Portugal and France river cruises, flying out Aug. 31 2021

[notamermaid]

So all went smoothly. Great!

 

Still just the announcement in the news about an announcement coming this week from the EU. In the end each country decides for itself but one can expect them to follow the EU recommendation.

 

notamermaid

 

[terry&mike]

Looks like the announcement is coming out now from the EU. Recommended closing borders to US (and a few other countries), but left some wiggle room for countries to make decisions on vaccinated travelers.  As we are vaccinated, we are going forward with our plans until we are notified differently, and will take it day by day. 

The guidance from the bloc is a recommendation and any decision on who to let in, and what restrictions to impose, ultimately rests with the governments of each member state. Countries can also choose to accept proof of vaccination to waive travel restrictions. 

[terry&mike]

Just finished all my uploading of Negative PCR test results, and my different Passenger Locator and Entry forms for transiting through London Heathrow, and arriving in Lisbon, Portugal.  Took about 1.5 hours.  Was not able to complete check-in at end of all of that as one of the documents has to be verified in person at the airport when we arrive tomorrow.  One step at a time. 

[Daisi]

Wishing you the best of luck, really hoping to hear all is ok.

 

Safe flight.

[Lois R]

Hi Terry and Mike, wishing you a smooth sailing......and smooth everything else too!!!! Flights, tests, want everything to go well for you.  Sounds like a fabulous trip🙂

[need2travel1]

Have a great (safe) trip!  Please post a review when you return.

[ural guy]

T&M-  Good luck with your trip.  I 'think' that Portugal really wants tourist dollars so that leg hopefully holds up.  If your France leg cancels, you can scramble and find plenty to do in Portugal.  I was lucky enough to go twice in 2019 and fell in love with the place.  Guimaraes is about a 50 minute drive away from Porto, and would be nice for a few days.

 

Safe sailing.

[Lois R]

I have a cruise booked for Lisbon in October...not a river cruise but still a cruise😃...12 nights going to places I have yet to visit....Canary Islands and The Azores, Maderia, and I can't think of the other stops right now LOL.......hope we are able to sail too!!!

[terry&mike]

We are in Dulles, getting ready to board flight to London Heathrow. Had our Covid tests and UK passenger locator forms checked here. So far, we keep getting green lights and going forward. Fingers crossed. 

[Lois R]

6 minutes ago, terry&mike said:

We are in Dulles, getting ready to board flight to London Heathrow. Had our Covid tests and UK passenger locator forms checked here. So far, we keep getting green lights and going forward. Fingers crossed. 

🤞 fingers crossed for you!

[Host Jazzbeau]

1 hour ago, Lois R said:

I have a cruise booked for Lisbon in October...not a river cruise but still a cruise😃...12 nights going to places I have yet to visit....Canary Islands and The Azores, Maderia, and I can't think of the other stops right now LOL.......hope we are able to sail too!!!

 

This one? https://www.silversea.com/destinations/mediterranean-cruise/lisbon-to-lisbon-sl211008012.html

Wow, I love that itinerary!  I hope they repeat it in a future year when I'm available.

 

[Lois R]

14 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

 

This one? https://www.silversea.com/destinations/mediterranean-cruise/lisbon-to-lisbon-sl211008012.html

Wow, I love that itinerary!  I hope they repeat it in a future year when I'm available.

 

Yes, that is THE ONE!!!!😃  I have been booked for a long time....this is a replacement for one of my 2020 cancelled cruises.  All the stops are new for me so really excited!

[Wings55]

@terry&mike I look forward to hearing about your cruise in Portugal. That's probably our next outing once COVID calms down. Not sure we'll do Ama again but every says great things about the Duro. Enjoy your trip, it sounds terrific!

 

Paul

[Canal archive]

terry&mike enjoy I will be with you in spirit and remembering every moment.  

[terry&mike]

Sitting in a lounge in London Heathrow, awaiting our flight to Portugal. All has gone very smoothly so far. 

[Canal archive]

Welcome to the UK

[aldukenew]

On 8/21/2021 at 10:13 AM, terry&mike said:

As foreign travel is a bit of a wild card still, I will try to post my experiences as I go along on this journey, to provide some insight to others. 

To start, a bit about us - my husband and I will be traveling on this trip, and it is our first "big" international trip since Covid; we are 61 and 56. While we have traveled to both Cancun and to Cabo in the past year, all of our other trips have been in the U.S. during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, we were frequent travelers taking a trip every few months, and have been to more than 90 countries on all 7 continents.  We actually debarked the Diamond Princess in Tokyo on January 20, 2020 after a 2 week Southeast Asia cruise - the sailing just before the quarantined sailing. 

Our current plan for this trip has us flying out of the U.S. on August 31, transiting through London, and arriving in Lisbon, Portugal in the early evening of September 1.  We will spend 3 nights in Lisbon, and then head up to Porto where we will be board the AmaDouro for a 7 night river cruise.  We then plan to fly on to Bordeaux, France from Porto, and have a brief stay in an Airbnb and then board the Scenic Diamond for a 10 night Beautiful Bordeaux itinerary.  Afterwards, we will fly on to Paris for a night at an airport hotel, and then fly home to the U.S. Of course, this is if all goes to plan.....

These sailings are a combination of rebookings and reworkings of trips cancelled due to Covid.  We are using United miles for our flights, which I purchased as 2 one-way tickets - Sarasota to Lisbon in Premium Economy, and Paris to Tampa in Business, with an Easyjet flight from Porto to Bordeaux in the middle.  

We have been monitoring the different country requirements, and referencing United's Travel Ready Center, to make notes for entry requirements of testing and documents, and have a sheet of different dates and items needing completion.  We have a PCR test scheduled for the day before we fly out at a facility in Tampa that provides same day results; it is about an hour drive from our home and the cost is $179 per person.

We were supposed to be on this AmaDouro cruise, but rescheduled for next August. I will be following your posts.

[ncmom1]

How was the connection through London Heathrow?  Did it take a long time?

[terry&mike]

We made it to Lisbon! We are in our hotel room having a glass of port and our first pastel de nata! It was an amazingly uneventful trip, especially given we were prepared for quite a haste. Weather is great, people are out and about, we are about to go find dinner. 
As to transiting in Heathrow, we stayed airside so never went through passport control, so no long lines. We did have a security clearance when we landed into Terminal 2, and flew out of T2. We decided to go to a lounge in T3 we could access, so had a couple extra security clearances, but nothing more than 15 minutes or so at any point. 

We took Uber from Lisbon airport to hotel at 5:25p, 25 minutes, and 14 euros. Taxi quoted us 20 euros. 

[Lois R]

Hi Terry and Mike, so glad you had an "Uneventful" flight👍. I fly to Lisbon on Oct 6th so just over a month to go.😀........hope you have a wonderful time!

[notamermaid]

49 minutes ago, terry&mike said:

We made it to Lisbon!

Great to hear! Have a lovely cruise on the Douro.

 

notamermaid

 

[terry&mike]

Having a great time in Lisbon, so happy we went forward with the trip! Weather is beautiful, sunny and high 70s to low 80s.  Walked all over. Joined the Chill Out Lisbon free walking tour; tipped well as tour guides are struggling. Have enjoyed lots of delicious food and wonderful wines. 

[terry&mike]

A note on our hotel in Lisbon, Be Poet Baixa - it is perfectly located, center of everything, walkable to so many sites and neighborhoods, on a pedestrian street, and very quiet. The breakfast is awesome with pastries , fruit, meat and cheese, eggs cooked to order, juice, coffee. The room is modern and very clean. If you are a luxury seeker, this is not your spot, as it is not about that. We booked direct and paid 108 euros per night including breakfast. We would stay here again in a second. 

Edited September 3, 2021 by terry&mike
Copy change

[terry&mike]

We both received emails from France today saying they were overwhelmed with requests for the Pass Sanitaire and unable to process them; we had applied on August 18.  There were instructions on a new online registration process we could register for, so we did that, and each received a confirmation email saying our submission had been received. The email mentioned we could be tested at a local pharmacy and the results would be good for 10 days. We plan to travel from Portugal to France on September 11. 

[terry&mike]

We took the train from Lisboa Santa Apollonia train station to Vila Nova de Gaia, just under 3 hours. Then took an Uber to port, 3 euros, 7 minutes. 
Showed up at the ship at 11:25am. They were disinfecting, so we left luggage, went for a stroll, shopped the vendors along the River, and then did a port sampling at an outdoor cafe. Came back a bit after 1p, had a light lunch, until rooms ready at 3p. 
We are in 319, and find the room and bathroom nice. 
There are 34 passengers on this sailing; the usual occupancy of the AmaDouro is 102 passengers. 
we have safety drill at 6p, with welcome talk, dinner at 7p, scenic sailing at 9p. We overnight here.