ISO trip report and/or Navigators from Western Europe/Spain-Portugal cruise

My2Qtz0205

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
We just booked a placeholder last week and I am leaning towards the Western Europe sailing in 2018 (fingers crossed they still offer it!). This is the cruise that starts in Dover and ends in Barcelona. Any recent cruisers that can share your experiences with this itinerary? I am slightly obsessed. ;)
 
We did the cruise 2 years ago ... our ports were Vigo, Lisbon and Gibraltar. I can try and answe any questions you may have! I know someone from our cruise started a trip report but didn't finish it!
 


You're welcome. I'm not a big excursion fan, and love an empty ship so the only one I personally did was in Lisbon.

I'll report what the others did and if you have questions, please let me know. I'll try to not get TOO wordy:rolleyes:

Le Havre-Mom and my husband went on the Adult Only Paris Sightseeing tour. They left around 7:45 ish and were back in time for dinner (6pm). This was a 3 hour bus ride into Paris where they saw the Champs, Arc, etc and were able to get off and take photos in front of the Eiffel Tower. They then were dropped off and had about 2 hours to walk around. DH used to be really into cycling so he was super excited to see the city preparing for Le Tour de France final day (the next day). He has some photos in front of signs and such. They went and ate lunch at a small cafe and really enjoyed that, then returned to the bus and drove back. It was a good overview of the city and now Mom can say she's been, and DH is open to taking me on a much longer visit. So a good excursion, just be aware there is a lot of bus time and not a lot of touring time.

Le Havre- Dad did the Adult Only DDay Beaches tour. This was also a day long trip- left before 8 but back (barely) by dinner (I believe). This was the entire reason Dad came, it was on his bucket list and he was thrilled. While (of course) he couldn't spend as much time as he'd like (and I say of course because he's a big history buff and would've spent the entire week there), he felt like he got a very good overview and appreciation "you read about it but you can't appreciate the scope unless you're there." Lunch was provided and it sounded basic but filling and good. I had wanted to do this but Dad and I don't travel well so figured I'll just have to return :)

Lisbon- Mom and Dad did the Adults Only Lisbon city tour by tram and bus. They felt this was comprehensive but didn't love it (but after Paris/DDay y'know that's just not a fair comparison). Note that London, Dover and Le Havre the weather was cool (to us Floridians) and drizzly. Lisbon was warmer and more humid and this could also affect their perception because neither tolerate heat well.

DH and I did Cascais and Sintra Adults Only tour. I did think so we could see the Westernmost point of Europe (Cabo de Roca). First was the bus drive to Cascais, which was a little seaside town. We followed the tour guide to the beach and then were given 35 or 45 min to walk around. We walked in the water, tried to buy something at McDonald's (DH and I always like to see what the differences are in different countries. Weird, I know) without success-the counter guy seemed...disengaged. Walked around some more and waited for the bus to pick us up. It was a cute town but we live in a beach town so sort of like home except it wasn't, obviously. We then drove on a lovely drive to Cabo de Roca, where we were let off for 20 minutes to walk around and appreciate the views. This would have been enough except I was hydrating fairly well so...10 min was spent obtaining the .50 Euro to the restroom and standing in line. Sigh. Then off on an hour + drive to Sintra which is a lovely old city. The approach to it is steep and narrow roads and this apparently was a tourist hot spot when we were there (the guide said it would be a 30-40 min drive so a little traffic!). We were let off next to the National Palace which the guide strongly recommended. My husband was grumpy and did not want to wait in line to buy tickets, then fight the masses to see the Palace so we went and bought something at the information building so we could fight the masses to use the restroom :rolleyes:
We found a little outdoor place that was nicely shaded and shared a pastry-travesseiro-and wandered to the bus stop.

Honestly this excursion had a lot of bus riding, a lot of tourist crowds and it did get pretty hot by the end. I think I would have preferred to just walk around Lisbon OR hire a driver to take me to Cabo de Rocha only. It's not that Sintra wasn't nice, just I was over it by the third stop. There is a way to take a train from Lisbon to Sintra if one is adventurous. DH isn't so we didn't.

Cadiz-Mom did Beekeeper for a day. She learned about bees, sat in honey (not intentionally!), and got to dress up in a protective suit when she met the bees. Oh, and she made a lovely beeswax candle. I had signed her up for this because it sounded interesting. She got a little to hot and hungry and was sort of grumpy when she got back to the ship.

Dad did Jerez and Sherry Tasting. He enjoyed the tour of Jerez and the sherry tasting was fine (he's more of a bourbon guy). Again, the heat seemed to be a theme of this day.

DH did the Le Berea National Park Bicycle Ride. He said most of the people who signed up for this were not in the shape they needed to be and he thinks only he and a couple of teenage boys enjoyed it. It was farther, hotter and hillier than most appeared to have expected. They did get lunch (nothing exciting apparently but lunch unlike mom the grumpy beekeeper!) but he was glad he had brought extra water. He was tired after and made it through dinner was was asleep soon after. (Note-I'm glad this was a challenge, often the physical excursions he goes on are a disappointment. Not this time!).

We did hire Barcelona Day Tours to pick us up at the port and provide a half day tour of Barcelona with entrance to Gaudi's Park Guell. Our tour started off rocky and never recovered...we waited for an hour for a family that apparently got caught in the net of "something was down" at disembarkation after we and the other family made it off the ship. Finally we left the port but this threw off our tour guide and for the first part of the tour she was distracted by texting and calling the office trying to catch up to the lost family. It was nice to see La Familia Sagrada and hear descriptions of the symbolism but again, pretty busy tourist day and yes...hot. We drove to Park Guell and picked up the lost family. We had a brief intro to the Park, 20 free minutes (some bought water, I went to the restroom), a couple of stops in the Park and then more of a bus tour of the city. The tour dropped us off at our hotel and by that time I felt very familiar with the city. It was pretty disjointed for about half of the trip so although I enjoyed the other members of the tour group, the confusion with the Lost Family make me consider a private tour in the future if we return to Barcelona and use BDT.

Overall, I think the highlight of the cruise, excursion wise was Le Havre. Lisbon was meh and some had more fun in Cadiz than others (sorry mom:rolleyes1). I spent the Le Havre day doing laundry, going to the gym, hitting the adult pool/hot tub and the rainforest room; Cadiz was more of the same with a little more sunning time on the deck. I knew it would be hot and humid in Portugal and Spain but somehow the need to see things overrode my usual Floridian behavior which does NOT include walking around outside for hours in a tour. If I had to do it over, I would probably have private tours which just seem to streamline things. We did choose all DCL (except at disembarkation) for the convenience and to ensure the ship wouldn't leave us. I was okay with that since late tours (traffic!) held up the ship in both Lisbon and Cadiz.

Whew! Hope you made it through and this was somewhat helpful. It's an interesting cruise and definitely sealed my desire to return to both Paris and Barcelona.
 


I've found some of the Navigators, and may have more somewhere. Once I've worked out how to post pictures I'll post them here.
 

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