Getting to Lisbon from Kansas City was a lengthy trip. We cashed in Alaska Airlines frequent flyer miles to fly Business Class on British Airways. Since Alaska doesn’t fly to Kansas City, we had to purchase American Airlines tickets to Chicago. Luckily we did this before American started charging for the first or second bag. While British Airways Business Class requires 120,000 miles, we find it is a fabulous way to fly to Europe with the flat sleeper beds and the terrific spa and showers in London. We heard many horror stories of lost bags in the new terminal at Heathrow, but ours made it to Lisbon without incident.
Arriving in Lisbon about 7 pm, we took a taxi to the Marriott hotel (less than 15 minutes and 15 Euros). A great use of Marriott points, our room on the 17th floor was spacious and had a great view. In the executive lounge we discovered wines from the Douro region of Portugal, enjoying both white and red.
Friday morning we took the subway a couple of stops to reach the nearby El Corte Ingles, a Spanish de partment store. We always enjoy these stores, especially the Super Mercado (a grocery and wine store on the lowest level) which always seems to include a huge wine shop with a terrific selection. The clerk was very helpful in helping us pick out a selection of wines from Douro. Well stocked with wine and a few other items, we took a cab back to the hotel and then headed to the ship. The Marriott is about an 18-20 Euro cab ride from the pier.
Embarkation was crowded but surprisingly the line move quickly. Although it was all the same line, the fact that we had completed online check-in seemed to speed things along once we reached the customer service agent.
“As You Wish Dining” was premiering in the dining room tonight. This was our assignment, but we were able to change to a late seating assigned dining table. Lots of guests seem to want to eat early; we prefer late so that probably helped our switch.
Initially this dining change seemed to overwhelm the dining room, but it seems to be flowing much better by the second and third nights of the cruise.