We did this cruise last summer but our ports were slightly differnt. I had posted a full trip report in one of the FB groups so copying and pasting for you but just putting the ports that are the same. We had a great cruise, let me know if you have questions.
7/15-22/23 Western Europe Report
A little background on us. We're a famiy of 4 with two teens who are 13 & 15. This was our 10th
DCL cruise, 2nd in Europe (we did northern Europe in 2019) and 1st time on the Dream. We flew into Paris and spent a few days in central Paris, a few days at DLP and then went to Lyon for a few days before heading to Barcelona.
We arrived in Barcelona on 7/11 by train. We did have a bit of a hiccup as our 2nd train had mechancial issues and we had to get off a few stops prior to Barcelona and wait on a new train. This caused us to be almost 3 hours delayed getting to Barcelona. We will be receiving a partial refund from SNCF as a result though. We were very quickly and easily able to get a taxi from the Barcelona Sants train station to our hotel.
We had originally booked a family room at the Marriott Renaissance but ended up switching to Eric Vokel Gran Via Suites after reading a review on it and I can say I was very happy with our decision and we'd happily stay there again. We booked a 2 bedroom suite. It was perfect for our family. The kids room had two twin beds. The suite also had a full kitchen (we didn't use this beyond the fridge and toasting bread) and a washer/dryer which given the laundry situation onboard, I'm very grateful for. It also included a breakfast box each morning which you could pick up from the front desk between 9-11 am each day. We picked it up all but one day (we had an 8 am tour that day). It included milk, juice and then assorted continential breakfast items that varied by day (bread, cereal, muffins, etc along with butter, jam, cream cheese). We really enjoyed the location and were easily able to walk just about everywhere. They do have 2 other locations as well and I believe they all have a 3 night minimum. The only downside was our location only had 1 bathroom in the 2 bedroom (the Sagrada Familia location had 2). They also don't do daily housekeeping (fine with us but wanted to post for anyone who likes having that) but you could go down to the front desk to replenish anything you needed. The AC was amazing (after the lackluster European AC in France, this was very welcome) and everything was very comfortable and spacious. The internet was also great (I have alwayson VPN on my work laptop and this was an issue with wifi throughout our trip but no issues at Eric Vokel).
We had orinially planned to go to Montjuïc on our arrival day as we were supposed to arrive early afternoon. With the train delay, it was after 5 by the time we got to our hotel and checked in. Given that we booked another cruise out of Barcelona for next summer we decided to save Montjuïc for then. Instead we started laundry, settled into the hotel and my husband and I took care of a few things we both needed to do for work. We walked to a restaurant that was recommended by our tour guide, Mortiz. It was previously a beer facotry that was renovated to be a restauarant. They had a great selection of tapas and also did beer flights, which my husband enjoyed. My very picky child got a plain cheeseburger and the rest of us ordered a variety of tapas to share. Everything was very good. We walked around for a bit before walking back to our hotel and calling it a night.
The next 2 days we booked full day tours with SigaMiga. Kimberly is an American who's been living in Barcelona for well over a decade. Prior to our trip, we set up a time to have a phone call. Kimberly spent over an hour on the phone with me asking questions about our family, our interests, what we wanted to see, etc. We decided to spend one our our days exploring the various neighborhoods in Old Town and then our second day was devoted to Gaudi. She sent detailed iteneraries to us prior to the trip including map pins of the meeting locations. She also helped us plan Montjuïc and sent restaurant recommendations to include descriptions of popular tapas in Barcelona and tips as well. She sent reminders on when to purchase our tickets for Park Güell & Sagrada Familia and was available to help walk us through the purchase if needed. She planned the restaurants during our two days as well and we had some great meals with her. Kimberly was fanstatic and made sure to include fun stops for the kids (churros and chocolate, the "freaky mall" which had a rubics cube store as my son is obsessed with rubics cubes, feeding the parakeets, etc) which helped keep their interest. We had a great 2 days with Kimberly and booked her again for our trip next summer. Her knowledge or Barcelona and Catalonia was amazing.
Our final full day in Barcelona, we booked a private tour with Barcelona Day Tours. We did Montserrat and a cava tour. Our guide was once again fantastic providing great history as well as recommendations for what to see and we really enjoyed both the monestary as well as the cava tour. The cava tour was a group tour and we were joined by a multigenerational family who was sailing on Celebrity Edge the next day. They had 2 teens with them as well which was nice. My only negative was that when we had originally booked, the monestary didn't have a cost to it, only seeing the black Madonna and the choir. However, that changed between when we booked and went. Andrew had posted in this group which is how I knew. BDT never reached out to let us know. I ended up reaching out to them a few weeks prior to ask if we needed to purchase tickets and they said we did and they could do it for us or we could purchase our own. The rest of the communication was great. We really enjoyed Montserrat and I'd recommend a visit. We ended the evening meeting up with a friend we had met on our last European cruise who lived in Barcelona. We met her at Arenas, which was a bull fighting ring that had been updated into a shopping mall. It had great views of the city and we had dinner there.
Prior to our trip, we had gone back and forth if we wanted to do anything in Barcelona on embarkation morning or not and decided to play it by ear. Given that we'd be back in Barcelona next summer and that we'd now been traveling for over 2 weeks, we decided to have a lazy morning and sleep in and then just head to the ship. We had asked the hotel for assistance with booking a taxi when we checked in and they were happy to do so. Checkout was at 11, so we scheduled the taxi for then.
Lisbon, Portugal: we booked two private half day tours with Lisbon Tour Guides to make a full day tour. We did their Old Quarters tour in the morning and Belém in the afternoon. This was a great day and our guide was fabulous, we had Luisa and I would highly recommend both her and Lisbon Tour Guides. I had some overtired kids this day and they weren’t in the best moods to start the tour. Luisa was understanding and did a great job getting their interest and they both ended up enjoying the tour. We enjoyed learning the history of Lisbon, trying custard tarts (so delicious), exploring the various transportation methods and enjoying the views. Lisbon Tour Guides was great with communication leading up to the cruise, very responsive and helped us make it a very smooth and enjoyable day for an amazing price. This was a great value and I highly recommend. The one thing that did catch me off guard was all the begging, especially in the Old Quarters. Even sitting at a table eating, they would come up to you asking for money or food. Thankfully my kids knew what to do and handled it well.
Vigo, Spain: I had my heart set on going to Santiago de Compostela here. Unfortunately, with our short port time, the private companies I reached out to told me we didn’t have enough time. DCL offered a half day guided tour with a light lunch as well as an on your own option where they just provided transportation. We went back and forth and decided on the guided option (VG03). We met in the theatre on the ship at 9:30 and it was around 10:00 when we got on the bus. They gave everyone a water bottle and handed out listening devices and ear buds. The bus ride was a little over an hour. Once there we stopped at the rest rooms (make sure you bring your own toilet paper if you choose this excursion) and then headed to the one of the squares facing the first façade of the cathedral. Per the tour description on DCL’s site, this was supposed to be a 90 minute guided visit. It was about 11:30/11:40 when the guide started and we headed to the hotel where we were supposed to have the light lunch for 12:15. So maybe ½ of what it was supposed to be. There was also an issue with several people’s listening devices not working. There weren’t any extras so those who weren’t working had to try to stay next to the guide to hear. Keep in mind these are busy squares with excited pilgrims who are reaching the last stop on their pilgrimage so it’s a loud and excited atmosphere (very neat to see). Both my husband and son’s stopped working so they were only able to hear about 10-15 minutes of the tour. The light lunch was more like hors d’oeuvres in my opinion. There was ham, 2 types of cheese, tuna empanadas, a fried cheese and soup served in something similar to the size of a shot glass. They also had rose wine, water, lemonade, a juice and coke. We then had about an hour and a half of free time to walk around on our own and see the inside of the cathedral if we wanted. Per the description on DCL’s site, it should have been an hour of free time with the lunch at the end. I’m really torn on this one. I’m so glad we went and got to see it but feel like paying the extra for the guided tour and the lunch was almost a waste for us. I wish we had chosen the on our own option. We did let guest services know about the issue with the listening devices once back onboard and they gave us a 25% credit for both my son and husband.
Debarkation/Southampton/London:
We opted to do express walk off as we had requested our car service to pick us up at 9:00 AM and since we had late dining, we didn’t want to wait around for them to call our character to disembark. We went up to breakfast at cabanas around 7:30, had breakfast and then headed back to our room to grab our luggage. By the time we had finished breakfast, the ship had already been cleared and we were allowed to disembark.
UK customs were onboard the ship and saw everyone on the sea days. As a result, we were able to walk right off the ship on debarkation morning. We ended up getting off the ship about 8:10 AM. We had booked with Eddie Manning to pick us up and take us to Stonehenge and Windsor Castle before dropping us off at our London Hotel. Our driver, Rui, messaged me on WhatsApp at 8:15 to let me know he was already there. We headed outside to meet him and were very quickly on our way to Stonehenge. It took us about an hour to get to Stonehenge, so we were early for our 10:00 time but Rui assured us that they’d let us in early. He also recommended going straight to the bus to head down to the stones and doing the museum portion after which was excellent advice as we were on the first bus, and we got to enjoy the stones for quite awhile before it got too busy. Rui also had an umbrella for us which was nice since it was cold and rainy. He told us to take our time and then just message him when we were ready, and he’d pick us up right at the front.
We got back in the car and headed for Windsor Castle. At the advice of the car service, we had booked these tickets for 1 PM which was perfect. The lines here were quite long though, even with the prebooking. We toured the castle and had lunch there. We spent a few hours here as well before messaging Rui and he picked us up right where he dropped us off. We then headed to London where he dropped us off at our hotel.
We stayed at the Premier Inn London County Hall. We’ve stayed at several Premier Inns in the past and like their family rooms. They’re no frills but clean and comfortable and have family rooms that sleep four with separate beds for the kids. Kids, including teens, also get free breakfast with an adult. We hadn’t stayed at this location before but really liked it. We ended up walking everywhere which was nice.
After checking into the hotel and bringing our luggage to our room, we headed out to dinner and then to St Martin’s Theatre to see Agatha Christie’s The MouseTrap. We all enjoyed the show and afterwards we walked back to our hotel.
The next morning, we enjoyed breakfast at our hotel before heading to the British Museum. My husband and son love it here and could spend days. The museum is free, but it did require a reservation. We had made a reservation for Sky Garden (this is also free but requires a reservation) but they weren’t ready to leave the museum, so I cancelled those tickets. We went from the museum to Vaudeville Theatre where we saw Six, which was excellent. After the show we went to the
Lego Store for my son and then to Trafalgar’s square as my daughter loves the lions. We hung out there for a bit before walking to Old Shades pub for dinner. The service here was excellent and our waiter did magic tricks and entertained the kids. After dinner we walked around for a bit before heading back to the hotel to pack up.
The next morning, we got up and again had breakfast at the hotel. We booked Eddie Manning for car service to take us to Heathrow. Our driver was right on time at 8:30 and got us to Heathrow in about an hour with morning rush hour which was great. We were flying Virgin Atlantic back and had a direct flight that was departing at 12:30. I had requested assistance at Heathrow for my son (he’s autistic) and VA was fantastic. The girl who did our check in, called over another employee, Andrew, who took us via private elevator to very short security lines and expedited us through. He also called ahead to find out what gate we would be at so we could go straight there to have a quiet place to wait. We had a very pleasant flight home with VA and I much preferred it to our Delta flight to Paris.
