Transatlantic travels - Pursuit Lisbon to Rio 13 November 19

[Sleep7]

No worries Grandmacruising. I'm sure every meal in Lisbon will be great!
Loved your pix of the city.. they brought back so many nice memories.

Enjoy!!

 

[mchell810]

2 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

Today we bought one day transport passes for €6.95 each. We had to use the ticket machine, but thankfully there was a metro member of staff standing by the machine helping us. We got the metro from the Marquês de Pombal station to Rossio, then took the 15 tram to Belém. It was very busy, but is lovely there.

 

HGC I was in Lisbon for a few days last spring before getting on the Journey.  Your description of your day is bringing back lovely memories of a wonderful city.  Enjoy your cruise. 

[Grandma Cruising]

Our meal at the Santa Marta restaurant was a bit disappointing. We had staters of grilled sardines with onions and octopus salad which were really nice, but the swordfish that we both had was fairly tasteless. We did have bottle of vinho verde though, which was nice.

On Wednesday morning we ordered a taxi at 11:15 to take us to Santa Apollonia Cruise terminal, as stated in the e-docs. However before we got to Santa Apollonia we saw the Pursuit, moored at the New Cruise terminal, which is just before Santa Apollonia. Embarkation was very quick and easy - no queues - and we were onboard by 11:45.

We had lunch in the Patio - no surprise that my DH had his favourite Greek Burger and I had chicken kebabs - both were lovely. The rooms were ready at 1:30 and we got two pieces of luggage pretty quickly. The third didn’t turn up until just before muster drill at 4pm. At the drill Captain Toledo told us that the ship wouldn’t be leaving Lisbon until about 7:30 pm instead of 5pm. He explained that with the cruise being a 17 day transatlantic crossing, we needed to take on a very large amount of provisions, which would take a long time.

 

After muster drill we finished our unpacking. There was an invitation to the cruise critic social in our cabin - it was at 5:45 and was very well attended. Amanda Paulson (Cruise Director) did an excellent job of hosting the event. She was much more involved in the whole process than other CDs have been at previous events.

We went to the Discoveries bar at about 7:30 for a pre-dinner drink. I asked if there was any fever tree tonic. The barman didn’t have any, but promised to see if any was available on the ship by the next evening - but the Schweppes tonic was fine.

 

By 7:45 there was a very long queue for dinner - we sat tight, but got talking to another three couples and ended up on a table for 8 - sitting at the ‘captains table’ in the very middle of the room. We had a lovely meal in good company. I had a starter of cauliflower panacotta with crab salad, red pepper chowder, then a main of coconut crusted shrimp, finishing off with an orange parfait with grand marnier sorbet. My DH had escargots, followed by gumbo, then the chefs special of prime rib of beef with Yorkshire pudding, finishing with New York cheesecake.

 

As often seems to happen to us, we were the last group to leave Discoveries at about 11pm, so we missed the show and went straight to bed. During dinner the ship left the river and got into the Atlantic - the captain had warned us to expect 4m waves and he was right - we rock & rolled all night.

 

This morning we had breakfast in Discoveries. We found it to be very different on the Pursuit than it had been on the Journey in July. On the Journey as well as the served dishes on the menu, there was a full buffet including eggs cooked to order. On the Pursuit there was no buffet, just the served dishes on the menu. My DH had the chefs special of an omelette with sausage, bacon & bell pepper and I had a egg white omelette with mushroom, goats cheese and spinach.

 

I hope some of you others on the roll call are going to join in and post your experiences on here too.

 

 

[Mackdogmolly]

Following along with great interest, HGC. I love your very detailed accounts! 
Betsey

[marinaro44]

3 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

This morning we had breakfast in Discoveries. We found it to be very different on the Pursuit than it had been on the Journey in July. On the Journey as well as the served dishes on the menu, there was a full buffet including eggs cooked to order. On the Pursuit there was no buffet, just the served dishes on the menu. 

On the three Journey cruises just before the trans-Atlantic, we found there were some days when there was a small breakfast buffet in Discoveries and others when there wasn't.  Perhaps it was based on arrival time in port, port vs. sea day, departure times for excursions, or whatever.

[2ndsailing]

Enjoying your thread HGC!  

 

[excitedofharpenden]

Glad you are off and running and hoping you all have a good crossing.

 

Just for info to others, that centre “Captain’s” table on the upper level is the worst spot in the dining room for noise.  In fact whenever possible I ask for a table on the lower level as the whole of the upper level is noisier.

 

My recollection of Pursuit was that the space used for eggs cooked to order on Journey was used as a fresh fruit station with someone serving there.  Is that what they have?

 

Phil

Edited November 14, 2019 by excitedofharpenden

[nordski]

5 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

 

 

After muster drill we finished our unpacking. There was an invitation to the cruise critic social in our cabin - it was at 5:45 and was very well attended. Amanda Paulson (Cruise Director) did an excellent job of hosting the event. She was much more involved in the whole process than other CDs have been 

 

t.

 

This morning we had breakfast in Discoveries. We found it to be very different on the Pursuit than it had been on the Journey in July. On the Journey as well as the served dishes on the menu, there was a full buffet including eggs cooked to order. On the Pursuit there was no buffet, just the served dishes on the menu. My DH had the chefs special of an omelette with sausage, bacon & bell pepper and I had a egg white omelette with mushroom, goats cheese and spinach.

 

 

 

 

CD Amanda is a talented performer and we are glad that she played an important role at the Social.

 

In October, we ate breakfast several times in Discoveries on Pursuit and those mornings there were several tables set up fot buffet options. We appreciated that choice.
 

Thanks for your informative posts.

[uktog]

There is no buffet at all on Journey just now which seems a better way to control wastage and also avoids the risk of someone bumping into your chair with a full plate of beans. I much prefer this you can still go to the buffet upstairs the MDR is a much more leisurely affair. 

[Jem 12]

Thank you for posting as you go along on your cruise, wish we were onboard. 
I hope the seas are kind to you, the weather here in the UK is awful. 
 

Enjoy. 

[Grandma Cruising]

1 hour ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Glad you are off and running and hoping you all have a good crossing.

 

Just for info to others, that centre “Captain’s” table on the upper level is the worst spot in the dining room for noise.  In fact whenever possible I ask for a table on the lower level as the whole of the upper level is noisier.

 

My recollection of Pursuit was that the space used for eggs cooked to order on Journey was used as a fresh fruit station with someone serving there.  Is that what they have?

 

Phil

It was a bit noisy - but we were a noisy group too, so no doubt contributed to the overall noise level.

Yes the fruit cutter is in the same place as the egg cooker was on Journey.

[baytraller]

Hi Denise,

 

We had dinner with HD Richard and only two other guests in October on that table,

was ok at the start but later very noisy .

 

We were on the Pursuit in March for Rio to Lisbon, and have been following with interest your posts

 

According to CruiseMapper the seas are currently 3.7M, there is a Windstar ship a distance ahead

 the seas are 2.8M

 

So better seas are ahead, have a great cruise.

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/?imo=9210220

 

Peter and Trish

 

 

 

Edited November 14, 2019 by baytraller

[Grandma Cruising]

On 11/14/2019 at 10:58 PM, baytraller said:

Hi Denise,

 

We had dinner with HD Richard and only two other guests in October on that table,

was ok at the start but later very noisy .

 

We were on the Pursuit in March for Rio to Lisbon, and have been following with interest your posts

 

According to CruiseMapper the seas are currently 3.7M, there is a Windstar ship a distance ahead

 the seas are 2.8M

 

So better seas are ahead, have a great cruise.

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/?imo=9210220

 

Peter and Trish

 

 

 

Hi Peter &Trish - we’re just getting in to the jetty in Madeira at the moment. I’ve been awake for a while and it’s been much calmer than it was yesterday.

 

We has a very lazy day yesterday - sat and read in the Living Room in the morning, lunch at the Patio (shock horror - my DH had chicken brochettes instead of the Greek burger!) read in our cabin until 3, then went to the destination lecture by Dr Barton Palmer. It was particularly interesting to hear about the sugar trade in Madeira and how it linked in to the slave trade and the production of rum.

 

We had dinner in Discoveries again, sharing a table with norn iron & his wife. We had met them before on a previous cruise and it was great to catch up.

I had shrimp cocktail, clam chowder and the chefs special of duck breast, my DH had smoked salmon, chowder and duck and we both had crepes in a vanilla sauce. Despite our lazy day we were still tired so just stopped at Spirits for a night cap, then to bed.

Edited November 16, 2019 by Host Grandma Cruising

[gymfreak]

Enjoyed our day here in Madeira. Decided to take the hoho bus  from Funchal to Cabo Giraq, which apparently is the highest European cliff face. Views were amazing and you could walk on a glass platform above the perilous drop!

Weather a bit mixed but not too bad. 
In the afternoon we walked around Funchal and visited the market selling lots of colourful produce. There was also a local goods market.

Currently sat on our balcony with a spectacular view of Funchal as dusk starts to draw in.

Vicki

 

[Skicruiser55]

On 11/12/2019 at 11:35 AM, uktraveller said:

We are currently on the Pursuit and have just (6pm local) arrived in Lisbon. We sailed from Seville last night and it was quite a bumpy 24 hours!

Off to enjoy the last evening on board.... hope you all enjoy the crossing.

UKtraveller - I assume you were on the sailing from Barcelona - 11/4.  Can you tell me which night was the White Night?  We are on the 11/4/20 Quest sailing. 

Also will you be doing a review of that sailing?

 

Thanks,

 

Kathy 

[uktraveller]

52 minutes ago, Skicruiser55 said:

UKtraveller - I assume you were on the sailing from Barcelona - 11/4.  Can you tell me which night was the White Night?  We are on the 11/4/20 Quest sailing. 

Also will you be doing a review of that sailing?

 

Thanks,

 

Kathy 

Yes,  just home today from Lisbon. A very enjoyable cruise,  I will try to post a review if time permits..

 

White night was scheduled for the first night in Seville and despite a very cool strong wind it went ahead as planned......with lots of blankets!

[hamrag]

Because it is your thread HGC, I decided to read it and will now be following daily! You may recall we are shortly to be 1st time Az, sailing on Journey from San Juan, so also following uktogs' thread for their TA crossing! As much of the Az experience will be identical on all ships, I know we will appreciate your insights.

 

We have done a couple of TA's on other lines, from Florida, which got us home without any jet lag! 

 

Thanks for great Az info' across all threads in recent months, and I wish you calmer seas as you journey across that huge pond!

[Grandma Cruising]

We had a great time in Madeira too. We really liked Funchal - a very pretty town, very clean. Azamara provided a shuttle bus that took us into the middle of town. From there we walked to the market and were fascinated by the fish. There was a fish we had never seen before called the Black Scabbard fish. When they scrubbed it the black came off.

 

 

 

 

From the market we made our way to the Cable Car station. There were no great queues there - maybe because the only other ship in port was the Windstar. It’s a long ride and very good value at €16 return. From the top we got a great view of the Pursuit in the harbour.

 

We went into the Monte Palace Tropical gardens opposite the cable car station -  listed as one of the top most beautiful botanical gardens in the world. It’s built into the hill side and at the bottom is the Monte Palace and a lovely lake and waterfall.

 

It cost €12:50 to enter the gardens and it was well worth it - you could spend hours there exploring the various areas. They also had a very interesting exhibition of African art.

 

From the very bottom of the gardens it looked like a long steep walk back up to the cable car, so we decided to pay €2.50 each to get taken back up to the top in a golf cart!

From there we went to see the toboggan ride, but decided not to go on it, so we got the cable car back to town and wandered back to catch the shuttle back to the ship.

Edited November 16, 2019 by Host Grandma Cruising

[Grandma Cruising]

When we got back on the ship we heard an announcement that the chef had also been to the fish market and bought fresh tuna to be served in Windows buffet that night.

We ate in Discoveries again, sharing a table with another British couple and 2 Canadian couples. We both had mushroom vol au vent, shrimp and celery slaw and the chefs special of pork scallopini followed by profiteroles with fudge and vanilla ice cream & chocolate sauce - another lovely meal.

[cheznick]

Reached LA palma unscathed.  Couple of rough nights. had all sorts of weather today from very wet on sailing in, to sunshine , the showers then brilliant sunshine again.  But nicely warm. Missed the ccc meet due to bumping into old az friends, so apologies Denise etc  wherever you are, only complaint so far is the internet is still in the dark ages and the APP is a waste of time.  Have spent all day trying to read the Discoveries menu only to be presented with a totally vegan menu.., gave in at 4pm and went to photograph it for wife.     Never mind.    
 

[Covepointcruiser]

Interested in this thread.   We are currently on the slowed us down to 9 knots so wind will not be a problem.   How difficult are the flights from Rio the U.S., are they frequent and hopefully reasonable.

[Grandma Cruising]

Yesterday the ship docked in La Palma at lunchtime. We took a ship’s tour to the Caldeira de Taburiente. There were two bus loads of us - both buses were full. It was a very good tour, and very good value for money at £38 for a tour that lasted nearly 5 hours. The first stop was at the church of the Virgin of the Snows, where a wedding was just finishing. The altar was beautiful, with a lovely painting above it.

From there we went to an information centre about the Caldeira, then on to one of the viewpoints from where we took a 20 minutes walk over very uneven ground to another viewpoint. The scenery was stunning.

 

From there we went back towards the harbour, stopping for the last time at Casa Yana - an old house built as a replica of of the Siam embassy in Paris by its owner. There we had Sangria, Canadian potatoes with red Mojo sauce and little pieces of toast with cheese and Mojo sauce. 

 

Later that evening we had dinner in Discoveries, again sharing a table for 8, this time with three other British couples. I had Cannellini bean soup, the chef’s special of Pork tenderloin with rice and a Korean sauce, followed by strawberry and kiwi pavlova. My DH had tuna rolled in pepper, broiled New York strip steak with steak fries and the cheese plate.  As we were tired from our earlier walk in the national park we went straight to bed.
 

 

Edited November 17, 2019 by Host Grandma Cruising

[amespana]

Fancy importing potatoes all the way from Canada!Haha!

[Salonica]

I’m sure that was a typo, meaning Canarian. They are a very typical dish in the Canary Islands.

[amespana]

Yes I know, hence the haha at the end of the sentence.Thet are known as patatas arrugadas meaning wrinkly potatoes.