Tag: Norwegian Getaway

Our First Day in Lisbon

On August 14, 2023

Praça do Comércio

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After 12 days at sea, we arrived in Lisbon early in the morning. Since we couldn’t get into our Airbnb until the afternoon, we waited as long as we could to disembark the ship. Once we were off the ship, we used Luggage Hero to find a place to store our luggage until our Airbnb was ready and then we began our exploration of Lisbon.

When the tourist office opened, we headed inside to buy the Lisboa Card which gave us access to many museums and attractions in the city as well as public transportation. Depending on how long you are planning on using the card, the price ranges from 21-44 Euros per person. We used our cards over the few days we were in the city to visit the Santa Justa Lift, The Lisboa Story Center, Belem Tower, Jeronimo’s Monastery, and the Lisbon Tile Museum. The card also allowed us to get around the city and covered our train ticket to Sintra where it also gave us a discount at Quinta de Regalara. It also would’ve given a discount at Pena Palace in Sintra, but I bought our tickets online in advance in order to get an early entry time, but more on that in another post.

View from the Santa Justa lift

To begin our sightseeing, we headed to Santa Justa Lift, which is an elevator that has turned into a tourist attraction. Lisbon is known as the city of 7 hills and walking up and down them can get tiring. Luckily, there are elevators in several parts of the city to make your walk a little easier. The Santa Justa Lift is the most famous in the city and it was built in 1902 by an apprentice of Gustav Eiffel. There is a long line to ride the elevator up and the observation tower at the top was closed so I can see why a lot of people suggest skipping it, but the view from the top is a great way to take in the scope of the city.

Exhibit in the Lisboa Story Center After our ride in the elevator, we headed to the Lisboa Story Center (left) which is a unique museum that tells the history of Lisbon and how the city played a part in the exploration of the world. The Story Center presents history in a multimedia experience where every visitor has a headset to hear the narration that accompanies the three-dimensional and video elements in each exhibit. Probably one of the most impactful parts of the museum is the earthquake room, where visitors are immersed in the 1755 earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the city.

Flaming Portuguese Sausage The highlight of our first day in Lisbon would have to be the food tour we took in the evening. The tour took us around the city center to try some authentic Portuguese food and drinks including Portuguese cheese and port wine, Bifana (delicious pork sandwiches) and beer, pasteis do bacalau (salt cod fritters) with Portuguese wine, Ginjinha (Lisbon’s famous cherry liquor), and a final stop for flaming sausage and more wine (right). The tour was surprisingly affordable and we got to try things that I may not have tried otherwise. If you are looking to get to know Lisbon, I highly recommend this small-group food tour from Viator!

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to stop by next week to read about our second day in Lisbon! To read more about this trip, check out Cruising the Atlantic to Portugal and Spain trip report. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! For my list of gadgets to make your travels easier, click here. To see inside my camera bag, check out my updated Gear Page.

Orlando, Port Canaveral, and Great Stirrup Cay

By Ashleigh

On July 18, 2023

In Cruise, Travel

Soaring to Florida

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Our whirlwind transatlantic cruise that took us to Portugal and Spain started in Orlando, Florida. Originally, we planned on booking a Port Canaveral hotel that included a shuttle from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the port. But the more that I searched, I realized how expensive those hotels were. We’re not really beach people and this was just the beginning of a really epic vacation. The price didn’t seem worth it to us, instead I booked a hotel right outside the gates to Walt Disney World (its amazing to me that it was cheaper than the Port Canaveral area). If you are going to the parks, they also offer a free shuttle. If you are looking to visit the theme parks and don’t want to pay the price to stay on property, I highly recommend Buena Vista Suites!

Walt Disney World Entrance

We only had one night so we didn’t spend any time in the parks, but it was our anniversary so I got us reservations at Steakhouse 71 in the Contemporary Resort. It had been probably over 20 years since I stepped foot in the Contemporary. I really enjoyed the mid-century theming and I wish we would’ve sprung for the deluxe accommodations for the 50th anniversary. The walkway to the Magic Kingdom would’ve saved us a lot of time that day! Steakhouse 71 is themed as a 1970’s steakhouse and everything we had was fabulous (get the bacon & eggs appetizer! You won’t regret it)! Since it was our anniversary, they get us a free champagne toast that I did not expect. After dinner, we took the monorail to the Polynesian where we sat at the outdoor Trader Sam’s and watched the fireworks before finishing the monorail loop and heading back to our hotel for the night.

The next morning, we enjoyed our free breakfast and drove our rental car to Port Canaveral. We had earned a free day rental from National because of our recent long term rentals so this one-way rental was much cheaper than the Orlando to Port Canaveral shuttles I found. We had an 11:00 am check in time because that is usually when cruise ships start boarding so you don’t have to wait too long and you get a lunch that is included in your cruise fare. I will share more about our embarkation experience when I do my Norwegian Getaway review.

Great Stirrup Cay in the rain

The next day was our first port stop, Great Stirrup Cay, Norwegian’s Private Island. We visited Great Stirrup back in 2015 making it our first repeated port in our seven cruises. I was surprised by how many people we heard that said they weren’t getting off the ship at Great Stirrup. The tendering process isn’t the easiest, but this was our last chance to stand on dry land for 7 days. Great Stirrup Cay is different from Norwegian’s other private island, Harvest Cay. All food is included and drink packages work on the island. Since 2015, they have made a lot of improvements to the island from additional beach areas, bars, and dining options to new private cabanas for rent. There are many water activities to do on the island, from jet skiing and snorkeling to paddle board rentals and even a zip-line. We always like to rent a clamshell on these islands to give us some shade. Shortly after we got on land it started raining and the clamshell kept us dry, although one of the cabanas would’ve been even drier. Our last two times on Norwegian’s island we booked the clamshell on the ship and our shore excursion credit covered it. This time it was only available to be booked once we got off the ship. He wrote our name and room number down but the rain came so hard, I’m pretty sure the ink on his paper ran and became illegible because we were never charged for our clamshell so I’m not sure if the shore excursion credit still applies to these island rentals.

We had talked about trying zip-lining on Great Stirrup or renting jet skis and I’m glad we didn’t book it because the zip line was closed the whole day because of lightning and for several hours no one was allowed in the water. Luckily, the rain let up for lunch and we walked down the beach a bit to try one of the new food options. We hung out for a little bit after that but headed back to the before the rain started up again. It was an odd beach day, but I was glad we got off the ship for a little bit even if we got a little wet.

Thanks for stopping by! To read more about this trip, check out Cruising the Atlantic to Portugal and Spain trip report. Be sure to check back next week as I recap one of my all time favorite cruise excursions in the Azores. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! For my list of gadgets to make your travels easier, click here. To see inside my camera bag, check out my updated Gear Page.