Coming to America

At the beginning of November, Julie, our friend Sharon and I boarded the Brilliance of the Seas in Barcelona, Spain. We were beginning our first TransAtlantic cruise which we called our ‘Coming to America‘.

I really wanted to start this out with ‘It was a dark and stormy night’, but Barcelona was actually warm and sunny as we boarded the ship. Being relative cruise novices, we decided that the first thing we needed to do was explore the ship.

We found Royal Caribbean’s ships more asymmetrically, at least when compared to our only other cruise experience with Holland America. The ‘Centrum’ is a large open space that rises from Deck 4 up to Deck 11. Balconies surround it and it serves as one of the entertainment hubs on the ship.

The ‘Centrum’ elevators are all on the port (left) side of the ship while the lounges, bars, and service counters are on the starboard side. (Plus some nice suites on higher decks). We tried to appear as seasoned veterans as we explored the open areas on Decks 11, 12 and 13, and I think we did a pretty good job. Hey, they let us remain on board!

Cruise Concern #1 – Boredom

As we were planning this trip we got plenty of questions and feedback. While we heard many questions, questions about keeping busy and avoiding boredom were the top issues. “Sixteen days across the ocean, what are you going to do?” or “How are you going to keep busy?”

To be honest, I wondered that a bit myself. However, most of the trip was not at sea. After Barcelona, we stopped in Cartagena, Malaga and Seville, Spain. We also spent a couple of days in Lisbon, Portugal and then in the Azores, our last stop before heading out for America.

The excursions in each city really focus on giving you an overview or focusing on some particular interesting aspect of the city or region. Since you’re only in a port for a day, two at most, there is little opportunity of an immersed experience. Cartagena is a good example.

After spending a day in Cartagena, I knew we wanted to figure out if we might want to spend part of our winters there! The city is clean and attractive. Warm and sunny most of the year, Cartagena and the surrounding area is beautiful, and hosts a significant expat community. We plan more research once we get back home, but we’d love to hear from anyone that’s stayed there.

We didn’t actually get to Seville. We docked in Cadiz, and the excursions we chose took us to the white villages. This was a great stop because it introduced us to the region and gave us a good sense of what it’s like. I’d say the same for Lisbon, Portugal. We spent enough time exploring the city in a Tuk-Tuk to see and enjoy the old-world charm. Both Seville and Lisbon are on our list of places we want to return to and spend more time.

That’s one of the great things we’ve found with taking a cruise. We visit and see interesting places, getting a good enough overview that we can decide if spending more time in the region should be part of our future plans. The Azores is a place that we’re glad to have visited, but other than stopping on a cruise again, I’m not sure we’d make it a destination. The islands are beautiful and offer some interesting natural beauty, but they’re definitely remote. I can’t see us spending a week exploring the islands. But that’s just us. For others, the Azores might be right up their alley!

The last six days were in open ocean, but there was plenty to do on the ship. The entertainment was fantastic. Magicians, comedians, dancers and two outstanding entertainers we’d surprisingly not heard of before. Mary-Jess is a incredibly talented singer from Great Britain best known as the ‘voice of Downton Abbey’ she sings the intro. Another surprise was Jimmy Hopper, a Las Vegas entertainer who can belt out opera as easily as rock and roll.

Our days were full with dance classes (Julie and Sharon, not me I don’t need no stinkin` dancing class), movies, more entertainment, seminars and more. There was no point where we were looking for things to do; it was more about de-conflicting schedules.

To sum things up, Portugal and Seville are on our list to explore in more detail. Cartagena is under investigation. We’re taking another trans-Atlantic cruise ‘back to Europe’ in the spring. Now, on to the second concern.

Cruise Concern #2 Sea Sickness

In conversations before the cruise, typical first questions were about sea sickness. ‘What about sea-sickness?’ ‘Do you get sea-sick?’
Now that we’re back, the first question is normally ‘did you get sea-sick?’ Well, the answer is one of us had one bad evening but there was a sinus infection contributing to the big picture.

Julie and Sharon both wore ‘sea-bands’ and really had no issues. You could feel the motion of the ship, but there was nothing uncomfortable about it. The one ‘bad’ evening was after leaving Lisbon, Portugal. Heading south, the seas were a bit rough when we were west of the Gibraltar Strait. Crossing the Atlantic was pretty comfortable, even when there were some heavier seas.

Maybe we were lucky, or maybe the sea-bands were all that we needed to ward off the effects of the sea. (For clarification, I didn’t rely on sea-bands as that would have been unmanly) If you’ve been on a cruise before, you know about the delicious food. We didn’t have to skimp because of sea-sickness. I sure had my share of prime rib and sirloin as we made our way to America!