Intro

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome to the Travel Agent, Disney and Yum, your Canadian connection to theme park news, travel information, practical tips, and patient savings. I'm your host, Stephen Payne. This week we are going to talk about the Disney Diamond plans and what Disney World in Florida. We'll identify the various plans available, and I'll give you my perspective on whether they are worth adding to your package. Then on Horphan, we'll talk about an attraction in Microphone, Canada, that resembles a Disney ride and might be worth your time to explore. On cruise contemplations, we'll check out another private island experience, this time offered by MSC Cruise Mind. We'll end the show with more advice on how to stay cool in the hot location, and with a tip on how solo travelers can capture previous Christmas on an oceania cruise. 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 led you to my mailing list for the newsletter as well as for show updates and information. You can also email your name and email address to the following email. Stephen at the travelagent.ca. Stephen is spelled S-T-E-P-H-E-N, and make sure that you spell Agent with an E H, because we're Canadian. That email once again is Stephen at the travelagent.ca. This information will also appear in the show notes. Well, Halloween is over. I did reveal my costume finally, the one that I talked about last week. And I did say that I was going to have to show some bravery in order to complete the costume. I did also promise that I would reveal to you why it was that I needed bravery. So I needed bravery for two reasons. First, because, well, I shaved my beard. And that doesn't happen very often. But when I looked at the costume, which was actually kind of a Victorian vampire, mobbled after Lestat de Lyon Corps from Interview with the Vampire. I knew I needed to put on a wig, and the wig was going to be blonde. And a blonde wig, contrasting my gray beard, well, it just didn't work. And uh when I looked in the mirror, I thought, no, I cannot have the beard. I've gotta shave. So I shaved the beard, and I even uh tinted my eyebrows blonde as well, just to make sure that the look was there. So that was one act of bravery. The other act of bravery was I touched my eyeballs because I put contact lenses in my eyes for the very first time ever last week. I have always feared the idea of contacts. You know, I could have worn contacts when I was younger because I played hockey and I played goal, and I would wear my glasses underneath my goalie helmet, and of course it would fog up in there, so I had to put palm olive oil on my glasses before I played, I said palm olive oil, I meant palm olive soap, on my glasses, on the inside before I played a game of hockey to try and keep them from fogging up, and it was always kind of difficult. And I could have saved myself trouble if I'd just have worn some contact lenses. But the thought of touching my eyeball, I just couldn't do it. It's taken me over fifty years to figure out how to get the courage to actually attempt to touch my eye in order to put a contact in it. But for the sake of the costume and the authenticity, I finally touched my eyeball and put some contacts in my eyes and took them out. And I guess I did fairly well in the long run. Sometimes it was a little difficult, but I did it. And uh the contacts were these deep, bright blue contacts, because the vampire Lestat, he has piercing blue eyes, and that's what I wanted. You see, I knew that the costume was going to have an effect on people because A, I would be clean-shaven, and B, I'd have these piercing blue eyes. And it did work, it was successful. In fact, some people didn't recognize who I was, and they told me they didn't realize it was me until I started talking and they heard my voice, and they're like, whoa, that is him, right? So I was able to pull off a shocking moment for people as I revealed my costume. So I was pretty proud of the job I did this year. Last year I kind of mailed it in. This year I decided I was going to do a proper job, and I had quite a few different pieces, you know, the pants, uh, a nice long-tailed jacket with a pattern on it. I had uh what's called a jabot, which is a lacey frilly thing you wear around your neck. I had like the wig and the contacts, and what else did I have? A special Victorian style shirt and so on. Suspenders which I found at Value Village, which I thought were a great deal. They were only $3.99 and they were perfect. So it all came together and uh it was pr ended up being a pretty good costume. I even brought shoes that which I think I can reuse for other occasions. So now I have a Victorian vampire costume which I can put in my closet and pull out whenever I feel the urge to look like a Victorian vampire. Maybe at another Halloween party or at some kind of mystery party or something. I was fully committed to the costume, I might say. But you know, now it's back to normal life, and I'm gonna grow my beard back because almost everyone loves the beard, and some people were even like, No, not the beard. So that sounds like Gimli, doesn't it? From Lord of the Rings. Anyway, they were shocked to see me without a beard and wanted me desperately to grow it back. So I'm working on it, but it's gonna take a few weeks, I guess. Anyway,

Mouse Minutes: The Disney Dining Plans

SPEAKER_00 6:00

let's get to Mouse Minutes. In Mouse Minutes, I wanted to talk about the Disney dining plans. I first encountered the Disney Dining Plan on our very first visit to Disney World with my family. And I was very lucky because I had an offer which gave me the free dining plan, as long as I booked a I think it was over four nights' stay and bought a package that included tickets. And I had two rooms, one with four people in it and one with three people in it. I took seven people all together with my family, and we all had the free dining plan. We loved it. It was fantastic. But back then, you know, there was no other requirements than to take the offer and book a broom at the regular rate and just have a regular ticket as part of the package. But now things have changed, and now usually you have to buy a parkhopper ticket, which is a more expensive type of ticket, and sometimes there are other requirements too. And of course, again, if you're gonna get the free dining, you have to pay a non-discounted price. The deal is not quite the same as it used to be when I first went. Anyway, let me tell you about the plans. There are three different plans that you can get for a Disney dining plan. So in 2027, here's what they're offering. So plan one is a table service dining plan. That will include one table service meal per night of stay. And a table service meal would be a sit-down restaurant when you go in and you can sit down and you get served by wait staff, and they take your order and then they bring it to your table. For that table service meal, you'll get one entree, one dessert, and one non-alcoholic or alcoholic beverage if you're over twenty-one. Some meals, if they're special character meals or some kind of deluxe dining experience, they might require two credits per person. Alright, so besides the table service meal per night, you get a quick service meal per night, and one snack or non-alcoholic drink per night. And then for the whole thing, you get a resort refillable drink mug that you can use at the resort, and you can fill it up as many times as you wish. So that's the table service dining plan. You can also get a quick service dining plan. That would give you two quick service meals, and with each quick service meal, you get one entree, one non-alcoholic or alcoholic beverage for over 21 years old per night. And then you get one snack or non-alcoholic drink per night, and then you have the resort pre-fillable mug. And finally, the third dining plan is the deluxe table service dining plan, and that is two table service meals per night of your stay, one quick service meal per night, one snack and non-alcoholic drink, one snack and one non-alcoholic drink per night, and then the resort refillable mug. You would choose one of those packages, and of course the pricing is different for each one. The deluxe table service dining plan is a lot. There's a lot to eat there, unless you're thinking of doing some of the very fancy restaurants, the premium restaurants or deluxe restaurants, or some of the very special character dining restaurants that are worth two table service credits, then it kind of makes sense, right? Because you're you've got two table service credits per night. Now, important to know that even though you've got the dining plan when you sit down for a meal, you're still expected to pay gratuities. They're not included in the package. So you're still gonna have to shell out some money based on the value of your meal as a gratuity. So let's look at the pricing. The pricing of these plans. So the quick service dining plan, I probably should actually should start in the order that I first mentioned them. So let's start with the table service dining plan. The table service dining plan is $99.87 USD per night. And then if you are a child, ages three to nine, then you're paying $31.94 USD per night. If you want to go for something a little cheaper, the quick service plan is $62.78 USD for an adult and $25.82 per night for a child. And then if you want the premium deluxe table service plan, then you're paying $163.1 per night, or for a child, $46.85 USD per night. And remember again, the children's rate is for children who are three to nine. Everyone else is paying the full price for the adult price for the plan. Now, everyone usually wants to know, is it a good value? And my answer is no, not usually. It's not a good value. You know, with a dining plan, you would kind of think that um it's gonna save you money, right? That buying a plan will actually be cheaper than buying each meal individually, but that's not the case really. The only way that you can really get your money's worth is if you are ordering the most expensive experiences or the most expensive menu items regularly while you're dining. But if you don't do that, it's pretty hard to actually spend the money that you're paying for the dining plan in most cases. So I always say if you're paying out of pocket, you're probably going to pay less than if you paid for the dining plan. And that has held true for all the times I've been to Disney World. Now, the first time I went, it was worth it because I had so many people in the room, right? I had four people in the room, and I didn't have to buy a special package with parkopper tickets or anything like that. It was a regularly priced package. But things have changed over the years, and now it's not so easy to make the free dining plan work if they're offering free dining. Yeah, well, what I should explain that what happens is usually when a free dining plan is offered, there are also other discounts available, so you can choose the free dining package. And if you choose the free dining package, it's going to be a non-discounted rate, and usually you have to buy at minimum park hopper tickets. Now, there are other discounts offered at the same time, usually, which are room discounts. You could choose that discount instead of taking the free dining discount or special. And what happens is usually the room discount, if you take that, you're saving more money than you would save if you got the dining plan at a non-discounted rate. So, you know, there's a calculation to be done there. Now, what's the advantage then to having a dining plan? Well, I think that the people who like having a dining plan, they like to have it because you don't have to think about the money you're spending or the money calculation, because you've paid it all up front. And there's something nice about that, right? When you're just you know you have these credits, you just go into the restaurant, you order what you want, and it's already paid for. And so you understand exactly how much you're going to spend on dining because you already spent it. Although, this is what I'm trying to say, you know, you still have to build in the gratuities. And then what about the things that you eat that aren't part of the dining plan? And usually there are things you want to order that are not going to be covered by the dining plan. Special drinks and things like that. You know, you go to Ogre's canteen in Star Wars Land and you want to buy a drink there. That's not covered by the dining plan, usually. I guess there's one non-alcoholic drink that's covered, so maybe you could use that there. But there are times when there are just there are things that just aren't covered by the dining plan and you want to order them. So you're still going to pay for some food. But anyway, there you go. I think as I say, the advantage is not having to think about the calculation. But again, if you look at, if you actually work it out ahead of time in many cases, you are probably going to save money if you pay out of pocket. You just won't spend as much on dining. I mean, consider too that you could split meals with people, right? Like sometimes my wife and I have done that, you know, we'll we'll order a meal and we'll split it. So you save money that way, too. I just don't really think there's many situations where I figured that the dining plan would pay off by the time you look at what's required for the dining plan and you look at the alternative, which is to get a room discount, which will save you quite a bit of money. We really did enjoy it the first time when we went, and it made sense for us then, because I calculated it out and I thought, you know what, this is gonna work. And when we went out for dinner, we did eat at some of the more expensive places and we ordered steak and all that stuff. But uh ever since then, ever since our first visit, every time we've been, we've just paid out of pocket for our meals because either the free dining offer wasn't available, or if it was there, it just didn't make financial sense. So don't jump on the Disney dining plan train too quickly. Actually sit there and think it through. Is it really going to be worth it to add to your stay, or could you possibly just pay out of pocket and then you can really control the pricing?

Park Pulse: Niagara Takes Flight: A Soaring Adventure

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Now for Park Pulse, I wanted to talk about Niagara Takes Flight, a soaring adventure. It's not really part of a theme park, but it is much like a theme park attraction. So what is it? Well, it's an attraction in Niagara Falls, Canada, and it's located on what's called Table Rock right beside the Horseshoe Falls. And when you go there, it starts with a pre-show experience, just like again, like a theme park attraction. All the attractions at Disney World and at Universal, they usually have a pre-show. So in the pre-show rooms, it's a bit like an interactive museum. You go in and you walk through a few different rooms, and there's videos and interactive displays that you can engage with. And these videos and displays touch on the long history of the area. They talk about the geologic features of the falls, and they talk about the local history that's going on there, including, or that went on there, including the indigenous history related to the falls. And it touches on the importance of the power projects at the falls also. Some of these sequences are narrated by James Cameron. Pre-show lasts about 30 minutes or so. And after that, you'll walk into the main part of the attraction. And in that main part of the attraction, you are going to watch a six-minute film, but you're going to watch it in a contraption that simulates flight. So you get in your seats, you buckle in, and when the show starts, your seats lift up off the floor, into the air, and you're centered in front of a massive screen, and you watch this film that takes you along the Niagara River corridor from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. And you see this as if you're flying over it, and you're taking in all the sights and sounds of the area. And then ultimately you're flying over the falls themselves. So you fly over the rapids, the Niagara Rapids, and then you fly over the falls. The ride is multi-sensory, so you feel the wind blowing, you feel the mist of the falls, you smell the surroundings, there's different smells that are involved, and of course you feel the motion of your flight. If you've ridden Soren at Walt Disney World, you'll know the kind of thing we're talking about here. It's much the same experience as Soren. Now I went on this uh last, I don't know, was it springtime? Certainly sometime this year I went on to this attraction, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. It wasn't quite the same as Disney World Soren, but it was a pretty close equivalent. And I think it was well worth the admission price, you know? I think you got what you paid for. There was certainly more value in this attraction than many of the other attractions in the area. Some of you who've been to Niagara Falls will know that there are some attractions where you you spend a bit of money on them, but they're really a bit chintzy. This attraction is educational. The first part of it, the pre-show, definitely teaches something about the falls, about indigenous culture, and about Tesla and power generation. There's stuff to learn, so that's neat. And then the actual attraction or the ride itself when you're riding and soaring over the falls in front of the big screen with the multi-century experience, that's something quite unique for us Canadians, because there really isn't any other attraction in the area like it. It is an attraction like, as I said, Soarin, and there's not many others around that are similar. There are other attractions, I guess, that are 4D attractions, but the screens are small, and you're sitting in a chair on the floor. There's of course big IMAX films that you can watch that are similar, but you don't have the soaring effect, and you're not in a seat feeling like you're flying. There's just nothing that blends the two together. The admission for this attraction is thirty-three dollars Canadian for adults and twenty-one dollars and fifty cents for children who are ages three to twelve. And there is a maximum height requirement, which is three foot three inches, and a maximum weight requirement or limitation I guess of three hundred pounds. I was looking at the website earlier today, and I've noticed that it is only open on weekends in the off season, which we are now entering. So if you're thinking of going during the winter time, I think you have to go on the weekend to see it. But I do recommend it. I think it's worthwhile, and I'm not sure if everyone knows that that attraction has opened. I think it just opened at the beginning of this year. So maybe uh head down to Niagara Falls for a little getaway and try out Niagara Takes Flight, a soaring adventure.

Cruise Contemplations: MSC's Ocean Cay Marine Reserve

SPEAKER_00 20:41

Now with cruise contemplations, I have been talking for the last few weeks about private island or private beach experiences that are offered by various cruise lines. We've talked actually about Norwegian's Great Stirrup Key with the new Great Tides Water Park. We've talked about Royal Caribbean's perfect day, Coco Kay, with its Thrill Water Park, and we've talked about Princess's private beach area called Princess Keys. This week I thought I would mention that MSC also has their own little private island. They call it MSC's Ocean Key Marine Reserve. This is located in the Bahamas as well. All these private islands seem to be located in the Bahamas, although there are other options with other various cruise lines of private beaches or islands in other areas as well, which someday maybe we'll talk about. But for now we're focusing on all these ones that are located in the Bahamas. So this MSC Ocean Key Marine Reserve is exclusive to MSC guests, and it opened in 2019. It has its own dock for cruise ships like Perfect Day, Coco Kay. There are no tenders needed. Your ship will arrive and you can just get off the ship and walk onto the land. There is about 90. Acres of land in this island, two miles of white beaches, and there are seven beaches in total, including Lighthouse Bay Beach, which has a lighthouse. Aptly named, of course. And the lighthouse seems pretty interesting. You can actually tour the lighthouse and climb to the top and get some panoramic views. Snorkeling is an option when you're there, and there's lots to look at in terms of colorful fish and reefs. There's also windsurfing, paddleboarding, catamarans, kayaking, all kinds of sporty-like activities. There's even dancing on the beach, and there's beach volleyball as well. There's also some music and light shows. I haven't seen this, but I think there's a light show that involves the lighthouse. And there are other spots where they have little light shows, LED light shows. And there's shopping available as well if you like that, and some live music. There's also a spa available on the island to get spa services. And as far as the food goes, well, there's definitely some buffet experiences available. There's a barbecue buffet and other buffet items that you can access. There's also a signature specialty restaurant on the island, and there are lots of food trucks scattered around. And if you enjoy drinking, there are 10 bars on the island, so there's no shortage of drinks available. Of course, you might have to pay for some drinks. It depends on the kind of beverage plan you have on the ship as to whether you can get those drinks for free on the island. There's also a high-end luxury experience available on the island as well. It's part of the MSC Yacht Club. The yacht club is something you can purchase on this ship. And you have a special area on the ship and some special restaurants. And well, when you get off on to this island, you are also able to take advantage of some exclusive areas and exclusive restaurants as well. It's a VIP experience, you know, luxury premium experience, but you can't access that on the island unless you are with the yacht club class on the cruise. So when you book your cabin, you'd have to specify that time you wanted to be part of the yacht club, and there's a premium to pay for that. Also, with this island, they are doing an upgrade in 2027. And in the upgrade, they say they're going to have a new playground for children as well as a splash pad, and they will build some new dining venues, and they're working on a new adults-only beach club area. And I also noticed that they are working on a neighboring island called Sandy Key, and it's going to be a luxury island with luxury cabana experiences. And they're debuting this luxury island in the winter of 27 and 28. There's not many details available right now, but they will be revealed as we get closer to the opening. So I think the way it would work is that your ship would stop at the Ocean Key, but you would have the option of transporting over to the luxury private island if you bought that option. I assume that's how it's going to work, but we'll see when they release more information. So, as with all these islands we've been talking about, of course, in order to stop at MSC's Ocean Key Marine Reserve, you would have to be on a cruise with an itinerary that stops at this location. So if you're interested in having this as a part of your cruise and you're sailing MSc, you'll have to look into MSc Bahamian itineraries and make sure that this stop is part of the itinerary. I will confess that I have never sailed on MSC, at least not yet. So maybe if some of you end up sailing MSC and trying out this private island, you can let the show know what that experience was like for you. Or maybe I could interview you, who knows.

Canadian Compass Travel Tip of the Week: Nuovoware Water Bottle Carrier Bag

SPEAKER_00 26:02

For the Canadian Compass Travel Tip of the Week, I'm still on this topic of staying cool. I've talked about it for the last couple of weeks when I talked about frog togs. And then last week I talked about the idea that when you're at a theme park in Florida, you can simply ask for a cup of water and you don't have to pay any extra money for it. And speaking of water, this week, I wanted to tell you about the NuvaWare water bottle carrier bag. Nuovoware, something like that. N-U-O-V-O-W-A-R-E. Now, how do I know about this? Well, I was chatting with a friend of mine, and we were just talking about the show, and he mentioned that for him a tip of the week would be to try this water bottle carrier bag. Because he said he had a friend who uses this all the time at every hot destination he travels to. He always has this water bottle carrier with him. So what's the advantage? Well, the advantage is it straps onto your body with an adjustable strap, and it has a pouch, a neoprene pouch that you can put a water bottle in, and there's three different sizes possible when you look at this online. You can get a 25-ounce uh size or a 40-ounce size or a 65 ounce size. Now you can look at the details online to see what kind of water bottles go in those different sizes, but you obviously would pick the appropriate size, and then you'd have this adjustable strap with this neoprene sleeve where you'd put your water bottle in that also has a couple of pockets, one big one and one small one, I believe. And in the advertising, they say, hey, this is fantastic for hiking, traveling, and camping. It's water resistant and it's shockproof. And most importantly, I think this is the main selling feature, is it allows you to have your hands free. So you've got this water bottle, but it's strapped to your body. And in this water bottle carrier, you can store in the pockets your smartphone, credit cards, cash, keys, etc. Things that you might need to take with you. Now it sounds pretty good. And of course, we talked last week about how important it is to stay hydrated, you know, when you're traveling in a hot climate or when you're walking around in a hot climate, or perhaps when you're like me walking through a theme park for hours on end in a hot climate, you need to stay hydrated. So having a water right strapped to you and available at all times, and yet not having to worry about holding it all the time, that sounds like a selling feature to me. And I was interested, you know, I looked this up when my friend talked to me about this, and I looked at the Amazon listing for it, and as far as a review goes, it gets 4.7 out of 5 stars from over 12,000 reviews. So that seems pretty good. And I I quickly glanced at some of the reviews, and of course, people were raving about it. They loved it. My friend's friend really recommends it. Uh, it might be worth looking into. I really like the idea, as I say, of being hands-free. Um, I really don't like carrying things around with me, if at all possible. So it's nice to have the water bottle at your disposal, but without having to hold on to it all the time. So it sounds like it could be really useful, even for day trips or excursions, you know, just going out for the day even locally. To have that water bottle strapped to you? Sounds good. So I've put a link in the show notes so that you can have a look at what we're talking about. And if you'd like to order it, well, it'll be easy to order from Amazon. And if you have an Amazon Prime account, I'm pretty sure you can get it within a day, or maybe two at the most. So have a look if you're interested. That's something I might look into at some point myself.

Deals Dish: Oceania Solo Traveller Holiday Deals

SPEAKER_00 29:42

Now for Deals Dish, um, I've received a notification of some excellent deals for solo travelers for this holiday season, and I thought I'd pass them on to you. As a solo traveler, you're sometimes faced with having to pay a single supplement as cruise cabin pricing is based on double occupancy. So if you don't know what that means, what I'm trying to say is that cabins on cruises are priced for two people with the expectation that two people are going to be in the room. And so let's just say the cabin is $5,000 all together for two people, so $2,500 for each person in the cabin. If you're traveling solo and you want that same cabin, a lot of times what happens is they're going to charge you, oh, well, just about $5,000 for one person. And that seems kind of harsh, but I guess it's because when they price out the crews and they price out the cabins, they're expecting two people to be in the cabins. They're expecting to bring in $5,000 of income for that cabin. So the solo travelers end up having to pay extra. And that's really sad. The only thing that they save money on is the fact that they don't have to pay taxes for a second person. Other than that, they're paying for two fares, and that's what a single supplement is. But sometimes some cruise lines will say, hey, you know what? We're waiving the single supplement. And I'm sure a few weeks ago you may have listened to the show and heard about uh the interview that I did with Alex Skeen, where he talked about solo cabins. Some cruise lines have solo cabins designed for one passenger, and so you wouldn't really be paying a single supplement for that room either. But you in some cases are able to have a room that's normally double occupancy for no single supplement, but it's usually a special offer by a cruise line at various times during the year. So that's what I want to tell you about. This December, Oceania Cruises is offering a chance to cruise with them and not pay a single supplement or any kind of holiday supplement on select Caribbean itineraries. So they're focusing on holiday cruising. So most of these cruises they're offering the no single supplement for are cruises that are going off in November and December. So if you're listening to this show and you want to take advantage of this, this is something you'd be doing fairly quickly. You'd be going on a cruise and booking it and sailing in short notice. But some people are ready for that kind of thing. You know, you might be thinking about, oh, I really want to get away this December, and you don't have any plans, and suddenly you have this opportunity to cruise as a solo traveler with no single supplement and no holiday supplement. Oceania, by the way, is an upper premium small ship, adults-only luxury cruise line. It's owned by Norwegian cruise lines. So it's a high-end, casual luxury experience. And when you book it, you usually have lots of inclusions already included. For example, a lot of times with these luxury cruise lines, the drinks are included, or the prepaid gratuities are already included in the pricing. So you'll have to have a look with Oceania and see what's included if you're going to price it out. But here are some examples of what you might be able to do in the next couple of months. So these opportunities for a no-single supplement are on the ships Vista, Allura, and Marina. And all of the sailings are out of Miami. So there'll be round trips from Miami where you can get these no single supplement cruises. For example, on December the 2nd, you can go with an itinerary called Caribbean Island Bliss for 10 days on the uh Oceania Allura. Or you could decide you wanted to go around Christmas time. There's a December 22nd sailing with an itinerary called Caribbean Celebration. It's 14 days from Miami on the marina. Now those are longer itineraries. If you can only do a short itinerary, there is a seven-day cruise that leaves on December 21st, and it's called Bombey Island Holiday, and that leaves from Miami. Or there's a nine-day cruise leaving December 28th, with an itinerary called Calypso Sunsets leaving from Miami. So I've only just mentioned some of these itineraries and dates. Their dates are November 11th, November 25th, December 2nd, 7th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 21, 22, and 28. And I think there are some others that I don't have on my list in front of me as well, but those are the main ones. And these cruises range from seven-day cruises through to nine-day cruises, to ten-day cruises, twelve-day cruises, and fourteen-day cruises. Anyway, that's a lot to remember. But if you're interested, I can send you a flyer with information about these cruises, and I can send you a link, which would allow you to explore all the cruise options in more detail. So let me know if you want some information about these solo cruises with no single supplement offered by Oceania. Just send me some information. Click on the send mail link in the show notes or email me at steven at the travelagent.ca and just say, hey, can you send me that information about the Oceania cruises for solo travelers? And I'd be glad to send it to you. There's no obligation at all. I'm just trying to be helpful, honestly.

Outro

SPEAKER_00 35:28

Okay, let's talk about next week. Next week on The Travel Agent Disney and Beyond, we're going to talk about Walt Disney World ticket types and what might be the best choice for you. Then we'll see what Universal's new roller coaster ride has in store for us in 2027, and we'll learn about the new celebrity ship, Celebrity Excite, which will begin sailing in 2028. So we should be able to start booking on that trip shortly. And we'll be sure to add to our Canadian Compass Travel Tip of the Week collection, and we'll look at the latest deals dish offer. If you're enjoying the information and inspiration provided in this show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or any other podcast viewing platform. Links to the show's page and to Apple Podcasts can be found in the show notes. Also, feel free to follow me on Instagram. Just search up at the travelagent. Spelled with an E H. If you want to respond to anything I've talked about on the show or if you want to offer topic suggestions or ideas, please send me an email at Steven at the Travelagent.ca, and you can be part of building the content for our community. Now in a couple of days, I will get to experience the viral phenomenon on Jeanne de Poitrine, live and in person. If you don't know what Jeanne de Poitrine is, well you haven't really been watching social media too much. But they are a musical band, it's an unusual kind of music, it's called microtonal. And uh I'm strangely enamored with it. And the characters, there are two people who play in this band. They purport to be aliens from another planet, and they dress like it too. So, you know, if you want to have something interesting to explore, just Google Angine de Poitrine. A-N-G-I-N-E space D-E space P-O-I-T-R-I-N-E. Just Google that. I'm sure videos will come up. Have a look at the videos. And yeah, you can call me crazy if you want, but hey, as I said, I have strangely been enamored with this whole thing, just like many, many other people. And I'll be sure to let you know next week whether the hype is justified because I will be seeing them in a couple of days after this podcast is broadcast. So, until that day when I tell you what it was like, keep dreaming, keep planning, and keep exploring.