Pre-Trip Report: Chris’ Disney Wish Come True (April 2026)

[00:00:11] Welcome to Where I Long To Be, a Magical Trip Report Podcast. My name is Virginia and I am your host. Last week after some audio challenges, I put out the call for listeners to identify the spot in my recording when a car revving its engine could be heard by telling me what restaurant we were discussing. A few people submitted, but only one got it right. So without further ado, let's hear from our winner.

[00:00:36] Good morning, Virginia. This is Jodi Collins from Harvard, Massachusetts, also known as your Park Planning Pal. We are Instagram friends. Just finished your most recent podcast. I'm glad to hear that you are feeling better. Kidney stones are no joke, but Alex did a great job stepping in for you. I'm sure I'm not the first person to send a voice recording, but you all were talking about Whispering Canyon. I did slightly hear the vroom vroom. I will say though, the air can be heard from the air.

[00:01:05] The air conditioning in your home was definitely turbo loud. I could totally hear you, but the vroom was even more subtle. Thank you for all of your content. You are my favorite podcast and I hope you have a great weekend. Congratulations, Jodi. I will be picking you up a gift when I'm on my trip in July. So when you get a chance, please DM me your mailing address. Thank you so much for being a loyal listener and for participating.

[00:01:34] And I have a confession. That wasn't actually my air conditioner, if you can believe it. In New York City, many buildings that were built before a certain year have steam heat and we were having a cold snap the night I was recording. So the steam had turned on and was going crazy. I think we had a week where it was like in the upper 70s and then it went back into the 50s and that triggered the steam heat to come on and it was just absolutely nuts.

[00:01:58] Anyway, I have learned something from this and it's that it's better if I don't try to fix anything because when I tried to silence myself when I wasn't the one speaking, it only made it more obvious. So thankfully, it's a seasonal challenge so I won't have to worry about it again for a while. Okay, on to this week's show. Today's guest is a second timer here. You know him, you love him. It's Chris, also known as TrumpetSquid on all the socials.

[00:02:27] If you aren't following him on TikTok or Instagram, what are you waiting for? Seriously, pause this and come back. Okay, you're back, just like Chris. Welcome back, Chris. Thank you for having me back. Very excited to be here. I know. It's always good to see your face, whether it's here or on TikTok or Instagram or all the places that I follow your content. How have you been?

[00:02:52] Thank you. Yeah. Good. You know, it feels like this trip has been on the books for 18 months. Wow. We booked this trip all the way back when Disney was doing like a 50% off your cruise deposit and we just took advantage of the long. We could book all the way into summer or spring break of 2026. So I'm excited for this trip.

[00:03:17] It feels like it's coming at just the right time after the snow storms that we've had to deal with. Oh, yeah. Just the holidays behind us. This is the right time. Yeah. And I was down in your neck of the woods for like a business trip I had to go on. And it was after all the snow had gone. But I was a little surprised by the lack of cleanup. Yeah.

[00:03:46] They don't really know what to do with the snow down here in the D.C., Baltimore kind of area. They just... The snow shows up. This... In particular, this storm, they called it that we were gotten snowcrete. The snow that came in, it was super cold. When it was snowing, it was like... It snowed only actual snow for a short period of time. And then it just sleeted on top of that. And the ice encased the snow.

[00:04:15] The machines, the trucks couldn't pull the snow up. We were trapped. My son was off from school for a week. And it was only at the end of the day, you know, near us, probably like six, seven inches. In other areas, it was more. But it just... They could not... The trucks were... The plows were breaking. It was so cold that they could not pull it up. Okay, this is making a little bit more sense to me now.

[00:04:44] Because I have to admit, I was judging the plowing drops that I saw. Oh, that's fine. It was terrible. It was terrible. And then you... Up there, you guys got hit twice. And... We got hit twice. But at least, like, we know what to do. Because it does snow occasionally here. And... And you have equipment. And... We have equipment. And in fact, this year is the first year I learned about these... What I'm referring to as hot tub trucks. The melters. Yes. Which I had no idea of.

[00:05:11] But when I was on this trip, I was driving a rental car. And you'd be driving down, like, a two or three lane highway. And suddenly, without warning, without signs, without anything, there's a pile of snow in your lane. Yeah. And to top it off, like, there was, like, a snafu at the rental car place. So they were... They had, like, booked too many cars. Didn't have enough cars for the amount of people.

[00:05:37] And so it was, like, whatever was available when it was your turn on the list, you got. And I got this, like, massive SUV Mercedes. Which was too fancy for me. Because I could not figure out some of the... Even, like, how to put it into drive. I sat there to the point where the rental car guy came over and was like, Ma'am, are you okay? Do you need something? And I was like, I'm just trying to, like, get my bearings on everything. And he's like... Before he walked away, he goes,

[00:06:06] Oh, by the way, this is where you put it in drive. And I had been looking for other things. Like, I had been trying to set up my phone and whatever. And I was like, I'm so glad he said that. Because now that he tells me it's on where I would normally think to put on windshield wipers on my car. That was the drive thing. And so I would have had to call him back to ask him about that. I felt ridiculous. But anyway, it's hard enough to drive a car you're not familiar with. But to have a car you're not familiar with.

[00:06:31] And to multiple times out of nowhere be suddenly going towards a snowbank and need to stop. Yeah. There was a friend of mine who lives in an apartment and had a balcony that overlooked one of the big highways. And that's all she saw was where people coming in. And because the snow was not plowed correctly, you would think that there was a lane or there's supposed to be a lane there. But they only plowed two out of the three lanes or whatever it was.

[00:07:00] And all of a sudden, it was like, I'm in a snowbank. And these cars would just roll into the snowbank. And yeah, that was very good social media content for a while. Luckily, nobody seems to have gotten hurt. Yeah, it was challenging. I was over there in the Bowie State area, which I only recently learned it was pronounced Bowie State and not Bowie State. That's Bowie. Bowie here. Yeah, I know.

[00:07:25] Anywho, before we move into your plans for this trip, for anybody who did not get a chance to listen to your previous episode, which was from September of 2025. Seems like forever ago. I know. We've lived a lifetime in these months. Why don't you introduce yourself and just tell us, we've already alluded to where you are in the world, but what's your background? Why do you love Disney so much? Sure. So my name is Chris.

[00:07:52] I'm not someone that grew, well, of course, everybody grew up with Disney in some sense or another. But I feel like I really got into the parks and the Disney bubble pretty much right after college. I went on a big trip with friends. And then since then, I've really enjoyed being in the bubble. I've learned over many trips that I no longer need to be in the park to have the same type of experience that I want to have.

[00:08:21] I just like being down there almost seemingly as soon as you get off the plane at MCO. I feel like I already feel better. And the rides are great. I'm not a thrill ride person. I don't really do roller coasters. I don't do roller coasters. Although I have done Guardians. That was a terrible experience. Never again. When I was there on this trip in September, I rode Dinosaur because it was closing. And I was told, it'll be fine.

[00:08:48] It'll be, you know, it just jostles you around. And I filmed a TikTok right after that and saying, you're all liars. That was awful. That was terrible. I don't even know what happened because my eyes were closed the entire time. It was terrifying. So, yeah, I'm down in the Washington, D.C. metro area. I've been down here since college. Originally, I'm from New York. Grew up in Queens there. And, yeah, we've been to the parks. I started a spreadsheet. I don't have it up in front of me.

[00:09:17] Maybe that'll be for the next episode. So I started a spreadsheet to keep track of my trips because I think it's fun to look back on it and you kind of forget what you've done. I've gone when I was much younger with my parents. I don't remember. We just have the actual printed photos of me, you know, with Mickey or something. But since college, I've gotten to go obviously go on my own. I got married. Right after we got married, my wife and I went down there on a little mini moon.

[00:09:45] My brother got married at the parks. And since we've brought our son now and he loves it and now we're getting ready to go on our first Disney cruise. So I love the idea of Disney. I don't need to be on a ride to be happy. I just need to be somewhere within somewhere within those signs, those road signs. That would be good enough for me. I understand that feeling. Now, your trip in September was just you and your wife, Chrissy. That's right.

[00:10:15] Who's going to be on this trip? We have a six-year-old boy. His name is Vinny. He's going to be on this trip with us. We took him down to Disney for the first time. He turned two while we were in Disney. That was a lot of fun. So he's... Interestingly enough, we took him on a Royal Caribbean cruise. I have personally sailed Royals six times now. We took him on one of them with my parents. And I think we watched...

[00:10:42] There was like a National Geographic episode about the building of the Wish, the Disney Wish. And he really liked that and was like enamored by all the big construction equipment and all that. And ever since we started getting into cruising, we've only been cruising, I think, since early 2023. I've obviously really wanted to do a Disney cruise. And when Disney came out with their deal for this one, I just pulled the trigger on it. So yeah, Vinny's coming with us. One day I think I'd love to do a cruise with just me and my wife.

[00:11:12] But this is appropriate. Bringing Vinny... It's a totally different experience from what we've had experience with on Royals. I mean, I haven't been on a Disney cruise, but just all of the research and the YouTube videos that I've seen and the discussions that I've had. And just knowing the Disney brand, I just know this is going to be different. It's going to be great. I'm just... I'm very excited for him to see all of that. So you are heading down April the 12th and coming back the 19th.

[00:11:40] Is this Vinny's spring break? Funny you should ask that. It is not. It is my wife's spring break. She is an elementary school teacher. And so we really had to plan this around her break. Vinny actually is just finishing his spring break. And, you know, so he'll go to school this week, the week that we're recording. And then we're pulling him out for a week. That's what you can do, though, when they're little. It's not... You know, it's a little harder when he gets to be an eighth grader or... Right. God forbid, a high schooler.

[00:12:09] So, you know... It's going to be here faster than you know. Yeah. And teachers' PTO schedules are so difficult to deal with. It's just like... Mm-hmm. Once we figured out what my wife's spring break was, we just took that opportunity. Now, you said that you had booked this 18 months ago. Mm-hmm. So when you booked it, did you book these exact dates? Or you held it and then later decided what your dates would be? We booked these dates.

[00:12:36] No, we knew well in advance what her spring break was. And we booked the dates. Okay. Yeah, I know because when people sail on a Disney cruise, you'll get, you know, that bounce back offer or whatever they call it. Some kind of... Yeah, you get a deal where you make a $250 deposit and then you got to get 10% off or something off of the... Whatever you end up booking, but you've got to do it within a year. So, yeah.

[00:13:04] I'm sure, Will, you're going to take advantage of that, but that's not... Yeah. That's not what we did. I feel certain. I think that's a given when it comes to you is that you're going to go on this and get hooked and be like, All right, this is what we're doing now. I'm going to be spoiled. I know it. I know it. All right. So, outside of the cruise, which we'll get into, you also have a couple of resort stays on the going down portion.

[00:13:31] And when you come back, which hotels will you be taking advantage of this trip? So, we're going down a day early. Everybody says, and I agree, you got to go in at least a day early for your cruise. Don't... You know, it's dangerous to go in the day of embarkation, although on the last one, we did do that. So, practice what you preach, I guess. But... So, we're going in the night before on the 12th. We're staying at Disney's All-Star Sports Resort.

[00:13:56] And we just picked that because we wanted to take advantage of the Disney Cruise Line transfer bus, which picks you up at the resort and brings you to the port. So, cheapest room available, please. That's what we chose for that one night. And then what hotel will you be staying at on your way back through town? Yeah, we are going to... When the cruise gets back in, we'll take the transfer bus back to Walt Disney World, and we'll be at Coronado Springs for two nights.

[00:14:25] So, we'll be there in one of the casitas, I think. Last time we were there, on the last trip, we stayed in Grand Destino. Mm-hmm. But we wanted to be close to the pool for Vinny, so that's what we're doing. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I think that, particularly with a resort-only stay, it's not quite as important for you to be close to the main buses or anything like that. Right, right. Although Coronado Springs is a big resort.

[00:14:53] You know, we were spoiled when we were in Grand Destino Tower. Everything was there. Yeah, for the food and everything. We'll see how much I like it or dislike it on the back end. I think that all of the times that I've stayed there and not been in Grand Destino, it's been maybe like a 10-minute walk at the most to get to the food. So, I don't think you're going to be too far. Now, granted, you know, I think there are some farther out buildings that perhaps I have not been put in.

[00:15:21] We requested with our travel agent, you know, always use a travel agent. But she put in a request that we're in the building that's basically like between Grand Destino Tower and the pool. So, hopefully we'll be in a good spot. But yeah, there's definitely farther out groupings of buildings. Could be worse. Did you use Danny from Fantastical Vacations again? That's right. Yep. Yes, we did. All right. Good to know. And did she help you set up your cruise as well? Yep, everything. We did everything through her for this.

[00:15:50] So, she made it as seamless as possible. I had a lot of questions about the cruise when we were going into it. So, she was able to answer them all. Yeah, I think especially if I'm ever doing a cruise, I for sure want to use a travel agent. Because you have all of this information that you're... As many times as I've talked to people who have been going on Disney cruises, I am absolutely certain the first time I do it, it's going to be a little overwhelming as to how do I do all this? What happens what day?

[00:16:19] How do I plan for it? And it's nice to have somebody who is experienced in that to help you. Yeah, we have the benefit of at least... This isn't our first ever cruise. So, we... It's a first Disney, but... So, we at least know a lot of the things about what should we bring? How do we check in? You know, you got to have documents. What can you bring and what can't you bring? So, but I totally agree. There are so... It is because you're moving and you're kind of traveling, right?

[00:16:47] You're not just plopping yourself in one spot and staying there. There are a lot more particulars that it's very helpful to have someone who can answer those questions. Are you in any of the Facebook groups for people who are sailing on the Wish at the same time you are? Funny you should ask. I am the admin of our Facebook group. Of course you are. Okay, but I... I'm not surprised. I have justification.

[00:17:13] When we booked this cruise so long ago, the first thing I did was, okay, great. Let's find my Facebook group. Well, there wasn't one. What's a guy to do? So, I made one and started, you know, getting the word out of... You know, putting it on all the other... There's so many Facebook groups. Not just the Facebook groups for your cruise sailing, but like Facebook groups for the ship. Facebook groups for what you... Anyway, so... So, yeah. So, now we've got...

[00:17:43] We're pushing 600 people, you know. It's actually pretty... It's pretty cool. But, yeah. I ended up... I ended up as an admin of the Facebook group. I think it's fun. People have really strong opinions on whether or not they want to bother joining them. But for a first-time person, I really have gained a lot of knowledge from the people that have been on this... Been doing this longer. So, yeah. Did you also join a fish extender group or is that sort of built into this? Oh, boy. So, I learned...

[00:18:12] This was another thing. Yeah. We did join one. After I joined and in the multitude of research that I've been doing, it's a very... Lots of people recommend if this is your first one, don't do it. So, immediately I was like, ooh. Did I make a mistake? I was out today. Still going to try to find certain things that we needed for them. So, yeah. There was somebody else in the Facebook group who approached me and was like, hey, I don't know if you're doing this. It's a thing.

[00:18:41] I can do it for you. I was like, go right ahead. Go and organize it. So, they put together a spreadsheet. People signed up. Then she assigned everybody's in their groups. And so, yeah. We're doing it. But I gotta be honest with you. I think I agree. And this is me prior to getting on the cruise. So, let's have the conversation on the flip side. Yeah. It's a lot to think about for a first time. If you're still getting wrapping your head around it.

[00:19:11] You haven't experienced it. You haven't received the fish extender gifts. That's a big thing. I don't know. I'm Googling and watching YouTube videos and listening to podcasts about what people are putting in these things. And then it definitely feels a little bit like that episode of The Office where Michael buys Ryan the iPod and the white elephant gift exchange. And everyone's like, whoa! Why are you doing that? Because you see people post these things.

[00:19:41] And I look at them like, how much are they spending on all these people? And then, of course, people are like, well, I go to Dollar Tree, Target Dollar Spot, Five Below, Amazon. So, Chrissy had to say to me a couple of times, I think we're good. I think we're okay. But I have this, like, well, I don't want them to not like what we've gotten. Like, did we get enough? And, you know, then you, there's different, it's like family groups, kids only, adults only.

[00:20:10] So, we are in a family group and an adults only group. Then it's like, what do you get a 45-year-old man? Yeah. So, I, so. Yeah. And for people who don't know, the fish extender groups are groups where you can sort of arrange to get each other little gifts. And you've agreed that everybody's, you know, participating within your, your pod, I'm gonna call it. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I, I think if I had a small child. Right. I would probably do it. And that is the reason why we jumped on it, yeah.

[00:20:40] I, you know, I don't want, I don't know, maybe I sound like a bit of a Grinch, but. No, I. I don't want a bunch of stuff. You know, that's what people, yeah. It's like, you get stuff you don't want. Yeah. Not to mention, I've got to bring it all with me to Florida. Uh, I gotta pack it in a suitcase. So now, again, I'm like, I was out this morning being like, well, we have the little bags for all the individual people. Now we've got to put them in a larger bag to put, that's like, I, you know. Yeah.

[00:21:08] But catch me on the flip side and maybe I'll have the best experience ever. And, you know. You're right in the fact that I jumped on it because we have our son coming with us and I wanted him to get that experience of the magic and the pixie dusting. And what a lot of people do and a lot of people have been saying is they just put up the fish extender. They go and they, they put it up on the thing. It's the little hook outside their door.

[00:21:34] Or, and they don't, they don't join a fish extender group, but there are people who just pixie dust and, you know, nice and put things in. Right. And so everybody, a lot of people will have the bag, but not everybody's necessarily doing this organized exchange. And I honestly think that's probably the way to go. Uh, yeah. I would do that, I think. Yeah. Because then, like, get a little bit here and there. And then maybe I would bring, you know, a handful. Well, you've got to bring things to advertise your podcast. But is that allowed? I can't imagine that's allowed. Who's going to stop you?

[00:22:04] If I'm putting podcast stickers in people's pocket outside their door. I don't know. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. Advertising. I don't know. Include a QR code. You know, yeah. I mean, I, I, I don't have any business cards that I'm handing out. I'm handing out for Trumpet Squid. So, yeah, I guess you're right. But I have a sticker for my door. I have a magnet for my door. Okay. That's fun. Yeah, I would, I would bring magnets for my door. Partially, just for fun.

[00:22:32] And so that, honestly, I could identify my door from a distance. Oh, yeah. They all have the same. Yeah. Easy to get lost. All right. Let's go through your day-to-day plans. So, Sunday, April the 12th. What time is your flight? It's very early in the morning. I think it leaves at, like, 6.30 or even 6. I know that the scheduled Uber is picking us up at 4.15. Oh. Oh, my goodness. So, it's early.

[00:23:01] Because if it's leaving at, I think it leaves at, like, 6.15, which means it's boarding at 5, you know what I mean? You know, so it's all of a sudden you're getting up. All of a sudden you're getting up at 3. You might as well not even sleep. But I didn't want to park my car and pay for parking for a week. Oh, no. No. No. What airport are you flying out of? Reagan? We are flying out of Reagan, or as the locals call it, National DCA. Yeah. Okay. And what time does that get you into Orlando? Gets us in pretty early, like, close to 9 o'clock. Okay.

[00:23:30] I think just before 9. Okay. And how are you going to get from there over to All-Star Sports? We're going to Uber. I didn't. This is, you know, if we were just traveling without our son, we would normally just take Ubers everywhere. We generally would do the bus, the mirrors connect when our son comes with us because then we don't have to bring a car seat. We are trying something new. Um, we, uh, purchased a travel car seat.

[00:23:59] Now, if anyone from the National Highway Safety Administration is listening, it may not be. I don't know if it's, I don't know what they approve. I don't know. But Florida's a, Florida's a interesting place anyway with all these rules. And he's like 6, but our son's kind of like lanky and small. So, I don't know if it's a, you know, whatever the rule is, we have a car seat that we have to blow up. It's kind of like a booster thing. And then the- Whoa. Okay. The- It's not a bit, it's more of a booster.

[00:24:29] I shouldn't say it's a car seat. It's a booster to bring him high enough so that he can use a regular seatbelt. Many people have suggested it. We have friends who have it. And according to Amazon, you know, this is what they do in Europe. So, you know. If it's good enough for the Europeans, I guess it's good enough. Yeah. We're going to give it a try. We'll see how it goes. Yeah. So, we're going to Uber from the airport to the resort. All right. Now, because you're getting there so early and this is a resort only stay, what kind of plans do you have? Are you going to- Because your room won't be ready. No.

[00:24:58] So, what are you thinking? I don't know. Probably the pool. By that point in time, I'm going to need to eat. So, I'm going to probably get something to eat. Vinny's going to want to get in the pool. You know, since my last trip, I've gotten into pin trading, which is a pole thing. So, you know, I'll hit up the shop and, you know, I think we'll just pretty much just hang out by the pool. We'll make sure we have all that stuff and wait for our room to get ready, have lunch and just wait. Okay.

[00:25:27] Are you going to do any Disney Springs? Not on the Sunday. Not on the Sunday. All right. So, just resort time on this day. And what time do you need to be ready to be picked up the next morning for your transfer? Good question. Probably need to figure that out. But from what I understand, it's basically sometime we will be told. But I do know that I think we have to have, like, our bags will be picked up for us. I think around 7 o'clock in the morning. Okay.

[00:25:56] But then I think we'll be told when we have to go get the bus outside of the main hall there. Do you know when your... Port arrival? Yeah. So... Is that pre-assigned? It is. So, 30 days before your embarkation date is the all-important, like, you got to check in at midnight thing. But because we're doing a DCL transfer on the DCL bus, it doesn't matter because it's

[00:26:25] whatever time they're just going to pick us up and they're going to bring us there. And whenever we get there, we're going to be able to get on, I guess. Unless we're super early. So, all my paperwork just says transfer. It doesn't actually have a time or anything. As opposed to these other folks who are like, oh, I got 1130 or I'm in group 10. Okay. That, in a lot of ways, makes things much easier. I agree. They're going to prioritize their own folks. So, happy with that. Okay. Cruises are a little bit different to talk about than, like, a park trip.

[00:26:55] So, what are the stops on this cruise? One of the big reasons why we picked this particular cruise in addition to it worked out with the schedule is that it is four nights. It's only going to Castaway Cay and Lighthouse Cay or Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point. So, only the two of Disney's islands. It's not going anywhere else. So, we have those two days and then an at sea day. It's not going to Nassau, which is another popular destination or anything like that,

[00:27:25] which I think is pretty cool. Do you, is the sea day in between the two island days? It's the last day. Okay. Is that good or bad? I don't know. Who knows? Yeah, I don't know. Which of the islands will you go to first? Castaway. Castaway is the first day. And then Lookout and then the sea day. Okay. And again, because talking about a cruise is a little bit different,

[00:27:50] why don't you just tell me what you are most looking forward to in experiencing your very first Disney cruise? The cop-out would be everything. I mean, I think I am most excited to just be on the ship. When we go on cruises, I'm very much, you know, some folks cruise for the destinations. They, like, are excited to get off and explore or do an excursion.

[00:28:17] You know, for me, when I cruise, I love the ship. The ship is the destination for me. So I think I'm most excited, honestly, to experience the onboard activities. Disney Cruise Line, when you play trivia and you win, you get a medal. You get, like, a plastic medal. Now, compared to Royal Caribbean, where they give you, like, a keychain or a highlighter or a pen, I want to try and win those medals. I'm very excited for that.

[00:28:44] So, I mean, that's probably my big thing is the whole onboard experience. That's what I'm looking forward to. The one cruise that I have been on 20 plus years ago at this point was a carnival cruise. And I did trivia and I won. And I got a trophy of some sort, like a small trophy because I had a picture of myself holding it. Lord knows where it went. I think I probably threw it away because I don't generally like a lot of, like, knickknacks and tchotchkes,

[00:29:13] which, again, I'm sitting in Alex's room. So all you can see is tchotchkes behind me. I've got a lot. I'm a big, I'm the opposite. I have too many things. Every few years I have to go through and just purge. I mean, I do too because things just build up. I do have things. I mean, Disney survives on selling tchotchkes, so. Right. Yes. Yes. For me, it's my Disney mug collection.

[00:29:38] I have to go through and really assess which ones I need to keep and which ones it's time to part with because I've only got so much space. All right. So you're looking forward to trying out some trivia. Have you seen any of the shows that are being offered that you're especially excited for? So I think we have Aladdin, Little Mermaid, and there's, like, sort of a review show.

[00:30:04] I think it's C-S-E-A-S, The Adventure, I think. But I might be thinking of one of the other ones. Yeah. I'm looking forward to that. I don't know how excited I will be to see Little Mermaid or Aladdin on some of the other ships. There are some more unique shows. Or I think the Destiny has Hercules. That would be awesome. So those are not my priorities. I would like to see the review show because that's the kind of stuff I like. But yeah.

[00:30:33] They are showing, though. They have two movie theaters in addition to the main theater. And they're showing Hoppers. And I have purposefully not seen it, nor have we taken Vinny to see it, so that we can watch it on the ship. Which I think is cool. Because they will do... That is fun. They usually will play early release the movies on the ships. Although Hoppers is already out, but... Mm-hmm.

[00:31:02] They will have, like, the, you know, very new movies that have come out from Disney, obviously. So we're looking forward to that. Is there any kind of pirate night or anything like that? There is... I don't know off the top of my head which night it is. I think it's the night before the At Sea Day. There is a pirate night, so every three... Three nights and more, they have pirate night, from what I understand. I, again, I've never experienced it, but we did... I know my wife bought some, like, pirate-y items.

[00:31:32] We got some... A pirate shirt for Vinny, and then I bought... It hasn't come in yet, but I did buy a pirate Roosevelt shirt, which is, like, I have, like... Oh, fun. I have many Roosevelt shirts. That's all I'm going to wear. We're like... So I will do that, and then one of the... We actually bought, for all of these fish extender gifts, like, eye patches to give everybody. So, woo-hoo! I mean, pirates are not really my jam, but I shall participate.

[00:32:01] I'm sure you'll have a good time. All right. And what about the food offerings? Everybody talks about places like Paolo. I assume that there's a Paolo on the ship. Is that something that interests you, given the fact that you'll have a six-year-old with you? Yeah, so we are very much looking forward to Vinny enjoying the kids' club. My hope is that he... My hope is that he doesn't want to leave. But, um...

[00:32:30] So we did try to get a Paolo... Not dinner, because, as you mentioned, we have the kiddo. But we tried to get a brunch. They do brunch on the sea days. And so we tried to get that, but it's one of those things you have to book at midnight, 30 days, because we've never sailed before. The more you sail, the higher you move up in their castaway club, and the earlier you get those options to book.

[00:32:56] So by the time you're getting down to the runts of the litter like us, who've never sailed before, all that stuff is gone, because it's only a four-night sailing. So we are going to try, though, they say, if you go, when you get on board, go and see if there's, you know, check in with the dining folks when you get on the ship and see if there's something they can do for you. So if we can do a Paolo brunch, we will, because I think that'll be cool. Our... Danny, our travel agent, she said,

[00:33:23] I can get you a reservation at Almschant, which is like $145 a person dinner. We're good. That's not our style. So that's, yeah, just for the signature stuff, that's what they have those two restaurants. What is the Kids Club theme on the ship? Do you know? So it's like, there's like a Star Wars thing, and then there's also a Marvel thing, and it's like a whole bunch of different things, the Oceaneer Club. It's all... They've got... I know there's a Star Wars thing,

[00:33:53] there's a Marvel thing, and then there's like apparently like a roller coaster tycoon thing where you can build a coaster, and then you can ride the coaster in a little... Oh, that's fun. VR thing. Okay. I only know that from the YouTubes, so... Love it. Well, you've got so many fun new experiences to have, and I can't wait to hear all about those. And then after the cruise is done, you'll be heading over to Coronado for those two nights,

[00:34:22] presumably spending a lot of time at the pools. But do you have anything else planned, like dining reservations or anything? Yeah, we do. And then, you know, I like the pools as much as anybody else, but like I said, I'm looking forward... It's been... Since we haven't been back since I entered the pin trading arena, I'm looking forward... That was some really big air quotes that you just flashed at me. It is really... You can't see it here. I've got a pin board now,

[00:34:48] and so I have some pin content on my social media. So I'm really looking forward to kind of giving that a shot. So maybe while everybody else is in the pool, I will escape a little. But the ship gets in pretty early on Friday, and then they kick you off the boat pretty quickly. And so we are taking the bus transfer back to the resort, which was also purposeful because de-embarkation day or disembarkation day is on any cruise.

[00:35:17] It's just... It's hectic because they want you off the ship so they can turn around and get everybody on. And there's all these rules about where you can be and what you... And you have to be out of your room by a certain time and all that. So to make it as easy as possible, Disney wants us off the ship. Well, Disney's going to take us to the resort. We take the bus back to Coronado. So we'll get there hopefully, you know, in a good time. We don't have to wait too long for our room to be ready. And then that evening,

[00:35:43] we have an 810 reservation at Wailulu Bar and Grill, purposefully timed so that we can hopefully see the fireworks for happily ever after. And you ate there in September, right? We did. We ate there just as like a random lunch day, and it was delicious. So we wanted to go back. We'll bring Vinny. But we really wanted to try to see if we could get, you know, hopefully the weather is good.

[00:36:13] We can be outside. And they pipe in the music. Is it a 9 p.m. fireworks? I think so. Maybe it's 830. Either way, we're, you know, hey, if I gotta drag that dinner out, I will drag the dinner out. Well, that's what I was going to say is if it's an 830 fireworks, there will be people dragging it out. So I'm not sure whether you'll be seated or not yet, just because that's what I've heard is that people will sit there for a really long time.

[00:36:41] So yeah, I'll have to look that up and see when. Because yeah, I don't know if it gets later over the summer or not that we're in the summer. But right now it says that tonight it was 930. Oh, okay. So hopefully we'll be there to catch the, we'll be dragging it out at the end there. So you're going to be like, all right, we'll just order appetizers. We still need to think. And then. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, why don't you get some, we'll get some drinks and yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[00:37:11] Yeah. I think that'll be good. Make sure you get a dessert, maybe a coffee. Absolutely. No, we'll do that. All right. So Saturday, do you have any dining plans? We don't. And purpose, that was purposeful too. I think, I think that I would like to try to go to Disney Springs on this and these, between these two days. So I thought maybe that could be a good day where we go to Disney Springs either for dinner or something like that. Or again, just to try to go shopping in Disney Springs. So no, no. And pin. Yeah.

[00:37:41] Yes. And buy some pins. So we do have Sunday morning though. We have a reservation for Topolino's Terrace for breakfast, 10 o'clock in the morning with the characters. That's the first time I've ever done that. So I've really wanted to go there. The Riviera is like where I want to be. Where you long to be? Where I long to be. There it is. Wait, have you been to Topolino's at all before? No, no, have not. Have you been to the Riviera at all? Oh yeah, yeah. We've been there.

[00:38:11] Last time on the podcast, I was supposed to go there to get their chocolate chip banana bread and we never did it. You were. And I was very upset. So we're going to rectify that. Okay. Yeah. Get a piece to go. You're going to be able to eat breakfast. Exactly. Well, you know, that's our departure day. So we'll, interestingly enough, we do not leave. We have an 8 p.m. flight on Sunday. I have no clue what we're, I don't know what we're going to do. So that might be it. Disney Springs.

[00:38:40] Maybe that's the Disney Springs day because 8 o'clock. That's, I don't know what I was thinking, but it's kind of hard now to change the flights. I mean, you were thinking, let me, you know, stay there as long as possible. Every bit of juice out of this squeeze. Right. So we'll, we'll be having lunch and dinner somewhere on property. Okay. Before we leave. TBD on that. Does Chrissy have to work the next day? We all have to work the next day. Vinny has school. Chrissy has to go to work. I have to go to work. I work from home on Mondays though. So.

[00:39:10] Yeah. That's why I was specifically asking about her. We were. She's a teacher. She for sure has to be in person. We, we don't get in until like 11 p.m. It's going to be, um, yeah, we'll, we'll see as we, as we approach to see maybe if we can change our flight. But we'll see. Like, you're right. This was like, these were all agreed upon to, to suck as much out of this as possible. Before we go in, before we go in July. Spoiler alert.

[00:39:39] So, yeah, I think you'll be fine for at least one day. You can suffer through one day with not a whole lot of sleep and just go to bed earlier on Monday night. You got a whole two hour flight to try to sleep. That's true. That's true. I can fall asleep very easily on a flight, especially if I'm Disney tired. Yeah. Do you know what the weather is going to be like this week? Hmm. Um, I, from what the, from what the folks are saying in the Facebook group, it's supposed to be good weather right at the moment while we are sailing. Mm-hmm.

[00:40:08] I have not looked up Orlando next weekend, or I guess that's like kind of a farther out. Yeah, it looks like you're in the mid to upper 80s for Orlando. I mean, and that's fine. I'll survive. I like it, like on the warmer side like that, personally. I'm definitely a, I would like to wear a sweater in Disney person. But only if Roosevelt makes it, right? Yeah, I, hey, I love their stuff. I don't know many people who don't.

[00:40:38] My only complaint about them is that they need more offerings for the ladies. Yeah, I agree. They, you know, they, they at least have a lady, like a cut, you know, a different, um, cut. Right, for the button-up shirts, but they've got those really cute, like stretchy shirts. And they have one that they call unisex, and I ordered it. And it's just, it's so boxy and big. And I tried to take it in on the sides just so it, like, had a little bit of it. But it's still too long. I ended up, I never wear it.

[00:41:09] It's so cute. I loved the pattern. That's why I bought it. And I'll keep it because I paid what I paid for it. But they're not cheap. They are not. You gotta get into the buy-sell trade group there. I have bought more Roosevelt's in the black market than now. Really? Oh, there's a, it's a, it's a, it's, um, it is, um, I shouldn't say black market because they encourage it. You know, there's folks that, uh, it's a very odd, it's a fascinating subculture. There are these, like, people who collect them and never wear them.

[00:41:37] And then they, like, bleh. So then they, they, at some, they, like, collect it like, like pins. They collect it like currency. And then it's like, oh, I need to, I need to put a new transmission in my car. Let me go sell some of my shirts. Um, and they've never been worn. So they, you know, they'll sell them, you know, at a discount or something. Um, so they're literally just hanging in their closet. They're not displaying them anywhere or. Yeah. People post pictures all the time of, like, their closets full of these shirts. I'm like, I mean, I thought I had a lot.

[00:42:06] And then you see a guy with 150 of them and you're like, whatever. Whatever. Yeah. Wow. Because they ain't cheap. They are not cheap. They are not cheap. They do have a lot of patterns to pick from. So when you said buy yourself trade, I'm imagining some, it's almost like go fish. Like, do you have any Jurassic Park? Exactly. People are like, gee, I'm looking for this. I've got Scooby-Doo if you want to trade. I've, I've tried, I've tried to find a pirate shirt in there. I was like, hey, I'm going on a cruise. Anyone have a Peter Pan or Captain Hook or something? And I got nothing.

[00:42:36] So I had to, I ended up getting something with, I think, Captain Hook on. Okay. Well, Chris, it has been a pleasure catching up with you. And I am really looking forward to how you enjoy your very first Disney cruise and getting to hear a little bit about your experience with Vinny since, you know, the last time we talked, it was a couple trip. So I'll want to hear all the details about everything you all are experiencing as a family

[00:43:05] and have a wonderful time and be safe. Thank you. Thank you to Chris for joining in on the podcast fun for a second time. And thank you all for listening and supporting the show. If you are considering submitting to be on the show yourself, now is the time. My schedule is jam packed lately. So I'm currently looking for people traveling in the late fall and beyond. If that's you head to my website, which is where I long to be podcast.com and click on

[00:43:32] the be our guest button to find out all the details. That is all for now. Chris's post trip episode should be next up in your queue. Enjoy that. And as always keep daydreaming about where you long to be.