A Transatlantic makes 4!!

YES - this is another Disney cruise!!!

This year was Carls 30th. For mine we had the week at Disneyland Paris then did the Eastbound Panama Canal Cruise. For Carls we went to London just the 2 of us for his actual birthday but we wanted something special. We decided on the Transatlantic Disney Cruise in September.

13th September we drove to Gatwick where we had booked to stay and leave our car at a Copthorne hotel. That night we walked the short distance to the Dukes Head for dinner

14th September

Our flight wasn't until the afternoon so we had a nice long lie in before heading back to the same pub for lunch then we dropped the car back at the hotel and ordered an Uber - Barclaycard had an offer, if you load your card to your Uber account you can have your first ride up to £20 for free so guess what - this transfer was free!! We checked in with Norwegian and then as a first, but definitely not last, for us we checked into the lounge where we had food and unlimited drinks for a few hours.

Our plane was a little delayed taking off and I was a little worried as there were some rude and rowdy passengers but it all died down prior to take off. The flight was fairly straightforward. As we were arriving fairly late for the first night I booked us into a hotel local to the airport which offered free shuttle service. It took a while and we drove through an industrial area and stopped which made us all nervous. We arrived safe and sound and went straight to bed on check in.

15th September.

To get into the city I had decided to book with the same company I had used on our last trip to have a driver collect us from one hotel and drop us to the next. They were emailed all of the information in advance so should be simple right?? Should have just got a cab!! the driver spent the whole journey on the phone to his wife then he couldn't find the hotel. On arrival I gave him the exact money - absolutely no tip. We went into the hotel and he follows us in with his boss on the phone accusing me of short changing him!! What he hadn't realised is the money was folded over and it was all there.

That saga over we checked into our hotel - Novotel Barcelona City - which we had stayed at previously. I expect it is the only one we will choose in the future too.

We only had one real objective today - visit La Sagrada Familia as it was the one main thing we didn't achieve on our last trip and is probably the most beautiful building I have visited

I took 100s of photos so there's just a few.

After this we had no real plans but unfortunately it was a little rainy so we decided to find somewhere for a drink and that pretty much continued for the afternoon/evening

a LITTLE tipsy ;-) we headed back to our hotel for a good nights sleep.

16th September

We had a slow start this morning. We walked over to the local shopping centre to pick up some beers to carry onboard then headed back so I could rearrange all of our bags so we only had 1 carry on with all our paperwork, swimming costumes and beers. We were then collected, by the same company we used the previous day but a much better driver who did get a tip and we were on our way.

So glad to be back onboard for our 3rd cruise on the Disney Magic and our 4th Disney cruise!!

I didn't make any notes for this trip and I didn't take as many photos as I did on the Panama Canal - I hadn't planned on writing a trip report and I really just wanted to relax.

17th September

A day at sea. I got up early this morning as I had booked myself on some meet and greets with the Princesses to get some autographs for my friends daughter. The only other thing I know we did was a mixology class - Sea days are for relaxing ya know.

We also left dinner a little early to watch us sail through the straight of Gibraltar - it was so Windy!!

18th September

Today we were visiting Cadiz. None of the excursions appealed to us so we decided we would just get of the ship and have a wander on our own. It was a nice little town and the thing we remember the most is the smell of the lime tree lined pavements. Everytime I have lime the smell takes me back to this trip.

Back to the ship Carl decided to get changed and go for a run whilst I had lunch and took some photos of the ship.

The rest of our day/evening was chilled.

19th September

Lisbon. I had done a fair amount of research on Lisbon and had planned a walking tour for us which had some stops in some local craft breweries. Unfortunately the info on their websites was inaccurate as none of them were open during the day. We still had a great day though and covered over 10 miles by foot! We would love to go back sometime.

20th September

Another relaxing day at sea, we went to a cooking show and had a mojito tasting and a Martini tasting - we learnt we are not martini people. That evening we checked out the kids club open house

At some point we gained lovely new table mates - a couple from Georgia.

21st September

Today we were in Ponta Delgada - Azores. This is an absolutely stunning place and I definitely want to come back for a week of exploration. We were booked on the "Best of West with Wine and Cheese tour" here's the blurb from the Disney website

Experience the local culture of São Miguel and enjoy the area’s beautiful vistas and best cheeses.

On this adventure you will…

Board your motorcoach and embark on a 45-minute drive from Ponta Delgada towards the western part of São Miguel along the scenic countryside roads.Stop at Escalvado viewpoint to enjoy the view over Mosteiros, a typical village along the coast where the last volcanic eruption of the island occurred.Continue 15 minutes to the village of Sete Cidades on the lakeshore, surrounded by the thickly forested slopes of the Caldeira. Take a short stroll around this picturesque place, a real portrait of the rural way of life on the island.Travel to the Santiago vantage point and stop to enjoy the view over the emerald-colored lake.Continue nature’s showcase with one of the most emblematic viewpoints on the island, Vista do Rei, and enjoy sweeping views—from the crater to the lake as well as the village.Head over to Pico do Carvão vantage point. Here, you’ll be able to see both north and south sides of the island as well as a pair of volcanic peaks in between.Return back to Ponta Delgada and enjoy a selection of some of the region’s best wines and cheeses.Conclude your tour with a short walk back to their pier.

We were very pleased with the excursion- we got to see a lot of the island, explore an abandoned hotel and enjoy some delicious local cheeses and wine. We opted to buy 2 bottles of wine to take back onboard with us, we should have bought the full allowance of 4.

Back on the ship we decided to have some pool time and ride the aquadunk (a water slide that goes out over the side of the ship).

It was then we learnt some bad news - due to hurricane Maria it was going to be too windy to make it to our stop in St John Canada so we would now be going straight onto New York. We were a bit sad about this as we had been looking forward to it but safety first. Instead we were going to arrive in New York a day early and have the ship as our floating hotel where we could come and go as we pleased. So we decided to buy some drinks of the day and settle in for our chilled sea days

That evening we enjoyed a meal in Palo

22nd - 26th September

4 glorious days at sea! We relaxed, we did a chocolate/wine tasting and another mixology some trivia, had a Pirate night and just enjoyed ourselves.

26th September

A day earlier than the original itinerary we got up very early this morning to witness something i had wanted to do from a very young age - sail into New York! Sadly the weather was not onside for great photos but we enjoyed watching it. We also had a lot of dolphin sightings but unfortunately the greyness made it impossible to catch them on camera

We had to go through immigration today so we were all being called by floor to go down and go through to avoid everyone trying to go in at once. Whilst we waited we read a little and got ourselves ready for the day.

This was an unexpected extra day in New York and we didn't really know what to do with ourselves and didn't have any internet connection to look for things so we decided our first stop would be to walk to our hotel to see if it would be manageable the following day with our cases. En route we stopped at Starbucks for an iced latte (mine was pumpkin spice) and a wifi connection

With no real plans we decided to just walk around from our hotel We first came to the Empire state building and went for a drink in the Heartland Brewery bar in the basement. We decided against seeing anything we had already planned for later in the trip so found coopers brewery for happy hour before returning to the ship for dinner and to see the staff show.

We had a fantastic cruise. It was a disappointment we didn't make it into Canada but we got plenty of rest and relaxation. Unfortunately I did start coming down with a cold toward the end.

27th September

We went for breakfast with our lovely table mates then headed out to collect our luggage from there we walked the almost 2 miles to our hotel for the last portion of our trip. We were too early to check in but we were able to leave our luggage and head out to explore. For our stay as it was late Sept I was expecting cool fall weather. What we actually had was high 20s - mid 30s. I was grateful the trip had started with Barcelona and the cruise otherwise it was unlikely we would have had any summer clothes!

We walked down to Times Square followed by Central park.

We then headed back to Times Sq for some air conditioning and lunch at Bubba Gump

We then headed back to the hotel and checked into our room. We chilled out for a little and freshened up a little before heading out for our evening of entertainment.

I wasn't feeling great and we left after the 8th inning to catch the subway back and get some sleep

28th September

This morning we had an early start as we had somewhere to be but first of all we headed to a highly recommended place for breakfast

This was delicious and I highly recommend anyone travelling to New York to get some banana pudding from Magnolia bakery.

We ate this then headed out and up

We then went out for a very long walk

For lunch we found Earl of Sandwich. Fed we headed toward Central Park where we decided to hire a rowing boat for an hour

then we walked around the park for a while

We had decided we needed to get in out of the sun and have a drink of some description. there was a museum nearby so figured they must have a cafe they could use - Unfortunately, it seemed to us at least, you had to pay to go in to everything including the cafe. Because of this we went back to the guidebook and Carl found a bar he wanted to check out so we walked there instead and we were glad we did. It was happy hour!

We had a few drinks in here before slowly making our way back and grabbing a slice of Pizza en route.

That evening we went out for a stroll around - I do love a lit up city at night. We had also seen a temporary street food place where we picked up some dinner before stopping for a drink at a local hotel

We covered a lot of ground this day, we didn't do half this many steps when we had climbed Mount Snowdon that summer!

29th September

This morning we were up early again, this time to catch the subway to Battery Park to get on the first Liberty ferry of the day Our first stop was Liberty Island where we went up the statue and roamed the museum

Our next stop was Ellis Island

We then headed back to land and walked a little way to find somewhere for lunch before our next objective

We went to the 9/11 tribute centre and had a tour and walk with one of the volunteers who had worked in the twin towers and was part of the clean up effort.

This was very poignant and I would recommend everyone do this tour. My regret here is we did not go in the museum.

We then went for brunch (served until 6pm weekends) at Randolph beer where you pay a set price for a main and unlimited beer

We then walked through little Italy and China town to the Brooklyn bridge for one of the highlights

Another late night long day and miles of walking we called it a night.

30th September

We started with breakfast in our hotel at the Tick Tock diner

We then checked out and left our luggage at the hotel to head out for another long walk. This time we headed to the Highline

We then decided to walk along the river toward our lunch destination

our sandwiches were delicious! We then caught the subway back to the hotel and found somewhere to have a drink before collecting our luggage and waiting for our shuttle to JFK

We flew overnight with Norwegian back to Gatwick arriving back on 1st October.