My Trip on Navigator continued…..

After a couple of days at sea from Southampton, the sailing was surprisingly calm for the time of year and our first port of call is Funchal, Madeira. It was our first visit, having sold it for many years, we were not disappointed! The weather was glorious and the island was so pretty. The highlight of course as a father of two sons, was the Ronaldo museum less than a 10 minute walk from where the ship docked. Don’t bother with a transfer, its a very simple, short walk to the centre. The Museu CR7 is a museum that is dedicated to Cristiano Ronaldo’s trophies. Just 5 euros each and a bit of fun for the kids, or any Ronaldo fan! They really are very proud of him over there. The port of Funchal itself is really lovely. Very scenic, lots of bars, shops, restaurants and a lovely marina harbour. The gardens are well kept and much to my boys delight full of lizards! The local specialty is Espetadas, i loved it and of course no trip would be complete without buying a bottle of Madeira wine. Its worth noting that taking alcohol back on board is accepted by Royal Caribbean at the ports but its confiscated and delivered back to your Cabin on the morning of departure, completely understandable. The main excursion is the cable car ride or riding in a basket down the mountain, neither of which i could convince my family to do but in all honesty we had a great day there and didn’t need the excursions.

Dinner tonight was in the Sapphire Dining Room. We booked my-time dining and pre booked our dinner time before we went, i would highly recommend doing this especially if you have children. Dinner was lovely, good choice, a supplement applied for Lobster, first time I’ve come across this, again just worth noting. We tended to stick to the Sapphire dining room for breakfast, rather than queuing and hustle and bustle for a table in the Windjammer. The breakfast was lovely, good service, my sons especially loved the waffle station!

Our next day was in Tenerife, the port of Santa Cruz. Again we had Glorious weather and most exciting for my 11 year old was the fact that it was Halloween! We got a taxi to a local beach, 5-10 mins and 15 euros by Taxi. The beach was called Playa de las Teresitas. Two sunbeds and an umbrella was just 5 euros and a huge man made sandy beach! The boys loved it! We didn’t book any excursions here, we have been as a family to Tenerife many a time and just wanted a day at the beach. The beach has shower and toilet facilities and you can buy drinks and snacks. When wanting to get back to the ship, they are buses every 20 minutes back to the centre of Santa Cruz, only 10 minutes walk to the ship. As I mentioned tonight was Halloween and my boys were beyond excited and intrigued! The ship was full of stunning pumpkin displays! The ship had organised a trick or treat activity after dinner along with a parade! My two dressed up as a ghoul and the joker, along with hundreds of other guests, it was so much fun! The boys met with the activity organizers along with so many others- to take part in a trick or treat hunt around the ship. Whilst figuring out the clues and picking up much desired candy on the way, it really was brilliantly organised, well done Royal Caribbean on this. Later in the evening everyone who was dressed up could take part in the Halloween costume parade down the Royal Promenade, it was fantastic to see! A really great evening to end a really great day! It wasn’t just the youngsters who dressed up, in fact I think the grown ups outnumbered them!