What if I told you that your next Disney Cruise already has upgrades built in? You just might not know where to look yet. There are little insider tricks on every Disney ship that completely change your cruise if you know that they exist and where to look. Hello, my friend and welcome to WDW Radio. From somewhere a little different this week. I am Lou Mongello. And this week I am not in the home studio. I'm not even at home. You might be able to tell by the background music if you can hear it. I am actually on board the beautiful, the spectacular, the classic Disney Magic recording live. And if you listen carefully, you might be able to hear the music, the buzz, the ocean while you can't hear the ocean breeze, the sound of chicken tenders, everyone enjoying themselves. And if you know, you know there's just something different about a Disney cruise. And the more you cruise, the more you enjoy, the more you learn, the more weight you might gain. Up to. But you also find about some of these little lessons that make every voyage memorable and enjoyable and special. But what if we could take your cruise from great to omg how did I not know about this sooner? We're talking about the hacks, not talking about the obvious stuff. Not get there early or pack sunscreen. I mean the real like insider moves, the little known tricks, the secret snacks. Yes, they exist. The pro tips and the things that experienced cruisers do that make you feel like you've unlocked cheat codes for your next Disney cruise. And I could not think of a better person to have this conversation with than someone who literally helps families sail smarter every single day. She is my good friend, cruise expert, my sailing buddy, especially for the last four weeks, and captain of her own ship over at Mouse Fan Travel. She is, of course, Beci Mahnken

I can't wait to hear all these acts. I have a feeling I'm going to learn a thing or two because some of the, the information that we get from, from others when we've asked the question, you learn a lot because there's things that aren't obvious, there's things that seem like they should be obvious, but you don't think about.

So I also think that there's, you know, we've cruised a lot and we're very fortunate.

30 days.

First of all, high five. We didn't kill each other.

No, we haven't.

Yet there's still, yeah, tomorrow's still another day. But you know, I think also too Beck, I think there's probably a lot that you know that you take for granted. You know, these are some of the, like, you shouldn't miss this. And nobody tells you these things. So whether you are planning your, whether you're sailing with us on a future cruise or you're planning your first or your tenth, get ready to take notes because I promise you're going to hear a lot. One, at least one thing that's going to make you go, wait, you can do that. So we are trying to have hopefully put together the ultimate Disney cruise line hack list. And I tried to make this as organized as possible as I was brain dumping some of like my favorite tips and tricks and hacks. And I also reached out to you, our WW family for some of your best of the best and you showed up and genuine, generously shared. So I'll be giving, I'll be including yours and obviously giving you credit along the way. And if we miss any or if you have my omg, my brains are going to fall out of their head. When you hear this hack, call the voicemail at 407-900-9391. That's 407-900-WDW1. Or you could message me on Instagram or on Facebook. You can come over to the clubhouse. And I tried to think about this Becky in some semblance of an organized lake.

I'm glad you did because I am not organized whatsoever. I have stuff all over the place on my list.

I do too. This is not, I'll be jumping around. This is not going to be a top 10. I don't want to even tell you how many I have listed here. I'm going to try and go at least in some logical order but I'm sure later on I'll go, oh yeah, I forgot about this one. So I'm going to let you go first because one, I'm wildly curious what you have to share. And you know, you also come from a unique perspective from the travel agent side because you don't just have your personal experience, but you've got thousands of experiences from other people who you've helped book vacations for that I'm sure have shared some of theirs with you as well. So in terms of like know before you go the pre cruise money saving best hacks before you even like book your cruise or get on board.

So my number one that I still, we've talked about it for years and years and years but people still don't know it is when the, when the itineraries release, when they go on sale, the day they go on sale, that is the very rock bottom price you're going to get. So a lot of people don't realize that they raise the rates as the ships fill. So on day one, if you know you're going to go, you know the ship you want, you know the itinerary you want, you want to book on day one and you want to book as early on day one as you can. Because some of the most popular itineraries at 9am could be one price and at 2pm can be hundreds of dollars higher per person than they were at 9am so it's really important to have a great relationship with a good travel advisor that knows the ins and outs of Disney because there are ways that we can grab it. If you have status with, you're going to get booking windows that open up earlier for you. So if you've sailed with Disney Cruise Line before you are going to be certain status which gives you access first and to get those itineraries that everybody's looking for.

And if you again this is for people obviously maybe haven't cruised before. If you do book early like you don't have to worry because you're not locked in. Like it's fully refundable up until a certain point. Correct.

As long as it's not concierge. Concierge you're locked in. You do put down a deposit and that deposit is non refundable. However outside of concierge. Yeah. If you even think you want to go, don't worry about it. Put down the deposit. If you decide you can't go then we can cancel and you'll get fully refunded.

Anything else like pre cruise know before you go like booking time before you even step foot on board.

Booking time. Sorry.

Like, like but like as you're starting to book like what you should be thinking about or some hacks that, that people should think about.

I think one of the things you need to do is really consider not just itinerary and don't just don't discount the ships because some, some of them are maybe a little older. Disney cruise girl.

Don't talk about my magic like that. She is not old. She is like a fine wine.

She is very experienced. However.

Dude sounds way weirder than it should.

Not making it weird.

She's classic.

She's very classic and I think a lot of people on some cruise lines. Yeah you probably do want to steer clear of the older ships. Disney Cruise Line is known for keeping its ships immaculate. This is the oldest ship in the fleet. It was in 1998 and the only thing that shows it to me is that they still have a hairdryer in the bathroom stuck to the wall. Other than that, this is a very beautiful ship. It's classic design. So don't just think, oh well, I like that itinerary, but I don't want the older ship. Don't think that way. Really examine the, the ships, the itineraries, and what's going to fit best for you. Because these smaller ships, while they might not have all the bells and whistles that the others do, I am so happy on board this ship. Less people. So if you don't like crowds, this is a good ship to come on. There's only a couple of places that will give you some tips and tricks about how, how to handle the people here on board. But I really think that you should put a lot of thought into the experience you want.

I agree 1,000%. We will. We're going to talk more about the ships on another podcast because I love the magic. I thought it was maybe just sentiment and nostalgia, but having sort of been with her this past, these past few days on Marvel Day at Sea out of Galveston for the very first time, I remember why I love this ship and her sister the Wonder too.

And it was really cool because we did get to see Destiny just a couple of weeks ago. So being able to compare and contrast right next to each other, this has been very unique and a great opportunity.

I love you all ships for different reasons, but there's a few who I love just a little bit more. All right, I'm going to just quickly go through some of my pre cruise money saving tips. Jump in one. When I say something stupid, and I didn't say if, I said when, when I say something stupid or if there's anything that you want to, you add because you talk about booking early for the best possible rate. I know sometimes people come on board and they hear and they see things about placeholders. So you can get 10% off a future cruise at a reduced deposit. Even if you have a travel advisor, you can do that while you're on board. You can take advantage of that and then transfer it over to hypothetically, your mouse fan travel advisor.

It's actually easier than that. When you book your placeholder, you no longer have to go to a desk. If it's been a while for you to have done a placeholder, you can do it right in the app. And in the app itself, it asks you, do you want to use the same travel agent? And it's a yes or a no. And sometimes we know that some people will prefer to take it themselves, but you can still transfer it within 30 days if you prefer. So if you use a travel agent, you weren't happy with them, you want to use another one, just say no, and then contact the travel agent you want to use and they can travel it, transfer it, but it has to be within 30 days. Make sure you. You pay attention to that question because we have it all the time where people come back and they say, well, didn't you see the confirmation that I booked and asked to book with you online? And we go back and find out that they accidentally hit no instead. So we have to go through that process.

So somebody sent me this. I don't. You tell me if this is is true or not. When you are booking, if you select just a quote unquote guaranteed cabin sort of turn type and let Disney assign your room, you can save money that way as opposed to asking for a specific type.

Yes, those are called guarantee rates. There are pros and cons to guarantee rates. You can save a lot of money.

This is why I bring you along.

You can save a lot of money if you want to do it this way. That's the pro. It used to be that another pro is you could possibly get an upgrade for free. However, because the ships are so full, it doesn't happen as much as it used to at one time. The con is big for some people. People, the con is that Disney chooses your stateroom for you and you have no choice. Once they choose that stateroom, you can't move it. So it could be next to the laundry room, it can be under the pool, it could be under a nightclub. It could be anywhere that you may or may not want to be. So if you don't have any preference, you don't care where the location is whatsoever. A guarantee is a perfect thing to save money. If, however, you're a little picky, like you wants to be near a staircase. I know you like to be near your staircase.

Concierge room's always for Becky. I'm sorry, I had a little cough in my throat.

For me, I might want a good guaranteed concierge. That works too. But you really have to make sure that you're going to be okay with it. Because seriously, once they give you that stateroom, you can't call in and go, hey, can you change Me, that's where the savings comes because you're willing to give up.

And that's where the other side of the coin for the other hack is that you should check the map and you should request certain staterooms. It's why a travel agent, travel advisor is vital. Because if you want a bigger room, if you want a certain location, if you want larger verandas, certain rooms have larger. This is where having somebody that has experience or saying, hey, these are what some of our preferences are. Can you sort of help us try and find and request a certain stateroom or even a certain part of the ship? Like I just like to be close to the elevators. Because when we do these cruises, we're in and out of our staterooms, like grabbing stuff and running up and down like a lunatic or for you trying

to get up to cabanas.

You know, if we're going to reveal all of our dirty secrets. The other thing too in terms of, of rates is keep in mind that there are also special rates available like for Florida resident, military, last minute rates. Sometimes right when they're trying to fill the ship flat. If you have a little bit of flexibility. I wouldn't, I wouldn't wait till the last minute, but.

So last minute rates are a little bit of an anomaly. You, because Disney has so many places to go for last minute filling of stigmas like to cast members or to travel advisors or to people in the industry, they don't run a lot of last minute rates. You do see them sometimes, but I wouldn't count on it. Don't wait until last hoping that you might get last minute rate, but they are out there. So if you are like you said, Florida resident, military, there are rates available there. They're not on every sailing. They are on specific sailings, specific dates. So ask your travel advisor to check that out. The other thing too to keep in mind is we all know that sometimes there are some sailings that they just come out with, it may not be known in the area. So a great example if you're looking for a really good rate right now, Galveston, outgoing out of Galveston has really good rates, but San Diego does too. San Diego, there is a lot of competition in that area. So they are going, they're sailing out of San Diego and I've seen some amazing rates that are coming out of that.

It's not that I don't believe you, Becky, but I've never sailed out of San Diego and I sort of feel that in order to speak to this eloquently, maybe we should look ahead at San Diego.

Yes.

The other thing, too, and this is where not sort of having that sort of just guaranteed stateroom, but there are. If you know, you know, there are some times, if you know where and when to look and who to ask, there are some upgrades that you can get sometimes before you get on board or like, once you get to the port, or once you get on board, you can go to guest services and say, hey, you know, give them a little wink and say, are there any upgrades that are available today? And sometimes you can get a discounted upgrade to a better cabin. And I've heard stories from people like, we upgraded to concierge for what would normally be pennies on the dollar.

Absolutely. It's rare again, but it's. I always ask, right, if, if, if I'm in a standard stateroom and I do want to check concierge, when you first check in, are there any upgrades available on this sailing? Most likely the answer is going to be no, but there's that possibility in that chance. And I have been able to be upgraded a couple of times in the past 10 years or so. So if it's something that you're looking to do, ask the question.

I mean, even, even if it's not a concierge, even it's not the concierge, maybe it's like from an inside stateroom to a veranda, you never know what sort of upgrades might be there.

Absolutely.

The other thing, too, and I know a lot of people have shared this one with me when I first posted it, this is even about sort of booking. It's just like, as you're starting to think about getting on board and saving money and budgeting is really important. A lot of people like to buy Disney gift cards or go to, like, guest services and sort of load their onboard credit and be like, okay, son, you've got 50 bucks to spend. Like, have at it. And when you hit that limit, you hit that limit. And by son, I mean husband and or wife as well.

A lot of people will do that with cash, too. You don't just need to have a gift card. You can see, say, hey, you always have to have at least cash or a credit card against your account. But if you're trying to watch your pennies, watch your spending, or if you want to gift your husband or your kid, you can always add to the account and then monitor it using the app and see exactly where you are.

And you're spending the other thing, too, again, before you go, before you get on board. And it's it's very, very popular outside the states. I think becoming a lot more popular is it's we use this a lot for groups download WhatsApp for not only to be able to chat with each other. You don't need to buy the Internet package. You can use the onboard WI fi to and you can use this with other messaging apps. You can use it with imessage, you could use it with Facebook messenger so that you can message each other or message people back home back home without having to buy an Internet package just by connecting to the DCL guest network. It is limited to text only messages so you can't send pictures, you can't do videos unless you do a paid Internet package. But it's really nice to be able to stay in touch with the people back home. Unless you don't want them to get in touch with you. Don't tell them that you have WhatsApp.

Do you remember the times when you didn't have Internet on a ship and you could like really take a vacation?

I'm gonna. Yes. And I, I long for those days. I'm gonna tell you a very quick story just to show you how old I am and how stupid I am too. Very, very early on. In my early days, PB pre Becky, I was on a cruise with my family and I was young and I thought I was in love and I had a girlfriend back home who, you know, was clearly a crazy person.

Way back.

This is way back, Becky. Forget Internet, forget messaging. They didn't even have like phones. I had to go to the radio room.

How old are you?

I had to go to the radio room. Like, can you call my girlfriend back home? I did. It was like that scene from European Vacation. Oh, you're going to have dinner with your mom. I'll hold. I'm like, yeah, I did. I'm not with that woman anymore, thankfully. But there you go. So what's happened?

I have so many questions, but we will hold on for that for later.

I'm going to move on. Speaking of upgrade hacks, some of the upgrade hacks you can do right in your stateroom. You can upgrade your stateroom without having to quote, unquote, upgrade your stateroom. How? I'm going to tell you, these are some of the favorite things that I love to bring. Go to Amazon. You don't even use my affiliate link. Go buy those little magnetic hooks. All the stateroom walls are metal. The ceilings are metal.

Can I tell you something? I don't like magnetic. No, no, no, no. True confession here. I didn't know that until like recently.

Even the, in the hallways are magnetic. So if you want to hang decorations, you can hang your bags, your hats, your wet swimwear. You can like if you want to put up decorations, whatever it might be. There are so vital. Some people talk about, you know, putting them on the walls, hang them on the ceiling.

Yeah.

So you can, you know, dry things if you brought. This is something else you can do like an over the door organizer if you don't want to maybe have it inside the bathroom, you can hang it outside as well. Remember there's a, there's split bathrooms here. So if you want to have you know, some toiletries in one, some toiletries in another, you can have those magnetic hooks. I'm going to buy you some as.

So it was like 2017 when I, when I learned it. But I've been sailing on cruise ships since 1998 and before that, actually it

was 1996, 1798, but that's fine.

Hey now. But when I finally discovered that it was like wow, okay. This was happening all around me and I didn't notice. But the one thing that I found just recently that I saw somebody do, which was an awesome hack. I'm one of those people that like a little air movement in my room. You know, some sleepy warm. I just like a little air movement. But they have those portable fans that are magnetic.

Magnetic.

And you can just stick that to the ceiling or to the side of the wall if you're one of the people that needs some air movement. So I was really thrilled about that and I'm gonna definitely find one of those and bring it on the next one because then it's gonna be warm where we go next.

Yeah. Some of these little things like when you hear, you're like oh, obviously I should do that. So for example, when you go on a, on a cruise, there's certain things you can't bring with like your spaceballs hair dryer you can't bring. But you also can't bring like power strips. Like you can't bring like extension cords. If you bring a non surge protected power strip like a USB or USB power strip, I very strongly recommend especially too depending on what ship that you're on, something else too go. This is like a dollar store hack. Go buy one of those little pop up hampers so you can keep all of the dirty clothes very organized in the small room. I like to just pop one up, put it in the closet. I think the square ones sort of hold their shape a little better. They're like 8 ounces, if that. They're super, super small. Really fit nicely into the closet.

Let's. Let's talk about that hair dryer thing just for a second only because for some reason that went viral. But this is something that a lot of people may not be aware of because it's a recent change with dcl when they rolled out the Wish, the Treasure, and the Destiny, who are all LNG powered. They have basically asked you not to bring any hair dryers or any hair instruments that are 1500 watts or more. So here's the funny part. If you have a Dyson ladies, don't bring it because you're going to take the walk of shame when they take it out of your suitcase. Because they scan all the suitcases as they come on board. If they see something that they don't like, they will take it from you.

Dude, your Daphne is gonna get in. In Spaceballs the size of your hair dryer. It's like you're trying to dry an elephant with that thing.

Well, some of us have long, thick hair that needles. It's a long story. But seriously, 1500 watts or more, you cannot bring on board.

Don't put that in your steamer trunk like Becky. All right, this is gonna sound like the stupidest thing in the world, but

it's laughing about my hair dryer. Huh? And.

And I'm. Let me explain before you're like, what, bring clothespins or chip clips with you? Not. Don't laugh at me.

Is that for all the chips that you bring on board with you?

Because sometimes, like, I sometimes like when you're in the shower, especially on the older ships, they have shower curtains and like, they're like stick to you sometimes. This is how you would listen.

Okay?

You put the clips on the bottom and it weighs down the shower and it doesn't stick to you anymore. Also, you can use them to sort of clip your. I like, like the chip clips. Use it to attach your towel to the back of your chair so it doesn't blow around in the breeze. You can use it to hang up your laundry. But you're ready for this sometimes. And it's rare, especially because these ships are so big and they've got the stabilizers. But did you ever have. You're laying in bed and you just want to sleep and you get that like, banging of the metal sound of your hangers. Hangers. You put one of the chip clips up against it and your hangers don't bang. You're welcome. Good night, everybody.

Okay, I Will save the three bucks and take the hangers from the closet and put them on the floor. That works too.

Speaking of hangers. And you talk about the laundry room. So I'm actually right across from the laundry room, which I don't hear anything. I don't even know what is in there. I don't know how those magical machine works. I have three words for you. Downy Wrinkle spray. Oh yeah, Little bottles on Amazon. It is a miracle of modern technology if you are, you know, just checking.

Do you have Amazon stock? Because you've said that a lot.

Why am I not using my affiliate bank? While you're on Amazon, I'm sure you're bringing one. Anyway. Bring a reusable water bottle with you. Especially now when you go to the drink filling station. Remember on Disney cruise line, water, soda, juices, coffee, tea are all included up on deck nine, deck 11. Whatever ship that you're on, do not use your water bottle in the thing. Fill a cup first and pour it into your water bottle. Because sanity, that was insanity.

A little sanity involved here.

Yeah, safety and sanitary is really important. And I would bring one for like your cold drinks and then bring like a little tumbler for your coffee. This way you fill it up the night before you wake up. The next morning, boom. Coffee and tea.

Or you buy one of the really cool tumblers on board that match the ship. The one thing I do want to say is when, when you say that sodas are included. Yes. At the fountains that you can at dinner, at lunch. The fountains on, up on the deck and in the cabanas or in Marceline market. But if you get something at a bar, it's not. So that's additional charge. So I just want to make sure that everyone's aware of that.

The other thing too. And the newer ships have in the bathrooms that have these lovely little like amber night light. So if you need to use the the restroom in the middle night, you know, with your up, you might want to bring like a little nightlight with you. I know some people use glow sticks or like those little tea lights. You can put them in the bathroom. Some people like the little battery operated Christmas lights. Again, you can buy them at the dollar stores and a lot of them like will stay on for a few hours and then go off automatically. So it goes off in the middle of the night. Oh wait, I just discovered this on the last cruise. I don't know why we were talking about like the types of state rooms to get and like do I want an inside or outside, Do I want a veranda? Like, I love how I just realized for the first time on the last cruise that we were on. When you are. If you are requesting a certain state room, and if you get one with the veranda, ask for a stateroom on the starboard side of the ship. Because if you don't feel like going up on deck or maybe the little ones are sleeping, you can get a great view of the fireworks from your veranda on Pirate night. And depending on what ship that you're on, you also get the views of Castaway. When you dock at Castaway, like it's port side for lookout, you're giving everybody

all the really good secrets. Now we're gonna get all these people going. Oh, no, it's gotta be starboard side. I will not accept portside.

Good.

Good job.

Think about your ship and think about where you're going to. You said something before about location, and I was thinking too, about noise and things like that. When you're thinking about your stateroom, especially if you are a light sleeper, if you have kids or try. And if that's a conservative, make sure your stateroom is surrounded on all sides by other staterooms so you don't get noise from above. There are some cabins I know we've been on some ships where I think on the Dream and the fantasy, on deck 10, if you are in the aft of the ship, there's a possibility you might be under the sports court. So you might sort of hear like basketball. You might hear, you know, music late at night.

And on these ships too, on the Magic and the Wonder, if you're up on Deck 8, there's some areas that are right underneath the sports courts or right underneath a lot of the traffic areas. In the morning, you might hear everything kind of opening up for cabanas. And that can be a little. Wake you up. So you want to avoid those vocations.

I didn't realize this, but this is something that somebody else told me. You can confirm if this is true or not. To quote Steve Martin, those aren't pillows. Yes, they are. Yes, they are. What stateroom comfort is key on Disney Cruise Line. Did you know? And it's not. They're not all available at all times. So the earlier request the better. Besides the standard hyper hypoallergenic pillows, you can actually request different types of specialty pillows in advance. So if you have like a certain type of allergy to something, if you need like goose down or whatever, if you need like a pack and play, if you need a crib you can ask for those things. Definitely ask for them in advance. Don't wait until you get on board. And limited supply earlier is better, not guaranteed, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But if you're a light sleeper, a back sleeper, a side sleeper, whatever it might be, you can make some of those special requests and they can hopefully try to come right.

And that ties into medical needs that a lot of people don't think about, too. It's like, well, I don't know if I want to go on a cruise because I have a CPAP machine or I have medicine that needs to be refrigerated. There are. There's a. A way to make requests before you even travel. So they will give you the distilled water that you need for your CPAP machine. They will give you an extension cord, because you cannot bring an extension cord with you, but they can provide one for you for medical needs. They will also provide a medical cooler because a lot of people don't realize that the beverage coolers aren't cold enough to sustain medication. But if you request it ahead of time, all of this can be already set up in your stateroom and here for you when you first arrive.

This is, it's. It's not a hack, but it's a silly little thing. We do this on our group cruises. I know families do this all the time. One, as long as you're on Amazon, hopefully use my. I really should give my Amazon affiliate link, get some of those cheap magnetic dry erase boards and some of the pens. So you can either leave messages for each other. A lot of people leave messages. Like, what I like to do is put something on, like one day in the morning, I'll put, like, what is your favorite, like, what's your favorite dining experience on board? And I'll put like, 1923 Marceline Marco. And people come by and they'll vote or who's your favorite superhero? It's a great way to sort of have some fun interact with people. I also like doing little, like, magnetic baskets. And I'll put, like, stickers in there, like, give away little stuff, like, for kids and adults. I think it sort of helps to add to the, like, fun community. Becky's like, stay away from my door, kid. Don't.

No.

But that, that brings up subscribing to some of the groups that if you want to be part of the fish extenders and the pixie dusting and all the things, if you want to be that involved. Because every single sailing of a Disney cruise of Every single ship has some kind of group to join if you want to be pixie dusted and provide a little pixie dust back the other.

I just realized I forgot to mention this too. When I pack and I my family always makes money. I love Ziploc bags. I have like a Ziploc bag addiction. I always pack.

Yeah, I didn't know this.

I packed different size Ziploc bags. Especially when you're going like to the island. Like I'll put my phone in a Ziploc. I'll put my phone on my key card in a Ziploc bag in my pocket. I might have a bigger one for my book or my Kindle or other things I want to protect or for

chicken tenders at what, wherever you wanted to bring them.

Give away my chicken. You can't take chicken tenders off the ship. I've tried and I, I'm. I'm going to give a huge caveat for this one because on the newer ships the Magic and Wonder don't have this. Newer ships you have to keep your. When you enter your room, you stick your key card in. A lot of hotels are starting to do that too to sit, conserve energy. But say for example, you have a device that you need charging or something that needs to stay charged while you're gone, or your laptop or your phone, whatever it is. Don't do this all the time. But your key card is not the only card that will work in there. So you might want to bring an old Starbucks gift card or old hotel key again and your stateroom attendant will normally take it out when they come in. But again, if you do have to do things like get a charge, you can do that too.

Yeah, and an old business card folded in half works too if you really want to know. But. But I always keep a couple of old hotel keys in my with my passport so I can pull them out and use those.

I would rather overpack clothes than trying to figure out how the laundry system works. But on the last cruise, forgive me that I don't remember who you are, we were talking about the laundry facilities on board and yes, there are full service laundry facilities and they will do your laundry for you if you need to. Prices range from like $3.50 for a T shirt up to, you know, $12 for a suit, whatever it might be. Those are not current and they'll pick it up and they'll drop it off. But there's also self service laundry on board and somebody said that one of the cool things that I guess is Relatively new. Is that your Disney Cruise Line Navigator app? And the machines will notify you when your laundry is ready. It's magic, I tell you.

Yeah, that's really cool. I don't know if it's on every single ship. I'm gonna say it probably is, but I haven't seen it. But I did use it on the wish. I think it was the wish in that. Oh my gosh, that laundry room was huge. It's almost as big as the kids club. But it was really cool because you got a little notification so you didn't have to worry about running down, checking it and coming back and going back and forth. So that's cool.

I just bring a big hamper and just. I wear them front, I wear them back, I wear them inside and I wear a movie.

I have zero idea what you're talking about right now.

You know of my love of Big Hero 6 and yet you don't know of Fred's tech. Oh, good lord.

Okay. All right.

Anything else pre cruise stateroom wise before I get to really the most important

part of this pre cruise, this is one of those little possibly will work but for transportation to the to the ship if you use the DCL transportation strategically for early boarding groups, especially for those newbies or non castaway club people who don't have access into all of those little lines that say hey, come over here because you're cast away or come over here because you're pearl. Especially from mco. If you use the motor coach, it often yields you a very low boarding number without any status. So if you jump on the transfer that takes you from the Hyat or from the airport. If don't come in date the same day. Just saying stay at the Hyatt. If you have one day you can hop on their motor coach or from the ones from the hotels. And when you get there, you don't have to worry about standing out there with a little boarding group because they're going to let you ride in.

Nice. I never thought about that. Anything else Because I really want to get to a very, very important, very serious set of hacks.

Oh my God. I'm sure there is here.

You can always come back to fee if you find it in your notes later.

Tons of lists. So yeah, at the end.

Yeah, I know I'm gonna be all over the place.

Let's talk about this for a second. Because this is more of an FYI again on port arrival times or pats guys on dcl. If you've been on other cruise lines and you have a port arrival time and they just let you walk in when you get there. It's not Disney. Disney is very strict about their port arrival time. So if you have an 11:15, there's going to be a little line with a little sign that says 11 if you. Especially the MC, sorry, at Port Canaveral. So however, what I'm hearing is that if you have a port arrival time that's 12:30 or 1 o', clock and after they do tend to be a little less strict about those later times. I think they're just trying to control those people that are arriving from 10 to noon, which is usually port arrival time is 10:30.

We will be there at 8:15.

Dude, who's the early one?

Get out of my way, child.

Oh my gosh. Remember that part about not killing each other yet?

Double pearl. For the love of God, out of my way. My name is on castaway key, for God's sake. It's funny because it's true.

All right, anyway, anyway, so if you do have one of the later times, you might actually, if you have a two o', clock, you might show up a little bit early because you might actually get in before that arrival time. So just keep that in mind.

And listen, listen, don't sweat it. It's like getting on a plane all going to the same place. Like, it's not leaving you.

As long as you get there by

2:30, as long as you got your passport and you actually have a valid, you know, ticket, this should be.

Then you're not late. Just don't be late. Because they do cut off, there's a cutoff time. Much like when people go, oh, on my last day, when we get in, it says it's going to be there at 6am no, you can't get off the ship at 6am and the ship

will leave without you at port. Like you've seen the video runners. It's true. Don't be that guy.

Google peer runners. It's hilarious.

All right, let's get serious. Okay, no more. This is no more joking. This, this is where, like having so much fun. This is where the, the real meat of the conversation comes to me. Because we're going to talk about dining and food strategies.

Okay?

And I have 217.

I'm gonna need her the cocktail over here.

So again, ladies first. Any sort of instant thoughts that come in terms of food, dining, snacking, hacking?

Yes. I'm going to give you the logistical stuff. So for first off, when you first book your cruise, you need to choose if you want main dining, which is usually 5:45 ish or late dining, which is usually 8 to 8:15. Now, main dining, because of its focus on families here, Maine goes first. So the earlier you book, if you really want main dining, grab it. Just breathe a little bit though. If you really want main and there's late because you can wait list, you can ask them to wait list main. So if it does become available, it will automatically grab it and switch you over, which is incredibly cool. However, this is the one thing I want to tell you. Most people when they get on board will go right to lunch. Don't go right to lunch. You want to use that first hour after boarding for administration, not lunch. You want to go. You want to go. If you want Apollo or Remy or enchantee reservation, you want to go to the dining team and get in line. Because the we've, as we've discovered, they have an interesting way of doing a musical chairs type situation to keep you in line here. On the bigger ships, it's even more important to get there when it first opens. So you'll see in the app when you get to the port, make sure that you download. If you haven't downloaded, download beforehand, get to the port and connect to their wi fi. The moment you connect to the WI fi and you don't have to be on board the ship to do it, you can do it in the port. You can see what your dining time is, what your dining location is. If you need to move it or want to move it it, you want to be in that dining changes line the moment it opens. You also want to do your spa changes or your spa appointments or do your kid club tweaks or again, that dining rotation. If there's something, if you see it and you're like, oh, I don't want to start there, I want to start in 1923. You can ask to change your dining rotation too, but the key is to get there and get in line even before they're ready for you. Because then you won't waste too much time sitting in line for those first few hours you're on board. So get on board, go right to where you're supposed to make all these changes, then go have lunch.

I like that. However, let's say you've gotten all that taken care of already.

Okay?

Your mouse fan travel advisor has hooked you up. You've got your early dinner, which is the way I like to do it. I'm a dinner and then a show kind of guy. It just sort of makes More sense. Plus it lets you have dinner, the show, little popcorn, little nostril there. You come out, do some of the evening activities. Guess what time it is. It's time to hit like Mickey's Festival of Foods or go up to deck 11, get yourself a little snack, go back downstairs, hit some of the other activities, maybe go up to the pool. Guess what time to retire to your stateroom. You know what time it is? Chicken tender time. That is the way that you structure out your seven meal a day, cruise

line meal a day. And then the next two weeks you do everything you can to get.

They say you're supposed to have like five to seven little meals a day or in my case, five to seven big meals a day. You talk about sort of embarkation day and getting on board and it's this. There's nothing like that feeling, Becky, like you saw me like on the cruisers. There's something about stepping on board. I still get a little choked up. I get like a little like teary eyed when they're like oh look, L. Mangello's back again. But they welcome you by name when you come in. And there's almost this. Where do I go first? Where should I go? Some people go for dining, some people might have to do take care of registering their kids for the kids club or go to guest services. Most people, myself included, I'm a cabanas kind of guy. I'm a Marceline Market kind of guy. However, on embarkation day, a lot of people don't realize this Disney cruise line offers a little quieter sit down lunch in some of the main dining rooms, usually from about like 2, 230 around or so. And there's a set menu of appetizers, entrees and desserts. And the locations vary by ship. I think it's normally like in Tritons on the Wonder, Lumiere's here on the Magic, the Royal Court and Palace on the Dream and Fantasy, Arendelle on the Wish, Plaza de Coco on the Treasure and Lion King on the Destiny. It's usually a lot quieter. Sometimes the buffet, you know, in Combatants could be. I love the sort of hectic pace of, of going there and sort of choosing my own culinary adventure.

Nope. I'm like, can we go to the restaurant for lunch? No, it's cabana's time.

It's gotta be cabana's time. It makes me so happy but, and even think about that too for breakfast again. I like going to cabanas for breakfast. There's certain things on Disney cruise Like I just love to have I go back to. They are literal comfort foods for me. But also don't forget about main dining for a little calmer breakfast every single day too. It's plated. It's usually far less crowded than cabanas. And if you're not in a rush to get anywhere going for one of the sit down restaurants only usually one is only open for breakfast every day.

Yep. You're not going to go hungry. That's the thing on Something's wrong. Yeah.

If you don't gain weight on the ship then stay out of the gym. So I talked about. I like to bring whether it's like a Turvis or I buy one of the Disney cruise line terraces on board, maybe make myself a cup of tea. I'll have it. The other hack too is you can order your morning coffee or tea via room service the night before. Then it arrives nice and early in a little warm carafe ready for you to get ready. If you've got a veranda. There is nothing like sitting out there just watching the ocean go by sipping your morning thing and your morning chicken

tenders or your bagel or your continental breakfast because they do have. They have all kinds of choices from cereals to fruit to bagels to muffins to just you can get a little basket of goodies and have that delivered. So you can start your vacation off or that day off very slowly and

purpose we sort of discovered. We sort of only knew. We just sort of like gave it a name on some of the recent sailings we talk about sort of like this golden hour.

Oh I had that on my list. My favorite time.

Yeah like you know depending on your. Your dining seating. Say for example you want to go to use the pool or the aqueduct or the aquadunk those the water slides and pools are usually least crowded during the dinner seating. So if that's when you want to go. But there's also this incredible little sweet spot that if you are not necessarily going to the 8 the the 7:30, 8 o' clock show for early dining or going to dinner vice versa there's this like little window of time like an hour where people are usually at dinner and or in the show and you almost feel like you have the

ship to yourself all to yourself.

Becky is from. She is like Julie Andrews up on the mountain. She's like the hills are alive. The ship is mine. Oh my. It's a dramatic moment for her.

But it's really nice though especially when you are in and on those ships the wish Treasure and Destiny, where all the spaces are so small. You have the ability to go into the Haunted Mansion lounge. You have the ability to go to any of the locations and sit down and have a cocktail because you can actually find a seat where other times that is not the case. Especially on those ships. Happily on these other ships, like right now on the magic, there's a lot of space and there's places you can go all the time. So you don't really have that much of a, of an issue on these ships. But that golden hour, you can pretty much kind of call your own shots, make your own adventure and not have to be driven by where the crowd is.

And if you know that there's something that it's going to start a little bit later, you may want to just go and sort of make camp. I'm thinking about Cruellas. Right? If you know that troublemaking with, with Cruella is going to start, you know, at 9, 9:30, whatever time it is, maybe you want to take advantage of that. Pick your spot, take your seat and then just have your way with the menu. Same thing. Whether it is the sanctum or, you know, the Skipper Society Lounge. Think about taking advantage of that golden hour. Obviously, do not, do not do, do not miss any of the nighttime entertainment. But we've, you know, we did sort of back to back almost cruises on the Destiny because we had the group and so we didn't necessarily go to the shows because that's not the purpose for which we were there.

Right.

So don't miss out on the entertainment. But, but if for some reason you're not going to see it or you've seen it once before, really think about that, that sweet golden hour I'm going to give you. This is the most important thing we're going to say all day, Becky especially. This is really for first time cruisers who might not realize this. I have seven words for you order more than one thing at dinner. For the love of God. You have you're very oyster. I think they literally gave us like a table for two with seats for four because like, oh, it's Mangello. He's gonna need a little bit of room to spread out. You can do not be ashamed or embarrassed to say, hey, I want to try two appetizers. Or this is the entree I want, but man, I'd really like to try those truffle brissets too. You can do that now. The caveat is when you get home, you need to stop doing that because it will cost you extra money to Order that second steak at dinner. It does not on Disney Cruise Line. And it really gives you a chance to maybe try something you've never tried before.

Yeah, there are some, some dishes that I, I'm a picky eater. I know that that is a shocker to you.

Stop the presses, Vicki Vale.

What? It's nice. It is D.C. it's. It is really nice to be able to look at something and go, you know what? Can. Why don't we. Can we order that for the table so we can all take a bite of that and see if it's something I'm gonna like or not. And you're not wasting the entree costs like you do in a restaurant. So that's really one of the best advantages of being on board a cruise ship because you can test and adjust and go, you know what? That really wasn't for me. And don't feel bad about saying, I'm so sorry, this was not what I thought it was going to be. And they're going to say, what else can I get for you? Don't feel bad. It's your vacation, it's your time, it's your tastes and wants. You can say, I'm. This didn't taste the way I thought it was going to. Can I get this instead? And they're fine with that. So don't ever feel bad about ordering more.

Yeah. So very accommodating. And look, if something's not to your liking, you don't finish it. Like, yeah, that's okay. You will not be shamed like I was when I was a kid for not finishing my food. It's fine.

No, I have. I have another kind of adjacent thing to what you just said, because, shocker, I'm a picky eater. Ladies and gentlemen. One of my favorite things, and I get laughed at all the time by, by Mr. Mondello. But yes, you can order from the kids menu. I do it all the time. There's a couple of menus and restaurants that don't exactly. All right, two words. Words. Pirate menu. I am not a fan. But they do have great kids menus with some great choices off the kids menu. And you can order it and it's fine. Adults can order off the kids menu and get your chicken strips as an extension of that. Yeah.

They are also incredibly accommodating.

Yeah.

So obviously, if you have certain allergies, if you have dietary requirements, let your travel advisor or Disney Cruise Line know in advance so they can. Whether it's kosher gluten free, whatever it might be. However, if you get on board and you need those things or accommodating. But. And I'm not saying that I'm sitting at the table with someone who does this basically at every meal. If you've watched When Harry Met Sally, it's basically done. And so listen, I know you have all these things on the menu, but what I really want, I don't want this salad. I just want a house salad. I want the chicken, but I don't want any sauce. I want a potato but without the skin and no butter, with sauce and sauce. And they're like, okay, we could do that.

Or I'll say something like, I, I like the chicken dish. I don't want the mashed potatoes from the other dish. May I have the mashed potatoes instead of this little potato fingerling? And they're like, absolutely, but.

And this is not guaranteed, but you know, and we just had an exceptional service experience.

I think it's the best servers I've ever had.

Five minutes in, we knew and we told everybody that's if this is not a hack, this is just courtesy. Tell the head server, tell the head waiter, go to guest relations if you have a good experience. It's so important to them. We knew five minutes in, we told everybody every single day, we told them. You are also able to increase your gratuity if you so choose. You can go to guest relations as I did on this cruise and say, I want to increase the amount. You fill out a form, they give you a new new tickets, and then you can sort of give them to your servers or it just is an edit. But I wanted to sort of let them know just how good they were. Plus there's also Becky's like, okay, I know this drink is on the menu and those are the five ingredients, but I don't want any of those ingredients. I basically want a cup of sugar with a floater of alcohol on top.

Lay sigh.

But wait.

So speaking, speaking of alcohol, just because the hack there is to look for the drink of the day to save money, they have a cocktail and a mocktail. And that's one thing that you may not know if you're a first time cruiser, they have incredible mocktails. And this is a new trend that's been happening over the past couple of years, especially on cruise lines. They have specific mocktail menus that you can find. So if there's a cocktail that looks really good, you can ask them, hey, can you make this a mocktail? If you don't partake in alcohol, but you can still have that themed cocktail that they have for the night. Like they had Marvel themed things were going on around here and I asked for something and it made it a mocktail. But I still got the cute little Dr. Strange symbol that they gave me. So, you know, you can still partake if you don't really want to have the alcohol or you don't want to spend the money on alcohol because they are significantly less expensive to do the mocktail sales quickly.

Going back to, we were talking about with the servers too. Again, this is not guaranteed. You know, your mileage may vary depending on who your server is. We've seen this time and time again, sometimes by request, sometimes just because they get you right. Remember, your server follows you to all the rotational dining restaurants. No matter what ship that you're on. They know you. They know your likes and preferences. We've had this happen before, whether we've asked for it or to. But for example, we know that this has happened where, oh, you like the tuna tower at Enchanted Garden. When you move to another restaurant that night, sometimes they'll go out of their way and be like, I know you love the tuna appetizer. Maybe you don't like. And they do some of those special things that make such a huge difference. I am not a huge wine guy, but more than one person has told me this before. Maybe you know about this. Speaking of, of alcohol, you can ask at the bars or your servers at dinner about the sommelier bin. Do you know what the sommelier bin is? So supposedly, once a bottle of wine is opened, that entire bottle has to be served that day. Like they can't cork it and serve it the next day, Right? So because of that, the ships have what they call a sommelier bin with open bottles of wine served by the glass at a lesser price than you would pay if you were corking the bottle yourself. I've had other people say that they have done this before, especially if you're, you know, wine aficionado. I am not. I'm going to share now. I don't even know if it's a hack. I think sometimes it's just there is a secret, not so secret dining location on board some of the ships that is wildly overlooked by adult guests. It's not on the wish class. So Wish, Treasure, Destiny, it's here. Not talking about you, but it's on Cove Cafe. On the magic and the wonder and the dream of the fantasy. And Vista Cafe, right on the well. And the Vista Cafe you can access. If you are not an adult, it's on Deck 4 or 5 included in your cruise fare. There's no separate upcharge. If you go to Cove Cafe or Vista Cafe, there's all kinds of little like depending on what time of day you go. There's baked goods, there's sweet treats. There's also this delicious little antipast that you can get in the evenings. So if you want a little pre dinner snack, we were sitting out there the other night. There's olives, there was cheeses, there was meat. I was like, I heard the angel sing. I was like, this is lovely. I would take home pockets of that cheese if I could. But it's such, if you want something that's just light and simple and almost a little bit elevated. Cove Cafe, Vista Cafe. I think a lot of people overlook as places to grab a nice little snack.

That's really true. And that reminded me of when we were on the Destiny in the sanctum. And remember the snacks that they brought out, they were included. They're free. You sit down and there's like those

cheesy little things are so good, I don't know what they are.

That's when you have to go with your, your little zip top lock bag and go more, please may I have some to take to my room, please? So I, I do like those, those little tips for sure. The one thing too I want to mention on the, on the non alcohol one of my favorite things because you know the families get together and everybody's like cheering each other on for their, their, their cruise and their celebrations. They actually have on board Disney. I haven't found it anywhere else but Disney but it might exist somewhere else is a non alcoholic champagne. Sparkling wine, not champagne, sparkling wine called Clouden. And it is so good and it's blue and it sparkles. So for the kids it's actually really fun. I've tried once I found it, I've tried to get it imported into the United States and you cannot find it anywhere except for on board this ship. So I tend to drink a little bit of cloud when I'm here.

Shocker. There's a red cloud on which Becky will have nothing to do with.

No, the red is great. The red is better than the blue. But you can only get. I, I can't believe I'm gonna say this out loud. You can only get the red at concierge. So the blue you can get anywhere on board, but they're both. And there's a gold too, by the way. There's a gold, a red and a blue FYI.

Okay, speaking of beverages and things like

that,

did you know that there is on certain ships, there's a speakeasy, A hidden little speakeasy that's hiding in plain sight, judging by the way you're looking

at me, wondering what the heck you're talking about.

On the Wish class ships, there's a little joint called Hook's Barbary. Oh. It's a place that you can go to get some upscale grooming services, including haircuts and hot shaves and beard trims and skin care and all that, but

which you love, by the way.

I'm. Listen, it makes me wildly uncomfortable. They do a wonderful job. It's just not my thing. But what sets Hook's Barbary apart is they have this secret adults only bourbon and whiskey bar that's sort of hiding in the really in plain sight. So as you walk by, it looks like a regular barbershop, but late afternoon, early evening, it's this very cozy, there's maybe three or four seats little speakeasy bar. And they make custom old fashions and curated bourbon and whiskey selections. They have premium spirit and very personalized drinks that are created by the bartender there. I have a couple of friends, Paul and Jeff, who are bourbon and whiskey experts, aficionados. They literally bring bourbon with them when they travel, which it's the first step.

Do not ever introduce my husband to them because my husband would spend way too much money on that stuff.

Well, I'm gonna make sure I let him know. No, because there's no. And the reason why I sort of called a speaky is there's no real obvious signage outside. It's really not listed very prominently in the app. It's almost sort of like a word of mouth. Like if, you know you don't need an appointment, you don't have to get like a grooming appointment to go and visit the bar. And there's no sort of formal drink menu. You just go in there and the barber will ask the barber, the barber, slash bartender will ask you what your tastes are. Do you like it sweeter? Do you like it stronger? Do you like it smoky, whatever it might be? And they raved about the experience that they had. So if you've never been there before, I want you to sort of try and picture or just go to Google this gentleman's small pirate ish parlor. And there's rich dark woods and there's leather chairs. I mean, it's very like, it's very well themed. It's very upscale. And then you've got like. So it's like this hybrid of like, like old style barber shop and like swanky little private pirate lounge. Very, very well done. And if you're again a bourbon whiskey person or you want to sort of have some of those an elevated cocktail experience customized just for you. Absolutely. Go.

And if you order the right things, you actually get keepsake coins. Oh, I know. So there is at. If. If that. That's if you're into that and you really like the top shelf stuff. Ask them which ones will give you a keepsake coin.

That I did not know.

Yeah.

Something else a lot of people really raved about coming off our group trip on the Destiny, which is why I want to mention here because I think a lot of people don't realize I, I love the secrets and the history and the details and all the storytelling and I love being able to go and seek it out and then I make 250 question scavenger hunts for the people on board. But if you don't want to be subjected to one of my, I think very fun and interesting scavenge hunts, if you are 18 and up, there is the art of the theme show tour, which is a free tour of the space of a lot of the spaces on board the ship. It gives you a real deeper appreciation of storytelling and how imagineers design and create these spaces. So everything from why colors and textures are chosen or the meaning behind certain things, how they impact the guest experience and the thematic connections between the different ships, especially on the newer ships, because the storytelling is so deeply woven in, literally and figuratively woven into the fabrics, the colors, the textures and the storytelling spaces. It's really great for whether you are a, you know, an imaginary fan, a cruise line fan, or just interested in to see sort of how it all came together.

They are fascinating tours and they are very popular. So those are one of the ones that you want to go right to guest services and say, hey, what. What tours do you have on board the ship? And sometimes there are tours, sometimes they're imagineering tours, sometimes there are other, other types that they have available. They'll be able to tell you what's available, when it's available and allow you to sign up. So definitely take advantage of that if you like that type of detail.

Do you know what one of the most popular words among Disney Cruise Line guests is? Free.

I was gonna say tell dog. Because right now it's towel dog.

Becky is on a quest to find the little towel dog.

Couldn't get the towel dog. Three sailings and we couldn't get the towel dog. Nothing of bitter we went on.

And the destiny is when I realized this is that if you go again people go in different directions when they first get on board. I make a beeline for cabanas. Other people are signing up, going. A lot of people make a beeline for the spa. And did you know that you can go to the spa as an open house? A lot of spaces have open house, like the kids club, etc. The spa has an open house on embarkation day and there's a raffle for a free treatment. So if you want to just sort of browse the menu, maybe book something. If you go and you want to tour the facilities and the Rainforest Room, the salon areas, you can also enter a raffle to potentially win a free. And I know you went to the spa, you've had treatments there. Some people live and die by the Rainforest Room. That is, you know, that is sort of their home away from home on Disney cruise line. Fun.

Yeah, absolutely. And you do see and speaking of the spa, go to the spa and ask them if you don't win by the way because not everybody gets to win. Like I've never won. But that's all right. I'm not bitter about that either. Go and ask them about any specials they have. Do they have a port special? Because sometimes there's a special in port. Maybe you don't want to go into Nassau. You can go and do the, your spa treatments there. They also have multi treatment specials. So if you have three different treatments over different times, doesn't have to be at the same time. You can get 20% off for example. So always ask the question, say, you know, what if I book another one, is there a discount?

Yeah, we talked about, we were talking about this, I just remembered we were talking about different things in, in the state rooms and the bathrooms and things like that before too. And we're saying like, oh, you know, sometimes I'm not the biggest guy in the world and the showers are not huge. Talking about the spa made me think about this that you know, some of the newer ships, the, the shower is a little bit roomier, some of the older ships are a little bit tighter. If you find that they're a little maybe uncomfortable or small for you. Did you know that you can go to the fitness center and use the showers there? And I think they're open from like 6am to 10pm so if you want to do your morning shower or pre dinner shower or post meal shower, whatever it might be you could use the ones in the fitness center.

This is a really good hack for those who have a family of four. And not everybody can just wait for the shower one after another. Mom or dad can go down to the spa and shower there to cut some time. Yeah,

this is way out of order because I should have mentioned this before. We were talking about watching fireworks from your veranda. And sometimes, you know, maybe you're not. You go to dinner, maybe you're not feeling like going to the show, maybe you're not feeling that great. Maybe your kids are sleeping. You can't attend a show. I keep forgetting to watch this.

And every time you say that, I say yes, it is because I know.

Did you know? Yes, Becky knew. If you missed the show or want to see it again, you can watch the stage shows in the Walt Disney Theater. If you can't attend live in your stateroom, they're often dedicated as shown on a dedicated onboard channel. So if you go to the live TV and then scroll down, you'll see Walt Disney Theater and you'll be able to watch the shows from the comfort of your couch or your bed or with your chicken tenders, whatever it might be. So it's really nice. And sometimes there's also like little interstitials like behind the scenes things that they show about like the making. We do watch like the making of Hercules on the Destiny on the last cruise, right.

So it's, it's pre recorded the different shows and they're showing on the day that they're actually in the theater. So check the, the stateroom TV and it's usually you'll. You'll see the menu and it'll say the Walt Disney Theater shows. You go to that and it will tell you exactly what times that they will be showing that day. Usually I want to say don't qu. There's like four different times, maybe a few more that on the day it is actually showing, you can park yourself in your TV in your stateroom and watch the show as well.

Yeah. What else you got?

I've got, as a matter of fact, that was the live show was right there. You know, one of the ones that this is, this is an oldie but a goodie. If you're new to Disney Cruise Line, especially on these ships, ships with the. The direction of the Wayfinders. So the carpet on the Magic and the Wonder at least has a, a map on it. And if you are, if you see the map right side up, you're heading to the front of the ship. If it's upside down. You're heading to the back of the ship. So each of the ships has a little wayfinder like that that helps you to discover so you don't have to run to the elevator lobby to go, wait, wait, am I forward or aft? And at least on these ships they have a center midship elevator, which is again, I have a thing about elevators. We have definitely established this Next week

shows me top 10. Becky Idiosyncrasies.

Elevators are one of them. But it really is so much more convenient. And again, with these smaller ships, it only has 10 decks you can actually get your steps in. This is a good reason to choose this because you don't feel so bad about the four desserts that you ordered because you wanted to try each one of them because it is easier to go up and down the stairs and get to the places you want to go. But the, the wayfinders, each ship has a different one, but this is the one that reminded me of it because I remember looking down and seeing the map and going, oh yeah, I should probably mention that.

That I just real. I just saw some additional snack hacks that I forgot to mention while we were talking about food. I don't know if I should keep them here.

Like you got distract. Distracted.

Yeah, like oh my God, food.

Yay. I can hear your little, little manola brain.

Did I, did I mention that? Oh my gosh, you know what I forgot?

Banana.

Today we got banana ice cream day. I have to go to bookmeicruise.com and book another cruise just so I can come back for banana ice cream. Are they open till 11?

I don't know.

I don't think so. I think it's 10. All right.

You talk about your snacks and I'll

look to make sure I think it's over. All right, so here are some quick snack packs that I've seen people do that we've done before that people have told me on the last cruise. So for example, up on Deck 9 here on Deck 11, on some of the other ships, ships there is soft serve ice cream available up on deck. What I like about the magic and wonder, it is self serve, soft serve. So you grab your cone, make it up, and you go do the, go do that voodoo that you do so well and make your own. On other ships they do have crew members who are able to help you. Here's the hack. Here's one of the hacks. Go over to the soda machines, what you're against. It's open till 11. Yes. All right. Good night, everybody. We're done. Packs are over. We have 50 minutes. We're gonna get this done. So go over to the soldier machines, grab your paper cup, go over to either the crew member or to the surf serve, make your own ice cream in a cup. We actually, when we do these cruises, we'll have like an ice cream social. And I'll bring all kinds of, like, accoutrements. I'll bring like M&M's and nuts and sprinkles and. I know sprinkles or jimmies, whatever you call them. Like, yeah, chocolate sauce and peanut butter. Yeah. Some people call them Jimmy's. Yeah. I don't know. It's a weird thing.

It's like standing online. I get it. Go ahead.

Right. What do you call. What do you call a big sandwich that's in a long roll with like, meat and stuff inside a Subway? Subway is a brand, but they're sub. Sub bogies, heroes, grinders, whatever you want to call them. Whatever. We're getting distracted. So you can make that base with the soft serve and you put in like brownie chunks, or you can even go to the, like, buffet area and get some little snacky things and put them on there. You control the toppings, you control the textures. It's wonderful. I have a lot of friends who like to do this on board. Or for my friend Melanie, like, this is her. This is her.

Her thing.

This is her thing. When she goes to Castaway or Lookout, she will go and get two of the giant soft serve cookies and then go over and make yourself a cookie sandwich. You can do that on board. You can make your own sandwich routine. Two cookies, two brownies, whatever it might be. So go to cabanas or go to marshalling market, get your cookies or brownies, come out, make yourself a little sandwich. I know a bunch of other people too, like to make milkshake floats. So they'll get it in a cup and then they'll go over. They put vanilla soft serve in a cup, cup, and then they top it with like Coke or Sprite or.

Why don't they have root beer on board? Sorry, this is.

I have to now go Saparilla these days.

Oh, my God. But I mean, yeah, that would be great if there's like RER on the gun and you could go get.

All right, anyway, I guess you could wait. You could actually sort of make your own. Wait, you forget milkshake. You can make your own affogato.

A what?

A whata. So you go and get a cup of coffee or espresso from the beverage station. And then you go and put a little soft serve on it. It's called an affogato. And you can make it. You forgot them. It's all included. No waiting in line. And you could make it on your own.

Another couple of things about food, too. Don't forget.

Right. You go to cabanas, right. And you get your waffle and you put peanut butter on it and you put banana and syrup. Yep.

Cabanas is closed, so I just want want you to know, but there's still banana ice cream. If you drink coffee, go to Cove Cafe and make sure you get your little coffee card because after you get five, the sixth one is free. So make sure the first one you buy, you make sure to get your coffee card.

Yeah, yeah, we took. Definitely take advantage of that because there's great. There's wonderful specialty coffees that are not included. They're. They're an additional charge. But if you get your thing stamped five times, your next one is free.

Yep.

So there you go.

And then last but not least, this is more of a thing for magic and wonder because I found this a little frustrating, but I found a way around it. Cabanas can be a little overwhelming in the mornings.

Don't talk bad about my cabanas in the mornings. I will fight you.

Especially on a sea day, it can be a little crowded and hard to find a seat. So I would just say make sure to go really early or go right before they close. It's not a problem.

What are all these children doing here?

You were with me.

I want my churro Mickey waffle, which is only available on the last day, by the way.

Yes.

Last day. Go to cabana's marshaling market and get your churro Mickey waffles.

Yeah. There you go.

Deck 11, Deck 9. You go get chicken tendies, you chop them up, and then you go to one of the foods and get like a little wrap. You can make like a little chicken tender wrap.

How did you do that?

It's a mindset thing if you're experienced. Disney Cruise Line cooler. Don't think like what's on the menu. It's like, what ingredients are available and what can I build? What sort of custom snack hack can I build? Thank you.

Clearly, anytime there's going to be food involved, there's going to be a long list of things that you're going to. To go after. Especially banana ice cream.

Yeah. You know, you mentioned before you were joking. You weren't even joking. You were Being completely serious about ordering off of the kids menu. My kids grew up on Disney cruise line. I'm not going to cry like I do every time I see parents with little kids on cruise line. But you've ordered what the kids. The other thing that, that parents should recognize too, whether it's for yourself or really more so for your kids, is there's kids menus at all of the table service restaurants. Kids are not limited to eating off those menus. They can order off the adult menu. The servers are also ridiculously accommodating. Like, if your kid is like, hey, man, I need to have chicken tenders every night, they will find a way to bring that kid chicken tenders. If there's something that is on this ship, we've seen it time, over time, over time, we've seen them do it for adults. Like, they will really go out of the way. So don't be afraid to ask. And usually what will happen is by night one, night two, your server's gonna know your or your child's preferences. You don't have to ask anymore. Like, I'd love just like walking up and like, oh, there's your iced tea. There's Becky's very customized beverage, which is

what I drink most of the time on this.

I want iced tea, but I want splendid. I don't want the round ice, not the cubes. I want the squares, whatever. Wow. But yeah, there's always lots of options for kids. So if your kid is a pick eater, usually there's a lot, but they're also very accommodating to.

Yeah. Last but not least for me, a lot of people are always looking for a juice bar or for smoothies. And it was just a few sailings ago that I realized that there's a couple of bars now that have juices and have smoothies. And they're really good. It's a really nice, really nice addition. So if you're kind of jonesing for that, there are all kinds of different types of concoctions they can make. And one of them is right next door to the soft serve ice cream place.

Right. So you can feel good about. You have the ice cream and then you wash it away with a healthy smoothie.

Exactly.

Speaking of eating healthy, much like me, really very conscious about what I'm eating around chicken tenders. There's another little hack for you that you may not know about.

Okay.

And it's not available on all ships. It is available on the classic ships. The Magic and Wonder, as well as the Dream and the Fantasy. In different locations. So on the Dream and the Fantasy, they're sort of in this little hallway area in between like the pub and the club. And here on the Magic and Wonder. I think both we're in Ogils right now. I think it's also Ogils on the Wonder. There are complimentary, and I'm looking right behind me with the complimentary late night snack spreads that are not part of the regular buffet. So if you want like wings, mozzarella sticks, spring rolls, fruit, meat, whatever. It's not every night on every ship. And there really is sort of no schedule of what is out when. But I just. We were in Fathoms last night, the night before, I don't know. And I was getting excited for chicken tender. So we were in the middle of something. I was like, wait a minute, Mongello and I walked briskly from Fathoms here to Ogils. And there was this glorious little mini buffet of little chicken wings and crudite and meat. And there was like a muffaletta sandwich. And I just heard the angels sing again. They're not in any of the dining guys. Kids. It's like a late night bonus when you find it. And when you do, it's a great sort of interstitial meal in between dinner and room service chicken tenders.

Because you have to fill all of those seven meals in the day.

Yeah, it's. Wait, as long as we're sitting in the pub, as for example, guests might also not realize that all the ships have lounges and pubs like. Like Periscope Pub or Crown and Finn or Ogils that not only have their own drink menu, but a lot of them also have a food menu which come at an extra cost. We really dig the food at places like Cask and Cannon and Periscope Pub. So they're not part of the buffet service. It is an extra cost. But whether you want a pretzel or an amazing burger, ask to see or usually be at your table or even think about, say, hey, maybe I don't want to dine in the thing, or I want a late night snack. Look to the pub. Look to the cookie Jerry. Look to the pub. And there are unique snacks and little bites and big bites you can get there too.

It's not just eating little bites. We turned that into a meal one night. We replaced a dinner with going there and it was really good. And then you got the drink that came with all the chocolate doubloons. And so I had chocolate for a week after that.

The other. This is not this now I'm just talking about food because I like talking about food. This isn't even like a hack, but the other thing too, and I really like it on. Well, who am I kidding? I like it on all the ships because I had it here. I love it on the Wish Class ships. Late night pizza just hits different on Disney Cruise Line. The other night I didn't want to wait for chicky tendies. I had this delicious barbecue chicken pizza that I got on deck nine. I brought it back with a little beverage. I watched Big Hero 6. Look at a smile on my face. Look how happy I get. It's not a hack, but if you're hungry. If you're hungry, you are never. And room service is 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 367 days a year.

67, please. That'd be great if you could add more days to the calendar because we clearly need more time at sea. Clearly.

Yeah. Okay. What other hacks do you have that they don't even have to be food related? Anything else on your list?

I pretty much went through the list and then you hit some of the stuff that I had there as well. So for this episode, I think my list is done. I'm sure you've got a few more on yours.

We've done this. And depending on what ship that you're on. And I think the Wish Class and the Dream class ships lend themselves to. Look, we're in Oak Hills right now and sitting behind us in one of these. First of all, this feels like a cool, like old Vegas, like red leather chair banquette. But behind you there's Clue, there's Yahtzee, there's Disney Trivia, there's Candyland. They also have games on this class of ship in the Promenade Lounge, which is either Soul Cat or the French Quarter Lounge, but depending on when you go. Especially late at night when there's nothing going on. Like, bring your own deck of cards, bring Uno, bring a game, bring a puzzle. Because sometimes it's cool to be able to find some of those spaces. And that's one of the reasons why I love this ship. I mean, look, there's nothing else going on in here tonight. It's a cool place to get together, have a drink, whether it's a bunch of adults or. I love Promenade Lounge because your kids can come there too. Do stuff. Because it's not just about the things that are on your navigator. It's sometimes just about making your own fun.

Yeah. And the people that you're with. And again, these Ships really lend themselves to that because there's always a little corner that you can get together with your friends and your family, hang out, visit, talk to each other, don't look at your phones. Enjoy the company that you have and enjoy the time you have together.

And enjoy your chicken tenders. All right, we are not alone with our hacks. I reached out on the clubhouse, on Facebook and on Instagram and you showed up. And I don't even think that I have all of them, but I want to share some of your community hacks and then where you shared it, I will also share who who get first one that came in. This is why Megan and I are friends mingling. She's at Mingling with Megan. She's Megan Dubois. We have traveled extensively together. Says get a plate of fries, then a bowl minus rice from Donald's Cantina. She's talking about wishclash. Dump the bowl onto the fries and top with salsa from the salsa bar to make loaded Tex Mex fries.

Okay.

I'm famished. Rita Walter Disneymama64 says room service hack. Order chocolate chip cookies and put a Mickey Premium bar in between them to make an ice cream sandwich. Oh my gosh. Ask DC says if you don't love cruise line coffee, pack a French press and your favorite coarse ground coffee. Add hot water and enjoy fresh coffee on your veranda. Nice for the coffee aficionados.

And here, if you like hot chocolate, they do have hot chocolate packets up there too. So I've, I've been doing that a little bit. Yeah.

Kimberly Lorraine Steiner KL Steiner, 70, says bring your resort reveal. Oh, bring your resort refillable mugs to to use to get sodas on the pool deck. Mike Locktimus, 2337, says this too is on the Wish class ships. I think he's talking about get a pretzel bun. I'm gonna talk slowly. Get a pretzel bun and fill it with pulled pork or chicken tenders, add sauce and make a custom sandwich. Why didn't I know that two weeks ago? Emma M2852 this is clearly not one of my hacks. Take the 7am yoga stretch class on the top deck for a peaceful, unique way to start the day. Emma clearly we are working on different areas of the ship. Over in Facebook, Pixar Mama says we bring glow sticks to use as nightlights in our cabin. They illuminate well when packed in the glass. Oh, that's smart. Debbie Anderson says we take battery tea lights for some for the same use in the bathroom. Rich Austri says if I tell you that, everyone will do it. Sharing is caring. Rich Jackson Morgan says Disney Cruise lines are the only ones you can take as an introvert and an extrovert. Creates a strong sense of community and social connection on board for both personality types. Jennifer Cruz's DCL says get at the Pasto at 6pm from Co Cafe. I'm with you sister. Gary Whit I would tell you but then I'd have to, you know, tell us. Gary Denise Austin says don't wait until the last day to check out the buffet. I missed out on four days of boiled shrimp and sushi. Benny Cohen said on our last Disney Dreamtrip this past October, we asked a waiter if there were off menu items. I almost didn't want to give this away. Benny Every night he brought us two. You can't assume this is going to happen, but it seems to be pretty consistent. We asked if there was off menu items. Every night he brought us two to three Indian dishes they had in the back. Benny I did this on the Destiny. Yeah, it's not guaranteed but if you like Indian food, I've seen this and I've had it happen a number of times.

It's best to give them a day's notice about that to say hey for tomorrow night.

I love just sort of bring it up in conversation like oh, I noticed from you're from wherever, you know I love Indian food and I'm like, oh you do. Let me know tomorrow. Christy Brown brings collapsible square bins, but she bought at the Dollar Tree. Great for storage items for your odds and ends that you need more space for. Oh, that's smart too. Especially if you like to have little like stuff. You can put them on the counters. Becky at Dollar Tree is where real people go to buy things that are about a dollar, sometimes $1.50. Wow. Let me see. Nick Chappelle Celery soup at Paulo Brunch. You're welcome. It's celery and it's soup. It's got to be good. Heather Raw says Coke float instead of just a soft serve ice cream. Carol Stein, you know Carol Stein. She was the hat lady in the UK pavilion. She's one of the most talented pianists in all of Walt Disney. Really the whole planet. But she's in Walt Disney World. Take the guided ship tours. You learn about the exquisite beauty all over the ship. Walk around the ship to take photos everywhere. About 11:30. Great photos and no people. I love the kiss Goodnight at 11am the Atrium on the Disney Wish, I just realized we missed the finale show here tonight.

Oh, we did. But again, we don't want to miss banana ice cream, which I know.

I'm going quickly. Bridget Gallagher says stay on the boat on Nassau Day. Also, sit down lunch on embarkation day. My hubby says, bring chicken tenders to trivia because even if you lose, you win. Well done. Okay, let me see. Jason Brewer. If you're a beer drinker, get the reusable glass mugs. You can take them anywhere on the ship except the pool deck. Even though it's not much of a savings, it's convenient and you get to bring it home after. John McBride, this is the ice cream hack half. Fill your cup with the Coke at the drink station, walk over to the self serve and make a Coke float. Jackie Shaberto, who's cruised with us many times and said, I like the battery operated LED Christmas lights, draped them over a couple of magnetic hooks. I found one to stay on for automatically 8 hours and switch off. Lloyd Rush says they happen to watch the entire Pirates of the Caribbean movie on the Funnel vision at the end of Pirate Night. When it's over, you have the entire ship to yourself. It's the best time to explore and get empty atrium pictures. I agree. Especially up on deck, too. It's beautiful when there's nobody out there.

Yeah.

Let me see. Christine talked about. Okay, just the secret snacks on the mini lounge that we just talked about in Cove Cafe. Christine Thomas says I bring small airtight snack containers at breakfast. At the Oatmeal Toppings Muesli cereal station, I make a bowl of DIY trail mix and then bring it back to my room to snack on later.

I like that one.

I like that, too. I will admit to having like. I don't know why I sneak it into my backpack, but I'll grab a couple of things of Fruit Loops and open.

Fruit Loops.

Yeah, man.

Okay.

Make fun of me.

Good to know.

Let me see. Christine Thomas says my husband Sean would probably say rent a bike at Castaway Stop to climb the observation tower. It's amazing. Someday I might join him, but you can usually find me floating the day away at Serenity Bay. I've done it once. Once. It's a bike. It's a hike on a bike and then a hike up. I'm really more about the relaxing and eating on Castaway. Rachel Graves. Oh, this is actually a really good tip on the Treasure and Destiny. The haunted mansion parlor isn't always locked. When it's closed, you go in Sit, take pictures, soak up the vibes. The show isn't running so the lighting is actually better when it's open. Children aren't allowed after nine, so get the second dinner seating. You can go right from dinner to the parlor to relax.

Golden hour.

Mary Ann, Bernie Allen, Rainforest Room. Get the length of stay. Pass. It's just fantastic. Remy's dream and Fantasy. Get a reservation. It's the best meal we ever had. Go hungry. Lots of. She also says take a class. Oh yeah. There's beverage classes that you can take. They did one on cognac. Paul Gowder says book a placeholder for the discount. Dennis Clydebourne says, on sea day, the captain gives a daily briefing at noon. Try to be on the upper decks on the funnel. I was actually out there today. And then they usually play the ship warn. That's what I was gonna say right after the announcement. Yeah. And somebody just said embrace the fun and allow yourself to be a kid again. Which may be the best, smartest hack of all.

I totally agree. If you can be an 8 year old with a platinum card, it's the best vacation ever.

Oh God, my. But like that's. This is part of what I love about. There's a lot I love about Disney cruising. It's not just about the ships. It's absolutely. It's about the people and it's about the service. But it's also about some of these little discoveries, the little insider tricks you like. Wow, I can't believe I never knew that. And when you do sort of makes you feel like you're part of a secret club and more importantly like pay these forward. Right? Because I think sometimes the best hacks don't come from websites or guidebooks. They come from. Come from you. Right? They come from our friends. They come from the community. So I want to know because you're probably screaming at your car or your. Why didn't they do. Or thank God they didn't say this. Listen, share the love, share the knowledge. What is your best Disney cruise line hack tip or hidden gem? The things that most people don't think about, which is what we tried to cover but totally should come share in the clubhouse, tag me on Instagram or call the voicemail at 407-900-9391 because the next great tip might come from you and you can help someone have the best cruise of their life. Which is exactly what Becky and her team of advisors do over at Mouse Fan Travel. Really? And I'm not just saying it because you're Here, but one of the best hacks and I know look, I like to sort of self plan and planning is part of the fun, especially with Disney Cruise Line because there is so much involved, like look to look to, like an advisor at Mouse Fan Travel who can help you, pardon the pun, navigate a lot of the idiosyncrasies. So you do sort of maximize not just your dollar but your fun and your time on board.

Yeah.

One of the things we'll do too is if there is a date that is opening up soon, you can contact us and say, hey, I'm really interested in going in January of 2028. We'll make a note of that. So when it gets closer and we get the heads up that it's opening up, you're already in line and we can grab it for you. But even better, and I love my, my cruise hack at this point because like you said, people like to see what they're doing. They want to see, they want to pick their cabin, they want to see all the prices. Maybe it's 11 o' clock at night and we're not available. We do have a self booking engine@bookmeicruise.com you can go in there. Disney cruises are available. Any cruise line actually that we work with is available. You can look it up, you can play with the, the dates and the times and the itineraries and the ships. You can decide to hold one if you're not exactly sure if you want to actually book it. You can book it if you'd like. And the next morning we get the report that you've booked something. We assign an agent or we give you the agent you're already working with and you are good to go. So if you kind of like a little bit of playing in there and checking out stuff, we've got the tool for you.

My last hack and one that I think is super important whether you've cruised before or not. Cruising is better when it is shared with friends and family.

True.

Which is why I love and I've so been so grateful for all the help that you and your team have given to the group cruises that we've done every year, sometimes more than once a year for the past 17, 18 years. We just came off the Destiny, we did the Treasure, we've done Halloween, we've done Alaska, we've done Christmas cruises, we've done Star wars cruises, we've done Marvel cruises. We've spent a lot of time on this cruise planning future cruises. So definitely stay tuned to the podcast to My social and the clubhouse. Because whether you are an introvert, extrovert, whether you've cruised before or never, or even never cruise with us, there is something special about cruising together as a group. And we always do a lot of fun, unique, special things together as a family. And there's nothing like being able to walk through and see somebody else with that same lanyard on and know that you're sort of connected in some way. And no matter where you go, whether you're going to Bingo, whether you're going to Hooks Barbary, you know, you're going to find somebody that is part of the group and you can do as much or as little as you like. So I'm excited for it. To plan what we are planning, which we're not quite ready to reveal just yet.

We're that close.

Becky and I spent a lot of time together.

I know. And there's more to come. We get a little bit of a break.

Yeah. And one thing, the other thing too, we discovered having been on cruises basically for a month, there are lots of ways and places, like if you need to get work done. Look, we understand the world keeps spinning. You know, we joke about we wish there was no Internet, but there is Internet and. And we've been able to work for a month and find places and spaces and very focused work because you have no other distractions other than chicken tenders, chicken and the ocean. So thank you for this. Thank you for sharing your experience and expertise. You don't share your chicken tenders, but that's fine. And now it's time for banana soft serve ice cream.

Yep.

I think that we need to get up there so. Because if we walk up there and they're just closing it down just as you're walking up, you're gonna lose it.

I'm gonna have to get double orders of chicken.

You're gonna be a little six year old. You're gonna throw yourself to the ground and stamp your little feet and then they're gonna go.

The buffalo chicken wings from room service are really very spicy. They're very spicy, though.

And you can smell the pizza when you're walking around the corner.

Yeah, well, you made fun of me last time because I was like, I was walking back to my room and I got a glass of water and I was like, oh, I need a little walking pizza. So we would stop at Daisy's at walking pizza pizza. And I would get. Yeah, I needed pizza to walk from the front of the ship because you

needed more energy, fuel to get from here to there. Yeah, got it.

It was like an interstitial between dinner and the first snack and chicken tender soup lay Sigh. All right, now we have to get ice cream so I can then go back to my room and order chicken tenders and watch Big Hero 6

Laysa.

It's my favorite hot cross. That's going to do it. For this week's show, I'll give you an extra week to answer last week's trivia contest. But this week I really want to concentrate on our Ultimate Disney Cruise Line hacks. I hope that you enjoyed it. I hope that you learned something new. If you did, please share with somebody who's maybe planning their next Disney Cruise Line vacation and know how much I appreciate you and for listening and your time and being part of this community. I do not take that lightly and I am so very grateful to and for you. Come be part of the community and Conversation over in the clubhouse@wwradio.com clubhouse watch and chat with me this and every Wednesday at 7:30pm Eastern on WDW Radio Live on Facebook and YouTube. Leave me a voicemail. I'll play it on the air at 407-900-9391. Whether it's about your favorite Disney Cruise Line hack, a question, a comment, anything that you want to share and please connect and chat with me over on Social I am at Lou Mangello on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn and because I am so truly grateful for the gift that you have given me of being able to do and more importantly, share what I love each and every week, I want to give you a quick invitation. If you are a creator or entrepreneur or solopreneur and you've been wondering how it actually turned what you're doing into sustainable revenue, I'm hosting a live online Momentum Monetization workshop on Friday, March 20 from 9am to 12:30pm Eastern. It's going to be a hands on interactive session where I'll not only teach you about sort of the monetization blueprint, but we'll build yours together. You'll have the chance to ask questions and get some guidance live. You will not just leave inspired. You're going to leave with your own personal monetization roadmap built during the workshop, clarity about what you offer, a plan you can start implementing immediately, and a workbook to help keep your momentum going. Even after the session is over, I'm going to keep it intentionally small. There's only eight spots left out of the 25, so if you want to join us now really is the time and you can learn more and save your seat over@lou mongello.com monetize I would love to see you there. If there's anything I can do for you, any questions you have for me, please reach out email me louww radio.com I'd love to be able to help you you any way that I can. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday night back here again next week. Please be kind, choose the good. Have an amazing day and even better tomorrow. So until next time, thanks again. I love and appreciate you. See ya.

Hi Lou, My name is Tracy. I'm from Minnesota and I've been listening to your podcasts for many years and have also loved reading your books. I've got to tell you that I absolutely loved your top 10 this week about the things we miss that are no longer there. And the one thing that you spoke of that absolutely hit an incredible nostalgic chord with me was the radio station when you would drive on property. I was fortunate to be a child of the 70s whose parents who really didn't have much, somehow took me to Walt Disney World four times in the 70s. And we drove from Iowa all those times in the station wagon just as you described. And I just want to say thank you for thinking of that because that was one of the things that I had completely forgotten about. I also wanted to say that the magical express that you mentioned was a huge thing for us too. But I wanted to say, to give one little, not a correction, but one little addition to what you said for us. It actually started that from the minute you dropped off your luggage at the airport in Minneapolis, then we knew we did not have to worry about it again and it would just somehow magically show up in our hotel room later. And that was just a wonderful thing to think about. And one more thing that I remember from that time was the cards you were talking about. I remember going on a trip with my father in 1995 when he retired. He and I went and we stayed at the fairly new All Star Sports and having those cards with our name on it, the dates we were staying and that we were staying at All Star Sports was really cool. And I still have it in a photo album. And we also were members of something like the Magic Kingdom Club, Travel Club or something that my dad would join and we would get these cool tags, luggage tags, and of course the VHS tape that used to come in the mail. So anyway, thank you so much for the show. It's just made my day and just appreciate everything you do. Have a great day.

Hi Lou, my name is Colleen and I wanted to share one of my favorite things that is no longer at the Disney park and it was by the backlot tour and it was the fountain from the movie Splash. That was something my sisters and I used to rush over to see because our all time favorite movie growing up so that Jimmy is Barry Sat said that's no longer there. And also Tony's restaurant in Magic Kingdoms. I know it's still there but they used to have breakfast and that was my family's tradition then we used to go every time to be at Magic Kingdom that early and beyond Main street first thing in the morning. Well I should say the square but we would be there and it was the start of the most magical day. So those are the things I miss and pretty much everything else you guys mentioned.

Well it sounds pretty good. In fact that's just the right spirit.