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Plays here stream straight from our feed. Prefer your own app? Hit “Listen on Spotify,” or find us wherever you get your podcasts.In this episode
The Golden Boys drop their biggest news yet — a real group cruise to Alaska — and celebrate by letting travel agents Josh and Amanda Barmore hijack the whole recording. Between coma stories, duck-community intrigue, and wild guesses about Carnival's next mega-ship, it's the warm, chaotic family reunion energy this show does best.
What they covered
Topics on deck
First-ever group cruise (FRGC3)
Two new XL-class ships around 2027
Where the new ships will homeport
Gary's on-air name change
A “Never Have I Ever” twist
Coma & knockout stories
The cruising-duck business-card saga
Don’t miss
Moments worth the wait
- The big announcement — The show's first-ever group sailing drops in the cold open: a 7-day Alaska run out of Seattle, dubbed FRGC3.
“next year, we are announcing May 29th through June 5th is the first ever… Carnival Cruising Podcastaways cruise.”
- Agents crash the party — Josh and Amanda barge in mid-announcement and the crew blames the robot.
“It's the AI bot's taken over.”
- Trevor's three-day coma — His snowboarding wipeout in the Black Hills.
“I don't remember anything other than just starting to go down the hill and waking up in a hospital three days later.”
- Duck cards, defended — Madison-as-“Margaret” reads an entitled listener post about cruising-duck business cards.
“You're in luck, you found the duck. Keep her, hide, you decide — I wrote that myself.”
- The Batman of the ducks — The self-appointed hero of the cruising-duck community.
“he is like, ‘I'm the Batman.’ No joke… And I was like, okay.”
- Heald's ruling — The verdict on sticking business cards to the ducks.
“there's no way to police that.”
In the guest chair
Special guest
🎤
Josh & Amanda Barmore — “Have Luggage Will Travel” — the show's official travel agents, who crash the recording partway through and cheerfully derail the whole announcement. They're the crew's go-to for booking the newly christened FRGC3 Alaska group sailing, and they bring exactly the kind of warm, family-reunion chaos this show runs on.
Golden nuggets
Running bits & lore born here
- Gary's evolving surname — “Manning” drifts into “Manalow” and beyond — the running gag where our beloved co-host's last name changes week to week.
- Tom's breakfast-burrito countdown — “31 days… I will have a breakfast burrito in my hand” keeps ticking down.
- FRGC lore grows — FRGC1 and FRGC2 gain a sibling as the group cruise is officially christened FRGC3.
- “Save the foosball tables!” — The signature outro cry rings out again.
- “What did you say to John Heald?” — The recurring interruption gag makes its scheduled appearance.
- The 91st-birthday saga — Tom keeps retelling how he missed FRGC2 for his grandmother's 91st birthday.