FredZiffle

We just spent 4 days in Portugal after disembarking in Lisbon. I found great rental car rates (under $100 for 4 days), and we planned to spend a couple of days in Lisbon and the same in Porto. I have driven in many different countries, both left and right side, and am comfortable with a stick shift. Nothing prepared me for driving in Portugal. Whoever designed their roadway system should be drawn and quartered. There was never, not once, an occasion where we traveled more than a couple of miles from point A to point B that did not include numerous round-abouts, U-turns, and at least a dozen different roads. Sometimes they didn't seem to be roads at all - more like alleyways and through parking lots. We used two different GPS systems, often simultaneously, and still made wrong turns quite frequently (and a wrong turn could easily add another half dozen turns and ten minutes to your journey). Parking near tourist attractions was difficult, if not impossible to find, and often involved parallel parking on the street in a space only a few feet longer than our car. Parking decks were rare. Don't even think about driving to Sintra unless you just want to drive through it without stopping. I consider myself a pretty safe driver with no accidents since I was a teenager (a long time ago), but I literally came within inches of hitting two cars. I was an absolute basket case after every trip. The tolls will also eat you alive. We had close to $100 in tolls during our four days there which pretty much balanced out the cheap rental car rates. We've been home for a week, and I'm still suffering from PTSD from this trip.

I received a free upgrade at the pier on Escape in 2022. My bags did not follow. Around 7:00 that night I walked down to my original cabin assignment and found my luggage still sitting outside the door.

Thanks. Just bought $1,000 in OBC. I'd be surprised if they give it back in cash at the end of the cruise. I'll ask for a check to be mailed if they do try to give it back because I don't particularly want to be carrying around that amount of money.

If you enjoy riding around in a stuffed motorcoach for several hours, then ship excursions are exactly what you're looking for. For entertainment, they will even make sure that every bus has at least one couple who can't be bothered to get back on time at the stops, so you'll end up waiting on them which will, of course, shorten your time elsewhere. We're actually going on a couple of ship excursions on a cruise next month, but there is actually a good reason. We're in separate cabins, so each of us has the $50 excursion credit. The ports are nothing special, so just riding around looking at scenery is fine with us. Since the excursions are less than $50, they'll be free after the credit.

Just got off the Getaway, and the vouchers were not good at any of the specialty restaurants other than the same 4 they've always worked at. I had packed my slacks planning on Ocean Blue, so we ended up eating there anyway and just using OBC. Blah. I would never eat there again even if it were free, and I feel taken advantage of for actually paying for my meal. The damn $38 fisherman's platter came with two shrimp, two scallops, and a piece of fish. Asked for tarter sauce as well as the remoulade sauce it came with. They forgot it, so I asked again. After a good ten minutes, they brought something out which the waiter said was tarter sauce even though, as he said, it looked just like the remoulade. Funny thing was it tasted just like the remoulade as well. My wife got one of the fresh fish and said it was unremarkable at best. Honestly, I would rank Ocean Blue right alongside La Cuccina at the very bottom of the specialty restaurants.

I read somewhere in this forum that NCL had started allowing Latitudes vouchers to be used in other specialty restaurants beyond the Cagney's/Le Bistro and Moderno/La Cucina. Is this true across the fleet or just on certain ships/sailings? I'm on the Getaway in another week and am wondering whether to throw in a pair of slacks so I can eat at Ocean Blue.