Disney Cruise Recap: Alaskan and Mediterranean Adventures with Carissa and John

Tune in for two amazing recaps of Disney adventures on the high seas! Join us as Carissa recounts her breathtaking journey aboard the Disney Wonder's Alaska cruise, a trip she calls the adventure of a lifetime. Meanwhile, John shares his unique experiences as an entertainment host on a Mediterranean Disney Vacation Club members cruise, complete with Broadway stars, imagineers, and exclusive movie previews. From attending a Rolling Stones concert to Carissa balancing marathon training with the indulgences of cruise life, this episode is packed with engaging stories and practical tips for maintaining a healthy lifestyle while traveling.

Curious about how to upgrade your travel accommodations and get the most out of your cruise or flight? We've got you covered with our insider tips on concierge upgrades, including the perks of larger rooms, enhanced amenities, and exclusive lounges. We even reveal how being polite and entertaining at check-in can sometimes lead to complimentary flight upgrades. As entertainment hosts, we share our behind-the-scenes responsibilities on the Mediterranean cruise, from lively trivia sessions to interactive shows with Disney illustrators and voice actors, giving you a glimpse into the magic we help create onboard.

Finally, embark on a detailed recount of embarkation day from Vancouver, the wonders of Glacier Viewing Day in Alaska, and the logistics of a cruise stop in Livorno, Italy. We share the joys and challenges of waking a groggy child for a glacier excursion, the thrill of a helicopter ride over Alaska, and the bittersweet moments of travel expectations not quite met. Compare our Disney cruise experiences with other lines and celebrate the unique magic that only Disney can offer. Whether you're planning your own cruise or just curious about our nautical escapades, this episode will captivate and inspire you.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to 3-2-1-Go the podcast. I'm John Pelkey.

Speaker 2: 0:08

And I'm Carissa Galloway and we're bringing you stories from start to finish to keep the everyday athlete motivated to keep moving towards the next finish.

Speaker 1: 0:17

All right, Carissa, something different. Today we're taking 3-2-1-Go to the high seas and giving you a breakdown of both mine and Carissa's cruises that we went on. We both went on seven-'s cruises that we went on. We both went on seven night cruises almost simultaneously though I think you left a couple of days after I did and we are going to talk about what we experienced them. Yours was a normal Disney cruise that you book like normal people yes, we do air quote normal people and I was actually working a members cruise DVC members cruise. So just to set the scene for you folks, Yep, so we're going to break them both down.

Speaker 2: 0:51

You guys had some great questions. I did the seven day Alaska cruise on the Disney Wonder and it was truly the trip of a lifetime. John has also been on that same cruise so he can help kind of recap a little bit too. Wow, twice, look at you Now. I'm usually the fancy pants. John is the fancy pants today. And healthier you. We're going to talk about how to eat with a hashtag side of healthy on the cruise. We want to thank you guys for listening, for being a fan. If you love the podcast, please subscribe, and if you want to keep the podcast going, consider being a supporter, like our new one, john Megan. Hi, megan, we call her Salty, so thank you, salty. Look in the show notes for the link to be a supporter, a subscriber.

Speaker 1: 1:32

But we're just happy that you're here and let's do this 3, 2, 1, go, all right, carissa, we've got to start this the way we start everything, and I actually know the answer to these questions, but how are you and where are you?

Speaker 2: 2:04

I am good. I'm on a little bit of a runner's high. Just did an eight-miler this morning here as part of my marathon training, so I ran in the door six minutes before we did this podcast. I did change clothes, but I am good here. I am home in Oakland, johnny. What about you?

Speaker 1: 2:16

I am good.

Speaker 2: 2:18

You should be great today. You should be great. You should be great today?

Speaker 1: 2:21

Well, I am. I'm going to the Rolling Stones tonight, so I'm very excited about that. What is it as we tape? It's a little after 9 o'clock, so I'll be seeing the Stones in about 11 hours.

Speaker 2: 2:31

What time are you leaving the house? At how early are you going to get there?

Speaker 1: 2:35

We're going to meet up with my buddy, David, at 6.30, and we're going to have a pre-show drink, and then we're going to take an Uber from where we're parking, which is well away from where parking is. You know, trying to park for a concert in Orlando it's going to be a nightmare.

Speaker 1: 2:49

So we're going to park elsewhere, uber over near the, have a drink, uber over near the stadium, and then we'll either start walking back or whatever after the show. We'll see what happens then. Getting an Uber might be trouble, so I don't care. Logistically doesn't matter. I got nothing to do in the morning. If I get back late, I'm very excited about that. But to answer your question, I am in a Koei at my house, even though we traverse the world opposite ends of the globe Look at us After your seven-night Alaska cruise and my seven-night Mediterranean cruise. But I'm here at home, glad to be home and excited about seeing the Stones tonight, as you should be.

Speaker 2: 3:25

And, folks, this is not in any way sponsored by Disney or any cruise line or anything.

Speaker 1: 3:28

Or the Rolling Stones, for that matter, or the Rolling.

Speaker 2: 3:30

Stones, we're just going to talk about our cruises, our personal experience. Should this inspire you to go on one, please tell people that they should hire John and I to be there for just any multitude of reasons. All right, john, as you mentioned, we went on two Disney cruises in two very different locations, for different reasons. Let's start with you Seven nights in the Mediterranean. So give us sort of an overview of your cruise. Talk us through your reason for going, which I think most listeners know that you were working, and you've worked several DVC cruises and then we'll start with your travel.

Speaker 1: 4:01

Okay, yes, I worked the DVC member cruises. I've been lucky enough to do that over the last 10 years or so. I think we're up to 12 cruises at this point.

Speaker 2: 4:09

Wow, that's so awesome.

Speaker 1: 4:10

I know, yeah, it really is, and I lucked into it. I think I've told that story as well, but anyway, that's a story for another day, or maybe later in this day, who knows, we don't know. This is freeform. We're Vacation Club has a members cruise that has entertainment that is specific to the cruise. They bring on the Disney Broadway stars. We had some additional musical theater, folks from Disney and music people that do shows. They bring on experts, imagineers, animators from different shows. They preview movies. We had an opportunity to see Young Woman in the Sea with Daisy Ridley, which is absolutely terrific and highly recommend. I'll talk more about that in a little bit, but that's it. My comedy partner, mark Ferreira, who's also the director, entertainment director for the Run Disney races. We just kind of plug into a bunch of different shows because we can host, get questions from the audience, be moderately entertaining, and so, yeah, it's a very lucky gig that I wandered into a decade ago.

Speaker 2: 5:12

I mean, I feel that way about Run Disney, but yours is. This is even better, but it is still work and I understand that I think some people listening may not understand like, oh, you're on a cruise, but it is your work. Brain never shuts off.

Speaker 1: 5:22

We did have we did have a couple of days off. They were very, very nice that we had a couple of port days off, because nobody's going to, you know, get off the out. They're not going to leave Rome early to come see John and Mark talk to illustrators, more than likely. No offense to the illustrators. Those shows were incredibly well attended. But so we had a little more free time than we normally do on this cruise, which was a little bit nice, though as we move through it chronologically, you'll appreciate how little I utilize that free time.

Speaker 2: 5:47

It happens, all right travel, so both of us flying from Orlando, not world's worst airport.

Speaker 1: 5:54

Well, it was the first time I got to use my frequent traveler thing, the TSA pre-check, which is highly recommend. Highly recommend Particularly if you're flying in and out of MCO folks, which is Orlando's airport, which can get dicey. No issue there, but we had weather issues that held us up on the plane as we were waiting. We had to sit for a half an hour or more on the tarmac waiting to take off. So we did have a little bit of a white knuckle moment in Newark, where we changed planes to fly to Barcelona, because we flew into Barcelona and so I had to do that kind of looking at our clock as the bus takes you from one terminal to another, which was a very, very stressful ride for me because we were really cutting it close. But we did. We ran to the gate. Well, people have seen me. I didn't run walk. I will say that, jeff, I did actually keep up a. I will say that, jeff, I did actually keep up a solid sort of joggy pace.

Speaker 2: 6:51

If you were a real runner, you would have started your watch to just count that run.

Speaker 1: 6:54

I would have. Yeah, I absolutely would have, and I thought about it, but then I went you're not a real runner, john, don't play one of the airport. But we did get on our flight and I had a great flight to Barcelona. I sleep on planes very easily. European flights are overnight. I didn't realize that the wine was free, so I had a second Cabernet and I just dropped out and I fell asleep. It was dark out. I woke up and it was light out and we were over Spain. I woke up about 45 minutes before we landed, so I slept probably close to five hours on the plane. My poor wife not a second, did not sleep a second.

Speaker 2: 7:31

Really I'm kind of like that I have to take a Tylenol PM. I used to take Melatonin but I legit have to just roll the Tylenol PM. But it's really hard for me to sleep on planes because of the seats. I mean, if I'm in a lay flat seat, which I have been in three, four times, of course you can sleep. No, but of course you can sleep on those right, they've all been purchased on miles. I will say that All my late-night seats have been miles purchases. And then, or if I'm next to Weston and I can lean, but just really have a hard time sitting sleeping straight up, so glad that worked out for you guys.

Speaker 1: 8:02

For some reason. Yeah, it's not comfortable and I don't always. When I wake up, I'm not always glad I was in that position. I worry most about did I drool and snore when I slept? Or the head?

Speaker 2: 8:09

thing, the thing where you're trying to hold it. That's always that, but at least I know that I'm sleeping when that happens. Your luggage made it, because that's my concern when you're running. The luggage made it.

Speaker 1: 8:20

Yeah, it wasn't a concern because we flew into Barcelona and they actually gave us a full day. We flew in on a Thursday morning and we did not go to the ship until Saturday morning, so we had that afternoon in Barcelona. We had a little bit of a buffer, but we were also smart enough to pack a full change of clothing in our carry on stuff.

Speaker 2: 8:42

I highly recommend that particularly if you're flying to.

Speaker 1: 8:44

Europe or really anywhere. But so we were prepared for that and God love my wife Jodi, again, hadn't slept at all, but she was game. For we got there, put our stuff in the hotel, hotel Nobu in Barcelona, highly recommend. They were great. Our room was ready at like 11 o'clock in the morning when we got there, but we dropped everything off, met up with Mark Ferreira and his better half, trudy, and we headed out into Barcelona.

Speaker 2: 9:10

Well, that's what you have to do for the jet lag. You kind of got to fight through it that first day, you know you got a little sleep but, like you, just no nap. And then you're going that way. It's actually pretty easy to undo the jet lag, I think.

Speaker 1: 9:19

Not for Jody 30 night.

Speaker 2: 9:24

You're on that time zone schedule.

Speaker 1: 9:25

So they say Anyway, all right.

Speaker 2: 9:27

Well, that's good. Glad you guys got there, got everything taken care of, and then we'll switch to me now.

Speaker 1: 9:32

Yes, Flying too. So take me, because I've done the Alaska cruise twice. I've gone through, I think, Houston and Denver on my way. How did you have to put that flight together to Vancouver.

Speaker 2: 9:45

So we're Delta people, so also, which kind of set the scene with Claire? Obviously we're divorced. This was a long time for her to be away from her dad, so I was trying to limit how many extra days. So the cruise left on Monday and we flew on Sunday, which I know is cutting it like a little close. But our flight was from Orlando to Seattle so I wasn't too worried because I was like as long as you got to Seattle.

Speaker 2: 10:04

even if we were a day late, we could get to Vancouver Do you know what I?

Speaker 2: 10:08

mean. So it wasn't like I was in Dallas and like you have to fly, so I felt comfortable about that. So we had not a single. We had a little delay getting out of Orlando, like kind of the same thing like waiting for stuff. You're just whatever, maybe like 20 minutes, but we had no delays there and back. So on the way there we flew all the way to Seattle and then Seattle to Vancouver. On the way back we went Vancouver to Salt Lake City, salt Lake City to Orlando with Coffee Woman, as we mentioned last week, the great coffer, so good flights, easy to get there. We got there at like 3 pm, checked into a hotel which we have some questions about later on. About hotels which you've mentioned, yours, I'll just mention mine. Mine was the Hotel Delta in Vancouver.

Speaker 1: 10:47

There's a lot of Wow, you really are Delta people.

Speaker 2: 10:54

Oh, my gosh right, it was a Marriott. So our flights all four of our flights and our hotel in Vancouver were all booked on points. So that was actually nice. So we had to save up those points for that, but that was nice because you're not actually paying for them. There's a lot of great hotels within walking distance of the Vancouver cruise port, as you know, and then I know one of them, the Pan Pacific, really works well with Disney.

Speaker 2: 11:12

I saw this in the cruise Facebook group about like just taking your luggage They'll take it or they'll store it, or they'll give you luggage tags.

Speaker 1: 11:19

Yeah, I think that's maybe where we stayed two years ago. Right on the harbor, because I've done the Alaska cruise twice with member cruises and the last time we stayed at a hotel that was just literally right across the street and they handled all of that. But they handled all of that for us anyway, because we're working and it kind of feels like I am somebody though I was not on the concierge level.

Speaker 2: 11:37

That's what's nice. Yeah, so that's what we did. But so, yes, talking about concierge, so I have learned that if you go to check in on the cruise and when they're scanning your tickets you say you can ask are there any concierge upgrades? And they sent me to another line, waited in line there and then they will how very Disney of them.

Speaker 2: 11:55

I know Then they will take. You will go up there, you will ask if there's any upgrades. They will see if there's any upgrades available and then also what you already paid and what class of room you were in and that will determine the cost to upgrade.

Speaker 1: 12:09

Sure.

Speaker 2: 12:09

They don't spin a wheel.

Speaker 1: 12:11

I assume they spun a wheel, no.

Speaker 2: 12:13

So they had like a list with highlighted things and it was a little bit confusing because I might have alluded to on a previous episode that there was a bigger room with like a dining room area. I guess that was a one bedroom above. We already had an ocean view family balcony so we already had a pretty large room in quotation marks for a cruise ship. So there was one above it. That I thought would have been really cool. Then there was like a two bedroom and then there was like the two story suite, which is just like a joke. So the lady in front of us upgraded her family which she had three like teenage boys in the same size room we had with her and her husband to the larger one so that one was gone. So all we could upgrade to was a concierge version of the room we already had.

Speaker 2: 12:56

But, I still decided to do that. Our bathtub was a little bit bigger, a little bit nicer, we had nicer amenities. And one of the questions asked was do you have to change rooms? And yes, so there are certain rooms that are concierge rooms. So we went from the same essential still a balcony, still a family room to a concierge one. So it is a different room you're moving to. But then when you ask about those upgrades, I should have clarified this they're not just concierge upgrades. So the woman behind me was just hoping to upgrade to a window. She had an inside room. So because I left my balcony room, someone else could come later on in the day and say do you have any balconies to upgrade to? So no matter what time you check in, it's always good to ask if this is something you're interested in.

Speaker 1: 13:39

I recommend doing it when you're going to get on a flight too, because it's happened for my wife and I. Have been bumped up For people who aren't travelers Just say, hey, what is bump up to business class? Because quite, we actually had somebody do it for free for us on Virgin a number of years ago, coming back from London. But she learned that while traveling for Nickelodeon. Just always ask because it can't. The worst they can say is it's like a thousand dollars and you go oh well, thank you very much.

Speaker 1: 14:01

I'll pass on the glass that I drink my orange juice in and save the grand Did that.

Speaker 2: 14:05

I drink my orange juice in and save the grand. Did you ask when you checked your bags or when you were at the gate?

Speaker 1: 15:27

We generally we ask, and we didn't for this because, again, all this travel was planned by Disney for me and for Jodi and I will say they picked up her flight as well which was lovely to Barcelona and very nice. But I recommend you, when you check in before you've checked everything, as opposed to just going to a kiosk and checking in go directly up to the the uh desk and ask there, because that person has, I guess, in most instances, the opportunity not going to happen for you. Often and it's probably I've never had them give me a price that I went. Oh, that's a good deal, I'm going to do that. But I have had it happen that we've been kicked up just for just because we were asked and we were nice and we can be entertaining. So try to be entertaining as well.

Speaker 2: 16:15

Well, you and Jodi are kind of like the upper echelon of entertaining, but yeah, so that's going to be sold out. It's probably not going to be able to happen, but always ask you may just get to upgrade to a little bit bigger room or something like that, and it is significantly lower cost then, cause when I was looking, we are uh, I've already booked another Disney cruise for Christmas.

Speaker 2: 16:38

The concierge rooms, even the my. This is what's crazy. My same room list rate for the concierge for this cruise was $8,000 more, more than double the cost of my actual room. The other thing I'll say about concierge um, it was fantastic.

Speaker 1: 16:56

There's an open bar, people, so there's the reason?

Speaker 2: 16:58

well, there's two ends of this. By doing concierge at the port, you lose some of the benefits, which are early boarding and you can book excursions first.

Speaker 2: 17:09

So for a lot of people that's a reason to do concierge, because if you want a cabana on Castaway Cay, that's the only way you're ever going to get it. But for us, the benefits that we thought because this is a longer cruise, this is like a truly a once-in-a-lifetime cruise was that you get the concierge lounge is this amazing hub that we went to all day long. It's got never ending refreshments, snacks. It was just a nice place to chill and hang out. We had character greetings there, we had views of all this kind of stuff and the staff and the concierge really made it feel special. We, you know, you have those memories of certain events. Uh, there was a guy there, andy. He was from Germany, so every time we'd come in, in his German accent he'd be like Hello.

Speaker 1: 17:48

Mr.

Speaker 2: 17:49

Elliot, miss Claire, and he had these little songs he would sing in the morning when you'd get coffee.

Speaker 1: 17:54

He'd be like Was that German? That was German.

Speaker 2: 17:57

Yeah, he said it was German-ish.

Speaker 1: 17:59

I'm just covering yours. This is Andy's accent covering yours.

Speaker 2: 18:01

I wasn't sure where that this is Andy's accent, it's not East from Germany, this is his accent. But whenever in the morning we'd be making the coffee because they have the nicer coffee machine there as well, you can make lattes He'd go coffee time, coffee time, coffee time, coffee. So we had these little songs and it is a memory of our cruise. So shout out to him, to Furman, to Sarah, to Fabiola. And Michael was our bartender du jour because, yes, there's happy hour from five to nine, so we greatly enjoyed that. Claire enjoyed that as well. And then we got, as we'll talk about in day three, special glacier viewing, early access to get into all the shows. So you get free popcorn, which is so silly why the whole cruise doesn't get free popcorn.

Speaker 1: 18:41

I even had to pay for popcorn.

Speaker 2: 18:45

But we get to go into the theater before they open the doors to everybody else so you can pick your seats and then you can go back up and get your drink and kind of like swap on and off, and we got special gifts. You get to get whatever. Anyway, it is an expense, it is an extra charge. It was in my mind like, monetarily, did I get a value of what I paid? No, but did it make our cruise more special, more relaxed, like because there were so many more at sea days? I think that it was really something that we enjoyed and will always remember. Now will I ask on our next cruise yes.

Speaker 1: 19:15

Why wouldn't you?

Speaker 2: 19:16

My budget will not be as generous as it was for this trip. Also, I think because of the cruises, like I paid like 60 days ago, so like I already paid for this, that's done.

Speaker 1: 19:28

That's other money from a different time.

Speaker 2: 19:30

Uh, so it was good. Yes, um, another question before we move on. Uh, there were great questions about concierge, from Steph Dana Shannon. Uh, another Dana, um, um, abby normal human asked why did I decide to go this time of year? For Alaska and for us it was purely scheduling. Uh, it was a little cheaper. When you look at all the Disney cruises you'll see which I always. I can't believe it's like the same cruise is $4,000 more in July. You know supply and demand, but that's another one reason we decided on may. And for Claire, it's not ideal for her to miss this much gymnastics, like she's just in a very rigorous program, but this was a time period where she actually missed the last week of school, because what do you do in the last week of school? She missed the whole last week of school and it was a time period in gymnastics before they've changed to their summer schedule and moved up a level.

Speaker 1: 20:16

Right.

Speaker 2: 20:16

So it worked out for her and Wenner 0902S wasn't really over $10,000. So the main reason we actually decided to Hold on.

Speaker 1: 20:29

I'm waiting to hear this one, to be quite honest I don't have the guts to ask.

Speaker 2: 20:33

I think he said not the concierge upgrade was over, I think he meant the whole cruise. The concierge upgrade was less than $4,000. I'll just put it there $39.95. So when we went on the Wish the first time last year we had a mechanical issue in Nassau, Missed Castaway Cay. We got a 20% off on a future cruise. When you do the, you can book a placeholder for a future cruise on your current Disney cruise. So I got 10% off. So we got 30% off this cruise. So we wanted to use that 30% on like a big cruise. So here's a tip If you want to go on Alaska cruise, go on a three-day Disney cruise and then you get 10% off the other one Follow me for more money-saving tips. So ours was, I believe, for our veranda room with our discount, around $7,500. So for seven nights. That's not like a bargain.

Speaker 2: 21:30

It's not terrible. I don't know if the Alaska rates are released for next season, so keep an eye on that when they do come out. The May ones were less expensive, so, but I can't.

Speaker 1: 21:41

And I should say that I've done it twice, and I did it in May and September. We did it the first time we went. We did go in May. It seems as though you had cold, much colder weather.

Speaker 2: 21:49

We did, we sure did.

Speaker 1: 21:50

Yeah, we didn't. I was watching. I mean, I know you're was terrific for my two Alaska cruises.

Speaker 2: 22:05

Yeah, so highly recommend it. Keep checking prices and if you get a travel agent you can like get a booking credit. It's going to be maybe $175, $100. Ours was $200. My mom and guys was actually more, and this is a question later, but I'll answer it now. Did you need a balcony? I like a balcony on a cruise. I find it is worth the money because it gives me that private space to like really take it all in.

Speaker 1: 22:29

Now particularly Alaska, when you because you can, you're seeing land and when you're on that inner passage, if you're out even on the Mediterranean, where I was, there are times where you're just basically looking at the sea and if that's not something that you feel is worth it. But I could not agree more. Having done inside cabin, porthole cabin and balcony, go for the balcony if you can afford it.

Speaker 2: 22:50

Now, my mom and guy had a porthole and they were happy with it. They liked the balcony, but for them it was more of a like, well, we can come to your balcony. And my mom said she would leave it open all night, which I can't sleep that way, but my mom I night, which I can't sleep that way, but I've done that too. We love that, so you will enjoy it. There we go.

Speaker 1: 23:10

Let's move on from that.

Speaker 2: 23:11

If you have more questions, let us know. John, you, so we're back to you. We're in the Mediterranean. We hope this format isn't confusing. We thought we would go back and forth, for you guys, Sure, tell us about your work responsibilities and a little overview of what you did. You've mentioned it briefly.

Speaker 1: 23:22

Okay, yeah, mark, uh, mark Ferrer and I, we, uh, we just host or assist in the hosting of a number of different shows for this cruise. We did uh, we always do trivia before whatever one of the big uh movie showings is, and for this one, as I mentioned, it was young woman in the sea and uh. So like 10 trivia questions before that. And we had some luggage tags to give away for my friend, brett Iwan, who's the voice of Mickey, and Ashley Eckstein, their Sail Away collection, which you and I talked about off air. It was just terrific, so shout out to those guys. So we did that.

Speaker 1: 24:00

And then we had three other shows that we had responsibilities in. One was there was a children's book that just come out, camp Minnie and Mickey. It's going to be a series. Ryan March, who is in charge of Disney Files and really the person who hires us for each cruise, he wrote it and Brett again the voice of Mickey, but he's also an illustrator did the illustrations for that. So we had a live reading of that with Bill Farmer, who is the voice of Goofy. Obviously Brett is there, the voice of Mickey, and Caitlin Robrock, who is the voice of Minnie, the three of them reading their parts and then Ryan reading all the like stagey direction sort of stuff.

Speaker 2: 24:40

How cool is that to see.

Speaker 1: 24:42

What's that? How cool is that? Oh no, no, it's very cool. Is the audience just?

Speaker 2: 24:47

eating it up. I just can imagine.

Speaker 1: 24:48

Oh well, no, these people are just the over-the-top Disney fans.

Speaker 2: 24:54

In the best way and God love them.

Speaker 1: 24:56

They're great, of course. They're way into that, yeah. And so then it was my job essentially to get the audience participation stuff going, so I was just the fool who tried to get them to. At one point there were bats flying in and they have rubber bats and all of that and we're the comic relief essentially, mark and I Though Caitlin and Brett will argue as Minnie and Mickey, and it is so entertaining I never, ever, ever, ever want them to stop doing it. It is so brilliant. So we had that show. We had a show which was Battle of the Member, cruise Stars, which was. There were two different Disney music groups. There were the Broadway folks who I've traveled with for a long time my friend Josh Strickland, ashley Brown, michael James Scott and Kissy Simmons. They're on most cruises.

Speaker 2: 25:41

Is Nina West part of that group or Nina West is part of the other group?

Speaker 1: 25:45

Part of the other group.

Speaker 2: 25:45

Okay, I'll get to Andrew in just a moment.

Speaker 1: 25:49

I'll get to Nina in just a moment, but in fact Nina as Andrew Levitt, who is Nina West this is Alter Ego, those of you who follow RuPaul's Drag Race and stuff he hosted the Battle of the Network stars. He was the guy on stage and Mark and I were in the audience because there was audience participation and there's all kinds of fun stuff involved with that. But so they had to do a number of different things. There was a trivia thing, there was an interpretive dance thing that they were doing with a guest and they were. They were competing, you know, against the each other, essentially. So we did that show, we did two versions of that, and then we did a show with the illustrators, with Brett, again with oh goodness gracious, he's going to kill me now.

Speaker 1: 26:33

Well, first of all, paige O'Hara, who is the voice of Belle in Beauty and the Beast the animated. She's also an illustrator and a very talented artist, so she had all her stuff there. And Stacia Martin, who is a longtime Disney. She started out drawing pictures of people on the street in Disneyland and she has moved up since then. She can draw any Disney character. She can do it in a matter of seconds. It's insane. So we had a show with them where we talked about their career and then they drew while they were doing that and gave away those things at the end of the show. So those were our responsibilities. We had to do all of those shows and they were generally split up because, as I said, we had a couple of days in port where we didn't have to work. I'm sorry that was very long and wordy.

Speaker 2: 27:18

No, I actually think that's going to be very interesting to people.

Speaker 1: 27:33

Just kind of like they love that behind the curtain. Look, I have a selfish question I'd like to know. Yeah, so Mark's been out of the game a little bit director.

Speaker 2: 27:35

How did he do? He's great. He's great and I mean he and I've done this. I know I knew you would say that we've been working together for 25 years. Yeah, you and I have been working together for 20, so Mark really doesn't. Okay. It's a good point. It's a fair point, it's a fair point.

Speaker 1: 27:44

he held his own, he did great. Yeah, he and I haven't worked together for 20. So Mark really doesn't have much. Okay, it's a good point. It's a fair point. It's a fair point. He held his own, he did great. He did better than me, essentially because I had something happen to me that I've never ever had happen to me before.

Speaker 2: 27:57

Is that? There's a question for you later on. Okay, I don't know if you read it. Should I hold?

Speaker 1: 28:02

off and not say that question. Okay, I will hold off on that. We'll get to specific.

Speaker 2: 28:04

Well, no, you can say it, and if it's the question, then I'm glad you didn't read the question. So you can say it and I'll let you know if that's the question.

Speaker 1: 28:11

During the very first battle of the member crew stars, I actually fell.

Speaker 2: 28:17

And I mean full on yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:19

S and fell ass over tea kettle on the ground while holding a microphone trying to make my way to a place and I went down pretty hard, actually Shocked the crap out of me, but I bounced up and I bounced back and it literally became a cause celebre for the rest of the cruise when Brett would have to go on stage to do a show, he would pretend to trip every show. Very funny. And then there were people Shout out there were a lot of pelky running club hats on the what on the cruise. Yeah, uh, my friends tony and robin we got to spend a lot of time with who had them, but other people had them as well and uh, but I, I, yeah. I will say that there were people then saying that the pelky tripping club should be the hat. It just became a thing. But I completely fell and I've never had that happen to me before on stage.

Speaker 2: 29:04

Yeah. So the question was let's see where is it. It's Tony, so Tony.

Speaker 1: 29:09

Oh, I bet it's Tony.

Speaker 2: 29:10

He wants to know if your hip was okay after you took a funny fall at a DVC event.

Speaker 1: 29:14

Yeah, man, my age, yes, good, you could have been the person evacuated by the Coast Guard.

Speaker 1: 29:22

I could have, and can I just tell you there was an instance for one of our one of our members of the entertainment team who was and I'm not going to give away names or anything, but somebody who was talking about some technical stuff had a show. For all of that, a member of their party actually fell and, I think, broke their wrist and had to get off the ship because of that. So, yeah, you're right, I could have gone down and sustained an injury. I did not.

Speaker 2: 29:49

Did Jodi see it.

Speaker 1: 29:51

Oh yeah, she was there. Was she like or was she like, ah, she said for a second, and then she said she's very seldom laughed as hard, because I just I turned it into a thing. I turned it into a thing I've not seen video of it.

Speaker 2: 30:03

I don't know, were you? You weren't, I think you alluded to. You weren't performing the moment. You were moving to a different location.

Speaker 1: 30:09

No, I was actually on microphone. I was moving to where the because they we had scorekeepers for the show with a whiteboard and there was humor with them and Mark was generally dealing with them. But I was heading across to where they were and I got onto the wooden floor of the D lounge and I started to go down and I don't know I'm going to say the ship hit a big wave.

Speaker 2: 30:30

I'm sticking to that story, sure.

Speaker 1: 30:31

And I went to brace myself on these stools that were there for people to sit on and they were not solid. I put my hand on it and my hand went out. It's so dramatic. It was in slow motion. I was like nope, nope, going down, he's going, and you know, and fell right yeah, what did Mark say?

Speaker 2: 30:50

like who was the next person to comment?

Speaker 1: 30:52

I think it was Mark, it was like he's okay and we did the whole thing. And, yeah, and everybody was very concerned. Shout out to my friend, susan Egan, who was the original bell on Broadway and who we get to work with, who I absolutely loved. She, not only she, she was the first person. She came over to me when I was off. I was not talking any longer. Make sure I was OK, because she is like the sweetest human being in the world. And then she she talked to me about how she broke her arm the first year she was doing Belle on Broadway and broke her foot the second year, the first year she was doing Belle on Broadway and broke her foot the second year. And they began to call her a liability Because and she, I guess she has a history of falling on stage. So thanks, thanks to Susan for being concerned, but I was fine, but it became a thing as you can probably imagine for the rest of the trip.

Speaker 2: 31:38

Well, I'm glad you didn't read the question, the rest of the trip.

Speaker 1: 31:39

Look, there it is, you just wander into it, no matter what.

Speaker 2: 31:42

Well, I am glad you're okay too, but is that your reason why you didn't work out the whole cruise?

Speaker 1: 31:48

No, just basically the other thing I will say. The two things I wanted to add is that we did not have a concierge lounge, but we did have a talent lounge which was stocked with food and free booze and was not open all the time but most of the time. So I really can't complain because I got free drinks and free food as well, and you still got paid to be there.

Speaker 1: 32:06

Yeah, and I got paid to be there and I got to hobnob with actual talent, which was really really cool. Um, but, uh, the um, uh, and now, what was my train of thought? What was I talking about outside of the talent lounge?

Speaker 2: 32:20

You're trying to avoid a question about exercise.

Speaker 1: 32:23

Oh, my allergies, my allergies we all had issues with. All of a sudden we get to Barcelona and all of a sudden, you know, and I have a little bit of an allergy thing here, but you're in a different climate, you're in a different place, and I will say that for the vast majority of the cruise, I was not 100% physically Wake up with a cough coughing all night. Jodi had it as well. So we got in a lot of steps, particularly when we were in Rome and when we went to Ischia outside of Naples, but did not hit the gym at all. Neither did my wife, who wasn't working, and so that says something, because she was generally there every day.

Speaker 2: 33:04

OK.

Speaker 1: 33:05

So no yeah.

Speaker 2: 33:05

All right, I'm not going to judge you for that. We're going to, we'll save that Feel free to judge. We'll save that for next week. We'll save that for the next week's chat when I ask you questions about your fitness level and you can't. If you don't keep running, we're going to have to change the hat.

Speaker 1: 33:17

And that's I know, I know, I know. In any case, I want to move on to you.

Speaker 2: 33:22

Yeah, it's been about 36 minutes and we are just getting into the cruise days. It's OK, though it's a, we're painting the picture, it doesn't matter you got it.

Speaker 1: 33:30

Florence Day is really short.

Speaker 2: 33:31

We got long runs. Ok, no, it's good we can. We can make this brief. I got to go to pictures on my phone. I'm ready.

Speaker 1: 33:36

Hey, Carissa, since we and really every day is the perfect day to shout out to our good friend, Sarah Akers at Runs on Magic, Because if you're going to plan some travel, Carissa, don't do it on your own. Just look at me, folks, you need some help. Sarah's there to help.

Speaker 2: 33:52

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Speaker 1: 34:24

Okay, so let's get you there. You're there. You're in Vancouver. I don't know if you've been before Such a cool city. You're on the ship and you're starting to sail out. How was embarkation day, or how did that all go?

Speaker 2: 34:39

It went very well, very smooth. We did. In fact we could have walked from our hotel. We took an Uber because we had such copious amounts of luggage, because we had a lot of suitcases I think four, maybe we had four checked bags because of all the winter gear and all this kind of stuff. And I will say the only thing I wish I would have done is because in all your excursions, if you're going when it's cold, like I did, and it was not above 50 for us and really windy sometimes and rainy Obviously it's going to rain there All your excursion pictures are going to be in the same outerwear. So bring multiple hats is what I would say. So every picture doesn't look the same, if you will.

Speaker 2: 35:13

But we boarded and there was just like so much excitement we got to do a special concierge lunch. That was a nice sit down lunch and, in general on the ship, if there's an option for a sit-down meal versus buffet, that is what I lean towards. Like for breakfast, we like to sit down for breakfast. Like that's just, we like that time together. It's relaxing. The buffet gives me all kinds of anxiety Really Well, especially with kids. You think about like, so I'm going to get Elliot's plate and then Elliot's going to sit down and he's eating, because I love a buffet, I like the choice, frankly.

Speaker 2: 35:46

You just like to eat a lot. No, I'm just kidding. You try to put it on choice. I'm just kidding, so, like for kids, though, it's like then I sit, then I'm getting up, then Weston doesn't get to eat, so it's like we're not eating at to the buffet and like I couldn't find a table for like seven minutes and it was just like, literally, it was just so you're saying kids ruined your disney, your disney cruise.

Speaker 1: 36:09

That's what you're saying.

Speaker 2: 36:10

I'm quoting you I think I would do the sit-down breakfast even without it. So that's just what I'm gonna say.

Speaker 1: 36:15

So I didn't even know.

Speaker 2: 36:16

It was an option, to be frank there is an option and there's also a sit-down lunch, which we never did. Um checked out the ship. You know, kind of took it all in the first day in Vancouver. It was beautiful, it was sunny, but my Claire, as you can see, I sent you a video of it during the cruise. You talked about that you couldn't make your own ice cream cone and you can now and I don't know if that's on every ship but she enjoyed a lot of ice cream cones.

Speaker 2: 36:40

The first day we did sit with Mojo and Guy. We met Pierre who was like the lead of all dining and everything. He had the four stripes on his epaulette, wonderful, would talk to us every day. Very nice. We toured the spa, got to take a look at the rainforest room, which I never then saw again.

Speaker 1: 36:58

Oh, you didn't do the rainforest.

Speaker 2: 37:00

Well, I have kids.

Speaker 1: 37:01

No, that's good. When am I going to? Once again, children ruined your cruise.

Speaker 2: 37:04

I was lucky to just get able to work out which we can talk about a little bit.

Speaker 2: 37:09

My kids' favorite part of the cruise. One of them is the horn. They like their faces, even when it comes on an announcement. They just like light up, wow. So being out on our balcony listening to the horn leaving port was super exciting, so we did that. So being out on our balcony listening to the horn leaving port was super exciting, so we did that. And then we went to the Sailor Wave party, which we always do. I will say, both of the deck parties the Sailor Wave and the Frozen one, the ones on the Wish, were better.

Speaker 1: 37:37

Ah Like. Newer, they're newer.

Speaker 2: 37:40

X, just better. Yeah, longer choreography, maybe better choreography. Maybe the stage is a little bit bigger, so that had to play into it. So we had fun with that. But day one was really just a lot of exploring, which I love. The Wonder as a smaller ship I've only been on the Wish, so I don't have a ton to compare to, but loved it.

Speaker 1: 37:58

I think Jodi likes the Wonder. That's her favorite too.

Speaker 2: 38:03

We love the coffee cove and uh, yeah, so I think that was was day one. I don't think there's a show day one.

Speaker 1: 38:09

Maybe there is I don't know, because they don't. We don't have the regular shows on ours and I never make the sail away thing anyway, because we're generally rehearsing at that point in time, so I don't ever get to enjoy checking everything out.

Speaker 2: 38:20

My kids had crazy jet lag because we're going three hours, so. So, like the first day of Vancouver, they woke up at 4am. Yeah, I think it was like 450. The next day was like 520. So the question about working out is, when they got up that early, that was easy for us to alternate. Who would go work out? Because what are they going to go do? And my kids I've said this before they're like me, we are like I need 30 minutes to like look at TV, look at a book, look at my phone, before I'm ready to take on the world. So that made it easy for the couple of days. And then you believe how quick they went back to sleep until seven o'clock, when you're up until you know nine or 10. So that was our day one. Um. Day two was our day at sea. So we did a little bit of exploring, we worked out. Uh, they had a naturalist on the ship, which did they have for yours as well?

Speaker 1: 39:07

In Alaska. You mean one of the Alaska cruises? Yeah, but again we have different things. We had people from National Geographic and stuff on our ship.

Speaker 2: 39:15

Yes, yours is a special cruise.

Speaker 1: 39:17

And Adventures by Disney. Yep, so I took in a little bit of that.

Speaker 2: 39:20

Yes, the answer is yes, so I tried to learn a little bit. The kids gave us maybe like 20 minutes a day in the kids club and it wasn't forced. Elliot wanted to go play and Claire would begrudgingly go with him.

Speaker 1: 39:29

Kids club looks really cool actually.

Speaker 2: 39:30

Yeah, it has a slide. I mean, I think for Elliot, as the little kid like that age, you need to be around other kids, you need to be able to do that fun kind of stuff. And then we Did go to the pool. The kids went to the pool a lot. Day two I said, okay, I'm going to be a cool mom, I'm going to go to the pool. So I put the robe, my Uggs, went to the pool, went down the slide once, sat in the hot tub, checked the box. Now, if you weren't in the adult-only hot tub and you had a beanie on, that would have been enjoyable. It wasn't terrible. The pools were nice and heated. So we did that. I'm scrolling through my pictures to see what else we did. Just a lot of exploring, which is a nice and relaxed environment, checking out the shops, doing everything.

Speaker 1: 40:13

Well, also, if you're out on the deck when you're doing that Alaska one again you're in the Caribbean, you're looking at the sea and it's beautiful and blah blah, but there you're just seeing things particularly for us Floridians that you just don't see anything like that, and then into day two.

Speaker 2: 40:25

Day three started like whale watching. So then you're always keeping your eye out to see if, like, you're seeing a whale or you're seeing a seal. And day two was formal night, so we like to dress up. That's part of the fun. So we did the formal night vibe. We all had some kind of sequin going on. Mojo and Guy were there, my mom and my stepdad, and then was the Golden Mickey show, which we enjoyed. I always enjoy all their Broadway style shows. So it's just I like the cruising because I don't have to think about, like, where are we eating, what are we doing? Because you know, when you go to Barcelona, even there's great food but you've got to decide Right, you know what I mean. I like the not decision and as a mom, I love sitting to a meal where I don't have to get up. Well, sometimes I still do have to get up, but like a hundred times.

Speaker 1: 41:08

Yeah, no, I get that.

Speaker 2: 41:09

So that was my first two days. What about you?

Speaker 1: 41:12

Okay, First we got to Barcelona again. We had a couple of days there. We got to go to the art museum that's up on the hill, the name of which escapes me, dali, of which escapes me.

Speaker 2: 41:21

Dolly Museum or no?

Speaker 1: 41:23

What's that?

Speaker 2: 41:23

Was it a Dolly Museum?

Speaker 1: 41:25

No, no, no, no, no. This is a lot of different art collections. We saw some really really cool stuff there. Again, I should have done some homework and gone back and looked. And then on the second day, we had a chance to go to the Gowdy House. Now, gowdy is an architect and from the 19th century and early 20th century who built a lot of buildings in Barcelona, and his stuff is incredibly amazing. I could never do it justice. I am going to do a posting. Finally. Today I'm feeling a little bit better with some pictures, because I got some pictures from- Sagrada Familia.

Speaker 2: 42:02

Is that what it's called?

Speaker 1: 42:03

What's that?

Speaker 2: 42:04

Sagrada Familia. Am, am I crazy? What's the church?

Speaker 1: 42:06

that is the uh. There's a church yeah that that's there and you we did not. We couldn't get in. You have to make reservations and they only take so many we had a private tour that took us when we went what's that?

Speaker 2: 42:18

we had a private tour that took us yeah, we could have.

Speaker 1: 42:21

We. We had that opportunity, but again we didn't know what we were doing. We didn't get our schedule and there was always possibility that when we were in Barcelona that we might have to rehearse something. So we couldn't make that. We had to kind of be on our own. But we got to see the Gaudi House that was amazing Ate some really great meals in Barcelona, and then we sailed out. On Saturday, as I mentioned, we had a lot of rehearsals. The minute we got on the ship, mark and I had to jump into doing our rehearsals and then the first night was the night of Young Woman in the Sea, where we did our trivia. So it was a little bit of a whirlwind. Those first couple of days my luggage was really late getting to my stateroom, which is interesting because we have our luggage specifically taken care of, so it's supposed to get there early.

Speaker 2: 43:01

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 43:02

But you know how that works so I wasn't sure I'd have. You know, our go-to cruising clothing is a blazer with jeans, and then sometimes we get like a specific t-shirt for a show or just whatever. Under that my blazer hadn't shown up. I essentially had what I got on the ship with was the only stuff that I had, but it came last minute, so that was the big excitement of the day and that was our first day I'm on a Disney cruise and the biggest thing that happened was I got my luggage.

Speaker 1: 43:33

It was a big deal and, in fact, some of the folks that I was rehearsing with shout out to Adam Levy, who's just a great Broadway performer. The next day he sought me out. He's like did you get your luggage? They had all gotten their luggage, they were all changed and showered and I'm just look horrible, I smell worse and that's what I was dealing with. But, yeah, I was able to work my way through that the first night and that was it, and then we were all right. Now this is where I have to look at my schedule because, going back to what we did, we had a full C day. This is, folks. I'm actually looking on my phone at my schedule because I literally cannot remember it at this point in time. Okay, the next day, sunday, was a sea day and that was our Camp Minnie and Mickey day and I mentioned that show. Lots of fun, big hit. But that was all we had to do. So that was great. We were done by 3 o'clock and had the rest of the day to ourselves.

Speaker 2: 44:30

Would you eat in the normal dining rooms Like did you have a dining rotation as well?

Speaker 1: 44:34

We had a dining. Yeah, we had a late dining rotation.

Speaker 2: 44:38

And we did not.

Speaker 1: 44:39

We could not make a reservation for Paolo on the ship, or if there was a Remy on this one, I don't remember. Because we because again we didn't get our show scheduled early enough and we kind of figured we're going back to Italy in July for two weeks and we just weren't going to spend the money on the upgrade, we were just going to get what they were. You know, they were paying me and giving me all the other stuff free. So we went into a regular dining rotation, though there were a couple of nights that we did not eat in our restaurant because we had just eaten so much for lunch when we were in Rome and when we were in Palermo that we just we skipped it. So normal dining rotation went to every restaurant, just didn't go to some of them twice.

Speaker 2: 45:17

Got it Okay, and I have this question for later, but what were your restaurants? Just so people know, how did you have three nights in two and two nights in one?

Speaker 1: 45:29

We get Animator's Palate we had twice. We had Royal Palace twice, and then the other one is something garden.

Speaker 2: 45:42

And what ship were you on, because I don't think we established that.

Speaker 1: 45:45

That's a really good question.

Speaker 2: 45:47

It could be the magic. No it's the one. It's funny that I fell on no, it's the one.

Speaker 1: 45:52

It's funny that I fell on it because it's the one I fell on before when I actually really hurt my back when I fell all those years ago.

Speaker 2: 45:59

It's okay.

Speaker 1: 46:02

You can Google this while I talk about glaciers. Oh so yes, please tell me about glaciers, because that's something that we have never done. The dream we were on the dream.

Speaker 2: 46:09

Disney dream. Okay, but you went to Alaska. Didn't you have a glacier?

Speaker 1: 46:13

day. We did have a glacier day, but we stayed on the ship.

Speaker 2: 46:15

I'm still on Glacier Viewing Day? Oh, okay, yeah, I might get a date, yeah we rolled up to the glacier and stayed on deck.

Speaker 1: 46:30

We go into the glacier, one of the the glacier, and they were unable to do that, so we've never done that.

Speaker 2: 46:35

Okay. So this was, I mean, I think this was one of the, but this day and the day of the helicoptering to the actual glacier, it I mean, maybe you can test it. It's just such a beautiful day the whole day, yeah, everything around you is gorgeous and stunning and the water is completely flat because you're on this inside passage. Then, as you start to get closer to the glacier, there's these beautiful green mountains and waterfalls. Then you start to see icebergs in the water. I mean this whole day was really like a highlight, so with-.

Speaker 1: 47:04

I'm not sure they qualify as icebergs. They I asked Large chunks of ice.

Speaker 2: 47:08

Excuse me, I asked the naturalist and we didn't call them.

Speaker 2: 47:12

They're icebergs and if you were on the balcony and this is the reason to have a balcony the water splashing on them has different types of sounds. So sometimes it would sound kind of beachy, as it was splashing, you got like a beach vibe. Or sometimes it would sound kind of like a bird-like call and we really liked when it would smack into the boat bird-like call, and we really liked when it would smack into the boat. We enjoyed that sound. And then the icebergs were kind of like clouds, in which we'd be like that one looks like a duck, that looks like a surfboard. We had all kinds of fun.

Speaker 1: 47:40

I think we may have done that as well, because they do kind of resemble.

Speaker 2: 47:42

Yeah, it was really fun and then also sad when they would melt away. I was like, oh the earth, oh so anyway. So we had with concierge. Uh, well, I'll start, I'll rewind for a second. Glacier day is the big day that the characters in their alaska specific costumes, which are so cute, are out to take pictures and you can be on the deck with mickey and his alaska rain gear with, like, these beautiful mountains in the back of you. So, mickey chip I don't know who has them. They have these amazing Alaska costumes. I know Mickey Minnie, goofy, donald, I saw theirs. People wait in line for so long for these characters, john.

Speaker 2: 48:21

And I think you and I are spoiled because we are with characters in very cool situations like all the time, where, of course, I wanted a picture with my family, with Minnie in her Eskimo outfit, but I'm not going to ask my family to wait in line an hour and a half for it on our vacation. I'm just not going to do that. And it was cold out there At one point I was walking to concierge and Minnie was on the side that. I went through the door and the woman said is this the line? And this was like 1030. And she was like well, this is the 1030 line, but the 1145 set line has already started and so you can get in line for that. And my brain is just like it's crazy.

Speaker 2: 48:58

So now we step into the concierge experience and I'm sorry I know this may not be everybody's experience, but you can see the glacier beautifully from anywhere on the ship. As you go in, you go down. We went down the Tracy Arm. They have an Alaskan navigator. Come on board. There's two arms you can go down. They decide which one.

Speaker 2: 49:17

I do think we went on like the quote unquote less beautiful one, but it was still in terms of like seeing the actual glacier, but it was still amazing. So we got to go out on the Captain's Bridge for Concierge and kind of be right up front for about two and a half hours while you were going, you know as close as you can to the glacier, and we're out there for about 15 minutes and Mickey and Minnie come out there in their costumes to take pictures. And I didn't know this was happening. So like I didn't know this was a perk that we got. Like I was like almost going to cry because I was so excited because we just weren't going to get pictures with him. It just wasn't what we were going to do. And then we got to get this amazing picture with both of them. So that was definitely a highlight.

Speaker 2: 49:57

We had to wake Elliot up from his nap to get there. So most of the time and I have no shame in doing this he was like really groggy, like he was. You know you get woken up from a nap. You're extremely groggy. So we just tucked him underneath because there was like a little part of a bow, we put some blankets in his coats, we tucked him underneath and he had a phone and a book and he was fine, and Claire, for two and a half hours, was just enamored with the scenery and so that was really cool. It was almost better that he was groggy because, like he would have been bored otherwise and the captain came out, all those people were out there, so it was really, really beautiful viewing Now what I did not do is you can pay to get off the wonder and you get on a smaller boat and you go closer to the glacier.

Speaker 2: 50:41

I didn't do it. It was like $300 a person. I kind of almost wish that I would have, just to get that experience of a different vantage point. So I guess in hindsight, even though it was silly expensive and if you're thinking of an Alaska cruise, the excursions are silly expensive they're also once in a lifetime. So you just kind of have to, when you look at the cost of the cruise, unfortunately, add another several thousand dollars for your excursions. You're just not going to miss the beauty of it.

Speaker 2: 51:09

Like I said, we didn't go on it, but I think I kind of wish that I would have, just because you got to go through the icebergs and you got to get a little closer. But we did it and we're fine and it was still like a great day also. So that was Glacier Day. Then I think there was the Frozen Sail Away Party that night, which I've kind of mentioned aforementioned that we liked. The Pirate Night on the wish wasn't bad, it just was was enjoyable. Um, we saw whales that day, but you had to be. Did you see whales on your alaska cruise, or were you too busy working?

Speaker 1: 51:40

uh, I don't believe on either cruise did we ever see whales?

Speaker 2: 51:43

so we saw a good amount of whales, but you had to be kind of looking, or if you were on deck you'd oh, look, and then you'd be able yeah, to kind of see that, if we did, it was kind of very nebulous.

Speaker 1: 51:53

It wasn't like we didn't see a whole pack of whales. I have no memory of it yeah, nope, so we did.

Speaker 2: 51:57

We got to see a couple whales come out, but it is very like. It's like, and there they go, and there they go. And there was one point we saw some, so we did that. As I'm scrolling through all of our pictures, it was just a nice day to enjoy, like just being outside and seeing like the beauty of a part of the world that was so different from where we live. So I don't think Elliot will retain that, but I hope Claire does.

Speaker 2: 52:18

We're going to try to print some pictures and all that kind of stuff and then some pool time, and that was our Glacier Day, day 3. Your Day 3, johnny.

Speaker 1: 52:27

Day 3 was a port day for us and it was Sidovecchia, not Sidoovecchia, not Sittovecchia. That is uh, my, my, uh, my uh. Livorno, which is Florence and Pisa and, as mentioned, I'm going back to Italy.

Speaker 2: 52:44

My wife and I are going back to Italy with four other couples. I have a question yeah, how like how. I was in Florence. Where does the boat? Is it you? Where did the boat park? What city did the boat park in?

Speaker 1: 52:53

Because Florence and Pisa aren't the boat parks in Livorno, and then you take ground transportation to either Pisa or Florence depending on where Because those aren't really super close together.

Speaker 2: 53:02

Like they're close together but not like-.

Speaker 1: 53:04

They're not that far apart. Honestly, I think to get to Pisa was going to be 45 minutes and maybe a little bit longer to get to Florence. You'll have to check with Mark.

Speaker 2: 53:14

Well compared to like a Caribbean port or even our port. So it was like I've walked off the ship. Now I'm where I said I was.

Speaker 1: 53:21

These took a little bit more effort to get there and, like we're in Rome, you have to take a train, and it's about a 45-minute train ride into Rome from San Francisco.

Speaker 2: 53:28

I just didn't know where the cruise port was in Florence. I was just making sure I wasn't completely insane because I spent five days in Florence last year. There's a river.

Speaker 1: 53:38

Yeah, there is. I'm not sure the ship would fit, but no, you're actually on the coast on Livorno. So our day, this was a full day off for us, and Mark and Trudy went into. They'd never been to, or at least I know Mark hadn't been to Florence, so they did the whole sort of day where they'll bustle, take you to Florence and then you can do stuff on your own. And there may have been a couple of. You know how they have a lot of different excursions.

Speaker 2: 54:02

You can be with a guide for an hour and then have two hours on your own. I will say that to those of you thinking it, and the amount of excursions and you do not have to book a Disney-specific excursion.

Speaker 1: 54:12

No.

Speaker 2: 54:12

But the reason why they say too, is that if something goes wrong you're delayed, that they will assist. You are on a Disney excursion, so you're kind of under their umbrella. When, if you pick something on your own and a bus breaks down in Florence, goodbye.

Speaker 1: 54:26

You're out of luck, yeah, so again, we're going to be in Florence for two weeks. We're being San Gimignano essentially for 10 days, 11 days. So we weren't going to go take the excursion into Florence. And you know, again I'm working, so I have trouble spending tons of money. So we picked one excursion. We did it when we were in Naples. We'll talk to that when we get there. But so Jodi and I are like well, we'll just take the, because they had shuttle bus in the middle of Laverneau, and then we'll get a, a bus or a train out to Pisa and get some photo ops, because people tell you Pisa is largely a photo op place.

Speaker 2: 55:03

I've never known anybody who's gone there. Go in Florence. We actually chose not to go to Pisa. We went to a different city.

Speaker 1: 55:08

I think most people, I think a lot of people do the same thing, because I've never known anyone who's gone there, who goes oh, I really have to get back to Pisa. It's largely a photo op.

Speaker 2: 55:17

And I'm sorry to the good people of Pisa, I'm sorry, no, they probably don't want as many of us there.

Speaker 1: 55:22

That probably doesn't bother them a lot.

Speaker 1: 55:24

It's just going to fall over eventually. But we got shuttle bus and we go down downtown Livorno and Jody and I've traveled fairly extensively in Europe and she speaks a little bit of Spanish and everybody speaks, you know, english anyway. So we're not afraid to travel and we don't need to have our hand held. It doesn't have to be one of those. We get downtown in Livorno and we're like we're looking around and you have so many choices and you know somebody is trying to sell you jewelry and there's everyone. Oh no, no, don't do it, take the private car and you know, and all of those sort of things. And we're there for about a half an hour and just both look at each other and go man, there's nobody on the boat and we don't have anything we have to do.

Speaker 1: 56:08

And we got back on the shuttle bus, went back on the boat, spent the entire day on the boat. To your point, I had the jacuzzi to myself for most of that day. The adult pool was generally there was well, any of the pools. Really. We could get the. You know the different lunch options that they have on the deck, which I don't often get to do because I'm jumping back between shows and sometimes that's difficult. I don't get to try out all the fare. That's when I found out that the soft serve I could get on my own. I didn't have to have somebody help me, which was a glorious day, and even though you know Claire wanted to mock me about it, I had the same I know she was just excited.

Speaker 2: 56:44

She was so cute because she's like I want to sit down and video. I was like okay.

Speaker 1: 56:48

No, it was great. It was great because I had just found that out as well. So for that day, that is all we did. We stayed on, we went. That was a night. I think we probably went and saw I think, if I'm right with my entertainment and I don't have a schedule for it that was the night.

Speaker 1: 57:04

The Broadway show, as opposed to the full-on orchestra and the Broadway folks, you know, because they can't bring as many people when they're doing a ship in Europe because you have to fly them all over and they're budgetary things. So they had Jim Abbott, who's the piano player, and his wife Lori, who's a multi-instrumentalist, and so they were playing on the stage and they actually had an interview with the Broadway folks talked about when they got started. We got to see pictures of them when they were kids doing shows and then each of them did a number and then they did a number together as well. So it was different than the normal shows that we see and that was absolutely terrific. But that was that day. We basically just took advantage. I almost went to the rainforest. It was very close to going to the rainforest. I was going to get a massage, but you know, when you have a little bit of a cold. Sometimes getting a massage makes your cold worse. You get those toxins going.

Speaker 2: 57:54

So did not do that.

Speaker 1: 57:56

Just enjoyed, had a little day drinking. Shout out to my Disney day drinker friends had a little cocktail day drinking and hung out on the ship. All right, just one cocktail. Well, there were probably multiple, but did not at any point outside of the first night in Barcelona. Did not overdo it.

Speaker 2: 58:14

Okay.

Speaker 1: 58:14

First night in Barcelona overdid it.

Speaker 2: 58:16

Because you and Mark have that effect on each other.

Speaker 1: 58:18

Yeah, we came back to the hotel We'd been out late eating. It's a really great place and it's like, hey, what do you want to cap off our like seven drink day with a couple of martinis. And so we did. But it was cool too, because it's like we talk about it being a reunion when we see the run Disney people. I've been doing these for so long now that a lot of the entertainment people are people I see once a year and we had a chance to catch up and that was really fun.

Speaker 1: 58:39

Nice, no, those are always good nights Jumping back.

Speaker 2: 58:41

All right. So we're going to jump back. Now we're at day three, day four, uh. So when we originally booked our excursions and your travel agent if you have one, we'll really help you with all of this Um, I wanted to have the kids onto a glacier, like I wanted the kids to land on a glacier.

Speaker 2: 58:59

I thought that was important because, believe it or not, they are melting, um. So I wanted them to be able to say, as they got older, that they had been to a glacier. So, looking at the cost, there was this great excursion where you got to go to a glacier and dog sled and that was $1,000 a person and I said, aha, I'm not going to pay that. So we found one. It was like $500 a person for this one that you would take off in a helicopter in Skagway, land on a glacier, do like a 20-minute glacier hike and come back. So that's what we were supposed to do. Woke up, opened the door, the helipad was right there, how exciting. We see our helicopter and it's pretty cloudy and I pretty much knew what was going to happen. And again that happens. That's why, when I plan vacations, I think I'm always try to hold back excitement, because I don't want to, as you'll see in day seven, have this big, exciting moment I'm waiting for, and things happen out of your control, like you just have to.

Speaker 2: 59:54

You know flights, you miss flights, you, whatever the weather. So, uh, the Disney app is very efficient. About 30 minutes before we were supposed to meet, it was just like your helicopter has been canceled. So we go, okay, kids. And they were great.

Speaker 2: 1:00:07

My kids are really, really good at like rolling with the punches and I also think that's because I don't build it up like, oh, we're going to go on a helicopter, you know Right. So we go right up to the concierge lounge and I'm like, okay, help me. So Sarah said, well, there are spots for the helicopter dog sledding the next day. Now this is the first excursion to sell out. This is like the cabanas on Castaway Cay where, like, all the concierge people get it. So it had been sold out and I'm like at that moment I'm like I don't care how much it is, yes, book it. Yes, I need my kids to get on a glacier, get on a helicopter. So we were able to book something for the next day. We canceled everything else. We got our.

Speaker 2: 1:00:44

Disney gave us our money back for, you know, the helicopter we canceled. We were going to do a dog summer camp adventure not on a glacier, so the kids could see puppies. All that was canceled so it really only costed us $250 more a person to go on the glacier. So again, that's Carissa's vacation math. So we just went into Skagway, which I found to be and I don't mean this, this is any cruise port. I don't like it. It's so touristy, like you said, with the jewelry, like leave me alone, just let me explore. And, in Skagway's defense, like it was always a tourist place because it was like the gateway to, like the gold rush and all that kind of stuff. So it's not their fault, but we did find in there because the thing in Skagway and I think you did it is the White Pass Railway.

Speaker 1: 1:01:26

Yes.

Speaker 2: 1:01:26

Is that what it's called White Pass?

Speaker 1: 1:01:29

I believe it's called White pass. I did that the first time.

Speaker 2: 1:01:30

So it's like that old train, that in their very hard bench, but you're going to these beautiful paths. What did you? Did you liked it I love. Yeah, we loved it yeah, I thought my kids were going to get bored two and a half hours on a train. No, no, no. So we did. Well, we, at that point we're like, okay, well, the train is the thing to do, we should do it. So we go to ask for tickets. It's $155 a person.

Speaker 1: 1:01:51

Yeah, nothing's cheap.

Speaker 2: 1:01:52

And I was like that is just too much. So we went on. We got those fried Doughboy things in Klondike. That's essentially like a large fried elephant ear. Which did you get one? No, it's amazing we actually had two, because then we brought Mojo back for one later on. But as we were walking through town, there was a sign that was like bus tour Takes you to the same places, same route as the White Pass Railway. You get out, you take pictures, you go into Canada, you can see Gold Rush stuff, you hike to a waterfall and it was $69 a person.

Speaker 2: 1:02:22

Not bad, so we booked that. It got a little scary because we were on a school bus without seatbelts, going up a side of a mountain in fog and I was like I was worried about putting my family on a helicopter. Yet this is how we die on a bus because mom didn't want to take the train. But it was very interesting. Our driver was great, we learned a lot. We got to go out and see the Tormented Valley, which I think was one of the coolest parts. So the weather in Skagway gets terrible. Most people leave in January, february, because it's like essentially negative 15 all the time.

Speaker 1: 1:02:58

Right.

Speaker 2: 1:02:59

So you just need to leave. So the Tormented Valley where it sits. All through the winter it's about negative 40 with about 80 mile an hour winds whipping through. So as you're on the train you're seeing nice beautiful foliage. There's some snow right. When you get into this it's like sticks and just white, but it was so cool to see Like totally different here's.

Speaker 1: 1:03:20

Maleficent on your left.

Speaker 2: 1:03:21

No seriously it was like not, it was a scary place but cool to see. So we actually really enjoyed that aspect of Skagway and I think, as it goes on and we get into like Ketchikan, we were just so fatigued by that get off a cruise ship. Same kind of shop vibe, because my kids want to go in stores and I spent the whole time even though we had given them like a shopping allowance being like do you don't want that? No, you don't want that. So like I just and I know why you're there economy of ports but like, let right, but like let me be Just let me explore.

Speaker 2: 1:03:53

But we really enjoyed Skagway. It was really good sightseeing. Claire got into the Gold Rush. There's a museum that she went to, so she's very fascinated. She likes things where people die. She likes disasters.

Speaker 1: 1:04:06

Have you introduced her to the novels of John Irving? Not yet, because I highly recommend that.

Speaker 2: 1:04:09

But she enjoys, like the Hindenburg disaster.

Speaker 1: 1:04:13

Wow, okay, well, as a Kennedy assassination buff, sure let's do this, well, maybe a little bit older.

Speaker 2: 1:04:18

So she enjoyed the Gold Rush Museum because, like people, died.

Speaker 1: 1:04:21

Yeah, they did.

Speaker 2: 1:04:22

She liked learning about the horse dead horse trail which. I know. It's the people's fault, the. It is sad for the horses. Anyway, that was Skagway, so I'll kind of leave it there. You know. You know about the dinners and everything. So that was our day four.

Speaker 1: 1:04:39

Oh my gosh, we're only to day four, john, we gotta speed this up all right, uh, for me day four was uh, I think it's day four, but anyway it's the next day. Uh, city, city of Echia, which is Rome, as I mentioned. Um, we did not make plans for Rome. We have a very good friend, sophia, who lives in Rome.

Speaker 2: 1:04:53

You don't have to talk faster. We've just been talking a long time, you don't need to rush.

Speaker 1: 1:04:59

Are you, riley? Am I getting in show notes?

Speaker 2: 1:05:01

No, I just felt like you were talking fast because I said we'd already been talking for so long and you don't need to talk fast. This is a good part of the story.

Speaker 1: 1:05:06

Okay, well, actually it was a pretty laid-back day in Rome. We met up with Sophia. We took the train in, met up with Sophia and just basically, we were going to hook up with our friends Mike and Marla. Mike is in charge of fine art for Disney and he and his wife Marla did the same thing. They just went in. They didn't make any plans, they just went in and Mark and Trudy did Mark Ferrer and his better half, trudy, and we and Mark and Trudy did Mark Ferrer and his better half, trudy, and we were going to hook up with Mike and Marla, but then they got on one of the jump-on, jump-off buses and it turned into a nightmare for them. There was like an accident, their bus, all kinds of stuff happened.

Speaker 2: 1:05:41

Yeah, I'm always trepidatious about those things I like to be in control of my travel.

Speaker 1: 1:05:45

Well, their whole day. Shout out to Mike Young and his wife Marla, who are just great and again, you'll see, if you ever go to a Disney art festival, he's always there. He's in charge of that sort of thing, anyway. So they just had a nightmare, dave, and ended up getting on the ship with like two minutes left on the all aboard and we're texting with them as they're on their bus trying to get or on the train trying to get to the port and we're like we think you're going to make it, we think you're going to make it, but we didn't hook up with them.

Speaker 1: 1:06:13

But we did get run into Mark and Trudy down by the Vatican. They hadn't done that. They wanted to do that tour. Jody and I had done it. So basically, we just took a walk through Rome with our friend Sophia, who took us walking down the Tiber, and she was pointing out different stuff and we'd been to Rome before, so we didn't feel like the need to do all the touristy things. So we just sort of hung out in Rome with her for the day. She took us to some really cool little restaurants, had a couple glasses of wine and then headed back to the ship, because that was a night that we did Battle of the Member Cruise Stars where I fell down.

Speaker 2: 1:06:44

I have a question that's sort of an overall question Mediterranean Disney Cruise. Obviously it's expensive. Yeah, Alaska's expensive. Is it something that you say, hey, if you've never been to the Mediterranean, this is something you should do. And the flip side of if you've been, like you, is it still enjoyable and still worth that cost?

Speaker 1: 1:07:03

I think it is. I will say, obviously, if you haven't been and you wanted to kind of whet your appetite, you know, having a day in Florence is, I will equate it to taking a kid to the Magic Kingdom for three hours.

Speaker 2: 1:07:20

Yeah, yeah, no, I know, and as someone who's gosh, we're so lucky, aren't we? John, I've spent time in Florence and I love getting I think it's two different vacations. I love getting to know a city and having time in a city, and, oh, I loved the sandwich shop and I love this. I love the ease of the cruise and not having to unpack every day. Right.

Speaker 2: 1:07:33

I love the ease of the cruise and not having to unpack every day, right, but you can take in Skagway in three hours. You can't take in Florence in three weeks, really.

Speaker 1: 1:07:42

No, and you can't take in Rome and you can't really take in Naples, so you do have to pick and choose and it is just whetting your appetite. So I would say, obviously for the member cruises, they're getting a lot of entertainment.

Speaker 2: 1:07:50

They're getting a lot of swag. They're doing it for a different reason.

Speaker 1: 1:07:52

It's a unique experience. The ports notwithstanding, it's a unique experience. But no, I would recommend it for someone and frankly, if I'm being completely honest, I have no idea what any of it costs, Because I've never booked a Disney cruise other than back in the beginning when they had really really great deals for cast members. So I don't know. But I will say you do get to see a lot of cool things, but don't expect to get much of, you know, your time in port to your point, unless it's like a Skagway or someplace that you know kind of built for a short stop, You're going to miss a lot of stuff. Yeah, and we are diverting and that's just the way it is.

Speaker 2: 1:08:26

But I think, if you're thinking about experiences, I will say like I'm not, not that I'm not going to go back to Alaska, but I'm not going to go to these places on their own just because difficulty of travel and all that kind of stuff, I am going to go. I've actually never been to Rome. We've been to Italy, but we didn't have the time to devote to Rome. I'm going to go back to Europe, no-transcript. And if you're someone who's not comfortable traveling, though, you and I are very yeah, some people want it that way.

Speaker 2: 1:09:08

Throw us in a city we're going to fit. Weston and I, gosh, we hiked up a mountain in Japan and had to lie to get down because we didn't have any money to get down in the cable car. Like, that's just what we like.

Speaker 1: 1:09:17

Right, yeah, and, like I said, jodi and I we've done that before. We went to Rome a year, many years ago, and went on our own, and we generally do that with the city. So, yeah, if you're, if you are not a veteran and to your point, it does remove a lot of the other stressful things, which is finding a restaurant a restaurant that you could get into, Hotels like all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: 1:09:42

You always have all of that on the ship, so I think it's worth it, though it should leave you wanting more. You should want to see more of Rome, you should want to see more of Naples, et cetera.

Speaker 2: 1:09:51

All right, I am going to do something that is no point of the podcast, but I'm going to show you the video of the fog we were driving in on the bus Holy hell. Right, I know my mom and we weren't seatbelts anyway.

Speaker 1: 1:10:01

I was very scared. We were very lucky good weather in the June that I went May June and also good weather.

Speaker 2: 1:10:05

No, this was only when you got up to the elevation of the height of the White Pass. Then you got into the fog. Alright, we are going to go to day five, which now we're in Juneau, and this was our dog sled helicopter, and when we got there it was still a little bit foggy, but we just remained calm. There was nothing we could do. They pick you up at the terminal. We went out to the place. You get there. There's the helicopters. And I am such a pessimist I wasn't sure we were going on this helicopter. We were literally in the air in the helicopter. But you get there, so you're going to take this helicopter. It was about 20, 15 minute ride, maybe 20 minute ride, and then you land on the glacier where then you get to dog sled. So we get there and they give us boots. Adults got covers for their boots and kids got snow boots, because you're literally, as we find out later, like you're very happy that you have these shoes, but Elliot had these little neon yellow snow boots and he kept jumping going. I'm an astronaut. I'm an astronaut Like. He just loved these shoes. It was so cute. So they divide you up.

Speaker 2: 1:11:10

Luckily we were, I think, because our kids were young, they kept us in the same helicopter. But one family did split up and I got to be honest With your whole family on a helicopter taking off. I was a little nervous, like Claire was nervous, I think. Were you nervous, weston? He's standing right here Like you're just a little bit. It's different. It's not a plane and I've been on a helicopter briefly at a race At the Sanford Airport. There was an Easter runway, 5k and I took like a five minute helicopter trip but that was it.

Speaker 2: 1:11:36

Yeah, I've only been on one once myself, and it is a little, a little bit you know you take off and we were the middle helicopter so there's like I felt very like military.

Speaker 2: 1:11:47

you know we're a line of helicopters, but my God was it gorgeous Like getting up there seeing everything, we saw the Siku Glacier, we flew over the Siku Glacier, which is 35 miles of a glacier, and we were landing on the Norris Glacier. So it was just beautiful. You have headsets on, much like our podcasting headset, because that's how you talk on a helicopter, and Elliot, bless his heart, was so excited about it. He kept putting it close to his mouth and being like hello, hello.

Speaker 1: 1:12:12

But then we felt bad because the pilot.

Speaker 2: 1:12:14

and then at one point, John, he looks around and he's like you got a friend in me Because he could hear himself. And you know, Elliot, we had to shush him a little bit because we didn't want to irritate the other people. But, then, even when we did, he'd go back and be like a friend in me. He kept wanting to hear himself talk. It was so cute.

Speaker 1: 1:12:36

You get those on the float plane too, that I mentioned in a previous one that we did when we went up there, so it is kind of cool actually.

Speaker 2: 1:12:41

It's fun. It's a fun thing. So you land just in the middle of this glacier. The first thing that was surprising was it wasn't that cold. I think you're blocked from the wind, but there was about two feet, I think, of snow. So as you're walking you are really like sinking into the snow.

Speaker 2: 1:12:59

And the dogs there's four, I think, like little family areas of maybe 20 to 25 dogs each, because there's four different sled teams so loud. But they said it was because they were just excited, of course, that you were there just like howling. And it looks a sad the pictures of the dogs because they each have their own little house and they're chained to it. But as a dog person, especially with these type of husky sled dogs, like the personalities like they have to be like for their safety, so they said they were very happy, they didn't mind. Uh, some of them were trained off leash and they would be fine, but others weren weren't. So they do this just to risk not having problems and the dogs fighting.

Speaker 2: 1:13:39

And when you have like 100 dogs and like a size of half a football field, I guess you have to do this. But they've lived outside their whole life Like this isn't like they're not, they're fine, I guess was what they were saying, and they seemed very happy. So we set up. They set up our sled. There were two seats in the front, one seat in the back and people could stand. And they said go, and our sled team was just pulling us across the glacier. It was like we were in another world.

Speaker 1: 1:14:03

Yeah, I bet.

Speaker 2: 1:14:03

Like all the white and it's so smooth and so cool. Just the way the dogs took off, yeah, we kind of rotated so we could all sit in the different seats. And then the back two dogs. All the other dogs are husky type breed. They're not the like necessarily white, the husky that you might think of, like you think of an Alaskan husky, like the blue eyes, but they were all husky types except the back two dogs. We had a collie and maybe a. What was the other one? A terrier type, and those are the petters type and those are the petters.

Speaker 2: 1:14:38

So should people come to this wanting to pet the dogs, but again, as you know, as a dog person, sometimes these trained sled dogs, they're not interested in children petting them. Now, for us there were only two. There was really only one that was just so alpha that she didn't, she didn't want to be petted but she made her companion be the same way. But so the back two are just there for petting. And it was really funny because I thought of you. So the back one by me was a collie. What was the dog? What was collie's name? Gosh, not Baron. Baron was the other one. Anyway, he escaped his, his harness three times. It was only his third time ever doing this and by the end, uh, you could tell he was fatigued Because these Huskies are like they're training.

Speaker 2: 1:15:19

And so he was doing everything he could to keep up, he was just hopping, he was going sideways, he had hit the wall, and so I just thought of you at the end of a 10K, just like I don't even know what's happening.

Speaker 1: 1:15:30

Now I'm just continuing to move forward. The Huskies are the dopey challengers. I don't get it.

Speaker 2: 1:15:34

Yeah, the Huskies are the dopey challengers and we had the petters. John, you're a petter, you're there for people to love on, you're there. You're there for the people. You know you're not going to bite, you're not going to judge people about their pace you.

Speaker 1: 1:15:54

That's why, again, alaska. For those of us who live in the luckily enough to live in the tropics, a Caribbean cruise is amazing, but if you want to be completely shocked and surprised, go to Alaska.

Speaker 2: 1:16:08

And honestly, like scuba diving, terrifying. Taking a helicopter to a glacier much, much to me much less dangerous, oh, I'm terrified of the ocean.

Speaker 1: 1:16:16

I'm not terrified of scuba diving. I'm terrified. I don't scuba dive.

Speaker 2: 1:16:19

Sharks bite people in the Bahamas all the time, Anyway. So we flew back and we found out that the tour after us got canceled because of fog.

Speaker 1: 1:16:28

Oh, my God.

Speaker 2: 1:16:29

And then the tour behind them did not. But they drove the people all the way to the helipad and then it got canceled. Oh see that. But you know, you got to your point. Got to be ready for the car I know and you do, and that's something like when you have these once in a lifetime vacations. You got to just understand the weather, right, because we had no fog on the train.

Speaker 1: 1:16:45

when we went up to White Pass, we had none of that.

Speaker 2: 1:16:47

Interesting.

Speaker 1: 1:16:47

It was a beautiful day, and I mean you know weather moves in quickly in and out of Alaska, like it does here in Florida.

Speaker 2: 1:16:54

Yeah, so that was like a red-letter day that I'll remember for the rest of my life. And it was expensive. But if it can be in your budget and you're doing the Alaska cruise, 100% go Pick and choose.

Speaker 1: 1:17:05

That's what you have to do with these. You pick and choose.

Speaker 2: 1:17:06

Yep, you're day five Go.

Speaker 1: 1:17:09

That was in Naples and we wanted to do. This is where we did our excursion, because I do even though I get paid for the thing, I do have to pay for the excursions and we were trying to be a little bit fiscally responsible. But we decided, as opposed to going to Pompeii and Herculaneum, which a lot of people do, we wanted to do something completely different. So we took the ferry to the island of Ischia and we went to the Poseidon Thermal Water Park, which was 23 different pools of different temperature, different mineral pools that you got in and out of, like there was a cold, plunge into a warm, there was a sauna that was in a cave, there were all these kind of things, and you're right on the beach as well in Ischia, which is just beautiful. So we spent the whole day there, uh, in and out of the different pools, getting lunch, laying on the beach. It was unbelievable I it is something I would love to go back and do. I'm sorry that I missed Pompeii and all of that sort of stuff, but I can highly recommend the uh, the Poseidon thermal water park in uh, and it's not a water, it doesn't have water slides, it is a spa-like water park, but it is so beautiful and I will put the pictures up. You know, carissa, it's so well done that when you're standing near one pool and you look around, you're not seeing people at the other pools, you're seeing greenery. The beautiful mountain is behind you so it hides all of its little areas. Well, there are a lot of different levels and it's kind of on the side of a mountain. There are different levels of balconies and stuff that you can lay on and just relax. So that's what we did for our day in Naples Didn't have any shows.

Speaker 1: 1:18:45

I will say that was the night that I believe I saw Not Just a Goof, which is a documentary on the Goofy movie, which I'd never seen, despite the fact that I've worked with Bill Farmer for years and Jason, who was Max in that as well, was on one of our cruises Jason Marsden. But it was so good and so emotional. I had no idea anything about the Goofy movie because I'm too old for it to have been a thing for me, but it was brilliant. The filmmakers were on the cruise with us, they worked with us the whole time Great guys. But we came home and watched the Goofy movie that we were so interested in it.

Speaker 2: 1:19:22

Are now you more understanding where everybody was so upset about Powerline? Yeah, yes, maybe. Ok, now you're on board with Powerline.

Speaker 1: 1:19:35

I'm on board's on Disney plus, but it shows you how they choreograph the power line dances, and so it's just really, really amazing and and what a uh uh kind of cult classic it has become and what that movie means to a lot of people. And I had no idea.

Speaker 2: 1:19:49

I had no, I would be interested to see that, because I do. I'm not like a fanatic but I do enjoy the goofy movie. All right, we are close to wrapping up. We had three port days in a row. That's kind of how it works. Last one was that catch a can and I think the three in the row.

Speaker 2: 1:20:02

We were maybe a little fatigued at that point of like excursions and things like that. I think you feel pressure to book a Disney one, but you also want to book something you don't want to miss seeing it. So we had booked a boat where we were going to go out do some wildlife searching. And for me, with the younger kids, elliot was fine with most things but I felt like I was limited One. There was a lot of ages if he couldn't do stuff. The other thing I was looking for was like, well, there's ziplining, well, we can do ziplining somewhere else. So like kind of like trying it's hard to pick excursions right, sure, what can I not do somewhere else? But in a six-hour whale watching it's just not going to work for my kids.

Speaker 2: 1:20:36

So it was like a two and a half hour boat ride where we were supposed to look for some wildlife, get off at an island which I thought was good for my kids. We're out, we're in nature, they can explore. There was a bonfire, there was going to be s'mores and sausages and all that kind of stuff. And then we go back. Not a great weather day, just fine. It's Alaska. Ketchikan is the weeniest place in the world. My son watched YouTube Kids the whole boat ride which there had been no internet and we didn't pay for the internet package because, look, you got to save money somewhere, folks, and I was fine with that. Again, I don't have any shame in that, it was fine. Claire enjoyed it. She looked out the windows. We just didn't really see a lot. But the island was fun, the bonfire was nice. There were some of the native Alaskan islanders there who kind of talked to us a little bit about that is enough cheese.

Speaker 1: 1:21:23

My husband is making me a breakfast that he's just put a lot of cheese on my egg sandwich and you can never have too much cheese.

Speaker 2: 1:21:27

No, it's a lot of cheese, nope. So I think it was cool to be able to get out and walk around the island, but I don't think it was like. Is it something my kids are going to remember forever? Right, probably not.

Speaker 1: 1:21:36

Well, you know, it's not always a home run.

Speaker 2: 1:21:38

Oh my gosh, I forgot something in Juneau. Can we go back to? Let's talk about the one thing I forgot in Juneau.

Speaker 1: 1:21:43

Let's do it.

Speaker 2: 1:21:43

Tracy's Crabs. Did you go eat there? We did not.

Speaker 1: 1:21:51

The first time I was in Juneau we ate at some bar that was like a famous bar that everybody went to.

Speaker 2: 1:21:56

No, so Tracy's Crab Shack. I saw the pictures it was phenomenal, John.

Speaker 1: 1:22:02

The soup.

Speaker 2: 1:22:03

I love crab Way better than lobster.

Speaker 2: 1:22:05

I don't want to belabor this point, but what I will say is, if you go, we did the early helicopter, so it was like 1120. When we got there and two other cruise ships were docking, we had no line. But apparently later the line gets to like an insane line and honestly it's still worth waiting in the insane line because that is like a once in a lifetime meal so good, so delicious. But Ketchikan we didn't even. I regret this now.

Speaker 2: 1:22:29

We didn't even walk around Ketchikan because we were just like you know how you get towards the end of vacation just like it was raining, it was really it was raining and really cold, like it wasn't pleasant outside. It was probably the worst weather day we'd had. It was probably like 38 and raining, so just not fun. I wish we would have walked around and explored a little bit more, but we didn't. But that was our day six and our last port. I don't know what I would have picked different to do excursion-wise there, but I just wish I would have gotten to experience it a little bit more. I feel, like the other two, like I, got a good vibe of the place.

Speaker 1: 1:23:00

Right and.

Speaker 2: 1:23:01

Ketchikan. I felt like it was like we just went off on the boat and came back, Because I'm a little disappointed in myself.

Speaker 1: 1:23:04

But that's going to be part and parcel. When you do that, again, because you are, and again, if you and to your point, some of these places are three, four hours touristy. It's fun, you learn a little bit, but it's, you know, it's not a life-changing experience. So you'll probably go back on an Alaska cruise, my thought would be.

Speaker 2: 1:23:25

Well, if I could. Well, you know, if I can off you and Mark, then I can take over.

Speaker 1: 1:23:28

I'm just kidding. I'm kidding, just give it time. Give it time, I'm almost 60. Give it time. Who knew I'd make?

Speaker 2: 1:23:34

it Tracy Wu, and I will replace you guys.

Speaker 1: 1:23:36

No, all right, fair enough.

Speaker 2: 1:23:38

I'm just kidding, I'm literally kidding Our last port day was Palermo, Sicily.

Speaker 1: 1:23:42

Initially we were supposed to go to Monaco, Nice and then Monaco, but it was the week of the Monaco Grand Prix, and so a lot about.

Speaker 2: 1:24:01

Yeah, this thus becomes. The benefit is that you're not going to fly on your own, maybe just to sicily, or make a whole trip or even monte carlo. So this is like why actually, we want to move to palermo now so that may actually happen.

Speaker 1: 1:24:11

We're gonna live for a year in Palermo. But we just got off the ship in Palermo with Mark and Trudy, went to the coolest bookstore ever, even though all the books were in Spanish, Excuse me in Italian.

Speaker 2: 1:24:24

Okay, I made a face at you there. I was like, oh, I'm surprised I had a follow-up question In Italian.

Speaker 1: 1:24:29

And I was mocked by James Joyce's Ulysses in Italian, which made as much sense leafing through it in Italian as it does in whatever he considers English to be. Got a lot of mileage out of James Joyce on the trip, though you would appreciate that Made a lot of jokes about it. But then we went into the big open-air markets with all the seafood and everything and if you've never traveled abroad and you can go to one of those, they're just amazing, this food that you see and the stuff that you can taste. And then we found this really, really cool little restaurant that was back in like an alleyway Really cool place. Met up with Mike and Marla Again Mike Young from Disney Fine Art and had this amazing lunch with them and just wandered around Palermo. We went into one of the churches, because you have to do that if you go any place like Italy or Spain or England, because they're just gorgeous.

Speaker 2: 1:25:19

What's that? How gorgeous the churches are in Europe.

Speaker 1: 1:25:22

It was insane.

Speaker 2: 1:25:23

This is me not knocking on, like I'm not going to say a name of a church, but like a big box churches in a giant building in America because they're so ugly and churches there are so beautiful, Like what happened to America. Can we just?

Speaker 1: 1:25:34

we were just walking back to the ship and like here's a, here's this amazing church we have to go in one Cause we hadn't up to that point and we were able to just walk right in and it was. They're just again. You could spend an entire life trying to get through the churches of Europe, but Palermo, sicily was just amazing. The Palermo Sicily was just amazing. The city itself was so cool and all these little great places to eat and grab a drink and that sort of thing. So highly recommend Palermo. It was the find of the cruise for us.

Speaker 2: 1:26:05

Cool, I am interested. So, yeah, I think Wes and I will have to plan more of an Italian type of Italian Rome, Sicily type of situation and let me know ahead of time.

Speaker 1: 1:26:15

Our friend Sophia can point you out.

Speaker 2: 1:26:16

Weston's been to Rome. That's the hard thing when you're in a couple. Weston's been to Rome. He played a basketball tournament there when he was in high school, so it's a little bit different, but we've just gone.

Speaker 1: 1:26:34

I don't want to go. I want to go to Ottumwa, iowa. Well, I was there for a track meet.

Speaker 2: 1:26:38

It's Rome for God's sake, we're going to go, just we've got. You know, we've only been to Dubai and Kenya and Alaska this year and Once Ellie gets older we will actually, unfortunately have to slow down. All right, last day, our day at sea, claire found a love of the basketball court. Weston says the hoop was a little bit low and she was very successful. But she had put these long press-on nails on for the cruise, which it's so funny. In all the pictures everybody was commenting. I mean they were like it was so cute these long nails. I love her spirit and her want to do these things herself, because I didn't do it, she broke a lot of her nails.

Speaker 1: 1:27:20

Well, probably questionable on the basketball court.

Speaker 2: 1:27:22

Yes, but the saddest thing of the cruise and I talked about not building stuff up this is the problem with YouTube and bloggers. I had seen all these videos of Louis the Crocodile from Princess and the Frog. He comes out at one of the dinners at tiana's place and elliot loves louis the crocodile and you never can get close to him. He's in the castle show. He was on the show the first night of the golden mickeys. He came out. Elliot's like so excited so I bought him and weston louis crocodile shirts because I wanted louis to see them and be like you know, really like excited and have this, be this great moment. And then on the first night we went to Tiana's place. I told her this and she was like oh, you're going to have so much fun.

Speaker 1: 1:28:05

Louis is going to love you.

Speaker 2: 1:28:06

Guess who wasn't there the last night and like so and she comes by and I'm like, oh, we can't wait to see Louis. And she's like, oh, he's not here tonight, honey, and I was like I don't think she knew what to do when my face like went white, like I was like what, what? So it was like I work at Disney. Like on one hand I understand, on the other hand I also know that there's multiple ways that there's more than one quote, unquote, lewis anyway well, you're on a ship, though it's a little.

Speaker 1: 1:28:34

You know, don't quite have the backup team.

Speaker 2: 1:28:38

You have at least one. Because, anyway, I just know that and I can't be disappointed. Like I was disappointed, I have to understand, and Elliot was fine with it Like it was me that was more upset, because I built up this moment where my son was going to finally see Lewis, the crocodile that he loves, in his shirt and he was going to point to his shirt, and you know what I mean like, yeah, and that moment didn't happen. So I had to like, I literally had to like leave the restaurant, like I had to walk away. Well, I was upset.

Speaker 2: 1:29:04

When it's your kid like, you're upset, like you're like, and you can't be upset, you can't be mad, it's nobody's fault. But then I asked somebody and like, oh, we don't even have a Lewis on this ship. And I was like, actually, he was in the show the first night, so don't try to pull that one on me. That was the only time I was mad when you tried to tell me that like, oh, he hasn't been on the ship for months. And I was like, oh, then, who was dancing in the show the first night? Like a different crocodile with a trumpet.

Speaker 1: 1:29:32

Anyway, wow, there's a lot of drama happening.

Speaker 2: 1:29:35

I was thought about it.

Speaker 1: 1:29:36

Very disappointing.

Speaker 2: 1:29:40

It's okay. It happens to people all the time. That's why we don't build things up, I guess.

Speaker 1: 1:29:44

Those poor people who couldn't helicopter to the glacier. Somehow I feel a little sorrier for them, frankly.

Speaker 2: 1:29:49

Did they have helicopter glacier dog shirts on.

Speaker 1: 1:29:53

Possibly they possibly did.

Speaker 2: 1:29:55

Anyway, again, I understand I'm sure I'll get flack for this, but overall the food was what I always think cruise food is Fine. I will say about our service team I love them, but I've seen this comment at other places at this cruise that your servers have so many people to serve that you don't always get the interaction that I think you maybe have had can have another, like they're just so busy. Those servers, yeah, my God, they work all day. It's ridiculous. They were so nice, like they would. Obviously they remember your drinks. I loved them. I just wish they had more time. They're like we could connect with them and get to know about them. We had Raka, who's from Bali that's cool, uh does on the cruises, and then Roz, from India. They were wonderful. I just wish they didn't have to work so hard, because they literally work from like 6am to 11pm.

Speaker 1: 1:30:39

Yeah, no, it's. It's the whole thing with, uh, with our servers. Did you see the outside? Have you been outside today? And so many of them don't have that opportunity.

Speaker 2: 1:30:48

Always so joyful, so ready to help would do the thing where, like we would order, like one of every appetizer for the table and one of every dessert and like pass them around, which allowed us to kind of experience that. So that was day seven, and there were some tears on day seven, in the last day, because it was over and we were sad our final day was, uh, a day at sea, obviously, as we sailed back to barcelona.

Speaker 1: 1:31:09

That's when we did our artists, uh the show I did with the artists with with Stacia, martin, brett Iwan and Paige O'Hara A lot of fun, had a great time there Again, just when Brett talks as Mickey Mouse, and he was he. In fact, our friend, michael Young that I mentioned, kind of hosted that show because he's from Disney Fine Arts and Mickey getting in an argument with anybody with the Mickey voice and reminding Michael that Mickey's position in the company is a little higher than the guy who's in charge. Really, really funny stuff. I love, you know, those guys that we work with. They're so good and it's such a fun time.

Speaker 1: 1:31:44

But that was it for our obligation. We were done at three o'clock on that afternoon, on Friday afternoon and had nothing else to do except definitely wanted to see the Disney Hits live show, which was the second music group, not the Broadway kids of the. All of those people had Broadway credits as well. One of the gentlemen played George Washington in Hamilton in London, so, and it's about to open next to normal in London, wow, but I went to see their show. It was so good I skipped dinner and went to see the second show because we had a late seating.

Speaker 2: 1:32:18

Now we had been eating enough that skipping dinner was probably not a bad idea. Yeah, but no, but the entertainment is so good that that's sort of what you want to do.

Speaker 1: 1:32:26

You two are doing good, I'm going to grant you some R&R.

Speaker 2: 1:32:29

one segment, Don't make me regret it. We had some general questions, so I'll try to maybe rapid fire through these. Did you have to do laundry on ship?

Speaker 1: 1:32:37

Yes, absolutely, but we traveled. We only checked one bag for our travel and then had carry-ons, so I knew I was going to have to do some laundry on ship and I don't mind that.

Speaker 2: 1:32:48

And we had one day where we didn't have to do laundry, actually because I overpacked. But there was one day where it was like 50% off, fill a bag, and it was going to be 50% off.

Speaker 1: 1:32:55

We got the same thing, but keep that in mind. I needed my clothes for shows, so I couldn't like wait, because it's like 48 hours. So I, but we got the same deal.

Speaker 2: 1:33:05

Um, I'm going to skip some of these. Uh, youngest age you think kids would enjoy Disney cruise? I think there's a distinction between enjoying and remembering.

Speaker 1: 1:33:13

Right.

Speaker 2: 1:33:13

My son enjoys them. He loves them. We're going on the fantasy in December and that's already something he's talking about all day, every day, and loves it. So for me, what I love about a Disney cruise and someone asked like, is the magic worth the money? Is I love the excitement leading up to it, like the anticipation that it's something to talk about, something for a family especially. I think that if they like Disney, they will like the cruise. And even if we're not character people we did not wait in a single character line we still enjoy it Because it's that level of hospitality and service that you know is going to exist.

Speaker 2: 1:33:45

And I've been on a Royal Caribbean cruise. I like the Royal Caribbean and I think my kids would actually like it too, but they would be less excited about it because they know I'm going to see Mickey, I'm going to hear the horn, I'm going to see Mickey, I'm going to hear the horn. I'm going to get this Mickey ice cream thing. So that's it. Bottled water. Dlapinan wants to know if you brought your own bottled water, or was the filtered water on the ship okay to drink?

Speaker 1: 1:34:07

We bought a pallet of water which you can do prior to getting on the ship, and Jodi and I are really big on making sure we're hydrated because if I haven't mentioned it a million times on this podcast, you get older, you dehydrate more quickly and sometimes I flop sweat while performing and those rooms can get pretty hot. So we got a pallet of water going in. I also drank the tap water. The tap water is fine, but when you're on a schedule like I was on a schedule it was nice to be able to just grab a bottle of water and have it. They generally had it for us at shows, but you know that's again on the talent totem pole. Work down towards the bottom. They're going to make sure the Broadway folks and the voice of Mickey get their water before us. So I recommend it anyway because you know it's just, it's not that expensive.

Speaker 2: 1:34:58

And it is really nice to have a bottle of water. So did you bring it yourself or did you pre-order? No, no, no, no, we bought the pallet of water on the ship. Okay, so that's what we did as well, we pre-ordered. So before we had upgraded the concierge, we pre-ordered to have water in and it was a little. It's more expensive than you're going to pay, but not as expensive as if you bought the water. There's stuff in the gym, but for me I would do both. When I got the concierge upgrade, they stock your mini fridge, John, with whatever you request and they replenish it.

Speaker 1: 1:35:21

Oh, I know what I don't get.

Speaker 2: 1:35:23

So that was amazing as well. So I would say, if you're someone like me who, like I, sleep with a bottle of water next to me, I go everywhere with a bottle of water. I would just go ahead and do that. Just because you're on the go, the last thing you want to do is like I don't have out of. I don't for me, like running out of water, what? Oh, anyway, all right, that's our recap. Please send us more questions at 321. Go podcast at gmailcom.

Speaker 1: 1:35:47

Yeah, one more thing.

Speaker 2: 1:35:48

Okay.

Speaker 1: 1:35:49

Traveling back.

Speaker 2: 1:35:50

Oh yeah, she was traveling back, just sadness, yeah, and the coffee lady, we didn't either.

Speaker 1: 1:35:54

We had a really great flight flying from Barcelona to Dulles, to Washington Dulles. Yeah, because the plane was laid out in such a way. My wife likes to sit on the aisle, I like to sit near the window, but you know, obviously we don't want to sit with somebody else different in between us. There were only the row we were in, there were only two seats.

Speaker 2: 1:36:12

There was a window and an aisle.

Speaker 1: 1:36:13

Those are nice, so it was just us for that long flight back, so she was actually able to get a little bit of a nap in there. So very, very good experience with that.

Speaker 2: 1:36:22

And.

Speaker 1: 1:36:23

Dulles needs better food.

Speaker 2: 1:36:24

And I just will book in this by saying, like John and I know, we're extremely privileged to be able to do these things, oh my God.

Speaker 2: 1:36:30

I don't deserve any of this, even when we joke about things that like we didn't love this, like we are so grateful and this is not an experience that we take lightly Like I have cried over it. I was so grateful to be able to do this with my family. If you have young kids and you can do this with your family, it will definitely be meaningful. It will be a well-run vacation that you're not say look into it for next year and ask Sarah Akers to help.

Speaker 1: 1:36:53

And I can shout out to anybody who's a Disney Vacation Club member, because I know you can use your points for that and that's something I and some people don't know you get a lot of exclusive entertainment.

Speaker 1: 1:37:05

A lot of it I don't get to see, but it's really. If you are steeped in Disney, you will have everything from the most cutting edge stuff that Disney's doing to people, everything from the most cutting edge stuff that Disney's doing to people animators, who worked on the Jungle Book, for gosh sakes we've had on the ship before. So you get a really wide swath of really cool entertainment and you're hanging with these people on the ship for the entire week or the five nights, whichever cruise it is, and I know it's a lot of fun for me to deal with these people who have achieved all these things on all of these different levels filmmakers, animators, writers, imagineers, all that sort of stuff. So I highly recommend and you have to put up with Mark and I and I apologize ahead of time, but I always apologize for every show that, yes, we work in budget, that we had availability, as we always like to say, carissa, availability is an ability.

Speaker 2: 1:37:56

And we'll leave it at that. All right, athletes, here's the drill Time to shape up your diet. Carissa, give them the goods. So today, on Healthier you, I'm going to keep it brief, john, because we have been speaking at length. How do you do a cruise with a side of healthy? I was asked.

Speaker 2: 1:38:17

What I will say, and then you can share with your opinion, is if you're going on a three or a four day cruise, don't stress about getting in your workouts. You are most likely going to get a lot of steps. On our at sea days, I had about 11,000, 12,000 steps, which is more than I get at home by double, but I would say sometimes the gym was busy. If you're going to Castaway Key and you're a run Disney runner, do the 5K, walk the 5K, do that. If you're a type A exercise loving female like me, let yourself not be stressed about it.

Speaker 2: 1:38:46

I'm going to say, in terms of the food, the way we did, where we sort of tried some of everything, you can just have one bite of something. You don't have to feel like I've ordered this appetizer, I need to eat all of it. Again, for women like me who are wanting to be fit but also wanting to stay healthy, I tried to skip the bread basket. I've had bread, I'm going to get enough food. And then I made sure that I was getting in a good dose of vegetables Vegetables compared to a salad, since you don't have the dressing. They're going to be lower calorie, they're going to be more voluminous, they're going to fill you up a little bit more. So I would seek those out at lunch and dinner to make sure that I was trying to stay as healthy as I can, cause, as you know, john and I both got post cruise sniffles. So focus on maintain, and I did not gain weight on the seven day cruise, so I felt good about that.

Speaker 2: 1:39:32

So I would say take away the stress, don't have any anxiety, enjoy yourself, because these are truly the highlights, these are those big moments. You should not be worried about anything. And then you come back home. That's when you get on track. If you're a Healthier you member, we have a chat tonight. Woot, woot. If you're not, go to GallowayCoursecom, find out about our two different options. Not, go to GallowayCoursecom, find out about our two different options. I'm going to do a 30-day summer shape-up challenge right after 4th of July. If you are in either Healthier you. You will automatically be able to join that and use the code PODCAST if you want to save. We want to welcome some of our newest members Heather and Lisa. Athletes, listen up, it's mail call time. Announcer free present.

Speaker 1: 1:40:15

All right, we've got a listener email here. Thank you, Sarge. And this is a shout out to Ray, who's out there doing great things. Ray emailed us at 321GOpodcast at gmailcom and said my name is Ray Stelly. I'm a five-time marathon push rim racer Very impressed by that, frankly and I'm currently training to become the first person, to my knowledge, in the history of the Houston Marathon to compete in both the wheelchair and the mobility impaired division. So shout out to Ray, who just keeps raising the bar, Carissa.

Speaker 2: 1:40:45

We love that. We love all of our amazing, our athletes with disabilities. Ray, you continue to inspire, so thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you, guys for listening to the cruise recap. I had fun doing it. Maybe we can be a running and travel podcast, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 1:41:02

Please invite us along to travel to your races, and we will do that.

Speaker 2: 1:41:06

I'm angling for Pay for us to travel places and we'll do a podcast about it.

Speaker 1: 1:41:09

I'm angling to get the podcast on the next Disney Vacation Club cruise because there's a 5K and it's like we'll announce it. We'll announce it and I'll run it.

Speaker 2: 1:41:18

Well, I mean I would, I mean I'll, I mean I'll pay half. Can I get like 50 percent off?

Speaker 1: 1:41:22

Oh well, listen again. Availability is an ability and working within budget and if you're willing to give money back, you're working within budget Very important.

Speaker 2: 1:41:31

Very important. We're addicted. We're drinking the Kool-Aid. Well, thank you guys for listening. John, have fun at the concert. We'll hear all about it next week. Thanks for listening. See you real soon.