Windsurf Barcelona to Lisbon A Perfect Experience

["Wandering Wino's&quo]

:) Returned yesterday from our incrediable 19 days in Europe. Our first week we cruised aboard the Windsurf from Barcelona to Lisbon. We spent one night in Lisbon before we flew into Milan for our 12 day trip to Italy, including time in the Lake District and Tuscany. This trip was one of the best vacations that we have ever taken. Since this is CC I will share our wonderful experiences aboard the Windsurf.

This being our first cruise on a smaller ship, after sailing on many of the mainline cruiseships, including Holland American, Celebrity and Princess we were not sure what to expect. What we found was so much to our liking we are already planning our next cruise with WindStar Cruise Lines. Again comparing our past experiences we were concerned that our cabin would be too small (our last cruise on the Oosterdam we had a SS suite). Nothing could have been futher from the truth, the cabins on the Windsurf our well organized and give you the feeling of sailing on a luxury yacht. Never have we experienced the type of friendly and caring service that we had on the Windsurf. We were celebrating our Wedding Anniversary during this cruise and I had made arrangements to surprise my husband by renewing our vows. I scheduled the ceremony for Saturday, a day at sea around 6 on the flying bridge. It was a little windy and the sea was doing it's thing by rolling the ship around a bit, making it a little difficult to walk around the decks. When our party of 4 arrived on the bridge we found out that Captain Mark Boylin had actually turn the ship to a position that cut down the movement being felt aboard. The ceremony was perfect, they had arranged to have the ships photographer to take pictures, flowers were presented for me to carry along with a lovely cake and first class champagne. Captain Boylin turned out to be a most friendly person and all those that attended both crew and our friends found the entire experience to be yet another example of what makes this ship THE BEST.

There are so many other things that I would like to share with anyone of you that are interested but first I must get to that pile of laundry that somehow followed us home.

*Tracey & Ken good to hear that you traveled safely home.

Shirley

[Pudgesmom]

WW-

 

Welcome home!

 

Thank you for your thoughts. I'm glad you had such a wonderful time.

 

We, too, had sailed in an SS suite on the Oosterdam, but after our first Windstar experience, we booked another trip with Windstar for this coming January. We're looking forward to trying the larger Windsurf, and waiting for the kids to graduate to try some of the European itineraries!

 

Beth

[bagheera]

shirley, wow you had a great trip! We had a wonderful cruise and already booked another on Windstar for Feb out of St Thomas. It was great meeting you. Bet your dog was really glad to see you! tracey

["Wandering Wino's&quo]

shirley, wow you had a great trip! We had a wonderful cruise and already booked another on Windstar for Feb out of St Thomas. It was great meeting you. Bet your dog was really glad to see you! tracey

 

Tracy, you are right about Lilly our sweet little dog, she was sooo very happy to see us come home, three weeks is a long time to be away.

You are so lucky to be going on another Windstar cruise in Feb. Our next cruise will certainly be on a Windstar Ship, but we have scheduled a trip to Hawaii (celebrating my BD.) for this May and of course that's not all bad! Please keep posting so I can learn about your next cruise. We are looking at the St. Thomas alumi cruise in Jan. of 08. Shirley

["Wandering Wino's&quo]

shirley, wow you had a great trip! We had a wonderful cruise and already booked another on Windstar for Feb out of St Thomas. It was great meeting you. Bet your dog was really glad to see you! tracey

 

Hi Tracy, I just posted these photos from our cruise and thought you might like to see them. Shirley

http://community.webshots.com/user/wanderingwinos

[llegislate]

Shirley

 

We are leaving on Nov 2 for same cruise as you- can you tell me all about what you did at the ports?

 

Anxious to hear

["Wandering Wino's&quo]

Shirley

 

We are leaving on Nov 2 for same cruise as you- can you tell me all about what you did at the ports?

 

Anxious to hear

Barcelona:

Because we were planing on carry wine aboard we had looked into possible places to purchase Spanish Wines. IMO forget Corte Ingles and go directly to Lavinia Wine Store on Diagonal 605. This is an upscale shop with knowledeable English speaking staff. Along with another couple we purchased and took aboard 2 cases of wine. We took a cab to the shop, after making our selections they packed it up for us in stryoform boxes and we took another cab back to the hotel. Remember to shop on Saturday the stores are not open on Sunday. We did encounter the $10.00 corkage fee, but we expected that so it was no surprise.

WHEN IN BARCELONA TAKE EVERY PRECAUTION TO PROTECT YOUR BELONGINGS. Several passengers on our cruise losts things to pick pockets in this city. Tracy one of our CC's lost a piece of luggage right at the airport. I purchased a City Safe Purse, it's a secure hand bag to carry and found this to be a very wise purchase.

While I had done some research on places to dine in Barcelona we tended to just stop and eat when we saw a place that we thought would be good, MISTAKE.

We had visited Barcelona several years ago during the Olympics so we didn't spend that much time sightseeing. But of course we did drive by some of the beautiful buildings such as Barcelona's Sagrada Familia by Guadi etc.

Isiza:

We did Isiza on our own, the ship had a bus at the dock to take us into town, we walked around and got a good feeling about the city. We walk to the top of the fort which gave us a great view of the city, we ate at a little cafe in that area. In hindsite I think lunch on the ship would have been alot better and cheaper! But the weather was beautiful and it was a cute outdoor cafe.

Palma de Mallorca:

We took the ships City Tour. That was very interesting we visited Bellver Castle along with Cathedral la Seo which I have several pictures of on the above website.

Malaga:

We took the Hop On Hop Off Bus. The ship didn't have a bus for us to take us into town (it wasn't very far). On the main street (just after you go past the port's guard gate), you will see a bus depot to yor left, just before you reach it there will be a person selling tickets for the Hop ON Hop Off bus. We found this a great way to see the city and also have the opportunity to jump off and do some exploring on our own. They have a beautiful walking street that is filled with very high end shops.

Tangier's:

We used Aziz Gran Tour. Aziz did a good job showing us around the area and keeping us safe and not lost in the Kasbah. One word of caution, if you are not interested in purchasing rugs tell him or else you will waste your time at a rug store and the men there are very very pushy! Also we were very glad to get back to the ship for our afternoon meal.

Lisbon:

Our friends that we were traveling with had a friend living in Lisbon so he gave us some suggestions of things to see. We also took the Hop On Hop Off Bus here. Sunday isn't a great day to find good places to eat. Our hotel, The Marriott recommended The Sacramento restaurant for dinner. Pricy but very good. We were only there one night as my DH and I were flying into Milan the next morning for our trip to Italy so I really don't have very much information to share regarding Lisbon. It was very warm that day and I think I was more interested in a nap then too much siteseeing.

 

Hope this is helpful. If you like check out some of my other posts regarding this great cruise. Shirley

[bagheera]

thanks shirley, the pictures were great! we will post on cc after our feb trip for sure!

["Wandering Wino's&quo]

thanks shirley, the pictures were great! we will post on cc after our feb trip for sure!

 

I will look forward to hearing about the trip as that is the one we are planning on taking in Jan. 08. So let me know all about it. Thanks, Shirley

[cruiseroo]

Hi Tracy' date=' I just posted these photos from our cruise and thought you might like to see them. Shirley[/color']

http://community.webshots.com/user/wanderingwinos

 

Hi Shirley

 

Just wanted to say I loved your photos. What great memories. Lovely shot of you two renewing your vows and cutting the cake too. Thanks for sharing ;)

[rob1970]

Hi,

 

When we are on vacation, we met 2 great gay men in Ibiza (beach Las Salinas). They went on the Wind Surf cruise from Lissabon to Barcelona and were staying 1 night in Ibiza, on the 22nd of September.

 

They are living in the U.S.A. and advised them for a restaurant to have dinner in ibiza-town.

Unfortunately I don't have names, but you are around 50 years old, one with grey hair and one with dark hair and moustache.

 

Hopefuly someone can help me to get in touch with you!

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Rob.

["Wandering Wino's&quo]

Hi,

 

When we are on vacation, we met 2 great gay men in Ibiza (beach Las Salinas). They went on the Wind Surf cruise from Lissabon to Barcelona and were staying 1 night in Ibiza, on the 22nd of September.

 

They are living in the U.S.A. and advised them for a restaurant to have dinner in ibiza-town.

Unfortunately I don't have names, but you are around 50 years old, one with grey hair and one with dark hair and moustache.

 

Hopefuly someone can help me to get in touch with you!

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Rob.

 

Sorry can't help you with this, but maybe someone else will have some information that will help.

[klncpa]

Shirley,

 

Thanks for sharing the photos! It looks like you all had a fabulous time. I was a first time cruiser on my 9/16 Wind Star journey from Istanbul to Athens. We absolutely loved Wind Star and even though we've been home less than two weeks, we're already trying to pick our next itinerary and the one you did is on the list. So, big thanks for sharing the photos! Congrats on renewing your vows. Best wishes for the future!

["Wandering Wino's&quo]

Shirley,

 

Thanks for sharing the photos! It looks like you all had a fabulous time. I was a first time cruiser on my 9/16 Wind Star journey from Istanbul to Athens. We absolutely loved Wind Star and even though we've been home less than two weeks, we're already trying to pick our next itinerary and the one you did is on the list. So, big thanks for sharing the photos! Congrats on renewing your vows. Best wishes for the future!

:) Thank you so much for your wishes. We too (or at least I am) looking into our next cruise aboard a WindStar Ship. Our vacation plans for next year are pretty set with Hawaii in May along with several other trips here and there. So I've been looking at Jan 08 in the Carribean hopefully on a Formast Cruise as the Alumni pricing seems to be a real bargin. So far the schedule for 08 hasn't been developed, but as soon as it is I plan on putting deposit down the the cruise.

We had orginally booked the same cruise that you took out of Istanbul and changed it a few months earlier. It's so hard to know which one to chose. With travel such a pain I think we will probably plan our trips closer to home.

Shirley

[BP617]

Not sure, but did you do the Oosterdam Pacific coast of Mexico in October of last year? Your name is so familiar that I think that Bill and I met you at the CC get together. We will be sailing with WindStar for the first time in February (7 days Costa Rica, with 2 good friends, Gene and Shawn from Baltimore) We are so looking forward to it. The thought of having only 146 other people on board is fabulous! First though, it is a one week Silversea on the Silver Shadow, Barbados to San Juan, 10/29-11/5. T minus 12 days and counting!

Bob (and Bill)

["Wandering Wino's&quo]

Not sure, but did you do the Oosterdam Pacific coast of Mexico in October of last year? Your name is so familiar that I think that Bill and I met you at the CC get together. We will be sailing with WindStar for the first time in February (7 days Costa Rica, with 2 good friends, Gene and Shawn from Baltimore) We are so looking forward to it. The thought of having only 146 other people on board is fabulous! First though, it is a one week Silversea on the Silver Shadow, Barbados to San Juan, 10/29-11/5. T minus 12 days and counting!

Bob (and Bill)

 

:o Bob I think you are right about meeting at the CC party on the October 22nd cruise aboard the Oosterdam Mexican Riveria Cruise. I was one of those that was involved with the planning of the get together and I made the invitations that Janice pass out. We had a great time on that cruise, it was a real party with the 10 of us all in SS suites. This cruise on the Windsurf was so different, we sailed with only one other couple (they also were on the Oosterdam cruise). I have to repeat everything about sailing on The Windsurf was perfect. The size of the ships make the entire experience so much more enjoyable IMO. I'm sure that you will also see that on the Silversea's. Good friends of ours just returned from their first cruise aboard a Silversea's ship and were truly impressed. I'm afraid I'm ready for a little more relax atmosphere with no formal nights. The dress for the evening dinner was more like going to our Country Club and much easier to pack for I might add. I know you will enjoy your Feb. cruise to Costa Rica and want to come back for more. We are already planning our next trip on a WindStar Ship.

[BP617]

Hi Shirley :)

I thought it was you!! I had forgotten that so many of us were in SS on that cruise. This will be our third Silversea cruise. One in 1994, one 2001, and now this one (would love to do Silversea more often, but Bill accuses me of trying to "break the bank" as it is :p )

It is a wonderful experience, and no bar tab at the end:rolleyes:

Hope we see you again on another ship soon,

All the best,

Bob and Bill

["Wandering Wino's&quo]

Hi Shirley :)

I thought it was you!! I had forgotten that so many of us were in SS on that cruise. This will be our third Silversea cruise. One in 1994, one 2001, and now this one (would love to do Silversea more often, but Bill accuses me of trying to "break the bank" as it is :p )

It is a wonderful experience, and no bar tab at the end:rolleyes:

Hope we see you again on another ship soon,

All the best,

Bob and Bill

 

Bob & Bill :)

Thank you for taking time to say hello. Sounds like you two really know how to live. Happy cruising.

Shirley

[llegislate]

Shirley

 

Your a wealth of information

So anxious to leave on the Windsurf couple of ????

 

Is the port close to downtown Ibiza?

 

Did you go to Sunset bars Cafe del Mar or Cafe Mambo or Bennaras beach in Ibiza?

Did you go on the tour in Malaga if not can you rent a car from port to drive to Alahambra and tour around the area?

We hired Azir in Tangier can't wait any advice?

 

Did you eat in main dining room or mostly in Bistro?

 

Any other advice from you and others is appreciated