Our First Impressions of the Adventure: A New Era for Disney Cruises?! [Ep. 895]

Please stand clear of the doors, por favor. Man tengan se allijado de las cuertas. The beautiful Seven Seas Lagoon is one of the most interesting man made creations here in Walt Disney World.Even the islands are man made. It took more than three years from the time the lagoon was started until it was filled with water.

Hey everybody, thanks for joining us. I'm Tim Scott, this is resortloop.com the gateway to the magic. Thrilled to be joined for a mini roundtable show today.Joining us on the show, Mr. Brad Coates. Brad, how you doing?

I am doing great. Glad it got past yesterday. I was just talking to Tim about he had a cold snap here yesterday. I was like low 40s. I'm like, it's, this is the desert.I'm supposed to be in T shirt and shorts.

Oh, we got like 3 inches of snow yesterday and hopefully it's melted by tomorrow. It's been, it was a, it was a crazy overnight here in Ohio.

Well then I guess everybody got.

Was not pleasant at all. But we're not here to talk some snow. We're here to talk some Disney. Brad, do we want to talk some cruising?The adventure just kind of is making some news recently and I'm, I'm a little mixed on some of the things I'm seeing and hearing about it just for me. What do you, what are you seeing? What are you thinking?

So yeah, you know, I love cruising. In fact, getting ready to head out next week on a cruise. So on my 13th Disney cruise. So that's so I love talking Disney cruise. I'm with you.You know, we've talked about, in fact the last show we all were saying you got to be careful when we, when we make judgments about something when we haven't seen it yet. But I have to admit I've got some, I got some. That ship's very unique. It's very unique. It's got some things that will be a challenge for sure.

It is unique and I think people are going to find out that while it's very Disney, they'll be able to tell it hasn't. Wasn't actually designed by Disney.

Exactly. Exactly. Yep. Well, give an example what you're talking about. What have you heard about that you're thinking? You know that right there.I'm not sure that floats as Disney.

I've heard there's no like Grand Atrium, so.

Yeah.

So I'm okay with.

Watched any reviews or anything on it yet?

I just heard a couple podcasts about it, to be honest. But I've heard that they're not reading your names when you go on the ship.Which I'm actually kind of fine with that just because there's so many people getting on. But everyone enjoys that big grandiose entrance into the like the grand hall or the atrium of the ship.

That does not happen on the ship at all.I watched the video of that and they literally walked on the ship and then they walked down in a very, it almost looked like they were going in a cruise quarters.I mean it was like a weird entrance on the side and then it was very non descript and you walk down almost like a short hallway into the ship before you even opened up. And then there's no atrium, right? It's, you don't walk into the atrium, you just walk into a, a wider hall that's near a couple things.But it's, there's no, there's no aha moment at all about getting on the Disney adventure. Now they did have a few characters that were there to kind of greet people, but still, I mean it was like, yeah, this isn't a Disney cruise.

Yeah, I want to watch some more videos. I also heard that there's multitudes of restaurants and there's rotational dining, but there's so many restaurants.You're not going, you're not going to all the restaurants either?

Nope. Six, six dining restaurants. Now there's others, but there's six rotating restaurants on this ship. They only sail three night and four night sailings.They, they don't. So they're going to give you a rotation and that rotation will not you.And I heard one of the podcasters say, so make sure, you know, if you, when you go that you select to go on the other restaurant. But I don't think for everything in front of my scene, you don't get to select.

That's kind of what I thought. I thought, you know, once it said.

It'll be like star tours.

Right.

Go around. Well, I'm hoping. No, go around again. Yeah, six, six of them. Now they look, some of them look pretty good.Some of them are kind of small, right from the videos I saw. But yeah, six rotation dining rooms on a three night cruise. That's kind of a gonna be weird, right?

I'll be interested to hear how the food is because it's, you know, I heard it's, you know, it's of course geared towards Asia, you know, sailing out of Singapore. There's a lot of people from the United States on this cruise, a lot of bloggers, vloggers and the whole Media things there right now.So there's gonna be lots of information coming out.

It's. It's trickling out now. I watch Cruise with Ben and David a lot. That's one of the ones I watch a lot. And they're on. They've already done day one and.Yeah. And then there's another one I saw. I'm trying to think of who I saw that was showing it, but that's exactly it.Imagine the going into these restaurants thinking you're gonna get, you know, Americanized food. And there are American dishes on there from the. The views that I saw. But it used. You nailed it.It's a lot of unique things that unless you're really into Asian food, you might. You might struggle because it's. Yeah, it's geared towards that.

Right.

With a few American things. Now, one thing I have noticed, though, and it's wild when you start watching some of the videos.Every show, every interaction, every encounter, every restaurant where they're doing the show or doing a video, all in English.

I heard the same thing. Like, all the signage on the ship is also English.

Everything's. Everything's in English. You'd think you're in America right. Till you opened up the menu. And. Wait a minute. Is this a specialty restaurant?I'm not sure about this one.

So as long as it has chicken tenders, a lot of people will be just fine.

Exactly. They had. They had, like this. They had a steak. They had, you know, a prime rib. They had.So they had the, like, the ones, you know, on the menus where you'll have the items and then they'll have the. What do they call them? The signature.

Right. Right.

Thing that they just keep for everybody. So there's a salmon, there's a beef, a pasta, probably. Yeah, pasta. And all the things that the kids are picky. Adults would pick.Well, those are there. But then all the specialty stuff is. I won't say all of it, but a lot of it. It just. From what I've seen so far, I haven't been there, so I don't know.But from what I've seen, yeah, it's going to be very unique. The other thing that I've noticed, too, and you may have heard about this, it's going to be the shows. The shows.I saw a videotape of two of the sideshows because they've got multiple places. I. First, I didn't think they had a theater.

Okay.

At all. But then. But then I did see it in a video, and they do have a Big theater, but they have a big. They do have a big atrium.It's just not what you walk into when you enter.

Okay.

Have you ever been on an Oasis class Royal Caribbean ship?

We're on the Oasis. The Oasis. Yeah,.

It looks like that.

Okay.

Big, giant open center rooms that look down.

Like the central park effect, but.

But instead of a central park and then. Yes, exactly. And there's restaurants there, just like Central Park. There's shopping spots there.And there's like two different sections of it, just like an Oasis ship. So it's all. It almost looks like. Because for those out there that may not be aware, Disney did not build this ship right from the ground up.It's not their design.

Right.

They purchased up what halfway done ship that's being designed for another cruise line. It almost looks like they were copying an Oasis class ship.

That might have been what they were doing. Kind of like some of the MSC ships are copying Royal Caribbean's designs.

Right. And I think that's because it's. A lot of. It is just. Okay, we had two central open area zones in the middle of the ship.Now this ship's bigger than the Oasis class. I mean, this thing is, what have you heard? 6,500 Or something passengers.

What I heard, and I think it was the DCL duo mentioned. I think it's like the 13th largest ship in the world. No, cruise ship in the world. Number 13. So yeah, it's.

It's bigger than the Oasis class. May not be as big as the icon class.

Right.

It's big. But anyway, so they had the open areas. Okay. This one area that's open at the end of it, it's this really cool video screen. And it's a stage and then.And kind of down at the other end where you walk down, it's only. You almost walk down into it. It's got like seating, like patio seating areas like they used to have over by rock and roller coaster where they.You could kind of stack up and like, like, almost like you could picnic on it.

Okay.

But people can sit there on a rail and then there's steps on either side where they come down into it. But then in the middle, people can sit and watch. Well, anyway, so they got the video screen. So they do shows there. They're all in English.They're all the characters, they're all that. They did a show on the back of the ship where there's kind of a water area, a poor man's version of Oasis, nothing that cool.And they did a Moana show and saw the characters. But here's what I've seen so far. Shows. I haven't seen the big ones yet. The Moana one. What other one did I see? Another simplified one.They're almost like, okay, how much time did I just spend watching this?

Oh, no. Oh, no.

Yeah. I mean, they did their best, right? What are you gonna do? You got a little. Small.Little pool thing there, and they're all kind of dancing around it and. And doing some dance and talk and then swinging these.Not cardboard, but almost a little like, okay, we made a boat out of these two things, and now we made it an island over here. And it's just odd. Yeah, just very odd.

I think it's gonna be some of the disconnect from just Disney not designing the ship.

Right, Exactly.

The spaces.

And so I'll be interested to see what the.What the big shows really look like, because that first one they did in the atrium area, it was kind of the sail away, and it looked like that first Disney show you see on pretty much every cruise ship on Disney, where it's the. You see all the characters.

Oh, yeah. Your standard character show. Different. Different name, same stuff.

Right.

But it's fun. It's fun. Kids love it.

It was cute. I'll be interested. What were you gonna say? I'm sorry.

No, you're fine. I was gonna say with that many people on a ship.What I was hearing is, is that there's gonna be a lot of, like, reservation making in the Navigator app on the ship. And you may.

Yeah. From what they were saying on the video, literally, you make a res. And it may be just now.

Okay, maybe once. That's a lot of people.

Inaugurals and. And things slow down a little. It may change. But right now, you make reservations for quick service.

That's crazy.

Yeah. The dining. And then if you want to go to the two cool ones that are like Moana or Ohana dining, and they're quick service in that.That middle section area. That one, I meant to tell you the neck. Not in that one. The next one. I told you. That one had the big screen that looks like a forest.And I forget what the dining is there. There's a couple quick service there in the other one. It looks like Nemo.

Okay.

Totally looks. It's incredible. It's beautiful.

I'll say. The spaces look like they were designed great.

Yeah. Yeah. You saw it?

I've seen some, you know, pictures of the inside. I'm like that. I want to go. You know, who doesn't want to Go see the brand new cruise ship.

Oh yeah. Well, in that, that section they have ohanas.

Nice.

But all of those quick service to go there, you have to go in your app and book a reservation.

Right. And so with that many people on.

That show, all the shows, everything it's.

Given me, like it's more of a theme park vacation than a cruise vacation. I like my cruise vacations a little more relaxed. I think that's maybe why I like Disney Cruise Line so much compared to sometimes parks vacations.

Well, I know the way that we do Disney. Exactly. It's like this is exactly why I love it. I'm not running around trying to catch a ride that's gonna try to give me a heart attack, you know?

Right, right.

Or all the walking. So. But this year I think that's a good point. Have you seen that they've actually got like carnival rides on the top?

I heard there's three attractions on the top. One's a coaster. I think one might be a spinner. And I don't remember what the third one was.

Well, one of them is a spinner and it's not even. It's like a poor man's version of Dumbo.

It's small.

I think it's Groot themed.

That's right, it was Groot.

I did hear some music of it. It sounds cute, right? But it looks like, you know, okay, my three year old would be bored. It's just very small. It barely moves.And then, and then there is the roller coaster which wasn't running so, so far on the inaugural. So we haven't seen what it's going to be like.

Right.

And then the third ride is a like autopia. Weird looking small little course with these little tiny cars that. I'm not kidding. Your child crawling could pass you slow. And it's very small.So you're going around and you're bumping the person in front of you. So it's kind of like a topia, you know?

Okay.

Except for on a very, very, very small.

So tiny. So tiny and adorable.

You're not on a rail. You are more like on an open go kart course. But it's very slow, so. So yeah, they got that.They got the spinner and they do have a couple of water slides, you know, on, on the top.

But oh yeah, I was looking at.

With that in mind. I think you're right. It's almost like, why are we putting these on a cruise ship? I mean, why are they even here? Right.They're trying to make it into the full Disney experience for people in Asia. I guess.

I guess I'm wondering because I had a. I don't say a theory, but I'm thinking like I was always thinking, like maybe in four or five years I could see maybe doing a Florida stop for like a season or two.

Don't you think so? I, I think it'll make its way over eventually.

Not right away. Maybe five years, six years.

Well, and especially since they're going to be kind of saturating this market after getting a new ship every year over the next few years. I mean, they're not done.

Right.

We're, we're, we're, we're on track here. So. But I can't see it not making its away over here for a short season.I will be interested to see though, when they do that how well that ship will be received Right.

In this market. That's what I was kind of thinking. I'm like, there's a lot of people would like to do it, but I don't know if it's.Once they get on it, is it going to be too much? Because that's a lot of ship to see in three and four days. It would have to be at least seven day trips.It was going to be sailing out of Florida or California.

Right. Because it does have like. I think you nailed it. There's so many people on that ship. It I. The way it seems. I don't know for a fact.Haven't ridden it yet. And there's not a lot of the inaugural is going on like right now. Right. I think they're still on it.

I think so.

So we don't have a lot of details yet, but it seems like they've got a lot of big shows and small shows. Like the one big show they said, this one show, we were nervous because the theater was small, but they said it will play four times.

Well, that's one way to do it.

Yeah. So maybe they don't have a lot of the bigger shows and they just keep showing the same one over and over.But it sounds like there's a lot of shows because there's a lot of places to have them because they've got to figure out how to spread these people out.

Right.

Because there's so many. The theater was. Well, is not nearly big enough to handle 6,000 people. No, it's just not.

Fred, you were on the group cruise with us on the Wish. I didn't see that whole ship when we were on there for four days. I think it was A four day trip. And that was, that's a much smaller ship.Still don't see everything.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And this ship is like dwarfs it. I mean it's, it's huge.

I will say I'm really happy right now that the new ships they're going to be building are going to be between, you know, the Magic class and the Dream class.

Yeah, they're going to, they're coming and they're going to size back down a little bit like they say Royal's going to do, which is. It won't be a big turn back, but.

Yeah, yeah, it's pretty close. But I'm glad they didn't. They're not going all mega ships.

Yeah, agreed. I'm glad, I'm glad they didn't.They're not going bigger because now I've experienced the went with you guys on the Wish and then Carrie and I went back on the Wish and then I got to go out to New York for the christening and for the reveal of the Destiny. So I spent an entire day on that ship, which is basically redone, almost mirror image of the Wish.New things they learned from the Wish and they made changes, which is what they always do. We learned that, so we're going to change that. But. And then next week I'll be on the Destiny.

Wonderful.

I'm very intrigued to see that one because of the theming on that is a big jump, I think from where we've seen in the past. But the design, it's still the Wish class.

It's the Wish class. And for whatever reason, the Wish still gets kind of a bad rap in circles.But people love the Treasure and the Destiny, which is the same shift ship, just different. I'd say more concentrated magic.

They changed a couple small things. But that's why I say I'm gonna, I'm gonna be interested to sail on the Destiny to see what were some of the things when you sailed on.When we sailed on the Wish, what was your impression of it? The good and the bad.

I was prepared for there not being like a promenade deck around the ship because we always did like to walk around the ship. Not a huge deal for me, the middle bank of elevators didn't bother me like I thought it might.

Yeah, wasn't bad.

No, it wasn't bad.

But it is. But, but you know, I don't know how full our ship was. I mean, if you get a packed ship, that could be a, could be a situation.

It could be. But I mean, you can't go wrong with that atrium space and they have in there the grand hall space. It's just beautiful.And they use it for so many different purposes.

Stage, the upper balcony. Stage. Really cool shows in there. Very cool.

I'd be surprised if there's middle elevators and any more Disney ships. My guess is they're. They're gone. They're only going to have forward and af and they're going to make a. Yeah.

Which is one of the changes that happened between the Wish and the Destiny. Right. And then now the. Now the. I mean, sorry. Yeah. I think the two newer wish classes, they do they have metal. Oh, they do.But you're thinking with the next model that they come out with either.

The next model from here on out. Yeah, yeah. The whole wish class, they don't have middle elevators at all.

But I'm hoping they'll learn from their competitors and they'll put in those programmed elevators. I've heard so many good things about the Princess and the. And the royal ships that have the one where you.You just go up and say, I'm going to floor 14. And then it sends that elevator.

Right.

Specifically be for you.

I've heard good things. I did. Like that they've had Grand Destino Tower at Coronado Springs.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I've heard that. I haven't been over there, but. Yeah, but yeah, but I hear really works.I mean, every podcast or every person I've talked to that's gone on those said they loved it.

So.

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised that Disney doesn't get smart with that, but.

Right.

So, so, so that's anything. So what else about the Wish class? What was the things you saw in the wish class that you went, man, that. That might have been a miss. That.That's, you know, that you hate it, but you're just like, wow, we got to do better on that.

The sorry space that's like, what is it? Sarabi, Luna and whatever. I like the space for the heavy shows, but I don't like it for bingo. I missed, like, Company. Was it Company?D. Unlike the older ships, that was like, it was just much bigger. D Lounge.

That was.

Yes. I always love that space. It was just. It was. Seemed to be good for bingo. I loved it for the food demonstrations. Anyone. Can cooks love those.

Yeah, we always did those.

And the older ships, some of the other spaces where they did some of the activities were smaller than I thought they might have been. Like, where they did some. Some of the trivia, like, some of the trivia was there on, like, Sarabi and Luna and it was almost too big.

The other. When they were doing the Skipper. Skipper Society there. The middle. Yeah.

It was a good space for that. I will say. Oh no. Skipper Society in the middle. That's the other thing I don't like.I don't like that high highly for my hands and swings again, those highly themed bars.But I, I always on both sides because you walk about halfway through, you're starting to get into the theming and you're already getting out of the theming and you're back onto this and you're.

Sitting there in the theming enjoying and all of a sudden it's just racket going on around you. It's like, right, I want to be immersed. Yeah.

People cutting through just to get to the shop on the other side.

Right.

I mean again, they did a good job theming them. I just, I like my theming contained and so.

So a lot of it then is around layout.

Yes.

Right. That was my big issue. It seemed like some of these really amazing concepts that you couldn't wait to see. The bar, the Haunted Mansion bar.

That was a winner.

Wait to see. Couldn't wait to see these small, but too small.

Tiny.

It's like cut out a two or three of these great ideas you had and make the ones that are there that much greater. Make them bigger, make them where they're more accessible, you know, close in the Skipper Society do.It just felt like they did great, amazing theming in little tiny packages.

Like that line from Aladdin. What was that exactly?

So if you didn't show up early for a show, for a trivia or things like that, you might not get in. I mean it, they're just all small. Everything was small. And you're talking about that. Luna.For people that don't know, it's like a two level little mini theater. Which seems like a good idea, right? For shows it might be. But then for trivia and stuff like that, it's just awkward.

Yes.

You're on the upper deck trying to look down to stay connected with what's happening on the stage. And it. And you, you don't have a lot of good seating areas on the upper deck to see everything.

Yeah. For shows like was I choose your adventure on the Treasure. It's a fantastic space. Get lots of people in there.You're all looking at the stage, it's fine. But for the smaller activities.

Yeah, exactly. It just, it just, it was trickier because the smaller stuff there you could. When you're, when you're doing Big shows, a lot of it's up on the stage.But when they did the small activities, they weren't necessarily on the stage.

Right, right.

They were out in front of it, in front of the people. And then you couldn't see them.

Right.

You. You felt like you weren't engaging in what they were doing. So, yes, that. That was. To me, that was it. Do the.Does the new wish class blow it away when it comes to Disney theming and you know, the wish had a. So the wishes mindset was princesses and, you know, fantasy. Right, Right. And they nailed it. The theming is incredible.It is beautiful society, haunted mansion on. And they're just amazing. Right?

They are.

Same with the Destiny. They're the bars and things that they designed. I don't remember the names of all of them, but they.Every one of those went a different direction with. I said des. Name it Treasure. So anyway, great ships, great concepts. I do hope they learn a few things with the. The. With the new ones that they.The new version that they'll bring out.

I will say on the brand new. On the brand new ships. Go back to the style of the dream and the fantasy where you have at least a deck with the extended verandas.Those are my favorite, favorite trip. Favorite favorite state room on either of the ships with that extended veranda.

You are not alone. Anybody that's ever stayed on one of those extended verandas loves them.

That's my biggest.

No matter where they're located, they're like, I don't care.

Right.

No longer middle ship. I don't care. I'm good. They're just. They're an amazing experience.

Yeah, they are.

You really enjoy your verandas on those.

Yeah. Yeah, you do.

So we'll see. I'm going on the. On the Destiny.I'm interested to see that next week because there are some tweaks they've made and I want to kind of see how that works. And of course, the new restaurants and stuff.

So is there one thing you're looking to the most on the Destiny? Just checking out that you've heard anything about.

I think for me on the Destiny what it. Because this is a kind of a different one. I'm going by myself. My wife is not going to be. So I'm literally single. I should have invited you, Tim.I paid for the other person in the room.

Right, right, right.

But I think for me it's the. The new shows. They got Hercules on there.

Yes.

That one really intrigues me. I want to see that show. And I'm big into watching the shows. And then the dining. They still. 1923 Is the same. Marvel's the same.But they've changed out the. The theater show dining into Lion King.

I've heard good things about that menu.

Yeah. Yep. And I just watched. No, I'm sorry. Yeah, never mind. That was the adventure. Go jump back to adventure real quick.One thing I will tell you, that would excite me and get me on the adventure and get me past some of my concerns. Their fireworks show.

Oh, my gosh.

It's probably two, three times longer.

Wow.

And it's kind of once again, it's like they're creating. I think you nailed it. I think they're trying to create a part park experience. I never thought of it that way till you said it. So they got the rides.And the fireworks show is more like a show you see it at on the castle. Busy World Disneyland. You're not watching characters on a stage and somebody flying on a guideline down, and you're not seeing a story.Then a couple of fireworks. The fireworks show on the adventure is a fireworks show.The music, the talking, everything ties into whatever's being launched next in the fireworks show. It's got to be at least three to four times more fireworks wow Than on the other Disney shows. I mean, it is a big show now if they're inaugural.So maybe they did more. I don't know. Maybe it was very impressive. And it's all about Lion King. It's.They're talking, and then they'll say something that makes it very ominous. And all of a sudden, the red fires out. Right. With their words. And it was just. It was a fireworks show.And so I'd go on the ship just so I could see that.

Right, right.

Yeah. But I hadn't thought about before. You know, you nailed. Tim. You're a smart guy. I think, because it's. It's like a fireworks show at the castle.I hadn't even thought about it when I was watching until we were just talking. Yeah.

Yep.

So that's going to be cool. But yeah. So the shows, the. The shows I really want to see, the. The new dining I want to see.And of course, just that theming with all of the Marvel characters and stuff to see if the character meet and greets are geared a little bit different.

Yeah.

And so we'll see.

We'll see. Awesome. Brad, we need to wrap this up here, but can we talk you into coming in on the show when you're done? Talk about your destiny.

Trip oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I be. And for those of you that want to maybe see more, maybe it'll inspire me.You need to reach out and leave comments on this to say we want Brad to get busy. I'm going because I'm going by myself. I'm going to be doing a lot of filming for. For vlogging type filming for my YouTube page.I'm going to get do a full YouTube video of the Destiny, so.

Oh, wonderful.

Hopefully be able to put that all in because I'll be there by myself, so I don't got anything better to do.

What's your channel called again? Remind us what it's all called.

Oh, yeah, and I'm sorry, you told me last time to send it to you, so it is. It's easy to find on YouTube also, although I say that it used to be much better when I was putting out more videos and I got lazy.It's called scrapbook. One word travels. So if you go to YouTube and you type and then one word all tied together, scrapbook travels.Unfortunately, when you do it now you get 2 or 3 or 4 or 50 or 100 scrapbook YouTube pages.

Oh.

Tell you how to do scrapbooking. But you'll spot the one in there that says scrapbook travels. And see my ugly mug with my beautiful bride.

And that's where you'll find Brad.

So scrapbook travels. Yep. YouTube/@scrapbook travels.

And where else can people find you, Brad?

And hanging out on my Facebook page, family fun travels by Brad. And then outside of that, man, find me in a park, find me on a cruise ship.Find me somewhere in the world having fun because that's usually where I am hanging out there if I'm not here on this. On this page.

So. Oh, wonderful. Well, Brad, thanks for joining me tonight for us. Great show. We talked a little bit of cruising. I love it. Everybody, I'm Tim Scott.Facebook, twitter, the website resort loop.com. You can find us over on our Facebook page, which is a Looper Nation Live. Hey, everybody, I'm Tim Scott. Thanks for joining us. Take it, Brad.

See you, everybody.

I liked it.