remember there's a there's split bathrooms here so if you want to have you know some toiletries and one some toiletries and other you can have those magnetic hooks I'm gonna buy you some okay so it was like 2017 when I when I learned it but I've been sailing on cruise ships since 1998 and before that actually was 1996 I was like 1798 but that's not hey now but when I finally discovered that it was like wow okay this was happening all

20:41around me and I didn't notice but the one thing that I found just recently that I saw somebody do which was an awesome hack I want to those people that like a little air movement in my room I you know some sleepy could warm I just like a little air movement but they have those portable fans that are magnetic and you can just stick that to the ceiling or to the side of the wall if you're one of the people that needs some air movement so I was really thrilled about that and I'm gonna definitely find one of those and bring it on the next one because it's gonna be warm where we go next yes some of these little things like when you're here like oh obviously I should do that so for example when you go on a on a cruise there's certain things you can't bring with right your space balls hair dryer you can't bring but you also can't bring like power strips like you can't bring like extension course if you bring a non-surge protected power strip like a USB or USB power ship I very strongly recommend especially to depending on what ship that you're on something else too I go

21:45this is like a dollar store hack go buy one of those little pop-up hammers so you can keep all of the dirty clothes very organized in the small room I like to just pop one up put it in the closet I think the square one sort of hold a shape a little bit better they're like eight ounces if that they're super super small really fit nicely into the closet let's let's talk about that hairdryer thing just for a second only because for some reason that went viral but this is something that a lot of people may not be aware of because it's a recent change with DCL when they rolled out the wish the treasure and the destiny who are all LNG powered they have basically asked you not to bring any hair dryer or any hair instruments that are 1,500 watts or more so there's a funny part if you have a dice and ladies don't bring it because you're gonna take the walk of shame when they've taken out of your suitcase because they

22:48scan all of the suitcases as they come on board if they see something that they don't like they will take it from you're definitely isn't it in in space balls the size of your hair dryer it's like you're trying to dry an elephant with that thing well some of us have long thick hair that kneels it's a long story but seriously like 1,500 watts or more you cannot bring yeah don't put that in your steamer trunk like that right this is gonna sound like the stupidest thing in the world but it's laughing about my hair and and let me explain before you're like what bring clothes pins or chip clips with you not don't laugh at me because that for all the chips you know because sometimes like I sometimes like when you're in the shower especially the oldest shower curtains and like they're like stick to you sometimes this is how you would listen okay you put the clips on the bottom and it weighs down the shower

23:51curtain and it doesn't stick to you anymore also you can use them to sort of clip your I like like the chip clips use it to attach your towel to the back of your chair right so it doesn't blow around in the breeze you can use it to hang up your laundry but you're ready for this sometimes and it's rare especially because these ships are so big and they've got the stabilizers but you ever have your lane and bed you just want to sleep and you get that like banging of the metal sound of your hangers you put one of the chip clips up against it and your hangers don't bang you're welcome good idea okay I will save the three-backs and take the hangers from the closet and put them on the floor speaking of handers and you talk about the laundry room so I'm actually right across from the laundry room which I don't even know what is in there I don't know how those magical machine works it's I have three words for you downy wrinkle spray oh yeah

24:56little bottles on Amazon it is a miracle of modern technology if you are you know just checking do you have Amazon stocks because I said that a lot why am I not using it Philippine while you're on Amazon I'm sure you're bringing one anyway bring a reusable water bottle yes bring you especially now when you go to the drink filling station remember on Disney Cruise Line water soda juices coffee tea are all included up on deck nine deck eleven or whatever ship that you're on do not use your water bottle in the thing fill a cup first and pour into your water bottle because sanitary safety and sanitary is really important and I would bring one for like your cold drinks and then bring a little tumbler for your coffee is where you fill it up night before you wake next morning boom coffee and tea or you buy one of the really cool tumblers on board

25:57that match the ship the one thing I do want to say is when when you say that sodas are included yes at the fountains that you can at dinner at lunch the fountains on on the deck and in the cabanas or in marketing market but if you get something at a bar it's not so that's a dish right so I just want to make sure that it wants to wear that the other thing too and the newer ships have in the bathrooms they have these lovely little like amber night light so if you need to use the the restroom in the middle night you know we threw up you might want to bring like a little night light with you I know some people use glow sticks or like those little tea lights you can put them in the bathroom some people like the little battery operated Christmas lights again you can buy them at the dollar stores and a lot of them like will stay on for a few hours and then go off automatically so it goes off in the middle of the night oh wait I thought it's I just discovered this on the last cruise I don't know why we're sure what like the types of state rooms to get and like do I want it inside or

27:01an app side do I want to a brand like love how I just realized for the first time on the last cruise that we were on when you are if you are requesting a certain state room and if you get one with the veranda ask for a state room on the starboard side of the ship because if you don't feel like going up on deck or maybe the little ones are sleeping you can get a great view of the fireworks from your veranda on pirate night and depending on what you're on you also get the views of castaway when you dock at castaway like it's port side for look at everybody all the really good secrets now we're gonna get all these people going oh no it's gotta be starboard side I I will not accept port side good good job think about your ship and think about where you're going to you said something before about location and I was thinking to about noise and things like that when you're thinking about your state room especially if you are a light sleeper if you have kids it would try and if if that's a

28:05conservative make sure your statement was surrounded on all sides with other state rooms so you don't get noise from above there are some cabins I know we've been on some ships where I think of the dream and the fantasy on deck 10 if you are in the aft of the ship there's there's a possibility you might be under the sports court right so you might sort of hear like basketball you might hear you know music late at night and on these ships too on the magic in the wonder if you're a fun deck eight there's some areas that are right underneath the sportsports are right underneath a lot of the traffic areas in the morning you might hear everything kind of opening up for for cabanas and that can be a little wake you up so you want to avoid those locations I didn't realize this but this is something that somebody else told me you can confirm if this is true or not to quote to quote Steve Martin those aren't pillows yes they are yes they are what a state room comfort is key I'm just a cruise on did you know

29:10and it's not they're not all available at all time so the early requests are better you besides the standard hyper hyper allergenic pillows you can actually request different types of specialty pillows in advance so if you have like a certain type of allergy to something if you need like goose down or whatever if you need like a pack and play if you need a crib you can ask for those things definitely ask for them in advance don't wait until you get on board limited supply earlier is better not guaranteed etc etc etc but if you're a light sleeper a back sleeper a side sleeper whatever it might be you can make some of those special requests and they can hopefully try to come right and that ties into medical needs so a lot of people don't think about too it's like well I don't know if I want to go on a cruise because I have a CPAT machine or I have medicine that needs to be refrigerated there are there's a way to make requests before you even travel so they will give you the distilled water that you need

30:11for your CPAT machine they will give you an extension core because you cannot bring us an extension cord with you but they can provide one for you for medical needs they will also provide a medical cooler because a lot of people don't realize that the the beverage coolers aren't cold enough to sustain medication but if you request it ahead of time all of this can be already set up in your state room and here for you when you first arrive this is it's it's not a hack but it's a silly little thing we do this on our group cruises and our families do this all the time one as long as you're on Amazon hopefully this is my I should give my I'm done I feel it like get some of those cheap magnetic dry erase boards and some of the pens so you can either leave messages for each other a lot of people leave messages like I would I like to do is put something on like one day in the morning I'll put like what is your favorites like what's your favorite dining experience on board and I'll put like 1923 marshley and rock and people come by and they'll vote or who's your

31:14favorite superhero it's a great way to sort of have some fun interact with people I also like doing a little like magnetic baskets and I'll put like stickers in there like give away little stuff like for kids and adults I think it sort of helps to add to the like fun community back he's like stay away from my door kid no no but that that brings up subscribing to some of the groups that if you want to be part of the fish extenders and the pixie dusting and all the things if you want to be that involved because every single sailing of a Disney cruise of every single ship has some kind of group to join if you want to be pixie-dusted and provide a little pixie dust back the other exercise I forgot to mention this too when I pack and I my family always makes on me I love Ziploc bags I have a Ziploc bag addiction I always pack yeah I do I pack different size Ziploc bags especially when you're going like to the island like I'll put my phone in a Ziploc I'll put my phone on my key card

32:17in a Ziploc bag in my pocket I might have a bigger one for my book or my Kindle or other things I want to protect or chicken tenders after whatever you want to bring them to bring them back to you can't take chicken tenders off the ship I tried and I'm going to give a huge caveat for this one because on the newer ships the magic and wonder don't have this newer ships you have to keep you're when you enter your room you stick a key card in a lot of hotels are starting to do that too to to sit conserve energy but say for example you have a device that you need charging or something that that needs to stay charged while you're gone or your laptop or your phone whatever it is don't do this all-time but you your key card is not the only card that will work in there so you might want to bring an old hotel gift card or a old hotel key again and your state room attendant will normally take it out when they come in but again if you do have to do things like get a charge you can do that too yeah and an

33:19old business card folded in half works too but I always keep a couple of old hotel keys in my with my passport so I just pull them out and use those I would rather over pack clothes and then trying to figure out how the laundry system works but on the last cruise forgive me they don't remember who you are they were talking about the the laundry facilities on board and yes you there are full-service laundry facilities and they will do your laundry for you if you need two prices range from like three dollars and fifty cents for a t-shirt up to you know twelve dollars for suit whatever it might be those are not current and they'll pick it up and they'll drop it off but there's also self service laundry on board and somebody said that one of the cool things that I guess is relatively new is that your dizzy cruise line navigator app and the machines will notify you when your laundry is ready it's magic I tell you yeah that's really cool I don't know if it's on every single ship I'm gonna say

34:21it probably is but I haven't seen it but I did use it on the wish I think it was the wish in that oh my gosh that laundry room was huge it's almost as big as the kids club but it was really cool because you got a little notification so you didn't have to worry about running down checking it and coming back and going back and forth so that's cool I just bring a big hamper and just I wear on front I wear them back I wear them inside and I wear a movie I haven't sure why do you know what you're talking about right now you know of my love of big hero six and you don't know of Fred's techno good lord okay all right anything else pre-cruise state room wise before I get to really the most important part of this pre-cruise this is a this is one of those little possibly will work but for transportation to the to the ship if you use the DCL transportation strategically for early boarding groups especially for those newbies or non-castaway club people who don't have access into all of

35:22those little lines it's a hey come over here because you're castaway or come over here because you're Pearl especially from MCO if you use the motor coach it often yields you a very low boarding number without any status so if you jump on the transfer that takes you from the high it or from the airport if you don't come in date the same day just say stay at the height of you a one day you can hop on their motor coach or from the one from the hotels and when you get there you don't have to worry about standing out there with a little boarding group because they're gonna let you ride in nice yeah I know what thought about that anything else because I really want to get to a very very very serious set of hacks oh my god I'm sure there is here we always come back to think if you find it in your notes later tons of list so yeah at the end yeah I know that'll be all over the place about this for a second because this is more of an FYI again on port arrival times or paths guys on DCL if you've been on other cruise lines and

36:25you have a port arrival time and they just let you walk in when you get there it's not dizzy dizzy is very strict about their port arrival time so if you have an 1115 there's gonna be a little line with a little sign that says 1115 if you especially MC sorry a parking hour so however what I'm hearing is that if you have a port arrival time that's 1230 or 1 o'clock and after they do tend to be a little less strict about those later times I think they're just trying to control those people who are arriving from 10 to to noon which is us or where their arrival time is 10 30 we will be there at 815 dude who's the early one my gosh remember that part about not killing each other yet double pearl for the love of God on my way my name is on castaway key for God it's funny because it's true anyway anyway so if you do have one of the later

37:31times you might actually if you have a two o'clock you might show up a little bit early because you might actually get in before that arrival time so just keep that I listen don't sweat it it's like getting on a plane yeah all going to the same place like it's not leaving right as long as you get there by 230 as long as you got your passport and you actually have a valid you know ticket this and you're not like this don't be late because they do cut off there is a cutoff time much like when people go oh on my last day when we get in it says it's going to be there at 6 a.m. no you can't get off the ship at 6 a.m. and the ship will leave without you at port like you've seen the videos it's true don't be that guy Google renters it's hilarious all right let's get serious no more this is no more joker this this is where like seven so much fun this is where the real meat of the conversation comes to be because we're gonna talk about dining and food strategies okay and I have 217 I'm gonna need a cocktail of here so again ladies first any sort of instant thoughts that come in terms

38:38of food dining snacking hacking yes I'm gonna give you the logistical stuff so for first off when you first book your cruise you need to choose if you want main dining which is usually 545-ish or late dining which is usually 8 to 815 now main dining because of its focus on families here main goes first so the early book if you really want main dining rabbit just breathe a little bit though if you really want main and there's late because you can wait list you can ask them to wait list main so if it does become available it will automatically grab it and switch you over which is incredibly cool however this is the one thing I want to tell you most people when they get on board will go right to lunch don't go right to lunch you want to use that first hour after boarding for administration not lunch you want to go you want to go if you want to

39:39Apollo or Remi or Enchante reservation you want to go to the dining team and get in line because the we've as we've discovered they have an interesting way of doing a musical chairs type situation to keep you in line here on the bigger ships it's even more important to get there when it first open so you'll see in the app when you get to the port make sure that you download if you haven't downloaded download beforehand get to the port and connect to their Wi-Fi the moment you connect to the Wi-Fi you don't have to be on board the ship to do it you can do it in the port you can see what your dining time is what your dining location is if you need to move it or want to move it you want to be in that dining changes line the moment it opens you also want to do your spa changes or your spa appointments or do your kid club tweaks or again that dining rotation if there's something if you see it you're like oh I don't want to start there I want to start in 1923 you can ask to change your

40:42dining rotation too but the key is to get there and get in line even before they're ready for you because then you won't waste too much time sitting in line for those first few hours you're on board so get on board go right to where you're supposed to make all these changes then you'll have lunch I like that however let's say you've gotten all that taken care of already okay your mouse fan travel advisor has hooked you up you've got your early dinner which is the way I like to do it I'm a dinner and then a show kind of guy it just sort of makes more sense plus it lets you have dinner the show little popcorn little notch right there you come out do some of the even activities guess what time it is it's time to hit like Mickey's festival of foods or go up to deck 11 get yourself a little snack go back downstairs hit some of the other activities maybe go up to the pool guess what time to retire to your stay room you know what time it is chicken tender time that is the way that you structure out your

41:43seven meal a day cruise my adventure meal a day and then the next two weeks you do everything you can to get they say you're supposed to have like five to seven little meals a day or in my case five to seven big meals a day you talk about sort of embarkation day and getting on board and it's this there's nothing like that feeling Becky like you saw me like on the cruise there's something about stepping on board I still get a little choked up I get like a little like teary-eyed when they're like oh look Luma Jellos back again but they welcome you by name when you come in and there's almost this where do I go first where should I go some people go for dining some people might have to do take care of registering their kids for the kids club or go to get services most people myself included I'm a cabana's kind of guy I'm a marshly market kind of guy however on embarkation day a lot of people don't realize this dizzy cruise line offers a little quieter sit down lunch in some of the main dining rooms

42:43usually from about like two to thirty around so and there's a set menu of appetizers entrees and desserts and the locations vary by ship um I think it's normally like in tritons on the wonder Lumiere's here on the magic the royal court and palace on the German fantasy Aaron Dale on the wish positive cocoa on the treasure and Lion King on the destiny it's usually a lot quieter um sometimes the buffet you know in cabana's could be I love the sort of hectic hectic pace of of going there and sort of choosing my own culinary adventure nope I'm like can we go to the restaurant for lunch no it's a banish time it's got to be it's got to be a cabana's time it makes me so happy um but and even think about that two four breakfast again I like going to banish a breakfast the certain things that dizzy cruise like okay I just loved to have I go back to there are literal comfort foods for me but also don't forget about main dining for a little calmer breakfast every single day too it's

43:47plated it's usually far less crowded than cabanas and if you're not in a rush let it get anywhere going for one of the this at our restaurants we only we usually want to only open for breakfast every day yep you're not going to go hungry that's the thing that's wrong yeah if you don't gain weight on the ship so I talked about I like to bring whether it's like a service or I buy one of the dizzy cruise line services on board maybe make myself a cup of tea on the other hack too is you can order your morning coffee or tea via room service the night before then it arrives nice early in a little warm craft ready for you to get ready if you've got a veranda there's nothing like sitting out there just watching the ocean go by sipping your morning thing and your morning chicken tenders or your bagel or your continental yeah they have all kinds of choices from cereals to fruit to

44:51bagels to muffins to just you can get a little basket of goodies and have that delivered so you can start your vacation off or that day off very slowly and purposefully we sort of discovered I mean we sort of only knew we just sort of like gave it a name on some of the recent ceilings we want to sort of like this golden hour oh I had that on my list it was my favorite time yeah like you know depending on your your dining seating it's sort of so for example you want to go to use the pool or the aqueduct or the aqueduct those the waterslides and pools are usually least crowded during the dinner seating so if that's when you want to go but there's also this incredible little sweet spot that if you are not necessarily going to the 7th or 8 o'clock show for early dining or going to dinner vice versa there's just like little window of time like an hour where people are usually a dinner

45:52and or in the show and you'll almost feel like you have the ship to yourself to yourself Becky is like Julie Andrews up on the mountain she's like the hills are alive the ship is mine oh my it's a dramatic moment for her but it's really nice though especially when you are in the on those ships the the wish treasure and destiny where all the spaces are so small you have the ability to go into the haunted mansion lounge you have the ability to go to any of the locations and sit down and have a cocktail because you can actually find the seat where other times that is not the case especially on those ships happily on these other ships like right now on the magic there's a lot of space and there are there's places you can go all the time so you don't really have that much of an issue on these ships but that golden hour you can pretty much kind of call your own shots make your own adventure and not have to be driven

46:52by where the crowd is and if you know that there's something that it's going to start a little bit later you may want to just go and sort of make camp I'm thinking about Cruella's right if you know that treble making with with Cruella is going to start you know at 9 9 30 whatever time it is maybe you want to take advantage that pick your spot take your seat and then just have your way with the menu same thing whether it is the sanctum or you know the skipper society lounge think about taking advantage of that golden hour obviously do not do not do do not miss any of the night time entertainment but we've you know we did sort of back-to-back almost cruises on the destiny because we have the group and so we didn't necessarily go to the shows because that's not the purpose for which we were there right so don't miss any entertainment but if for some reason you're not going to see it or you've seen it once before really think about that that sweet golden hour I'm going to give you this is the most important thing we're going to say all day back and especially

47:53this is really for first-time cruisers who might not realize this I have seven words for you order more than one thing at dinner for the love of God you have your very special oyster we I think they literally gave us like a table for two with seats for four because like oh it's mangello he's going to need a little bit of room to spread out you can't do not be ashamed or embarrassed to say hey I want to try to appetizer so I this is the entree I want but man I'd really like to try those trouble presets too you can do that now the caveat is when you get home you need to stop doing that because it will cost you extra money to order that second stake at dinner it does not on Disney cruise line and it really gives you a chance to maybe try something you've never tried before yeah there's some some dishes that I look I'm a picky eater I know that that is a shocker to you they top the presses Vicki Vale what it's nice it is DC it is really nice to be able

49:02look at something and go you know what can when we can we order that for the table so we can all take a bite of that and see if it's something I'm gonna like or not and you're not wasting the entree costs like you do at a restaurant so that's really one of the best advantages of being on board a cruise ship because you can test and adjust and go you know what that really wasn't for me and don't feel bad about saying I'm so sorry this was not what I thought it was gonna be and they're gonna say what else can I get for you don't feel bad it's your vacation it's your time it's your tastes and wants you can say I'm this didn't taste the way I thought it was kind of can I get this instead and they're fine with that so don't ever feel bad about ordering more yeah so wearing a comedy look a few if something's not you're like you don't finish it like yeah that's okay you will not be shamed like I was when I was a kid for not finishing my food it's fine now I have I have another kind of adjacent thing to what you just said because shocker I'm a picky there are ladies and gentlemen my favorite things and I get laughed at all the time by Mr.

50:10Mondello but yes you can order from the kids menu I do it all the time there's a couple of menus and restaurants that don't exactly keep all right two words pirate menu I am not a fan but they do have great kids menus with some great um choices off the kids menu and you can order it and it's fine adults can order off the kids menu and get your chicken strips as we said to that yeah they are also incredibly accommodating yeah so obviously if you have certain allergies if you have dietary requirements let your travel advisor or dizzy cruise line no in advance so they could whether it's kosher gluten-free whatever it might be however if you get on board and you need those things are accommodating but and I'm not saying that I'm sitting at the table with someone who does this basically every meal if you've watched when Harry met Sally it's basically done so listen I know you have all these things on the menu but what I really want I don't

51:15want this salad I just want a house salad I want the chicken but I don't want any sauce I want a potato but without the skin and nobody with sauce and they're like okay we can do that or I'll say something like I like the chicken dish but I want the mashed potatoes from the other dish may I have the mashed potatoes instead of this little potato fringering and they're like absolutely but and this is not guaranteed but you know and we just had an exceptional service I think the best servers I've ever had five minutes in we knew and we told everybody that if this is not a hack this is just courtesy tell the head server tell the head waiter go to guest relations if you have a good experience it's so important to them we knew five minutes in we told everybody every single day we told them you are also able to increase your gratuity if you so choose you can go to guest relations as I did on this cruise and say I want to increase the amount you fill out a form they give you new new tickets and then you could sort of give them to your

52:19servers or it just is an edit but I wanted to sort of let them know just how good they were plus there's also Becky's like okay I know this drink is on the menu and those are the five ingredients but I don't want any of those ingredients they just want a cup of sugar with a floater of alcohol they say speaking speaking about alcohol be just because the half bear is to look for the drink of the day to save money they have a cocktail and a mocktail and that's one thing that you may not know if you're first time cruiser they have incredible mocktails and this is a new trend it's been happening over the past couple of years especially on cruise lines they have specific mocktail menus that you can find so if there's a cocktail that looks really good you can ask them hey can you make this a mocktail if you don't partake in alcohol but you can still have that themed cocktail that they have for the night

53:20like they had Marvel themed things were going on around here and I asked for something and it made it a mocktail but I still got the cute little doctor strange symbol that they gave me so you know you can still partake if you don't really want to have the alcohol or you don't want to spend the money on alcohol because they are significantly less expensive to do the mocktails quickly going back to what we're talking about with the servers to again this is not guaranteed you know your mileage may vary depending on who your server we've seen this time and time again sometimes by request sometimes just because they get you right remember your server follows you to all the rotational dining restaurants no matter what ship that you're on they know you they know your likes and preferences we've had this happen before whether we've asked for it or for example we've know that this is Appleware oh you like the tuna tower at Inchanted Garden when you move to another restaurant that night sometimes will go out of their way and like I know you love the tuna appetite so maybe

54:21you don't like it and they do some of those special things that make such a huge difference I I'm not a huge wine guy but more than one person has told me this before maybe you know about this speaking of alcohol you can ask at the bars or your servers at dinner about the Somalye bin you know what the Somalye bin is so supposedly once a bottle of wine is open that entire bottle has to be served that day like they can't quirk it and serve it that day so because that ships have what they call Somalye bin with open bottles bottles wine served by the glass at a lesser price than you would pay if you were quirking the bottle yourself I thought other people say that they have done this before especially if you're you know wine and fish and auto I am not I'm going to share now I don't even know if it's a hack I think sometimes it's just there is a secret not so secret dining location on board some of the ships

55:23that is wildly overlooked by adult guests it's not on the wish class so wish treasure destiny it's here not talking about you but it's on cove cafe on the magic and the wonder and the dream of the fantasy and vista cafe right on the well and the vista cafe you can access if you are not an adult it's on deck four five included in your cruise fare there's no separate upcharge if you go to cove cafe or vista cafe there's all kinds of little like depending on what time a day you go there's baked goods there's sweet treats there's also this delicious little antipost that you can get in the evenings so if you want a little pre dinner snack we were sitting out there the other night there's olives there was cheeses there was meat I was like I heard the angel singles like this is lovely I would take home pockets of that cheese if I could but it's such if you want

56:28something that's just light and simple and almost a little bit elevated cove cafe vista cafe I think a lot of people overlook as places to grab a nice little snack that's really true and that reminded me of when we were on the destiny in the sanctum and remember the snacks that they brought out they were included they're free you sit down and there's like those cheesy little things are so good I don't know what they are and that's when you have to go with your your little zip top lock bag and go more please yeah I have something to take to my room please so I do like those little tips for sure the one thing too I want to mention on the on the now now call one of my favorite things because you know the families get together and everybody's like cheering each other on for their their their crews and their celebrations they actually have onboard Disney I haven't found it anywhere else but Disney but it might exist somewhere else is a non-alcoholic champagne sparkling

57:30wine not champagne sparkling wine called cloudin and it is so good and it's blue and it sparkles so for the kids it's actually really fun I've tried once I found it I've tried to get it imported into the United States and you cannot find it anywhere except for onboard this this ship so I tend to drink a little bit of clouds and I'm here shocker there's a red cloud on which Becky will have nothing to do with no red is great the red is better than the blue but you can only get I can't believe I'm gonna say this out loud you can only get the red it concierge so the blue you can get anywhere on board but they're both and there's a goal too by the way there's a goal they're fed in a blue FYI this is so good speaking of beverages and things like that did you know that there is on certain ships there's a speak easy a hidden little speak easy that's hiding in plain

58:36sight judging by the way you're looking at me on the wish-class ships there's a little joint called hooks barbery oh yeah it's a place that you can go to get some upscale grooming services including haircuts and hot shades and beard trims and skin care all that but with you loved by the way I listen I've mixed in wildly uncomfortable they do a wonderful job it's just not my thing but what sets hooks barbery apart is they have this secret adult only bourbon and whiskey bar that's sort of hiding in in the really in plain sight so as you walk by it looks like a regular barbershop but late afternoon early evening it's this very cozy there's maybe three or four seats little speak easy bar and they make custom old fashions and curated bourbon and whiskey selections they have premium spirits and very personalized drinks that are created by the bartender there

59:39I have a couple of friends Paul and Jeff who are bourbon and whiskey experts efficient autos they literally bring bourbon with them with a travel which it's the first step is many to have a problem do not ever introduce my husband then because my husband would spend way too much money on that stuff well I'm gonna make sure I let him know no because there's no and the reason why I sort of call to speaky is there's no real obvious signage outside it's really not listed very prominently in the app it's almost sort of like a word of malady if you know you know you don't need an appointment you don't have to get like a grooming appointment to go and visit the bar and there's no sort of formal drink menu you just go in there and the barberslash bartender will ask you what your tastes are do you like it's sweeter do you like it's stronger do you like that smoky whatever it might be and they raved about the experience that they had so if you've never been there before I want you to sort of try and picture or just go to google this gentleman's

1:00:42small pirate-ish parlor and there's rich dark woods and there's leather chairs I mean it's very like it's very well themed it's very upscale and then you've got like so it's like this hybrid of like old-style barbershop and like swanky little private pirate lounge very very well done and if you're again a bourbon witsky person or you want to sort of have some of those um an elevated cocktail experience customize just for you absolutely go and if you order the right things you actually get keepsake coins oh I know so there is at if that's if you're into that and you really like the top shelf stuff ask him which ones will give you a keepsake coin that I did not know yeah something that's a lot of people really raved about coming off our group trip on the destination which is why I want to mention here because I think a lot of people don't realize I love the secrets in the history and the details and all the storytelling and I love being

1:01:45able to go and seek it out and then I make 250 questions scavenger lunch for the people on board but if you don't want to be subjected to one of my I think very fun and interesting scavenger ones if you are 18 and up there is the art of the theme show tour which is a free tour of the space of a lot of the spaces on board the ship it gives you a real deeper appreciation of storytelling and how imagineers design and create these spaces so everything from why colors and textures are chosen or the meaning behind certain things how they impact the guest experience and the thematic connections between the different ships especially on the newer ships because the storytelling is so deeply woven in literally and figuratively woven into the fabrics the color of the textures and the storytelling spaces it's really great for whether you are a you know an imaginary fan a cruise line fan or just interested in to see sort of how it all came together they are fascinating

1:02:48tours and they are very popular so those are one of the ones that you want to go right to guest services and say hey what what tours do you have on board the ship and sometimes there are tours sometimes there are imaginary tours sometimes there are other other types that they have available they'll be able to tell you what's available when it's available and allow you to sign up so definitely take advantage of that if you like that type of detail do you know what one of the most popular words among Disney cruise line guests is free did you know I was going to say tell dog because right now yes tell dog Becky is on a quest to find the little tell dog couldn't get the tell dog three sailings we couldn't get the tell dog not that I'm bitter we went on the destiny is when I realize this is that if you go again people go in different directions when they first get on board I make a beeline for commanders other people are signing up go on a lot of people

1:03:48make a beeline for the spa and did you know that you can go to the spa hasn't as an open house a lot of spaces have open house like the kids club etc the spa has an open house an embarkation day and there's a raffle for a free treatment so if you want to just sort of browse the menu maybe book something if you go and what you want to tour the facilities and the rainforest room the salon areas you can also enter a raffle to potentially win a free and I know you went to the spa you had treatments there some people live and die by the rainforest room that is you know that is sort of there home away from home on Disney cruise line yeah absolutely and you do see and speaking of the spa go to the spa and ask them if you don't win by the way because not everybody gets to win like I've never won but that's all right I'm not bitter about that either go and ask them about any specials they have do they have a port special is sometimes there's a special in port maybe you

1:04:49don't want to go into Nasa you can go and do the your spa treatments there they also have multi-treatment specials so if you have three different treatments over different times does have to eat same time you can get 20% off for for example so always ask the question say you know what if I have both another one is there a discount yeah um we talked we were talking about this I just remembered we were talking about different things in in the state rooms and the bathrooms and things like that before too and we're saying like oh you know sometimes I'm not the biggest guy in the world and the showers are not huge um we talked about the spa maybe think about this that you know some of the newer ships the the showers a little bit room here some of the older ships are a little bit tighter if you find that they're a little maybe uncomfortable or small for you did you know that you can go to the fitness center and use the showers there and I think

1:05:51they're open from like 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. so if you want to do your morning shower or pre-dinner shower or post-mail shower whatever it might be you could use the ones in the fitness center it's a really good hack for those who have a family of four and not everybody could just wait for the shower one after another mom or dad can go down to the spa and shower there to cut some time yeah um this is way out of order because I should have mentioned this before we were talking about watching fireworks from your veranda um and sometimes you know maybe you're not you go to dinner maybe not feeling like going to the show maybe not feeling that great maybe your kids are sleeping you can attend a show I keep forgetting to watch this and every time you say that I say yes it is because I know did you know yes Becky knew if you missed a show or want to see it again you can watch the stage shows in the Walt Disney theater if you can't attend live in your state room um they're all often dedicated as shown on a dedicated onboard channel so if you go to the live TV and then

1:06:57scroll down you'll see Walt Disney theater and you'll be able to watch the shows from the comfort of your couch or your bed or with your chicken tenders whatever it might be so it's really nice and sometimes there's also like little interstitials like behind the scenes things that they show about like the making are we to watch like the making of um hercules on the destiny on the last cruise right so it's it's pre-recorded the different shows and they're showing on the day that they're actually in the theater so check the the state room TV and it's usually you'll you'll see the menu and it'll say the Walt Disney theater shows you go to that and it will tell you exactly what times that they will be showing that day um usually I want to say don't quote me there's like four different times maybe a few more that on the day it is actually showing you can park yourself in in your TV in your state room and watch the show as well yeah um what else you got I've got it's a matter of

1:07:58fact that was the live show is right there um you know one of the ones that this is this is an oldie but a goodie if you're new to Disney cruise line especially on these ships with the the direction the wayfinders so the carpet on the magic and the wonder at least has a map on it and if you are if you see the map right side up you're heading to the front of the ship if it's upside down you're heading to the back of the ship so each of the ships has a little wayfinder like that that helps you to discover so you don't have to run to the elevator lobby to go wait am I forward or aft and at least on these ships they have a center midship elevator which is again I have a thing about elevators we have definitely established this next week shows me hot ten becky idiosyncrasies and elevators are one of them but it really is so much more convenient and

1:09:02again with these smaller ships that only has ten decks you can actually get your steps in um this is a good reason to choose this because you don't feel so bad about the fortress or see ordered because you want to try each one of them because it is easier to go up and down the stairs and get to the places you want to go but the the wayfinders uh each ship has a different one but this is the one that reminded me of it because I remember looking down and seeing the map and going oh yeah I should probably mention that um I just really I just saw some additional snack hacks that I forgot to mention while we were talking about food I don't know if I should keep them here I can see your little little modulabraine yeah did I mention that oh my gosh you know that forgot banana today you forgot that ice cream day oh well I have to go to book I mean I come and book another cruise just so I can come back for banana ice are they

1:10:04open to eleven I don't know I don't think so I think it's 10 all right you talk about your snacks I'll look to make sure I think it's over all right so here are some quick snack packs that I've seen people do that we've done before that people have told me on the last cruiser for example up on deck nine here on deck eleven until the other ships there is soft serve ice cream available up on deck what I like about the magic and wonder it is self serve soft serve so you grab your cone and go up and you go to do the go do that voodoo that you do so well and make your own on other ships they do have a crew members were able to help you here's the hack here's one of the hacks go over to the soda machines what you're you're a gate it's open to eleven yes all right that everybody we're done hack to over um we have 15 minutes we're going to get this done um so go over to the soda machines grab your paper cup go over to either the crew member or to the

1:11:07stuff serve make your own ice cream in a cup we actually when we do these cruisers we'll have like an ice cream social and I'll bring all kinds of like accoutrements I'll bring like M&M's and nut and sprinkles and I know sprinkles and jimmies whatever you call them like yeah chocolate sauce and peanut butter yeah some people call them jimmies I don't yeah I don't know it's a weird thing it's like standing online I get it go ahead right what do you what do you call what do you call a big sandwich that's in a long roll with like meat and stuff inside a subway subway is a brand but there's sub sub Hokies heroes grinders whatever you want to call whatever we're getting distracted so you can make that base with the soft serve and you put in like brownie chunks or you can even go to the like buffet area and get some little snacky things and put them on there you control the cop toppings you control the textures it's wonderful I have a lot of friends who like to do this on board or for my friend not only like this is her this is her her thing this is her thing when she goes to

1:12:10castaway or lookout she will go and get two of the giant soft serve cookies and then go over and make yourself a cookie sandwich you can do that on board you can make your own sandwich routine two cookies two brownies whatever it might be so go to cabanhas or go to marshley market get your cookies or brownies come out make yourself a little sandwich I know a bunch of the people to like to make milkshake floats so they'll get it in a cup and then we'll go over we put vanilla soft serve in a cup and then they top it with like coke or sprite or what do they have to bear on sorry I have to they'll go all sesperility stays I mean yeah that would be great if there's like rooper on the gun and you could go get yeah right anyway I guess you could wait you can actually sort of make your own oh wait you forget milkshake you can make your own afogato what what what so you go and get a cup of coffee or espresso from the beverage station and then you go

1:13:12and put a little soft serve on it it's called an afogato and you can make an afogato it's all included no waiting in line and you could make it on your own another couple of things about food too don't forget right you go to cabanhas right and you get your waffle and you put your peanut butter on it and you put banana and syrup cabanhas is closed so I just want to want you to know that there's still banana ice cream if you drink coffee go to cove cafe and make sure you get your little coffee card because after you get five the sixth one is free so make sure the first one you buy you make sure to get your coffee card yeah yeah we took definitely take advantage of that because it was great it was wonderful specialty coffees that are not included they're an additional charge but if you get your things stamped five times your next one is free yep so and then last but at least this is more of a a thing for magic and wonder because I found this

1:14:14a little frustrating but I found a way around it cabanhas can be a little overwhelming in the mornings sad about my cabanhas in the mornings especially on a c-day it can be a little crowded and hard to find a seat so I would just say make sure to go really early or go right before they close and it's not a problem what are all these children doing what do I say you you were with me and we were like churro mickey waffle which is only available on the last day by the way yes the last day go to cabanhas mostly market and get your churro mickey waffle is yeah there you go deck eleven deck nine you go get chicken tenders you chop them up and then you go to one of their foods and get like a little wrap you can make like a little chicken tender wrap I had to do that because you just have chicken it's like it's a mindset thing if you're experienced as a cruiser don't think like what's on the menu it's like what ingredients are available and what can I build

1:15:15what sort of custom snack hack can I build thank you clearly anytime there's gonna be food involved there's going to be a long list of things you're going to to go after especially banana ice cream yeah either you mentioned before you were joking you weren't even joking you were being completely serious about ordering off of the kids menu my kids grew up on dizzy cruise line I'm not going to cry like I do every time I see parents little kids on cruise line but you've ordered what the kid the other thing that that parish should recognize to whether it's for yourself or really more so for your kids is there's kids menus at all of the table service restaurant kids are not limited to eating off those menus they can order off the adult menu and the service are also ridiculously accommodating like if your kid is like came out I need to have chicken tenders every night they will find a way to bring that kid chicken tenders if there's something that is on this ship we've seen it time over time over time we've seen it them do it for

1:16:17adults like they will really go out of the way so don't be afraid to ask and usually what happens by night one night two your server's gonna know your or your child's preferences you don't have to ask anymore like I'd love just like walking up and like oh there's your iced tea there's Becky's very customized I see which is what I drink most of the time on this I want ice tea but I want to spend I don't want the round ice not the cubes I want the squares whatever how but yeah there's there's always lots of options for kids of your kid is a pick either usually there's a lot but they're they're also very accommodating to anything yeah last but not least for me a lot of people are always looking for a juice bar or for smoothies and it was just a few say-lings ago that I realized that there's a couple of bars now that have juices and have smoothies and they're really nice addition so if you're kind of Jones and for that there are all kinds of

1:17:22different types of concoctions they can make and one of them is right next door to the soft serve ice cream place right so you can feel good about you have the ice cream and then you wash it away with the healthy food yeah exactly speaking of eating healthy much like me really very conscious about what I'm eating it out to contenders there's another little hack for you that you may not know about it okay and it's not available on all ships it is available on the classic ships the magic and wonder as well as the dream and the fantasy in different locations so on the dream and the fantasy they're sort of in this little hallway area in between like the pub and the club and here on the magic and wonder I think both we're in oh gills right now I think it's also gills on the wonder there are complimentary and I'm looking right behind me with the complimentary

1:18:23late night snack spreads that are not part of the regular buffet so if you want like wings mozzarella sticks spring rolls fruit meat whatever it's not every night on every ship and there really is sort of no schedule of what is out when but I just we were in fathoms last night the night before I don't know and I was getting excited for chicken tenders we were in the middle something I was like wait a minute mongello and I walked priceless from fathoms here to oh gills and there was this glorious little mini buffet of little chicken wings and crudite and meat and there was like a muffled out of sandwich and I just heard the angels sing again they're not in any of the dining guides it's like a late night bonus when you find it and when you do it's a great sort of interstitial meal in between dinner and room service chicken tenders because you have to fill all of those seven meals in the day yeah it's too late as long as we're sitting in the pub as

1:19:29for example guests might also not realize that all the ships have lounges and pubs like periscope pub or crowned fin or oh gills that not only have their own drink menu but a lot of them also have a food menu which come at an extra cost we really dig the food at places like cascan canon and periscope pub so they're not part of the buffet service and it is extra cost but whether you want a pretzel or an amazing burger as to see or usually be at a table or even think about say maybe I don't want to die in the thing where I want a late night snack look to look to the pub look to the cookie Jerry look to the pub and there are unique snacks and little bikes and big bites you can get it to it's not to see little bites we turn that into a meal one night we replaced a dinner with going there and it was really good and then you got the drink that came with all the the chocolate

1:20:29balloons and so I had chocolate for a week after that the other this is not this now I'm just talking about food because I don't know if this isn't even like a half but the other thing too and I really like it on well who am I kidding I like it on all the ships because I had it here I love it on the wish-class ships late night pizza just now hits different on dizzy cruise line the other night I didn't want to wait for chickie attendees I had this delicious barbecue chicken pizza that I got on deck nine I bought it back a little beverage I watched big hero six look at this smile I've been sick I have to get it's not a hack but if you're hungry if you're hungry you are never and look for this is 24 hours a day seven days a week 367 days a year 67 please that'd be great if you could add more days to the calendar because we clearly need more time at sea clearly yeah okay what other hacks do you have that they don't have to be food related anything

1:21:34else on your list I pretty much went through the list and then you hit some of the stuff that I had there as well so for this episode I think my list is done I'm sure you've got a few more on yours doesn't you know that we've done this for and depending on what ship that you're on and I think the wish-class and the dream-class ships lend themselves to look we're in oh gills right now and sitting behind us in one of these first of all this feels like a cool like old Vegas like red leather chair banquet but behind you there's clue there's yachtsie there's Disney trivia there's candy land they also have games in on this class of ship in the promenade lounge which is either soul-cats or the front quarter lounge but depending on when you go especially late at night when there's nothing going on like bring your own deck of cards bring you know bring a game bring a puzzle um because sometimes it's cool to be able to find some of those spaces and I it's one of the

1:22:35reasons why I love this ship I mean look there's nothing else going on in here tonight it's a cool place to get together have a drink whether it's a bunch of adults or I love promenade lounge because your kids can come there too do stuff um because it's not just about the things that are on your navigator it's sometimes just about making it on fun yeah and the people that you're with and again these ships really lend themselves to that because there's always a little corner that you can get together with your friends and your family hang out visit talk to each other don't look at your phones enjoy the company that you have and enjoy the time you have together and enjoy your chicken tenders all right um we are not alone with our hacks I reached out on the clubhouse on Facebook and on Instagram and you showed up and I don't even think that I have all of them but I want to share some of your community hacks and then where you shared it I will also share who um

1:23:36who get first one that came in this is why Megan and I are friends uh Mingly is she's at Mingly with Megan she's Megan Dubois um we have traveled extensively together says get a plate of fries then a bowl minus rice from Donald Cantina she's talking about wish clash dump the bowl onto the fries and top with salsa from the salsa bar to make loaded text mexico fries okay I'm finished read a Walter Disney Mama 64 says room service hack order chocolate chip cookies and put a Mickey premium bar in between them to make an ice cream sandwich oh my god uh ask DC says if you don't love cruise line coffee pack a french press and your favorite course ground coffee add hot water and enjoy fresh coffee on your branda nice for the coffee efficient autos and here if you like hot chocolate they do have hot chocolate packets up there too so I've I've been doing that a little bit uh Kimberly Lorraine Steiner KL Steiner 70 says bring your resort reveal a bring your

1:24:39resort refillable mugs to to use to get sodas on the pool deck mic lock to miss 2337 says this too is on the wish clash ships I think he's talking about get a pretzel bun on our talks slowly get a pretzel bun and fill it with pulled pork or chicken tenders add sauce and make a custom sandwich why didn't I know that two weeks ago um uh m m 2852 this is clearly not one of my take the 7 a.m yoga stretch class on the top deck for a peaceful unique way to start the day Emma well clearly we are working on different areas of the ship uh over in Facebook picks our mama says we're bringing glow sticks to use as night lights on our cabin they illuminate well unpacked in the glass oh that's smart Debbie Anderson says we take battery tealights for some to the same use in the bathroom uh rich Austrian says if I tell you that if what we'll do it uh sharing is caring rich Jackson Morgan says uh dizzy cruise lines are the only ones you can

1:25:42take as an introvert and an extrovert creates a strong sense of community and social connection on board for both personality types uh Jennifer cruises DCL says get at the pasta at 6 p.m. from coast cafe and with the sister Gary wit I would tell you but then I'd have to you know tell us Gary Denise Austin says don't wait until the last day to check out the buffet I missed out on four days of boiled strip and sushi Benny Cohen uh said on our last Disney dream trip this past October we asked the waiter if there were off menu items I almost didn't want to give this away Benny every night you boy you can assume this is going to happen but it seems to be pretty consistent we asked if there was off menu items every night he brought us two to three Indian dishes they had in the back Benny I did this on the destiny it's not guaranteed it but if you like Indian food they I've had I've seen this and I've had it happen a number of times it's best to give them a day's notes about that to say hey for tomorrow night I look just sort of bring it up

1:26:44in conversation like oh I noticed from you're from wherever you know I love Indian food I'm like oh you do hmm let me know tomorrow uh Christie Brown brings collapsible square bins but she bought of the Dollar Tree great for storage items for your odds and ends you need more space for oh that's smart too especially if you like to have little like stuff you can put them on the counters Becky a Dollar Tree is where real people go to buy things that are about a dollar sometimes a dollar 15 wow uh let me see uh Nick Chappelle celery soup at Apollo brunch you're welcome it's celery and it's soup it's got to be good uh Heather Raw says Coke float instead of if it's a soft serve ice cream Carol Stein you know Carol Stein she was the hack lady yeah in the UK ably and she's one of the most talented pianists in all of Waltters really the whole planet but she's in Waltters world take the guy to ship tours you learned about the exquisite beauty all over the ship walk around the ship to take photos everywhere about 1130 great photos and no people I love the

1:27:45kiss good night at 11 am the H.U. on the Disney Wish I just realized we we missed the finale show here tonight um oh we did but again we don't want to miss an ice cream but I know I'm going quickly Bridget Gallagher says stay on the boat on Nassau Day also sit down lunch and embarkation day my hubby says bring chicken tenders to trip you have because even if you lose you win well done uh okay let me see uh Jason Brewer if you were a beer drinker get the reusable glass mugs you can take them anyone the ship except the pool deck even though it's not much of a saving because it's convenient when you get to bring it home after John McBride oh this is the ice cream hack uh half of the cup with the coke at the drink station walk over to the self-serve and make a coke float Jackie Shiburdo who's cruised with us many times has said I like the battery operated LED Christmas lights draped them over a couple of magnetic cooks I found one to say on automatically eight hours and switch off um Lloyd Rush says they have to watch the entire Pirates

1:28:45of the Caribbean movie on the funnel vision at the end of pirate night when it's over you have the entire ship to yourself it's the best time to explore and get empty H.U. and pictures I agree especially up on deck two it's beautiful when there's nobody out there yeah um let me see Christine talked about okay just the secret snacks on the mini lounge we just talked about cove cafe Christine Thomas says I bring small airtight snack containers at breakfast at the oatmeal toppings musely cereal station I make a bowl of DIY trail mix and then bring it back to my rule to snack on later I like that one I like that too I will admit to having like I don't know why I sneak it into my backpack but I'll grab a couple of things a flute loops and I'll put a few things yeah man okay fun of me good to know uh let me see Christine Thomas says my husband Sean would probably say rent a bike a castaway stop to climb the observation tower it's amazing someday I might join him but you can usually finally floating the day away it's ready bay I've done it once once it's a bike it's

1:29:46a hike on a bike and then a hike up I'm really more about the relaxing and eating on castaway uh Rachel Graves oh this is actually a really good tip on the uh treasure and destiny the Hunter mentioned parlor isn't always locked when it's closed right you can go in sit take picture pictures soak up the vibes the show isn't running so the lighting is actually better when it's open children aren't allowed after nine so get the second dinner seating you can go right from dinner to the parlor uh to relax sold an hour Mary Ann Bernie Allen rainforest for room get the length of stay pass it's just fantastic remis dream and fantasy get a reservation it's the best meal we ever had go hungry lots of foot um she also says take a class oh yeah there's beverage classes you can take they did one on cognac uh Paul Gouders says a book of placeholder for the discount um Dennis Clyde Warren says on cday the captain gives a daily briefing at noon try to be on the upper decks on the funnel i was actually out there today and then they usually

1:30:48pay the shipworm that says yes right after the announcements yeah um and somebody just said embrace the fun and allow yourself to be a kid again which may be the best smartest hack of all i till they agree if you can be an eight year old with a platinum card this is the best vacation ever um but like that's this is part of what i love about there's a lot i love about Disney cruising it's not just about the ships it's absolutely it's about the people and it's about the the service but it's also about some of these little discoveries the little insider tricks he like wow i can't believe i never knew that and when you do sort of makes you feel like a part of a secret club and we're pulling like pay these forward right because i think sometimes the best hacks don't come from websites or guidebooks they come from you right they come from our friends they come from the community so i want to know because you're probably screaming at your car or your why did they do or thank god they didn't say this listen share the love share the

1:31:52the knowledge what is your best Disney cruise line hack tip or hidden gem the things that most people don't think about which is what we tried to cover uh but totally should come sharing the clubhouse tag me on instagram or call the voicemail at 407 909 391 because the next great tip might come from you and you can help someone have the best cruise of their life which is exactly what Becky and her team of advisors do over at mouse fan travel really and i'm not just saying because you're here but one of the best hacks and i know look i like to sort of self plan and planning is one of the fun especially with Disney cruise line because there is so much involved like look to um look to like an advisor at mouse fan travel who can help you part in the pun navigate a lot of the idiosyncrasies so you do sort of maximize not just your dollar but your fun and your time on board yeah one of the things we'll do too is if there is a date that

1:32:52is opening up soon you can contact us and say hey i'm really interested in going in january of 2028 we'll make a note of that so when it gets closer and we get the heads up that it's opening up you're already in line and we can grab it for you but even better and i'd love my my cruise hack at this point because like you said people like to see what they're doing they want to see they want to pick their cabin they want to see all the prices maybe they it's 11 o'clock at night and we're not available we do have a self booking engine at book me i cruise dot com you can go in there dizzy cruises are available any cruise line actually that we work with is available you can look it up you can play with the the dates and the times and the attinuaries and the ships you can decide to hold one if you're not exactly sure if you want to actually book it you can book it if you'd like and the next morning we get the report that you booked something we assign an agent or we give you the agent you're already working with and you are good to go so if you're kind of

1:33:57like a little bit of of playing in there and checking out stuff we've got the tool for you yet my last hack and one that i think is super important whether you've cruised before or not cruising is better when it is shared with friends and families true which is why i love and i've so been so grateful for all the help that you and your team have given to the group cruises that we've done every year sometimes more than once a year for the past 17 18 years we just came off the destiny we did the treasure we've done Halloween we've done Alaska we've done Christmas cruises we've done Star Wars cruises we've done Marvel cruises we've spent a lot of time on this cruise planning future cruises so definitely stay tuned to the podcast to my social and the clubhouse because whether you are an introvert extrovert whether you've cruised before or never or or even never cruised with us there is something special about cruising together as a group and we always do a lot of fun unique special things together as a family and there's nothing like being able to walk

1:35:00through and see somebody else with that same land you're on and know that you're sort of connected in some way and no matter where you go whether you're going to bingo whether you're going to hook sparbery you know you're going to find somebody that is part of the group and you can do as much worth little as you like so yeah i'm excited for it to plan what we're planning which we're not quite ready to reveal just yet back in ice for a lot of time together i know and there's a more to come there's a little bit of a break yeah and one thing the other thing too we discovered having been on cruises basically for a month there are lots of ways and places like if you need to get worked on look we understand the world keeps spinning you know we we joke about we wish it was a internet but there is internet and it's we've been able to work for a month and and find places and spaces and very focused work because you have no other distractions other than chicken tenders chicken and the ocean yeah so thank you for this thank you for sharing your experience and expertise you don't share your chicken tenders but that's fine no and now it's time for banana soft serve ice

1:36:05cream yeah i think that we need to get up there so is it we walk up there and they're just closing it down this is your walk and i'm gonna lose it i'm gonna have to get double orders of chicken you're gonna be a little six-year-old you're gonna throw yourself to the ground and stamp your little feet and then they're gonna go oh the bubble of chicken wings from room throws are really very spicy they're very spicy about so and you can smell the pizza when you're walking around the corner yeah well you made fun of me last time because i was like i was walking back to my room and i got a glass of water and i was like oh i need a little walking pizza i'm like so so i'm gonna stop and daigi's uh at that uh walking pizza and i would get yeah i needed pizza to walk from the front of the ship because you needed more um energy and fuel to get from here to there yeah god it was like an interstitial between dinner and the first snack and the chicken tenders it all right now we have to do it ice cream so i can then go back to my room and order chicken tenders and watch being hero six lesa it's my favorite i'll

1:37:06yeah that's gonna do it for this week's show i'll give you an extra week to answer last week's trippy contest but this week i really wanted to concentrate on our ultimate disley cruise line hacks i hope that you enjoyed it i hope that you learned something new if you did please share what somebody who's maybe planning their next disney cruise line vacation and know how much i appreciate you and for listening and your time and being part of this community i do not take that lightly and i am so very grateful to and for you come be part of the community and conversation over in the clubhouse at www.wradio.com slash clubhouse watch and chat with me this and every Wednesday at 730 p.m. Eastern on www.wradio live on facebook and youtube leave me a voicemail i'll play it on the air at 407 909 391 whether it's about your favorite disney cruise line hack a question a comment

1:38:07anything that you want to share and please connect and chat with me over on social i am at lu mangello on instagram facebook and linkedin and because i am so truly grateful for the gift that you have given me of being able to do and more importantly share what i love each and every week i want to give you a quick invitation if you are a creator or entrepreneur or solo and you've been wondering how to actually turn what you're doing into sustainable revenue i'm hosting a live online momentum monetization workshop on friday march 20th from 9 a.m. to 12 30 p.m. Eastern it's going to be a hands-on interactive session where i'll not only teach you about the sort of the monetization blueprint but will build yours together you'll have the chance to ask questions and get some guidance live you will not just leave inspired and to leave with your own personal monetization roadmap built during the workshop clarity about what you offer a plan you can start implementing immediately and a workbook to help keep your momentum going even after the session is over i'm going to keep it intentionally small there's only eight spots left out of the

1:39:1025 so if you want to join us now really is the time you can learn more and save your seat over at lu mangello.com slash monetize i would love to see you there if there's anything i can do for you any questions you have from me please reach out email me luatwdojo.com i'd love to be able to help you any way that i can in the meantime i look forward to seeing you on Wednesday night back here again next week please be kind choose the good have an amazing day and even better tomorrow so until next time thanks again i love and appreciate you see ya i knew my name is Tracy i'm from Minnesota and i've been listening to your podcasts for many years and have also loved reading your books i've got to tell you that i absolutely loved your top ten this week about the things we miss that are no longer there and the one thing that you spoke of that absolutely hit an incredible nostalgic chord with me was the radio station when you would drive on property i was fortunate to be

1:40:14a child of the 70s whose parents who really didn't have much somehow took me to Walt Disney World four times in the 70s and we drove from i from iowa although kinds in the station wagon just as you described and i just want to say thank you for thinking of that because that was one of the things that i had completely forgotten about i also wanted to say that the magical express for you mentioned was a huge thing for us too but i wanted to give one little um not a correction one little addition to what you said for us it actually started that from the minute you dropped off your luggage at the airport in Minneapolis then we knew we did not have to worry about it again and it would just somehow magically show up in our hotel room later and um that was just a wonderful thing to think about in one more thing that i remember from that time was the cards you were talking about i remember

1:41:19going on a trip with my father in 1995 when he retired he and i went and we stayed at the fairly new all-star reports and having those cards with our name on it the dates we were staying and that we were staying at all-star sports was really cool and i still have it in a photo album and we also were members of something like the magic kingdom club travel club or something that my dad would join and we would get these cool tags luggage tags and um of course the myth the VHS tape that used to come in the mail so anyway thank you so much for the show it just made my day and um just appreciate everything you do have a great day hi Lou um my name's Colleen and i wanted to share one of my favorite things that it no longer at the Disney parks and it was by the backblock chore and it was the um the sountains from the movie splash that was something my sisters and i used to

1:42:28rush over to see because our all-time favorite movie growing at so that gimme is very sad said that so longer there um and also honeys restaurant and magic kingdoms i know it's still there but they used to have stress fest and that was my family's tradition there we used to go every time to be at magic kingdom that early and beyond mean street first thing in the morning um well i should say the square um but we would be there and it was the start of the most magical day so those of us think they miss and pretty much everything else you guys mentioned hi well it sounds pretty good in fact that's just the right spirit