The Thistle is a good option for flights out of terminals 2, 3, or 5, with just a few minutes driving to get to the airport car park from it, and we’ve used the hotel a few times now. We arrived, parked, and checked in for the evening, and for fans of pictures of hotel rooms here’s something just for you.

With a very early flight ahead of us we decided to eat in the hotel and have a reasonably early night rather than head out to a pub. The food was decent enough and we were talked into having dessert too. We then had one drink in the bar before heading back to our room.

I had a window seat for our short flight to Rome Fiumicino airport the following morning and not only did that mean I could take photos of the European landscape below us but as we passed Civitavecchia I could also see our ship in port.

When we booked this transatlantic cruise we wanted to add on a transfer from the airport to the port at the same time but Princess Cruises weren’t offering this unless you flew in a few days early and stayed in a hotel in Rome. That wasn’t possible for us but we knew it shouldn’t be too difficult to get a taxi outside the airport. As we stepped outside we were met by someone offering a limo ride for not much more than we’d been told the taxis were and he mentioned that he had a pass that would allow him to take us into the cruise port and to the ship while the taxis needed to drop people outside to take a shuttle bus inside. We weren’t entirely sure we weren’t about to be scammed but took a risk and yes, as good as his word, the driver got us to the port, inside, and dropped beside the terminal, needing to show a pass a couple of times at gates. That ride from the airport to the cruise port, however, was one of the most terrifying rides we’ve had as our driver spent most of the time on his phone or trying to get his sat-nav working and the car drifted between lanes on a number of occasions. We survived.

We stepped into the cruise terminal at Civitavecchia to a scene of utter chaos as seemingly every person had decided to try to embark at the same time. There was some attempt to hand out numbered cards to board people in groups but it was hard to make out who was being called so everyone just started gathering near the embarkation point. We couldn’t work out where the numbered cards were so decided to see whether our Elite status medallions would allow us to jump the queue. This angered one woman who saw we didn’t have any cards to hand and loudly claimed that we shouldn’t be there but at the same time a member of the local port staff glanced at our medallions then turned to her colleague and told her that we needed to be let through. Loyalty perks!

As we’d be spending the second half of this cruise crossing the Atlantic north of the equator we decided to book a cabin on the port side so that we could enjoy sunshine for the trip. We usually favour the starboard side for reasons of familiarity. Naturally, with Caribbean Princess being a Grand-class vessel we also booked our cabin on deck 10 as it has a half-covered, double-sized balcony.

First drinks aboard were a 24K Margarita for me and a Dirty Banana for my wife, taken on the top deck in the sunshine. When it got a little too warm for us – our sun block was in our main luggage which hadn’t reached our room at this point – we then hit Vines to check out the wine offerings aboard.

Prior to this cruise I’d joined a Facebook group for it – groups like this are the only reason I maintain a Facebook account at all as they can include useful information for travel – and there was a meet-up for the first evening by the aft pool under the Skywalkers extension so we went along to be social. The ship still hadn’t left the port as it only had a short distance to sail for the first stop on this itinerary. We spoke to one of the officers in attendance at one point and chatted to a couple of other passengers before finding ourselves talking with a Romanian woman cruising solo. She latched onto us as we were also European and it transpired that her fiancé worked on the ship so this was a way for her to cruise and spend time with him. We ended up inviting her to join us for dinner and we’d end up seeing and speaking to her throughout the cruise.

We hit Skywalkers for a bit at the end of the day, mostly to ride the travelator up to it as it had been years since we’d been on a ship with this configuration and Caribbean Princess was now the only ship in the fleet you could still do this on, but it had been a long day for us so we didn’t stay as late as we could have.

In the next post in this Caribbean Princess transatlantic cruise series we’ll be visiting the island of Sardinia for the first time and heading off on an excursion to see the Bronze Age settlement of Su Nuraxi at Barumini.

Italy’s island of Sardinia was somewhere new for us and Cagliari looked like a very interesting port city to explore but we’d seen a cruise excursion we liked the look of and we will often take tours on the first visit to a new place simply because we don’t know if we’re ever going to return by ship, and if we do then this gives us a good opportunity to get a feel for where the ships are in relation to all the things we might like to see.

You don’t have to take a photo of your cruise ship in port but most people do.

The culture or civilisation that emerged on the island of Sardinia during the Bronze Age didn’t leave any written records of their existence but many thousands of the structures they built can be found. These structures are called nuraghe, truncated cones of boulders with one or more large inner, circular spaces and a narrow means of access. The culture that built these and the stone villages that grew up around these defensible fortress-like structures are known as the Nuragic people as a result.

Our tour took us north from Cagliari to Barumini and the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Su Nuraxi. The central nuraghe was built first, sometime in the middle of the second millenium B.C.E., while the village around it sprung up later in the Bronze Age and included features such as a sewerage system. The individual buildings were stone, generally circular, and topped with conical roofs of wood originally.

We had a bit of time to kill upon our arrival at Su Nuraxi as there were other tourists visiting it and guides on the site were restricting the number of people on and in the structure because of its size and the single way in or out. Some people listened to explanations of the various ruins of low buildings in the village around the nuraghe and some, like myself, wandered around to take photos.

Eventually, a group ahead of us came back out and we were told we could proceed. To start with we ascended to the top of the nuraghe from the outside which afforded us some lovely views of the Sardinian landscape as well as a better overall picture of the circular forms of the walls of the ancient village that surrounded us.

From the uppermost point on the outside we could look down into the main tower where another group of visitors were waiting for us to enter so that they could then leave.

The visit to Su Nuraxi is not a tour for those with mobility issues, and you’ll need to be pretty flexible too. The descent into the tower was down a very narrow, sloping, twisting, and uneven corridor and steps. We frequently had to turn sideways on as shoulders would hit jagged rocks and there was one point that almost involved the sort of contortions usually associated with a game of Twister in order to duck under a low overhang above a right angle turn down a drop.

Once we’d all arrived at the bottom of the tower we had a chance to look around the dark chambers off it, although the darkness made photographing a rather pointless affair. Small rooms with stone walls. The group that had been waiting for us left and as we had some more information about the site shared with us by our guide it briefly started to rain. There were some quips about the tower filling up and us all floating to the surface instead of heading back the way we came.

We actually had to hang around for a lot longer than we’d expected as the site guides then gave the okay for another group to enter so we had to wait until they’d all made the tricky descent to our position. There wasn’t a whole lot to see or do during this period as the internal parts of the nuraghe weren’t very expansive but if you’re going to get trapped somewhere for a while then you could do a lot worse than have that happen in a place several thousand years old.

We retraced our route and did all the bending, ducking, twisting, and shuffling again but in reverse.

We had ten minutes or so to look at a few more of the village buildings while our guide made sure we’d all made it out of the nuraghe, and then it was time to leave.

We love visiting historical and archaeological sites of ancient cultures, and we’re also happy when we head off on a tour that’s maybe less popular with other cruisers as there’s something to be said for being different, so in that respect this was a great excursion for us. There were a few periods when we were generally hanging around and waiting given the understandable restrictions around access, but if you’re prepared for that then it’s a trip worth doing.

In the next post in this Caribbean Princess Transatlantic Cruise series we’ll hit a photo stop on the way back for our sail away from Cagliari.

It was formal night on Caribbean Princess and our views on formal nights is that we’ll take part in one on a cruise but any more than that is more effort than we’re typically prepared to make especially when the cruise lines sometimes barely make any effort to make these occasions special themselves. The cruise line and cruise duration do have an impact here, though, as some lines are more strict while others are more relaxed. Princess are pretty relaxed these days, which we like, and with this being a repositioning, transatlantic cruise there were not many people very dressed up at all but I still brought out my tux, bow tie, EU cufflinks, and fake Rolex for the night. Naturally, if I’m dressed like James Bond – if you squint at my reflection in a distorted mirror stolen from a funfair – then a Vodka Martini is on the cards too.

We will book something other than a balcony cabin if money is an issue or we book late so that availability is an issue or it’s a smaller, older ship with few balcony cabins available, but on a Grand-class ship like Caribbean Princess we’ll always go for a balcony, and with this being a repositioning cruise with a lot of sea days in the second week aboard the pricing was very low. We knew we’d be spending a lot of time on the balcony during those sea days but we also love heading out onto our private space late at night just to enjoy the stars. It’s this reason why we don’t like the newer ships that the likes of Princess or P&O have built – Star and Sun Princess, and Iona and Arvia – as night views are trashed thanks to setting back the balconies from the floodlit promenade deck spaces. The days when cruise lines considered what it is that their passengers might like rather than simply trying to cram as many rooms onto ships as possible is long gone, sadly.

The following day saw Caribbean Princess docked in Málaga, Spain, a place we’d never been to before but one which we’d made some lovely plans for as there were plenty of places of interest to explore. We were looking forward to having some food then setting off early to hit the bull fighting museum, the Roman amphitheatre, maybe the castle, the cathedral, and a great-looking craft ale brewery.

It was raining quite heavily when we pulled open the curtains and stepped onto the balcony. Really quite heavily. The photos don’t do this justice.

There were a few other ships in port and we could see one of the Virgin ships anchored in the very choppy Mediterranean Sea off the coast. We noticed immediately that there didn’t seem to be any tendering operation taking place from it but didn’t think too much on that.

We ate breakfast and then had to stop and take some photos from the top deck as the heavy rain had actually got heavier, coming down almost like hail on the loungers and already forming a small lake on the deck surface.

We headed back to our cabin just to get our coats. Yes, it was heavy rain and yes, we would be getting wet, but you don’t just skip a new place to visit because of the weather.

We headed down to the gangway to get off the ship and joined a short queue of people swiping their cards for security, buttoning everything up, then disembarking. We were just two people from the front of the queue when the captain made an announcement. The local authorities in Málaga were effectively closing down the city as the rain was expected to get even worse with strong risks of flooding. For safety reasons everybody needed to stay aboard so getting off was now suspended. That was that for our day in Spain then. On the one hand we were disappointed that we hadn’t got off the ship but we counted ourselves lucky that we’d not been early enough to get off only to then get drenched and find everything closing down. More on that in a few paragraphs.

Back in our room to drop off our coats as we wouldn’t be going anywhere we could now see how the rain was having an impact on our balcony space with the drainage struggling to cope with the deluge.

We spent the remainder of the day doing many of the same things we’d done on the previous one: reading, eating, drinking, taking part in trivia again.

The weather had cleared somewhat by the time late evening rolled around and we could depart. The ship had needed to stay in port to take on staff and supplies, plus some people had managed to head ashore before that was stopped so they needed to be accounted for. As Caribbean Princess made her way out from Málaga we saw that we’d been docked next to Marella Voyager. We’ve only cruised once with Marella so far, and on another ship, but we very much enjoyed the experience and would like to do so again one day.

Early in the evening we bumped into our new Romanian friend we’d met on the first night on the ship. She introduced us to a Canadian man she’d also met who, like us, had flown into Italy on embarkation day. Unlike us, his luggage hadn’t come with him and hadn’t caught up in Sardinia either so he’d been making do with what he’d been wearing for the flight and a few things he’d bought on the ship since then plus some loans from the cruise line. It turned out he’d got off the ship as early as possible just to buy more clothes, not trusting that his luggage would find him in Spain either. He’d made it into the city only to find nothing open and he’d got soaked to the skin, sometimes sheltering near buildings but mostly finding it impossible to escape the rain. That left him with almost the only set of clothes he had now completely sodden to add insult to injury. His attitude was good, though, and we all had a good laugh about it. We’d check in with him a few times over the next few days and the last we heard was that his luggage still hadn’t arrived by the last port before the transatlantic crossing.

We’d not had the day we’d planned on having but the evening was as intended with a speciality dining experience at Crown Grill. Starters and desserts often change around a bit but for the main course we always go for filet mignon, rare, and Princess never disappoint here.

In the next post in this Caribbean Princess cruise series it’s a new port for the pair of us and even a new country and continent for my wife as our ship docks at Casablanca in Morocco where we set off on an excursion to visit Rabat.

This, though, was no movie. We drew back the curtains to our cabin – after we were dressed; you only make that mistake once – to the industrial port of Casablanca.

My wife and I don’t mind an industrial port when we’re cruising, especially if it’s one with brutalist buildings or any loading and unloading activity. Look, we’ve all got interests that other people think are weird. What about you and that thing you do when you think nobody’s looking? Yeah, exactly. We are perfectly happy to sit and watch the cranes move, and listen to that little buzz of commercial enterprise that keeps the world ticking by, content to read a book and glance up at a distant clang and clatter of metal on metal signifying who-knows-what. However, this was a new port for us, and a new country for my wife, and also a new continent for my wife too, and so we had plans away from the hustle and bustle.

The closest my wife had come to Africa before had been views of it from a distance. Once from atop the Rock of Gibraltar, and once a little nearer while cruising through the Suez Canal. I had not only been to Africa before but it had also been Morocco on holiday in the 1980s, but Casablanca itself would be new to me, and even if it hadn’t been then enough decades had passed that it would have felt like it.

We’d booked an excursion through Princess Cruises as we wanted to make the most of our time in Morocco and didn’t want to risk any issues with getting back to the ship as we’d heard that traffic could be problematic. It would be. Our plan for the day would take us to see some highlights of Casablanca but to start with we would be heading north along the coast to Morocco’s capital city where in addition to a tour we’d be having a traditional Moroccan lunch.

First off, we needed to walk through part of the commercial port area of Casablanca to find our tour bus and there was actually a point of interest there for me to photograph. No, not a crane or a truck being filled with grain. I mean, I do have those photos but despite all the evidence to the contrary I do employ some level of editing for this website.

The decrepit hulk of the Marrakech caught our eye as we walked from Caribbean Princess to the port entrance. The ferry was purpose-built in the mid-80s to meet increased demand for a France to Morocco car and passenger service and, when the occasion warranted it, to act as the royal yacht of Morocco. She was built by the French shipyard of Chantiers de l’Atlantique which has also built ships for most of the major cruise lines at some time or other. Despite the apparent small size of her she was capable of carrying over 200 cars and 600 passengers when she operated, which she did up until 2013 when her parent company went into administration. She was sold at auction and moved to Casablanca where clearly some plan was in mind for her but she’s largely rotted in situ since then. This 2011 account about a trip aboard Marrakech from Sete to Tangier is absolutely fascinating for both the experience and the photos of the ferry’s interior spaces which look more 1980s than 21st century.

We found our bus, boarded, and set off for… the traffic of Casablanca. It was gridlock for long periods and at one point we saw one guy get out of a car at a junction then stand in the middle of the road to halt other vehicles largely paying not the slightest bit of attention to lights or road markings until such point as the driver of his car could move. He’d clearly got fed up of waiting for someone to show some consideration and common sense. We at least had the luxury of knowing that our bus was bigger and tougher than the cars around and they eventually moved out of the way enough for us to get to some more open roads.

Things were far more sedate in terms of car numbers by the time we reached Rabat and there was a far cleaner feel to the environment. Our guide had explained that a lot of work had been taking place for the Africa Cup of Nations but Rabat is also just considerably smaller than Casablanca despite being the capital since 1956.

For part of the drive to Rabat we’d been hugging the coastal road, along which there was a small fortress which Morocco neither needed nor wanted but which the French and Germans still squabbled over. This was Fort Rottembourg, after the German engineer who oversaw the late nineteenth and early twentieth century building’s construction, also known as Fort Hervé after an early French casualty in World War I. The fortress served no real purpose and was a persuasion project by the Germans at the time to try to keep a hand in Moroccan affairs while the French were doing similar things elsewhere. The guns were never fired in anger and the fort’s usefulness if it had needed to be utilised is generally considered to be next to nothing. The fort is now the home of Morocco’s National Photography Museum.

We arrived at the medina of Rabat, the historic walled city district, and passed one of the original doors to it.

And then it was time for a short walk through just a small part of the medina to the riad hosting the restaurant that we would be dining at. If you like cats then you’ll like Rabat. If you don’t like cats then you should seek help.

Dar Rbatia was opened as a restaurant in 1989 although the building dates to the eighteenth century. It was lovely inside; compact yet capable of seating nearly two hundred diners even though it only seemed to be hosting our tour group on this day in the main enclosed courtyard area of the ground floor.

The meal in Dar Rbatia comprised several courses and soft drinks and water were provided too, all served centrally to each table for those around to take what they wanted. A salad and rolls was followed by a tagine, then cous-cous, then fruit, and finally mint tea – poured from high because… well, I don’t know – with a cookie to finish it off. It was all delicious.

In the next post in this 2024 transatlantic cruise series our tour continues with a look at some tourist highlights of Rabat.

The drive out of Casablanca earlier in the day had been plagued by heavy traffic and it hadn’t improved upon our return. This did at least give me some opportunities to take photos from the bus, even though it’s not something I typically like doing. It was nice to see large-scale street art decorating the sides of several buildings.

The viewpoints we were taken to both offered us chances to take pictures of the Hassan II Mosque. The mosque was completed in 1993. The building is the second largest mosque in Africa and the minaret is the second tallest in the world. In both cases a mosque in Algeria beats it. The minaret is topped with a laser that shines towards Mecca.

The mosque was commissioned by King Hassan II after initially asking for a mausoleum for his father, Mohammed V. This was subsequently located in Rabat – and we’d visited that earlier in the day – but the king still wanted something for Casablanca and made that request known on his birthday in 1980. The location by the water of the Atlantic Ocean was deliberate but did then necessitate restoration work starting in 2005 after salt water got into the structural supports.

The second viewpoint was at El Hank, looking across the bay back to the Hassan II Mosque and giving more of a sense of scale of the structure when comparing it to the buildings of Casablanca.

El Hank is also the location of the El Hank Lighthouse, which at fifty one metres in height is the tallest lighthouse in Morocco.

It was then time to brave Casablanca’s traffic once more and to see some more street art as we slowly made our way to the shop that would serve as the penultimate activity on this full day’s excursion.

Our shopping opportunity was at a place called Exposition Artisanale, a large emporium that we were assured would allow us to purchase authentic Moroccan items, priced reasonably, and with no haggling required (or allowed). It was located across the street from a clock tower and the entrance to the old Medina and markets.

We bought some souvenirs then ended up chatting for ages with someone who may have been the owner after he realised that we, unlike everyone else in our tour group, were English. He’d been to England before and so wanted to give us a special price for some carpets which made us doubt whether the no-haggling rule was really enforced. We’re sure they were special prices but we’re not really carpet people.

The cruise excursion finished with a couple of fleeting photo stops. Firstly, it was back to the Hassan II Mosque to see it now that the sun had set. We’d hoped we could see the laser but it wasn’t really visible from our position. Then it was to snap the exterior of Rick’s Café, inspired by the place of the same name in the movie, Casablanca.

That concluded our day in Morocco. As we walked back towards Caribbean Princess we could see the lights flashing away in Skywalker’s Nightclub at the rear of the top deck. We freshened up and changed aboard then made our way there ourselves so that we could enjoy some music and keep an eye out for all the people returning to the ship after us. There were still large groups arriving well after our scheduled midnight departure time, likely those on tours to Marrakesh who’d then run into Casablanca’s traffic on their return.

In the next post in this transatlantic cruise travelogue series we’ll spend the day in Funchal, Madeira, finally making it there after an attempt years earlier was cancelled to deal with an emergency medical situation on the cruise ship we were on.

We were therefore very pleased to make the port and capital of Funchal on Madeira for this second attempt at cruising to it, although the weather forecast was not great. We actually woke to rain which had thankfully, seemingly, passed by the time we’d had breakfast and gathered our wandering equipment for the day, so the city had a damp sheen to reflect the brightness of the day as we stepped ashore.

You may already know that when a ship first visits a port it’s traditional for there to be a small ceremony where a plaque (or similar) is given by the port to the ship so that the ship can display it aboard. If you ever cruise on a vessel that’s travelled widely then it’s fun sometimes to find these plaques, see where the ship’s been, see if you’ve been there too, and get a feel for the ports based on the quality or size of the plaques. There’s a lot of variation there.

Funchal has its own tradition in a similar but somewhat reversed vein (possibly unique, or at least we’ve not seen it done elsewhere), which you’ll see most clearly if you walk into the city rather than take a shuttle bus. Along the harbour wall murals have been painted over the years acknowledging the visit of certain ships with vessels from merchant and naval fleets, ferry lines, and cruise ships all represented. Interesting to do some ship-name-spotting as you stroll along the waterfront.

A short, narrow tunnel links the port area to the city, passing through part of the old defensive walls.

We’d not long got out of the port area and started on our way to where we wanted to hit first when it started to rain, and for a brief period we thought “Ah, a little bit of rain never hurt anyone,” conveniently forgetting the lesson from a few days earlier regarding just how much rain can actually fall when it wants to (see: Two Mediterranean Sea Days Aboard Caribbean Princess). And so the rain retaliated by coming down harder. A lot harder. We were forced to seek shelter by pretending to peruse souvenir shops until it became too obvious we had no intention of buying anything, then hovering outside under an awning.

We had a partial view not only of our ship, Caribbean Princess, but also of Explora I which was docked behind us. Explora I looks a lovely ship, but with a daily cost per person rocking in at around six times what we paid for our transatlantic cruise then, short of a lottery win (and maybe not even then), it’s not a cruise experience we’re likely to ever have.

The rain eased off but never quite let up entirely so I kept my camera in its bag as we eventually decided to continue the walk to the only place we had firm plans on visiting this day. That was the cable car station and it took us probably 10-15 minutes to get there. Buying a ticket was simple enough, thanks to the pay machines in the lobby. Then we tried to hover around so it was empty enough to just get a cable car up above Funchal on our own to make taking photos or video easier but ended up sharing with a German tourist with whom we chatted mostly instead. We tried to peer about and down through the glass that was fogged up inside and covered in rain droplets outside but there was little point in taking photographs. One thing of minor interest as we were drifting slowly up and over the hills surrounding Funchal was that there was clearly some sort of car rally taking place on the island on the day of our visit. A procession of colourful and decorative vehicles with incredibly loud exhausts was snaking its way up the twisting roads we were passing over.

We alighted at the Monte station, and the rain, while not heavy, alighted with us, adding continuing dampness to the morning’s activities. Walking a little way east of the cable car station we approached a viewpoint over the valley below and were afforded some views back down to the main port area of Funchal where our ship could easily be spotted. The small church we passed was the Babosas Chapel, only rebuilt in 2022 following destruction in the island’s serious storm of 2010. It had been originally constructed in 1906 and the Art Nouveau style of the period is clear to see in its architecture.

About a minute’s walk to the west of the cable car station there was a pleasant-looking garden area. This was Jardim Monte Palace Madeira, a botanical garden, and even with the rain we might have been tempted to pay it a visit had it not also been clearly over many vertical levels on the steep hillside here. Rain and slopes or steps together, though, suggested we’d not see it in its best light. We do have plans to return to Madeira in November 2026 and we’ve already agreed with people with whom we’ll be travelling that we’ll do the cable car again (as they’ve never done it) so if the weather is kind to us we’ll visit on that occasion.

We didn’t spend long at the top of the hill over Funchal before deciding to head back down. We’ve had the experience of a cable car ride on Madeira now, and we have an outline of a plan for a return visit. Our trip back down to the port area was unaccompanied by strangers this time so it was easier to move around the car and take photos, even if reflections were an issue. On the plus side, the rain seemed to have eased off fully by the time we reached a lower altitude.

We reached the bottom and disembarked to the sight of a mad sculpture and madder people exercising outside. Crazy! There are no walls! People can see you! Oh, that’s what you want, isn’t it? Healthy, egocentric perverts, the lot of you.

A couple of historical boats of local significance were also on display within glass-walled enclosures. Mosquito was a steam-powered boat (later converted to diesel), built in 1900 in England, and used in and around Funchal to service ships and the dock area on behalf of Blandy, a well-known wine merchant in the city. Aquila was a tender for flying boats visiting Funchal from 1949 onwards, but earlier, during the war, it had been used to train Royal Air Force pilots and perform coastal patrols.

With the rain looking like it had left the low-lying parts of Funchal for the mountainous heights now and us not needing any immediate shelter we made for the historical centre of the city where we expected to find an abundance of street art.

In the next post in this series we’ll enjoy the vibrant public street art project that is the Art of Open Doors in Funchal.

We started by passing over a couple of watercourses that run from the ravines higher up in the mountain areas around Funchal down to the Atlantic Ocean.

Chafariz Square had that black and white tiled surface that Portugal seems to love. The obelisk structure may have been part of a fountain, but whether it worked we couldn’t tell for sure. There was a fountain erected here in 1827, apparently, and this may actually have been it. That’ll teach us for not getting closer to take a look.

It was hard to miss the church tower so we headed there next. While neither large nor particularly impressive from the outside this was actually Funchal Cathedral, completed in 1514 and largely unchanged since building was completed.

Generally Gothic architecturally, and obviously Catholic, it was impossible not to miss some Islamic elements with some of the interior arches and the roof in particular sporting geometric art typical of the Mudéjar.

Leaving the cathedral we headed towards the sea, passing a couple of interesting sights along the way.

The sculpture of Józef Pilsudski was erected in 1999. Madeira has a large contingent of Polish expatriates and the Polish pope, Pope John Paul II, is the only pope to have visited the island. Pilsudski is considered a hero in Poland and founder of the Second Polish Republic, and in late 1931 he stayed on Madeira for three months. During this time a young boy who would become Pope John Paul II wrote a letter to Pilsudski as part of a school writing exercise expressing a wish to also visit the island.

A very short distance further on were two very modern items in the form of a fancy fountain, part of the parliamentary library, and a cylindrical sculpture to honour the health workers during the COVID pandemic period.

I liked the colours and the style of the Madeira lettering that tourists do like to photograph – I’m a tourist and I did – but it’s a shame that the backdrop to it was so busy and that there were railings in front of it.

Along the waterfront just in front of the Madeira sign there was a pleasant public space – the Praça do Povo (People’s Square) – comprising a few parkland areas and some tiered spots where I imagine lovely views of the sea and sun could be had on perhaps less overcast days. Commemorating a brief stopover on the island in 1906 during a trip from London to South Africa there was a bust of Gandhi on display and we also encountered a monument to Nelson Mandela. Closer to the main road there was a monument to Madeiran emigrants.

The place we’d been heading towards was BeerHouse, a microbrewery which had lovely views out over the marina and towards the cruise ships docked in the port, plus, of course, beer. They also did food but we were only really there for the craft ales and ended up staying for three each. In truth, the ales weren’t quite to our taste and you can’t say we didn’t try to find something we really liked, but we always appreciate local breweries and we’re glad we went. With it being on the way back to the ship it’s highly likely we’d stop there again on a repeat visit to Madeira.

All that remained of our day in Funchal was to then take a slow stroll back to the ship.

An artist whose work you’ll quite likely have seen if you’ve spent any time in Lisbon (and we have) is Bordalo II. His colourful trash animals have an unmistakeable style and it was a nice surprise to come across a piece of his on Funchal highlighting ocean pollution.

I took advantage of drier weather to take more photos of the harbour murals we’d noticed (well, it would be hard to miss them) when we’d disembarked the ship earlier in the day.

In the next post in this transatlantic cruise series we sail away from Madeira and towards the final port of call before our relaxing week crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

While we’d had excursion plans ahead of the very first time we were supposed to visit Madeira, for this occasion we’d decided we’d just walk around Funchal and take the cable car to the hills around it. Rain had affected but not completely thwarted that plan but the weather improved over the rest of the day and we’d enjoyed the artwork on the doors of Rua de Santa Maria as well as visiting the cathedral and having some drinks along the waterfront. At the time of writing this we do have further plans to return to Madeira where a broadly similar day is planned as we’ll be travelling with my in-laws who really want to ride the cable car and hunt down a specific brand of Madeiran wine they like.

We returned to Caribbean Princess and with this being a Princess Cruises ship and us having a balcony we made use of our Ocean Medallions and ordered a snack and drinks to the room so we could sit out, enjoy the last of the sun before sailaway, then enjoy the views of the sailaway itself. We do like that you can order a limited range of food and drink items to your room – even if the range appears to be shrinking year-by-year – but ordering hot food is generally ill-advised as by the time it’s been plated up, sat on some side waiting for a member of staff to be summoned for it, then delivered to your room via all the back entrances and stairwells connecting the ship, lukewarm is about the best you can hope for. You can have convenience or you can have excellence, but you can’t have both.

We’d noticed what appeared to be a school sailing lesson taking place with lots of small yachts just outside the harbour entrance and it was interesting to then see motorised dinghies shepherding them all further out to sea just as Caribbean Princess was untied from the dock and given the okay to sail away from Funchal.

In addition to some adults in high visibility vests who may have been port officials or teachers wanting to see us off and waving happily (everyone waves to and from ships; that’s just the way it is), we also spotted what were clearly immigration officers walking along the breakwater and keeping an eye on the cruise ship and the water around, presumably just to make sure nobody decided they couldn’t bear to leave the hilly, rainy island behind.

So that was our day in Madeira done. As I’ve mentioned, all things being well we should be back in late 2026, this time aboard P&O Ventura.

The evening meal was apparently the “Chef’s Dinner” on board Caribbean Princess. We both opted for the same starter and I’ll leave you to work out what else we chose using your amazing deductive powers and the following pieces of photographic evidence.

We’ve got just one more port of call to make ahead of the Atlantic crossing part of this transatlantic cruise and in the next post in this series we’ll arrive at Santa Cruz de Tenerife and go for a walk to the Auditorio de Tenerife and Castle of St John the Baptist.

We awoke in the morning already docked and stepped out onto the balcony to a wonderfully clear sky and a heat that was building already.

After breakfast and the gathering of camera equipment, water, and sun cream for the day, we headed off the ship and immediately started moving roughly south from where Caribbean Princess was docked. Of course, you can’t get far from a cruise ship in a port before running into the ship photographers but that’s where having my own camera comes in handy as I always try to take pictures of them instead of having them take pictures of us. We don’t like having our photos taken and we’re never going to buy any so we’re saving everyone time and effort there, plus I’d like to think that it gives the photographers a bit of a break. Or a taste of their own medicine. You choose.

The visit of Caribbean Princess to Santa Cruz de Tenerife coincided with an 8K, a 21K, and a marathon taking place which meant a lot of barriers up and a lot of crazy people in running gear. The barriers and activities didn’t affect those of us on foot and it was nice to see so many people out and about even if it’s not something that I or my wife would ever do. It’s not because we wouldn’t want to but that both of us have histories of injuries. But it’s also because we wouldn’t want to.

As this cruise was taking place fairly late in the year it wasn’t a complete surprise to see a Christmas Tree up, although that name is a bit misleading. A Christmas Cone would be more accurate. Clearly, it’s better for the trees if they’re not chopped down, transported to an environment they really won’t thrive in, decorated, then left to die, but it’s still not right to call a cone a tree. Somebody has to say it.

Anyone who knows me – and very few people know me – will know that I do like architecture and history even if I’m not remotely close to being an expert in either subject. Whenever you’re travelling you’re bound to encounter things that incorporate one or both of those elements, though, and sometimes they can surprise you. Take the Monument to the Fallen below (the cross-shaped structure). The name and design might simply suggest that it’s to honour the dead, and that’s true to a point, but it’s a problematic piece because the dead it’s honouring are the fascists who died in support of Franco in the Spanish Civil War and its construction made use of forced labour by political prisoners.

The Insular Palace is the home of Tenerife’s governing body. The building was completed in 1940 and is Monumentalist, typical of the works preferred by fascists. Big and imposing for no good reason? That’s what the fascists love. Looking to build a giant ballroom when you clearly can’t dance? You’re probably a fascist. Thinking that a giant arch in your country is needed that’s bigger than everyone else’s arch even though it serves no purpose and you just want your name on it? You’re probably a fascist. You’re definitely pathetic. Oh, I appear to have veered off into topics of current political events for some reason. Anyway, the palace is notable for its clock tower and, apparently, the stocking it puts over its head when it’s about to head off somewhere and rob a bank.

If I know you half as well as I think I do then I know that whenever you see a church you ask yourself “How many naves does that thing have then?” The sixteenth century Church of the Immaculate Conception has five naves, you’ll be pleased to learn. The tower was an eighteenth century addition.

The first thing we properly wanted to see up close was the massive monument to Razer from Robot Wars. Wait, I’ve just checked, and it turns out that this is in fact the Auditorio de Tenerife. Regardless, it’s a lovely-looking piece of architecture that’s hard to miss along the waterfront area of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

The auditorium was completed in 2003 and inaugurated that same year in the presence of Prince Felipe, who at this time is now King of Spain. At night the building is lit up in white (although other colours can be used for special occasions) and we’d seen it illuminated in the darkness as we departed Tenerife on our first visit to the island.

The auditorium offers guided tours, although we didn’t know that at the time, so it’s something we might do on our next visit.

Right next to the auditorium was the Castle of John the Baptist. Castle is pushing it a bit. It’s really a fort. While the defensive structure was originally built in the seventeenth century what we saw now was the mid-eighteenth century rebuild with squat, circular tower.

Historically, there’s a connection between this castle and ourselves, though, and that’s the Portsmouth connection with Lord Nelson. The castle was one of the defensive locations that helped the Spanish inflict a crushing defeat on an overconfident Nelson and his fleet in 1797 and it was the battle in which Nelson lost his arm. Some of the combat details of the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife are interesting enough but it’s the aftermath that’s most fascinating to me, where the defending commander, Lieutenant General Antonio Gutiérrez (who had previously defeated the British in battle twice and had out-thought Nelson in this fight too), agreed honourable terms for a truce so the British could return to their ships with the promise not to attack again, and even loaned two schooners to the British to assist in their return to England. Nelson subsequently sent Gutiérrez beer and cheese along with a letter of thanks, and Gutierrez replied with Spanish cheese and wine. Can you imagine that sort of thing happening these days?

We continued to head roughly southwards as we now had an actual place in mind to visit.

The attractive water park area and wind sculpture we passed by were designed by the architect César Manrique.

However, it wasn’t the water park we were interested in seeing, but rather a botanical garden stretching across that hill just behind it in the photograph above. In the next post in this transatlantic cruise travelogue series we’ll pay a visit to the Palmetum at Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

The Plaza de España was a lovely little spot and full of interest. I’ve already mentioned some of the architecture around the area when we first walked along this part of Santa Cruz’s waterfront earlier in the day. The public square hosts a shallow lake that was sadly dry when we were there and the design of the lake was undertaken by the architects Herzog & de Meuron which tied in nicely with our very first cruise and the pre-cruise tour when we spent time in Beijing and got to visit another of their works, the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium.

The plaza was originally the site of the Castle of San Cristóbel, the ruins of which were discovered during work to install the lake. We’d not realised it at the time, but you can view some of the remains in tunnels under the square, and it’s something we’d probably try to do when we next return.

We continued towards the port and passed a sculpture that caught my eye. Most sculptures catch my eye. This one was Arborea by Fernando García Ramos, and while it was clearly inspired by trees – the name was a big clue – I couldn’t help but notice that it also resembled the Sea Witch logo used by Princess Cruises.

Time for a little bit of ship-spotting now that we’d reached the port.

Firstly, here’s the aft view of our home for this sixteen-day cruise, Caribbean Princess, the only remaining Grand-class ship in the Princess Cruises fleet with that “shopping trolley handle” mounting configuration for Skywalkers nightclub. It may not be the prettiest aft view of a cruise ship but being able to ride the travelator to it is an experience that’s just not equalled on other ships.

Fred Olsen‘s Bolette was in port. At the time of writing this travelogue account we’ve only spent a single night in port on a Fred Olsen ship but we do have plans to cruise aboard Borealis in July 2026.

MSC Cruises Opera was the only other cruise ship docked in port but there were two ferries present, including one – Marie Curie – from Fred Olsen Express, the ferry service run by the operator in the Canary Islands. The other ferry was the Volcán de Tagoro, a fast catamaran ferry operated by Naviera Armas and named after an underwater volcano.

And that was that. We were now back aboard Caribbean Princess and we wouldn’t be getting off for another eight days. We ordered drinks to our balcony and sat out to enjoy the sailaway, watching the volcanic island slide past and give way to unbroken views of the ocean and sky.

We ate, we listened to music, we drank cocktails. All the things you do on cruise ships when you’re not in port. And because this was Caribbean Princess we rode the travelator to Skywalkers late in the evening to dance.

The next post in this transatlantic cruise travelogue series will cover the actual Atlantic crossing by our ship, starting with some photos of Caribbean Princess.