Ahoy there, mates.

And welcome aboard our Walt Disney World ferryboat.

You and I will wish upon a.

Star, and sure as my name's Cricket, you'll see that wishes can come true.

If you believe in them, that is.

Folks hereabouts say Brer Rabbit's leaving home.

I say he's heading for trouble.

Wayne.

Thank goodness you're all right.

Is everything okay, honey?

I shrunk the audience an amazing story as old as time itself.

Now we are back in Disney World.

And to prove it, here's WDW Radio, your information station.

This week I'm giving you a front row seat to how Disney Cruise Line transforms raw steel into a floating storybook and the debut of its newest ship, the Disney Destiny.

Because together on this exclusive Disney Destiny Shipyard tour at the Meyerwerf shipyards in Germany, we're gonna virtually walk through unfinished spaces themed to heroes and villains, explore venues like the Doctor Strange themed Sanctum, Pridelands Dining hall, and then witness the unforgettable moment that Destiny floated out onto the river.

Ems for the very first time.

The Disney wish set the stage, the Disney Treasure raised the bar, and the Disney Destiny feels like a game changer that embraces character driven storytelling, immersive experiences, and a heroes and villains theme unlike anything Disney has attempted before.

Hello my friend and welcome to WWE Radio, your guide to the Disney parks and experiences from around the world.

I am Lou Mongello and this is shown 840.

And whether this is your first time listening or you've been with me since the very beginning, welcome home.

Couple of quick things before we dive in.

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So sit back, relax and enjoy this week's episode of the WW Radio Show.

Part of the wonderful of Disney is just how seamlessly the magic appears and sometimes fantasy becomes reality and a dream that you never knew you had comes true.

Your wish gets granted and you get to experience a treasure trove as we get to see a peek behind the curtain and watch it being made.

Hopefully you caught the corny thing that I did there incorporating all of the Disney ship names because we are going to dive in this week to discover the how the Disney Destiny is literally and figuratively taking shape.

I was recently on an adventure to the My Wharf shipyards and I was not on this adventure alone.

And joining me are two people who not only shared the experience of walking through the shipyard and seeing the Destiny up close from the shipbuilding secrets we I don't think ever expected to some of the hidden details and when the Disney Destiny finally met the water.

I still believe in ladies first.

Megan dubois is a journalist.

She is a travel writer, covers theme parks and cruising and all things Disney and others on Conde Ness Traveler, Business Insider, Forbes Travel and Leisure, Delish Food and Wine the points Guy.

There's probably more I am forgetting.

And if you've ever read some of the latest park openings or cruise reviews, chances are you have come across her work.

Megan, welcome.

Thank you so much and thank you for having me.

I kind of say to other people when I introduce myself.

I'm a journalist at places you probably read and you named off quite a few of them.

I'm sure there's some that I forgot, but I think we sort of get the gist of just sort of how far and wide where you write can be found.

And if you follow Disney News on X, you probably know Scott Gustin.

He is the guy who always seems to know what's happening before anybody else and he always has such great insight on how these big Disney projects actually come together.

So Scott, welcome.

Still hurts me to hear it called X.

We gotta be accurate right?

So but yeah, thanks for Having me.

Yeah.

And thank you guys for being here.

And you know, we are gonna sort of relive this incredible trip together and this amazing experience that I'm still sort of pinching myself for because, you know, I think we've all gotten to do some pretty cool things in our, in our careers or this sort of journey that we are on.

And this very much.

This very much is very close to the top of the list, from seeing the shipyard to the float out.

And this week I thought we, it would be fun to sort of share some of those things that stood out mo most to us.

But before we get into it, I want to just sort of set a little bit of context.

And again, you know, ladies first.

What other Disney ships?

Megan and I know you've cruised a lot on, not just Disney, but other cruise lines.

But Megan and then Scott, what other Disney ships have you actually sailed on?

I've been on the whole fleet and I recently sailed with Scott on the Disney Wonder to Alaska, which may or.

May not be the best sentence ever put.

The Wonder to Alaska is my favorite itinerary by far.

Oh, it was so good.

It was so good.

I got to bring my family and get to know so many amazing crew members on board.

And I will never forget the day we went and did a helicopter glacier tour and walked on the Mendenhall Glacier.

Like just mind blowing things that we get to do with Disney and Disney Cruise Line and once in a lifetime opportunities.

And our trip to Meyer Werft was one of them.

Just right up at the top.

Yeah.

What about you, Scott?

Yeah, we've been on all the ships.

I think the Wonder Alaska is the best vacation we've ever taken.

And this ship tour is one of the coolest things that I've ever done.

Just like ship alone.

Do you have a favorite ship?

And if so, why Disney Treasure?

Yeah, she's beautiful.

And there's so much to do on board.

You wouldn't even have to get off at a port of call to have a good time.

Yeah, it's treasure or fantasy.

For me and for my family, it's always been fantasy.

And then the wish came out and it was kind of like it remained the fantasy and it wasn't even a discussion.

And then the treasure came out and I was like, ah, we got to talk about this.

But I think it might be the treasure at this point.

I mean, it helps when you have seven nights sailings and the treasure benefits from that, whereas the wish is stuck at least right now doing three and fours.

But it's also just a much better ship.

Better venues, better decor, better theming, better everything.

And I think it might just overtake the fantasy for me.

It's amazing.

It amazes me how two ships, the Wish and the Treasure.

And we'll talk about, you know, how this is going to impact the Destiny have the exact same layout, but can feel like two very, very different ships and experiences.

And like you, I was afraid that I was just having recency bias on the Treasure.

But after we came back when we were on the Destiny, I was like, wow, I really love that ship.

I think it is some of the best storytelling and place making.

Haunted Mansion Parlor I'm looking at you that I think Disney has ever done, which got me even more excited for what we are going to see when the Destiny floats out later this year.

I think the Haunted Mansion Parlor may be one of the single crowning, best crowning achievements of imagineering in terms of place making.

Oh, 100 for sure.

Best on the cruises and one of the best things that they've turned out post Covid anywhere in any, any venue, land or sea.

It.

It just felt like every once in a while you'll see a project and you're like, yeah, I don't think they had any budget cuts on this one.

I think they just were able to do what they wanted without someone saying like, we need to not put the floor in or whatever.

Everything in there, it is packed, densely packed.

It's an immersive spot.

I wish it was bigger, but probably the feeling wouldn't be the same if it were.

So.

Yeah, I mean, it works in every way and it is why I'm excited for the spaces that they've promise to give us on the Destiny.

It's really well done.

Yeah, we.

Go ahead, Luke.

I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

I think for Haunted Mansion Parlor 2, I want an art tour before it opens in the evening for guests.

I want somebody to take me through and show me all the little details that I miss.

When it's packed with people having a good time and watching the story and drinking your drink, I want to notice those things that I can't notice when it's full.

Yeah, it is.

I've always said that the Haunted Mansion Parlor feels like not a space that was inspired by the attraction, but that if you were to pick up a piece of the attraction and put it somewhere else, that is actually what that place feels like.

And in terms of the Destiny, you know, we had a chance to get a little bit of a preview of what is to Come when we visited the Disney wish for a special event a few months ago, but this one was very, very different.

And again, I want to be very, very clear, at least from my perspective, understanding that the opportunity, the privilege we had to do this.

You know, there was very few of us that were there.

And I want to sort of, you know, the reason why I wanted you guys to come on, the reason I want to talk about it, is to be able to convey that to others so that they understand, because Disney brought us to Amsterdam and then we stayed in this beautiful little town of Papenburg, Germany.

When I saw it, it was not what I had in my mind.

And I said, it's like if Disney were to build this quaint little village for the people who'd be bringing their Disney Cruise Line dreams to life, this would be it.

I actually, I was very, very impressed.

Just even before we got to the shipyard with Papenburg itself.

It's the cutest place.

Yeah, it exceeded all of my expectations, which were kind of low.

I mean, I, you know, I, I usually start whenever I'm going somewhere I've never been.

I'll usually start with TripAdvisor Things to Do.

Just it's kind of the first look and not a whole lot comes up.

But, you know, like, you, you get there and they're maybe are not that many attractions and places to go, but it is the cutest little town that is just very charming and everything you said.

But I came in maybe benefiting from super low expectations and it blew it out of the water.

Yeah, I sort of had this mental picture of this gritty little seaside town with old seamen in it that just been building ships and that's just been in the family tradition for years.

But it was beautiful and from the hotel we stayed in and everything else like that.

But, you know, Scott, you talk about expectations, what were your guys expectations going into this?

Because we really didn't know very much before we got there.

I think when we got our invitations, our reaction was probably all the same as they were saying, would you be interested?

Like the words yes were coming out.

I didn't need to know any details before I was, you know, pardon the pun, on board.

Yeah, I can kind of jump in here.

When Disney invited me to go, it was the automatic yes, I'll move anything else on my schedule to make it to this, because I've been really lucky and all of us have been really lucky to be following this ship for so long now and to kind of see its culmination in the Shipyard, I thought was going to be really important.

And as someone who covers the cruise industry, to go to Meyer Worth to see Disney ship in a shipyard for the first time, I've never been to a shipyard.

So to do it with Disney, with other journalists and colleagues that I consider friends like you guys are my family, was really, really special.

And it was just one of those pinch me moments.

Just even getting the phone call of, hey, we want you to go to this.

And then everything else that followed was just a dream.

Yeah.

For me, going to a shipyard, seeing a cruise ship in a shipyard has been on my actual bucket list for years.

And so I've been looking forward to the destiny.

But I would have been happy to go look at any ship.

I would have been happy to go to a shipyard if they were taking apart a ship just because the idea of how those places operate, the number of people that are there, the size of these shipyards, just all that stuff I geek out on.

I've watched so many behind the scenes videos building ships.

It's, it's always been something I've been interested in just as a thing.

And then, you know, to combine it with Disney and then to be able to go and then actually get on the ship and really check a lot of boxes that I had that I didn't think I would ever get to check off.

So good.

I'm happy it's not me because I, I love logistics and I love like manufacture, manufacturing process.

I love watching things like modern marvels and stuff on history channels to see how these things we almost sort of take for granted how they get made.

And a lot of times those factories and those lines, you know, you talk about size and scale and scope.

It's different when you're making, you know, a small device or Ritz cracker, when you're making something that is the size of a ship.

And you know, the Meyer Wher shipyards were founded in the late 1700s, I think 1795, and have built every ship in the Disney Cruise Line fleet going back to the Disney Dream in 2010, as well as ships for other cruise lines.

This obviously is the third of the Wish class.

It's the seventh in the fleet.

And she's getting ready for her maiden voyage, really in just a couple of months in November.

Let's talk about arriving at the Meyerwerf shipyards and the first impressions in terms of size and atmosphere.

And again, you talked about, you know, when you pull up, you know, when you stand next to a building like for, you know, you go to Epcot and you see the size of the show building for Guardians of the Galaxy.

Cosmic Rewind.

It's massive, relatively speaking to other things.

When you go to a shipyard and you see things like Doc Hall 2, you cannot get a sense of just how massive this space exterior on the exterior and interior is until you, until you see it.

I was.

The anticipation was almost overwhelming for me getting off of the bus and just waiting in that little check in area.

We were all kind of clustered together and chit chatting and the whole atmosphere was just buzzing because everyone was so excited.

And it wasn't just us, it was the workers who were checking in for their shift and it was the imagineering team waiting to welcome us on board.

It felt so alive in a way that I've never seen a construction project like that before.

And we were with, with a lot of people that they had maybe been in the day before, like to prep for things, but there was a lot of people there that were going in a shipyard for the first time.

Like everyone was kind of on the same page.

Which, you know, added to that excitement.

Seeing it from the outside was.

I mean, there was a point when we were kind of checking in where I couldn't see the end of the building, which was just a wild.

It's kind of the angle where we were standing, which you literally could not see where that Hall 6 building ended, which is just crazy to fathom.

And the fact that we were looking at a building that could fit almost two cruise ships, could fit almost two cruise ships in it is wild.

And then that was just one of the buildings, right?

Or I think there's like six of the main halls.

And I've stared at the aerial map of the place after having been there and it's even more mind boggling after having been in most of the halls.

To look at it on the aerial and just think about the amount of space that they have and how it's actually all necessary.

It's not just wasted space, it's all being used as part of the process, building a ship.

So yeah, it was just, just the, the arriving at the shipyard was a sight.

I felt the same way that I did.

And I sort of analogize it to.

You can watch videos or movies or TV shows that show you the Great Wall of China or the Forbidden City, but until you actually stand there, you cannot fathom just how large it is.

And that's exactly how I felt here.

And I've gone back and I've watched my video.

Scott, I did the same thing.

I said I want to see it from the bird's eye view.

And it's still, until you've been there, doesn't really let you understand just the scale of what you're talking.

When you stand next to, you know, a ship, when you get off maybe at Castaway or you get off in Nassau, you start to get a sense of just how big these ships really are.

But when you see them in these different stages of construction, too, it really helps you appreciate it.

And again, there was not a lot of us who were here.

There was maybe, I think six of us total who were brought out for this.

And that really too, it continued to.

Was not lost on me and just what a privilege and opportunity it was to be there.

But, you know, I think the way that we were brought through this process from a storytelling perspective made so much sense because we didn't just go there and step foot on board the Destiny.

We really were given an understanding and taken through the process of going from steel to ship and starting off in this shipyard supermarket, where every piece of steel is marked with a number and cut and they're shown.

We were shown this laser hybrid welding, how it all comes together and we're able to hold a piece of steel.

You know, this.

Most of the areas are about 6 millimeters, which is not.

It doesn't sound like it's very thick, but the pieces of steel are very, very heavy.

And it goes.

I think the hull pieces they said were about 20 to 25 millimeter.

But to be taken through that process of going to.

Seeing how these massive sheets of steel are cut into sections and then blocks and then assembled in these.

You know, there's a.

What do they say?

There's a hundred different sections that are put together and the.

The process of doing it, how it's built upside down.

Take me through your impressions of that.

When we went into Doc Hall 2 and this shipbuilding process and going again from those steel plates to what we got to see along our tour, which was the different stages of the construction process and, you know, getting to a ship that the next day we saw float out.

Yeah, I thought having that grounding experience of seeing steel plate to full ship was so important and so valuable to our experience because you get on these ships and you're ready to have a great time with your family, but you forget that somebody had to actually build it.

So our guide, Philip from WDI Germany, who was just exceptional and kind of went on little side quests about how welding works, like, I didn't know any of that.

And that Laser welding was, I thought, was really interesting because it takes one sheet and one weld, where a normal weld takes two sheets and takes two welds to put it together, and it's stronger than a normal weld would be.

And then I also loved the point that he said that one of their little, tiny, miniscule pieces that don't have any timeliness to it is put together by members of the community who have disabilities.

That really touched me and how integrated the German community outside of Papenburg also is integrated into that shipbuilding process.

They told us about 80% of all of the materials that would be used to build the ship was made in Germany, which I thought was really cool.

It really is a local product.

The laser welding thing was equally interesting.

I was fascinated by the process, and they talked about how it speeds up shipbuilding, but also that that laser welding device, like, we saw a demo and then we saw, like, the big version of it, which was just like this.

I don't even know how to describe it.

Like, the biggest printer you've ever seen is almost what it looked like.

But, yeah, that was fascinating.

Just to see how I think they said they.

I think it was like 2002 is when they switched to this new welding way.

And that essentially changed the cruise industry and their ability to build these big ships.

But, like, when I got home, I started researching that whole process, the history of it.

Like, it was something that they had tested and been trying out for, like, 10 years before they switched to this new method, which something.

I didn't even know it existed.

And then I came home fascinated by, like, this one technological development that changed all of this.

To make massive cruise ships, not only more cost, more.

More possible to make these massive ships, but also make it where they don't have to build even bigger facilities to build those ships.

They don't have to flip them over to weld the other side.

It just kind of is essentially why we have ships like the Destiny and all these Royal Caribbean Cities on the sea is because of these developments in technological changes that changed everything.

And I didn't even know it was a thing until we went there, so that was really cool.

So I'm sure you guys were making fun of me along the way because I admit that I was like a nerdy school kid on the tour.

Like, I was right next to Philip, and I was asking questions the whole time because I was so fascinated and I had so many questions.

You know, when we talk about the process of building it, I remember watching a video years ago about the construction of the magic and wonder and how they were built separately.

The front and the back were built separately and then literally floated together and brought together.

We were talking about how these blocks need to come together with this insane amount of precision, right?

That the tolerance of just 20 millimeters as they're putting these things together, which is about the width of your thumb.

It's incredible, you know, in this ship.

And these ships now are built from front to back, which, you know, I almost wish we could see.

And we have seen sort of these time lapse progressions of, you know, how they start at the very beginning and they lay the keel and go from front to back.

But what struck me was the way this centuries old shipyard was able to blend things that they've done and tradition.

You know, going again, it goes back to 1795 with this cutting edge, you know, borderline futuristic laser hybrid welding and precision assembly.

I think we probably.

I know it was me, you know, before I came in, and then when I got there and then Scott, as you and I were walking around, we would see literally pieces of ships in the shipyard, you know, asking what this is for.

And it made me think about building Lego.

Right, it's building Lego, but again, with a degree of precision and accuracy, which has so little tolerances.

Seeing it up close, you know, I sort of imagined it, you know, having been on the ships before.

But seeing it up close was something I didn't expect and I almost didn't understand and appreciate just how modern and just how cutting edge this shipyard and this process really is, from again, building things upside down to the automation of so many of the processes and how this shipyard is just going 24 7, which is how they're able to build these ships, these massive ships in such a relatively short period of time.

You know, Walt talked about it takes people to make a dream a reality.

That very much is true here.

They said, you know, on a daily basis during the height of construction, there's about 1500 to 2000 people working on these ships all at one time in such a variety of different disciplines.

Just a massive undertaking.

And the engineering and the process of making this all happen is mind blowing to me.

I loved being able to see each of those sections kind of in that assembly line fashion.

And when I found out it only took five minutes for them to flip a section right side up, my mind was just completely blown.

I thought that was going to be like a two or three hour process.

These sections are heavy.

Like, we felt how heavy that tiny steel plate was.

I'm like, there's no way this is going to flip over in five minutes.

Like you're joking with me.

And then he's like, oh no, that's the truth.

And I was just like, I could not believe that.

And they do that for every single piece of the ship, right?

So they're built upside down.

So rather than having to reach up to put in ductwork or pipes, they turn them upside down.

They.

They're able to bend down to do it.

And then these massive.

Again we.

The size of these cranes, which are all named after birds, which is amazing.

Are just on a scale that you can't picture.

And like you said, Megan, being able to move these.

What did we say they were?

I think they said they were 800 metric ton blocks and just flip them over in a matter of minutes is wild to me.

In those pieces, the amount of pipes and ductwork and all this stuff that are sticking out that look like they're just randomly placed.

And knowing that it's this tiny pipe that has to fit perfectly on this one of 100 blocks that are going to be just in that section of the ship is.

It was all wild to see it.

It was wild to see it and then to just in your brain kind of like peel it back like an onion.

You're like, yeah, that's a pipe.

That's part of one block.

There's a hundred blocks I think in total.

It ends up being like close to like a thousand total pieces that make up the blocks or something.

I mean it's just.

And then to have that one pipe has to be put in.

Has to be put in that block two years before the ship is done.

It has to be in the exact right place that when they piece it all together, everything hooks together.

I mean, I can't hang a picture on my wall straight with a level, you know, in my hand.

And they're doing that is.

It's really incredible to see it.

And then to just to think about all the steps that are required just to get your sink to work in your stateroom when you actually are on the ship is.

It's crazy.

And the efficiency and efficacy of the whole process, again, we went through so many different stages and steps to see.

And you see the.

And as we were going through, you know, I tried to imagine how does this cutaway that we're seeing, how does this become a space that we end up walking through, right?

How does this become a guest space?

And there was just so much I think that I didn't expect as we were we were going through and we got, and I sort of left out that we were able to see the.

The very first step in the process, right.

We saw the seal cutting for which was a surprise, one of the first of many surprises.

We got to see the steel cutting for the as yet unnamed, although we all have ideas of what it might be as the ASNET unnamed fourth ship in the Wish class fleet.

So we saw that initial moment, metaphorically speaking, of that first piece of steel being cut, and then we literally walked through the entire process.

And again, I just sort of loved being able to connect the dots as we were going through how it goes from that piece of steel to many pieces of steel to building this skeletal framework and then continuing to go along and then almost you know, imagining how it continues to come together from front to back.

But I think it wasn't until we stepped on board that I got a real true understanding.

You know, everything as we were going through seemed very, very sort of not just intentional, but everything had its place and there was a place for everything and everybody.

And he stepped on board the ship and it was a little bit of like controlled chaos.

And again, there was a lot of stuff that has already been done, but there was this cool, like feeling of seeing the ship on the inside in its literal final weeks of construction and so many different people from so many different disciplines buzzing around as and as we were taken through on this tour, navigating these spaces that were under all of these protective covers and active construction, very active.

Like we were in like hard hats sometimes.

We were in PPE at these very beautiful, very stylish steel toed shoes because there was construction going on, there was stuff hanging down and I'm sure people who were of normal height were banging their heads into things hanging from the ceiling.

So it was a very active, very busy construction zone.

And I was like a kid with my head on a swivel, just trying to take it all in and get a sense of place and space.

Again, give me a sort of your thoughts and your first impressions as you first stepped on board and as we were taking through, and we'll go through them individually, but.

But a lot of the different venues in very different varying stages of construction.

We were kind of told that the front of the ship would be more complete, like where the Walt Disney Theater at is basically done.

But then once you get towards the midship and aft of the ship for the grand hall and what will eventually be Prideland's Feast of the Lion King will be less and less complete and My mind kind of could figure out what that would be like, but I didn't really understand what that meant until we saw that progression of walking the forward to aft of the ship and literally seeing progression of less done.

I just thought it was so interesting even just stepping on board.

We went up this really steep ramp, and I couldn't figure out where I was.

And I turned to Lou and I was like, where are we on board?

I've never been on a cruise ship before.

I've been on 50 cruises.

I know what a cruise ship is like and where that embarkation point is.

And he was like, megan, this is where you do security and do your embarkation.

They say your family name and you go into the grand hall.

I'm like, okay, duh.

Of course, that's where we're at.

That's where every great Disney Cruise line story begins.

That's, of course, where ours should begin also.

And it was just this surreal experience for me because I love Disney Cruise Line.

I love the product they put out.

You go on board and you're literally buying memories for your family.

But this was a memory that I couldn't buy.

It was one that had to be gifted to me.

And it felt so special that that gift was allowed to be mine.

Another memory you can't buy is anything in the luxury jewelry places that no one wants to go in.

But I won't talk about that right now.

I wish.

Part of me wishes that we could have taken more photos because I think it would help.

Like, just help.

But I think when I was on the ship, I understood why there are limited photos, because there obviously are areas that you don't even know what you're looking at.

We spent a lot of our time walking through, like, crew areas, like in stairways.

We're basically.

I felt like a lot of the tour was in those areas of the ship as we kind of darted around to where they wanted to take us.

But there were even parts of the ship that were really.

And Megan, you mentioned, like, covered.

And Lou, you mentioned it too.

There were parts of the ship that were basically done, but they didn't look like it because they had been covered with so much wood and plastic that in a photo, someone would look at it.

If you put together 10 photos of what we actually saw without context, someone could look at it and be like, my ship is not going to get done, even though it's ahead of schedule.

And the carpet in a lot of places is in.

If you actually looked underneath your feet, where there is, you know, two Layers of plywood and plastic.

And the plastic, sticky plastic stuff that you peel off that's so satisfying that you peel off like an electronic or a TV when you get it.

Like that stuff was like all over the walls and everywhere.

So it did make sense why they would probably not view photos as being helpful to like any.

Anything they would be trying to communicate to the public.

But it would definitely help, like tell a story of kind of how we walked around.

I would like to have some of those visuals, but I get why they didn't let us have that.

But you know, there were like the theater, they told us it was basically done and it was.

There were other parts of the ship forgetting how things look.

There were other parts of the ship that I felt like I was expecting it to be more done.

Again, the ship is ahead of schedule.

It's not.

These are not issues.

But it just made me even more mind blown that those are all things that are going to get done after it was out of the shipyard.

Because we knew the ship was not going to be parked in Hall 6 for much longer when we were on it.

And to have looked at the Lion King restaurant and just be like, this is all going to get done after it's left the shipyard, that's also pretty amazing because it didn't look like anything.

It looked like if you're watching HGTV and you're about 10 minutes into an hour long renovation or something of a very industrial looking, I don't know, warehouse.

Or home, it's demo day.

If you're a Jason Chip Gaines fan.

That's what it felt like.

Yeah.

And like to know that all of that is going to get done.

I mean, they're going to be parked, parked at the dock for like five weeks or something.

But, you know, it was amazing to see things like the theater and be like, this looks like exactly how it's going to be when I'm on the ship.

And then to see that restaurant where you're just like, what, where, where are we right now?

Made you just appreciate kind of the whole process and how they had explained it and it met the expectation.

So it was cool.

Yeah.

For me, there were certain sections that we went through that again, I didn't know where we were.

It very much felt like the Poseidon Adventure to me, one of my favorite movies.

Like, I had no idea where we were and we were just trying to get up to get closer to the surface so we can, you know, weld our way out.

But it also was like, if you've Ever built a house, and you go to watch the construction and it's just studs or there's not even necessarily, you know, sheetrock up yet.

You're like, how is this going to become the thing that I saw in, you know, the walkthrough or, you know, now in a 3D model?

And there were places and spaces that were like that.

And again, you also mentioned ones that were much farther along.

And I really appreciated that because, like you guys said, I was also going, how are they going to get this done literally in a matter of weeks?

But they are.

They're ahead of schedule.

And it is going to be, you know, show ready before the very first guest steps on board.

And as we got to see a number of different venues, we went to the grand hall, we went to the Haunted Mansion Parlor, we went to the Sanctum, where we were able to take.

Where they were able to take for us, a photo.

We see that some places are a little more completed than others, but it was also cool to walk into the Haunted Mansion Parlor and see nothing there because we've been in that space and know what it's going to look like.

And now we see it with just wallpaper and a couple of screens on the walls and, you know, not even the bar sort of fully built out.

There's a lot that's going to happen in a very short period of time.

And again, I just.

I imagine on its busiest days, what it's going to look like having all these different.

Not just, you know, construction workers, but the people who are coming in to do sort of the finishing work all at the same time.

That's why I said sort of controlled chaos.

What that must look and feel like.

Was there any of the spaces we went into?

Right.

Including we spent some time in the grand hall that was most interesting to you?

Most intriguing.

Most had space, maybe, that you're most curious to see once it's finished.

I think it's one that I have more of a deep connection to versus something that's new or currently in progress is the Walt Disney Theater.

I thought it was really interesting on our tour when Philip was saying that certain spaces have a certain timeline that they have to be commissioned from Meyer Werft to Disney, and that Disney's allowed to do whatever they want in that space after that.

And the Walt Disney Theater was one of them because they have to start bringing in sets and letting the cast for these shows start to practice on a real stage, and not just at the performance facility in Toronto, which I visited a few Weeks ago.

I thought, because I've kind of got this more background knowledge of what it takes to put a Disney Cruise Line full production show on now, that knowing that that space is ready for those performers who are going to do Hercules Frozen, a musical spectacular Disney sees the adventure is ready, the sets are there, is really exciting because those shows are the heartbeat of the ship.

Like Disney is a storytelling company at its core, and the Walt Disney Theater is that crown jewel for storytelling, and guests are just going to eat those things up.

And the Walt Disney Theater is just so special.

And knowing that people are going to get on board and start practicing soon is really exciting.

Yeah, I want to put a pin in here real quickly because one, I was a theater kid growing up.

I actually started college as a theater major.

And I've been able to step foot on that stage a couple of times before.

And I wish I would love, especially now, as it's getting closer, to go farther back behind the proscenium and see just.

You forget when you're in that theater that this is a true Broadway like theater with multiple shows and multiple sets that are sort of hiding behind all of these layers, both on a horizontal and vertical scale, just how much there is back there in order to make these shows come to life.

And I'm happy that you brought up Hercules because I did sort of follow along on your earlier adventures of going up to Toronto.

And we talked, as we were usually while we were eating about what that show is going to look and feel like.

I was look.

I still think that Moana is one of the most impressive shows I've not only seen on Disney Cruise Line, but anywhere.

And you were like, hold my.

Insert Hercules joke here.

Like you saying Hercules is on a similar, if not even grander scale than that.

I think it's different.

It's hard to compare Moana and Hercules because Moana is that classic princess story.

She lives out her adventure, and Hercules is that classic villains and heroes story.

And I grew up with Hercules in the 90s.

It was one of my favorite movies.

I have really strong memories of seeing the Zero to Hero parade at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

And there was a trip where my arm was broken as a kid and I got a private meet and greet with Megara.

So that was just like those types of things are ingrained in.

Um, but going through the rehearsal facility in Toronto and doing a puppeteering lesson with the rehearsal Hydra, which is going to be insane, seeing the.

The ideas that the producers and the musicians have come up with to make Hercules Feel modern and fresh, but still being very much have that touch point of the original film is going to be really cool.

And honestly, I'm so excited for the costuming too because it's.

It's this larger than life grand avant garde, met gala style costuming for a show that's going on a cruise ship.

These are things that you would normally see on a Broadway stage.

And it's happening right on board your vacation, which is great.

So let's sort of talk about this idea because one of the things that I'm very excited for and I think is a shift from what we've seen on the theming and storytelling of other ships is this idea of heroes and villains really sort of being the focus of it.

And we see it in a number of ways and spaces, not just including having Spider man and some of the spider bots on the stern of the ship, which I'm super excited about because I'm a huge Spider man fan.

But we see Black Panther t' Challa as the centerpiece of the grand hall.

And we spent some time in there getting a sense of the Wakandan motifs, right?

The Dora Milaje inspired the spears inspired the pillars and Queen Ramonda's headdress, sort of inspiring the light fixtures.

But we see it the hero and villain motif in other areas in the staterooms and kids areas, right?

The murals inspired by Hercules Mulan, brave Big Hero 6.

There's Sugar Rush in the kids Play Zone, Edna Mode and Jack Jack in the Edna Alamode Sweet Shop.

And we also got a little bit of a sense of what is to come in terms of how this hero and villains theme is going to play out, I think in a different and sort of next step, next gen way from what we have seen on other ships.

Not just in terms of the places and spaces, but in terms of what we're going to get from the characters.

One, I think they're going to be leaning a little bit heavier into villains in more than any of the other previous ships.

Especially in some of the adult spaces.

We're going to see people like Cruella and Dr. Facilier and Maleficent.

So while, you know, heroes seem to anchor a lot of the public spaces, there's also a lot of villains in other spaces.

But a dining and entertainment is really going to explore this battle of good and evil.

And we got a lot more detail too in terms of not just the characters that we're going to see, but this next iteration of interactive, more personalized.

And the way they were describing it it almost made me feel like Galactic Star Cruiser.

Like, interactions with characters where you're not just going to watch them perform, but you'll be able to interact with them and potentially follow them from one destination to another.

What were your sort of takeaways in terms of the character experiences, the heroes and villains, and some of this next level of interactivity?

You can go first, Megan.

I love character meet and greets.

Like, number one.

Like, I am the girly who's gonna stand in line at Magic Kingdom to see Mickey every time I'm there, even though I'm there all the time.

I love when you get these really fun, unexpected character meet and greets that you kind of remember, and it solidifies why you choose to sail with Disney.

And I love a villain, so I think something that I'm most excited about is Dr. Facilier is going to be hanging around the grand hall doing parlor tricks.

I love magic tricks.

My grandpa worked at a magic shop growing up, so I hung out there a lot.

And I learned little Easy kid card tricks.

So seeing stuff like that and reminding me of my childhood is going to be really special.

And I'm more interested because Disney's not really announced a ton about the Maleficent meet and greet opportunity that's coming to Saga.

I want to know more about that because I love Maleficent, but each of the characters that they're having these kind of, like, interactive moments with has a very distinct feel to what that moment's going to look like for the guests, and they're very curated to match what that villain's story is.

So Maleficent's very much the character who is very petty and seems kind of that nothing bothers her, but everything bothers her at the same time.

So I'm interested to see what that looks like.

Yeah, I think this has been a.

This has been missing on the ships, and I think we've all kind of known that it was like these character moments.

More time with characters.

That is not just a photo, but.

Which you'd sometimes get on, like, Star Wars Day at Sea or Marvel Dead Sea to a certain degree.

Yeah.

It almost felt like it wasn't right for a cruise ship and it had to be part of a thing if it was a special event or only on Pirate Night or only as part of the Marvel Day at Sea or Pixar Day at Sea.

And it feels like they've learned from some of the stuff they've tried and tested on the Treasure, and they're really going to try to perfect it.

On the Destiny with the heroes and the villains.

I mean, the characters they've announced sounds really cool.

The idea of just being able to go have a moment with one of your favorite characters.

I mean, the Loki show in the grand hall, some from afar, some interactive, like, some you're going to be participating in.

It feels like that should have always been there, but it hasn't been.

So I'm really excited to see how that works into a day, especially like a day at sea where you can not only plan your day around the show in the evening and your dinner and a few things you want to do during the day, but you can catch one of Loki taking over the grand hall or Maleficent doing her thing on stage in the entertainment lounge.

It's just.

I don't know, it feels like.

Well, I'm really excited about it.

I'm also kind of like feels like we should have always had it.

But that's not a complaint.

It's just.

It does make it a little bit hard to explain to people how this will be unique to the ship, which it is going to be.

And then all of these moments that the characters are going to have with guests are exclusive to this ship.

I think it'll be a.

We're just going to have to be able to show it, see it firsthand, and then better tell people about it.

I mean, you said, Megan, we don't know much about the Maleficent thing.

Like, we.

There's just one paragraph is all they've written.

And I mean, it could be.

You could interpret that to be basically anything.

So there's some mystery there, which I think is fun.

And just to jump back, Megan, you said the shows are the crown jewel of the cruises.

I completely agree, but I just didn't want people to confuse that with Enchanted Castle Jewels, which is the luxury jewelry shop in grand hall off deck, on deck three that no one goes into.

So you've got affiliate code for.

I think it's important to note too, on characters that you're still going to have those, like, traditional character meet and greet lines that are going to be listed on the Disney app.

And you can go take your picture with whoever and they're in a special outfit every day.

But these really personal interactions are going to be what sets the Destiny apart from the other ships in the fleet.

I think it's also.

It's an iterative process and even we just use with the Wish class ships going from the Wish to the treasure look.

I think one of the reasons for me personally, that I Love the Treasure so much.

Comes down to two words.

And they are Coriander and Sage.

And they are two characters that were created specifically for and are only on the treasure.

And you not just see in some of the entertainment venues, but finally, I think took advantage of the grand hall in a way that the wish does not do.

I think having those Jungle cruise like multi person interactive games and adventures was part of the fun.

And there was things that were on the schedule and things that weren't.

These surprise and delight moments, this next iteration of it are going to be not just character meets, but these character meet and play moments.

Some will be scheduled, some won't be.

You will have these sort of pop up experiences.

Cruella De Vil, that is going to be a new way to not just meet these characters.

Stand there, take a photo or me have some sort of awkward conversation.

It's not you, it's me.

I just awkward with characters.

But now it's going to, they are going to be truly interactive.

They are going to be activations that kick off other things.

So when, when Loki comes into the grand hall and the entire grand hall changes color to match the character that's there and he proclaims his glorious purpose, he is going to challenge guests with, you know, quizzes and things that they need to do or to answer that will start to activate other things.

Cruella De Vil is going to have this fashion Runway.

There's going to be, you know, she might appear in a venue that is appropriate for her completely unannounced, completely unscheduled, which is going to be that surprise and delight.

Dr. Facilier may perform a little bit of magic.

Maybe there's some games of chance.

And again, I think seeing Maleficent in Saga is going to be very interesting.

And that for me, as someone who loves to just sort of go and wander the ship sometimes, I don't like being married to the schedule.

I like things just to sort of happen around me, you know, oh look, I happen to run across Spider man and go take.

But now to have those things happen, much like I felt that they did on the Treasure with Coriander and Sage, I feel like these things, I think they said somewhere around 16 of these different meet and play moments, it is going to bring a new sense of life and energy and opportunity and surprise to guests on board the Destiny.

And as somebody who digs the whole hero and villain motif like this has me very, very excited.

Not for what we know, but for the things that we don't know and have no idea what to expect.

And I think what's even better about these from a guest perspective is you can choose to sit back and watch or you can choose to participate and either way you're gonna have a great time.

Because there are some parents and kids who just don't care about doing character stuff.

They want to watch it for a few minutes and continue on their journey wherever they're going, whether that's to go do the Aqua Mouse or get an ice cream cone or whatever.

But then there's other people who really want to dive in deep and have these really meaningful moments with characters and that's what they go on these ships for.

So I think it's really fun that you can have both with the same interaction and everybody can have that opportunity to make it what they want.

Well, I think it's.

I think it's also really interesting too, you know, especially with what we know is coming to Magic Kingdom in terms of villains.

Look, you know, the ships have always leaned very heavily into princesses and heroes a little bit before, but now they're leaning much harder, I think into villains.

And so do you think that this, you know, villains heavy sort of lounge focus, Cruella Facilier Maleficent, is going to change the energy of the adult spaces at all sort of compared to a little bit more of the lighter whimsical vibe on the Wish or sort of that sense of adventure on the Treasure?

I think that's the point is imagineering so good at their jobs and place making and getting the vibe of each distinct space correct.

That when you have a space that's dedicated to villains or dedicated to Pirates of the Caribbean or to Dr.

Strange, that those place making elements help you to allow yourself to immerse yourself in the story versus be forced to be immersed in a story?

Yeah, and I trust in them to get it right on the heroes and villains ship too.

I mean, I, I think there's a lot of people that'll sail the Destiny that are not necessarily sailing for the heroes and villains, but it is definitely the most thing I'm most intrigued about is how they, they pull this off while still feeling like a Disney cruise ship and not a heroes and villain ship.

So it'll be a balance.

But I think they're, I think they have a good plan and they're still feel like they're holding a lot back from us in terms of what it is they are going to do.

And I think they know that there's going to be some things they want to do that don't work out.

So they're going to hold back for that reason too.

Hopefully at destination D23, I have a feeling we'll get a little more detail on some of the things that they want to reveal there.

You know, one of the discussion points about the design of the Wish and the Treasure versus some of the earlier ships was the lack of the adult district in the back.

Although there are adult lounges in adult only areas and there's a number of them that are really well themed on the ship.

Right.

We went into deville's piano lounge again, made some minor, not just thematic changes, but design changes to make that space larger, maybe flow a little bit better.

A lot of very cool technological enhancements to it.

Right.

To reference Cruella De Vil and her car and her silhouette, we know the Haunted Mansion parlor is going to be pretty much the exact same as the Treasure.

But two locations that are different that I'm very intrigued about is the Cask and cannon.

That is the pirates themed pub which replaces the Periscope Pub on the Treasure.

This too.

They changed the layout of the bar and seating which made that space feel bigger.

And I really, really dig the theming and the decor here.

Sort of making you feel almost like you're in, you know, the, the.

The belly of a pirate ship.

I love that ceiling pirate map.

There's a lot of, if you're a fan of, you know, old Mark Davis artwork, you're going to see a lot of those sketches that I think they said they worked with the archives to bring on.

And then the Sanctum, which replaces Skipper Society on the Treasure, which is modeled after the New York Sanctum from the Doctor Strange films, which I think this is the one that I'm most intrigued about.

One, because they were saying in, in no uncertain terms that the beverage menu here, both cocktails and mocktails, is going to be unlike anything we have seen or tasted before.

But I love the, the design here and I have a feeling that some of the decor, whether it's the suspended spell books or the cloak of levitation, are not just going to be like the Skipper Society.

A Trevor treasure trove of like nerdy details, which is the stuff I dig.

But I have a feeling that there's going to be like a theatrical show, almost interactive element to this space that again is going to sort of level up from what we have seen before.

Which of the lounge, which of these spaces are you most interested in seeing are you most intrigued by?

It is thundering at my house.

So I am sorry if you Guys are hearing that in the background, it is getting ready to storm.

I think I'm excited for both, but for different reasons.

I'm kind of on board with you, Lou.

That the Sanctum is going to be kind of the destiny version of a Trader Sam's.

That the drinks are going to interact with the space and what you order kind of determines what interactive element changes or what happens in the bar.

I think the, the cocktail that we've tried, because we've tried one cocktail and one mocktail at our preview event in April, they were pretty cool.

The.

The glassware is something that I'm always really interested.

I'm a geek for glassware.

And that upside down martini glass where the stem and the base are at the top and the actual bowl is at the bottom and it's got a hole cut into it and there's a glass straw sticking out.

Like that stuff is really, really cool.

And I think the team that works on Disney Cruise Line's cocktails, the evolution of them from let's say a Disney dream, Disney fantasy to Disney wish to treasure to now Destiny, it's just grown and they've gotten better and better and better at making themed menus that match the space that they're going into, but with a purpose.

And that those cocktails don't just look the part, but they taste the part.

We were kind of joking around on our tour that we wanted a Pirates of the Caribbean water flavored cocktail in cask and cannon.

I don't want to drink pirate water from the attraction.

That sounds gross, but I do want that essence of pirate water.

If you're a Disney fan, you know what that is, smells like and it takes you instantly back to the parks and brings you back to being a kid.

And that's something that Disney Cruise Line does so well in these bar spaces.

Yeah, I think, I think it's the sanctum for me that I'm most intrigued by.

I am a little.

I don't love that space on any of the new ships because it's open and it doesn't feel like anything other than that.

We'll see if they pull it off.

With the Sanctum.

I feel like if it's really good, then I'm still going to just look at it and be like, I just wish it was not in this space where it could be like Hana mentioned parlor where it's separate and I can feel more immersed.

You got to sit in the middle so you don't see the jewelry store.

Because clearly as a distraction for you.

I mean like, that area of the ship can get really loud, like certain times of night.

And I mean, it's.

If the drinks deliver on kind of the hype that has been teased for that space, then I think it'll be okay.

But I still will probably look at it and say they could have done more if they had not made it.

This open lounge that just sits here in the middle of all of what's going on here in Deck 3.

But I think I'm probably most intrigued by it.

I was casting Canon.

I was a little.

It's a first look, so it's hard to put too much weight into it.

I was a little underwhelmed by it and kind of revisiting the concept art after having seen it in person.

It felt a little disappointing.

But, well, jury's still out.

We'll see.

So, yeah, at this point, I would probably say the Sanctum, even though I think I'm going to like Haunted Mansion Parlor more.

But we know it, right?

So I think for new, it's the sanctum.

See, it's funny when we went into Casking Canon because I think it is so early on in putting on the finishings in there.

Right.

So we know that there's going to be this hand carved artwork around the portholes, which wasn't there.

There's going to be nods to attractions in some of the decor, which obviously wasn't there.

I want to sort of take that mental image that we have of seeing it at that point and then seeing what it looks like in its final finished state and with guests in there and certainly want to try the menu as well.

We would be remiss if we didn't.

Speaking of menu, in terms of dining locations, again, a lot are the same from the Wish and the Treasure, except for Pride Lands, which is going to be the Feast of the Lion King Restaurant, which replaces Arendelle on the Wish and Plaza de Coco on the Treasure.

Again, we saw this very early in its design phase, but it is this continuing this idea of this theatrical dining experience with this hallway entrance that's going to be themed to the African Savannah.

I think a Plaza de Coco, where they have that ofrenda is such a great way.

It's almost, you know, there's sort of a.

And I think the whole ship feels this way.

There's a cinematic element to it, which I think the Destiny is going to even sort of turn up to 11, and as you walk down that hallway, it's sort of like, you know, the preview and then you go to the.

Ofrenda and it's sort of the opening scene until you walk into Plaza de Coco.

I think you get that same feeling here with the live musicians and the storytellers.

Any thoughts on Pride Lands versus Arendelle and Plaza de Coco?

I was not a huge fan of Arendelle.

I love Frozen, so I was excited to have like a frozen dining experience, but I feel like it just kind of fell flat.

And I. I think this in any of these dining venues, not because of the theme of the venue, but the venue itself, your experience is determined by what table you're put at.

And that's not something that a guest can choose.

So if you're sat closer to the stage, you have a much better view of the show and a much better, more holistic experience because those performers are close to you.

They're making eye contact with you.

You can see the stage better.

And if you're in that back corner by the back of the ship where all the windows are, you just feel a little disconnected from what's going on on the stage a little bit.

So I feel like it's hard in that restaurant to say everyone's going to have a great experience when the dining is always great in there.

But being able to participate and see the show is very much determinant of where your table's at.

And it's just a game of chance.

Yeah.

It's not like walking into like a restaurant in Vegas and slipping the guy a $20 bill on getting the, you know, Frank Sinatra seat up front.

Exactly.

I am excited though, because the menu at Plaza de Coco is one of my favorite menus on any restaurant in the fleet.

And I think they're really going to do really well with Pride Lands.

We got to try some of the food and what they're testing out for and it's quite tasty.

If you are a fan of Boma Sanaa, any of the kind of more African inspired places at Animal Kingdom, then this is going to probably be one of your favorite menus during the sailing.

Yeah, I think I'm also not crazy about either of the dinner shows that are in that space.

On the Wish and the Treasure, they're both fine.

I was hoping, and I'm still hoping because we still have what, two more ships of this class for Tokyo and then the other fourth ship, they're going to have a similar space.

But from the first night that we went in on the Wish for the Frozen show, I just said that I wish that they had made the stage like a concert stage where it has the legs in it, the walkways that extend out where you can actually get from all four sides, they could stick out so that people could walk closer to people that are in the very, very back.

And you would at least get a moment where you feel like you can see some of the performers.

And they try to.

I try to take Olaf around and get people that are in the very, very back, but it's not enough.

And there is a massive gap between having a really good seat and having a not good seat.

Like, the gap is so big that it's comical.

You can literally have a conversation with someone and say, yeah, that was great.

And then the person that is at the same show, dinner show as you sang, no, that was not great.

That was not good.

So.

But I. I think the music from Lion King is so great that maybe a bad seat and this one might be the best of the three, possibly just because the music is so good.

But, yeah, I was hoping that they maybe would have made some changes that would help, but we could already see the stage when we were there and they had not really made any changes to that pain point.

Yeah, I mean, I'm sure Disney's aware and I wonder if from a performance perspective, if they're able to somehow address that to folks who are not as close to the stage.

And here's my hack.

If you are, especially like, if you, for example, if you're a Plaza de Coco and you're not as close to the stage as you need to be, the way to get around that is just order more empanadas.

Because empanadas at Plaza de Coco fix everything on night two.

Maybe that's just me.

I'm a big fan of that Night two menu.

I'm a huge fan of that night.

Two menu that might be my favorite dining on any Disney Cruise Line ship is Rapunzel's Royal Table.

But that night two menu at Cocoa is right up there.

Night two menu at Cocoa, Tiana's, and the tuna and steak at 1923 are.

That's a nice try.

Fact, don't even get me started on Marceline Market and festival foods and late night chicken tenders, because it's a whole separate conversation.

The one last thing I want to touch on before we disembark the ship again, this continuing the theming of heroes and villains.

We did get to look at a couple of finished staterooms, which was really nice.

And we saw the headboard murals inspired by, you know, Hercules and Milan and Brave and Big Hero 6, which I'm super stoked about.

I like the artwork.

I also like the wood tones in the rooms are a little bit lighter.

They're a little bit more gray, which I really liked.

I thought the rooms, the design and decor of the rooms are beautiful.

Any sort of thoughts just quickly on the staterooms or anything else that you saw on board?

Yeah, I love Disney Cruise Line staterooms.

Anyways.

I sail on all types of cruise ships and I think they have some of the best designed rooms for families.

The spaces are just the organization on Disney Cruise Line.

Staterooms is so good and there's so much storage that you could sail with your family of four or five for seven nights in one stateroom.

It might be tight, but there's plenty of room for all your stuff.

And your suitcases fit under your bed, which is not something you can say for every other cruise line.

And that's one of my biggest pet peeves, is I don't want to see my suitcase every single morning when I wake up, it goes under my bed.

I also just love, I love that we're Getting Big Hero 6 representation.

Even if it's just in a stateroom, it's a start.

So I'm really thrilled about that.

I'm with you.

You cannot see it.

It's off camera.

But I have a 4 foot tall Baymax plush in my office.

Don't judge.

Hannah and MiFi are besties now, right?

Yeah.

The rooms, I agree on the rooms.

I think the miss on the new ships is the TV slapped on the wall where it's not visible to, like, kiddos that sleep in.

So when we travel with our two, if it's TV before bed, they have to join us in our bed, which is fun on trips.

But, Scott, someday you will appreciate that.

You'll be like, thank you.

I do enjoy it.

It would be okay if one of the nights they didn't have to do that to see the tv.

But that is one where it's just kind of like the TV feels like they forgot about it until the last second.

They're like, oh, crap, we gotta put it somewhere.

So just put it right there.

Well, I think so many kids are on their own devices too.

You know, they're watching their own stuff and they're in their headphones and they're in their own space.

So it's like a.

It's not even a footnote for us.

Like, we don't even watch that much tv.

It's just like a bedtime thing.

But it's the rest of the room.

100% agree.

Like especially rooms with the split bath.

Everything about those rooms makes sense.

Fact check me on the amount of time.

But I think when they were talking to us about the construction of those staterooms and the assembly line, didn't they say that they can roll off a stateroom when they're constructing them at a separate off site place for the ship?

Didn't they say like every 15 minutes they can crank out a stateroom off of that assembly line?

Every 15 to 20 minutes a stateroom gets completed.

Which is wild.

That's crazy.

I really wish we could have gone there on our second after we were done in Meyer Werft.

We could have gone to where they make the staterooms.

They make these pods that essentially are created at this warehouse, factory, whatever you call it, roll off every 15 minutes.

Then they just take them to the ship and they just plug them in.

Like a plug.

They said it's done.

They plug it in, they shut the door behind them.

They don't have to worry about the stateroom until like way down the road when they go check and make sure all the pipes and everything is.

It's a contemporary resort way of.

I mean they're still sort of building the same way that they were in Walt Disney World in, you know, the late 60s.

Yeah, it's awesome.

But yeah, in the decor.

Agree on all of that.

The changes, the artwork is always beautiful.

But yeah, we love those staterooms.

I do love too.

We, we asked about the bunks because I, I don't like sleep in the bunk because I'm an adult and I sleep on the couch because my parents get the bed.

But I love that it's going to be Hercules in the constellation that's above the bunk bed because I think kids are really, really going to love that.

Yeah, yeah.

So before we, before we disembark the ship and just talk about the float out the next day, you know, I think the Destiny is really going to be.

I think one of the takeaways is that it's really going to be the most character driven, wish class ship so far.

I think with all of those multiple villain and hero encounters.

And you know, as we were talking amongst ourselves and some of the folks, somebody said it this way, you know, the Wish is really about princesses and the Treasure is really about the Disney parks and the Destiny is really just about letting loose and having fun through all of the different spaces on the ships.

And you know, I think the other thing too is I think there's a lot more that we don't know yet that we did not take away from this that we're not gonna even hear.

At destination D23, there was a.

After our ship tour, there was a presentation by Walt Disney Imagineering that really helped pull and connect those dots together in a very clear, seamless way from a storytelling perspective, not just about the ship, but about the process.

There were some things that we saw in this presentation which we are obviously like.

The entire experience we were not allowed to take any pictures of or record.

There was some concept art on there that was intriguing and mysterious to say the least.

None of us can figure out or decipher what it was.

I'll be curious to see if this pays dividends later on at some point.

And a lot of these things that we don't know, a lot of the surprises that they have in store will come to light when the.

When the.

When the Destiny makes her first voyage in December.

Any final sort of takeaways just from the ship itself or comparisons to other ships in this class?

I think this is going to be a game changer for Disney and Disney Cruise Line.

I think the other ships allow you to have vacation, which is fantastic.

That's what people go on these ships for.

But I think the Destiny is going to give you permission to let go of your preconceived notion of what a Disney Cruise Line vacation is and let you have that experience in a new and different way.

And it's going to be just as enjoyable as if you go on the other ships in the fleet, but just slightly different and more exciting, I think.

Yeah, I'm hoping it's a step toward more of these character moments on all of the ships.

I like the idea that what they've teased is exclusive to this ship.

But, you know, they're.

You're gonna have a lot of ships here pretty soon.

A lot coming and still existing.

And helping the ships be different, I think will be a priority for them as they have this fleet of 13 ships.

You've got the adventure coming, which is going to be completely unique and a identifiable ship experience.

Whereas I don't think for most just regular guests, there's a huge difference between, like, the magic and the wonder, other than itinerary.

And I think you're going to want those ships to have some more of a.

More of an identity outside of where they're going.

So I think what they are trying to do with the Destiny is probably something that they'll learn from and find ways to do that on the other ships.

So that gets me excited.

Yeah, I love the fact that the Disney Cruise Line menu lets you sort of pick and choose either by the size of the ship, the theming of the ship, the destinations of the ship, and that the menu is about to get a lot bigger.

I'm very, very curious to see not just what these ships are going to look and feel like and where they're going to go, but how the themes change from ship to ship.

And it allows you to pick and choose based on the type of vacation, the type of voyage that you want to have, whether you're going with your family, whether you're going with friends, whether you're going as a bunch of adults.

You know, more choices, more options is a benefit to us as Disney Cruise Line fans.

The last thing I want to talk about is, again, this was a surprise to us, again, something I've never seen or done before, which was the float out the following day as it exited the COVID hall into the river EMS for the first time.

This was wild and unlike anything I expected before because they're like, you know, the ship's gonna.

A tug is gonna pull her out, and it's going to take a couple of hours.

So I'm like, oh, it's not gonna be anything.

First of all, we got there, we got to the shipyard.

I've never been to a NASCAR event, but it was like this NASCAR, like, crowd.

The parking lot was full of RVs and people playing music and food trucks and people, like, hanging out and camping out and cooking out.

It was this, like, cultural event slash street festival for, like, the pulling out of a Disney cruise line.

Maybe there's not a lot to do in Papenburg, but people came from, like, far and wide.

I met somebody there who was a listener who came from, like, the Netherlands to come out and see this.

It was and is a huge deal.

Like, this was a really, really big event.

It was huge.

They kind of warned us that they would be other people that weren't our small group and people who worked at the shipyard and imagineering their.

It was like going to a summer tailgate for a football game.

It is that first Sunday of football, and you're getting ready to watch your favorite team.

There were food trucks there.

There was a DJ playing Disney music.

It was a complete and utter party for a ship float out, which was not what I was expecting at all.

But I was surprised in the best ways.

And I think the fact that our.

Our time there kind of chronologically made sense.

Where we had saw and heard about how important shipbuilding is in Papenburg and how long of course, how long they've been doing it and history of it and the whole process.

And then you see all these people that have just come out.

You know, they have family or they work at the shipyard and it's just, it's kind of this sign that things are good in the town.

Everything's great.

The shipyard is still cranking out ships, Everyone still has jobs.

The economy is doing well for, for that area.

And you know those folks were there, the people that just come out to watch every ship that leaves all six.

And then you had your, your Disney fans too that were, were there, but there were plenty of people.

I, I took a walk kind of around and there were, there was a huge crowds and there was an English speaking group and a guy that said he comes for, for every ship and was there to document all of it.

So all of it.

Those were things that I'd seen in pictures like the crowds kind of coming.

But it being such an event was pretty cool and just knowing that it was, it was exciting for us to see it, but it was kind of like it was more meaningful for a lot of those folks.

Like there was true meaning to seeing it from a different, from their perspective.

It was, it was really cool for me to see it, but it actually, it was, it actually meant something to them, which was, which was fun to hear about.

Yeah, there was this, like, there was this cool energy in the air and you know, there were people coming in matching shirts and they brought their kids and you know, they were on bikes and scooters and they were just making a day of it just watching because they really just, you know, it was like two hours and then they sort of just watched the ship there and just sort of spent the day looking at the ship because that's, that's what's going to happen.

The ship is going to stay at the shipyard for completion of the interior.

It will then after it finishes the dock work, they'll have the conveyance to open water, they'll do sea trials and then the delivery to Disney Cruise Line before it makes its transatlantic voyage over to Port Everglades.

And you know, as quickly as the destiny came out, that spot inside is being filled because they are building ships and they're already working on the fourth of the Wish class ship and then they're going to go to the three smaller ships that are going to come after.

So there, there's a lot to be excited for and I, you know, I was really happy and sort of put the, the cherry on top, seeing her float out because for us, and hopefully.

And the reason why I wanted to have you guys come on and talk about this and share the.

Share what we went through with you, our friend, the listener who's sitting here with us, is to sort of let you sort of understand the process of concept and design to the first cutting of steel, to that moment when it does come out and get into the water.

And for the folks that worked on, literally and figuratively on that ship or physically on that ship, I can only imagine what that must feel like to see years of work and planning come to fruition and then know that we're just weeks away from guests getting on board for the first time.

For you guys, is there any one moment from the.

The tour, any one area that you are most excited for things that are most memorable to you?

I think the most memorable thing for me was the people that I got to do this experience with.

Our group was really, really special and we all bonded really quickly, even though we all kind of knew each other.

Going in and sharing an experience with friends and an experience that you don't get to do every day.

I came up so hyped and I came home so re energized about the work that we get to do and being able to tell these stories to readers or to listeners and knowing that Disney's the one thing that connects all of us and doing it through Disney Cruise Line and letting Meyer Werft kind of be that through line was really, really special.

Yeah, I think for me it was just seeing.

Getting a better idea of how big the team is that works on the ships.

Like imagineering having a base there.

Germany.

Hearing from Philip, like just cruise line is not as in terms of like the theme park community Cruise line is.

Is much, much smaller than kind of the fandom.

But having been a.

A kind of super fan of the cruise line for such a long time, it was cool to see how excited they get about this product that they work on and at the same time knowing that they have a lot of work coming up on all these ships.

There was a huge gap between the magic and the wonder and then the dream and the fantasy.

And then from the fantasy until the Wish.

You know, it was another.

It was 12 years between the fantasy and the wish, 11 years.

And now all of this happening at once is just an exciting thing to think about.

As someone who's a big fan of what Disney Cruise Line does and knowing that also as a fan of news and things that are new just in general about everything Disney, it gets me excited.

Knowing that there's just going to be a lot to talk about for at least through 2031.

So long time.

Yeah.

You know, for me, there was just.

There were so many different takeaways, just at the bare minimum.

Just not that I felt that this was not just the next iteration of Disney Cruise Line ships, but maybe starting to turn the page to the next generation in terms of what our guest experience is going to be like.

You know, these character interactions, some of the storytelling, and not just the breadth and the width, but the depth of the storytelling that is going to be able to happen on board.

I definitely got a much greater understanding and appreciation of the process.

And as somebody, again, who loves the logistics and when I go to a space, I try and imagine how it came to be to be able to see that.

And hopefully we've been able to convey that to you.

Who's listening?

What it looks and feels like going from steel to finished spaces is absolutely fascinating and really get an appreciation, too, of just how many people it does take to make this happen.

Not just at the shipyard in Papenburg and the imagineers who are there, but the folks out in Glendale, the folks from the Disney Cruise Line team in Orlando.

There are so many intricate, tiny, moving parts and pieces that have to come together so seamlessly, so perfectly, and so well timed in order.

You know, certain things can't happen until all those other dominoes fall before it.

And it is a masterclass in precision in terms of how they do this in what I feel is a relatively short period of time.

And I'm more excited than ever to sail on the Destiny in November.

And then we have our group cruise coming up in February.

Anything else that you want to add, anything else that you feel or what's the first place that you go when you step foot on board?

Ice cream.

That is literally.

That's where I always go first.

I'm getting my ice cream cone and then my family and I just.

We love meeting the entertainment staff.

They're.

They're the folks who are just making sure you're having a good time all week long.

So we typically try to hit up a trivia or two that first day and really get to know the team that's going to be making sure we're having fun.

The jewelry store, for sure, we usually go to if it's on that older ship, cabanas or Marceland Market.

We usually just try to get up there and get up, get our food before it gets crazy.

That area can be pretty hectic, so we try to Stay ahead of the crowds, get up there, eat and then usually if, if it's not Alaska, we'll have our bathing suits or our swim trunks and go, go start that with the kiddos and then be ready at the room at 2:00'.

Clock.

So I mean our, my kiddos love just.

They love a hotel room, a stateroom.

Like when I, when I was in Germany, the one thing they asked for the whole time I was gone when I would talk to them was for me to show them the hotel room.

That's what they wanted to see was the hotel room.

So I had to take videos as if I was like, I don't really cover like hotel rooms or anything like that.

But I had to do the, you know, don't touch anything when I walk in the room to take a video of it when it looks really nice just for my kids to see the hotel room.

So they love the stateroom on the cruise ship.

So that's usually us.

We're usually lunch, maybe ice cream, swim and then go hang out in the room.

What's the one place, based on what we've seen, based on what we, you know, know or heard or think, what do you think is the one place on board the Destiny that is going to be most interesting or intriguing or just jaw dropping for guests?

Oh gosh, there's going to be so many.

That's the problem is this is a whole new ball game of things that can happen and that are unknown.

I think the spot that I'm most interested to see the guests perception of is Devilles.

Cruella is just going to pop in every now and then.

You never know when it's gonna happen.

And she might get you up walking a catwalk, which I think is really fun.

Yeah, I, I mean it's kind of a, a simple, easy answer.

But I think the grand hall is maybe what I think will kind of set the tone for the ship.

But it's also one that I feel like I don't have a good grasp of just yet because concept art that we have is not really how they've done concept art for these Wish class ships.

It's more painterly style and you don't really get a feel for what, what it's going to feel like in that space.

And we certainly didn't get, you know, with our look at it, it didn't feel anywhere near like what the grand hall will feel like.

The chandelier was not in place.

So I think I'm most intrigued by the final finished product for that and how it's received by guests.

Like, the.

The Black Panther statue is very different for a Disney ship to have that.

That character there.

Like, what does that mean for the next ship?

Like, how.

How is this going to go?

I mean, I. I personally love it.

I love it in the art, but it's going to be interesting to see how that translates into real life.

I agree.

I think the grand hall is going to be a level up from what we've seen in the past, because based on what they've said they're going to be doing with audio and video and lighting and how it's going to be a transformative space depending on the characters that are going to be in there, I think that is very, very interesting.

Scott, you mentioned it.

We have not seen the chandelier in that grand hall space yet.

Is that piece of concept art that we saw meant to inspire the chandelier?

I think so.

I think so, yeah.

And I think that piece is going to be one of the.

I think they're hiding it for a reason.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think it's going to be one of the most impressive of any of the.

On any of the ships.

So.

And they're all equally unique and gorgeous, but I think this one maybe a little extra meaning behind it.

So I'm excited to see that.

Yeah, I can't wait.

I cannot wait.

I cannot wait to experience the ship as she goes on one of her very first sailings later on this year.

And we will have to reconvene and talk about it all over again.

In the meantime, if people want to find you and follow you and read some of your amazing work, Megan and Scott, tell people where they can find you.

I am on Instagram nglingwithmegan and you can find my work by searching my name on the World Wide Web.

Megan dubois.

I write kind of all over the place, so I would be here for another 45 minutes if I told you everywhere that I wrote, but lots of Disney content, lots of cruise content.

So if you are into that kind of thing, I would love for you to read my articles and come join me in the party.

On Instagram.

Yeah.

And if I'm not in the jewelry store, then I'm on Twitter, so.

Or X, whichever.

Find me there, you know, Depends on the day.

Sometimes I'm mostly just tweeting about news.

Sometimes I'm tweeting memes.

But, yeah, find me on Twitter and X. I'll be sharing more on the the Destiny with the sailing coming up later this year and lots of parks stuff coming up here pretty soon too.

A destination and some cruise line stuff in there, so.

But yeah, find me on X.

It is an exciting time to be a Disney fan.

Certainly an exciting time to be a Disney cruise line fan.

And I will link to all of your stuff in the show notes this week.

Megan and Scott, thank you so much for joining me not just today, but for making a remarkable experience over in Papenburg even more special because we were able to share that and some frites together.

Last question.

If you want to answer it, you can.

If not, you don't have to.

What is your prediction for the name of the next wish class ship?

I know you probably have more than one.

Throw one out there.

My top choice is Disney Enchantment.

Yeah, I feel like Enchantment Imagination, even though both of those are un.

Used by cruise cruise companies too.

Right.

There's like a carnival imagination and I guess it's Enchantment of the Seas.

But there's not just an Enchantment, is there?

I don't think so.

But there's also a wonder, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So there's a lot of crossover with other brands.

Yeah.

I don't think they 100%.

I don't think it bothers them.

So I mean, I feel like those are two, two solid guesses.

I had an idea for one that I've already forgotten.

I can't remember what it was.

I literally have a document that I like, write down all the names that I think I have like 12.

No, I have like 15, but I'm narrowing it down.

Could be the Discovery, could be the Believe.

I like Disney Infinity, which is a callback to the old Disney Infinity game, which unfortunately never, you know, became what it should have been.

Skylanders.

I'm looking at you.

Yeah, it'll be, it'll be crazy.

Maybe I'll put a poll up in the, in the, in the clubhouse to see because there's a few that I think it could be.

But thank you guys again.

I cannot wait to sail with you very soon.

It's time for this week's Disney Trivia Challenge where you can see how well you know the sights, sounds, secrets and stories of Disney.

You can test your knowledge, have some, have some fun and enter for a chance to win a Disney prize package.

This week's trivia contest is once again brought to you by my favorite foodie event of the year, the Swan and Dolphin Food and Wine Classic.

They have just released menus and I am more excited than ever.

It's happening Friday and Saturday, November 15th and 16th, right in the heart of Walt Disney World.

It is an incredible night of world class food, drinks, live music and some Disney magic under the stars.

More importantly, your ticket includes unlimited food and beverages with dishes from award winning chefs, wines, beers, cocktails from around the world, all on the beautiful causeway between the Swan and Dolphin resorts.

It really is one of my highlights of the year.

I cannot wait to be there again this year.

And if you love Disney food and just having a great night, you're going to love it too.

Tickets are on sale now and you can get all the details over at swan dolphin foodandwinclassic.com and I hope to see you there on the causeway.

And now, before we get to this week's trivia question, let's go back, review last week's and select our winner.

So last week I was talking about how music and audio play such an important part of the parks and attractions and experiences.

And I asked you to tell me where in Walt Disney World can or have you heard this?

It's Fall to be free.

Yes, thanks to all of you.

Entered, got this one correct, knew that this is it's fun to be free from World of Motion in Epcot.

This was the theme song which debuted October 1, 1982, closed in 1996.

It was composed by Buddy Baker and with lyrics by Existencio.

And what I love, not just about the attraction, but really about this music, was that it was this looping underscore that was woven into each of the different scenes styled to match the different eras and culture.

So ancient Rome, the Wild West, Renaissance Italy, the Surfer 60s and a lot more with the speed tunnels and this rousing orchestral finale.

And if you go back and listen to the entire track, you can hear playful renditions in like Ragtime and Disneyland jazz and Broadway show tunes.

There's like a kazoo and a Keystone Cop style.

More importantly, if you listen carefully, it's sort of punctuated by vehicle noises.

Great soundtrack, great theme song for World of Motion, which was not just a fun, whimsical attraction, but one that I miss from Epcot Center's earliest days.

Anyway, I took all the correct entries, randomly selected one last week you were playing for the WW audio keychain, the stickers, the pin, and a mystery prize that I brought back just for you from Disneyland.

And last week's winner, randomly selected, is Leanne Figueroa.

So, Leanne, congratulations.

I'll get your prize package out to you right away.

If you played last week and didn't win, that's okay because here's your next chance to enter in this week's Disney Cruise Line Trivia Challenge.

So as long as we're talking about the Disney Destiny and the process of building ships, I cannot wait to get on the Destiny in February.

I hope that you can join us.

So tell me, on which two Disney Cruise Line ships can you play the Midship Detective Agency game?

On which two Disney Cruise Line ships can you play the Midship Detective Agency game?

You're gonna have until Sunday, August 31st at 11:59pm Eastern, giving you an extra week because I'm traveling to speak at not one but two conferences coming from up this week, so you have an extra week.

To answer, go to www.com click on this week's podcast.

Use the form there.

Again, you're gonna play for the keychain, the stickers, the pin and a mystery prize.

Maybe from Disneyland, maybe from Disney Cruise Line.

So good luck and have fun.

Thank you again for listening.

More importantly, for the incredible opportunity and privilege to be invited out for this very, very, very special event.

It only happened because of you and your years of love, support, friendship and help.

I am so incredibly grateful to and for you and I hope that the show brought you a little bit of Disney magic into your week.

After seeing the Destiny up close and walking her decks, I am more excited than ever for our WW Radio Group cruise on the Destiny February 9th through the 14th in 2026.

It is a five night cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Nassau and Lookout Key at Lighthouse Point where not only you can you enjoy all of the magic of a Disney cruise, but you can also be part of exclusive WW meetups, private events and special surprises just for our group.

Whether you are a solo traveler, a couple, a family, sailing with us is all about more than just a vacation.

It's about joining a community of Disney fans who are just passionate about the magic and storytelling and chicken tenders that make Disney so special.

It is a great opportunity to make new friends, lasting connections and share some magical moments together.

Whether you are a longtime listener or new to the WWW family.

Not only is everyone welcome to join on this very special journey, but I would love to personally invite you to come along as well.

You can learn more and get a free no obligation quote from my friends over at MouseFanTravel.com by going to www.radio.com destiny26.

But wait, there's more because the night before we depart Fort Lauderdale it's the Super Bowl.

So I'd love to invite you to join us for a very special pre Cruise super bowl party in Fort Lauderdale in a venue right near the port.

And thanks to our friends at MouseFan Travel, we've reserved an entire venue which means no crowds, no no lines, no distractions.

Just great company, great opportunity to meet one another, great food of course and the big game on multiple TVs throughout the space.

And of course you can't have a Super bowl party without food.

And by food I meet an all you can eat buffet of some of your favorite game day foods and soft drinks.

And right now this event is exclusively available to those of us who are joining us on the Disney Destiny.

So ask your Mouse fan Travel for more information and I would to love love to see you on the Destiny with us in February 2026.

Once again, I hope you enjoyed this week's show, an exclusive tour of the Disney Destiny and it brought a little bit of happiness and Disney magic to your day and week.

If it did and you enjoyed the show, please help spread the word, share the show and tell a friend.

Always remember to choose the good to teach and lead by example.

And I hope that you have an amazing day and an even better tomorrow.

So until next time, my friend and you are my friend.

Whether we have met yet or not, I love and appreciate you.

See ya.

Well, it sounds pretty good.

In fact, that's just the right spirit.