you know, for us as podcasters, now it'd be great if all of you were out there mingling with others and saying,

oh, I heard this great thing from the DCL Duo.

And we have a very thing from the DCL Duo.

And we have a very special guest on the bonus episode this week. It's Sam. Hey, Sam. I'm the bonus guest. Well, I usually end up doing these things. I usually end up doing a lot of these on my own. Some of them you're on. But you know, you're my guest this week. Welcome to the show.

Thanks for having

me brian i appreciate the opportunity well this week um you know i was actually listening to

another podcast out there in the community and something you said on their podcast sparked the idea

and me for this podcast which was just they were talking about how they had returned to cruising again, and it was something that they were never going to take for granted. It was their ability to get back on these cruise ships. They were just, we're never going to take that for granted again, and we're going to soak up every ounce and minute of being able to cruise as they went forward. And it just raised the idea with me that maybe Sam and I could chat for a

second about things that we're not going to take for granted again now that we are back to

vacationing. Yeah, that's the, that's the show here. It's things that we missed during COVID that

we will just never take for granted again, or things that, you know, persist even today that

we cannot wait for the day that they

are no longer a part of our travel experience. So maybe I'll kick things off in that vein and say

that my number one that I will never take for granted again is the ability to travel without

all kinds of COVID testing. I actually would say I don't mind the vaccination requirement.

I'm even okay wearing a mask on an airplane. And look, the reason why is that Sam can test to this, you used to take cruises and I was almost guaranteed to be the one who would get home and get sick. And so I think a lot of that has gone away with the buffets. So I'm very thankful that they have switched the buffets over to the kind of service that they are. I will never take for granted, I suppose, the fact that they now serve you at the buffet. But really for me, you know, wearing a mask on an airplane is no big deal from my standpoint. I think I would do it voluntarily just to try and protect myself a little bit because I hate being sick. Yeah, just getting a cold even. Yeah. For me, it's just, yeah, I don't, when I get a cold, it's really bad. I have really bad sinuses just genetically. And so when I get a cold, it's, it's not good. But Vax, the whole testing thing is just the stress of getting the test lined up, the nail biting as they've shrunk the periods of time that you have to do the testing. you know, is it going to be positive and ruin the whole vacation? You know, is the sample going to be sufficient?

I'm going to have to retest. Maybe you're going to have time to do that, you know, and sitting at the port. I do kind of like the party-like vibe at Port Canaveral these days in the parking garage. that's a little bit fun, but at the same time, you're staring at the ship and you want to get on

and you can't get out of your car to go because you're waiting on a test. So it's just a nail-biting

experience in, fun, but at the same time, you're staring at the ship and you want to get on and you can't get

out of your car to go because you're waiting on a test. So it's just a nail-biting experience. And even more so, I would say, for people have to fly places to travel right now. Because if that test comes back positive, you can't get home easily. So, you know, the airlines are going to say you can't fly because you're supposed to do a test with them that you don't have COVID before you get on board or haven't tested positive or been exposed or however they use the

language. So I will never take for granted again the ability to travel without testing. I

unfortunately don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon, especially for cruise lines and

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