I had always wanted to visit the Azores for as long as I can remember so it was very exciting to wake up on this morning knowing that the day had finally arrived. I got woken up early at 6:45am when the thrusters on the ship came to life and when I walked out onto the verandah, I could see the lights of Ponta Delgada on the island of San Miguel in the darkness ahead of us. (more…)

One of the many benefits of sailing on a westbound Transatlantic cruise is gaining an extra hour of sleep most days during your trip which allows you to feel rested and relaxed throughout your entire sailing. This day at sea onboard the beautiful Disney Dream was no exception as I woke up just after 6:30am (a side effect of the many time changes is waking up early without the need for an alarm clock) after a good night’s sleep so I immediately got out of bed and walked up to Deck 11 to get us both a cup of tea to start the day. (more…)

After another good night’s sleep onboard the Disney Dream, I woke up just after 7:00am feeling great knowing that we had very little plans for our day at sea ahead. I absolutely love longer cruises with lots of sea days just like this (we have now done three long cruises of ten nights or more over the years) and it felt wonderful to know that we had a day of nothing but relaxation as my legs were still hurting after two days of walking around exploring both Vigo and Lisbon. Thankfully since we had left Lisbon the evening before, the seas had been calm as we sailed out into the Atlantic towards Ponta Delgada in the Azores. (more…)

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…)

My first Transatlantic cruise on the Disney Magic all the way back in 2015 remains to this day one of my favourite holidays that I have ever been on. Everything about it was perfect and I can honestly say that I have never been as happy and relaxed as what I was on that trip. So ever since then I have been craving that exact feeling once again but nothing has ever quite matched it. We both love longer cruises as they are so much better in every way than shorter ones and until you have experienced both, you have no idea of how good they actually are. (more…)

Last year when we stayed at the iconic Wigwam Motel in Holbrook whilst driving Route 66 through Arizona, we said we would also love to stay at the other location in San Bernardino but unfortunately for us on that trip, we simply did not have enough time to be able to fit both into our plans. We did however make a quick stop when we drove past the motel on the final day of our road trip on our way to Santa Monica and said that we would definitely come back and stay on a future trip to California. We made sure to keep that promise that we made to ourselves so whilst in Los Angeles for work this summer, we drove to San Bernardino for one night to finally stay there and sleep in a wigwam once again! (more…)

When I was planning my trip to the amazing city of Riga last month, I tried to do as much research as I possibly could including how we would be able to travel from Riga Airport to Riga city centre where our hotel was located in the heart of the Old Town. (more…)

Route 66 which is also known as the Mother Road and the Main Street of America stretches 2448 miles across eight states from Chicago in Illinois to Santa Monica in California and is the ultimate bucket list road trip for many people. It was something that we had been planning do for such a long time after several cancellations over the last few years and we finally drove Route 66 in September 2023 as part of a much bigger road trip all way from New York to Los Angeles and it was definitely worth the wait. (more…)