After falling asleep very quickly the evening before and as we had gained an hour overnight, I woke up just after 5:00am and the first thing I did was go out onto our verandah to get some fresh air and I could already see the lights of Lisbon off in the distance. As our stateroom was on the opposite side of the Disney Dream to what the city would be and once we got a little bit closer, we quickly got dressed and headed up to a chilly Deck 13 along with a handful of our fellow passengers with a hot drink in hand to watch as we sailed past the Belem Tower, the Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries) and then finally under the Ponte 25 de Abril bridge at 6:20am. (more…)

Waking up at 7:00am after a solid night’s sleep onboard the beautiful Disney Dream on our thirteen night Transatlantic cruise was simply one of the best feelings ever especially after the rough seas that we had experienced in the English Channel and across the Bay of Biscay since we left Southampton two days previously. It was still dark outside at this time so I walked up to a very quiet Deck 11 to get us both a cup of tea to begin our day before we sat on our verandah to watch a beautiful sunrise as we sailed along the Ria de Vigo estuary. (more…)

Before this cruise I always knew that we could expect rough seas whilst sailing across the Bay of Biscay towards Spain but I was never expecting it to be bad as it was in the English Channel on our first evening onboard due to the added effects of Storm Ashley. I barely slept at all due to the extreme pitching and rolling of the Disney Dream throughout the night which in turn was causing the ship to creak loudly making sleep nearly impossible. (more…)