DCL Duo Podcast: A Disney Cruise Line Fan Podcast

Josh and his wife dressed as Flynn Rider and Mother Gothel for Halloween on the High Seas aboard the Disney Fantasy, then discovered they were the only guests booked for that night’s whiskey tasting. Josh joins Sam and Brian live with stories of a bartender who became the highlight of the trip, a Pirate Night dinner made just for him, and a 110-flight stair challenge at sea. Plus, the big news of the week: Palo drops its prix-fixe dinner menu and the Platinum and Pearl credit is now dinner-only.

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Miranda admits she used to be “kind of snobby” about cruising. A few years and three Disney Cruise Line ships later, the New Yorker is back from a seven-night Western Caribbean sailing on the Disney Treasure with her family, and she has thoughts on everything from the Grand Hall to the security line that confiscated her homemade fish extender treats.

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Lawrence and Lauren only started cruising in 2024. For their fifth wedding anniversary, they left the kids at home and booked nine nights on the Disney Destiny: a five-night Western Caribbean sailing followed immediately by a four-night Nassau and Castaway Cay sailing. Sam is solo-hosting this week and gets the full back-to-back story, from a Lucha Libre ring in Cozumel to a completely sold-out second sailing.

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Disney never billed it as an eclipse cruise. Still, Anna and her family sailed the Disney Dream out of Southampton with their own viewing glasses packed and a port-side veranda booked. They watched totality together from their balcony. Returning guest Anna joins Sam and Brian from Scotland to recap a 4-night sailing to Bilbao that doubled as a 20th anniversary celebration and a do-over of a rocky first embarkation.

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Stephanie and Danny from DCL Magazine spent a week aboard the Disney Wish chasing clues to the Disney Believe. They snorkeled for a Prince Eric statue on Castaway Cay, traded glowing ice to Oaken, and met a Moana on Castaway Cay that Disney says will never greet guests again. Recorded live the night before bookings opened, they fill in everything the reveal livestream left out.

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Three private island days in five nights, and a sea day at the end to pack in peace. Returning guest Nick takes us through his family’s Disney Fantasy “double dip”: two stops at Castaway Cay with Disney Lookout Cay in between, plus everything he learned about doing it with two young boys and no stroller.

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Disney Cruise Line revealed the Disney Believe, and Sam and Brian went live that same night with an honest verdict on the fleet’s fourth Wish-class ship. There’s a Fort Lauderdale homeport, a December 18, 2027 maiden voyage, and the world’s first Encanto stage musical. There’s also a lineup of venues that left two longtime fans feeling underwhelmed.

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Travel advisor Alyssa just got back from a three-night Halloween on the High Seas sailing on the Disney Wish. She explains why a Disney Cruise Line Halloween can beat a Mickey's Not-So-Scary trip to the parks on price, and describes the night Oogie Boogie danced right up to her. Plus, Sam and Brian lock in their predictions ahead of the Disney Believe reveal.

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Derek and Maddie of the Disney Trip Report Podcast took a last-minute, three-night Disney Wish sailing with their three kids. Maddie's first verdict was that three nights is far too short. What followed is a practical playbook for short sailings: what to skip, where to eat, and why the kids club might be the best date-night upgrade on the ship.

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One ship, two completely different cruises. Cindy sailed a three-night Disney Dream cruise from Southampton to Bruges alongside a crowd that was almost entirely from the UK. Then she stayed on board for a DVC member cruise to Denmark and Norway packed with Broadway stars, Disney legends, and daily gifts. She joins Sam and Brian live to compare both halves of her Disney Cruise Line back-to-back in Europe.

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Sarah is a travel advisor, and she brought 19 family members on the Disney Wonder to Alaska: grandparents, grandkids, teens, and everyone in between. She walks Sam through how she got the whole group to Vancouver, why she let everyone choose their own adventure in port, and what it's really like dining as a party of 19.

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Castaway Cay, Lookout Cay, then Castaway Cay again. First-time guest Courtney joins us straight from her classroom to talk about her family's five-night Disney Fantasy "Double Duo Dip." It was three private island days with two little kids, a nap after every beach day, and one very determined top-bunk daredevil.

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Melissa flew all the way from Ireland for a late-season, adults-only sailing to Alaska on the Disney Wonder — six DCL sailings and nineteen cruises deep, and this one still delivered bears, whales, dueling pianos, and one gut-punch moment from home she wasn't expecting.

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We put a single microphone on the table and asked one question: was our Adventures by Disney river cruise through Holland and Belgium actually worth it? What we got back wasn't a travel review — it was four completely different answers about why people travel at all.

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We went live with Benji from LaughingPlace.com to get the full scoop on the 25th Disney Vacation Club Member Cruise — this year sailing Copenhagen, Skagen, and Stavanger aboard the Disney Dream. Turns out it's less D23 spectacle, more "mini D23 at sea," and yes, there's a John Stamos karaoke story.

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Rebecca joins us to recap her family's 5-night Bahamian sailing on the Disney Destiny — a true multigenerational trip spanning three connected staterooms: her husband and their two daughters, her in-laws, and her sister- and brother-in-law's family, all sailing together. A crew member told them the ship was close to capacity, with an estimated 1,800 kids on board, but the crowds weren't what made this cruise memorable.

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After nine sailings on Disney Cruise Line, Lindsey's family tried something different: a seven-night Caribbean cruise on Celebrity Beyond. Sam sits down solo with our returning guest for a full, honest comparison — service, dining, kids club, and one very polarizing stateroom design.

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A while back, we did a show on the early growing pains of the Disney Adventure — and more than one of you wrote in afterward saying we needed to talk to someone who'd sailed it more recently, because things have gotten so much better. So we did. Rich just got back from his second Adventure sailing, this time with his whole family instead of just him and his wife, after a points-fueled trip through Shanghai Disney and Hong Kong Disneyland on the way there.

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She's been on 10 Disney cruises — but the Disney Destiny's brand-new 7-night Eastern Caribbean itinerary still had a few surprises. This week Heather joins Sam and Brian to break down the first-ever Destiny sailing to San Juan, Puerto Rico and St. Maarten, plus what it's like cruising with two kids who are now old enough to plan for themselves.

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Two sisters, a GTY stateroom, and a three-year-old with strong opinions about gondolas. Kory and Lyndsey booked their Disney Magic Alaska cruise just 30 days out, and it turned into one of their most relaxing sailings yet. From a musty stateroom mishap to a $200 parking hack near Canada Place, this episode is packed with real, DIY-tested tips for doing Alaska with young kids on a budget.

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Beth just wrapped her ninth Disney cruise — a Mediterranean sailing from Barcelona to Southampton with four families and 15 people along for the ride — and it delivered everything from a World Cup Final erupting in the streets of Barcelona to an actual maritime rescue mission that held the ship in place for hours.

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Fresh off cruise #17, a platinum Disney Cruise Line sailor joins Sam solo this week (Brian's away at a work conference!) to talk through her Fourth of July "duo dip" on the Disney Fantasy — hitting both Castaway Cay and Lookout Cay in one five-night sailing. She shares a real operational fix to the biggest long-running complaint about the Mickey & Minnie Cabanas, plus a few practical tips every DCL fan should hear before their next cruise.

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She's sailed the Disney Magic to Alaska three times, and this trip finally convinced her to skip one of Disney's own shore excursions for good. Repeat guest Shannon joins Sam solo this week (Brian sits this one out) to recap her family's ninth Disney sailing, a group cruise with nine people, two private excursions that beat anything booked through the app, and one Broadway star shoutout her teenager will never stop talking about.

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She flew a toddler across the Atlantic and didn't stop there. Emily, a Disney Cruise Line travel advisor based in Denmark, spent five straight weeks aboard the Disney Dream — a transatlantic crossing followed by three back-to-back European itineraries. Four cruises, five weeks, one very well-traveled four-year-old.

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She'd sailed Disney Cruise Line ten times before — but never across the Atlantic. Jen joins Sam to break down her family's first-ever European vacation: the Disney Dream's Mediterranean season opener out of Barcelona, complete with a canceled excursion that turned into the trip's best day.

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Adventures by Disney canceled Sam's Japan trip because they didn't have enough people booked — and because ABD's customer service doesn't work weekends, Tauck ended up with her business instead. That gap became a real, lived comparison of the two companies, plus a full concierge-class review of the Disney Adventure sailing out of Singapore.

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132 itineraries dropped this morning, and by the end of the night three of us had agreed on which ones we would not book. Travel advisor Jamie from We Do Travel Right joined Sam and Brian live for a ship-by-ship walk through the entire Fall 2027 and Spring 2028 release — the Disney Wish's return to New York, the Disney Destiny's move to Port Canaveral, two Panama Canal crossings with brand-new ports, and the full Castaway Club booking ladder.

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Alexis had sailed every Disney ship except the Dream — until a European itinerary out of Barcelona finally got her there, alongside a promise to her daughter that had been six years in the making: finally going inside the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

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Soshian and his wife brought their 7-month-old daughter on their very first Disney Cruise Line sailing — a 7-night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Disney Treasure with his sister's family in tow — and by the end of the week he was already plotting how to stay longer. He came in worried there wouldn't be enough to do. He left wishing he'd booked more days.

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Sara's back — and this time she's bringing receipts. After sailing Disney Cruise Line three times, she just got off a Caribbean sailing on Norwegian's Prima, and she breaks down exactly how it stacked up: the price, the food, the kids club, and whether "half the cost" really means half the experience.

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This one is different. Before we sailed through Holland and Belgium with a group of listeners, our family spent three days in Amsterdam — and what happened there didn't fit into a normal cruise recap. So we did something we've never done in 650+ episodes: we sat down with the people who traveled with us and turned it into a story.

Across three days, everyone we talked to walked up to an edge and had to decide what to do standing at it. On a food tour through the Albert Cuyp market, our friend Tracy — a self-described picky eater — braved...

The Holgates just got off the Disney Destiny — and their honest take starts with a rough first day. Six shots of espresso, sensory overload, and a friend's kid getting hurt nearly derailed the whole trip. Then day two hit, and Stephen came out the other side calling it his favorite ship yet.

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For her 50th birthday, Amy — a longtime Disney fan and a part-time Disney travel agent — finally got her reluctant-cruiser husband Dan on an adults-only Disney cruise: four nights on the brand-new Disney Destiny, with no kids on board for the first time in their cruising history. She stacked the itinerary with drink tastings, adult dining, and enough Marvel and Star Wars theming to make her case — and by the end of the trip, Dan was ready to admit it worked.

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Sara spent years working for Disney Cruise Line as a youth activities counselor — and somehow the Disney Dream was the one classic ship she'd never sailed as a guest, until now. She and her husband Chris finally closed that gap on a week-long Mediterranean cruise out of Barcelona.

The highlight reel writes itself: dolphins, a sea turtle, and a whale, all spotted from their balcony in the same hour and a half. But the real value in this episode is the honest, insider take — what changes when a former cast member sails a much bigger ship for the...

Fifteen Disney cruises in, Todd and Erica have a formula: inside staterooms, no excursions, and a "Triple Header" — one sailing on the Disney Destiny, then a back-to-back on the Disney Fantasy. They join us to break down exactly how they pulled it off.

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Emily and Scott join us to share the full story of their vow renewal on Castaway Cay during a Disney Wish sailing — the planning, the timeline, the moment they ended up in the ocean in their wedding clothes — plus our big sponsor announcement.

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Nathan and Alicea from Adventures and Mousecapades just got back from a brand-new 7-Night Eastern Caribbean sailing on the Disney Destiny, hitting two ports the Destiny doesn't usually visit: St. Martin and San Juan. Nathan even crewed an actual 1980s America's Cup 12-meter racing yacht in St. Martin, no motors, no electric winches involved. We break down the whole week.

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Kevin — you might know him as @dadslovedisney — joins Sam and Brian LIVE for a wide-ranging conversation about Disney Cruise Line, his journey as a content creator, and his honest take on the Hyperspace Lounge after his most recent Disney Wish sailing. He also shares the story of how he proposed to his now-wife on a Disney cruise, and it's a genuinely sweet one.

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Ashley's family turned a corner on a South Africa game drive and came face to face with an angry male rhino — who chased their Jeep for 15 minutes straight. That's one of many stories from their Adventures by Disney safari, shared live on this episode along with a real look at everything it takes to prep for 10 days of Jeeps, flights, and almost no downtime.

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He crossed the finish line of a 100-mile ultramarathon in the Florida Keys, showered on the beach, and drove straight to Fort Lauderdale to board the brand-new Disney Destiny the next morning. Nine-time DCL sailor Josh joins us to break down how he pairs grueling endurance races with Disney cruises — and what boarding a ship on legs that just ran four marathons back to back actually feels like.

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