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.

After finishing our tea we decided to go up to Cabanas and bring our breakfast back to our stateroom to enjoy before having a shower and getting ready for the day ahead. Our all ashore time was not until 11:00am so it was a perfect excuse to have a lazy morning before getting off to ship to explore the Spanish city of Vigo – the biggest city in the region of Galicia – and a brand new port for us both that we were excited to visit.

One of the best things about Vigo is that the dock is right next to the city centre making it very easy to walk everywhere as everything is very close. As always we had planned our day exploring Vigo by ourselves which was really easy and simple to do as well as very inexpensive – apart from some shopping that we had to get, we did not spend anything else the entire day! It is also great to be able to walk around on your own schedule and spend as little or as much time as you want in each place without feeling rushed or in a huge crowd of people. Vigo is definitely a place where you do not need to pay for an expensive organised tour.

Just after 9:30am we started to approach Vigo itself and we slowly pulled in alongside the dock just before 10:00am. From our verandah we could look across the city towards Parque Monte do Castro – our first destination of the day located high above Vigo.

The Disney Dream was cleared to disembark by the local authorities at 10:40am which was twenty minutes ahead of our scheduled time. Our Cruise Director Anthony also let everyone know during his announcement that as well as our Key to the World cards, we would also need either our passport or a copy of our passport (however a photo of our passport would also suffice) to be able to go ashore in Vigo – this was the only port on this cruise that had this rule as we used our driving licences everywhere else.

Just after 10:45am we walked down to Deck 3 Midship to disembark the ship and walk out onto the gangway and into the bright Vigo sunshine. After exiting through the terminal building we walked out of the port area and past all of the fake handbags being sold everywhere to take some photos of the Disney Dream herself before we started our sightseeing – and it was only after we got home when I looked back though my photos that I saw that Chip and Dale were walking around outside on Deck 4 at this time.

Our mini walking tour of Vigo began with walking up through the beautiful, narrow and quiet streets of the Casco Vello otherwise known as Vigo’s Old Town. There were a few steeper sections but thankfully not too many but it was definitely a steady uphill climb all the way.

It took us ten minutes from leaving the exit of the port area to walk to our first stop of the day which was the Castelo de San Sebastián.

It was another five minutes from here to reach the entrance of Parque Monte do Castro which was located at the far end of Paseo De Granada where the Cruz dos Caídos (Cross of the Fallen) can also be found. The walk up through the park up to the Castelo do Castro is mainly steps but it was a very easy climb as they were not steep in the slightest. It is also possible to take a taxi up to the fortress itself however you will still have to walk a short distance to get to each of the viewpoints once there.

On the way up is the Monumento a los Galeones (Monument to the Galleons) which consists of three anchors that were recovered from some of the many ships that were sank in the Ria de Vigo during the Battle of Rande in 1702.

Fifteen minutes later we arrived at the Castelo do Castro after a very slow walk up as we were constantly stopping to take photos. The fortress was built in 1665 during the Portuguese Restoration War to help protect the city from attacks by the British Navy.

We quickly made our way over to the main viewpoint where we were greeted with an incredible view looking down over Vigo as well as the Disney Dream docked in the harbour and far too many photos were taken! Luck (and timing) was truly on our side as only a few minutes later a huge group of people turned up and all of a sudden, the area was very busy and crowded.

A little further around was another slightly higher viewpoint which offered sweeping views across the whole of Vigo including across to the other side of the Ria de Vigo as it was such a beautiful clear day. I was so happy that the weather turned out as perfect as it did with blue skies and sunshine especially given the weather we had experienced on the previous two days – I would much rather that than if we had had calm seas on the first day onboard followed by a rainy day in Vigo.

After leaving the fortress, we walked down the hill towards Avenida Gran Via which is one of the main streets through the city where you can find a series of rainbow-coloured covered moving walkways known as “Vigo Vertical” which run from one end of the street to the other which helps connect different neighbourhoods of the city as well as helping with accessibility.

Our next stop was the Vialia Estación de Vigo shopping centre (where the Vigo Urzáiz railway station and Vigo bus station are also located) to visit the Alcampo hypermarket to buy some bottles of wine for our stateroom – each adult can carry two bottles of wine onboard at embarkation as well as at each port – to enjoy during the rest of our cruise as we did not bring any on with us in Southampton when we boarded along with a few other supplies that we needed to get ready for the next ten days onboard.

As we now had a few heavy shopping bags with us which we wanted to get rid of as soon as possible, we walked straight back to the port which was clearly signposted everywhere (just look for the signs saying “Estación Marítima”) and which took just over twenty minutes.

After going through security in the terminal building, we reboarded the Disney Dream at 1:30pm and headed straight up to our stateroom to drop our shopping bags off. We then walked up to Deck 11 to get a much needed and quick cold drink as well as some tacos from Ramone’s Cantina for lunch as sometimes when we explore different places, we often forget to eat and end up getting hangry which we did not want to do today especially as we still had more of Vigo to see that afternoon – and the tacos were amazing as always!

At 2:15pm we left the ship for the second time that day to finish off our sightseeing around Vigo as we no longer had any heavy shopping bags with us. The first thing we noticed when we looked back at the Disney Dream (which neither of us had spotted whilst we were actually eating lunch at the Quiet Cove) is that they were painting the forward funnel which was now shining such an intense shade of bright red in the sunshine.

Our first stop was the Monumento a Jules Verne who is sitting on the tentacles of a giant squid and the statue is located just along the waterfront from the cruise terminal in front of the Real Club Nautico de Vigo. Jules Verne dedicated a chapter of his book 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to “Vigo Bay” and he even visited the city after writing the novel.

We also spent a few minutes walking through the neighbouring Xardíns das Avenidas and looking at the different sculptures there before walking one block to the Alameda da Praza de Compostela where they were setting up ready for the upcoming Christmas market.

We then took some time to explore a very quiet Old Town (as it was afternoon siesta time) as we had only seen it quickly in passing a few hours beforehand. We passed the Concatedral de Santa María which was built in 1811, saw Captain Jack Sparrow looking down at us from a nearby balcony, stood in the middle of the Praza da Constitución where the old Town Hall is located, took a slow stroll along Rúa Real to the Praza do Berbés before finally crossing the skywalk from the Praza Igrexa through the Centro Comercial A Laxe to the cruise terminal.

Just after 3:30pm we were back onboard the Disney Dream and our first stop once again was to get a cold drink along with an ice cream after our walk around the Old Town. We even bumped into Captain Zvonimir and chatted for a few minutes and thankfully he said he was not expecting any more bad weather for the rest of the cruise.

After a little sit down back in our stateroom to rest our feet for a few minutes, the next thing on our list to do was to meet the characters who were out in their Spanish costumes that day – well except for Mickey and Daisy who do not currently have their own Spanish outfits to wear.

There was only a small line to meet Flamenco Minnie on the Deck 4 balcony at 4:30pm and without even trying we were first in line to meet Chip and Dale at Preludes at 5:00pm. We walked straight back to Deck 4 to meet Daisy with no wait before joining the line to meet the amazing Donald at 5:15pm in the hallway of the Lobby Atrium who wanted to see what other photos I had taken that day on my phone and loved it when he saw the ones of Daisy that I had taken only a few minutes beforehand. We then headed back to the balcony to meet Pluto at 5:30pm where he proudly showed off his Sagrada Familia collar before finally meeting Goofy in the best costume ever shortly afterwards.

I absolutely love meeting characters onboard especially when the lines were as short as they were on this day and this group of meet and greets was another of my favourite memories from our time onboard the Disney Dream.

After we had finished meeting the characters, we headed up to a very quiet Deck 11 for some much needed hot tub time to relax after walking all around Vigo followed by two great rides in a row on the Aquaduck which had no one waiting in line at all – as you could only ride in pairs for the majority of the cruise across the Atlantic due to high winds, we never ever saw it get busy.

We left the dock in Vigo just after 6:00pm (an hour after our all aboard time) and it was truly a beautiful sailaway as we left Spain on our way to Lisbon in Portugal where we were due to arrive early the following morning.

We spent the next hour or so just sitting on our verandah with a cup of tea just enjoying the views as well as a spectacular sunset.

Our dinner on the third night of the cruise was in Enchanted Garden which is my favourite main dining room on both the Disney Dream and the Disney Fantasy so I was overjoyed to find out that it had not been replaced by something else during dry dock – I like being able to have a quiet dinner in there as not every venue needs to have entertainment or a show whilst you are eating.

It also has some of my favourite menu items so to start my meal I ordered the Cream of Green Asparagus Soup with Crabmeat followed by a triple portion of the Ahi Tuna and Avocado Tower (which is normally an appetiser) for my main course before finishing the meal with the Lemon Raspberry Mousse Bombe. Once again everything tasted absolutely incredible and the flavours were truly insane and they were all the best versions I had ever had of each dish which once again shows the difference in the quality and freshness of ingredients on cruises departing from Europe.

The only character that we had not met that afternoon was Mickey so after we finished our amazing dinner, we walked up to the Lobby Atrium just before he was due out and was fourth in line to see him. The lines to meet characters were so short at the start of the cruise however they did get much longer throughout the sailing.

After meeting Mickey and as we were already on Deck 4, we walked a couple of laps before also deciding to walk around Decks 12 and 13 which was the perfect way to finish our day.

Even though it is only a short distance between Vigo and Lisbon, there is a time difference between them so before falling asleep that night, we remembered to turn our clocks back one hour ready for the next morning. It had been such a good day onboard the Disney Dream as well as in Vigo and we were ready to do it all over again the next day in Lisbon. Bring it on!

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