Intro

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to the travel agent, Disney and Beyond, your Canadian connection to theme park news, travel information, practical tips, and vacation savings. I'm your host, Stephen Payne. On today's episode, we will explore level 99 at Disney Springs, the recently announced Universal Night at Epic Universe, and we will talk with special guest Nate Allen, the strategic accounts manager of Royal Caribbean cruise lines for Central Ontario and the Atlantic Provinces about the launch of the Legend of the Seas. Plus, stay tuned for the Canadian Compass Travel Tip of the Week and Deal's Day. If you want more information about cruising and travel, including the latest cruise promotions and limited time offers, subscribe to my Expedia Cruises personalized email newsletters. Simply click on fan mail and send me your name and email address, and I'll add you to my mailing list for the newsletter as well as for show updates and information. You can also email your name and address to the following email stephen at the travelagent.ca. Make sure you spell agent with an EH because we're Canadian. That email once again is stephen at the travelagent.ca. This information will also appear in the show notes. And now let's get on with the show.

Mouse Minutes: Level 99

SPEAKER_01 1:15

We'll start with mouse minutes. Now I wanted to spend some time talking about level 99. Level 99 opened on June 29th. You can find it on the west side of Disney Springs in Orlando, Florida. And it's the same building where DisneyQued be, which originally was a large building that had multiple floors and many, many, many video games. And back in the day, that was a lot of fun. And I know my kids really enjoyed it. And there were some very large video games that were in rooms, and you were part of the Pirates of the Caribbean story. But there were also the very typical classic arcade games like Pac-Man and all those kinds of things. It was a lot of fun. And that's the building we're dealing with, and that was also where there was the short-lived NBA experience, which was built right before COVID, and then COVID hit, and it never really caught on and wasn't too popular. Level 99 is actually part of a chain, and the Disney Springs location is just one of four locations, actually. The three other locations are Maryland, Rhode Island, and Virginia. But Disney Springs is now the largest from that chain. It's basically a playground for adults and teens. Think of kind of like an escape room or escape room style activities, games rooms, that kind of thing. You've got axe dodging games, mind-bending puzzles and challenges and things like that. There are 63 rooms, many including player versus player duels. And along with these game rooms within this building, there's all kinds of bold and colorful artwork. In fact, Disney got about 23 artists from around the world to design the art installations. The artwork is very interesting. One of the activities that you can do for a game is an art hunt, in which you are basically involved in a scavenger hunt and it's centered around the art pieces. Also, there is a two-story bar serving handcrafted cocktails, Detroit-style pizza, and Wagyu burgers, and craveable snacks. Now, when you're playing the games, you are actually given an RFID bracelet. It's called a Velo Band. So what happens is you get this Vello Band. It's similar if you've been to Disney before, similar to the idea of magic bands. You put the band on and you go around the different rooms in the building, and there's a scanner in front of the doorway, and you scan your band to enter. And each of these games lasts about uh one to four minutes. And you can go through these rooms in any order you wish. So you can choose which ones you want to visit, and there are rooms that you end up passing on that you won't go in because obviously I don't think you're going to play all 63 rooms. And each of these rooms are designed uh to hold two to six players. So you can go with your your team or your family and into these different rooms and do these various activities. It seems like a lot of fun. And uh you know, you can go online and have a look at the different different rooms that are available and the different kinds of activities that are there. You can certainly get some information about the kind of games. Now the cost, and there is a cost of course, uh, it is starting at $29.99 in US dollars. And that will get you an interval of play, I believe for $29.99 you can get an interval of play between or uh at one and a half hours, but you can actually get uh time or reserve a time slot of one and a half hours up to two and a half hours. So when you purchase the ticket, you'll be purchasing for a specific time block. Now, in case you're wondering, there is an allowance for a break. You can take a break of up to 30 minutes, and so that gives you the opportunity to go to the washroom, or, and I think this is what Disney would really like, or level 99 in this case, um, there's a chance for you to go to the bar and grab a snack or a drink, right? And uh and so, yeah. So you spend about two hours there probably in total, unless you want to add to your time and take a longer time slot. So that sounds pretty good. I would be really interested in visiting uh Disney or level 99. So that's gonna be in my uh list of things to do next time I get out there to Orlando.

Park Pulse: Universal Nights at Epic Universe

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Now let's take a look at Park Pulse, our second segment. And for Park Pulse this week I wanted to talk about Universal Nights at Epic Universe. Disney World has offered limited nighttime ticketed events for over ten years now. And uh that's a separately ticketed event, and when you buy your ticket and you're allowed to go in at about seven o'clock in the evening, and the event actually starts at 9.30 or 10 o'clock and lasts about three hours. People like the nighttime events because they offer low crowds, because you have limited ticket sales, and there's some other perks that you get as well. So you get a selection of complimentary snacks, you can have some unique meet and greets, and there's sometimes unique entertainment during those evenings. So Disney uh fans have really enjoyed that experience, and not surprisingly, fans of Universal Parks have been asking for something similar to be offered at Universal Parks for quite a few years. Just recently, Universal has finally announced its own after hours event. Universal is offering now what is called, as I mentioned, Universal Nights at Epic Universe. It is also a limited capacity event. Just like at Disney World with Universal Nights ticket, you can get into Epic Universe at about 7 o'clock. But the event officially runs from 9 p.m. to midnight. When you buy the ticket, you're buying officially for three hours, 9 p.m. to midnight, but because you can get in early, you're really getting five hours out of the ticket. But the event is limited to people who have tickets from 9 to midnight. Also, similar to Disney, there will be a special meet and greet with universal characters, and there will be unlimited snacks. In particular, you'll be able to get berry-flavored celestial popcorn and crispy kimchi bow. You can down these snacks along with beverages from the Coca-Cola Freestyle Machines. So all that's included with your ticket. In addition, you'll be able to ride all the attractions with shorter lines during the event. They've announced two dates for this nighttime event that they've released so far. I suspect they'll release more unless things don't go very well. And the dates they've released are October the 3rd and October the 17th. I wanted to tell you about this today because if you have an interest and an opportunity to go, you need to know the tickets go on sale on August the 13th. And I would suspect that these events will sell out, especially because there's only two so far, and I think people are keen and eager to find out what that they're all about. So if you're planning to go, you need to get your tickets as soon as they go on sale. You have to plan ahead. And if you're wondering about the pricing, well, as with all things theme park tickets, you'll need to pay up. Tickets for this event start at $179.99 USD. There definitely might be value to this event though, as it would give you a chance to see the park at nighttime, which can be quite spectacular, especially when the windmill catches on fire in the dark universe. And there's lots of there's a lighting package, there's a fabulous lighting package. Next week I want to talk about the Universal Celestial Good Night, which is a new light and fireworks show along with fountains that Universal is running now. And uh so you'll be able to see that kind of thing. And also at nighttime, there's cooler evening temperatures, and of course, when you buy a ticket for this event, you won't have to fight the crowds that you might normally encounter in the daytime. So that also seems like a really good opportunity for those of you who might be interested.

Cruise Contemplations: Nate Allen on Legend of the Seas

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Now in cruise contemplations, we are going to bring in our special guest. I'm with Nate Allen from Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines International. Uh, welcome to the Travel Agent, Disney and Beyond, and thank you for being part of the podcast today. In case the listeners are wondering, tell us what your role is with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Sure, thank you, Stephen. Um, my role is I'm a strategic account manager here at Royal Caribbean in Canada. Um, I work closely with our travel advisors, helping them stay informed about our products, our new ships, our destination, our vacation experiences, so they can match their clients with the perfect cruise vacation.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Perfect. All right, I'm thinking that the uh inaugural sailing of the Legend of the Seas was on July 4th. Am I correct in that?

SPEAKER_00 10:08

That is correct. Yeah, in the Mediterranean.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Perfect. So, what excites you the most about the new Royal Caribbean ship Legend of the Seas?

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Um, so what excites me the most about Legend of the Seas, um, it takes everything that our guests already love about our icon class of ship, so the icon of Star of the Seas, um, and elevates it even further. It's designed to uh it's designed to be the ultimate family vacation, combining incredible thrills, relaxing spaces, world-class entertainment, um, and more dining choices than ever before. It's all in one ship.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

That sounds great. Um, I don't know if you remember this, but a couple of years ago, we were on the Utopia of the Seas for its inaugural cruise, and uh and since then you've released the Icon of the Seas and the Star of the Seas, and now it's Legend of the Seas. So I'm wondering if you can tell us how this Legend of the Seas compares with these other ships and other ships that are in your fleet.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

So absolutely. So Legend of the Seas is the third icon class ship in the World Caribbean fleet. Um, like Icon and other seas and through other seas, it features eight distinct neighborhoods, um, seven pools, uh, category six water park, um, an incredible mix of activity for every age. Uh, what makes the legend uh unique is the introduction introduces the new dining concepts like inu entertainment offerings um and several enhancements based on guest feedback from the earlier icon class of ships. Um as you know, the icon class is the largest class of ships in our fleet, and we have seven different classes of ships, all the way from our vision class all the way up to the icon. So we really have uh a ship basically for everyone.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Did you say level six water park? Is that what you said?

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Category six.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Category six. What is that?

SPEAKER_00 11:49

So we have six record-breaking water slides. Uh, we have two mat racer slides, we have uh two drop slides, one with the floor drops out. Um we also have two family raft slides where you can have up to three or four people per raft. Um, it's the largest water park at sea. It is a lot of fun, and we really have a slide for everyone. That sounds amazing. And it's all complimentary.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Yeah, I was definitely, I think I'll have to try that, you know, and get the uh get the courage up and go through some of those slides. Yeah. Okay, so it is definitely one of your larger ships, and you you folks have the largest ships, really, the cruise lines, uh, cruise ships in in the industry, I think. Um for some people that causes them concern about the size of the ship and they're worried about overcrowding. Is that an issue, do you think, on Legend of the Seas?

SPEAKER_00 12:34

I think actually that's one of the biggest uh misconceptions about our ships. Um, while Legend is the largest ship in the world, um, it intentionally is designed with uh spacious neighborhoods. So I mentioned before it has eight distinctive neighborhoods that naturally spreads the guests throughout the ship. Um, rather than feeling crowded, uh, guests often find these ships uh feel more open because of these neighborhoods. Um there's so many venues and pools and restaurants and entertainment options going on throughout the day and outdoor spaces to choose from. The design really makes it easy for everyone to find their own favorite place on board.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Yeah, that's a question. You know, I asked that question, but I kind of knew what your answer would be because when we were on Utopia, you know, at that time it was the second biggest ship in the world. And um I was amazed at just all the nooks and crannies. Like it sounded it seemed like there was, you know, you're you're in these independent locations that it just there's not a necessarily a lot of people there, and you can kind of find these spots to go. And if you do want to go to the water parks and so on, you can go in there. But you know, a nice walk in Central Park was was pretty nice, and it just didn't feel overcrowded at all. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Yeah, absolutely. I think those neighborhoods really, really do help. Obviously, those are first introduced with the Oasis class, and then um that same concept was brought over to the icon class, and Central Park is probably one of my favorite uh places to, or my favorite neighborhood on board the ship. Um, you know, in the icon class, there's over 33,000 live plants and trees just in Central Park alone. So it's absolutely amazing, night and day through the daytime.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Yeah, I love the um, you know, the addition of of plant life, if you want to call it that. You know, it just makes it feel a little more organic and a little uh, I don't know, just gives that a nice atmosphere, right? Absolutely. Now, I was gonna ask you about sort of the new features because uh I think you've kind of mentioned some of them, but we'll just drop in on this question um about new features. So, what is new about Legend of the Seas that you know we're not seeing in any other ships?

SPEAKER_00 14:30

So guests can look forward to some uh new experiences, including the new Hollywood Land Supper Club. But it's an eight-course meal experience um a little more upper scale, um, based on the classic Hollywood. We have the brand new Royal Railway, which is an immersive dining experience on a railway car. We first introduced uh Royal Railway on um Utopia of the Seas. And this is now the second ship that we have it on. Um, it's all based on the immersive dining experience themed around Marco Polo's travels along the Silk Road. Um so it actually makes you feel like you're actually on a train going through Marco Polo's travels. Um it's an amazing dining experience. I highly recommend if anybody um can is on board Legend to try it out or even Utopia. Um the ship also has refreshed dining venues, new entertainment productions, um, some new enhanced uh family accommodations as well. But it has a lot of the same features as uh icon star as well.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Yeah, okay. Um what specifically can families expect? I think that uh a large part of your uh clientele would be families. How does the legend cater to families?

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Well, families are really um, I guess, the heart of the icon experience. The ship includes, you know, surfside neighborhood, which is a neighborhood designed specifically for young families with the carousel. We have Splash Away Bay, Baby Bay, we have our arcades, we even have family dining experiences there as well. Um, our teen club. Um we just can enjoy the largest water park at sea, multiple pools. Um, what else do we have here? An entertainment of all ages. Um we also have the little um during in the surface neighborhood, we also have the Admiral Awesome. Sorry, that's it, Admiral Awesome, who really is there to hit hand basically do kids' activities, whether it's the steel pan jam or the block party or even doing the uh bedtime party at night. So we really do have a lot of things that really do cater to the family. Um, but if you're not one of the younger children, we do have our flow riders, our mini golf, or our um rock climbing walls, and of course, all of our entertainment is really catered for both the adults and the kids.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

That sounds great. All right, and about room categories, um, what are the types of rooms that are on this ship?

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Yeah. Um so Legend offers accommodations for every travel style um and budget. Um, guests can choose from interior, ocean view, uh, balcony state rooms, all the way up to our luxurious suites. Um, families will especially appreciate Royal Caribbean's family focused accommodations, um, including Family Infinite Balconies, which has uh sleeps up to six people. So we have our king bed or two twins, we have our pullout coach, and we also have two bunk beds with their own little television little nook in the back with split bathrooms that provides a little extra space for those families. So we do have uh basically a stateroom for everyone. Uh oversized interior, oversized balconies. So we're like I say we do have a stateroom that can cater from a double occupancy um all the way up to our ultimate family townhouse, which is three levels, that can have up to eight people within that state room.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Yeah, I saw that on the Utopia of the Seas. That was quite spectacular. So these uh staterooms that hold, say, six or five or six people um that are infinite balconies. Um what is that category called? Is it but is it oversize or or is it family or what's the name of it?

SPEAKER_00 17:40

So it is it's the fan infinite family uh motion view. We also have on the brand you look to the legend, um, we also have the balcony family state room as well. So basically they're the exact same state room that sleeps up to six people. Um, one has the balcony and one has the infinite balcony. So two different categories. And the the balcony category was actually just introduced back onto the icon. So the star of the seas and the icon of the seas does not have that um family state room. Okay, good to know.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

All right, in terms of dining, I was gonna ask you about dining. And you've mentioned the the Hollywood experience and the railway experience, right? Yeah. Um I don't know if you can expand on the Hollywood one a little more. I'm a little I'm curious about what that's all about. And then maybe um just tell us about generally what people can expect in terms of dining opportunities. Uh I know that I have lots of friends who tell me that's their favorite part of a cruise.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Absolutely. Yeah, so dining is obviously one of the biggest highlights on board our ships. Um, Legend of the Seas offers uh record-breaking 28 dining options, uh ranging from you know casual dining, all we do are specialty dining, up to our upscale uh specialty restaurants. So we do have our brand new supper clubs on board our icon class ship. So this is a brand new dining experience that was added to the World Caribbean Fleet. Um, on Icon of the Seas, we have the Empire Supper Club. On the Star of the Seas, we have the Lincoln Supper Club. So obviously, Empire is based on the New York theme. Uh, Lincoln Supper Club is based on more of a Chicago theme. And then on the Legend of the Seas, that was just came out a couple weeks ago. We now have Hollywood Land Supper Club. So this is an immersive dining experience where you have your meal, it's paired with your cocktails, which is also paired with your live entertainment. So this is more of an upscale restaurant. A lot of the tables are tables of two because it's really meant to be more of a date night. Um, it won't, it's not too many families involved in this in this particular uh dining option, but we do have a couple tables of four and a couple tables of six, but primarily it's meant to be more of a date night. Uh, majority of the tables are tables of two. It is it is a really cool experience. I think if you ever get on one of our icon class ships, I highly recommend it. It's um, it's like I say, it's more of upper scale, you know, gentlemen have to wear jackets. Um, you know, it's uh it is an eight-course meal. Is and some of the people I haven't tried it myself yet, but some of the people who have tried it on my team have said it's one of the best dining experiences they've ever had. Um, but it is it's pretty amazing. It's a two to three hour experience.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

I feel like if you're on the ship, you should uh do at least one specialty dining, you know, per cruise. Because they're they're great experiences. I've had a few really good ones, and I'm just like, you know, yeah, you have to spend a little extra money, but but the experiences are great, and that one sounds fantastic, you know. Like I think that would be memorable.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Yeah, I think um that's a definitely a great one, especially for the adults. Um, even uh Royal Railway is a great one for both the kids and the adults. However, um, you know, rural railway is an awesome experience just for adults as well. Because you know, some of the kids won't really understand the whole Marco Polo um route. However, the whole experience of feeling like you're actually on a train car and all the windows are essentially like uh screens and actually takes you back into those different um uh lands. So on Rural Railway, it's all sorry, on uh utopia it's all based on the um Western. So um it's all about the Wild Wild West. So the meals cater to the Wild Wild West, all the sceneries of Wild Wild West. Now with Marco Polo, each place that he visits is gonna be a different course. So for example, if you're in India going through India, that course is gonna be based on Indian food. Or if you're going through Italy, maybe it's dessert, that course is gonna be based on that that that uh particular um destination.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

So that's a great idea, eh? Like uh just that that's a great way to build in different cuisines and and really create a well-rounded experience. It'd be fun to try all the different courses and so on.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

Yeah, I'm hoping I'm actually going on Legend this fall, so I'm hoping I can get on to uh check that out.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Yeah, and the um the the so all yeah, I guess I was gonna say, so in the Hollywood Supper Club, for example, then I guess would they be trying to theme the the food out to the Hollywood theme? Would would they be naming things, I guess, or creating things that kind of relate to Hollywood in some way?

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Absolutely. So the Empire Supper Club is based on more of that New York theme. So the the the food would be based on New York style. Um then in Chicago we have uh sorry the uh Lincoln. Subcloud is based on that Chicago theme. And then Hollywood land will also be themed on, you know, the Hollywood land theme of that cuisine. So yeah, it is, it is catered to different locations. The next one we have coming out will be another themed area. I know what I can't say yet, but I know what it is, but it's gonna be a different theme altogether. So each one will be very uniquely and different. The music will be different as well. It's all paired to those destinations.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

I love the themed out restaurants and the themed out attractions and all that. So I like I like the direction, you know.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

You have to kind of think out of the box. And that's one thing I think World Crimean does really well is coming up of these new experiences. Um, and not just, you know, we are very very family oriented. However, you know, over about 63% of our guests are not families on board our ships. And a lot of people don't realize that we have so many people that are coming on board our ships who are not bringing kids with them. Um, because we really do cater to everyone, whether you're multi-gen or you're you're coming on there for your you know, your um honeymoon or just you know, bachelor party or kids party, or even just adults going to have a a fun weekend away or trip away without the kids. So we really do cater to everyone, and sometimes you don't understand that until you actually get on board the ship.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

I think there's a perception out there, yeah, that uh, you know, okay, Royal is gonna cater to families. But I I would imagine that you might have to battle that perception a little bit, like you say, right? If you have adults that are gonna or might be interested but might hesitate because they think, oh, it's you know, it's gonna be kids everywhere. And I guess there were there are gonna be kids on board, but I mean you you know as well as I do, there's lots of like adult spaces you can escape to and so on, right?

SPEAKER_00 23:37

Well, we do have our adult-only areas on board our ship, but even like if you look at the promenade down the icon class, we have Boleros, which is a Latin bar, not too many kids are in there. We have our pub, not too many kids are in there. You know, we do have karaoke, you know, we have family karaoke as well as regular karaoke, but we have a lot of venues that are really aren't catered towards the younger generation. Um, but the other thing, too, is we also have a lot of itineraries um and ships classes that really don't cater to a lot of kids. Like, for example, I was on Symphony of the Seas um hosting a seminar at sea. Uh, we went September 7th, I think it was 2024, and we're on the ship and there was hardly any kids on board because they had just gone back to school.

unknown 24:14

Right.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

Not a lot of people want to take their kids out of school the first week or two of school. Yeah. So it felt like a completely different cruise because you know, there wasn't very many kids on board. Obviously, March break and Christmas, they're gonna have a lot more kids. Um, but even things like um, like if you're taking uh Norwegian Fjords cruise or you know, other than British Isles cruise, um even sometimes in Alaska, doing like May, June before the kids get to school or September, October, um, those are great itineraries that don't have a lot of kids. So there's a lot of experience and a lot of opportunity to be away from kids if you if you're not really um a big fan, I guess you could say. So other dining options as well is we have um our Aquedo Market, which has five distinct uh uh complementary food venues. Um then we also have a lot of our returning favorites like Chopped Grill, Giovanni's Italian kitchen, azumi and hibachi, hook seafood. So there's a lot of different options, whether it's complimentary or uh specially dining. We always have more complimentary options than we do than we do have the uh specialty options, including Sorrento's Pizza, which is open from 11 a.m. all the way till 3 a.m. in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

Yeah, so I've been there frequently, usually at late, late at night. It's my favorite little stop before I go to bed. Yeah, I don't think it's I don't think it's necessarily good for my health, but you know, eating pizza at one in the morning or something, but but uh it's delicious.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

You're on vacation, you don't worry about those things.

SPEAKER_01 25:37

Yeah, that's right. All right, so that sounds great. Um, I was wondering too about entertainment. So uh what kind of entertainment can can people expect to see on Legend of the Seas?

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Absolutely. So entertainment uh is truly next level. Guests can enjoy the aqua theater performances. We have our ice skating shows in Absolute Zero, we have live music, we have comedy shows, um, a full scale of theatrical productions. Um, Legend is also debuting new entertainment offerings such as uh Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which is our brand new Broadway show. Um we have our brand new production in our skating show, we have a brand new production in our aqua theater. Um, we also have a brand new parade down the uh promenade. So there's a lot of brand new uh entertainment going on all day and evening. Um, you know, even just going into our pubs or we have karaoke, you know, there's there's things going on all day and evening. Um primarily our most of our productions are usually in the evening, but we do have some shows that are more kid focused um in our aquatheater as well as in our um royal theater, which happens around three o'clock in the afternoon. So we do cater to both the families as well as the adults.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

And the aqua theater is the uh is located astern of the ship, right? At the at the back?

SPEAKER_00 26:51

No, so on the Oasis class it is, but on the icon class, it's actually at the front of the ship at the very top. It's in this, it's called the Aqua Dome. It's a brand new dome. It's on the top of the ship, it's completely indoors compared to the Oasis class, which has it on the stern outdoors. Um, this really having it indoors really helps, you know, temperature control. We don't have to worry about any uh rain delays or anything like that. Uh, but it's completely indoors. We have our professional divers diving from 80-foot platforms, we have synchronized swimmers, we have our robots and mechanical robots as well. We have um, you know, motorbikes in the cages. So there's a really a lot to explore on these ships, and entertainment is next level.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

Yeah, I I encountered that on Utopia. I thought the entertainment was amazing. Um, you're certainly not going to get bored, right? There's so much to do. It's just crazy.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Absolutely. Sometimes it's hard to even get everything done in a week. So that's that's a good thing. You won't be bored at all.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

Yeah, not to mention there's a few ports that people might want to check out as well. So yeah, there's uh it's always busy. But that's good. That's kind of what you want on the vacation, lots to do, or you can just take it easy and just uh relax by the pool, you know?

unknown 27:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

I was uh I've always enjoyed uh Coco Key or Coco Key, depending on who's speaking. Um that's Royal's private island. Perfect day at Coco Kay, it's called, right? And um I was just wondering, is that going to be part of the uh the itinerary for Legend of the Seas?

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Absolutely. So once Legend of the Seas um begins sailing from Fort Lauderdale this fall, um currently it's sailing the Mediterranean up until about the end of October, and then when it's making its way over to the Caribbean, um, all the itineraries will include a stop at Perfect Day at Coco Kay. Um it's World Caribbean's most popular destination and ranked our number one port of call. Um perfectly complements um our ship onboard experience with beautiful beaches, water parks, family attractions, um, and relaxing adults-only areas. Um we have our Thrill Water Park, we have our Oasis Lagoon pool, absolutely beautiful beaches. So there's really something for everyone. Some options can be are complimentary, some options are paid, but there's a lot to do, and there's lots of things you can do there without having to spend any money.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

Have you been on the tallest water slide on Perfect Day?

SPEAKER_00 29:02

I was. I was peer pressured to do this by one of my colleagues, and I did do it. It is a lot of fun. I highly recommend it. I'm glad I did it, and I will definitely do it again. It's a lot of fun, it's very fast. Um, that's our Daredevil's peak. It was the tallest water slide in North America for quite a while. Um, but it is absolutely amazing. We have 13 different water slides in Thrill Water Park. We have our way pool, um, we have our Mat Racer slides, we have some tube slides as well. So we really do have something for everyone in that thrill water park.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

Yeah, I'm glad to hear that you experienced that as well. I did it as also, and uh I remember I was about you know three seconds down the chute, and uh I felt like it was an out-of-out-of-body experience. I I was going so fast at one point, I'm just like, this is insane, right? Yeah, but it was a lot of fun. The only problem is climbing the stairs to get to the top. That's a little bit a little bit of a trial. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

That's how you work off the buffet from the ship. So yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

Okay, um, so now you mentioned uh you alluded to the itineraries. Um can you just review again what the itineraries are uh so far for Legend of the Seas so that uh as people look forward and consider uh sailing on Legend of the Seas, what are the itineraries they could look forward to?

SPEAKER_00 30:13

Yeah, so uh Legend of the Seas is currently sailing in Europe doing the Mediterranean, offering seven-night Western Mediterranean sailings from either Barcelona or Rome. So it's an inner port where you can either go Barcelona to Barcelona or you can do Rome to Rome, um, visiting iconic destinations like uh Italy, Spain, and France. Um later the ship will reposition, so we'll do the transatlantic over to uh Fort Lauderdale, where it will be home based. Um, the one thing that's different about the legend is it's gonna do six and eight-night Caribbean itinerary. So we'll do a six-night um Western Caribbean or an eight-night Southern Caribbean itinerary. Um and then next summer it'll be making its way back over to Europe doing the uh Western Mediterranean. While it is in Fort U Lauderdale, it will be making a stop at Perfect Day. It'll be doing Eastern and Western Caribbean itinerary. Sorry, uh Southern and Western itineraries.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

Okay, that sounds good. Are there any uh any specials going on right now for anybody who's interested in booking?

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Absolutely. So we do have our um 60% off uh second guest. Um, in different parts of the year we do have our kids sale free, and sometimes we do have our third and fourth guest sale free as well. So that just means keeping any age, not just a child 12 and under. Um but we are always running different promotions at different times of the year, but those are our standard promotions, 60% off second guest. Um, you know, I always say book early because you know prices can go up over time and sell out. You know, we're very fortunate that our ships have been pretty full, especially our Caribbean and European destinations. But I highly recommend um taking advantage of some of these sales while you can um and book you know through expedient cruises. It's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

Thank you so much, Nate, uh, for joining us today. I uh I'm just listening to you talk about the ship makes me want to go on and experience some of these things. Um so so we'll have to see what I can do. Um but thanks for telling us all about the ship and uh we'll hope to chat with you again in the near future.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

Perfect. Thanks, Less Stephen.

SPEAKER_01 32:08

Okay, that was a fantastic segment. Thanks to Nate Allen for uh the

Canadian Compass Travel Tip of the Week

SPEAKER_01 32:12

interview. And now we move on to Canadian Compass Travel Tip of the Week. I wanted to talk about planning ahead today and uh how important that actually is. So through my own trips with my family and my work as a travel agent, I've definitely learned the importance of tr of of planning ahead. If you want to get the most out of your travel experience, it's best to start planning early. This realization started when I planned my first trip to Disney World with my family. You've probably heard, if you've not traveled to Disney yourself, that preparing for a trip to Disney World can be quite overwhelming. There's a lot to think about. That's where a knowledgeable travel agent can be so helpful, of course. But the bottom line is that there are many things that you should be aware of long before you arrive at the parks. For example, your window to book dining experiences in Disney World opens up 60 days before your arrival date. Now, this is a change in the last number of years, really since COVID. Before COVID, you used to be able to book uh six months in advance or 180 days in advance for your dining, so you really had to plan ahead then. Now it's at 60 days. There are some dining experiences that are extremely popular, and they begin filling up as soon as the date opens up and people start booking. So for example, if you wanted to dine in Cinderella's castle, you've got to be on top of that early on. I recommend that you book 60 days out and wake up early to start booking at 6 in the morning. That's when the bookings open up. And yeah, that's a kind of a pain to do, but when your vacation arrives, you're not going to be disappointed. You'll have all the things that you want to do lined up and away you go. And uh if you're really uh averse to the idea of getting up at 6 in the morning to make your dining reservations, well, again, that's where a travel agent could be really helpful. Um, they can do that work for you. And for Disney, there's lots of other planning to do as well. You can book attractions ahead of time, you can plan to catch shows, and you can plan your day so you can maximize it by thinking ahead about the order of the attractions that you're going to visit. Now, planning ahead also applies to general traveling. Last summer I cruised on the Disney Fantasy with stops in Spain and Italy. I wanted to see the Coliseum in Rome, of course, and I wanted to see Gaudi's Segrata Famiglia in Barcelona. Now, both of these tourist spots are exceedingly busy. So I knew that I would have to take note of when the tickets became available for both of these things, and I was on the computer as soon as the tickets became available. So for the Coliseum tickets, they go on sale exactly 30 days in advance for when you want to arrive. And you know, it's a lot like getting Taylor Swift tickets for the Coliseum. It's so popular. Now, you could book a tour, and a lot of times if you're booking with a legitimate tour uh supplier, you know, you can you can book the tour and then they provide tickets for you to get into the Coliseum. And that it's more expensive, but it's very helpful. But if you want to go directly to the Coliseum site and get the basic ticket price, that's when you have to plan ahead. So as I was saying, it's kind of like getting Taylor Swift tickets. It was exceedingly difficult. In fact, I wasn't completely satisfied with my experience because I wanted to actually go underground. So when you're at the Coliseum, you can actually get a tour or you can tour around, a self-guided tour, the underground, underneath the floor of the Coliseum. So the cells and the cages that they had underneath where they kept the animals and so on. And that's originally what I wanted to get. But I couldn't because, you know, um some of you may have had this experience before. I'd put the tickets in my cart, but before I could cash out, they were gone. I did get tickets to the Coliseum, but they were tickets to see it from the upper levels, and that was great. But you know, the tickets go so quickly, so you just have to know to plan it in advance, put it in your calendar, and book. And the same goes for the Sagrada Famia. The tickets go on sale about 60 days in advance for that, and I also had to be on my computer at that time to book those tickets. And recently I helped a client book train tickets in Portugal, and it was important to get those 60 days in advance as well. That's when they went on sale. And the key for that was that the there were early booking discounts that were available when you book early, but you wouldn't get that discount if you were booking closer to your arrival dates. So again, you can really, you know, by planning ahead, you can really benefit. As a final example, a lot of my clients want to travel during March break. I recommend to all my clients who want to book these kinds of getaways to book very early. That's the way to go. There's dynamic pricing at play with the airfare in particular. And so pricing is linked to demand, and the more seats that are sold, the more price goes up. And you can imagine it's March break. A lot of people want to travel during March break or say at Christmas time is another good example. And so just the closer you get to the dates, the prices just get driven higher and higher. A lot of the all-inclusive packages pricing, they just go up and up in price the later you leave it. And you know, I I have people ask me about getting special deals or you know, last-minute sales, but in particular, if you're looking to go on March break or Christmas, I mean, that's just not gonna happen. It doesn't happen at the best of times. And if there is a special deal, it's usually on properties that aren't selling because people don't like them all that much. So if you want a desirable location or somewhere that you know you can rely on, you're best just to book early. You know, for March break, it's easily a year early, it would be fantastic. I have seen packages go up over a thousand dollars for clients in just a matter of days. I had someone a couple years ago, or about a year ago maybe, who decided to wait before they booked, and then when we bent went back to book it, the price had gone up, like I say, over a thousand dollars. So, you know, if you know you're gonna go away March break, think ahead, plan early, get the best pricing. So start early, plan ahead.

Deals Dish

SPEAKER_01 38:40

For our final segment, let's do the deals dish. Today I wanted to talk about Disney Cruise Lines, Canadian Residence discount, which says you can save up to 25% on selected sailings. It's important to note that this discount, as it says, is found only on certain itineraries. So perhaps look to plan around available dates if you can do that, so you can take advantage of the offer because it's a good offer. The itineraries in this offer are three, four, five, six and seven nights. The time frame is from now. There's some that have already passed, but right now until May 2027, there's cruises that are discounted. Options are Bahamian cruises, Baja cruises, Western and Eastern Caribbean cruises, Pacific Coast cruises, and Alaskan cruises. Departure ports include Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Port Canaveral, Florida, San Diego, California, Galveston, Texas, and Vancouver, British Columbia. Now, it's also important to know that the discounts are applied to select room categories. So you have to know what room categories to look at to find the discounts. It's not necessarily all the rooms. For example, concierge rooms don't have those discounts on them. So Disney cruises are a little more expensive. It's a bit of an investment, but it's worth it. You get a great experience. But finding a way to save money makes the experience much more manageable. And as Canadians, we have this particular discount that uh that we can take advantage of it. And it's a, as I say, it's a good one. Do feel free to send me an email if you'd like help finding a Disney cruise with a Canadian discount. You can email me at stephen at the travelagent.ca. That's Stephen S-T-E-P-H-E-N at the Travelagent.ca. And remember, if you're going to spell agent, we're Canadian, so it's E-H-E-N-T.

Outro

SPEAKER_01 40:37

Next week, you'll want to tune in to hear my in-depth interview with Natalia Yetzhenko about her trip to the Riviera Maya, where she stayed at the all-inclusive resort, the Baristar Waves, Paraiso Beach. Natalia gives us lots of information about her stay and offers us some tips about excursions and dining experiences. Of course, we'll also have the other usual segments that I like to have in the show, the mouse minutes, park pulse, cruise contemplations, and Deals Dish. They'll all be part of next week's episode, so be sure to tune in. If you're enjoying the information and inspiration provided in this show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or any other podcast reviewing platform. That would help a lot. Links to the show's page and to Apple Podcasts can be found in the show notes, along with some other links that that would come in handy. And also you can feel free to follow my Instagram or just search up at the TravelAgent. Well, it's time to wrap up for today. Thanks to Need Allen again for that fantastic interview about Legend of the Seas. Until next time, keep dreaming, keep planning, and keep exploring.