This is my very last transatlantic I will ever take this early in the year. I was on 2 previous crossings that started 4-6 weeks later and both times was much happier with the weather. Going in March is way too early. The seas were rough. Several cruise passengers were seasick. Luckily my spouse and I were never sick. However, we rented a lounge in the Sanctuary for discounted full trip price and were not able to use it 5 days because of bad weather. Princes thankfully refunded those 5 days for us after many requests at Passenger Service Desk. The internet unfortunately was best ever on my cruise in 2019, but this trip was non existent. Really infuriating after paying for it. All the passengers were complaining because several passengers conduct business or pay bills on line (me included). It was infuriating. We had to get off the ship in Madeira and find free WiFi wherever possible and get our business taken care of. It was totally infuriating. It was very inconvenient for anyone with difficulty getting around. Although that’s not me or my spouse, there were many wheel chair passengers on the ship. So next thing that ruined our trip was finding out a few passengers and crew members tested positive for COVID-19 before the end of the cruise. Therefore, passengers flying home to the US from the UK were quarantined at a hotel close to Heathrow Airport 10 days until they got a negative result which was necessary to fly back to the US. How terrible! Food was not great, just bland. Only the Crown Grill was fantastic dinner on board Sky.
Cabin was good size. Club class min suite. Nothing extra. Cleaning was scaled down to once a day. In 2019 it was cleaned twice a day. We hit a dust storm coming off of Africa that made the outside of the Sky ugly brown dirt that covered everything outdoors. It was nasty.
Would have enjoyed a longer stay in Funchal. Great walking around on land first time in a week since we left Fort Lauderdale. Weather was nice. Locals were friendly and shopping at the nearby shopping mall had a great book store. The library was taken out of Sky Princess because of Covid we were told by Princess at guest services. We walked right off the ship and enjoyed it so much.
So happy the rain kept away. We took a short bus tour to Estoril. Only wish we would have had more time there to explore. I would get a taxi and go there for the day if we go back. Our guide taught us a lot about Portugal so the tour was worth the $69 per person cost. The ride was comfortable and the scenery was wonderful. We had a good day.
Really we only took a cab to the bus station and went to Victoria Station London for a week there. However, we wish we would have spent a night or 2 in Southampton or local area before going up to London. Just driving through the port city we saw several sights and parks we want to explore whenever we go back to the UK.