Photo Review April/May 2015: Disney, Eclipse TA, London

[Lisah101]

Interesting note, when Terry went to the Sunset bar to order drinks for sail-away, he ordered an amaretto sour and I wanted a Jack and Coke. They were out of amaretto and had to go to another bar to make the drinks. They did and eventually brought them to us.

 

Sunset was at 8:30 pm so as we sailed out of Lisbon, the four of us realized we'd missed dinner completely so headed to the cafe for a quick bite to eat.

 

The 4 of us then wen to the Casino in hopes we could convince them to show the Kentucky Derby. Unfortunately after we go them to change the channel, we realized we were off by an hour and it would be 11:30 pm, not 10:30 pm. Although very tired, we did stay and there was a small derby party to watch Bob Baffert take it again with American Pharroh. Promptly to bed to sleep late the next morning.

[bajacali]

Really enjoying your review and photos! Thanks so much for taking the time to share with us.

[Lisah101]

Link to all my photos from Lisbon

[Lisah101]

Sunday May 3 - Sea Day

 

Again, I was very good at sleeping late, doing nothing and reading my book. Oh, and taking long naps with my husband!

[Lisah101]

almost forgot - on the Sunday sea day, we went to the Future Cruise booking which was temporarily on deck 15. We booked another TA for April 2016 on the Reflection. I am so excited about doing this again. The Reflection has a different itinerary with 3 ports in Spain which we love and ends up in Rome.

 

Time to start planning!

 

[Lisah101]

Monday, May 4 - Bilbao, Spain

 

Slept late (a nice habit I enjoy), had breakfast and off the ship by 10 am - no plans at all!

 

View from the ship:

 

[Lisah101]

Sign at the port:

 

 

We bought shuttle tickets to get to the town center. It was 5 Euros each and the shuttle was right there at the door to the cruise terminal.

 

Nice bus and a short ride - it was almost sunny today so hoping for a day with no rain!

 

Where the shuttle drops off in Bilbao:

 

[Lisah101]

Beautiful city

 

 

[Lisah101]

Interesting - great program

 

 

[Lisah101]

[Lisah101]

We didn't walk around much before we found a cafe with wifi. Cafe Brasil was a very nice little spot in old town for a good cup of coffee. Terry had chocolate and churros though. We didn't expect such a large plate of churros so I offered to help him eat some of them. We used wifi to post a few FaceBook pictures just to show our friends and family back home we were having a good time!

 

 

[Lisah101]

We walked some more.

 

To be fair - I asked Terry to pose there for this photo.

 

[Lisah101]

Second floor balcony

 

[Lisah101]

[Lisah101]

[Lisah101]

A small shop with stuff made by locals - found my Christmas Ornament from Bilbao!

 

 

[Lisah101]

We ended up in a busy part of the town

 

 

[Lisah101]

So we turned around and found another alley to wander where we found this great cheese shop! The sales woman didn't speak a lot of english, but let us try a few and we bought some to take back with us.

 

 

[Lisah101]

It's unlike me to miss a meal but we realized the shuttles only ran for one more hour so we headed back to the shuttle stop - about a 15 minute walk. We should not have worried because there was a line to get into the cruise terminal for screening, then a line to get back on the ship. There was only one gangway open. We asked someone and they said the tide and come in so the ship was sitting higher in the water and they couldn't use the other gangway because it was up one deck and the incline was too steep now.

 

Lady behind me replied "so what, you didn't know the tide was coming in?" I bit smart but I kind of agreed with her. They knew there would be long lines with only one gangway but no one was warned.

 

An older gentleman behind me in line didn't look so well. His wife said he was diabetic and they hadn't realized how long it would take to get back on the ship. thankfully I had a Laurabar in my backpack i offered the gentleman. About 15 min later he came back and thanked me - he looked a bit better but didn't want to ask for any special privilege to cut in line.

 

20 minutes after waiting, this is still the line:

 

[Lisah101]

Crew were in the same line with us also. Eventually staff came down the line with small cups of water and punch. One had a tag that said he worked in Finance. I never thought about finance people being on cruise ships.

 

They had abandoned screening passengers as they came on the ship which was a good thing. From shuttle to our room was just over an hour.

Edited May 17, 2015 by Lisah101

[Lisah101]

So back on board, we watched sail away, then took a nap. Later that night Terry went to the cafe and brought back some bread, crackers and fruit. We opened the cheese and a bottle of Sangria and had dinner on our balcony. Oh, and he brought me more Sorbet! I love this guy!!!

 

Before sail away

 

After sail away

 

[Lisah101]

The cheeses were listed on the receipt as:

 

La Cabra de Botas

Ossau - Iraty Agour Mejor Queso

 

They were sooooo good, it was a wonderful dinner although I preferred the chianti we had to the Sangria.

[Lisah101]

Tuesday May 5 - our last sea day and Formal Night

 

We did our usual sea day routine, slept, read a book, had a snack, walked the ship a bit, then napped some more. We redeemed our coupons for 2 free scoops of gelato which was very good.

 

For the first time in the entire cruise, we separated. I sat on the balcony reading and Terry went to the Casino with 20 dollars to spend It took him 45 minutes to loose that money on the Wild Cherry slot machine so he got his fun out of it!

[Lisah101]

We dressed for dinner and met Karen and Les for our reservation at Murano.

 

 

Bread:

 

 

Butter:

[Lisah101]

Amuse bouche - I can't remember what it was but I do look at this photo and think that I really liked it!