Quickly on the heels of our Panama Canal cruise comes another cruise, on Oceania Sirena this time. We have sailed on Sirena before – a much smaller ship to navigate and some more exciting ports of call! We are trading our aft cabin on NCL for a forward-facing cabin on Oceania. Let’s hope the seas are kind! We decided to depart early for Lisbon and spend a couple days in Four Seasons luxury before boarding our ship. Note: I think I actually preferred the aft cabin over the forward cabin. The bow of the ship just kept getting in the way!

Laundry is done; suitcases are packed. And we’re off on another wonderful adventure sure to be filled with great memories!

Itinerary

Lisbon, Portugal (Ritz Four Seasons Lisbon)

The start of our journey with a few days of R&R & R (Roz & Roz Relaxation) being pampered. The hotel was located on one of Lisbon’s hilly areas, providing Karen with her first tough experience with navigating the wheelchair on hilly terrain. Who knew Lisbon was hilly like San Francisco? Our first 3 days were spent exploring Lisbon, by ourselves as well as with Greyline’s HoHo bus, with a cruise thrown in. We enjoyed our tour and time spent near the Belem Tower. We caught a quick bite and did a bit of shopping at the area market.

Lisbon, Portugal

Day 1 onboard – arriving at the port by Uber, we were directed to the check-in area and before we knew it we were boarding the ship. Unfortunately, our stateroom was not ready and was eventually delayed in being announced ready to occupy. So first, we checked out the lunch offerings. They still haven’t quite mastered serving appropriately heated food choices. Cold was no problem! We finally got the all-clear to gather our luggage and enter our stateroom. Time to unpack, such as it is, hang up clothes and take advantage of the complimentary pressing of the red dresses and bag of dirty laundry to be returned in 3 days. Eventually it was time to head out to dinner and sail away from Lisbon.

Mishaps Along the Way

• Day 1 – first misadventure with the drop-down seat on the bus, which whacked my right knee (good knee) into a painful situation that prevailed throughout the trip. Climbing up and down bus steps, in and out of the wheelchair to navigate curbs with no handicap access and being bounced around on the ship’s thresholds and gangways did not help any.
• Another misadventure that occurred on the ship was getting the 3 middle fingers of my right hand caught in a quick-closing door. Lucky for me only residual pain for a few hours but nothing broken or sprained!
• And yet another mishap on the ship – my left heel coming in contact with the rapidly closing rest room door, removing a fair chunk of my heel. Good thing I planned to wear my flip flops for the rest of the trip AND brought along a first aid kit! Guess I’m not moving fast enough since I keep getting caught in doors!
• Last mishap. was last night onboard – getting a stuck suitcase out from under the bed. It made contact with my big toe and now I have an ugly blood blister growing!
• No more misadventure’s please!

Portimao, Portugal

Day 2 – We took an excursion with the cruise line on a Panoramic Portimao tour. We visited the highest point in Portugal. The highlight of the trip was probably seeing an entire field of of storks sitting on their nests. The storks reside here year round. One of our stops was a quick visit to a market where these crocheted parasols were hanging from the ceiling over a huge crocheted pumpkin. I wasn’t doing so well with the bus motion, so did not get off at the last couple of stops. Karen did for photo opportunities. After returning to the ship, we had a disappointing dinner and service in the main dining room. Usually the Terrace Cafe has similar food, just a more casual atmosphere – even though they do put tablecloths on the tables for dinner service. Lots of motion on the ocean after leaving port. Yes, I’m still susceptible to motion sickness on bus, car or ocean ship. Thankful for the Bonine we bought before leaving home!

Seville, Spain

Day 3 & 4 – Two days in Seville (Sevilla). Where we did alot of rolling over cobblestone streets and walkways. Not a smooth ride by any stretch of the imagination. (Think Bobble-head!) We hopped on the City Shuttle (provided by Oceania when in port) and headed to the Lion’s Gate and Palace area.We enjoyed the Holy Day processionals and decorations, tapas and another beer is added to the Beers of World file for Karen. What an experience! Had a great day exploring around town seeing the sites. We ended the day with a hearty walk past the Plaza de Americas back to the ship where our favorite frozen cocktail rewarded our return.

Tangier, Morocco

Another HoHo, another lighthouse! We were warned prior to this port of call about safety and food and water consumption. We had decided to get off the ship anyway and if we ever felt uncomfortable we would turn back to the ship. We spent our entire time in port…in Tangier. Seeing the sites, enjoying the people. Adding yet another memory. And another continent to my list of visits. There was a bit of a scary race to the ladies room…down a steep hill, at Caves of Hercules. And as we know, what goes down must also come back up! Karen had her work cut out for her for sure! Note: Rest stops are few and far between so either hold it or don’t drink too much! Winds and the rough seas welcomed us to Morcoco. (Thank you Bonine for getting us through a gnarly nights crossing). Other than the take-your-breath-away wind, Tangier was quite interesting and photogenic. Headed through the Straight of Gibraltar back to Spain, (though, fun fact, Melilla is still on the African coast).

Melilla, Spain

Day 6 brought us into the port of Melilla which is a Spanish territory but located on the upper African coast. A quaint little town all dressed up for Easter and a parade along the main road. We wandered about for a bit before heading back to the ship.

Tonight was red dress-up night for our specialty restaurant reservation. We shared a table with 2 other couples. It made for interesting conversation. Too bad the ship’s steakhouse doesn’t know how to cook steak to order!

Ibiza, Spain

Day 7 – This day dawned with me not feeling like going off the ship. My whole body ached from getting jostled in the wheelchair for a week and quite frankly…I was done. So off went Karen for local exploring of the city and fort with a stop for a local beer at a sidewalk cafe. Karen takes great pictures so it’s like I’m there with her.

I don’t often ask for a sea day, but sure could have used one on this trip to just catch our breath!

Barcelona, Spain

Last day is a travel home day from Barcelona, which we visited a few years ago. The flight home was way too long for me. Add in a layover in Newark, NJ and a delay because the ground crew forgot to load 48 bags and we didn’t know until we had taxi’d quite a while and had to return to the gate. Two hours later, more gas in the tank and 48 people going home with their luggage, we were on our way. We are hoping to see a credit for this delay, but won’t hold our breath waiting for it!

Handicap Note:
Sirena is not a handicap accessible ship for ease of mobiility. While some crew are happy to assist, other’s ignore the need for aid and do not hold doors, etc. Some will pull out a chair for you, some will offer to carry your plate for you to your table. The gangways in the ports are not friendly. Keep in mind that a low gangway in the morning may be a steeper one when returning to the ship due to the tide. To the person assisting you, be aware that there are long walkways in the terminal and steep ramps at the beginnning and end of the gangway. If assistance is offered from a crew member to navigate the gangways, swallow your pride and let them help you! By the end of the cruise, you will thank me for the tip and you will. want to tip the crew member who assisted you every day!

So, we love Christmas but were very disappointed to not find one Christmas shop or any locally-made ornament for our travel tree in any of the ports we visited. Best to go with no expectations and be pleasantly surprised if you find what you want to add to your holiday travel ornament collection. We will be repurposing key chains, coasters and magnets from this trip.

Both Karen and myself have been involved in guest services for years. We know we expect the best and are often disappointed when we receive less than exceptional service. A couple scenarios come to mind:

• The on board Oceania Ambassador did not listen to us or was able to assist us with our upcoming trip. We booked direct with Oceania but she continued to tell us to contact our travel agent. Refused to look anything up or basically answer any questions, telling us to call the main office after the holidays when we get home. Ambassador? I think not. Just an onboard salesperson.
• Our cabin steward did not listen to us when we asked repeatedly to not move the trash can or adjust the bed (twice a day service) so we could enter the stateroom and store our collapsible wheelchair without hassle. Instead, Karen was forced to re-adjust the bed angle and put the trash can out of her way on an almost daily basis. Also insisted on putting way too many bottles of shampoo, conditioner and lotion on the tiny counter space. We would remove them to a lower storage area, only to have them reappear once again in our way. We understand they have service standards to meet, but when asked they should be more flexible in honoring a guest’s request. Especially when the stateroom is so small. This stateroom and cabin steward did not compare in the slightest to our recent NCL experince, hence our disappointment.
• The quality of the food and basic food service were also in question. Our steak at the specialty restaurant, Tuscan Steak, was not cooked properly. My filet mignon was overdone and nothing was done about it. Also my baked potato never received the toppings I ordered until it went cold. Our Eggs Benedict were often more hard boiled than runny as they are supposed to be. Sorry, just disappointed.

A special hello to new friends on the ship from Portland, Oregon, San Francisco, California, Los Angeles, California, Houston, Texas, Dallas, Texas, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. And, the nice couple sailing on the Holland America ship. If you are reading this, please leave a message! It was great interacting with each of you!

Karen aka Shutterbug took over 2300 memory pictures of our travels. It takes a while to go through them all, pick the favorites, crop when needed, upload them to share on the blog and try to make everything look pretty.

Interesting to note: During the entire time away, Karen and I only played UNO one night! That’s how busy and then exhausted we were!

Chapter 10 may be a while coming – travel can be exhausting, expecially when your health isn’t at its best. So, to know wnen the next chapter gets posted, join the email list at the beginning of the 20Steps cover page. You will receive the next post in your email automatically.

Chapter 10 Hint!
It will involve the number 50!