Welcome to the Royal Caribbean blog podcast, a weekly look into the world of Royal Caribbean cruising.

I'm your host, Matt Hodgeberg, and this is episode number 44.

This week, I'm inviting one of my very good friends on board to join us, Len Testa and Laurel Stewart,

who are taking their very first Royal Caribbean cruise on Allure the Seas later this summer.

Len and Laurel are actually veterans of another cruise line.

So this jump to Royal is an opportunity to discuss their previous experiences and share

with them what makes Royal Caribbean different.

Here we go.

Today, it's my pleasure to invite one of my very, very good friends onto this podcast

and also a very good friend of his who's a friend of mine as well. We're all friends, really. And it's, of course, Len Testa and Laurel Stewart, who are the co-authors of the unofficial guide to the Disney Cruise Line. I know you guys are saying, what? Is this the right podcast? But actually, Len and Laurel are embarking upon their first Royal Caribbean cruise.

They are going to be going on on allure of the seas later this summer.

Well, first let me introduce it.

Welcome to the show, Len, and welcome to the show Laurel.

Thank you.

You might know Len Testa best for being the co-author of the unofficial guide to Walt Disney World,

but he and Laurel and Aaron Fosser wrote just recently, the unofficial guy to Disney Cruise Line, and obviously they're going from a very Disney background, but they're embarking on a Royal Caribbean cruise. Of course, let's first plug the book, Len, because it's a really great book, actually, honestly, even if you don't care for Disney Cruise Line. It's just, it's a good read, I think, especially for how cruise lines work.

And also, there's also a really good section in the book, Len, about the different ports of call,

which obviously Royal Caribbean visits quite a number of as well. Oh, thanks. Yeah, Aaron worked on, that part of the book, but essentially for every port, we try and give you a little bit of the history of the port, like, you know, when it was, first became a city, then became a port.

We talk about the weather. We talk about what to eat and what to buy. We go over things like, you know, the language is spoken, the currencies and things like that. So it's pretty neat stuff. Absolutely. And you can find that book, Amazon.com, or any of your favorite place that books are sold.

So let's jump into this here.

Now, Laurel, obviously you and Len coming from a very much of Disney background, as I'm well aware.

What compelled you guys to, well, try Royal Caribbean and Allure of the Seas?

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