Report on Lisbon to Cannes sailing

[paolar47]

Hello everyone, we are back from our 10 days cruise, and I'll try to give an objective report, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the ship itself (Star Clipper), but I'll have a couple of comments.

Embarcation in Lisbon was easy and painless except that once you go through the Star Clipper documents and they give your room key and the famous blu card, you have to go through Portuguese Passport control and they want to see your passport which you have just handed to a very pretty blonde from ship, so confusion but eventually the pretty girl (Lynn from the sports team) came with the passports and everything was settled. Just weird. That was the general theme of the whole cruise, since it was a repositioning cruise, they were not very familiar with the ports and information was sketchy at best. The cruise director, Bea, was adequate at best, friendly and enthusisatic for sure, always had talks about the ports visited, but I could have gotten the same information from a gide book, nothing special. But cheer up folks, Bea was going home on vacation after the cruise, so who knows who will replace her. Also leaving was the captain, Brunon Borowka, a very personable and affable Polish guy, we saw the new captain, a very imposing Russian, come onboard in Cannes, I hope that he loves sailing like "our " captain did, 90% of the time he had a full complement of sails up, we ripped a couple of sails, they repaired them and we continued on. OK, back to the ship, sorry if I digressed....!

CREW: very efficient and friendly, our cabin steward (Anton) always knew when the best time was to make up the cabin. We had # 506 on the main deck, a skip and a hop from the bridge deck and merely a skip from the Tropical bar, cabin was very comfortable, we were concerned about privacy since it opens on the main deck, no problem at all, those metallic blinds on the window really do work. Dining room waiters and Maitre D' are very good, service for the most part was prompt and how they remember you and your cabin # is a mistery to me.

FOOD: I found the food fairly constant, some nights were better than others but overall the quality is quite good,don't miss the Chateubriand, it was outstanding. They tend to go quite heavy on the sauces. Breakfast and lunch is a buffet, after a while it gets repetitive, but good quality.

ENTERTAINMENT: Basically nonexistant, but we were ok with that, good conversation with fellow passengers made up for the lack of glitzy shows. We had the usual crew fashion show, dancing with the onboard keyboard/piano player (quite good), trivia contest (I almost won, lol), last night on board they had a local rock band come aboard, no idea how they were, I was packing!

SHORE EXCURSIONS: definetly the weakest part of the cruise, some were very disappointing, others just ok. The varous guides we had were quite knowledgable, with the exception of the guy in Morocco, I guess you cannot please all the people all of the time, I'll go through each one,

 

Portimao:we did not take the tour ( MOrish Algarve), people that went were not impressed. The town of Portimao is absolutly nothing, we arrived during the local siesta (stores close between 1:00pm and 4:00pm), so we meandered around the so called "old city" which was very confusing since most streets don't have street sign but it was fun to meet up with fellow passengers just as lost as we were. After a couple of hours we just went back on the ship, had a cold beer and settled down with a book!

 

Cadiz: Gateway to Seville, a couple of hours away by bus. Our bus guide was very informative about the region (Andalusia), the countryside is pleasant, it's all highway between Cadiz and Seville. Once you get to Seville, they hand you to local guides that take you to the Cathedral, the Alcazar (royal palce) and the old Jewish quarter. All of the above sites are quite fascinating, but in the opinion of all we spent way too much time in the Cathedral (about an hour and 1/2) which didn't leave much time for the other two sites, no time for shopping or just catch your breath and let the sites soak in ( I guess that's the pitfall of organized tours). But Seville is a beautiful city, I would love to go back and really get to know it better.

 

Tangier: we took the tour to Tetouan (about an hour and 1/2 away), mainly because the cruise director warned on board not to go to Tangier by ourselves (safety in numbers I guess). It turned out that people that went into the Tangier Medina (old city) by themselves yes, they were harassed by vendors but not any more than in other places and they felt safe enough, just keep an eye to your purses and wallets. On the way to Tetouan (very slow and twisty road) our bus gide was and older Moroccan man, I don't believe much of what he told us about the country, his view was thesugar coated touristy version, I tuned him out after the first hour. In Tetouan we went through the Medina or really we rushed through the Medina, you didn't dare loose the group or you would be hopelessy lost, no time to stop, interesting for the first 20 minutes, basically it was a flea market with sprinkled in some Moroccan wares, I wished I could have stopped and take a better look! Went to a local restautant where they had a belly dancer perform, had delicious mint tea (not to be missed), quite interesting interior architecture. After that they took us to a touristy store with pottery, carpets, kaftans, brass items and so on, I picked up one pottery bowl and it said Made in China! Enough said! Out of the Medina we went to a local Arts School where the real stuff is made, too bad that being Saturday the students were not there so we couldn't see a demonstration, and by that time we were all hot and exhausted, we just wanted to go back to the bus and go home!

 

Between Tangier and Motril you go through the Strait of Gibraltar, we were scheduled to go through about nine o' clock at night(still with the light) but we encountered quite windy condition , 40 knots, and very rough seas whic delayed us and we went through much later, didn't see the "Rock", major disappointment, but noones fault.

 

Motril: gateway to Grenada and the Alhambra and this was the disappointment #1 of the whole trip. About two hours away by bus, mostly highway, usual guide on the bus which hands you over to a local guide at the Alhambra. We started in the gardens, the guide was very good, we were lucky that thousand and thousand of roses were in bloom, it was absolutly breathtaking, saw a couple of minor pavillions in the gardens, peeked in the interior of another one, walked some more outside and found ourselves back in the parking lot waiting for our bus. Never went inside, no explanation, no one mentioned a reason. Later on we found out that there were too many people and only a certain number is allowed inside but for sure they don't tell you that on the ship or once you get there. Eventually we got a 30% refund, but the disappointment still is there, the Alhambra was supposed to be THE major attraction of this trip and we really never saw it!

 

Ibiza: beautiful seaside town, we wondered the streets by ourselves, had Tapas in a restaurant, went up to the Old Church, a good climb on cobblestone streets, faboulous shopping, fun place.

 

Mallorca: really great, took a one hour taxi tour of the old town and the castle( about 50 euros, we probably could have talked him down a bit), some streets in old Mallorca are very very narrow, only some taxis are allowed in and ours really went all out in the twisting little alleys, very informative, He dropped us off in the old town, went back to the cathedral, fascinating, and beautiful, walked around quite a lot, it was hot and crowded but very pleasant.

 

St. Tropez: fun place, the shopping is incredible if you are willing to part with a lot of Euros, the Yachts are to be seen to be believed. After walking around town, we just sat in a cafe, had a glass of wine and watched a very rich world go by. The town itself is very characteristic but it is a vacation place for the rich and famous, the surrounding xoast is beautiful with a couple of beaches ( I thought they had more). We had to anchor out in the bay and tender in and the ride was bumpy but nothing too bad.

 

Cannes: We anchored out and tendered in for disembarcation, we arrived durinf the film festival, saw them dismantling the props for the Da Vinci Code which had had the premiere the night before, our transfer to the Nice airport was on time (arranged by the ship), Nice to London, London back to the States.

 

That's it folks, sorry if this report became very long, I hope it was informative, if you have any questons let me know. As a whole, we did enjoy this cruise, glitches here and there but I would go back to Star Clippers line any time, you cannot beat the whole experience.

[srqDan]

Thanks for the great review. We are on the reverse trip in Oct. We normally don't do organized shore excursions, preferring to do them on our own. Do you think this is possible in Spain and Morrocco?

[paolar47]

I would recommend doing the organized shore excursions in Spain only because Seville and Grenada are about 2 hours away from the ship and you never know what can happen when you drive on your own! Cadiz and Motril ( the two ports the ship stops in) are nothing special, I think you would waste your time there.

In retrospect, I would do Tangier on my own and not go to Tetouan. I would suggest you go around with at least another couple. Where you dock there are taxi drivers and guides that REALLY want your business, it's a matter of you gives a good feeling of security and negotiating the price!!!! I envy you....

 

P.S. I forgot one important detail. This is something we found out when we were there. If you decide to do the ALhambra on your own, you HAVE to purchase the tickets in advance, (I guess some kind of Alhambra websites can help you in that) because they only allow a certain number of people in every day. Good luck!

[dvswar]

We're planning Cannes to Lisbon in October. Anyone been on this cruise at this time of year? We'd like information on how to dress, etc.

[srqDan]

Thanks paolar47 for the quick response.

One of us speaks fluent Spanish so we may still try Grenada and Seville on our own. Can you just take the bus and not the tour? Otherwise, we will rent a car like we did in the Canary Islands last year.

Thanks for the Alhambra advice, I will check it out for advance tickets.

We are now two couples and another may join our group so we'll have safety in numbers in Morocco.

[paolar47]

I don't know about just taking the bus and not the tour. That's something you'll have to check with the cruise company. Sine you say you're fluent in Spanish, I think that helps a lot....go for it and have a wonderful time. Let me know, after you get back, how everything went.

[srqDan]

We were on the Cannes to Lisbon repositioning in Oct. 2006 and missed three ports due to headwinds. If you take this cruise (or this line), remember: it is a sailing vessel and you are at the mercy of the winds. Otherwise it was a great trip with friendly passengers, good food and a wonderful ship.