Sea Dream I - Dover to Lisbon - Aug 30 - Sept 10, 2014

This cruise down the Atlantic coast of Europe is almost here. We have been looking forward to it for a long time. There are great port stops along the way. We are starting to pack and will fly to London on Wednesday. We will spend two nights in Canterbury and then board SDI in Dover on Saturday, Aug 30th. Sounds like the weather is cool and rainy in the northern portions of this cruise but hopefully things will brighten up by the time we get to southern France and Spain.

Vandrefalk is also on this cruise so hopefully between the two of us we can get in a few posts. Posts from SDI have been almost nonexistent recently, so we have no idea whether we will be able to post or not.

Hope to meet others who may be on this cruise. Someone posted earlier that they would be on this cruise. If you read this, how would we recognize you? This is always fun to see how people describe themselves!

Will report when possible!

Have a wonderful time, Whatnot and Vandrefalk. And have faith with the weather - in Norway we had a heat wave! My fingers are crossed for you.

Can't wait to hear of your adventures!

Miss you all!

whatnot and Vandrefalk ---> enjoy!!

Sorry we couldn't join you on this cruise but you both know we will be there in spirit! :D Please hoist a glass of champagne for us and say hi to the crew.

Will look forward to your reports, either during your cruise (let's see that internet work, SD1!) or once you get back. Safe travels!

This Tim (my wife is Rose).

This is our 15th SeaDream cruise.

People tell me I resemble George Hamilton.

See if you can pick me out in the 100 passenger "crowd"....ha ha

Bon Voyage SeaDreamers.:D

Thanks for starting this thread, Whatnot! Looking forward to seeing you on Sat ! We've been here a week and it is COLD -- at least to me! High 60s and rain the last two days. Doesn't look like it warms up til later in France.

Will look for George Hamilton!

CDreamer-- we will miss you and will toast you one, two or more times!

Til later

Vandrefalk

We're also on the August 30 cruise and looking forward to it. We leave tomorrow and spend a couple of nights in London. I know Tim and Rose and met Vanderfalk on the B2b Costa Rica cruise last year. It will be great to see all of you again and meet you whatnot. We'll be the Louisiana people hanging out at the TOY! See if you can find us from our accents.

Safe travels,

Cole

Whatnot,

I also have a private tour booked in San Sabastian and was told that we would anchor in town. The tour guide questioned me on it and I reconfirmed with Seadream that we would be at anchor and tender in. Did Seadream just tell you we would now dock?

Thanks

I have had all kinds of issues with this private tour in San Sebastian. I booked the tour and called SD to see where we docked. They told me we tendered into the yacht marina near the Old Town area. My tour guide also questioned this and thought we needed to be picked up at the Port of Pasajes, 15 minutes out of San Sebastian. A little over a week ago, I contacted Adrienne at SD again and told her about the issues I was having with the tour company. She reported back that we were confirmed for Pasajes but they were contacting the Harbour Master to see if they would allow us to anchor and tender in to the marina. As soon as they got a decision, they would let me know. After a week, I had heard nothing, so Monday I contacted her again. She said they thought they were going to be able to anchor and tender into the marina but they were still working with customs and immigration officials to get it all arranged. So, I am thinking that the marina is a possibility, but still not a done deal!

Our tour is with Tenedor Tours. Are you with the same company?

Whatnot

I booked with basquetours to do a wine tour in the San Sebastian countryside. On August 21 Lawrence told my travel agent we would be in San Sebastian at anchor if I understood the email she forwarded to me correctly. He said remember were a yacht not a large cruise ship. I guess we will have to find out when we get on.

I look forward to meeting you.

We look forward to meeting you too! Hopefully this issue will get sorted out. I will post here if I hear anything before we get on SD. I am doing this on my own not through travel agent, but I booked for 8 other people so I want it to go smoothly!

I will listen for the Louisiana accent! And also look for George Hamilton! We are southerners too. Besides traveling with Vandrefalk, we are also traveling with 4 Texans. I think you will find us easily!

And CDreamer we will definitely hoist a glass of champagne or two or three for you and also for Fpebbles! We will miss all of you. Must sail together again!

Must sail together again!

Betwen the Texans you're bringing and CDreamer and her relatives, we almost have a boat.

You in, Zimmy?

How funny! Guess we need to investigate the price for chartering the yacht!

Betwen the Texans you're bringing and CDreamer and her relatives, we almost have a boat.

 

You in, Zimmy?

You bet!

Betwen the Texans you're bringing and CDreamer and her relatives, we almost have a boat.

fpebbles, great idea - you might be on to something! ;)

Vandrefalk and whatnot, thanks for the up and coming on board toast(s)... Smooth sailing to you all - enjoy!

Have been following vandrefalk's travels in England on FB:p

Looking forward to hearing about this itinerary as it is one that I would love to talk DJ's DH into saililng.

Wishing you fair winds and following seas! Have a glass on champagne for me whatnot and vandrefalk:D

Well, some of us are in Canterbury -- some in London -- and we are in Dover -- and understand why the others are where they are! Have to say that Dover is one of the least interesting English cities we've seen -- just not much to it. We are in a nice hotel on the waterfront but, except fpr Dover Castle (which we saw on an earlier trip), I can understand why it is a transit stop.

Bus trip from London was interesting! Dis not know they would make so many stops in London -- needed my seasick pills! Had to wait forever for a cab at the Dover ferry port in a driving wind but eventually got to the hotel. Water looks a bit rough so we'll see what sail away is like. Will report as we can!

Vandrefalk

Thanks for checking in. Here's hoping that the weather gets better for you. Remember how ungodly hot it was in Costa Rica? It seems like now you're getting the opposite.

But I know that you will have a fabulous time whatever the weather. You will be on the ship, and you will have your friends. Enjoy!

Zimmy

We are in Canterbury at the lovely Abode Hotel. Had a little rain yesterday but not enough to stop us from enjoying this charming city. Canterbury Cathedral is stunning and well worth a visit. Lots of neat shops and other historical sites. We stayed here because I heard there was very little of interest in Dover. We are with 3 other couples and we are currently getting ready for our drivers to pick us up. We will be taking a 4 hour tour through the area before being dropped off at Sea Dream I at 2 pm. Really looking forward to this cruise. Vandrefalk, will see you in a few hours!

Waiting to board but can see capt eriksen and Miley!

Vandrefalk

Thanks for checking in vandrefalk and whatnot!!!

Hope you all have a magical trip. Stay well!

Finally able to report in! They've had to change my password three times to get anything to work!! So, internet sucks as usual :mad:

Otherwise, the ship looks lovely. Crew -- Capt. Eriksen, Hotman is Cristophe!!, Suddesh!, Silvio, Manuel, Francisco, Brian, Mikey, Mark, Rose, Brenda, Rutzie and others. Some new are Marko and a few I remember from last fall but don't yet have a good handle on their names.

Weather is cool if not cold! Apparently the last cruise was quite cold with most meals indoors. We had breakfast and lunch in the dining salon today while anchored off the island of Jersey.

The drydock changes are most apparent in the main salon. Gone are the browns and golds -- now silver, gray and blue. White marble tables and new black marble dance floor. The artwork stands out much better against this new color scheme. It's a bit of a shock to enter the room because it is so bright! I like most of it! In the cabins, there are new TVs and they took out the etched glass doors on the upper cabinets and replaced them with clear glass -- the doors now latch without that pesky little thing you had to push up into the wood. I haven't noticed any other particular changes from drydock.

Have about 100 on board -- 70 of which are repeaters. There is a large group of Norwegians (including Sven and Lisa), but haven't seen much of them. I think they will be pretty much doing their own thing -- which may impact the ship's tours. Only 4 of us had signed up for tours in Jersey -- so we opted to get a cab for a 2 hour tour. Very nice -- Jersey was occupied by the ****s in WW2 and there are very interesting war tunnels and hospital here. Island is quite clean -- the main business is finance (as in off shore) so most are pretty well off. Glad we had the chance to see it!

Off to St Malo and our tour to Mont St Michel tomorrow -- trying to talk Suddesh into a chef's tour when we aren't all off the boat for a tour! Tomorrow will be a long day, but definitely a bucket list one!

That's all for now!

Vandrefalk

You certainly will have a great day, tomorrow, Vandrefalk. Mt St Michel is amazing. We also liked Jersey, and did it on our own.

Sudesh, wow! That's unusual. Lucky you. I hope that you can talk him into that chef's tour - it shouldn't be too difficult.

Thanks for reporting in and dealing with that pesky internet. Sounds like you were tenacious.

Enjoy and know that we are all living vicariously through you. What a great itinerary.