Skinnypin

Thanks for that. We started packing on the weekend, but still have a way to go. We don't finish work until Wednesday, so will be busy finishing the packing on Thursday before we fly out Thursday night.

You are from a bit further up in the Country than us, we originally come from Plymouth in Devon. Both lovely areas of the country though.:)

We still haven't received our cruise documents, apparently the agent doesn't usually receive them until a week before. Apparently Pullmantur are pretty laid back though and the booking e-mail with booking number should be sufficient. Hopefully thats the case, but we should have access to our e-mails when in Barcelona so all should be go, I hope.:)

Looking forward to meeting you after lifeboat drill on the 20th in Bilbao.

See you soon.

Julia, hope to see you when you join the ship in Lisbon.

Thanks for the tip. I think our flight arrives around lunchtime, so we are expecting to get to the port early afternoon. Like you say, we may bump into each other before getting on the ship. What part of England are you originally from?

Oh well, early 20's is ok, any higher would be a bonus. We leave Oz on 11th September, so hoping to receive our documents sooner rather than later. Spending 3 nights in Dubai on the way and then 5 nights in Barcelona before flying up to Bilbao and joining the cruise.

Wow, you've got your documents quite early. I was told you can't book excursions until you get on board but that is obviously not the case.

We depart the ship at Malaga, as we then head inland to Granada.

Glad to hear the weather is good, although hopefully it will have cooled down to a pleasant 25-30 by the time we get there :)

Thanks for confirming how that works, so glad we don't have to attend yet another lifeboat drill :)

Looking forward to meeting everyone too.

Should hopefully receive our cruise documents in the next week or so.

We've had a cold wet winter here in Adelaide, so really looking forward to some warm sunshine!

Hi Julia,

Good luck with changing your time for dinner.

I would assume they will have to have another lifeboat drill when new people join the cruise, so maybe we could do the same thing and meet at Reception straight after that to go for a drink.

Maybe Tiggywig could confirm if that is what happens?

Well done, that is good news. 8pm for dinner is a much more civilised time if you ask me.

Looking forward to meeting you at Reception on the 20th.

Meeting at Reception sounds like a good idea. We are on the earlier sitting for dinner, thank goodness. 10pm is a bit late to eat for us too. Good luck in getting yours changed to the earlier sitting.

The cruise excursion information doesn't specifically mention the Pena Palace in Sintra Julia, but they both sound nice places and thought this may be a way of seeing a bit more of Portugal rather than just Lisbon.

Twiggy wig, we are looking at doing the Casablanca and Rabat tour in Morroco. It's a bit of a long day, but we want to see as much as we can and really don't know what to expect in Morocco. Hopefully we will get an English speaking guide.

This is only our second cruise so also only the second time using Cruise Critic. Last time someone actually organised a meet and greet which was a good way of meeting other cruise critic members. I don't think there's enough interest on this cruise to do that though, but if anyone wants to meet up for a drink when we've all boarded we'll be in on that. Just let us know where and when?

Not long to go now :)

Thanks for confirming that, duh, I feel stupid now :) We were thinking of doing the cruise excursion to Sintra and Castais and then leave Lisbon for the evening as we are not there for that long. What's your opinion on those places, have you been there before? Are the ship excursions any good?

Hi,

Great to hear from you and thanks for the info on Pullmantur, that is good to hear as it was quite difficult when researching reviews on the Empress.

May be a stupid question: but what is a HOHO bus?

Hope to catch up when on board. Not long now!

We were told we should get our document pack about 3 weeks prior to the cruise. I hope they are right as we leave about 10 days before the cruise, so it will be cutting it a bit fine if its any later than that.

Great to have you on board Julia. This thread has been very quiet but I'm hoping a few more English speaking people are going to be on the cruise as we don't speak Spanish :eek:

Sorry can't help with your question as we are getting on board in Bilbao on the 20th and we haven't got our cruise documents yet to know where in Lisbon we dock.

Hopefully we'll get chance to catch up when you board, just look out for the two English speaking Australians in the middle of all the foreign accents :)

Thanks John, nice to hear that we've made the right choice.

Woohoo, me and my husband have just booked the cruise on the Pullmantur Empress departing Bilbao on 20th September 2014. This is only our second cruise, first one was around Hawaii. Really looking forward to not having to pay for drinks on this one! Anyone else going???

I am also looking at this cruise but would be boarding in Bilbao. Am keen to find out any experiences from people who have traveled with this cruise line/ship.