Peter's Travel Blog

Today, we arrived in Funchal, Madeira. It was a short visit, with an early 7am, arrival, but also an early afternoon departure (2pm), so I decided to keep my plans simple. After breakfast, I headed shoreside with the intention of walking into Funchal; a 20-30 minute walk. By the quayside, however, a free shuttle bus was about to leave, so...

It’s been a relatively unremarkable day (it certainly didn’t feel like a Sunday). The nice weather has drawn people out onto the open decks, and I even managed to grab a half hour myself, this morning, at the front of the ship – one of my favourite places – wave spotting. One thing that did amaze me was how many...

Today, we arrived in Lisbon, Portugal. After my problems at breakfast yesterday, this morning couldn’t have been more different. I’d set my alarm for 7:30am, to be up and in Marcos by 8am, as I’d been assigned tour escort duty, which would mean being shoreside by 9am. At 8am, as I entered Marcos, the sun was just minutes away from...

Marco’s Bistro is an informal, self-service eatery. It’s where I prefer to eat, instead of the more formal ‘Waldorf Restaurant’, downstairs on Deck 6. For passengers, they have a choice; they can eat in either. What tends to happen a few days into the cruise, after eating breakfast in the formal surroundings of the Waldorf, is that many passengers suddenly...

You can nearly always rely on the Bay of Biscay to make things interesting, and today, it didn’t disappoint. Breakfasters in the Marco Polo bistro did the Biscay Dance as the ship rocked and rolled, occasionally quite violently. No… I’ll retract that; in the grand ‘Rough Sea Scale of Things’, ‘Violent’ or ‘Aggressive’ should be preserved for the sort of...