Malaga ready to start cruising

[kernow]

24 minutes ago, zap99 said:

There is a big airport where you live. If they can get a few passengers, Ryan air would do a Newquay to Malaga. A drive down to Watergate bay, a few nights in the hotel and then off to Malaga. Sounds good for us.😂

Ryanair already fly to Alicante from Newquay, not my favourite airline though!

 

Watergate is only a five minute drive from our house,  we walked there along the cliff path many times during lockdown😀

[zap99]

4 minutes ago, kernow said:

Ryanair already fly to Alicante from Newquay, not my favourite airline though!

 

Watergate is only a five minute drive from our house,  we walked there along the cliff path many times during lockdown😀

We normally stay in waves, or beachcombers. The Watergate bay hotel is on the list, but haven't been there yet.

[Bobal]

Will be interesting to see if RC want to sail from Malaga again. We sailed from there when they tried it as a new embarkation port.

 

It was a great choice for us flying from the UK and obviously a really good choice for the many expats who live on the Costa del Sol and other Europeans who can also fly there cheaply

 

However it wasn't a lucrative route for the company.  Locals tended to book families into cabins so they were at full capacity so the ship was very busy. There were constant announcements in the WJ to exit tables as people arrived as it opened and stayed there the whole afternoon. Eventually they had to create a buffet in the DR to accommodate people,  so no normal DR lunchtime experience

 

Smoking rules were ignored, people were even smoking in the elevators. We had a friend who worked as a manager onboard and another Travel Agent friend who had a family cruise during that season and apparently the average spend per head was around $2 per week 

 

Still every penny counts i suppose!

[kernow]

5 minutes ago, zap99 said:

We normally stay in waves, or beachcombers. The Watergate bay hotel is on the list, but haven't been there yet.

We love Watergate, my favourite beach in Cornwall. We often eat at the Beach Hut, even better with cocktails at Watchful Mary first. Can't wait for everywhere to open up again.

[zap99]

7 minutes ago, kernow said:

We love Watergate, my favourite beach in Cornwall. We often eat at the Beach Hut, even better with cocktails at Watchful Mary first. Can't wait for everywhere to open up again.

So many great places in Cornwall . A couple of years ago we stayed at the Tolcarne Beach Hotel and ate at the Beach hut one evening.

[FionaMG]

4 hours ago, leyla said:

We have a cruise in October and if not leaving from Barcelona why not consider Lisbon departure? Perfect for us not matter what other ports visiting or not...

We have actually sailed twice from Lisbon but not very many cruises start there. It doesn't really have the capacity to do turn-arounds although it's fabulous as a port of call. I would love it if the various rival entities could stop fighting with each other and instead work together to make Lisbon a turn-around port. It has so much potential because of its geographical location.

[yogimax]

8 hours ago, Bobal said:

Smoking rules were ignored, people were even smoking in the elevators.

Wow!  How long ago was this?

 

That would be a major turn off for me.

[little britain]

9 hours ago, FionaMG said:

We have actually sailed twice from Lisbon but not very many cruises start there. It doesn't really have the capacity to do turn-arounds although it's fabulous as a port of call. I would love it if the various rival entities could stop fighting with each other and instead work together to make Lisbon a turn-around port. It has so much potential because of its geographical location.

I’m meant to be sailing right now on a cruise starting in Lisbon..... on X Silhouette 😢😩

[little britain]

4 hours ago, yogimax said:

Wow!  How long ago was this?

 

That would be a major turn off for me.

Adventure was based in Malaga about 10 yrs ago I’d guess. 

Edited April 23, 2021 by little britain

[FionaMG]

5 minutes ago, little britain said:

I’m meant to be sailing right now on a cruise starting in Lisbon..... on X Silhouette 😢😩

I feel your pain. We should have been in New York right now for a few days prior to boarding Anthem's TA to Southampton. It was such an amamazing itinerary. 😢

[FionaMG]

9 minutes ago, little britain said:

Adventure was based in Malaga about 10 yrs ago I’d guess. 

Spot on. Our sailing date was 24 September 2011. 

 

Royal's representative in Portugal organised a weekly bus service from the Algarve to Malaga for those sailings so we were picked up from the bus station just up the road from our house, which was amazingly convenient. The downside was it was overnight because the bus needed to be in Malaga early enough to pick up the disembarking passengers and at that time the cruise terminal in Malaga was under construction, so we literally had to wait on the quayside for several hours before staff came on duty to check us in in a big tent! We were exhausted by the time we got on board.

[dutchclogs]

8 hours ago, little britain said:

Adventure was based in Malaga about 10 yrs ago I’d guess. 

Yes, I recall not being able to get any of my pre cruise requested MDR timings because '"the Spanish like to eat late".  

[dutchclogs]

8 minutes ago, dutchclogs said:

Yes, I recall not being able to get any of my pre cruise requested MDR timings because '"the Spanish like to eat late".  

Another fond memory,  we were on board for the Netherlands v Spain 2010 World Cup final. We  watched this on a large screen in the theatre, a tiny speck of orange among the serried ranks of Spanish supporters stamping their feet and  chanting ole ole ole. 🏳️‍🌈

[FamilyCruiserUK]

On 4/22/2021 at 6:57 AM, steamboats said:

Actually it´s not just Malaga preparing for cruising. Barcelona is preparing as well for late June. Cruises will be restricted to Spanish ports only. So an itinerary Barcelona - Palma de Mallorca - seadays - Malaga - seadays - Barcelona might be a possible option.

 

steamboats

 

 

Sounds positive but where has this been stated? 

[FionaMG]

28 minutes ago, dutchclogs said:

Yes, I recall not being able to get any of my pre cruise requested MDR timings because '"the Spanish like to eat late".  

Yes, indeed. We had second seating dinner and it was at 9.30! Here in Portugal we don't tend to eat quite as late as our Iberian neighbours do, so it was a bit later than we like. 

[kernow]

27 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

Yes, indeed. We had second seating dinner and it was at 9.30! Here in Portugal we don't tend to eat quite as late as our Iberian neighbours do, so it was a bit later than we like. 

We always ask for a large table in late seating. When we got onboard they asked if we wanted to change to early as they could not find enough English speaking guests to sit us with on late!

We did have even later sittings on Splendour in Brazil, second seating was at 10.

[FionaMG]

5 minutes ago, kernow said:

We always ask for a large table in late seating. When we got onboard they asked if we wanted to change to early as they could not find enough English speaking guests to sit us with on late!

We did have even later sittings on Splendour in Brazil, second seating was at 10.

They sat our group of 2 couples with 2 Spanish couples, which was fine as Portuguese and Spanish are very mutually intelligible. However a lot of the conversation revolved around football! 

10 is really late! We did the transatlantic from Lisbon to São Paulo on Splendour in 2007 and late seating on that was at 9.

[steamboats]

53 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

 

 

Sounds positive but where has this been stated? 

 

Here's an English source covering Barcelona, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.euroweeklynews.com/2021/04/10/cruise-lines-association-in-talks-to-reopen-malaga-and-barcelona-ports/amp/

 

I also have a Spanish source talking about Barcelona and a date. 

 

https://www.diarioelcanal.com/barcelona-reanudara-los-cruceros-en-junio-con-un-modelo-de-menor-impacto-para-la-ciudad/

 

steamboats

 

 

[FamilyCruiserUK]

3 hours ago, steamboats said:

 

Here's an English source covering Barcelona, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.euroweeklynews.com/2021/04/10/cruise-lines-association-in-talks-to-reopen-malaga-and-barcelona-ports/amp/

 

I also have a Spanish source talking about Barcelona and a date. 

 

https://www.diarioelcanal.com/barcelona-reanudara-los-cruceros-en-junio-con-un-modelo-de-menor-impacto-para-la-ciudad/

 

steamboats

 

 

 

Thanks for that. Have had a read through it and sadly unless i completely missed it just says in talks for summer and not just spanish ports.  Hopefully will be open though so fingers crossed

[bigeck]

I prefer Malaga to Barcelona.

First cruise was on Adventure and 2nd was Adventures last Ta to San Juan in 2012

I think I met @kernowon that one.

[xpcdoojk]

17 minutes ago, bigeck said:

I prefer Malaga to Barcelona.

First cruise was on Adventure and 2nd was Adventures last Ta to San Juan in 2012

I think I met @kernowon that one.

Feels safer walking the streets there, too.

[bigeck]

20 minutes ago, xpcdoojk said:

Feels safer walking the streets there, too.

Don't need to walk about with your hands in your pockets.

Barca is far too busy for my liking. Next time I cruise from Barca, I'm staying in Sitges

[Bobal]

17 minutes ago, bigeck said:

Don't need to walk about with your hands in your pockets.

Barca is far too busy for my liking. Next time I cruise from Barca, I'm staying in Sitges

Barca is the name used for FC Barcelona,  not for the city of Barcelona- just for info 😉

[bigeck]

3 minutes ago, Bobal said:

Barca is the name used for FC Barcelona,  not for the city of Barcelona- just for info 😉

I do know that. Sorry for missing out 2 lona;s

[steamboats]

8 hours ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

 

Thanks for that. Have had a read through it and sadly unless i completely missed it just says in talks for summer and not just spanish ports.  Hopefully will be open though so fingers crossed

 

The Spanish source is just about Barcelona and talks about 2 cruise lines and cruises with Spanish ports only or cruises to nowhere. And the mention late June ("semana de san juan - which is June 24th).

 

steamboats