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When you board a cruise. Champagne. Always a glass of champagne. At least that never changes. Yeah. This is already such a different experience from other cruise ships we've been on and so much more intimate. And I love that. Yeah, this is basically almost everyone else is going to be on the cruise. That's it. I love sometimes when you board a cruise ship it is overwhelming. Just dance party going. Everyone's everywhere. This is much more calm and chill.
Oh, good morning adventurers. Good morning. From the Dalmatian coast here in beautiful split, Croatia. Yes, Dalmatian. Like the dog. It's called the Dalmatian coast. Because when they came here, Dalmatians were ruling the land. They were everywhere. And they were so cute. No, that is completely false, obviously. But in my dreams, that's how it went down. If you guys caught our last video, we did a very fancy business class flight on our way over here to Croatia. So check that out if you didn't see it.
But I'm glad to say we have arrived and we have more or less beaten the jetlag and keeping with the first class theme. We have glasses of champagne, as is tradition when you start any cruise, and it is probably one of the most unique cruise ships we have ever boarded. Because this isn't even really a cruise, it's an expedition. So we're going to go all through the coast of Croatia, down into Montenegro and back up. This cruise is put on by National Geographic, and they actually invited us to come and check out this route. And we were more than happy to oblige them, because this is a part of the world we have barely explored.
This is on a much smaller ship. There's only about 100 guests. You believe that? We're used to giant cruise ships with thousands and thousands of people. So I think there's going to be a completely different vibe. We're going to be spending a little over a week on this ship. We are going to give you guys a tour of it. It's going to take a lot less time than it does on the other cruise ship tours that we do. I think we're actually going to be able to see everything on this ship, but for now, we are going to grab us another drink because I'm running low on my cruise ship champagne. And then we're going to go check out our stateroom. Is that it? That's the intro.
Yeah. Okay, let's let's go see our room, everyone. Let's do it. We kindly request that the occupants of the cabin for one four and 509. That's us. If you are on board, please make your way to reception as soon as possible. We forgot to give them our passports. Oopsie. I feel like this happens to us every time we board a ship. We get caught up filming and just exploring. And then they're always like, can you please do the one thing we asked?
We're four one four. You need our passport. We went in there and gave them our passports and then a bunch of the crew came in like, so you're the missing people. Even the captain came in and shamed this. That's okay. It's all sorted now. It's fine. Well, I think it is official. I think this is the largest room we have ever had on a cruise ship. This is much, much nicer than I thought it was going to. Look how much space I can do my workouts here, and I can run laps here.
All right, let's let's take it down a bit. You know, I love right off the bat just how nautical the room feels. Like all the rich wood, the green. It just feels very regal. It feels very ship chic. That's the official term. That's what we're calling it. This is ship chic. Look, they gave us some chocolate covered strawberries. And of course, National Geographic.
So we've poked around a little bit, and I think it's safe to say. Favorite room on a cruise ship. So far we've been on quite a few cruises, but like I said, I love how big and spacious this is. It's by far the most cozy and homey feeling, so I think being on here for a week is going to be A-okay. Sometimes the rooms are really small and cramped. They have a lot of amenities, but you go in there and you feel like you're in a sardine can. Of course, there's no balcony, but they do have a nice big window that we can look out on and observe the sea as it passes by.
Yes, and because this is such a small ship, I don't think we'll have to fight as many guests to get a good viewing spot out on the deck, which is very nice. Did that look really cool? It wasn't quite as whimsical as I thought it was going to be, but first off, huge cozy bed. I think it's a king. We've got a very tiny one in the RV, so anything bigger than a twin is luxury. This is almost too big for us. We have a whole little couch, seating area or workstation.
This whole end of the room has this long counter with tons of storage doors, cabinets. And what's this we have here? They got a cheeky little mini bar. Let's get drunk on the mini bar. Isn't that a Iggy Azalea? We should put that on. I haven't listened to that in a long time. I'm so fancy. Look at me. They've got some big old shelves above the TV over here, a little nightstand with a couple drawers, and then a gigantic four door closet with plenty of space to put all your stuff. And they really got it covered on power.
They've got like this multi outlet thing. They've got 110 volt for the USA and regular USB and usb-C. All right. Is this a real sailboat. Come on. The sail is laughably large. Look at this thing. I feel like this is when you prompt AI and you're like, I build me a sailboat and they're. They come up with this. Yeah. Holy cow. Look at this. This isn't a book. This is a tome. This is where the secrets of the world lie.
This weighs, like 10 pounds. I am seriously probably going to spend an hour plus just perusing through this book. This is awesome. This book is really hard to put back. It's very heavy. Get in there and you will get no help from research. All right. Is this free? Is this included? Yeah. Just check that in your bag. I'm taking this. Well, it's the largest state room we've ever been in.
I would stand to reason that they have the largest bathroom that we've ever been in on a cruise ship, I think. Look at this thing. It's huge. I'm used to there being a shower head here, and you have to shower over the toilet. But no, they have a whole shower room over here. Of course it is fancy AF with this beautiful black and white marble everywhere. Is this toilet going to be crazy loud like the last cruise ship we were on? Let's see. Oh, not quite as loud, but it always sounds like a crazy monster.
Yo, I just realized there's soap dispenser is a little boat. This is like a zodiac boat. This is what you take out on some of the excursions. That's so cute. Do I get to keep this? Ooh. That's trippy. It's like you're entering a black hole. Doo. so this morning, our captain navigated us through the Bay of Kotor to the town of Kotor in the country of Montenegro, which is actually a brand new country for us. And I think our 50th country together, we need to recount.
I think we did a recount is due, but I'm going to say our 50th country, this cruise is primarily going to take us throughout Croatia, but we have one stop here in Montenegro. So we thought would be a fun to take you guys in here and explore. Whoa. Is this country strikingly beautiful? You come into these epic mountains. They say it is a fjord. It's not really, but it looks like one. The towns are beautifully spread out along the water, mixed in with all of the greenery and everyone. I mean, everyone is out on a freaking speedboat.
We've actually just been hanging out on the ship for most of the day, but we have a couple hours to get out there and explore the town of Kotor a little bit. I see some ancient walls over there, some ancient forts built into the mountainous hillside. How the heck did they do it? And I think we are going to meet some furry friends along the way. Lead the way. Yes.
Oh, one of maybe the best things about this city is that kitty cats are running amuck. They are everywhere here, and apparently everyone loves them. So you are going to find them all over the place. You're a feisty one. Are you protecting this kitty, kitty, kitty? We stumble on a guitarist playing in the Old Town, playing the Game of Thrones theme song. Well, apparently the map indicates that there is a trail that takes you up to kind of the fortress walls that you can walk along.
I don't know if we're going the right way, though. All of a sudden there are no people and we're just climbing a bunch of private staircases. When you see people, sheets hanging, I don't know, might be the wrong place. I've seen a couple people come down. Maybe we're just so late in the day that everyone's already done. Well, we found a really unofficial looking little kiosk where we had to pay €15, and now we are free to scale the wall. Of course, the views are already incredible. Not bad at all.
Well, I guess we're not going to go all the way to the top because, it's a lot of work and we don't really have much time because our ship represented over there is going to be leaving pretty soon. But man, the views of the old town are friggin spectacular. You got views of the bay, blue water everywhere, all this mountainous landscape. They advertise it as a fjord, even though it's not a true one. But it definitely looks like one. Yeah, because I guess a fjord is technically carved by a glacier, right? But it ends up kind of looking like this. It's hard to take it all in on.
There's so much going on. Oh, man, the old town is so tiny. It seems just like endless when you're in it. But from up here it's so small. All right. One really cool thing about this ship is they have an open bridge policy, which means anybody can go in here and mess with the captain while he's trying to navigate us around, which is exactly what we're about to do. And right now, he's about to leave the bay, so we should get some pretty awesome views.
We just can't help but feeling like we're not supposed to be here looking good. And things are like, you know, they've got it sorted. We just talked to the captain, and he said, we can go to the bow of the ship. If you've ever been on a cruise ship, you know that you usually are never allowed up here. It is very much against the policy. Do you know what you're going to do up there? Well, yes, Jack, I do know we can't be that sappy, right?
Yeah. You can't do it. Mind if I join you up here? Well, you have to yell. I'm the king of the world. I'm the king of the world! What's down in this hole, Cool. Yeah, it's a cool shot. As long as I don't drop my camera into the deep. Okay, so this has been really freaking cool to navigate through this bay. It's weirdly really, like, loosey goosey, but also very procedural.
Like, you can see them constantly scouting location. Like, they'll have three guys at a time with binoculars looking up, I guess, just to make sure there isn't anything that I'm guessing so many instrumentation, screens, panels and buttons on and stuff. Very cool. I'm really nervous. I'm gonna bump into something and throw them off course or do something horrible. So let's get out of here. So we've managed to get a little bit more acquainted with the ship, so we figure it's a good time to give you guys a proper look around. And it's probably not going to take that long because this ship is significantly smaller than other ships we've been on.
There. All right. Well, I guess first off, we have found the sauna room. We just opened a random door. Well, I thought this is the door that we went outside on, but it was not. But it looks like they've got a nice little. I'm assuming this is the hot ballroom. Oh, very warm in there. And I think directly across from this should be the gym and the massage room. All right. As expected, the gym, which is pretty well equipped. They got all the free weights over here. You can run your bike elliptical. Although I'm hoping that we're going to be doing enough walking and hiking on this cruise.
We won't be there. We might not use this too much. Oh, someone might be getting a massage right now. We'll see. We'll stop yelling like crazy people. What did you see? So this is their super fancy staircase with the skylight. But they have a nice little elevator. Glass elevator actually goes down the middle. Yeah, but I think there are only really, like, 3 or 4 decks that you can get to. So I guess we'll keep with our tradition of only using the stairs while on board.
This is the observation lounge, and it is easily my favorite part of the ship because it is just so swank and chill. Barely anyone is ever up here and it's at the front of the ship, so you get these epic 360 views all around. What's really neat is that on a typical cruise, you're just kind of surrounded by ocean, at least on the cruises we've been on. But this one, we're going to be surrounded by land to the entire thing, islands and all kinds of awesomeness. They have this huge shelf filled with a bunch of games that we are definitely going to be partaking in. Of course, being a National Geographic cruise, it has to be educational as well. And they have a lot of reading material over here. And another tome
is like the one that was in our room. The cruise is all about photography, so they actually have photography experts that are going on this cruise with us, that are going to be walking around with us and helping us frame up shots and find awesome photo spots. And of course, you're going to find photos from throughout the world all over the ship. Are you charting our course or what? Luckily, they have our little route laid out here so you can see where we're going to go. What did you find there? Oh, they actually have like a treasure trove of maps and charts and all kinds of stuff.
I don't know if I'm supposed to be doing this. Check that out. I have no idea what any of it means, but it's friggin awesome. It's so cool. On this ship, you're just kind of free to go anywhere and do anything. It is a lot less restricted than other ships we've been on. Yeah, doing this on a different ship. They probably throw you in the brig. They have a brig on this ship. I know, but if they do, it's probably wide open for us to go explore.
We found the dining room, which is very similar to what you find on a typical cruise ship, except obviously much more intimate. That's the whole idea is that there's only like 100 or so guests on this ship. So you're supposed to get very familiar with everybody sitting in group tables, you know, but you still get your three meals a day. They'll have breakfast, lunch and dinner. And as you can see every night, it is a lovely sit down dinner. Welcome to the lounge.
This is the area where you lounge. Can you scoot your chair a little closer? No, I cannot, and that is because everything is bolted down in here. This is a very good idea. I think we have, like, music onboard. There's also a nice bar on the corner, and I think they even do afternoon cocktails. Yeah. So this is kind of the social hub of the ship from what we understand. So it's not like a typical ship where there's 50 different restaurants, 50 different lounges.
There's just the one and everyone hangs out together and really gets to know each other. Well, it's it's really neat because by the end of this week, there's only about 100 people on board. We should know everybody, I think, which on a cruise ship you would know maybe ten people and that's it. We're, Well, I guess they, cleaned our room while we were gone. And check this out. Their, towel animal game on the ship is, on point. Definitely the best I've ever seen. They even put little eyeballs on them.
I love it. Oh, okay. So the dinners on this ship are fancy. You all were used to cruises where you have a sit down dinner every night. This has been the best food there that we have ever had on a cruise ship. Yeah. You know, cruise ship food is always a little kind of off or a little weird that it seems like it's been sitting around a little too long.
This does not no. So like a normal cruise, you have multiple courses to choose from, but everything is sourced locally, which is great. So it's been very Mediterranean inspired, very fish and vegetable heavy, which is great if you're into that. But we are not feeling that tonight. We're feeling fancy. And so we're going to get, I think, the next one I might do the octopus. They actually have a different wine that pairs with the location they are at every single night. The best part is that the red always has a topper. That is, a whale that is, spewing the wine into your glass.
It's fantastic. And I'm going to have to order a bunch for ourselves. It's adorable and horrifying. I know that. Oh, of course, being Croatia, they had to put a cheeky little sardine on the top, didn't they? Which I don't mind the sardines, but they can be a little, salty. Oh, yeah. Everything has been so fresh tasting. The pasta is al dente, which I love coming to this part of the world. They know how to cook it, right, man. So fresh. So tomato is so delicious. I might avoid the sardines. Feel free to have that if you want it.
My favorite thing though. The little capers. If you've never had a caper, get it. All right, put it in pasta. You will thank me. And they grow wild all over Croatia. They just give you this burst of salty flavor. They're amazing. And I went with the alien tentacle. Just kidding. This is octopus. It's not the most appetizing looking dish, but it can be very delicious. I'm a sucker for octopus. Though. Right? Decision. This is so delicious.
Perfectly cooked. It's really meaty, but not chewy. And then it has a whole bunch of garlic in the sauce and everything. Ooh, baby, I love that little section. Things on their favorite part. It's pretty wild, but it's pretty fun as well. I. Yeah, yeah. Well, that shot was supposed to be an empty bowl of pasta, like I typically do, but I completely forgot, and he took it. So sorry.
It's an empty table, but I ate it all. Well, we are in for the night, and we have just been loving this room. It is so fancy and huge. It's so fancy, so nice. This bed is so big and it's very comfortable, but we're only a little ways into this sale and it's already been a freaking blast. Already hit a new country. We've been loving the views of the Mediterranean out here. The Dalmatian coast. Beautiful. Got to hang out on the ship, explore it a little bit, meet some people.
We got to meet the captain. Yes. And Eric did not make the joke that he is the captain now. I felt very proud of him. Yeah, I had to fight the urge on that one. I mean, this is going to be a blast. Everyone is so sweet, so cool. If you come on here, just know you are going to make a lot of friends and it's awesome. But we have a pretty early day tomorrow and lots of adventures to take you guys on, so we got to get to bed. So with that good bye adventurers, we'll see you on the road.
