[00:00:13] Speaker A: Welcome to two Travel Dads podcast. Here we share our favorite destinations, travel tips, stories from our adventures, and bring on awesome guests to share insights into their travelsome lives. Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and check out our detailed show
[email protected]. Podcast episode hey, welcome to another episode of two Travel Dads podcast. I'm Rob.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: I'm Chris.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: And today we are talking about something super duper cool. We just came back from a week in Hawaii, or ten days in Hawaii.
I know we go to Hawaii more often than we probably should, but this time we were there completing our uncruise, doing some island hopping. So we're going to talk about, not necessarily our itinerary of what we did, but just like what uncruise is, because it's such a different sort of travel experience and different sort of. Well, I mean, it's not a cruise like a cruise.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: Well, I wonder how many people out there have actually heard of uncruise or know what it is.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I heard about it a long time ago.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: What do you think of anything of uncruise? What does that mean?
[00:01:28] Speaker A: Well, why don't you tell me what you thought it meant before you did it?
[00:01:32] Speaker B: I just really wasn't sure. I was like, uncrew, it's a cruise, but it's not what makes it uncruise. And once I actually started to learn a little bit more about it, then it really made sense and had a good way of explaining it to my coworkers about this cruise that was going on and what made it an uncruise.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: You want me to share?
[00:01:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
The thing that I think was confusing to me before we did uncruise was, if it's not a cruise, but it's on a ship, how can that.
[00:02:05] Speaker B: What is it?
[00:02:06] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. How can that be so different? And really, what I think it comes down to now that we've experienced it, I started to understand this before we actually got on the boat.
What really sets it apart and makes it so that it's not a cruise is just how active it is. Not necessarily compulsively compulsory activities, but just how. I mean, I've been on a cruise and it's very loungey and it's not for me, it's boring.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: I've never been on a cruise ship, but I think, okay, it's casinos, shows, pools, loungey.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: And endless eating.
[00:02:48] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And that is what my experience cruising was. Yeah. So uncruise is not that uncruised yeah. There's more food than probably we should have eaten, for sure. Not a buffet, but not a perpetual buffet of life.
And yes, there's definitely the whole open bar element of uncrews means that you do have the ability to over consume.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: Enjoy libations.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: Enjoy libations. Yeah. But the mindset and the vibe on board is such that it's not like you are sailing with thousands of strangers and you're all just loving it up and having a good time, being lazy. It's such a vibrant, energetic crew of people, even if it is an older crew that you are sailing with. It's very.
[00:03:41] Speaker B: How are we going to be active today? What wildlife will we see today?
[00:03:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: Where are we going to hike?
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: Paddle.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: Yeah. And everybody's totally into it.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: So I think that's what really makes uncruise a different sort of boat experience than doing a mega ship cruise.
And it's really funny because when we first got on board, you never know anybody when you first start.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: Super awkward.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: But it is super awkward. But it was funny because as we met everybody in the lobby of the hotel just off the pier in Kailuakona on the big island, because we just sailed from Kona to Molokai on the safari explorer. That was the name of our ship. So we met at the Kinkamea beachside resort right there in town. So we spent the day just kind of hanging out, and then when it was time to board, we went over to the check in area and there's just all these couples of people just.
[00:04:42] Speaker B: Kind of hanging out with lanyards.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: With lanyards with their name tags on them. And I was like, oh, name tags.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: Very helpful, though.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: Yeah, thank goodness for name tags. But I mean, the whole name tag thing, that kind of set the tone for, hey, we're all going to be on a first name basis for the next eight days, and thank goodness for the name tags. But it really made it a cool travel experience because for the next eight days, literally, this was our little community that we were a part of. And I loved it.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: Yeah, it was wonderful. The kids loved it, too.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: The kids did love it, too. So uncrews does tend to have a lot of older passengers, people who are retired, because they've got the time for a lot of time for doing stuff like this. So we were kind of the OD man out on our sailing, but it was still awesome because the group we were sailing with, they were very active people again.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: So I think that goes back to what you're talking about people who take an uncrews are active people because nobody, I mean, I think somebody had, like, maybe a knee problem or something which got them to bail out from one of the activities. But everybody is waiting for that next adventure, whether it be on land or on the water, and really excited about finding wildlife and just having cool experiences. So it just, again, had that vibe on the boat. So you're around, I think, like minded, like, value people because you all want to experience the same things. That's why you're choosing an uncruise, I think, versus cruise ship, where you could just sit by the pool and lounge all day.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's funny, so as I was writing about uncruise, because I've already written about it, one of the things that I talked about was just how that like minded community really does make for the unique and awesome sailing experience. Because with anybody, you could sit down and the conversation was anything from progressive politics to health care to education, to travel, to travel to international travel. And the people are people like us who are out there and being active in the world and are making conscious choices about the type of travel that they do and the things they want to experience. And I just loved it.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a blast.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: And I also love that despite the age difference between a lot of the passengers and us, that one day that we were all jumping off the boat, everybody was still jumping off of that second deck platform.
Yeah, good times.
[00:07:29] Speaker B: It was awesome.
[00:07:30] Speaker A: Jumping off the high dive knows no age.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: Anyways, though, so that's really what makes uncrews different from a standard mega cruise ship cruise. It's just such a different, intimate, personal sort of vibe. And I loved getting to spend time with the people.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: Yeah. This boat had. What was it? How many cabins were on this boat? How many?
[00:07:51] Speaker A: Ooh, I don't remember how many cabins, but guests on our sailing. So the safari explorer that we were on, it sails in both Hawaii and the inside passage of Alaska. Actually, I think that might be the one that's going to do the illusions now.
But it can hold up to 36 guests. Our sailing only had 30 guests.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: That's kind of awesome. So minus the four of us, that's 26 people that we were just hanging out with for eight days. And it was a very easy little rotation through.
So there's 30 of us guests. And with the crew, I think we had four or five stewards. We had two expedition leaders.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: We had CJ the bartender.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: CJ? Yeah, CJ the bartender. Elliot's best friend.
So being on the little ship, it was fantastic. When we would come back from an activity or whatever was going on, Elliot, he's our youngest, he could just free roam the boat, and oftentimes we found him sitting at the bar with a sprite or a mocktail, just chatting it up with the bartender or the other staff, and it was great.
Elliot is a great example of what you can enjoy on an uncruise, but no. So it's just really. The staff to passenger ratio was really amazing.
Gosh. With our ship specifically, I think statistically, it's like 2.5 passengers per crew member. And with other uncrewed boats, it's the same. It's either two or three passengers to each crew member, which I think is amazing. It means there's always somebody there to chat with or help you. I love it. The other side of uncrews being this bespoke, this special travel that kind of is free flowing, is that you kind of never know what it is that you're going to do. You've got this little boat, this small ship that can get pretty close to the shore or can go places that large ships can't go, and then you've got your cool skiffs on board with crew to trek you around and help you see interesting things.
[00:10:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's part of the cool experience, right, is that we didn't have a set standard itinerary, and if the weather, the wildlife, the conditions changed or adjusted, we went with the flow. And if there was an experience for us to be able to get off onto the skiffs and go drive out and check out whales or the wildlife that was around, we got to go do that.
And then also, though, with the boat, I think one of the other cool things about the lack of itinerary is we got to see the backside of Molokai, which I think was pretty amazing. Most people don't get to go there.
[00:10:57] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it's really cool. So when you sail over, you know, kind of getting a little more into our itinerary with our hawaiian seascapes, sailing versus just uncrews in general. But this is a great example of the flexibility of it. When you're sailing from the big island over to Maui, Moloka Islandai, you have to cross this big strait, which is known for being just wild currents. Difficult.
The night before we sailed over, they had actually, in the wine library, they had put cardboard between all the wine bottles and the glass fronts of the cases, because they had expected the crossing to be super duper rough, which it totally wasn't. But then, because it was so chill, we did get to sail. Instead of just like dinking around Maui, they just went, let's go to Molokai and let's check it out. And we got to sail all along the north shore, which has those thousand foot sea cliffs or what.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: We're the largest sea cliffs in the world. I can't remember. I think like 3000.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: Yeah, they're crazy.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: They're epic. And I mean, imagine one we didn't know if we'd get to go there. They talked about it like, oh, the weather's been really great.
Even the crew has never been there. The captain, right, he's always wanted to check it out, but the conditions have never been right. We woke up in the morning, opened up the doors, looked outside and it was like, boom. There's these epic sea cliffs and the boobies.
[00:12:21] Speaker A: It was like 07:00 in the morning. They were really good about not waking us up too early. 07:00 in the morning. All of a sudden we've got this soft speaker announcement in our cabin. Everyone, we're by the cliffs of Molokai. Look out your window. Which is kind of creepy. And also like, what? And then, yeah, you just kind of throw open your curtains and walk out onto the deck and wow. Holy cow. You've got waterfalls, you've got these green, lush cliffs, you've got crazy rock formations.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: Tropics birds. Tropics birds, yeah.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: Oh, gosh. It was just super cool. And something like that you don't necessarily get to do when you are on a mega cruise ship that has a set itinerary where, you know, I'm in this port of call at 08:00 a.m. Until 03:00 p.m. Things like that. The flexibility of this was just.
[00:13:13] Speaker B: I think you get the flexibility, but you also get the education. Right. And because all of the crew is extremely knowledgeable about the wildlife, about the landscape. And so you get to learn about the areas really well while you're on board and which our kids love. Ask a ton of questions. Right, crew?
[00:13:36] Speaker A: Yeah. And then each night there's some sort of presentation that is either about what you're doing the next day or what you'd seen that day. So Sam gave a really cool presentation. He was a really cool expedition leader about seahorses. That was totally kind of random, but fascinating to hear about seahorses. And then we had Tara talking about whales and I loved that one. What else we talk about? We had a whole presentation about hawaiian music and its evolution and just, like, the meaning of different things.
It was great. It was super fun.
[00:14:14] Speaker B: Yeah, there were a lot. They were always towards the end, at the end of the night, right after we've had a long, active day. I will say sometimes I did fall asleep, not because the content wasn't great, just because we had such a great, active day.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: And, you know, you're sitting on leather couches, everybody's a little bit snugly, you're hanging out with some of your new best friends.
Everybody's got a cocktail. It's very easy to drift off. And, yeah, it's funny. I talked to Tara about that, and she was just like, it happens each night with the presentation. It's okay. We're fine with that. It means you had a good day. Yes, that's true.
But something else about that know, really bespoke flexible itinerary, which, I've got to say, before we went sailing with uncrews, it was really frustrating to me that I could not pin down what we would actually be doing.
We got our confirmation that had our itinerary. The itinerary was so vague, and that was so frustrating. I'm a planner, and even if somebody else is responsible for everything, I want to know what we're doing. I don't like surprises.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: You like it, like, minute by minute.
[00:15:18] Speaker A: I love minute by minute itineraries. And when you sail with uncrews, now, I understand it and I love it. But initially, it was so frustrating because the itinerary for the day would be like, captain's choice. We might go kayaking. Who knows? Maybe we'll go on skiff rides. Maybe we'll just sail around. We might go swimming. You don't know. And now I understand why it's worded that way, because it is so being on a smaller ship, it's very weather dependent, and they're going to sail you to wherever the best weather is and the best wildlife opportunities are. So while that's frustrating, it's also what really made it such a cool experience.
And then with that, you get to a cool place based off of the weather and the wildlife, and then you get to jump on a skiff or a kayak and go explore.
I really liked. What island was it? I think it was when we were on Lanai, when we did the kayaking to the sea caves.
[00:16:16] Speaker B: It was Lanai. Yeah.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: That was super cool. And we got to actual kayak into a sea cave with the waves and then kayak back out. Riding the waves back out. That was really cool.
Gosh, I'm trying to think about each of the Skiff rides we did.
[00:16:31] Speaker B: Oh, there was a lot.
[00:16:33] Speaker A: Which one was actually my favorite for the skiff rides?
[00:16:36] Speaker B: Was it the sunset whale watching?
[00:16:38] Speaker A: I didn't go on one of those, but I went on a sunrise one.
[00:16:40] Speaker B: Oh, that's what I meant. Sorry. Sunrise. Sunrise, yeah.
[00:16:43] Speaker A: No, tara made us all get up before sunrise and get out on boats, get out on the water so that we could watch the sun come up behind Hollyakala and chase whales. Not chase whales, but go around in our zodiacs to where there were whales hanging out. We saw.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: So they were everywhere. You couldn't not see them. Everywhere you would look, there was just spout, spout, spouts going off. It was just amazing.
[00:17:08] Speaker A: And being able to have that flexibility of jumping onto a skiff and then being at water level with whales who are breaching and tail slapping and flapping their fins. Did we ever find out what that was called when they're fin flapping, fin smacking?
[00:17:22] Speaker B: Maybe not. Having fun.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: Having fun. Yeah, it was super cool. I wish that we had a skiff here at home that we could just, boom, go, jump out there and zip around.
But that was a really wonderful element of that. It's just those random little adventures. I enjoyed that.
And then I think you probably would want to talk a little bit about some food stuff.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: Well, I mean, the boat itself, talk about food. But if you haven't been on the website and checked out the pictures or done any of that, this boat was so cool and comfortable.
Our cabin was beautiful. Of course, it's on a boat, so it's small but super comfortable. Great shower and had everything that you needed. And the boys room was actually bigger, but that's. It had two twin beds.
And again, it was just really great accommodations. And in the main area, where there was the dining room, which was nice and small and beautiful woodwork and stuff everywhere within the boat, that beautiful bar and then the library back where the kids spent every morning, down there in the library playing games and waiting for breakfast. But just. And then that cool, loungey area right by the bar where all those comfortable leather couches and stuff were just really great accommodations and very comfortable. But, yeah, the food, they had a chef and a pastry chef on board. And every day we would start out with that early risers breakfast, which was a nice, like, yogurt parfait, fresh cut fruit, delicious coffee, and a pastry of some kind. It could be a croissant or some other puff pastry, which I will say.
[00:19:10] Speaker A: And then I'll let you get back to the food. Something else that made it really special was doing a sailing like this with kids. They got to do some really cool stuff. Like, for example, Julia, the pastry chef, she let Elliot come down into the galley on the bottom level of the boat and help her bake things, and he was so happy, so he got to make our breakfast pastries.
[00:19:32] Speaker B: Oh, he loved it. And plus, so did the rest of the guests that were on the boat, because, well, one, they just loved the boys, but they even wrote on the little note card of what the pastry was made with, love by Elliot. And so everybody knew that those were the ones that Elliot helped bake, but no, so you'd have that breakfast, and then they would have some type of breakfast special of the day. And if you didn't want that, you could still choose something, you know, type of breakfast option.
Eggs or oatmeal.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: That one frittata Brendan made was beautiful.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. Yeah, he made a delicious frittata, had, like, zucchini and squash and spinach and balsamic reduction. Anyway, it's really good.
And then you'd always have a lunch of some kind, but oftentimes we were out on doing some activities. So they'd pack the lunch, always a really great sandwich or wrap, and then the first time, they surprise you with dessert. But then we expected dessert with lunch every single time after, which was always delicious.
And during that time with breakfast, they would always let you know what the dinner plan was. And there was always a surf option and a turf option and a vegetarian option and a vegetarian option. And if you wanted, you could have a little bit of each one.
So that was nice, because there were sometimes they're like, oh, I really want the fish, and I really want the meat. And they're like, why don't you get one of each?
There was that flexibility, and they did.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: Also let me know, and I never told the kids that if the kids ever wanted anything that wasn't available, like grilled cheese sandwiches or whatever, that they could just special request whatever they actually wanted for dinner. Yeah, I never told them that.
[00:21:11] Speaker B: Well, kids are good eaters. They would have taken them up on that. I know, but still ate the ono. They ate the short rib.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: They ate the beet Wellington.
[00:21:17] Speaker B: Oh, the beat Wellington. That was on Valentine's day. I loved it. Yeah. And they made everything just really special. So again, we were on the boat for Valentine's day and Super bowl and the big game.
[00:21:28] Speaker A: The big game. Sorry, the big game.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: The big game.
And they had created just events all around that too. So paste food customized around that. They would have, like, little decorations. And they made sure that for people who wanted to watch the Super bowl, that we were able to.
[00:21:46] Speaker A: And they did up wings with different sauces.
[00:21:48] Speaker B: Wings and good dips.
[00:21:51] Speaker A: Whoopee pies in the shapes of football.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: That's right. Whoopee pies in the shapes of footballs. So really delicious food. And again, they'll work with whatever your dietary needs are. But the crew does a really amazing job creating really great dining experiences.
[00:22:08] Speaker A: So I've got tummy problems, so I can't eat lots of different things. And all I did was mention it once, and I never had to request something to be redone or not include something, because they just proactively took care of whatever I needed with each meal, and it was awesome.
[00:22:28] Speaker B: Yeah, same with Elliot. I mean, anytime there was a pastry or something that had a nut in it, they always had, of course, a completely separate container with enough for Elliot to have more than one.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: Yeah, the day of the giant cookie container, just for know.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: I know, but, yeah, no, just really delicious food. And then, of course, the cocktails. Right. So it's a beautiful bar that's in know they've got all of your top shelf needs. But the bartender, CJ, he created Elliot's best friend. Elliot's best friend, he'd sit up there every day on the high chair and chatted up with CJ, asking a ton of questions, but he'd always have a craft cocktail of the day. And then, of course, you could try that or get anything else that you wanted.
And they also had, like, beer on tap, like local beers.
[00:23:18] Speaker A: A whole wine library.
[00:23:20] Speaker B: A whole wine library. Great wine selection.
People were really enjoying some of the scotch, different scotches and whiskeys that were available on board, but, yeah, no really knowledgeable crew and staff, so great experience from a food and beverage perspective.
[00:23:37] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's funny because that was the thing that I didn't even think about the entire time leading up. It never even crossed my mind what dining would be like. All I cared about was the vague itinerary and then getting there and actually having awesome food and really fun happy hour every day. I loved it. And that was another one of those really great community times where we've been busy all day. Everybody comes back and there's different activities you can do throughout the day. So your buddies that went and did the hike, they can sit and chat with everybody else who went and did the cat sanctuary or went biking or whatever it was great.
[00:24:17] Speaker B: And in the dining area, too, it's like there's not a four top, there are six top ten pluses. So the boys lady like to sit in the same spot every day. And so we would sit there, but there would always be two extra chairs. And then the rest of the guests would cycle through because each couple wanted to come and chat it up with.
[00:24:37] Speaker A: And the kids specifically wanted to stay it there because they knew that people would make the decision to come sit with us, which was hilarious. And it was wonderful getting to sail basically with, what, twelve sets of grandparents for a week. It was amazing.
[00:24:54] Speaker B: I think like five retired teachers, doctors on Board.
So it was a good mix of people.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: It was so much fun. I'm really looking forward to in June, we are doing another uncruised sailing. We're going to be on the wilderness legacy, which is a totally different sort of boat. So the safari explorer that we were just on had three decks. The main deck that you can board the skiffs, and that's where the dining area and the lounge and library are. And then the main deck where everybody's most people's cabins are. And that's also where there's the bow of the ship and then the sun deck. There's a couple of cabins.
[00:25:31] Speaker B: Love the sun deck.
[00:25:32] Speaker A: Yeah. The ship that we're going to be.
[00:25:34] Speaker B: On the sun deck, though, does have equipment. Workout equipment.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right.
[00:25:38] Speaker B: Really nice. I was able to do a couple of workouts on board even as the boat was rocking. Right. You could still get. They had some free weights and cardio equipment up there.
[00:25:47] Speaker A: Yes, that's true. I never did it because I was nervous about lifting weights and then a wave rocking the boat. That made me really anxious, so I never tried it, but other people were doing it, which is great.
But. So our next ship that we're going to be on, and don't worry, we'll record a podcast episode about that, too.
It is called the Wilderness Legacy, and we're going to be sailing in Alaska out of Juneau. It's a completely different type of boat than what we were just on because the safari explorer is pretty small.
36 passengers. Our next ship that we're sailing on is still really small, only 86 passengers on that one.
But it's going to be a totally different sort of experience. The boat is so cool. It looks like an old steam tramp. So that's going to be really fun. And I'm excited that we'll have the same captain that we had in Hawaii. So Captain Andy's going to be our leader for our Alaska sailing. And Elliot's excited because.
[00:26:47] Speaker B: The bartender is also going to be on that same trip.
[00:26:50] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah. CJ is also going to be on the boat with us for that one too. So Elliot knows what his schedule is going to be for the, um, is there anything else that you think we need to hit on before we say goodbye for the day? I had an amazing time and I could talk about it constantly. I think maybe we should record another episode about all of the things we actually did.
[00:27:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Because we talked mostly kind of about the boat. Right, in this trip, not so much about the excursions that we did, which I think really makes uncruise uncruise because it has all those wonderful excursions that are just part of your uncruise experience, and they're all done really well. Extremely comprehensive and top quality.
[00:27:32] Speaker A: Yeah. So stay tuned for another episode all about uncruise and then check it out on the blog too. So we've got a couple of articles all about both our experience and what you can do. And if you do want to book an uncruise for yourself and your family, we do partner with uncruise, so you can use our code two dads 500, that's TW odads 500 to get a discount on your booking. So if you have any questions, always feel free to jump over to the website twotraveldads.com and leave us your questions and comments. And in the meantime, go ahead and hit subscribe and share this with a friend who you want to go on an uncruise sailing with.
Great. We will talk to you later. See you later. Have an awesome day. And that's it for now. Two travel Dads podcast is created by Rob and Chris Taylor in St. Augustine, Florida. We'd love to answer your questions here on the podcast, providing both our experience and stories. To share our own insights into whatever you're wondering about, visit twotraveldads.com slash podcast episodes to leave your questions and to check out past episodes and show notes. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button and have an awesome day.
