March 29, 2024

00:59:28

Ep. 408 - Are We There Yet: An Update from Aboard Royal Caribbean's Ultimate World Cruise with Leslie from Point My Soul North

Hosted by

Brian Sam
Ep. 408 - Are We There Yet: An Update from Aboard Royal Caribbean's Ultimate World Cruise with Leslie from Point My Soul North
DCL Duo Podcast: A Disney Cruise Line Fan Podcast
Ep. 408 - Are We There Yet: An Update from Aboard Royal Caribbean's Ultimate World Cruise with Leslie from Point My Soul North

Mar 29 2024 | 00:59:28

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Show Notes

Leslie (aka "Point My Soul North on social media and YouTube) joins us this week to check-in from onboard Royal Caribbean's Ultimate World Cruise on the Serenade of the Seas. When we last left leslie in Ep. 390, the cruise was making its way out of South America and toward the end of its first leg in Los Angeles. We're getting the highlights from the second-half of that first leg, and also some early highlights from the ships sailings and initial stops in the Asia-Pacific Region on its way to the end of its second leg in Dubai. We're learning about itinerary changes, big and small, and also seeing if the honeymoon is over for living aboard a cruise ship for this long. Come hear Leslie's thoughts on this truly "Ultimate World Cruise."

You can connect with Leslie on her Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

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Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Speaker A: If I'm ever missing, you two are responsible to look in Indonesia and Bali first, because that is a place that I would be in Maria. [00:00:10] Speaker B: And Maria, we know where to look in Nisha, Bali and Maria, that's where Liz is going to be disappeared. [00:00:28] Speaker C: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's episode of the DC, the Elduo Podcast, brought to you by my path, unwinding travel. And, Sam, we're not doing listener reviews. We're skipping straight to the chase because we've got Leslie back for part two with Leslie on this fabulous Royal Caribbean world cruise that she is on. And I can't wait to hear the updates. So I'm sure you're excited, too, Sam. [00:00:51] Speaker B: I'm super excited. So, for those who didn't listen to our previous episode with Leslie, I want you to stop right now, and I want you to go back a couple months and find the episode we did with Leslie. She is sailing on the around the world cruise on Royal Caribbean serenade of the seas. And so we already, like, went through her cruise history and how she, like, packed and planned for this cruise, and, you know, what she's doing on the cruise and who she's sailing with. So we're going to jump in to talk to her about what's happened in the last couple months since we talked to Leslie last. Last time. But before I do that, I want to let people know if they want to follow Leslie. She's got a great instagram point, point soul north. And so you can follow her travels along in real time where she is in the world. Leslie, welcome back to the show. Thanks for joining us again. [00:01:46] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. And, like, just how crazy is this? We are somewhere between. Between Brunei and the top of Indonesia in the calmest, most beautiful waters, and we have a beautiful connection with you. And, yeah, we're on a call this morning. It's crazy. [00:02:08] Speaker B: It is crazy. And it is morning for Leslie. It's 10:00 in the morning, local time for her, which is, like, Philippines time. And it's 06:00 in the evening for us here in the Pacific standard time. [00:02:23] Speaker A: Yeah. And prior day. [00:02:25] Speaker B: And prior day. [00:02:26] Speaker C: Yes. [00:02:26] Speaker B: We're Friday, right? It's Friday. You're in the future, so you gotta. You're gonna tell us what's. What's happening tomorrow, Leslie? [00:02:33] Speaker C: Well, and I want to point out, for all our Disney Cruise line fans out, we are recording this episode while Leslie is at sea. At sea onboard WiFi. And if you're listening to this, we are actually getting the video stream from her and recording it. So, like, it's unheard of for our listeners who sail Disney cruise line. [00:02:50] Speaker B: And to be fair, we didn't attempt recording video the last time. We just didn't know what the reception would be like, so we just didn't even try it. We just did audio only. But this time we set it up for video. [00:03:04] Speaker A: And here it is. [00:03:05] Speaker B: And it's streaming beautifully. Yeah. [00:03:06] Speaker A: Thank you. [00:03:07] Speaker B: Great view of your seat room, too. [00:03:09] Speaker C: Yes. Yes. Before we dive into updates from Leslie, I wanted to. Leslie, first I wanted to share that our listeners just absolutely loved your episode. And there was one comment we got that I just wanted to share with you. That someone wrote this podcast episode is amazing. I so appreciate the maturity of Leslie's experience on the world cruise. It feels like she has invested in the experience. And I will say this not at all a knock on Jenny or anyone else. No, she said just an the experience and not just an Instagram opportunity or getting to perfect photo for social media. I don't think Jenny's doing that either. And we can't wait to have Jenny back. So, yes, what a great experience it's been following along with you on Instagram. We had one listener question I wanted to put at the top of the show because I was curious about the answer myself, which was, we know that the cruise is divided up. [00:03:54] Speaker A: Basically. [00:03:54] Speaker C: There's the world cruise group that's on board, and then there's the folks who are getting on with you at each segment. When we last talked to you, you were just kind of getting out of South America and into Central America and headed for Los Angeles, which was the end of the first segment of the sailing. Folks were curious, logistically, did everyone on the world cruise leg have to disembark and recheck in there, or did you just stay on board when you hit? [00:04:18] Speaker B: Oh, in LA, you mean? Yeah, yeah. [00:04:21] Speaker A: So, yes and no. So, yes. We have to disembark, we have to go through immigration, and then we come back on board. But huge shout out to Royal Caribbean. And the logistics of facilitating this whole journey has been, like, bonkers. And they have handled so many of these things with hundreds of people in just such a streamlined way that literally we could get off, go through immigration and just get right back on board. [00:04:56] Speaker B: Oh, fantastic. [00:04:57] Speaker A: I, in LA, went to target because as we talked about last time, I was super excited to go to target, but my partner actually got off, went through immigration and got right back on board. So, yeah. [00:05:09] Speaker C: Did they end up organizing the bus for you to. They were talking about organizing, right? [00:05:13] Speaker A: Yes. They took a whole bunch of us world cruisers on Royal Caribbean buses and dropped us off. There was a target, a mall and a Walmart. Yeah, yeah. It was an excursion. And they just put. And then they did buses every 30 minutes for, you know, I don't know, like 3 hours or something, and got us there restocked and back on board. So it was funny seeing everybody getting back on board with all these bags, every surprise. But it was nice. [00:05:40] Speaker B: Oh, I mean, even if you just run out of, like, your favorite snack, right? Like, it's not like the cruise lines, they stock a lot of stuff, but when you're over, for example, in Asia, it might not be so easy to get, like, I don't know, American Cheetos. Right? Like, well, it's. [00:05:56] Speaker C: It's your last site of America for a long time, right? I mean. Cause you won't. You won't hit America again until you get to. You guys are returning to New York or where do you port your first? New York? Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:06:07] Speaker B: Well, I would love to hear about the segment since we last spoke to you. You all were supposed to go to Machu Picchu. There was a whole bunch of stuff that you looking forward to. I understand there were some changes to the itinerary and whatnot. Why don't you tell us? We obviously won't cover every single port or excursion. [00:06:31] Speaker C: We'll be here all day. [00:06:32] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll be here for forever. But I'd love to hear some of the itinerary changes and how royal sort of had to adjust things and what they did to compensate for those adjustments, for sure. [00:06:48] Speaker A: So you mentioned Machu Picchu, and the day before we were to leave to go to Cusco, which is kind of the jumping off point to get to Machu Picchu. There was a protest in Machu Picchu that closed down the train, the one and only train that gets you to Machu Picchu. So we kind of collectively met as world cruisers going to Machu Picchu and said, what are we going to do? And we decided that we were going to go and just hope that it was. Would be resolved enough to get the train back open. We flew to Cusco and unfortunately, it was not resolved. The tensions and everything that was going on had way subsided, but the train just hadn't reopened. But interesting thing with that is that's pretty much what travel's about. You gotta kind of go with it and roll with it. You just never know what's gonna come your way. And sometimes changes lead to just beautiful, amazing experiences that you wouldn't have had on the alternative path you intended. So Cusco is extraordinary. And as part of these royal, to backtrack a little bit, royal provided, I think there were four or seven, like, experiences in different ports, and this one was one of those ports. So they had a huge, beautiful gala, for lack of a better word, at a convent in Cusco, which, when you think of convent in Peru, I mean, it's everything you think of. It was just a beautiful building. And then they had this huge cultural performance for us and then a plated dinner in the convent. It was unbelievable. And just visiting Cusco, you know, we were, of course, disappointed to not see Machu picchu, but it was still a beautiful journey. And so, yeah, so that was Machu picchu. And that's another thing with travel, is it just puts it on the we got to go back list. So we will definitely go back to Machu Picchu. [00:08:58] Speaker C: So was that. Was that one where you got. Basically, I think you said you got off and you decided, like, that was something you did on your own. [00:09:04] Speaker B: No, no, no. It was part of the. So the world cruisers got seven, like, seven wonders of the world or something like that. They called them as included experiences, excursions, whatever you want to call them. But the Machu Picchu one was like a multi day one because they had to get off the ship. They were going. They were going to do the full. It's like a hike and all of this, right? And so it's a full multi day experience. And so this was disrupted. I saw, obviously, on social media about this disruption, but tell us where you all made your way after Cuzco, where you all went to. [00:09:48] Speaker A: This is funny. I got to check my notes. [00:09:50] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, you've been to so many places, right? [00:09:53] Speaker A: I know it sounds silly, but we will sail 274 days. And initially, there were 174 ports. So I'm sorry, but I honestly can't even remember from one week to the next where we were. We went to Costa Rica, and you mentioned my Instagram page. I'm actually on social media everywhere and on YouTube, on TikTok. Everything is point my soul north. And on YouTube, I did a video of our stop in Costa Rica. We had an excursion that was crazy cool at the volcano. I've never seen a volcano, so that was really cool. But it was a journey. And so suffice it to say, we were running. We were one of the pure runners getting back on board. I won't foil it, but. So if you. If you're interested or any of your listeners are interested. It was a beautiful day and it was fun to watch to see how it all went down. So Costa Rica. And loved Costa Rica. And then we went to Guatemala, which was really cool. We actually had Nicaragua on the original itinerary. And they scrapped Nicaragua just for their issues there. And we went to Guatemala instead. And then we went to Mexico and ended up in LA, as we spoke about. And then, like, two started. [00:11:13] Speaker C: When we last talked to you, when we last talked to you, the odometer was just rolling down to under, like 300 days, right? So you're in at 299 or something like that. How many days you have left on board, as we're talking right now? [00:11:25] Speaker A: So we just celebrated 100 days on board, and I'll tell you about that celebration if you're interested. So we're on 104 days ish, so we have about 173, which sounds completely crazy, but I have to tell you that it has become so normal and so routine and we're so comfortable and we're kind of just, you know, it's like, this is everyday life for us now, right? [00:11:49] Speaker B: And it's like you're. And it's like Jenny's like your neighbor, right? Like, I know. Cause we had. We had actually planned on doing this recording with the two of you, and Jenny and her husband, I think, are off. Like, they went off ship to do some other sort of excursion type experience. So they're not on board. So we. We had to adjust. But, like, everybody who's a world cruiser, you. You now know them all, right? And they're all your. I mean, they're. They're, like I said, they're like neighbors in your neighborhood, right? [00:12:18] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And what you would normally do on a normal cruise, you know, you're having more. Hi, and how are you? And where are you from? We all now know each other and it's kind of good morning, and you move on. You know, it's not awkward. We're all. We've kind of found our people and everybody's found their places and it seems very comfortable and, yeah, it's. It's going well. You also mentioned itinerary changes, which I'll tell you about lake three. Keep in mind we're in leg two now. And leg three was leaving basically from Dubai and going through the Suez Canal to get up into the Mediterranean, come back. Well, of course, due to all the unrest there, it was very unsure of whether that was even going to be an option for us. [00:13:11] Speaker B: Yeah, there's pirates in the Suez Canal. I mean, it's a very dangerous, it can be at times a very dangerous crossing. Yeah, yeah. [00:13:18] Speaker A: And that is kind of a constant, ongoing thing. And the cruise ship lines actually have all kinds of safety measures in place and things they do for the pirates specifically. But, and so that's obviously concern. But it was also the concern with just everything that's going on in Israel and that whole area. So it just came down to it where there was no way we were going to go through the Suez Canal. So we started doing the math a couple weeks prior to that saying the only alternative is to go down and go around Africa. [00:13:50] Speaker B: Wow. [00:13:51] Speaker A: Which changes everything. Oh, yeah. [00:13:53] Speaker B: Because it changes all your ports of, like, through journey. [00:13:56] Speaker A: Yeah. It's a huge journey. It's time. It's different ports. It affects the entire Mediterranean. And so that was a lot of, you know, just speculation about what was going to happen. And then they put it to vote. And I can just tell you how that went or if you have questions. [00:14:14] Speaker C: Well, I'm so curious what the, I. [00:14:17] Speaker B: Love that they put it to vote. [00:14:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:19] Speaker C: I'm so curious with the mechanics of this work is essentially you, you're voting on behalf of the people who will get picked up in Dubai. Right. Because did they get a vote in this or did the world cruiser only world cruisers? [00:14:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm not sure about that. I'm pretty sure that only the world cruisers on board had a vote. I think Royal put it out to just those third segment people saying that the third segment they paid for, for just that journey was canceled. Because it's canceled. Right, right. And so then what do you want to do? And how do you, do you want. [00:14:55] Speaker B: To rebook on whatever we're changing it to or do you want to cancel and get a refund? [00:15:02] Speaker C: What were the mechanics of this, this voting? Because it's voting. Yeah, we followed along and it looked like they did some presentations and they gave you guys a few days to sort of mull it over and then there was like an actual vote. And so I'm just so curious, curious about how that went. And then, of course, we want to know, we know the outcome, actually. But I want to hear, like, I'm sure listeners have not been following as closely as we are. So. [00:15:22] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So historic for royal to ever go around Africa. They've never done that. Historic for royal to offer to the passengers. What do you want to do? They've never done that. But this is also just a historic journey that we're on cruising the world. So of course it's you know, apropos. But basically, you know, we're. We, you know, rewind to two and a half years ago now. You know, we bought and paid for an excursion, a journey that's now not what we purchased. [00:15:51] Speaker B: Completely different. [00:15:52] Speaker A: Yeah, it's kind of necessary to say, okay, you know, here's the situation. Here's why we feel this way from Royal's perspective, what the concerns were, you know, what their thoughts were, and then what do you think? We basically had three options. One was to go around Africa and scoot pretty quickly in order to get around Africa to get back on a modified version of our mediterranean journey. The second option was to basically skip the majority of the Mediterranean and do Africa in more of an immersive way. And the third option, as a passenger, would be to disembark, if you wanted to disembark and do your own journey. So they kind of put it out there. They told us what the different stops would be depending on how we chose it, and then gave us some time to think it through and put it to vote and a specific day. We all had to give our thoughts back. And then majority rule, the ultimate decision was to. The ultimate decision on the ultimate world cruise was to do Africa in an immersive way. Yeah. So on a side note to that, again, shout out to Royal Caribbean. And I have no. Nothing. No sponsorship or anything. Yeah. [00:17:04] Speaker B: Lizzie's not getting a free cruise. She's paying her way. [00:17:07] Speaker A: No. I've just been incredibly blown away of how they've handled everything, and this was no different. They have been very thorough and very, just generous, in my opinion, of how they handled it, because, as you can imagine, a vote means some people are in, some people are out, some people are getting off completely. And so they have really, what it's come down to is individually met with everyone who is not doing the full immersive Africa to determine what do you want to do? What works for you? We want to support you in your time and providing compensation for it. So even the full Africa stay on cruisers are compensated 25% of that leg just for changing the itinerary, which in the end, you know, again, everybody has a different opinion, but in the end, to me, that feels very generous, feels very fair. [00:18:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:05] Speaker A: Yes. And then they also said you can do half of Africa down to Cape Town, and we'll call that a and then Cape Town up, we'll call that b. And if you want to do a and get off for b, they'll compensate you for every day you're off for b, or vice versa, or if you want to get off for the entire Africa portion, they're compensating 100% of it. [00:18:26] Speaker C: I wonder if they offered to fly some because royal is obviously sailing in the mid anyway and probably has some capacity left on some of its ships. I wonder if they offered to some folks, like, we'll go put you on a med cruise and get you to rejoin the ship at all, or anything like that. Like that. They've got some options that they can, some levers they can pull. [00:18:42] Speaker A: So, yeah, I think that they gave that. I think they said, you do what you want to do. So if you wanted to get on another Royal Caribbean ship, we've now reimbursed you your cruise fare, right. So if you want to go get on another ship, you figure out the days you join that ship and then you get back. But they're not doing anything that I know of to facilitate that. [00:19:04] Speaker C: Did they ever tell you how, how close the vote was? I mean, was it like an overwhelming majority of the world cruisers wanted to do the immersive Africa, or did they. [00:19:12] Speaker A: Give you an indication? No, I would assume it was probably overwhelming only because when we were discussing it as a group and they said, here's what we're going to do, because, remember, we were speculating for weeks of how are they going to handle this and what are they going to present. So when they did and they said, we're going to go around Africa, pretty much, you heard a roaring applause, which was kind of surprising because these people signed up, all of them right up to do several world wonders and the med. And so it was surprising and honestly surprising for royal that it was instantly like, wow. But we had also been speculating for a while, I will tell you on a side note, so that, you know, we actually, Roy and I, for our journey, have decided that we're actually disembarking. We're getting off. Yeah, we're getting off. Roy's not a super, he wasn't super excited about seeing Africa. And I think going to Africa and doing a very extensive safari was definitely on our list, but cruising and doing it this way just wouldn't afford for that safari. And so the port stops and we debated just going down to Cape Town and seeing Seychelles and Mauritius and Madagascar doing that, but then also the compensation. And so in the end, we spent weeks discussing it. It's a hard decision. It is. Oh, it's a beautifully difficult position to be in. But we. Yeah, we decided we're gonna disembark in Dubai and we're getting back on in Ravenna, which is basically Venice. And. Yeah. [00:20:49] Speaker B: So you'll meet up for the last leg of the cruise. You'll just, you know, you'll miss part of leg three, but not all of leg three. Can I ask one question about the vote? Was it one person, one vote, or was it, like, based on one cabin, one vote. [00:21:05] Speaker A: Every person who purchased a world cruise ticket or package. Right. [00:21:11] Speaker B: Every individual. [00:21:12] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, if you. If you have four people in your cabin, you have two children that paid for two children, you know. [00:21:20] Speaker C: Right. [00:21:20] Speaker A: So four votes. Four votes. Yes. [00:21:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:24] Speaker A: Yeah. And they did never tell us what the result of the vote was, other than, you know, it's appeared that it was. The majority were on that page. [00:21:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:33] Speaker C: So I've got. I've got two. One. One comment and one question. My comment would be. It is. I mean, no knock on your decision. You are out there sailing. But it is really cool to hear them doing that immersive around Africa experience. I just don't know many cruise lines that really do that as a sailing. [00:21:50] Speaker A: There are just. They don't exist. [00:21:52] Speaker C: Yeah. And kudos. Kudos to royal, because the logistics around setting that up have to be not insignificant. So, like, very cool to hear. I guess my question, Liz, is what are you going to get up to in the time between disembark and re embark? [00:22:06] Speaker A: Yeah. So one of the things that was very important to us was seeing the world wonders. And so we're missing Egypt and the pyramids, we're missing Jordan and Petra and Athens and, you know, those. That area. And so what we decided to do is we're leaving in Dubai, we're flying to Cairo. We're doing Egypt for a bit. We're going to Petra to see Petra. We're flying from Petra. We were going to go to Athens, but we're actually going to fly from Petra to Rome. And we're starting in Rome and we're going to spend a month just backpacking, basically, all the way up through Rome to do some of Switzerland and then down into Venice. [00:22:49] Speaker B: That was fantastic. [00:22:50] Speaker C: Are you taking everything with you or would Royal let you keep stuff in your cabin? [00:22:54] Speaker A: Yeah. No. So that was obviously part of the decision. The financial compensation. What is the compensation going to be? Are we still world cruisers? The status, how does that work? Our cabin? Because remember in our last conversation that the three of us had packing for this journey was a feat in itself. And we have large bags and several of them that we aren't going to need and don't want to drag with us through the Mediterranean. Right. And so we retain the world cruise status. We retain our cabin. We keep all of our stuff in our cabin. We just. Yeah, we just take what we want and the rest stays here. Like I said, royal compensated us 100% of our expense for the days that were off the ship. [00:23:44] Speaker B: That's amazing, because then that means they can't fill your room with somebody else because your stuff will still be there. It'll essentially still be your apartment, for lack of a better term. [00:23:54] Speaker A: But, Sam, we sat down with a representative from Royal, and she said, this is your journey, and we want to support you in your journey. This is your vacation. We want you to enjoy wherever you are in the world. Do whatever you want. Just tell us what you want, and we'll support you in that. And so, yeah, they didn't. The only thing they said is, if you're going to get off from here to here, you're off. Don't come knocking back on the door saying you want to get back on because you're off. They have to, obviously, delegate, you know, who's on board and who's not. Right? And as cruisers, we all know that we get status days. Right. As part of the Crown and anchor program. And so the days that we're off of the ship, which equate to about 43 days, we don't get crown and anchor status for those 43 days. But because of the world cruise being 274, we're already diamond plus anyway, and we are platinum. That. Those 43 days weren't impactful to us, either. And, Brian, to your point, it's Africa. It's the Med. Is. You know, it was such a difficult decision. [00:25:00] Speaker B: Both are great options. [00:25:01] Speaker A: Yeah. But in the end, we were clear that we. We both needed to have the experience. That was incredible. [00:25:09] Speaker B: Well, and you haven't killed him yet, so. [00:25:13] Speaker A: He hasn't killed me for. You know, the other thing that royal said is, let's say Sam wants to go to Africa and Brian doesn't. Right. [00:25:19] Speaker B: Right. I was curious about that. [00:25:21] Speaker A: Sam stays on board. She retains their cabin. She goes to Africa. Brian is reimbursed his cost. He goes and does his thing. You're basically individual people, and they'll support you, and you just do whatever you. [00:25:34] Speaker C: Want, which is impressive. It's a double occupancy price, so. Yeah, that's great. So let me say, we can't wait to hear about this exciting side trip that you're gonna have. So we have to have you back once you rejoin the ship, and we have to hear all about it, but let's rewind. So you hit LA to start leg two. Talk to our listeners about what leg two encompasses and where you've been so far. [00:25:59] Speaker A: Yeah. So lake two starts us from LA, and our first stop is Hawaii. We had never been to Hawaii. In my mind, Hawaii was always honeymooners or. Yeah. And so we just had never gone to Hawaii. And it was interesting. Our Hawaii stops were hilo, Kona, and Honolulu. And just personally, we checked off Hawaii and said, thank you, and that was good. We won't go back. I don't think we would go back to Hawaii. It was beautiful. We enjoyed it, but that was good. There are areas of Hawaii that we hadn't seen that are probably beautiful, but we just keep thinking about all these places in the world that we haven't seen. And so Hawaii was good. Honolulu, we did a luau lot. That was. It was just beautiful. Loved it. We went on from there to French Polynesia, Berea in Tahiti. Maria shot to the top of my list. Absolutely stole my heart. Loved it there. [00:26:56] Speaker B: Wow. [00:26:57] Speaker A: We kayaked in clear, transparent kayaks in water that looks like what you hold in a glass and, like, swam with sharks, and it was incredible. I went to Tahiti. Same thing with Tahiti. I had these images of Tahiti in my mind, and we left Tahiti and said, thank you, tahiti. We will not go back there again. Beautiful. But it was not Maria. And we had just been so tainted with morea that Maria is going to be hard to top. But we obviously have 171 days still to go. [00:27:30] Speaker B: Plenty. [00:27:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Then we went from French Polynesia to New Zealand. Loved New Zealand. [00:27:37] Speaker B: Had you ever been to New Zealand or Australia? [00:27:40] Speaker A: No, Sam. Like, this is a whole different world. Like, I feel like I'm on a different planet. We are in an area of the world that's just so far from Arizona, where we live. And I've traveled a lot, but this is just such a distance that when you're trying to decide your vacation spots, you know, flying for 20 hours is just usually not on the list. And so, no, this whole rest of the way is nothing that I've ever even thought I would be in. I was just recording a video this morning for New Zealand, and the beginning of the video is, I'm in New Zealand. Zealand. Like, this is. Right. So, yeah, it was crazy. And then we went on from there to Australia. And our first stop in Australia is Sydney. Yeah. [00:28:24] Speaker B: Amazing. [00:28:25] Speaker A: Yeah. And for days before Sydney, they were pumping up on the ship. Oh, my gosh. You know, be ready. It's Sydney. You have no idea. It's gonna be amazing. We're so excited. And so I started thinking, am I gonna be disappointed? Because this is a lot of hoopla. [00:28:38] Speaker B: Hype. [00:28:39] Speaker A: Yeah. And it is a testament to having a belt. Like, I've had thousands of reasons to have a balcony cabin on a cruise ship, but Sydney was absolutely one of them. Coming in the harbor on a cruise ship into Sydney was. Yeah. Just an experience I will never forget. And it kind of snakes around. So you think you're going to see the iconic Sydney, and then it curves, and you're waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, and then come down. I want to see it. I'm going to see it. And then it just. The opera house is just breathtaking. The Sydney harbor bridge. And then we were already extra, super excited because our plan was to climb the Sydney harbor bridge. [00:29:17] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:29:18] Speaker A: Yeah. And I'm petrified of heights. So climbing the bridge at the peak of the bridge, you're 440ft above water and fully exposed, 100% on top of the bridge. One of the coolest things I've ever done in my life. [00:29:34] Speaker C: And I want to explain, because I saw your. Your photos from this. When she says climb the top of the Sydney harbor bridge, doesn't mean walk across to the apex of the bridge, means climb the actual superstructure of the bridge. Yeah, it was amazing. [00:29:47] Speaker A: Literally on top, pop up. You are anchored the entire time. But being afraid of heights, I don't care how anchored I am. It's an experience. But, yeah, it was the view and just the whole uniqueness of it, the exhilaration. It was really spectacular. Australia just. Yeah, we'd go back to Australia in a blink. Absolutely loved it. Went from Australia to Indonesia. So, yeah, Indonesia. We were just in Bali. And another place that is just. If I'm ever missing, you two are responsible to look in Indonesia and Bali first, because that is a place that I would be in more. [00:30:29] Speaker B: We know where to look. Indonesia, Bali and Maria. That's where Liz is going to be. Disappears. [00:30:35] Speaker A: Everything you hear about Bali. No need to research your Bali vacation. Just book it and go unbelievably super cool, warm, welcoming, incredible people. Tomorrow we'll be in the Philippines. Leg two is China. Japan. China's the great, great Wall. Yeah. Another one of our world wonder excursions is the great Wall. Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Sri Lanka. Yeah, it just ends in Dubai. [00:31:02] Speaker B: Oh, my God. [00:31:03] Speaker C: Do they do any overnighting of the ship in any of these places, like in Sydney? Did you stay for more than one day or were you just in excursions and then out again? [00:31:13] Speaker A: So yes and no. So I did a post about the top five things I love in the first hundred days and the top five things I haven't loved. And one of the things I haven't loved is I've wished we've stayed overnight in more places. And some of the stops feel like, you know, Brian's gonna be super excited if we stop in a whole bunch of places and it just feels like it'd be super cool. But it really hasn't been as cool. It'd been nice to eliminate some of those places and stay overnight and more. But, you know, how do you decide that too? I guess the bigger places then the bigger places, it's more expensive for them to dock and so I'm sure there's a lot more to it. But some places we have stayed overnight and we've loved that. When we spoke last time, the three of us, we stayed overnight in Ushuaia and absolutely loved that. But we could have spent, you know, at least two nights in Sydney, if not, you know, days and days and days. And there's so much to do. And it was, it would have been well worth it. But most of our ports are one day in, one day out. [00:32:13] Speaker C: Hey, DCL duo fans, you know, we get the question all the time. Should I use a travel agent to book my next Disney Cruise or should I just book with Disney directly? And I'm going to tell you, if you have that question in the back of your mind right now, you should stop what you're doing and head over to mypathunwinding.com dclduo. The folks over at Mypath unwinding provide an amazing service. They are so knowledgeable and so friendly. We rely on them ourselves to book our family vacations and they provide an amazing service. And the best part is you don't pay anything extra for it. Disney, other tour providers, providers and other cruise lines have built the cost of their commission into their pricing. So if you're booking directly, you are just paying that money back to the provider when you could be spending it on the kind of service you would get from my path. Unwinding travel. You've heard from their agents on our show. They are so knowledgeable, so giving of their time. They know so much about Disney Cruise line, sailing concierge, other cruise lines, other all inclusive vacations and adventures by Disney that if you have a vacation in mind, they are the ones to book it for you. So again, head over to mypathunwinding.com dclduo so they know we sent you their way. Thanks. My path unwinding for sponsoring the show. And with that, back to our episode. Do you feel like royal is giving a good. I know you're doing a lot, as was Jenny, just on your own, not booking excursions and every, because that that's just not cost effective either. But do you feel like maybe you are getting a good sense of the, you know, the culture and the brief time that you have there and, you know, have you done any royal excursions and have they been really. I'm wondering if they pivot more toward, let's get you a local experience on this world cruise as opposed to, you know, you sail the Caribbean or something. It's like, let's go do a zip line. Right? Like, I'm wondering if you're seeing them sort of pivot to more of that cultural or, you know, local aspect and some of what they're doing and what you're able to get up to. [00:33:58] Speaker A: Well, on board, they've definitely been curating local experiences. They're bringing on local entertainers, dancers, singers, you know, we have local wines, that kind of thing. But I think in port, it's probably very vetted to, you know, safety and what's going to be feasible in time and mobility to get these people around. And, you know, we're just not huge jump on a tour of us people. You know, you're in good company. Yeah, for lots of reasons. And, you know, with Disney cruises, you got kids who tend to move quicker, you know, on the, this kind of journey, you know, some of these people. And so, you know, just a lot. And so for us, it just is not really work. Plus, we're super adventurous and feel very comfortable just doing our own thing. I did a ton of research in every single port before we left, so I know how to get around. I know how far things are, and, you know, how easy it is, how safe it is, you know, should we get a cab? Can we walk? You know, that kind of thing? So we've been strategic about that. So to answer your question, you know, I think that we feel like we've very much seen, but we're actually in, we're going in and down the, you know, in the neighborhoods and around the alleys and stuff so, you know, safely. But we, you know, we feel like we've really seen and feel like we know, so that we know if this is somewhere we would want to come back and explore further or whether it's good. So to that degree, it's good that we've seen lots of places, but I think that, you know, some of them have been like, I don't even know why we stopped here. And so, yeah, we've definitely loved doing the. Doing it on our own. Yeah. [00:35:40] Speaker C: Is, is the ship getting. I mean, look, this is, this is a, you know, social media sensation. Lots of people following along, lots of chatter about it. Is the ship getting much fanfare as it comes into some of these harbors or ports or people curious about it? Like, I'm just. I'm just sort of curious. Yeah, yeah. [00:35:57] Speaker A: Each port has been a little bit different. There was news crews in Sydney, so, you know, there was that. There've been news crews at some of the ports we've stopped at. A lot of the ports have had their local, you know, singer dancers welcome kind of of folks on the pier. So that's been really cool. I'm getting off and just having them singing and dancing and, you know, handing us little things or selling their stuff and then others, it's been, you know, quiet. So each of them have been different sometimes. The people in Indonesia, there were just tons of. Just local people, you know, excited to see us coming in. Little kids in, in Bali were super excited to see the tour buses. It was cool to see them and wave at them. So, you know, they've all been different. [00:36:42] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, it hadn't even struck me. But for, from perhaps many of these ports, this might be the first time the serenade of the seas has sailed in to these ports. Could even be the first time Royal Caribbean has sailed into or even a cruise ship sometimes. Usually that gets you like the first time we were on a Disney cruise, it was the first time that the ship we were on, the wonder, had called on Catalina. There was a whole production as we pulled into harbor and, you know, there was an exchange. [00:37:06] Speaker B: That's just in the US. [00:37:08] Speaker C: I could imagine you get some of that fanfare, which is, which is pretty cool. I'm also curious. [00:37:13] Speaker A: I asked royal that question. I can't remember what they told me. I made it in my notes, but I think there's about 35 or 40 ports that Royal Caribbean, as a cruise line has never been in that is going. That we're going to on the world cruise. [00:37:26] Speaker B: So that's so cool. [00:37:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And then obviously, ports that, you know, they don't see a lot of cruise ships in. So. Yeah. [00:37:33] Speaker C: Now, did they do anything special? I can't remember if you crossed. I know you crossed the international date line. Usually do something special for that, but I can't remember if you all made it across the equator. I guess you would have to at some point. [00:37:44] Speaker A: Yeah, we actually do. [00:37:45] Speaker C: They have a special embolism. [00:37:46] Speaker A: Yeah. We've crossed the equator several times and kind of coming around. We actually did, I think, last night or yesterday morning, again, coming up into the Philippines. So initially they were doing the Pollywog ceremony and the equator ceremony, but now we've crossed it so many times, I think they're like, yeah, whatever. We're like, everybody's now. Yeah, yeah. They're all shellbacks. [00:38:08] Speaker C: That's over it. [00:38:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Except for these poor people who are on this, these shorter legs who crossed it maybe once. And I don't mean the ones who are on for the three month legs. I mean the ones who are on for the even shorter segments. As we talked about the last time, for those who haven't listened to our previous episode, there are folks who are on, like, Leslie, who booked the entire nine months. There are folks who booked one leg, as we're calling it. There's three legs. So three month segments. And then there are folks who have booked just like a regular cruise, like a week long or whatever kind of itinerary. And so, yeah, those people are having a very different experience, actually. I'd love to know, Leslie, how has that been with, like, new people coming on? And do they sort of get integrated into the world cruiser community or are they sort of their own separate community? It's a very odd social experiment. [00:39:04] Speaker C: And are you guys, like, celebrities on board? Because people have been following along with you the whole way, so they're like, oh, my God, it's Leslie. Yeah. [00:39:12] Speaker A: Yeah. So I'm not sure, because it feels just like, initially, I'll admit, the very first segment, it was just, you know, we left Miami, so it was all of us together. And then the first leg where. The first moment where people started leaving or getting back on board, I was kind of like, you know, like, this is ours. [00:39:33] Speaker B: You know, this is our ship. This is not like, this is where. [00:39:38] Speaker A: I sit and this is my chair. And I was really weirded out, possessive in, like, a weird way, which faded quickly, thankfully. But since then, it's just been kind of like the natural thing and seeing new faces and new people, and it just kind of feels like, I think, a normal cruising experience where you're coming in and you don't recognize people and everybody's just kind of like, oh, there's new friends. And so it seems like hopefully they all are feeling like they're you know, joining a normal cruise and, you know, part of things, like we are just. [00:40:10] Speaker B: With people who've been on for months and months and months. [00:40:14] Speaker A: Yeah. I have to tell you all a funny international Dateline story, if I can. [00:40:18] Speaker C: For a quick second. [00:40:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:20] Speaker A: So we crossed the international date line on my dad's birthday, kind of. My dad turned 80, and so you all are on Friday? I'm on Saturday. And so in my world, his birthday was the day before. So I called him on what was my day of his birthday, and then I called him the next day, which was his legitimate birthday. [00:40:44] Speaker B: So we got two celebrations. [00:40:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Had everybody on board celebrating with him. So it was just fun that the whole time change and Dateline thing has just been bonkers. [00:40:52] Speaker B: Morgan, it is wild. It is, you know, setting up our. Our call. Brian and I had to like, okay, so if it's Saturday at 10:00 a.m. For Leslie and Jenny, it will be 06:00 p.m. On Friday for us. And then we real, because we're trying to figure out, like, what day, we're trying to pick a day that you're at sea, because we know the sea days are, like your sort of restful days. We don't want to interrupt you when you're in Bali or in Morea or in the Philippines. We know you're exploring. You're not going to be sitting in your stateroom talking to us, but, yeah. So it is a kind of a weird thing, especially since you're speaking to us from the future right now. So anyone doesn't believe in time travel. It's real because Leslie's speaking to us from Saturday, and it's Friday, so. [00:41:39] Speaker C: So, Leslie, I'm curious. You're kind of. I mean, you're well past the honeymoon phase on board, you mentioned, you know, things that kind of settled into a rhythm. Have your opinions changed at all about the decision to do this kind of nine month experience? Anything on board that's like, all right, that was cute for a while, and now it's just, like, driving me crazy. Every stage, you kind of go from the honeymoon into this lived experience. So anything like that happen for you? [00:42:08] Speaker A: Well, I don't know, but I think that I've probably maximum sailed on a cruise ship for maybe ten days. So rounding 100 days, it's just, you know, you just have no idea, like, how to plan or prepare for that. But I am very surprised how comfortable and routine and just settled we are. We leave in the morning to go get breakfast. We come back with our coffee. It just is so normal that that has been really weird. I told you that I made, like, a top. The things I've loved, loved the most, and the things I've not loved so much. And one of the things that I haven't loved is that it's stimulation overload. There's just constant, which is great. Cause there's constant things and experiences and stuff to do on board. But I very much appreciate this quiet time and being able to just have quiet. And they're short of being in the cabin, there is zero quiet space. So that's been kind of a bummer, especially because the Internet has been so good. There are people cruising that are working that to have some quiet space would be nice, but otherwise, you know, lots of questions on social media about food and, like, how do you even deal with food? And the food has been so great, and we. I have not been disappointed about the food at all. I'm a vegetarian, so the only thing I would ask would be for more vegetables. But short of that, you know, like, the food has been great. The staff is amazing. Nothing on the ship. I just. Yeah, I have very little complaints and I'm so happy that we're comfortable. [00:43:48] Speaker C: Nice. [00:43:48] Speaker A: Awesome. [00:43:50] Speaker B: How has it been with the new staff coming on? Because I know at certain points in your cruise, you've got people's contracts rotating. Right. So let's say your server or your stateroom attendant or whatnot, their contracts don't necessarily line up with the nine month, you know, cruise. How has that been? When you see, when you have changeover in crew and, you know, obviously you're meeting a new person for, you know, or having a new, like I said, a new server or a new stateroom attendant or a new bartender or something. [00:44:23] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So I wasn't expecting to have them. I just didn't really think it through. I don't think that I would have them for enough of a time that I would create a bond with anyone that would be impactful as I just assumed they would be switching around and moving around. And we had our very, very favorite bartender left, so. Missed her. We had some switchover with our waitress. We've had quite a few different waiters and waitresses because we've moved tables a bit. We have a group of core friends, but we have ten at our table, so they've kind of had to accommodate us. Yeah, they've had to accommodate us, and that's changed our waitress and waiters. But our last waitress, we got to know very, very well her story, her family, and I had to say goodbye to her and walk away when she left, and I thought I was gonna be fine. And, y'all, I broke down and I was sobbing on the way out of the restaurant. Her story is just really, really sweet and very, just, yeah, she's got a lot going on and is going home to it, and it was just really touched me. And, you know, some of these people have not seen their family for months and months and months and, yeah, so that really got me and surprised me. But, yeah, our room attached has six more days, and he's extended and extended and extended. So he asked me not to talk about it because he's so excited to go home. I think he's worried he's going to have to extend again. And so, yeah, it's, I think they want to, you know, they want the money, but they also miss their family. Our room attendant's been on board for eight and a half months now. [00:46:00] Speaker B: Wow. Can you imagine? Yeah, yeah. [00:46:02] Speaker A: And some of them. [00:46:03] Speaker B: And working, and working really, really hard the whole time. [00:46:07] Speaker C: Speaking, speaking of the crew, I'm so curious. I mean, I know that. Well, how did, how does tipping work for a cruise of this length? Like, you know, we go on a week long cruise. You get a slip, you add a couple bucks, but, like, obviously a cruise of this link length, you probably be adding a couple bucks to every check you're writing. Because then it's like, you know, that adds up. So, like, how does the tipping work with the crew for the world cruisers? [00:46:28] Speaker A: So there's two things with that. So, first of all, when we paid for the world cruise, the gratuity is included. So it's already covered for everything. But, you know, we've had some extraordinary experiences and so there's little tip, you know, gratuity envelope, and you can do additional gratuity, which we've done for several people. It's totally optional, obviously, because the gratuities built in and it's significant that was built in. So, you know, but you can additionally tip them. [00:46:58] Speaker B: Well, is it? And I mean, obviously you can tip them at any point, but I imagine that when somebody you love, like, leaves you, that's like, when you also kind of want to give them that extra thank you and send them home with some extra money when they've made such an impact on your life and your experience. [00:47:15] Speaker A: And so, for sure, especially in our stateroom. Right, the state room guy. I mean, like, we're seeing him every day. Yeah. And so he's, he's. I have a whole thing on social media going of how many towel, how many towel animals will I have in 274 days? And so I told him about it, and so now he's trying to switch it up. Instead of doing his normal routine, he'll do three in a day, and then I don't for a week or whatever. So I've got a running thing with the towel animal. So he's, you know, and he's just done some special things. I lost something, and we searched together. We were on the floor searching together. So, you know, he's just been. Yeah, really special. So for sure, we've wanted to take care of them. [00:47:53] Speaker C: All right, I gotta ask, what's the most unique towel animal he's made for you? Because, you know, we've. We've seen monkey, we've seen elephant. [00:48:00] Speaker B: I've seen pirate pirates on lounging in. [00:48:03] Speaker C: Bed made out of towels. Like, what was lobster? [00:48:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So we've had a lobster. Let's see, which one was the most unique. Oh, so it's not really unique, but I saved it him. He told me I can't save all my towel animals because there was going to be a towel issue. [00:48:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:23] Speaker A: But he made this little, like, rhino guy. [00:48:25] Speaker B: Oh, that's so cute. Oh, my goodness. [00:48:29] Speaker A: He's so small that I. He's all wrapped up in rubber bands and stuff, and I just love him. [00:48:34] Speaker B: He's like washcloths or something. [00:48:35] Speaker A: Yeah. And then I have an elephant back there that is. Got a little New Year's Eve hat on him and stuff. So, yeah, I don't know which one's kind of been the most unique. They're probably very similar to what everybody's seen, but he just kind of keeps trying to throw them in there for me. They have a routine, I think, with them or like a schedule. And so when I told him he's been adding extra ones in there to mix up the numbers. [00:48:59] Speaker B: I love that. I love that. What was, like, the most surprising port that you've been to since we talked to you last, that you didn't expect to, like, love, but you just were floored by, gosh, that is such a. [00:49:14] Speaker A: Difficult question because we've loved so many. [00:49:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:49:18] Speaker A: As I said, maria was. Definitely stole my heart. But when you think about French Polynesia and Tahiti and Maria, you think about the waters, and that's what it was. It was just really special. So I don't know how much that really surprised me. I think Sydney, it was up there, but mostly because I was trying to not psych myself up. That are all this. All this hoopla is going to be really worth it? And it was really cool. That experience there was really cool. Yeah. Chili is definitely, since we. We talked last time and we had already left Chile, but Chile definitely surprised me. Uruguay surprised me. So some areas I would have just never even thought about going to, obviously, Antarctica. Probably the answer to your question is Antarctica. I don't know if I would have ever even been able to or thought about going to Antarctica. I live in the desert. I'm a lizard, so this doesn't register for me as vacation. But that was just soul changing craziness in. [00:50:25] Speaker B: I want to ask you the opposite, which is, what was a place that you thought you would probably enjoy or you always, like, wanted to go to, and you went and you were like, eh, I don't need to come back. It wasn't like, not that it was terrible, but it's just, like, not the wonder that you might have expected it to be. [00:50:43] Speaker A: Yeah. So, definitely. I know this just goes against what a lot of people are going to be like, what is she thinking? But for sure. Hawaii. Hawaii was. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. You know, again, maybe it was the ports we stopped at, but just. Yeah, that was not at all what I thought it would be. And, you know, it was beautiful. It was nice, but, yeah, for sure. And Tahiti, as I said, with Tahiti, it was like, me, I could have skipped that. [00:51:08] Speaker C: Yeah. What is the, uh. What is the port or a couple of ports that you're most looking forward to on the rest of this leg so far? [00:51:15] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Cause just stick with leg two, because leg three is, you guys have your. Your journey off, and then you're getting back on it, so there's a plenty more to look forward to there. Yeah. [00:51:25] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's funny, too, because before we left, we made a top five list, and that top five list was getting really jeopardized because so many of the spots, you know, we've either haven't been able to go to or won't be going to. So that's interesting. It'll be fun to see at the end just what that top five will be. But Vietnam was on my top five list. Vietnam is in leg two, and I'm very excited to see Vietnam, and I can't. If you said why, I wouldn't even be able to articulate why. I just, for some reason, have it like that. I'm just. That's going to be very special. I won't be disappointed. [00:52:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:52:03] Speaker C: I feel like there's a bit of mystery around Vietnam. I a big fan of, of Anthony Bourdain. And when he was doing his, you know, his travel shows and went to Vietnam, it was always, it was always just impressive to see what he got up to there. So it's kind of that mystery around it that surrounds it that I think is so amazing. Yeah, for sure. [00:52:22] Speaker A: I ate at Anthony Bourdain's top street food cart in Ensenada. He said it was the best street food he'd ever eaten in the world. And I was going to be in Ensenada, and I was going to that place, and I had a moment with the guy, and it was everything that I had hoped it to be. So for sure, I love that. [00:52:42] Speaker B: I love that. [00:52:44] Speaker C: Well, Sam, do you have any more questions for Leslie? We should get her back to her day at sea here. [00:52:50] Speaker A: I know. [00:52:51] Speaker B: Well, actually, I want to know now that you've got sort of your routine on board, where you go to breakfast, that you bring your coffee back, that sort of a thing. What is your favorite thing to do on a day like today, other than, of course, talk to the DCL duo? But what's your favorite thing to do? [00:53:11] Speaker A: You guys, can we talk every single day? Every single day? [00:53:15] Speaker B: Yes. Can I quit my job, though, and come on board with you? Cause that's what I really wanna do. [00:53:22] Speaker C: I kinda wanna find the date that you all are gonna be in New York to get off and come meet you and Jenny. [00:53:28] Speaker A: Yeah. How fun would that be? We've actually got social media people. The people on social media have been just incredible because, you know, they're all from all over the world. So there are people that are in Vietnam that are saying, I live there. Like, I can meet you, I can show you around. Let me tell you the great places to go, the restaurants, to me. So, yeah, just, just, yeah. Really cool. So on c days, to be honest, my favorite thing is I'm on social media, right in a huge presence. So I'm doing a lot of YouTube editing for the YouTube videos. And I love it. I love doing it. I love, I want everyone watching to feel like they're here with us, experiencing with us. So it's, that's been really fun for me. Plus, when I'm doing it, I'm reliving the entire thing, right? Going through the videos, going through my notes, putting it together. So that's been really fun. I have special places on board that I go to that are kind of my spots that, you know, I'm comfortable in to do it. We have friends on board, so meeting them, we have happy hour almost every night with our friends. And so getting together with them and just recapping their day and what we've done. And so that's fun, too. And just kind of decompressing, getting ready for. For the next stop. Because this, these legs, this moment of sea days right now, are the last of the longest we will have. We're running the corner to having one or two at most. And so what I didn't think I would appreciate about sea days getting on board. I absolutely relish them now to just rest and regroup and kind of take in Australia, you know, or Indonesia so that I can get ready for the Philippines and, you know, go on to the next stop. [00:55:14] Speaker B: Amazing. [00:55:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:15] Speaker B: Cause you have a couple of CDs coming up next weekend also. Like, you've got sort of a string where you've got, I don't know, kind of four or five c days within, like, a two week period. And I know this because we were trying to arrange, obviously, to do this recording on one of your c days, and we chose one of the earlier ones. So I'm sure you're looking forward to that, but I think it's amazing that you're sharing this experience with the world. Leslie, we so appreciate you coming on and updating us on what's going on in your journey. We look forward to having you back again when you are on leg three so that we can hear what you all got up to, of course, on your journey, on your own, to the med, basically. And then, of course, the end of the world cruise. So thank you so much. Why don't you tell our listeners where they can find you on all things social media so that they can follow along with you on a more regular basis? Because, obviously, we're just doing these kind of couple month updates because we want to be sensitive of your time. We know you've got a lot going on, but, yeah, why don't you tell our listeners where they can follow along with you more closely? [00:56:28] Speaker A: Thank you so much for having me on. It's so fun to be with you guys and sharing it with your listeners. And if anyone has any questions or anything comes up, you know, feel free to reach out to me in the interim. Miles, so excited to come back with you whenever you want to have me back. And I'm on any and all social media platforms that, you know, are the big players, at least that, you know, I can manage Instagram and TikTok and, you know, all that and then on YouTube as well. And everything is point my soul north. [00:56:57] Speaker B: Amazing. [00:56:58] Speaker C: Well, Leslie, thanks once again for taking the time to share all of this experience with our audience. World Cruise is on my bucket list and this is just making me more and more excited to do one. So so thank you so much for taking the time. We really, really appreciate it. [00:57:11] Speaker A: Thank you. [00:57:15] Speaker C: Well, a big thank you to all of you out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from the DCL duo each week. We'd also love it if you'd head over to Apple Podcast and leave us a five star review. If you hit those five stars, that's great. If you leave us a written review along with a five star review, we will be sure to read it on the air at the end of one of our main episodes. If you're hovering over anything less than five stars, we really want you to reach out to us so we can take your feedback. Best way to do that? Head to dClduo.com to find all the ways to connect with us. It links to our podcast, our vlog. 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Just dial 402-413-5590 that's 402-413-5590 and that will head straight to our Google voice voicemail line. The DCL Duel podcast is not affiliated with Disney Cruise line, the Disney Company, or the Disney family of theme parks. The views expressed on the show are solely those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflect the views of the Disney Company or Disney Cruise line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or a Disney vacation, please contact Disney directly or your own travel agent or the great folks over at Mypath unwinding travel. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous Disney adventure with the DCL duo. Goodnight.

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