[00:00:00] Dana Stanley: Today I am sitting down with Melissa McGill, and I’m genuinely excited for this one because we text and DM about this stuff all the time, but I wanted to actually hit record and share our conversation. She just got back from a preview sailing on the Disney Destiny, Disney Cruise Lines, newest, a ship, and I have so many.

[00:00:23] Dana Stanley: Curious questions like what surprised her about the ship, what’s actually worth prioritizing and what someone would wanna know. Before their first Disney cruise, so you’re not like figuring it out while you’re on the ship. Without further ado, let’s chat with Melissa. Hello and welcome to the Laid Back Magic Way podcast.

[00:00:47] Dana Stanley: I’m your host, Dana Stanley, creator of Laid Back Magic. As a mom of three, I know how tough it can be to find time to plan a Disney World trip. That doesn’t leave you feeling stressed or overwhelmed. That’s why I’m here to help moms like you create Disney vacations that feel even better than they look on paper here.

[00:01:04] Dana Stanley: We’re not chasing perfection, but creating our next favorite memories. So whether you’re brand new to Disney or looking to go deeper into the details, this podcast is your go-to for simple tips, mindset shifts, real life trip recaps, and expert insights to make your trip magical and manageable. New episodes drop every Monday.

[00:01:22] Dana Stanley: So be sure to subscribe so you never miss a moment. Okay, let’s dive in.

[00:01:33] Dana Stanley: Hey Melissa, how are you?

[00:01:35] Melissa McGill: Good, how are you?

[00:01:36] Dana Stanley: I’m good.

[00:01:37] Melissa McGill: Thanks for having me.

[00:01:37] Dana Stanley: Thanks for coming on. I know we chat a lot behind the scenes. We text, we DM about all the things. So this will be fun to specifically talk about your cruise that you recently got back on. I think it was last month. I wanna say 

[00:01:53] Melissa McGill: it was about a month ago.

[00:01:55] Melissa McGill: Ex, almost exactly. 

[00:01:56] Dana Stanley: You were on the, was it the actual, like first sailing of the Disney Destiny? Yeah, it was the preview cruise. Preview cruise. Okay, cool. If it wasn’t the 

[00:02:04] Melissa McGill: first, it was the second. There may have been a cast member cruise before us. 

[00:02:08] Dana Stanley: All right, cool. 

[00:02:08] Melissa McGill : And we, we were on the cruise and they christened the ship.

[00:02:12] Dana Stanley: Do they do like the champagne bottle thing? Like have you seen that before? It’s like a popular thing. Or tradition when it’s like a boat. Any boat. It could be like literally a canoe, like their first sailing, they’ll smash a bottle of champagne. Oh, I’ve seen that. Yeah. Have you seen the like really big ones for cruise ships and it’s like a crane like swings it.

[00:02:32] Dana Stanley: So I’m assuming, I’m like, I don’t think Disney would do that. They didn’t do that, right? 

[00:02:35] Melissa McGill : They did not do that, if I recall correctly. Um, ’cause each ship has a godmother or a godparent. 

[00:02:42] Dana Stanley: Oh, cute. Um, and 

[00:02:42] Melissa McGill : ours was Susan Egan, the voice of Meg. 

[00:02:45] Dana Stanley: Okay. I did see that. So I know 

[00:02:46] Melissa McGill : that she like lit it up or cut. I, I don’t believe she cut a ribbon.

[00:02:50] Dana Stanley: Some type of it seems so. It was, was, yes, 

[00:02:52] Melissa McGill : they Exactly. 

[00:02:54] Dana Stanley: That’s really cool. That’s really neat. Yeah. So I wanted to chat with you specifically about this because one, I don’t know a lot about cruises. I know probably specifically for Disney cruises, I know more than you know my neighbor, but you also.

[00:03:15] Dana Stanley: Weren’t. This was your first Disney cruise, correct? 

[00:03:19] Melissa McGill : That’s right. First one. 

[00:03:20] Dana Stanley: Was there anything that surprised you, or did you have like a preconceived notion going in to it? 

[00:03:27] Melissa McGill : I definitely was expecting a higher level of service going in, just a different experience, and it exceeded my expectations. Oh, wow.

[00:03:36] Melissa McGill : It was so wonderful. From literally the moment I stepped on board, they announced you. So they announced because we were individual agents that went. So we, um, we each walk through and they announce your name. So if you’re going with your family, they’ll announce, you know, the McGill family. The Stanley family.

[00:03:54] Melissa McGill : Mm-hmm. And it’s just so fun. 

[00:03:56] Dana Stanley: I get emotional with that stuff because they do that at Cinderella’s Royal Table too, not announce you into the restaurant, but they kind of use that terminology when you’re checking in and it’s like the most random things will set me off. So you had your bar for It was high.

[00:04:12] Dana Stanley: It was, and it exceeded it. 

[00:04:14] Melissa McGill : It certainly did. Uh, it was just the level of service in this particular ship, the immersiveness, um, which I know we’ll probably talk about. It was just everything I expected and dreamed of and more. 

[00:04:26] Dana Stanley: I feel like this was the perf, just knowing your personality. And everyone will go follow you after this and you’ll see what I mean.

[00:04:32] Dana Stanley: I feel like this was truly like the perfect ship for you because what, what was the, can you just give us a general explanation of what the theme, because each ship has a different theme. 

[00:04:42] Melissa McGill : Yes. So each ship does have a theme. I would say the newer, um, the Wish, the treasure and the Destiny all have a very unique theme.

[00:04:50] Melissa McGill : Um, and this particular ship, the Destiny was heroes and villains. It was just, I agree. When I saw the ship and then when I got the invitation to go on this preview cruise, I was like, oh my God, this ship is meant, it was made for me. Yeah, it was made for you Totally. Like if you could 

[00:05:06] Dana Stanley: design a ship, I feel like you would make this ship.

[00:05:08] Melissa McGill : So I think too that helped with like the expectation and the level of me loving it. I don’t know if any other ship I will love as much, but they all are so wonderful. But this one, so with it being heroes and villains, there was marvel. Which I absolutely love. I’ve grown up with Marvel. My father is a comic book collector.

[00:05:25] Melissa McGill : So we’ve always watched and know, knew all the stories, read all the comic books. So on the front of the ship, um, there’s always a featured character. So on this ship, because it is heroes and villains, it’s Spider-Man. Spider-Man happens to be my favorite Marvel character. So there was just a lot of connection for me.

[00:05:42] Melissa McGill : Villains, of course, I love villains. Um, particularly they feature, um, one of the shows is Hercules. So Hades and Hercules were featured on the ship in artwork in different formats. That was like a big thing for me. And then of course, the haunted me and parlors on there, which we’ll talk about later. So it’s just everything.

[00:06:00] Dana Stanley: So you remind me like your interests remind me. A lot of my big sister. You guys would have a funny conversation because I grew up with DC Comics, not Marvel, so it was all like, it was just all Batman. A little bit of Superman, but I feel, when I imagine those characters, I am picturing, like my sister, I’m picturing, um, my oldest daughter who’s nine, who’s kind of gravitating towards that world.

[00:06:26] Dana Stanley: She loves Maleficent. I could see her liking ha, I mean, she doesn’t dislike Hades, but Maleficent her favorite. Do you feel like it lends itself to a 

[00:06:33] Melissa McGill : little bit older? I would say yes. I do think there’s something for everyone. But I also, I have older children, so my children are 11 and 13 currently. 

[00:06:44] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.

[00:06:44] Melissa McGill : And I think this ship is perfect for them. Um, they are actually not big Marvel fans, although we haven’t really, like I say that because they haven’t really watched the movies yet. Um, but I do think that this ship is geared towards an older child. Older kid. Yeah. And when I say older 

[00:07:04] Dana Stanley: Yeah. Tween. 

[00:07:05] Melissa McGill : Yeah. 

[00:07:05] Dana Stanley: Yeah.

[00:07:06] Dana Stanley: Like 10 and up. 

[00:07:07] Melissa McGill : Yeah. Or at least they’ve, um, experienced those stories. I think there’s also, because it’s immersive with villains and things like that, you know, if you, if you have even a younger child that likes villains. They’re gonna love this ship for sure. 

[00:07:19] Dana Stanley: How do, like, how do they bring the, the hero part out in the shows or the rooms or a variety of 

[00:07:25] Melissa McGill : ways?

[00:07:26] Melissa McGill : Heroes. So you certainly have Spider-Man. The main hero element is the Grand Hall, which is absolutely breathtaking. Each ship has a statue featured in the Grand Hall. So on this ship it’s Black Panther and the entire Grand Hall has notes of. Wakanda the chandelier is actually very, that is one thing that surprised me.

[00:07:48] Melissa McGill : I wasn’t expecting such a modern chandelier, but it comes to life. 

[00:07:53] Dana Stanley: The whole ship kind of feels more modern to me and like, um, I don’t know the right terminology enough, but almost like, I wanna say contemporary, but I don’t mean the resort contemporary. Yes, correct. I just mean I would agree with that. The adjective, contemporary.

[00:08:08] Dana Stanley: Yeah, like a little bit more sparse, clean lines. Yes. A little cooler versus warm. Yes. But then the rooms had different themes. I saw that. I think were all, were they only hero themed rooms or They’re villains too. 

[00:08:22] Melissa McGill : Okay. So all the rooms were hero themed rooms. Gosh, let’s see if I can remember all of them.

[00:08:27] Melissa McGill : So there’s of course, Hercules. Okay. Bria. We had Meredith. So we had a brave themed room. Oh cool. I’d like that. There was, yeah, there was big hero six, which was super fun. Incredible. 

[00:08:37] Dana Stanley: Okay. That’s like a very well-rounded, was there Mulan 

[00:08:40] Melissa McGill : too? Yeah. Move on. Move on. Yep. So you also got like a warrior princess in there, which was super fun.

[00:08:46] Melissa McGill : In addition to Raya and Meredith, I like that they picked the strong heroines versus the mm-hmm. More dainty princesses, I guess. ’cause it fits like Snow White or something. Yeah. Yeah. Well, because, and that’s the wish, right? Like you want that full-on mm-hmm. Princess experience and the wish is, it is is the ship for you.

[00:09:03] Melissa McGill : And then the concierge rooms had Sorcerer and Mickey, which I thought was super cute. Oh, neat. 

[00:09:09] Dana Stanley: You touched on the wish. I know that each, I don’t know if all of them do, but the ships have like sister ships, meaning that 

[00:09:17] Melissa McGill : Yeah. 

[00:09:17] Dana Stanley: They mirror each other with the layout. 

[00:09:19] Melissa McGill : Correct. 

[00:09:20] Dana Stanley: What does this one match with? 

[00:09:21] Melissa McGill : So this one is in the wish class.

[00:09:22] Melissa McGill : So the wish, the treasure and the destiny are all the same layout. 

[00:09:26] Dana Stanley: Oh, they’re all the same layout and they just have different things all the same. Correct. That would be such a hard. I am having such a hard time because I think a cruise is the perfect vacation for if I go with my parents and my sister and her husband.

[00:09:42] Dana Stanley: ’cause I cannot mentally imagine taking everyone to Disney World. Like we, we grew up going to Disneyland and would really like to do that, but I’m like, I don’t know. Like just imagining being on a ship where your meals are taken care of. Everyone can do their own thing. We’re in separate rooms, which could be, I mean, I like being all sharing a room, but like, I don’t know.

[00:10:06] Dana Stanley: I don’t know if I could do it with, with my side of the family, but I like that concept and it seems like whenever I research each ship, like watching your stories on Instagram. Which, by the way, she has three highlights saved on Instagram that you need to check out. It’s like so thorough, but I talk, I’m like, oh, this is the perfect ship for our group.

[00:10:27] Dana Stanley: And then I just kind of go back and forth with the theming of things like, do you agree that this one, I feel like would be, I don’t know. I go back and forth between the treasure and the destiny, and I think it kind of comes down to like the sailings too. So 

[00:10:43] Melissa McGill : yeah, 

[00:10:44] Dana Stanley: you went to Castaway Key. Correct. 

[00:10:47] Melissa McGill : Yeah. We went to Castaway K.

[00:10:49] Melissa McGill : Yep. And we left outta Fort Lauderdale. 

[00:10:51] Dana Stanley: Okay. And are there other, will this particular ship sail to other, like have other sailings, do 

[00:10:58] Melissa McGill : you know, in the future? Yep. So there’s a variety of different, it sails four and five nights, so it depends on the number, the length of length on where it goes. Yeah. The length of the, of the cruise.

[00:11:07] Melissa McGill : There are cruises that where it just goes to Castaway K and lookout point. There’s cruises where it will go to one or the other, and then a port. Depending Eastern Caribbean, Western Caribbean, like there’s one that goes to Cozumel, for example, one that might go to Nassau. Oh. So it really depends. The four nights tend to stick to just the private islands or the private areas like Castaway K and then the private location, um, lookout point.

[00:11:33] Dana Stanley: All right. So you left from Fort Lauderdale for this particular sailing? Yes. Did you. Like, how did you handle the day of, did you do Disney World beforehand? Did you get the there the day before? 

[00:11:44] Melissa McGill : I did get there the day before, which I always recommend with cruises because you never know if your flight’s delayed, at least you’re there.

[00:11:50] Melissa McGill : Yeah, you’re settled because that day, that embarked because 

[00:11:52] Dana Stanley: the boat will leave, 

[00:11:54] Melissa McGill : it will leave without you. A hundred percent it can leave. So, um, always recommend getting in the day before I flew right from. Newark in New Jersey to Fort Lauderdale. I didn’t, you know, stop and do anything. Um, beforehand, we stayed right near the port, which was great, and they had a shuttle that ran, in theory it was five minutes, but there was some traffic because there was a lot of ships in port that day.

[00:12:16] Melissa McGill : So maybe it was like 15 to 20 minutes. Um, and they typically give you like a boarding window. Pretty much, even if you go outside of the window, meaning after, not necessarily before or earlier, it’s fine, just as long as you’re on say by 3:00 PM or whatever is the embarkment time that they’re telling you.

[00:12:32] Dana Stanley: What does that process look like? Like can you, is there like a VIP check-in or a lightning lane for checking in lightning lane? Um, so there 

[00:12:41] Melissa McGill : is, if you book a concierge room, you can get early. You can get on early, you can get your bags quicker, you can get off adversely on, uh, disbarment day. You can get off quicker.

[00:12:51] Melissa McGill : So a lot of perks to, um, looking at a concierge room where you get extra service and extra priority, getting on off, et cetera. 

[00:12:58] Dana Stanley: Was there anything during the process that you wish you had? Because this is your first cruise and there’s just like, cruises are just different. Like it’s just a different process.

[00:13:09] Dana Stanley: ’cause I’ve done cruises, just not Disney, and you kind of feel like you’re kind of like herded around a little bit, you know? Yeah. Was there anything that you wish you had known or thought of? Of just the, the like logistics of getting on and off the boat? 

[00:13:25] Melissa McGill : I was lucky enough to be with other agents who had.

[00:13:28] Melissa McGill : Gone through the process, so they walked me through it. But one of the things that I was most surprised about was, for me personally, ’cause I had never been on and talking to them about it before, was like, what do I need to get on with? Right. Like, ’cause think about it, you’re leaving your bags. You might not, oh, ’cause they’re taking your bag, right?

[00:13:43] Melissa McGill : You’re leaving them. You might, we actually, I’m trying to think. We left them at the resort. In some cases, depending on when you’re arriving or how you’re arriving, where you’re staying, they may take them at, like when you arrive there, but they took him from us, um, at the room. In some cases, depending on the resort that you’re staying at, you could leave it outside the door or in the room.

[00:14:03] Melissa McGill : Actually, when you check out, they know and they come and they grab them. So that’s nice. Like once you leave, you don’t have to worry about it, but you might not have your bag. 

[00:14:11] Dana Stanley: That’s, that’s similar to, um, like in Disney World. I always, always leave my. Bags with the bellhop until our room is ready. And one of the things I tell everyone, because I learned my lesson, is like, if you wanna go to the pool or if you want to get wet in this scenario on the cruise in any capacity, you need your bathing suit and you’re gonna be the person with your suitcase open being like, no, let me just grab my sunscreen real quick.

[00:14:40] Dana Stanley: So what were the things that you put in like your little. Day of bag. So if it 

[00:14:46] Melissa McGill : was warmer weather, I definitely would’ve put. The swimsuit, sunblock, et cetera. I did have my, I had gotten, because the rooms, you know, they’re, it’s smaller than being in a regular, the state rooms are smaller than being in a regular resort.

[00:15:00] Melissa McGill : I had gotten like, um, I guess a block, like a charging block and it can apparently flag in the bag. So I did have that on my carry-on. Um, that was something I learned just so we had like more plugs. Right. Oh, 

[00:15:11] Dana Stanley: okay. 

[00:15:11] Melissa McGill : So I had that in my bag. Depending on your needs. We knew that we were leaving later. On this particular cruise, ’cause we had the christening first.

[00:15:19] Melissa McGill : One thing we did consider, I actually wound up just wearing an outfit that I knew I could wear to dinner. ’cause I didn’t wanna stress out so much. You could put your dinner outfits as well, just in case you don’t get them. But I will say by the time we got to our room, our bags were there. So that was nice.

[00:15:34] Melissa McGill : Um, but again, that’s always a risk. So anything you need, medication. Mm-hmm. Anything that you would need. Urgently A phone charger or like a battery pack? Yeah, a battery pack. It was a lot of, embarkment day is a lot of like, sort of buildup you get on and then it’s like, okay, where do I go from here? Right.

[00:15:51] Melissa McGill : So you can go eat, you could go. Um, a lot of times on those days, not everything is open. Um, the kids club was open for viewing, so that’s a nice time for adults if they wanna see it, to go check out those areas. And then really just be prepared to kind of relax a little bit until. Either your room is ready or, um, you’re ready for your sailaway party and things like that.

[00:16:12] Melissa McGill : And that’s kind of another thing too. We didn’t have a traditional sailaway party we did in the evening. But, um, my understanding is, is when you’re on a regular cruise, it’s a much more bigger event. So if you need anything for that, um, if you wanna change or there’s something specific that you just wanna highlight 

[00:16:26] Dana Stanley: something that lights up.

[00:16:28] Dana Stanley: Yeah. Yeah. Like you brought something cute for the kids, right. Are there, I know the answer that to this, but I’m forgetting. For some reason are there, like, I’m thinking of my little check-in bag that I bring to Disney with all the things, and one of them are magic bands. Are there magic band equivalents on cruises or am I making that up?

[00:16:48] Dana Stanley: Nope. You, you can use Magic Band Plus, so if you have ’em 

[00:16:51] Melissa McGill : already, 

[00:16:52] Dana Stanley: you can use them. Okay, so you definitely want those with you too. Yes. So you can start. Using that. 

[00:16:57] Melissa McGill : Yeah. There’s not a ton. I mean, you, you do have to, it’s plus, so you will have to charge it if you wanted to interact with anything. Okay. Um, I gave that up a long time ago, but, um, you will have to, so you’ll get a card and that card, you know, runs the lights in the room.

[00:17:12] Melissa McGill : You need that card like your. You need that card on you at all times. If you wanna link a magic band, you do have to do it on board. Um, so we had to go to guest services Okay. And then have them actually scan it and connect it to us. So that is something to keep in mind, that like maybe you just want one or two instead of everybody having one.

[00:17:29] Speaker 2: Hmm. 

[00:17:29] Melissa McGill : But it really depends. Like there is some interactive experiences, whether in. Various kids, teens, et cetera, clubs. There’s a scavenger hunt for the haunted manion parlor, so there are things you can do with it, so you can kind of gauge the interest and see if it’s worthwhile for everyone to have one.

[00:17:45] Dana Stanley: Okay. That’s good to know. Very important question. The most important question of the episode is, do you think me, Dana Stanley, could get away with just packing a carry-on because there’s so many themed nights and which is mm-hmm. I love it for like other people. Like I actually, that’s probably my favorite thing of seeing people on cruises is all the different outfits that they bring.

[00:18:12] Dana Stanley: But I am not that person. I will wear the same thing the whole trip. Uh, you know, and I usually have a washer and dryer. So even that, like I am just an outfit repeater. I’m the worst when it comes to that. But there was, I think you definitely had a pirate night. 

[00:18:29] Melissa McGill : We did so 

[00:18:30] Dana Stanley: and then. And then you just have themed just if you want to, you don’t have to.

[00:18:35] Dana Stanley: Right. But if you go to the Lion King restaurant right, you wanna, you know, go with the. With the motif. Right, exactly. I don’t know. I might, I might have to, I might have to check a bag. Did you check a bag? It was, I know it was just you. 

[00:18:49] Melissa McGill : Yeah, it was just me. I will say we did probably more outfits than I would normally do with my family.

[00:18:55] Melissa McGill : Mm-hmm. Um, knowing that I was with friends and we were trying to get content and all of that. Yeah. You were like working. So I, yeah, it was more of like a work slash fun trip. Mm-hmm. Um, so I definitely had a, a sized suitcase to check. I do think it’s possible, especially if it’s just like a, even the fortnight.

[00:19:12] Melissa McGill : Um, I do think it’s possible to do a carry on if you’re strategic. There was a night where I changed three times, so like there’s just a lot. 

[00:19:21] Dana Stanley: Oh, 

[00:19:21] Melissa McGill : wow. ’cause we have all the same lounges. Yeah. So we wanted to have. 

[00:19:25] Dana Stanley: Right. Um, 

[00:19:26] Melissa McGill : get content in each lounge. So we had a Cruella outfit, a haunted Mansion outfit, a Hercules outfit for the show, pride Lands, which is the Lion King restaurant.

[00:19:34] Melissa McGill : So it was a lot. We actually brought a Pirate Night outfit and never even wore it. 

[00:19:38] Dana Stanley: Well, did you have an outfit for the Pirates of the Caribbean, or did you wear your Haunted Mansion outfit that night? 

[00:19:43] Melissa McGill : So I, I wound up ironically, wearing my Haunted Mansion outfit because. We had went earlier in the day to go to Haunted Mansion Parlor and because this was a preview cruise and there was travel agents, there was YouTubers, there was just general influencers, content creators.

[00:19:57] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. 

[00:19:58] Melissa McGill : Our cruise was a lot of non Disney based content creators, so that was interesting. A lot of family focused YouTubers. And influencers that were not just, just not Disney based. So I thought that was interesting. But they had private viewings of all of these areas. So we went to go before dinner and it was closed.

[00:20:19] Dana Stanley: Okay. 

[00:20:19] Melissa McGill : So we were all dressed up for Haunted Mansion. It was closed. I was heartbroken. Right? Then we got dressed for dinner, and then we knew it was the only time after dinner that we could go, but it was pirate night. So we swapped, put back on our haunted of Mansion outfits and said, you know what? If we’re gonna skip pirate because this is more important.

[00:20:38] Dana Stanley: So that’s like a good thing to keep in mind. I’m just thinking too, of having just a balanced viewpoint as like a consumer of what you see on Instagram or behind the scenes when it is a type of media or hosting and just finding someone that you trust. But beyond that, know that they are kind of getting like a little special, I mean.

[00:21:01] Dana Stanley: It’s not, it’s not a secret. They are getting, uh, special, special previews of these things 

[00:21:06] Melissa McGill : and, and, you know, likely the areas aren’t going to be empty, but they won’t, certainly won’t be. I felt like they were packed for us because they were always cl they were so many times where they were inaccessible to us that like when we did go to these certain themed areas that they were packed.

[00:21:21] Dana Stanley: Yeah, I feel like it’s almost kind of. I’m assuming it’s less people in general, but it’s more like active people that are like, we have to get this on a mission. Right. And they’re all trying to get like the same shot or drink the same drink or do all of the things. So I understand that. 

[00:21:37] Melissa McGill : Yep. 

[00:21:39] Dana Stanley: You just listed them all, but I wanna go over them again because there’s these villain Yeah.

[00:21:43] Dana Stanley: Lounges. So there’s Carella. Yep. That one looks so cool. It was fun. Pirates of the Caribbean. 

[00:21:48] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. 

[00:21:49] Dana Stanley: And the Haunted Mansion 

[00:21:50] Melissa McGill : Parlor. That is a lounge, haunted mansion and then a missing one. And then there’s also the sanctum, which is um, Dr. Strange. 

[00:21:57] Dana Stanley: Oh, cool. I don’t, I don’t even think I saw a lot about that one.

[00:22:00] Dana Stanley: Can you just, ’cause people are meeting you for the first time, so I would just let them know what is your, um. Like Instagram handle and your brand, your personal brand, what’s it all about? 

[00:22:13] Melissa McGill : So my Instagram handle is happy haunts Plan Magic. It is themed after the Haunted Mansion, which is my favorite ride in Disney.

[00:22:20] Melissa McGill : And very much if you like, spooky 24 7 365, you’re gonna find a lot of that. I am, don’t shy away from Halloween content all year long. I actually have my own separate planning business as well called Foolish Mortal Planning Co. So. That is me in a nutshell, 

[00:22:38] Dana Stanley: which is also a haunted mansion nod. I mean, obviously you’re gonna like the Haunted Mansion lounge.

[00:22:45] Speaker 2: Yes. 

[00:22:46] Dana Stanley: I loved it. I cried. But you like you loved. Yeah, you really loved it. 

[00:22:51] Melissa McGill : Did they have food there too? They didn’t have food there. Um, but some of the other ones did. Cask and Cannon had food. Actually, that might’ve been the only one that had food, now that I’m thinking about it. So the Pirate, the Pirates one had food.

[00:23:02] Melissa McGill : Yeah, the Pirates one had food. The rest of them were drinks and they all have themed drinks, which was super cool. Like at the V’s. They had ones where they had like perfume that they’d spray in the drink, but it was really just like sparkles. Yeah, you saw that looks so cool. They had like a lipstick on the side of the glass, like it was just.

[00:23:17] Melissa McGill : It was cool. It was all very immersive. 

[00:23:19] Dana Stanley: When it’s like a, like it’s a $30 cocktail, but 

[00:23:22] Melissa McGill : it’s 

[00:23:22] Dana Stanley: an experience and Oh, you don’t get to keep any of it and I’ll be the first person to get it too. Yeah, it was 

[00:23:26] Melissa McGill : really 

[00:23:26] Dana Stanley: cool. So for these lounges, ’cause you’re saying this and I’m picturing my 9-year-old, I’m assuming it’s adults only.

[00:23:32] Melissa McGill : Adults only. That’s why the kids club becomes so important on these ship. You’d be surprised. While I haven’t been on with my children, one of my colleagues, Kelly, she’s been on several cruises and she has two younger boys and they like, they don’t wanna be with them. 

[00:23:50] Dana Stanley: They just like, can we go to the, I’m sure is the kids club themed.

[00:23:53] Dana Stanley: Like, I’m sure you got a tour of it. Was it themed in any specific thing? 

[00:23:57] Melissa McGill : Yep. So the main theme when you go, like there’s a slide entrance. If not, if you’re not familiar, which is super fun. And it was themed after Wreck Ralph, when you initially go down. Oh, neat. So it was candy themed. 

[00:24:08] Dana Stanley: Oh cool. Yeah, my kids would love that.

[00:24:09] Dana Stanley: Yeah. So it 

[00:24:10] Melissa McGill : was super cool. And then they also had nods to the other heroes within the ship. 

[00:24:16] Dana Stanley: I know my husband is a little in denial ’cause I was. Trying to not convince him, but like, Hey, I think a cruise would be good for going with grandparents and things. And I’m like, once crew, my son is older when he is three.

[00:24:32] Dana Stanley: Like we could, there’s really a kids’ club for all of them that we could take them to and we could sit on the deck and like have a drink and read a book and he’s just like, I. I think you’re lying. I just do not imagine like that’s impossible. ’cause it’s, yeah. We’ve been parents of young kids for so long.

[00:24:51] Dana Stanley: Yeah. And now that we’re done, like this is our future, I’m like No, that’s really what we could do. And it’s super 

[00:24:57] Melissa McGill : nice for the kids ’cause they get like one-on-one time. Characters in the kids club that you might not get to. Like, you don’t necessarily see it and experience it ’cause you’re doing other things.

[00:25:08] Melissa McGill : You go to the spa, they have adults only areas, things like that. But yeah, I mean, they’ll have like Marvel characters and princesses and, and all of that. They’re, they’re in and out of there. 

[00:25:17] Dana Stanley: Yeah. Yeah. That’s so cool. It’s, I love that even for the younger kids too, like you’re on a ship. Mom and dad are not.

[00:25:25] Dana Stanley: Going anywhere, like you’re close. It’s not like we’re going far. So, and, and it’s only a few hours, so Yeah. I can’t wait for that. 

[00:25:35] Melissa McGill : You do have to check them out. So like you, that’s a nice thing too, like the younger kids, they can’t, they can’t leave, but the older kids can’t. So in, there’s two, there’s a tween, there’s vibe and edge, and I forget which one is which.

[00:25:46] Melissa McGill : But one is for tweens and one is for teens. So they get checked in, play video games, things like that. Um, and then they can check themselves out. 

[00:25:53] Dana Stanley: Yeah, that’s great. And they get their independence and they’re in a good mood. And then you meet back at the end of the day. Yeah, that sounds sounds like a vacation to me.

[00:26:04] Dana Stanley: We were touching on the lounge. Not having food except for the Pirates Lounge. In my mind, I kind of have like three categories of like your favorite cocktail, like an alcoholic drink, your favorite meal, like sit down. Entree and then something sweet like a dessert. What were your favorites? 

[00:26:23] Melissa McGill : Oh, there was, so definitely a lot to choose from.

[00:26:26] Melissa McGill : I was another thing I was, um, surprised about because I think sometimes things can be hit or miss, but overall, almost everything I ate was delicious. So that was a plus. Drinks wise, I would say there was a non-alcoholic drink, so pistachio latte that I had at, uh, cafe Migra. That was amazing. Ooh, I absolutely loved it.

[00:26:46] Melissa McGill : That sounds. Amazing. It was delicious. I want that right now. It was delicious. Where was that? I’m sorry. Um, cafe Mega. Okay. There was also, um, there’s two basically more like coffee, but also later on in the evening. Really all day. But more so in the evening also becomes like a, a lounge bar. Cafe Mega and Cafe Merida, they have similar but different options at each, but the.

[00:27:09] Melissa McGill : Pistachio latte was fantastic. I would say my favorite cocktail on the ship was surprisingly at the sanctum, which really surprised me. Um, as much as I absolutely adored the Haunted Mansion parlor. Um, I also really, a close second was the sanctum, which thoroughly surprised me. I kind of had dismissed it as like, okay, whatever.

[00:27:28] Melissa McGill : But I had, there was a featured drink that went on a pedestal, and it looked like lightning going up and down when, and it only did it when it was on the pedestal. I think it was called Mirror Dimension, if I’m remembering correctly. Drink was delicious. The vibe was super great and they had like bands there, so that was fun for me.

[00:27:44] Melissa McGill : Being from New York as you, it was like a middle section, so it was open, you could always see it when you came down, entering it from the sides, they had the um, leaguer Street address. For where it is in New York, which was cool. Oh, 

[00:27:56] Dana Stanley: that’s cool. Yeah, see, my sister would love that, my sister and my brother-in-law ’cause they’re into like live music and all of that stuff.

[00:28:03] Dana Stanley: Yeah. That had a great vibe. If you had to give anyone a piece of advice, if they were going on a cruise, a specifically a Disney cruise, and I would say specifically the Destiny for the first time, what would that be? I would say take a look at. 

[00:28:20] Melissa McGill : The things that are offered, same as I would for Disney World or Disneyland or anything else, prioritize, take a list of what, um, is most important to you, because even on a ship, it’s hard to do it all.

[00:28:32] Melissa McGill : There were things I certainly missed. Prioritize those and make sure that your trip is focused on those, because if I hadn’t gotten into the haunted me parlor, I would’ve been devastated if I hadn’t seen the Hercules show, that would’ve broke my heart. So I would definitely say prioritizing those things and being mindful of all of the things happening.

[00:28:54] Melissa McGill : There were so many immersive things on board that we kept missing because they were short windows, right? So like when you, the Navigator app is interesting where before you go you can only see certain things and then on Embarkment day, once you’re on, it basically comes to life and you can see all of these things.

[00:29:13] Melissa McGill : You can star things. And save them for later so that you know. But it’s easy with so much going on to forget. They had this really cool experience with Dr. Felicia from Princess and the Frog, and they would only take in like 12 people, so they would close the line off. So if he started at two. You had to be there at like one, otherwise you weren’t getting in.

[00:29:36] Melissa McGill : So just like little things like that. Just be mindful of what’s important and the schedule, um, and make time for those things. 

[00:29:43] Dana Stanley: And will it show things like that on the app, like the Dr. Faci? 

[00:29:48] Melissa McGill : Yes, it will. 

[00:29:48] Dana Stanley: So it sounds like that’s like your check-in game plan would be to like find some type of lounge or a little corner and fiddle around on the app and like jot things down of your priorities.

[00:30:00] Dana Stanley: Yep. Just like. Disney World, definitely. 

[00:30:03] Melissa McGill : And you might not know the times, right? You might not know the times before you get on. Mm-hmm. Right? Because like I said, it comes to life. But you could have a shortlist and say, okay, these are the things I wanna do. When are they come, when are they happening? And what day am I doing them on?

[00:30:16] Dana Stanley: Mm-hmm. I’ve heard, I’ve heard people get upset, not necessarily the destiny, I think it might’ve been the wish where like there’s things that you pre-book. Even. Is there anything at the Destiny that you have to, I know one of the restaurants you have to have a reservation for to eat at, right? The Palo.

[00:30:34] Dana Stanley: Palo, yep. There’s two. There’s Palo and an Chante. Those are extra. Okay. Those are extra. And you book them, you have to book them before you get there. 

[00:30:44] Melissa McGill : Yes, you can. You certainly can try and book them on board, but ideally, if you want a specific time or a specific day, then those open up tho. Those are other benefits to having concierge or, um, having like the more you, uh, like your frequent flyer program, right?

[00:30:59] Melissa McGill : Like your, you have different levels, so you, the more cruises you go on, the higher level you are. Then you can book earlier. 

[00:31:08] Dana Stanley: So Melissa, when we think of the rooms, and I’m completely clueless, I saw on your Instagram stories that there are ocean view rooms, but then there are verandas. What, what’s the difference between the two?

[00:31:23] Melissa McGill : Yep, that’s definitely a valid and great question. Um, so a veranda room’s going to have a balcony versus an ocean view, which is just going to have a very. Surprisingly large porthole. Um. That you can see the ocean, but you can’t access it. 

[00:31:38] Dana Stanley: Yeah, it’s big. It looks like a door, like a circle door, but there’s just no porch.

[00:31:42] Dana Stanley: Yes. It’s a big circle. I was able to 

[00:31:44] sit. 

[00:31:45] Melissa McGill : Oh, cool. That’s how large it was. Like I was surprised. It was like almost the whole wall. And the nice thing that I was very much surprised by for Ocean View, even though I tend to love balconies and it is nice to have, you know, access to the ocean and sit outside in fresh air is without the balcony, you get that extra space in your room, right?

[00:32:06] Melissa McGill : So you get your balcony takes part of your state room. So I was pleasantly surprised by the largeness of the ocean view room because our is. Our veranda room ended where the, the pull down beds did. So you had the sofa, the pull down bed from the top, and then it was the wall like that. Was it just wall?

[00:32:28] Melissa McGill : Right. Whereas the ocean view had what, like probably at least two to three feet and there was a cabinet there. If it is a deluxe family room, you have an extra bed there as well. 

[00:32:39] Dana Stanley: Oh, wow. 

[00:32:39] Melissa McGill : To sleep five. Mm-hmm. 

[00:32:41] Dana Stanley: I feel like if you were a family that. Needed extra room. Like you just wanted more space. Maybe you’re like have three kids or something.

[00:32:50] Dana Stanley: And also didn’t have people that get seasick. ’cause some people just don’t. Which is so odd to me. ’cause then you wouldn’t really need like that fresh air aspect. Like me, I think I would. Be a little panicked if I felt queasy and couldn’t just like open a door. But if you don’t have that, I would prefer the extra space.

[00:33:07] Dana Stanley: I would think 

[00:33:08] Melissa McGill : same. And I, I think it would be a difficult decision. I, I liked the extra space was really nice, but again, I really 

[00:33:15] Dana Stanley: being 

[00:33:15] Melissa McGill : able to go out with a cup of coffee and hear the ocean. Yeah. I mean, it’s fantastic. That’s 

[00:33:21] Dana Stanley: so 

[00:33:21] Melissa McGill : cool. 

[00:33:21] Dana Stanley: What’s one thing that you think if someone is going on the destiny that they shouldn’t miss 

[00:33:27] Melissa McGill : the immersiveness that is the Grand Hall.

[00:33:30] Melissa McGill : This ship that’s so unique from any other ship is the entire Grand Hall comes to life and it changes its mood based on the character and what’s happening in the Grand Hall, which was pretty amazing. So I would say to spend some time in there, for example. When the we, uh, in the evening caught a live band called Sounds of Wakanda.

[00:33:53] Melissa McGill : So of course the entire Grand Hall lit up purple and lit up to go with the beat of the sounds of Wakanda band. It was incredible. But then when a villain came, so at one point we caught Maleficent. It was all green. Oh yeah. It was, oh yeah. Story would die amazing. She was, there’s like a little stage and she was on the stage and they had people once she like, kind of had her, her, um, moment to come out.

[00:34:18] Melissa McGill : It does become a meet and greet. Loki comes out. That was really cool. So again, it’s kind of more like a green and gold vibe. Then Cruella, it turned red, so it was really immersive. And then they even tied together these stories. So if you looked in your app and you found there were storytellers on board and the whole cruise, you’re kind of searching for your destiny.

[00:34:40] Melissa McGill : So they had, every day they had a. A storyteller experience, and then even one of them was fun, where it was supposed to be about the ship and Black Panther, but then Loki took over and he made it his ship. But then Black Panther came in and saved the day, like it was fun. Yeah, that’s cool. Throughout this, it’s all changing colors.

[00:35:01] Melissa McGill : It’s all just really comes to life, and it was a really unique experience. 

[00:35:04] Dana Stanley: Well, it sounds like almost like a mini, like a mini performance. Yeah. Like a stage play kind of. Yeah, 

[00:35:09] Melissa McGill : it definitely was. It was really cool to see that. So I would say when you have free time. Stop by. You never know who’s gonna be in that grand hall and what it’s gonna look like ’cause it was ever changing.

[00:35:19] Dana Stanley: This is everything that I wanted to know. I really do think, I mean, not anytime, like in the immediate future, ’cause I definitely want my son to just be a little bit older, but I think that the destiny sounds perfect when you have spread out age kids like me. So this is just everything that I wanted to.

[00:35:36] Dana Stanley: Pick your brain about. So thank you. Yeah. For letting me do 

[00:35:39] Melissa McGill : that. Oh, you’re welcome. 

[00:35:40] Dana Stanley: Where can 

[00:35:40] Melissa McGill : everyone find you? The easiest place to find me and, and find all my content, especially from the Destiny experience, would be on Instagram. So happy haunts, plan Magic. Uh, that’s where I’m probably most active. I do have a Facebook group, but that can be linked as well.

[00:35:56] Melissa McGill : Like, you know how Instagram is with the links and things like that, so everything’s linked there. 

[00:36:00] Dana Stanley: Everything’s on Instagram. Perfect. 

[00:36:02] Melissa McGill : Everything’s on Instagram. Um, my links page all links to all the good things, and 

[00:36:07] Dana Stanley: I’ll have those links in the show notes too. For anyone that’s listening, you can click down there and go over it and follow Melissa and look at all of the content that we’ve been talking about.

[00:36:16] Dana Stanley: Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for having me. It’s always good to chat. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode. Episode of the Laid Back Magic Way podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode and it was helpful for you, it would mean the world to me. If you’d write a quick review, your reviews, help more moms like you find the show, and I read every single one of them seriously, thank you in advance.

[00:36:39] Dana Stanley: You can find me on Instagram at somewhere worthwhile, and I’d love to hear from you there. DM me if you have any questions about this episode or what you’d like to see in future ones. Until then, keep planning for your next favorite memory and I’ll see you next time.