So, We Went On A 12-Night European Cruise

This series on Europe includes the most difficult blogs I’ve written, because I can’t possibly capture all of the beauty and grandeur that we saw in these spectacular cities. The European Cruise. As you know, this trip had been booked and canceled several times, so getting on to the ship was extra special. 

As you heard in part one, we don’t have luggage. We had a couple of outfits we packed in our carryon, and we had a few more outfits we bought in Barcelona, but that was it. I learned how little makeup I can get by with, and the value of a well-packed carry-on. 

So after a good night’s sleep, we took a taxi to the port for our 10:30 port arrival time. We were certainly ready to be pampered, that’s for sure!

European Cruise – Embarkation In Foreign Port

Same docs

Some things about cruising don’t change a whole lot when you embark and debark in Europe. Since Covid is no longer a concern in the travel industry, we didn’t need any vaccination documents. I will say, however, that we bring the originals and take pictures of our vaccine cards, just in case. In addition to printing the luggage tags for the luggage, we printed our port arrival forms, and kept our passports in hand. It was really just like a US cruise.

Different alcohol rules

Except, dear reader, the rules about alcohol. I don’t know if this is written into policy anywhere, but I read about it on the fantastic Cruise Critic (www.cruisecritic.com), which I continue to recommend as highly as possible for cruise information. Anyway, everywhere we went in Europe, we were allowed to return on board with as much alcohol as we wanted. Just carried it on and straight to our cabin. This started in Barcelona, where there is a convenient liquor store in the port building that we used for some starter bottles.  

European Cruise – A Port-Heavy Itinerary

We’ve done many Caribbean and Mexican cruises, and enjoy the sea days nearly as much as the port days. Our port days for those cruises usually involve a morning on the beach with a local lunch. Sometimes we will take tours that are not beach-related, but for the most part, those cruises are relaxing events that include quite a bit of lounging.

Europe is another best entirely. We had 10 ports in our 12-night cruise, with only two sea days—one at each end. This was very different for us, included no beach days whatsoever, and included six excursions spread among the 10 ports. We were ready for some walking and touring this time, leaving the rest for that last day at sea when we meandered towards Dover (London).  

European Cruise – Enjoying your time onboard

Read Part One for the debacle that was our first three days in Europe. They were—and continued to be—stressful and upsetting. We didn’t get much sleep, and we didn’t have any of our own things due to our luggage being lost by British Airways. 

Fortunately, the bathing suits had been in the carry-on (not my first rodeo with lost luggage), so we were able to really relax on embarkation day and the first day at sea. Even though we were still without luggage, we managed to really let down our guard and enjoy the time onboard. Our balcony cabin helped with that, since we tend to spend plenty of time sitting on our balcony just watching the water go by. The famous Serenity Deck (adults only) on Carnival wasn’t as necessary as usual, since there were less than 200 kids on our 2100 passenger ship, but the extra cushioning on those chairs made it our go-to on both sea days, and in the late afternoons after touring. 

Just like any other cruise, bring your book and a lot of sunscreen so you can relax. If you’re a trivia nut, Carnival is for you, with multiple trivia sessions virtually every day. The bars were open—and not busy—every day. The casino, on the other hand, was PACKED every time it was open, so you can obviously tell the demographic of our cruisemates!

No matter how you like to cruise, Europe is no different in some respects, so make sure you pack everything you normally enjoy when on a ship. 

European Cruise – Our Time In Spain

With four ports in Spain, not including embarkation in Barcelona, we were able to really enjoy the countryside in this beautiful country. 

• From Vigo we took a tour that went across the very narrow river to Portugal. Beautiful Gothic style architecture and a 12th century castle in Tui were among the fantastic things we saw. 
• La Coruna was a small and simple fishing village, so we simply got off the ship and walked. Our oceanfront walk took us to the Castle of San Anton, which, for some unknown reason, was FREE on the day we visited! This museum was spectacular, and the access to the centuries-old  furniture and decorations was wonderful. 
• Bilbao was another simple fishing village, and we did a lot of walking on this day, as well. It was very interesting that this entire village had very narrow and old cobblestone walkways—I couldn’t figure out where people parked their cars because you couldn’t even fit a small car down these roads! It’s very interesting that people live this way, compared to the asphalt jungle where I live.   

European Cruise – Our Time In Gibraltar

• Gibraltar is a British Territory, and we had an amazing day visiting some of the sites. We took a three hour taxi tour with six other passengers, that took us to the Tower of Hercules—what ancient people thought was the “end of the world” when they thought the world was flat. From that location we could very easily see Spain in one direction, and Morocco, Africa was a mere 19 miles away in the other direction. It was crazy being able to see other countries from that vantage point. Visiting the Cave of St Michael showed us beautiful stalagmites and stalagtites, and when we left the cave, we were surrounded by monkeys at Ape’s Den! Going to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar was, of course, the highlight, and hiking a little bit to the very top—where there is a glass floor to walk on—was surreal. After the tour, we meandered down the cobblestoned, pedestrianized Main Street, shopping and enjoying the sites. 

European Cruise – Our Time In Portugal

• Lisbon was one of my favorite ports, and we did a tour of some famous sites at this location. After passing the Tower of Belem as we drifted into the port, we were ready for our tour. We spent some time at the Monument of the Discoveries, which was spectacular, and then heading across the street to the Monastery of St. Jerome—still in use today. Downtown Lisbon stole my heart, and we walked up and down the streets in search of a sidewalk cafe. Enjoying a fantastic lunch with a pitcher of Sangria was exactly how I’d envisioned this trip, and I was truly in heaven. We also discovered “nata”, which is a famous Portuguese pastry recommended by our guide. It was almost as good as the fish and shrimp stew with risotto we enjoyed!
• Visiting a port wine cellar in Porto (Lexios) was one of the highlights of the entire trip. It was not only interesting, but very tasty with port wine tasting at the end of the tour. Another highlight in Porto was The Stock Exchange Palace—everything in gold leaf and dating back to the 14th century! 

Our Time In France

• Mid-way through the cruise, the captain announced that due to a strike at the port, we couldn’t dock near Paris. I was crushed, because I was very much looking forward to that day. As a result, we only had one French port.
• La Bordeaux (La Rochelle) was an extremely industrial port that we couldn’t even set foot on, so we jumped on the free shuttle into town for some exploring on our own. Disembarking the shuttle in front of a boring, bland church, we decided to go in. The Cathedral of St. Louis was just an incredible explosion of color and majesty. The multi-roomed cathedral from the 16th century had fantastic stained glass, a beautiful organ, and was a lovely place to sit and reflect. We actually went there twice! Walking down the charming, arch topped street, we spotted a patiserrie that looked inviting, so we went in. Some beignets, a chocolate croissant and a café were less than 5 Euros, and we were in heaven! Continuing down the street a ways, we came up to the Plaza, with a 14^th century fortress guarding the entry into the marina. We walked around the marine marveling at the site. Sitting waterside we enjoyed some local beer and wine before going back up the street to do a little bit of shopping. After visiting the bakery—twice—and getting lunch at a little cafe, we were back on the ship.

European Cruise – Our Time In Amsterdam

• Carnival swapped Paris for Amsterdam, Holland. We were thrilled, because they easily could have just added another sea day. Getting to Holland, we needed to go from the Atlantic to the North Sea—through a set of locks like the Panama Canal!!! It was really cool at 6 am that morning. We did a canal tour in Amsterdam, which was great for seeing more of the city from a different vantage point, and then walked for hours stopping in stores and getting some adult beverages. A very relaxed and walkable port, we were glad that Carnival had made the extraordinary effort to bring us this far north. 

European Cruise – Cruisemates Are Different

The Carnival Pride had about 2100 passengers on it, and I think we were on the younger end of the demographic. While we saw children, and some larger multi-generational group, there were primarily people in our situation on this cruise: near or at retirement traveling with a spouse or sibling. 

The other main difference was found in the cruise line “status” of the clientele. While we reached Platinum level on this trip, there were over 500 Platinum cruisers and 100 Diamond cruisers. On average, there are less than 100 Platinum and Diamond cruisers on a Caribbean cruise. The problem with this is that some—not all—of these high-end cruisers can become very entitled and difficult. We saw more line-jumping in the buffet and seat-stealing in the shows than I’ve ever seen, with people literally pushing forward to get on elevators. 

Overall Comments

It took Sweet Husband and I 32 years of marriage to go to Europe. I don’t regret anything we’ve done in the past in our travels, but I am extremely glad that we “broke the seal” on European travel. It was different. It was exciting. It was fantastic.

So…go. If Europe—or anywhere else—is on your bucket list, make those plans and take that trip. We don’t know the future, that’s for sure, so I’m beyond happy that we made this epic adventure in 2023.

The Year of Patti.

THANK YOU FOR READING THIS FAR

Thank you for reading all about our European Cruise!

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