August 3

Lisbon.

I was at a loss on what to do in Lisbon, the only DCL excursion that looked promising had an 8:00 AM meet time and that would be pushing my luck, so I decided we would go into the city centre and go to St George’s Castle or maybe take the #28 tram through the old section on Lisbon.


I got up early to watch the sail into Lisbon as I had read that sailing under the April 25 Bridge was beautiful. The April 25 Bridge is a suspension bridge similar in design to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a beautiful morning and sailing under the bridge was neat, the sound the ship made sailing under the bridge with cars on it was neat and and little scary  at the same time and I hoped to make it back that evening.

Since we were on our own this morning the girls slept in and we did not rush off the ship.

Almost at the dock.

 We got off about 10:00 and we just wandered towards the big dome on the hill. We found a flee market and Lauren searched for some coins, and Sydney found a lovely hat, it was her first attempt at bargaining and she got it for 3 Euros

We found the 28 tram but it was hot and the girls did not want to go on it.

Lisbon is full of lovely neat narrow roads and alleys so we just spent the morning exploring.

 We found a lovely bakery and tried a Portuguese pastry. Lisbon appeared to very inexpensive and we got 3 drinks and 1 pastry, and 1 huge gummy fish for less than 3 Euros. Lauren liked the pastry but Sydney was glad she had gone for the gummy fish.



We had found our way back to the port and it was hot, the girls had not complained once so I decided we should go back on before everyone got too tired.

 The girls had lots of things they wanted to do in the clubs, but the call of the empty pool was too strong and they spent another afternoon in the pool.

We did take some time out to visit a few characters.

Tried to rush through dinner so we could made it up to watch the sail under the April 25 bridge, but we were about 5 minutes too slow.



The evening show was Villains a new one we have not seen. I was not impressed but the girls who know Yzma and Kronk from the Emperors New Groove really enjoyed the show and Lauren mentioned that she wished that she had gone to all 3 performances.

August 2

Vigo.


Looks like the weather is getting better and better.

I had not read much about Vigo as not a lot of North American Ships go there, so I booked a DCL excursion “Boarder Country” which went to a fortified city of Valenca .



Vigo is defiantly a port you can do on your own, the ship docks right in the middle of the city.

Meeting time was a little later today, and we have some official tour helpers today.

The bus ride was about 40 minutes through the Galician hills and vineyards, and the landscape reminded me of the Okanagan in the spring. The local tour guide this time was much better and very knowledgeable about the area and gave us some great information on the battles for the land in this area, during the 16 and 1700’s .



Valenca is actually in Portugal, just across the Mino  river from Spain.  The bridge was designed by Gustav Eiffel

It was impressive and my pictures do not do it justice.

We got spent about an hour being shown around and then we had an hour of free time.

On the way back we stopped at a couple of more view stops, one was a quick picture break and the other one was about 30 minutes at another old palace.

We got back to the ship about 2 and the girls had lunch up on the pool deck and of course went swimming and a bit of sunbathing while watching Sleeping Beauty. (pool is much busier during the day)

We then headed down to deck 4. The gangplank in Vigo was from deck 3 with a steep staircase and we were hoping to see the crane remove it, so we were just hanging out reading.

It was not quiet as normal on deck 4 as there was quite a crowd of kids on the dock chanting for Mickey. Well about 10 minutes before departure Mickey shows up

 it is pretty much him and the girls and he just fooled around with the girls, more people show up, but Mickey stays and just waves to all the kids on the dock.

 Pluto then shows and Lauren who has pretty much outgrown the characters gave in to the Disney Magic and had so much fun just fooling around with them.

Wish I was on the dock as it was hard to get pictures of the girls and Mickey as they were always facing towards shore.

The Magician was the show tonight so we skipped that and you guessed it headed to the pool.

Aug 1

Today was a sea day, with an early Character breakfast, but we slept in, 4 th cruise for the girls and we have never made it to the Character breakfast. The weather is warming up, and the seas are pretty calm. I have heard that it can get pretty rough sailing through the Bay of Biscay but we have a lovely day.





There was lots going on, first up was the Princess Gathering, so lots of pictures, Lauren skipped that and went to the kids lab.

After lunch we went and Saw Toy Story 3, what a great movie.



We went swimming after but it was pretty busy so it was a short swim, but time to visit with Max.

Next up was Tea with Alice, Lauren did not want to go so she went back to the Lab, of course Sydney enjoyed the Tea, the Mad Hatter was pretty funny.

Another rushed dinner as the girls wanted to get a swim in before the show, which became the normal after dinner routine. It was great swimming after dinner as the pools were pretty much empty.

We made it to the Theater and got to watch Twice Charmed. It was as great as usual and the girls enjoyed seeing it again.



With sunset so late we were able to catch it after the show.