Rogueperson

I stole those photos, but won't post them since they weren't my pics. They were awesome pics.

I'm not sure if the coffee credit works on the disembarkation day. I was charged for 2 coffees. I sent a message to Sailor Services but the thread was closed as "resolved", but i have no idea how it was resolved as I still paid for it on my balance. I opened another chat, and never knew how that ended up because I left the ship. It was only $6.00 total and I didn't feel it warranted me waiting in line for Sailor Services when previous that was sufficient.

Also, many of the restaurants have "specials". You kinda need to ask what's not on the menu.

From what I heard, they took the guy off the Deck 16 running track. I was on this cruise and surprisingly awake when they did it, though I did not seek out a way to view the helicopters. It was done in like 30 minutes, I was surprised how fast they did it.

Check out my live thread 😛 its in my signature. I linked them all there because I saw @laurieal do it in hers. What a wonderful idea!!! Have I done that many. And if you're like me, you'll start rereading our adventures in Greenland!

I’ll give you a short run down. I LOVE Royal Caribbean. She reigned as favorite cruise line for years, especially coming from behind as worst cruise i ever had. But Virgin just knocked it out of the park. I’ve been on NCL, Royal, Celebrity, Princess and Carnival. Loved them all but yeah, Virgin just killed.

why didn’t you get you DBE benefit?

I think this is totally dependent upon usage onboard and where the ship is, but we had NO issues with the internet on this run. As i said in another earlier post, this was the best internet I've ever had on a cruise. However, I was using the Premium wifi. It would have been 340 for my entire cruise if I did not have DBE. This cost would allow for 2 devices to be logged in at the same time. The regular wifi was a little glitchy. I posted speeds on both earlier in my live thread. Anecdotally, I've been told premium is usually stable like this.

I have AT&T, but I don't believe my plan includes Canada or Mexico. I have to double check. This was an oversight on my part absolutely. My wife has T-Mobile and she had limited data as it didn't really work very well, but it worked. But unfortunately, a lot of the information was on my phone, which was locked unless i found a wifi. I know for next time now. Its one thing to not have data while on an excursion, which is fine, as I will eventually get back to the ship. Its another to depend on a unreliable wifi infrastructure in a different country. The ship wifi was wonderful, and I don't think I've ever said that before in conjunction with a cruise ship. The best I had prior to this was "it was adequate, it did what it needed to do" Another plus on Virgin.

I have landed and I am almost home. I will do a comprehensive review in a day or two. Very tired. I should add that Global Entry rocks. Dulles was slammed. But Global Entry had 10 people in line and it processed in 5 minutes.

Oh, here’s a pic of the box thing they were using. This one’s a British airway one, but you get the gist. I tried to get the TAP one but I was on the moving walkway. The one thing this airport seems to lack is seating. Despite Barcelona’s crappy wifi, they had plenty of seats. It feels like the seats near the gates feel i adequate.

Good evening from Lisbon. I think i’m still on cruise schedule because i ate too much food here. Lots of new foods here and as airport food goes, its pretty good. The wifi here is difficult prior to the log on page. It lags like crazy. But once you actually get the “you connected”, it stabilizes. Going to the bathroom, this amused me. I swear i am not looking to take bathroom pics. But this amuses me. I got an Iberia ham sandwich that had i think brie in it. It was damn good. So funny story. I hate my sandwich and decided to get the traditional Portuguese dishes. I’m pretty sure traditional maybe in quotes. @FionaMG can let me know. So i wanted the duck rice, but they were out so i settled for the codfish. I didn’t get a pic. It was ok. But my wife pointed out the bag my sandwich was in and asked if i was done. I said yes, but then realized I only ate 1/2 of it. So i spent a 14 night cruise mostly donutless. But what do I find at McDonalds on all places?!?!? This amazes me. Its a mediocre donut. Come on, its McDonalds, but I don’t know anywhere else in the states where Mcdonalds sells donuts. But overall, this airport is NICE. This is the food court and they have like a mall attached to it. We didn’t explore it as we wanted to find our gate and well, it was beyond passport control (so thats what you meant FionaMG). Also, this is for @FionaMG. I know i tagged you twice here.

Observation. I originally thought I would fly out disembarkation day. I would have taken this route which takes off at 11:25. only 35 minutes before noon that all cruise lines recommend to book after so not so bad. But doing the math backwards. Boarding is at 10:25 (had this flight been on time. 15 minutes to walk through airport. Granted this airport is huge. 10:10 I mentioned it earlier that it took an hour and 15 minutes to check bags and go to through security. That puts time at 8:55. Its a half hour from port to airport. 8:25. Now, i won’t add the hour i stood in line for a cab but if the cruise has transport to the airport. it would start boarding at probably 7:55 (30 minutes before departure) to load. you would need to be at port side at 7:55-8:25. So if your ship comes in late or something happens, noon flights are cutting it close as it is. So moral of the story, get later flights after a cruise. Thats a lot of stress AFTER your vacation.

TAP airlines. Totally new to me. I’m anxious as I don’t know their protocols and of course, the language barrier. My carry on bag that works on many other airlines (i won’t say plane as i’ve been on airbus 320s before) was “too big”. Dude came around with a box with the cat language “if it fits, it sits.”. So had to check at gate, but i don’t think they charged me. At bag check, we were told our carry ons which we’ve taken on airbuses before was too big and had to be checked. I had only planned on checking 1 of two odd my carry on garment bags. I think it was too long. My carryon was too thick. He didn’t charge me either. I seriously lucked out because they charge 110 euros for additional bags after allowance. My ticket allowed one checked bag each. Also, they board the plane back first!!! GENIUS!!! Obligatory wing photo.  And we are on the plane and onward to Lisbon. Still plenty of time for our connection.  Couple of things i noticed on this leg and with Tap in general. Beverages not included. They will give you a small cup of water, but you must buy your drink. I kind of like this. Also, no in flight entertainment to speak of. It’s old school. THIS surprises me especially because this is just a two hour hop.  POWER SUPPLY!!! I hope the next leg has it because I will be set if that’s the case. So far, I am impresses with TAP. Look at the leg room. I’m not a tall guy at 5’7.  Thats a good 6 1/2 inches between my knees and the front of the chair. Maybe more with that pocket as its hanging open and possibly distorts the measure by another 1/2 inch or more in its favor.

We ended up at a restaurant in the arena they converted to a mall near our hotel. Restaurant.  Menu   My wife said iberia ham was a local favorite. I didn’t want to spend 28 euros for an app so i settled for an iberian ham croquet.  next was the clams with spicy sauce and wine from Malaga. This was amazingly delicious.  I got the meat Paella which is a spanish rice dish.  Wife got seafood Paella.  Night time is pretty here too  So this ends my Barcelona day.