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Lisbon ,Vigo and Porto


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ahoy shipmates. Just booked a nice little summer holiday on the Disco 2:cool: not been to the 3 ports mentioned above so can anybody tell me if the ship docks in town or a way away and it's a shuttle bus job,,please. Are Lisbon,,Vigo and Porto easy diy ports or are they better done on a ships trip?

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You can certainly do Lisbon on your own. Take a cab to the Baixa district, explore the shops, sample some famous portuguese pastry.

 

From here you are close to the Alfama district and Avenue Liberdade, high end shops and restaurants.

 

Try and see the Monument of the Discoverers and the Tower of Belem. There are ship tours that include this.

 

Lisbon is a great town to explore, so much to see. If you choose to book a tour Sintra/Cascais is really lovely and usually combined with the Lisbon monument highlights.

 

Jonathan

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Forums mobile app

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We did this itinerary on Discovery 2 three weeks ago,

 

In Lisbon it is a 15 minute walk into the city centre (turn left as you come out of the cruise terminal). In Vigo we docked right by the main shopping mall so only a 5 minutes walk up to the old city centre. The dock for Porto is at Leixos a 20 minutes journey from the city - the ship provides a shuttle service with tickets (5 Pounds each) on sale from Destination services the night before.

 

Hope the following info may help:-

 

PORTO - The port is a 20 minute drive from Porto so the ship lays on a shuttle bus - return fare is currently 5 Pounds per person. This drops you off at the top of the city so you need to walk downhill past the railway station (call inside the station to see an amazing display of traditional local blue and white picture tiling) and Cathedral to drop to the river - for people with walking difficulties there is a rather well hidden funicular that runs from a side road just below/on the opposite side of the road to the Cathedral that takes you down to the river (fare last year was 2 Euros each way). To get the the river boats just cross the bridge to the far side of the river - these are good value and most trips end with an optional tour of one of the local Port Wine lodges. A HOHO bus operates around the city; some leave from the port gates but not all services will return you there so check before boarding. To save walking (my husband has mobility problems) this year we booked the Thomson 'Taste Of Porto + River Cruise' excursion (city tour/boat trip/Port Wine lodge visit) that we found very good value.

 

LISBON - The first time we docked in Lisbon we jumped on one of the old local trams (think San Francisco style) that was cheap, brilliant ans took us to parts of the city we would have missed otherwise. The second time we took the HOHO buses - there are 2 routes. You can get on a bus for the first route right outside the cruise terminal but we didn't find this very interesting - went round and round the new museum area of the marina then up to the airport. You need to go to the main square (15 minutes walk from the port) to get a bus for the second route but it is well worth it as the tour was very interesting taking in many of the cities most famous sites. This year (May 2017) we decided to see some of the countryside outside the city so booked a Thomson excursion to Sintra and Cascais - we found afterwards that the local train has a regular service to Sintra that we would have been better taking as there are very good coach or HOHO trips bookable locally in Sintra that show you much more. We are returning to Lisbon on a cruise next May and that time we are going to do a tuk tuk tour but will pick one up outside the cruise terminal (there are always many waiting there) rather than booking the more expensive Thomson tour.

VIGO - A pleasant town famous for its seafood - especially Oysters that can either be found in the fish market or on 'Oyster Street' (Calle de Ostras) - price in May 2017 1.50 Euros per Oyster. Beautiful beaches a very short bus ride from the town centre. For a great value local tour (including a stop at a famous local beach and lovely mansion/musuem/gardens) - check out Vigo Tour - TOURS 4 CRUISERS - a real bargain at just 17 Euros per person and less than half the price of the similar Thomson trip; tickets are available from staff in local costume (they stand just across the road from where the ship docks) and you pay at the end of the tour or you can book/pay a 3 Euro deposit in advance online.

Edited by campolady
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Thank you very much Campolady:cool: I've had my eye on this cruise for a while now and finally got round to booking it last night,,with a week in benalmadena afterwards to lie on the beach and chill after what will be a busy week with new places to explore! Although I expect "chill" is the wrong word to use for Andalusia in August :o Did you like the Discovery 2?

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We did the shuttle to porto it is every 30 mins but be aware to maybe not try to return about dinner time, our trip was the first visit and all the drivers went on a dinner break, the company had not informed destination services that this would happen, so there was about 4 coaches needed for the passengers waiting it was £6 return, we after complaining we got refunded, the dest services manager had a meeting with intercruises the next day in lisbon and insisted they got this issue sorted

Lisbon there are lots of tuk tuks offering tours just outside the port, also this are in porto too a great way to see what the trams and buses cannot get

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Did you like the Discovery 2?

 

The first week we had a few hiccups but it was the inaugural sailing and we expected some hitches (the price was good to reflect this so we couldn't moan). The second week was so much better and we really grew to like the ship - so much so that we have booked its sister D1 for next May. Must say food and AI options were excellent as were the crew but we found some of the shows ands shops disappointing compared with other Thomson ships we have sailed on. Feel free to ask me if you have any further questions - sorry, I don't know how to download photos on to here

.

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Have done both d1 and d2 now this year and the errors they made on d1 have been sorted and d2 we found so much better, much more entertainment ie by the pool, they had brought the ice carving, cocktail demo, hotel staff demos back, friends who work onboard who had worked on d1 said they made a list of d1 problems and changed them for the better and it has worked, but from friends onboard d1 looks like things have changed onboard there from this summer, no ents manager its back to a cd but with 2 acds, it will be lewis power stannard was is brilliant

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  • 2 weeks later...
...The dock for Porto is at Leixos a 20 minutes journey from the city - the ship provides a shuttle service with tickets (5 Pounds each) on sale from Destination services the night before.

 

We came off the ship last weekend from this itinerary, and Thomson didn't run the Porto shuttle. I asked about it, as we wanted to make our own way into town and this would have been an ideal option, but didn't find out why it wasn't running. Maybe to do with the problems with the drivers previously? Hopefully, they'll bring it back for future passengers.

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  • 3 weeks later...
ahoy shipmates. Just booked a nice little summer holiday on the Disco 2:cool: not been to the 3 ports mentioned above so can anybody tell me if the ship docks in town or a way away and it's a shuttle bus job,,please. Are Lisbon,,Vigo and Porto easy diy ports or are they better done on a ships trip?

Id recommend the hop on hop off buses in Porto and Lisbon. A free shuttle bus takes you to the port entrance in Porto and the HO HO buses wait there. In Lisbon they are more or less opposite the dock. Id go on the one that takes you to Belem, cant remember if its the red or blue bus but well worth a visit for the monument of the Discoveries

.

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I'd recommend the hoho bus (red coaches) in Lisbon, the two routes have (at least) one common interchange - right at the lower end of Eduardo VI park is the one we used to switch routes.

 

Take the hoho bus from your port stop and take it to the TOP end of the park (there is a mega huge Portuguese flag on a high pole) and meander down through it, a lovely walk, and change over.

 

There are maps on the website for pre-printing.

 

https://city-sightseeing.com/en/80/lisbon

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The first week we had a few hiccups but it was the inaugural sailing and we expected some hitches (the price was good to reflect this so we couldn't moan). The second week was so much better and we really grew to like the ship - so much so that we have booked its sister D1 for next May. Must say food and AI options were excellent as were the crew but we found some of the shows ands shops disappointing compared with other Thomson ships we have sailed on. Feel free to ask me if you have any further questions - sorry, I don't know how to download photos on to here

.

how do you book trips on discovery 2 is it destination services or someone was saying there is some sort of computer style board for doing it , just that I'm not great with hi tech stuff

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how do you book trips on discovery 2 is it destination services or someone was saying there is some sort of computer style board for doing it , just that I'm not great with hi tech stuff

If it is like discovery 1 there are a number of large interactive touch screens near the excursions desk that do lots of things including booking excursions. You can still go to the desk though which I did because the touch screens seemed a bit temperamental!.

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how do you book trips on discovery 2 is it destination services or someone was saying there is some sort of computer style board for doing it , just that I'm not great with hi tech stuff

 

We used the computer screens as the D2 destination services desk was often unmanned (although the staff were brilliant when they were there). I am useless with technology but even I found the machines very simple to use and your ticket is printed immediately.

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  • 2 weeks later...

If you are looking for something fun to do in Vigo I would highly recommend the Segways. They do 3 different length tours (think we did the middle one). If you book online, they meet you at the port, but you don't pay them until after the tour. It was a great way to see the sights...we went around the old town and up to the Fort.

 

http://en.segmovi.com/routes

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