Never Say Never: How a Last Minute Yes led to the trip of a lifetime

Episode 102 • 17th March 2026 • Sip with Nikki • Nikki Lamberti

Everyone down below was cheering and hugging and high fiving and taking pictures. And I said to the guy next to me who turned out to be one of the imagineers, I said, how long have you guys been working on this?

And he said, three years. Three years.

From building it on the ground in Germany to then getting it on the ship, to all of the dynamics that are different with physics on a moving ship and wind and all of those things. And I just happened to be walking by and got to see the first manned run.

Well, hello, it's Nikki Lamberti coming to you from Sonoma County, California. Welcome to SIP with Nikki, if you are a new listener. So excited to have you and to the SIP crew.

Hey, appreciate you see you as always and thanks so much for being loyal listeners.

So I am back from a recent trip and you may have heard the last episode, which was my friend Dana and I, our sushi and sake shenanigans in the Tokyo fish market. So that was part of a bigger trip that included a test cruise on the brand new Disney Adventure from Tokyo to Singapore.

But I wasn't allowed to share pictures, audio, anything until after the cruise was over because it was pre inaugural sailing and it was very hush hush.

But now that is over and I can shout from the rooftops how amazing this experience was and I'm going to be highlighting some of the things that really resonated with me. Now I have to preface this by saying if you are not a Disney fan, if you are not ever thinking of doing a Disney cruise, that's okay.

I think there's a lot to take away from what I'm about to share. You know, things like never say never. Seize the opportunity say yes.

Even if you don't know all the details initially, those are all things that are sort of underlying themes to what I just recently experienced. And if you are a Disney person or a Disney cruiser, holy cow, you really need to listen to this and take notes.

And I hope that you're able to one day make it to the Disney Adventure, which is now in Singapore for the next couple years, or just experience some of these really cool things on any of the other Disney ships before we jump in. And I have so much to share with you.

I also want to make sure that you know that I've got a new format on my sipwithnikki.com website for the podcast.

Previously, if you went to that website to find and listen to the podcast, which you can do besides finding it on the regular platforms that you know, like Apple Podcasts and Spotify and all of that. There was just a little player and like a tiny little synopsis.

Well, I have been in the process of rebuilding the podcast page on sipwithnikki.com shout out to my good friend Kristin Wiza, who is also my website designer for both Solavato and Sip with Nikki. She's KW Designs, KW Media. Check her out if you need a website either from scratch or help with an existing one.

But she taught me how to do what I'm now doing, which is creating a full page for every single episode.

That's 102 episodes now so that I can have not only a synopsis, but pictures and video links to different resources from it outside of just the show notes, which are not always the easiest to read in podcast platforms. So especially for this episode, check out sipwithnikki.com podcast and then scroll down and find this most recent episode from March 17th.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, as this is launching and you'll actually be able to read a little bit more and most importantly, see some visuals that go along with it.

And then I'll also put the link to this on YouTube because since our 100th episode where Michael and I were on video, I'm trying to do a little bit more video and I'm gonna drop this episode on YouTube so you can see my face and these beautiful chemo curls that have come in. Seven months after finishing chemo for breast cancer. I've got this curly hair. I don't know what this is, but I'm grateful for it.

And it's thick and it's growing and one day I'll hopefully have the hair that I once did. But I'm healthy, I'm here and I'm feeling good enough that I literally just took at the drop of a hat, a two week trip to Asia.

So can't wait for you to listen in and can't wait to hear what you think. Send me a note nikkiipwithnikki.com and also check it out on the new and improved podcast page on the Sip with Nikki website.

So here we go with never say never. So I have a problem and this is a little bit of a confession. I'm not a shopper. I don't really buy shoes or bags or jewelry. But I love to travel.

And if you are a regular listener, this should come to no surprise if you're a friend of mine. We've probably traveled together.

Of course my family knows this, but I think it's all part of the Joy Junkie label that I give Myself, where I just chase these moments of joy and that's what keeps me going through the ups and the downs and the day to day when it's really monotonous or non adventurous. I'm always chasing that next hit of joy and for me, travel is what absolutely does that.

So about three and a half weeks ago, you can imagine my surprise and excitement and swirling when I opened my Disney email and had an invitation to participate in a test cruise on the newest Disney ship, which is the Disney Adventure, which is going to be based in Singapore and doing cruises in and out of there. But they were still getting the ship from Germany, where it was built, to Florida, to la, to Tokyo and then to Singapore.

So this invitation was to join the last leg, which was an eight day trip from Tokyo to Singapore. And it was just before the cruise was going to be live and have guests on it.

So this was made available to cast members and employees of the Disney company, which you all know I am. I work remotely and I work seasonally throughout the year as a recruiter for Disney internships.

Now, I have to preface this to say what I'm about to share about my experience has nothing to do with me working for the company, other than that's how I got the opportunity to do this test cruise at this ridiculously fraction of the price. But other than that, this review is just Nikki as a traveler wanting to share her excitement.

I don't work for the cruise line or food and beverage or entertainment or any of the things that I'm about to rave about. So no one has asked me to do this. This is purely because in the week or so since I've been back, when everybody's like, how is it? How was the cruise?

I'm like, I don't even know how to talk about it yet.

Like, I'm still digesting and marinating on everything that happened, partially because it was so amazing and partially because of how it happened so quickly. So there was really no time to think about it or plan or get excited.

Which normally I love the countdown and the anticipation, I think that's part of the joy junkiness.

But this email that I got was on a Monday, and in order to catch the cruise the following week, Tuesday in Tokyo, we needed to travel on the Saturday after I was getting the email. So literally five days. So when I saw the email, of course I was like, oh my God, like this is amazing.

And I have to preface it to say, and this is one of my underlying themes of this review, whether you care about Disney or Disney Cruise Line. You may or may not ever do it. I still think there's some really applicable takeaways here. And one of them is Never say never.

'm recording this in March of: 2026

But I was having coffee with a good friend of mine, Steve Tin. Shout out to Steve. And Steve's wife Jen, also a dear friend, she works in marketing for the Disney Cruise Line.

And the two of them had just come off this ship, the Disney Adventure, bringing it from Germany to Orlando. I think it was about a two week journey. And that was a much more rough test cruise.

Like they were still upholstering and bringing in furniture and things like that. Most of that was done when I was on, but they were really on it and watching spaces still being constructed.

And we had coffee the morning that Steve got off that ship in Port Canaveral and he drove to meet me. Cause I was in town and we always love to catch up.

And he was telling me about this Disney Adventure, which I knew about and I knew it was gonna be in Singapore, but he was showing me pictures and talking about what made it so unique. And I literally said in January, I'll probably never see that ship.

Not because I didn't have interest, but because Asia has always been somewhere I wanna travel. But more recently there's been other things above it on the bucket list. I'm overdue for a trip back to Italy.

And so I just thought, I don't know how high up it was on my list because it also seems so far away and flights to Asia can be really prohibitive. So I literally said to him, I'll probably never see that ship. And then literally two months later, I was on it. First bit of wisdom here.

Never say never, right? You just never know. You just have to be open to things.

So going back to airfare, when I got the email to do this eight night cruise, and I could bring up to three other people in the stateroom or the cabin with me, and it was really a ridiculously low price.

In fact, just to give you an idea, when I told some people, hey, it's an eight night cruise for this per person, they were like, you'll spend more than that staying home on groceries and wine and just gas in the day to day. So that should give you an idea of how ridiculously low it was.

So I saw that, which is the whole reason it even stuck in my brain and why I didn't just say, oh, that's crazy, no way and delete the email. It got the wheels turning.

Then it was like, okay, that's a great price for the eight night cruise, but how much is it going to cost me to get to Tokyo and then home from Singapore? So not a regular round trip. Two destinations in and out and it was five days in advance. So I gotta give a shout out to Zip Air.

So zip Air is like the budget friendly offshoot of Japan Air. And when I did my first just Google search on flights, because that's usually where I start.

Zip Air had a flight on the Saturday that we needed, a direct flight from San Francisco to Tokyo, which is about 11 hours and it was $258. What now that's just one way. But again, when I saw that it was like, okay, let's keep looking, maybe this is actually feasible.

And then of course I had to look at some reviews on ZipAir.

Now I'm not normally someone that goes down the rabbit hole of looking at people's reviews of things because we all know that usually it's the complainers that love to share. But I was like, I don't know, this seems like too good to be true. For an international flight five days from now for 258.

And long story short, I saw some great reviews about it. Zip Air has a lie down cabin which was already fully booked. So this 258 was just for a very much coach seat.

But the plane also wasn't full at the time. Five days before that I was looking at it. So when I asked my crazy friend Dana, hey, do you want to fly to Tokyo with me on Saturday?

And she said, sure, we're looking for two seats now.

And I thought, oh, if we could just book like a window in an aisle and have no one in between us because it was a row of three, like that will make it much more doable for an international flight.

What happened is when we got on, someone had booked a very last minute trip and it was the middle seat in between us and we were like, oh, but here's a cool tip if you're ever gonna fly ZipAir. And I learned this from one of the reviews that I watched. Once you're on board, you can't just move and spread out if there's empty seats.

However, if you log into their ZipAir app online, which is also how you order food and drinks during the flight, you can purchase another seat, which I did, like an aisle seat behind Me so that we could spread out, because that one had no one next to it. And it was $17 for us to all be able to spread out. It was amazing. So that fell into place.

And then we found a great flight on United home from Singapore to San Francisco, which was about 13 hours. That was under 500, so we were able to do round trip for under $900. So once we saw that, then it was like, okay, maybe this can happen.

Maybe this isn't so crazy. I mean, it was crazy, but that made it seem doable. And so we said yes.

And after clearing our schedules and me checking with the different commitments that I have here, the winery, my Disney team, everybody was like, go. You have to go. This is once in a lifetime. I can't tell you how many times that term came up.

And I hope that's not the case, because I would love to go back and spend more time and be on that ship again in Asia. But who knows? Take the trip. Especially if it's something that seems once in a lifetime.

Now, we already recorded an episode about our adventure in Tokyo in the fish market.

So if you missed that one, just go back one episode and you can hear Dana and I with our sushi and sake shenanigans in the Sujihi fish market, which was very cool. And then we took a cab and went to the port. And I will never forget pulling up to the port in Tokyo and seeing the adventure there.

It dwarfed the port building, which cruise port buildings are usually huge, was dwarfed by the ship.

So, again, I've been on many a Disney ship and many a Disney cruise, but just seeing the scope of it as the cab pulled us into the port and how it was on either side of the building and stories above the building, it was like, whoa, this ship is huge. It is the biggest cruise ship that Disney has ever built.

And that leads me to another cool thing about this ship is Disney did not build this ship from scratch. Disney acquired the ship that another cruise line was about halfway done in building.

And I don't know all the detail if they went bankrupt, this other cruise line, or what happened that Disney was actually able to purchase this ship and then finish it, but this was completely different. And I knew this going in.

But then after talking to all of the imagineers and people that we got to interact with during the cruise, they talked about the challenge of having to retrofit and go in with steel and spaces that were already created versus, hey, let's start from scratch and build this ship. They had to Go in and work with some of the structure that was already there.

And I will tell you, that structure makes it feel very different than other Disney cruises. Rather than that big atrium that all of the other Disney ships have when you walk in, usually with some chandelier.

The newer ones like the Wish and the Destiny and the Treasure, the they all have a stage now in that atrium. This ship didn't have that. Rather it had this big open air garden area with rooms, veranda rooms around it.

But you look up to blue sky and there was a stage there where they did some very cool shows including an Avengers Assemble Marvel show where Spider man literally flew and Thor and Wanda and all the Marvel heroes on that open air garden stage, which was really cool. So my first welcome as we walked on board was not the traditional here's the atrium.

Hey, the Lamberti family, like it wasn't quite that, but it was really cool. Cause they bring you on on deck seven and it's all very white and bright and crystally very different feel than the other ships.

And we walked right by the new coffee bar.

Not like the COVID on the other Disney ships, but this is Basha B A C H A Basha, which is a Moroccan coffee company I think started in the Marrakech market. And they have this beautiful coffee bar, for lack of a better word, and then a tea bar next to it. And it's just like visually stunning.

And they have all the walls of all the different coffees from around the world. And all the wonderful crew members were standing there welcoming us all as we came on.

And we met Shane who was a lovely crew member and she said do you want to come in and have some coffee? And my friends had told me about this Bosch of coffee that was on the ship.

So we got nine sips on the ship and we were all ready with our carry on luggage. Like let's go, go and check out this coffee. So it was a very cool way to start. And they do this beautiful coffee service again.

Check out these pictures on sipwithnikki.com on the episode page for this podcast and I'll put some video and pictures on there.

But it was just beautiful service, beautiful coffee and loved talking to Shane, the crew member young lady, I think she was from the Philippines who shared that she was new to working for Disney first cruise ever working on and that it was her dream come true. And remember we're the first quasi official guests that these crew members have been training and practicing and getting ready for.

So Disney cruise line crew members are always amazing and warm and hospitality to the nth degree.

But there was like a little extra excitement, you can tell, because they were just happy to have people to talk to because there have been intermittent employees and crew members on some of these crossing cruises. But we were really the first guests getting on for any length of time.

So the other cool thing about this coffee that was a exceeding of my expectations and a surprise and delight, as we call it was we were asking about purchasing the coffees on the ship to take home. And she said, yeah. And she said also this coffee is in your room in your stateroom.

And that was so exciting to me because up until now, with all of the previous cruises that I've done, there was no coffee maker or coffee pot in the room. You either had to wake up and then put clothes on and go up to the deck and get coffee, or you could order room service.

But either way you had to acquire it. I loved having the coffee in the room with the electric kettle, which was so beautiful. This black, exquisite kettle.

And then Basha has these beautiful pour over packets.

It's an individual packet that almost looks like a teabag, but when you open it, it sits over your coffee cup with the grounds and you pour the water over it and it's essentially like a pour over. And I have to tell you, this was one of Dana's and my favorite parts of the cruise. I would make her a coffee in the morning.

We'd have coffee in bed or out on our veranda because we had an ocean view veranda just watching the China Sea go by. And it was such a nice touch. First of all, it's beautiful coffee, but just to have it in the room. Thank you, Disney Cruise Line.

I hope that spills over into some of the other ships because it's just so nice to have that ready to go in the room. So the other thing that I wanted to highlight was the food and beverage on this trip.

Again, on Disney cruises, it's always fantastic, but this definitely had more of an Asian. I'm going to put the whole continent Asian influence in the menus that were available on the ship.

Even in the regular rotational dining restaurants, much more curry and Thai food and noodles and sushi. It was great. So if you enjoy that type of cuisine, this is a really fun addition.

And I think that's also targeting to the primary audience who's going to be on this ship, our guests from across Asia. So I thought that was very neat.

They still have the rotational dining and to my knowledge, Disney Cruise Line started this concept and may still be the only ones that do it where throughout the cruise, there's generally anywhere from three to five dining rooms that are all very different themed. And of course, with Disney, you can imagine from Frozen to Tiana, from Princess and the Frog, whatever they may be.

And the very first night when you sit down at your table and you meet your service team, who's generally a head server and a beverage server and then also a dining room manager, they travel with you as you go to the different restaurants. So by night two, they're like, oh, hey, Nikki, how was your day today? Here's the wine list.

Because they know Nikki's always gonna ask for the wine list. So I've always thought that that was such a special part of the Disney cruise line, especially when you have children.

And I've seen this over the years with my niece and my nephews. By the end of the cruise, they are like BFFs with these servers. They are pen pals.

They are hugging goodbye, sometimes crying at the end of the cruise because of the bond that they've formed. And it's just such a unique part of Disney cruise line. And that was in fact the case on this cruise as well.

But then there are two additional premium dining restaurants outside of the rotation for Palo, of course, Italian, which has always been one of my favorites on all Disney ships. And you've heard me maybe talk about Palo on the Disney Magic.

One of the original ships og ships is where I first had my aha wine Tignanello from Antonori, that super Tuscan wine that made me cry and planted the seed for me to pursue studying and now making wine. That all happened at Palo. I was very excited to see that this ship has continued by having that Palo adult only premium restaurant.

You have to pay a little bit outside of your inclusive cruise, but worth every penny. This one was two stories and had a pizza oven in full view. And Dana and I had an amazing meal there.

Check out my pictures of the hamachi crudo, which is the yellowtail tuna crudo with olive oil as an appetizer. And then I had the mushroom risotto, which was gorgeous.

And Dana had the filet tenderloin that Palo is still known for their beautiful beef that they're able to source usually. I think it's from Australia. This, I believe, was Wagyu from Japan. And of course, they still have the chocolate souffle.

They have been doing the chocolate souffle on Disney ships Impala since its inception and we had to have it. And it still was one of the highlights of the entire cruise.

The other highlight was I was able to bring some of my wine to bottles through customs and onto the ship of my Solevato. I bought a Sangiovese and a Grenache. And what a very special treat. This has only happened one other time where I got to enjoy my Sangiovese.

And in Palo, with their food in the place where it all started very full circle. And the pairing with not only her filet but also my mushroom risotto was fantastic, if I do say so myself.

Now, the other premium restaurant is called Mike and Sully's, and it is themed after Monsters, Inc. Of course, Mike Wazowski, voiced by Billy Crystal, the green eyeball. And then of course, Sully, voiced by John Goodman.

And it's essentially like a Japanese steakhouse slash teppanyaki or hibachi, which is so cutely themed from the movie Monsters Inc.

It's where Mike Wazowski and his girlfriend Celia, the one who has the snakes for hair, it's where they go on their date and then there's like havoc and everything breaks loose. But anyway, really cute theming. And there were three different menus that you could choose from.

You make a reservation for this, there is a surcharge for it, but you can do omakase. Like the sushi guided meal where the sushi chef just takes you through adventure.

That was very appealing, but we had some beautiful sushi in the fish market in Tokyo, so I felt like we could venture out. They also have a Japanese steakhouse with a lot of wagyu, but we actually did the teppanyaki. When I say hibachi, you think like Benihana.

That's what most people know, which is great. Or the one in the Japan Pavilion in Epcot, which is also fantastic.

This was like whatever you're thinking of with hibachi and elevate it two more notches. Just the decor itself and you do sit down with other guests. That was really fun to meet the other cast members who were dining with us.

Where do you work? Oh, when did you find out about this? It was very cool, but I. I really think this teppanyaki meal had no less than six courses.

It may have been more than that, starting with beautiful sashimi. Then there were scallops that he seared on the hibachi grill.

And then the hibachi where they're actually cooking on the grill with the rice and the onions and other things. No volcano, no tossing in the pocket. But it was wagyu beef, which was beautiful. And the chef who was cooking for us, it was very cool to hear that.

He was a young guy. But I asked, how were you trained on this? Because it's very ceremonial and meticulous, the way that they prepare this meal in front of you.

And he had been recruited from Epcot, from the Japan Pavilion. That's how he learned and had a wonderful teacher, as he said. So that was cool. That meal was fantastic. Definitely worth the extra.

Especially the sake pairing that was offered was beautiful. I love sake almost as much as I love wine. And I've been learning more about it and learning about the different styles and how they pair with food.

So the sake just brought that awesome meal to another level.

One of the experiences that was really unique to being on a test cruise was, like I mentioned, being able to see different things being finished in the moment. An example was the spa. On this ship, there's actually two spas, a concierge level spa, and then a everyone else spa.

We were in the everyone else spa, which was still amazing. Huge. Multiple steam rooms, multiple saunas, a salt room, about 24 heated tile loungers that look out into the ocean.

Those were one of my dad's favorites on our previous cruise, two summers ago on the Disney Dream. And that spa in the Rainforest Room, he loved to lay on those heated tile loungers. They're like zero gravity. He used to call them the hot couches.

So there were a lot of hot couches in the spa in the Disney Adventure, and I took more than a few naps on those because we did the length of cruise Rainforest Room Pass, where you could go in and use all of these spas and experiential showers and steam rooms and hot tubs and cold plunges. It's just.

It was very extensive and also a highlight of the cruise for me, but an example of how we were able to give real time feedback and see it implemented in the locker room and the changing room for the spa. One of the things we noticed the first days we were in there, there was just nowhere to put your stuff, right?

So when you were pulling your bag out of your locker, changing into your bathing suit, they needed like a bench or something in the middle of this locker room, and there was nothing there. So we shared that with some of the crew that we interacted with.

And by the end of the cruise, there was a beautiful white leather bench in the middle. So, you know, just being able to see that happen real time was really cool.

But another example is one day towards the end of the cruise, I was walking on the top deck of the ship, going to the infinity pool that's on the back of the ship. That literally you're in the pool and you're just looking to the ocean behind you. So cool. And on that top deck, there is a roller coaster.

So this ship is definitely the first Disney ship to have a full and true roller coaster at sea. Not a water slide. Disney's been doing that for a while. The aqueduct and all that clear tube water slides, they're very cool.

This is a true roller coaster on the top deck. And it's one of three theme park attractions that exist on this ship. And it's very Iron Man Marvel themed.

And the roller coaster had not yet opened during our cruise, and Dana was itching to go, but they were still putting it through its testing.

And one day I'm walking by where the roller coaster boards and there's a gathering of ship officers and their whites and people in hard hats and vests. And they were all standing there, phones out, waiting for something. So being a little nosy, I said, what's going on here?

And this nice man next to me said, oh, we're about to send the roller coaster with his first ever manned voyage. So they had like test dummies in there and water bottles for weight, but this was the first human taking a ride on this.

And I was able to stand there and watch this guy in a hard hat and vest go flying by. Apparently he was one of the head imagineers on the project. And everyone down below was cheering and hugging and high fiving and taking pictures.

And I said to the guy next to me, who turned out to be one of the imagineers, Disney engineers, imagineers, if you don't know that term. I said, how long have you guys been working on this roller coaster? And he said, three years. Three years.

From building it on the ground in Germany to then getting it on the ship, to all of the dynamics that are different with physics on a moving ship and wind and all of those things.

And I just happened to be walking by and got to see the first manned run, which was just really cool and very specific to a test, cruising and being able to see that.

And even as someone who's worked for the company as long as I have, to be able to peek behind the curtain of some of those things was really unique and something that I'll never forget. And finally, I want to talk about some of the entertainment on the ship, right?

Disney Cruise Line, always known for fantastic stage shows, almost like Full Broadway, sort of Beauty and the Beast, Frozen Multiple times. These shows are offered during a length of any cruise, and this was no different.

And we got to see multiple shows in the Walt Disney Theater, one of which was called Remember and Fun and Surprising about this. Without giving too much away, the central character in this show is not one of the Fab Five. Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald.

It was actually Wall E. And this is the first Disney show that Wall E from Wall E, the robot in space. This is the first show where he's actually a focal point character. And it was very sweet.

And then had a montage of all of the other Disney friends in there performing. And one of the best shows that I've seen on a Disney ship. And I've seen some amazing shows on a Disney ship.

On the back of the ship, on a different level than where the infinity pool is, there's an area called the Wayfinders Pool.

And again, look on the webpage for this episode and you'll be able to see it's almost like a bowl at the back of the ship where there's a pool, but then there's risered like seating and lounge chairs and hot tubs all around it. And then there's a screen behind this pool and then just ocean all around you. And our room was not too far from this.

So for a few mornings during the cruise and when we'd be on the veranda having our bacha coffee pour over and muffins from room service, we could hear them rehearsing on this pool stage, a Moana show. Hearing one of my favorite songs that she sings, and just hearing like rehearsal over and over again was very cool to be able to hear that.

So we didn't know if that show was going to be available before end of the cruise. But on the very last day of the cruise, we got a notification.

And the app, which is the Navigator app, so cool, has all your activities and everything in there. I remember the days of the paper Navigator activity schedule being put on your bed the night before.

And you used to look at it, but now everything is, of course, digital. It's good. Saving some trees. And it popped up in the app that the Moana show was gonna be happening on the very last day.

So we were some of the first guests who got to see it. And they perform it literally around this pool and in the pool. Cause obviously Moana is very ocean themed. And they just used the space beautifully.

And the singing Moana, she was amazing. And all of the supporting crew around her was fantastic.

And just again, really cool to know that you're Some of the first guest that these entertainment crew members who have been rehearsing for months actually get to do it for the first time in front of many human eyes. And to be a part of that audience, ooh, gives me goosebumps. That was really cool. And then finally, fireworks.

So again, I believe, keep me honest here, but I believe that Disney Cruise line was the first and the only cruise line to be licensed to, to be able to shoot fireworks at sea from the ship, which just seems like such a safety concern. But they do it all the time and they do it beautifully. And we did get to experience the fireworks show one of the nights we were on board.

Everyone goes up to the top deck and this fireworks show was Lion King.

Again, I don't want to give too much away, but I know there's a lot of video and if you're like really into these things, you can watch the whole fireworks show probably on YouTube. I didn't record the whole thing, but how cool that the very start of this fireworks show is a big comet firework going across the sky and it's.

Goosebumps, tears, the whole thing. The music from Lion King is like an 11 minute fireworks show. They are shooting fireworks from two different spots on the ship. And.

And one of the things that I learned in just talking to different crew and imagineers is that the captain can work to position the ship properly for the wind so that when there's fireworks shooting simultaneously from the front and the back of this huge ship, they are timed so that they meet in the middle at the same time, right in front of you. Just again, stuff that's beyond my pay grade. But if you really stop and think about it, it's, whoa, that's crazy. Really impressive.

All of these experiences, these beautiful meals, the spa experience, the engineering of the roller coasters, the fireworks obviously are not possible without the people. So I would be remiss if I did not congratulate all of the work for years that have been going to making this a reality.

But then all of the wonderful crew members from around the world who we met on this ship, and I believe I heard like 70% of them, this is their first Disney cruise. So typically when Disney launches a ship, they take some seasoned crew from all the different ships and they become the trainers.

And it's an honor for them to be part of an opening team. But this only had about 30% or so who had previously worked on Disney ships.

So the extra excitement of these crew, as I said, and so many of them, you would ask, oh, my Gosh, how long have you worked for Disney? And they would say, oh, this is my first ship.

And it was so cool, as someone who has been a part of this family for almost 30 years, to be able to say to them, like, oh, my gosh, congratulations. Welcome to the family. And so much pride. Just like Shane in the coffee shop who said, this has been my lifelong dream.

And for a lot of them, yes, there are theme parks in Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, but nothing in Singapore. Nothing in the Philippines or Vietnam.

So for a lot of these crew members who are coming from those countries to be able to work for Disney on this ship in a new part of the world for Disney Cruise Line, they were just really honored. And it came through in all of our interactions.

Big hug to all of the wonderful crew members that we met who made an impression on everything we did, both the ones who we were able to see and congratulate and so many that were behind the scenes, like room service, right? The people answering the room service phone and prepping and delivering our trays. Morning room service was fun for us, but no surprise.

One of my favorite things to do on a Disney cruise, especially if we have a veranda looking at the ocean, is to order a cheese plate. Plate from room service.

And then usually we have wine that we've brought, or we order wine and to sit on the veranda, usually at sunset, and enjoy wine and cheese. That was all possible thanks to all of the team in room service dining. So thank you to all of them.

So whether you're planning to check this ship out or not, clearly my advice here is take the trip, make it happen, get out of your own way. Say yes, and then the rest will fall into place.

Because this is definitely one of the coolest things I've been able to do in all of my travel adventures. And I've had some really cool travel adventures. But I'm just grateful to Disney for giving me the opportunity to do this.

I'm grateful for Dana, my friend, for saying yes and coming with me. And I really hope that my feet get to be on that ship again in the future. And I hope the same for you. Wow. So I wear it on my wrist.

You've heard me talk about this before. Grateful. I always look down, and there it is. It can apply to so many different things in my life. My health, my family.

But right now, in this moment, so grateful to Disney for the opportunity to experience what I did. So grateful to Dana, my friend, for saying yes. Because no one else could go. The drop of a hat.

And grateful and congratulatory, as you heard, to all of the Disney cruise line behind the scenes and crew members who made this an unreal experience. I'm still trying to figure out how to talk about it. Don't forget to check it out on sipwithnikki.com, the website, the podcast page.

And then this episode will now have its own page where you can see pictures of everything that I've talked about and some video. And if you are listening to this but would prefer to see my face, this will be on YouTube as well.

My thought in wrapping all of this up is just say yes. Like life is short. We're all losing people around us. The world that we're in today is a you know what show S H I T show.

I'm trying not to curse because it's a Disney episode, but it's a mess show right now. So when there are these little glimmers of positivity and joy, take them.

Whether it's going to dinner with a friend or hopping on a plane and literally flying to the other side of the globe. I hope that you enjoyed it. I hope that you feel inspired to step outside of your comfort zone because you don't know the magic that will ensue.

And I'm sitting here sipping some beautiful Grenache, which is available on sollevatowines.com you can purchase my Sangiovese or my Grenache that have been made with so much love for you to pair with beautiful moments, whether it's a Tuesday night in your kitchen or in your suitcase for the cruise of a lifetime. As always, I appreciate you listening. And whatever you do between now and our next time together, I hope that you sip well. Wait.

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