Gourmet Gal

I took several classes in the Salt Lab on The Moon and was able to sign up after boarding. If you like to cook don’t expect anything groundbreaking but it is something to do. The chef onboard my cruise was very entertaining.

Yes, the Portuguese are very friendly and hospitable. Most of the ships’ crews have to be majority Portuguese by law and I must say the crew onboard the Andorinha was outstanding.

You are correct, this is a much different experience than some other European rivers. The river-side villages and towns do not compare with those on the Danube, Rhein or Moselle at all and your wife may be disappointed. There can be morning and afternoon excursions in the same day depending on cruising time and overnights. The ship may also move while there are shore excursions, usually by bus. Expect a fair number of bus trips and a fair amount of free-time. The nightlife is really only in Porto but most of the better cruise lines will have an evening event with dinner at a winery quinta. You should expect multiple demonstrations and performances on your ship during some of the sail times and in the evening. The scenery is beautiful and very dramatic in some places but in general the cruises can be very slow-paced because of the daytime sailing. I’ve sailed on der Rhein, Moselle, Danube, Mein Canal, Rhône, Sâone, Garonne, Gironde, Dordogne and Seine along with numerous French Canals and I would say the Douro river was my least favorite but I really like the country of Portugal.

Then perhaps what is fast-paced for some is slow-paced for others. This Douro cruise was the first time we were glad when it was over despite the stellar reputation of Tauck; but then we had already been traveling for weeks when we started the Douro Cruise.

Having just done a Douro cruise with Tauck, I would highly recommend seeing the region by car instead. It is easy to drive and would be much more interesting than the boring “sea days” and underwhelming port towns along the river. The river is beautiful but the cruise was almost too much of a good thing and became boring after the first full day of sailing. If you haven’t been to Portugal it is so easy to navigate and see Lisbon and Porto as well as the Douro region in 10 days or so.

There are plenty of helpful crew members who assist every single passenger in and out of the Zodiacs so you should be fine.

Don’t depend on that. I’ve had tickets issued much earlier than that by SS. They are consistently inconsistent.

It seems more like a ploy to sell more D2D by making P2P as unattractive as possible.

Wow…100% cancellation penalty.

Hmmm, okay, then why is it there?

That’s weird. Perhaps I am mis-labeling the function on the member’s profile pages wherr if allowed by the member one can send a message?

You can try going to the Tauck website. If you explore it thoroughl you will find a great source of info there. PM me if you require more detail.

Understandable to be hesitant about any Antartica cruise but I didn’t know it was possible to handle a rogue wave, properly or otherwise. How does that work?

Glad it’s working out. I love Japan, you’ll have a great time.

Yes!!!

Leading up to our Moon sailing in Sept. some of our excursion bookings disappeared and then were reinstated and it happened to others on our roll call. I think they must have some computer glitches. Don’t panic yet.

The Nova is a beautiful ship though a little larger than I like. It looks like there’s an interior forward facing observation lounge but not exterior. Where would that be?

Wow! Les, so sorry to hear of your extreme difficulty getting your trip booked. I just ain’t over ‘til it’s over! Good luck.

What’s Taulk? Never heard of it.

Excellent observations and comparison. SS compared very well or better in many categories.

I was on the Moon in Sept and it was almost full. One washer and dryer per laundry room and honestly, it was rarely a problem.

Other than your hotel issue I would say that’s been my experience on all my SS cruises but then I book mostly for itineraries and select cruises with few if any sea days.

It might be helpful to know which were the specific areas that were underwhelming?

No, never did the Poles mostly because I don’t like rough seas, sea days and I really hate cold weather so no comment other than if you’ve never done an ocean cruise you should research how rough the seas are at the time of year you are considering. Many cruisers have a hard time dealing with the big passage down to Antartica. SS does have some departures that will fly over the passage to avoid the rough seas. Some people will chime in here and say the seas were just fine on their cruise but they could be the exception. Have fun planning!

Lovely voyage. Thanks for sharing!