Day 22 - Sat - 10/18/2025 - Funchal, Portugal

 We once again listened to the Seattle Mariners playoff game.  This game started at 12:08am and was over around 3am.  That allowed us to get 5 hours of sleep before we were awakened by the "Welcome to Funchal" announcement on the PA system.  Since we've been here several times over the years, we were in no hurry to get off of the ship.  Our plan for the day was to ride the Hop On Hop Off Bus (HOHO) and do tourist things afterwards.

After finishing breakfast and gathering up our things, we scanned off of the ship and headed to town through the terminal building.  Just outside the building, the HOHO ticket booth was set up and we learned that we could catch the bus here and it would also bring us back to the ship.  The cost was 25€ although we were charged the two day rate of 28€ probably because I said two up front meaning two persons not two days.  I didn't catch it until much later, but for 6€ I wasn't going to worry about it.  We boarded the double decker bus and found a seat on the top deck.  It was a warm and beautiful day which made for a nice day to ride around in a bus. We also noted that the Fred Olsen Cruise Lines ship, Bolette, was berthed behind us.  This ship is the former Holland America Line ship Amsterdam and we've sailed many days on it and its sister ships of the R class.

While riding to the first red line stop we decided that we would first take the blue line which would take us up the steepest part of the city and then do the red line which is the more scenic.  So at stop #1 we got off of the bus and waited for about a half an hour for the blue line bus which runs every 45 minutes.  There were lots of HOHO guides helping people sort out which bus they wanted.  This stop is in front of the Marina.  I should say that that the downtown area of Funchal is pretty flat along the waterfront and for a few blocks inland.  It then gets really steep, really fast.  The small bus handled the steep and narrow roads quite easily.  We've taken the bus before so this seemed quite familiar to me.  We also have walked up the hill on a previous trip when we were much younger.

About an hour and a half later we were back down at the bottom of the hill, we got off at stop #10 and walked a short distance back to the Red Stop #1 and waited a few minutes for a bus.  This line runes much more frequently.  We rode the entire Red Line route and got off of the bus at stop #1 around 1:30pm.  There was a nearby McDonald's so we used it for a lunch stop.  We can now say we ate this trip at a McDonald's in Norway, Spain, and Portugal. Afterwards, Angela found a Churro and Chocolate stand and we had to have some more churros to compare them with those we had in Vigo.  While these were smaller in diameter, they were cooked in front of us and were quite tasty.

Art

We started our walk back towards the ship as our onboard time was 4:30pm.  We did some shopping at a SPAR supermarket/souvenir shop and at other shops along the promenade.  We reboarded the ship at 4pm, so we had a bit of a margin.  If one chooses to walk to town instead of taking a 15€ roundtrip shuttle, it's an easy 1/2 hour walk to the center of town.  The ship is always in view from the promenade.  

Just after 4:30pm the lines were let go, three long blasts from the ship's horn were made, and the thrusters moved the ship away from the dock.  Then the large twin propellers were engaged and the ship began to gain forward movement and head out into the open ocean on its way for the 7 day crossing to Florida.  The pilot quickly disembarked the ship and the pilot boat did a 180º turn heading back to port.  In his departure message, our Captain said that we need to average 18.5 knots or 21mph to reach Florida on schedule.  The weather forecast looks favorable, but changes can come without much warning.

On our walk back to the stateroom we encountered the Irish guitarist, Connor, who was able to get off the ship and take a picture of the harbor that matched his grandfather's picture taken 90 years earlier.  It was pretty cool and we enjoyed our conversation with him.  We learned that he has a full playing schedule back in Ireland and this was his first ship ride ever.  He and his band mate have been signed to another contract and will join the Discovery Princess in the Australian market in March, 2026.  

After a light dinner (once again we spoiled our appetites), we attended the magic and comedy show  featuring Ben Woodward.  He had a lot of audience participation and was very clever with his tricks.  We then sat in on the last part of the Emerald Tide set in O'Malley's before Angela headed to karaoke and I headed to the room to catch up on my blog.  

Tomorrow will be a sea day and fortunately tonight there is no baseball game to interrupt our sleep.  Sunday night/Monday morning is a different story as the Mariners play game 6 in Toronto.  If they win, they are in the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers who already clinched the National League Pennant.