Day 24 - Monday 15th May 2023

Today we'd be in Porto all day. We would leave our hotel and board our cruise ship for the Scenic Unforgettable Duoro river cruise.

We managed to sleep in this morning hoping to recover from the stress and hassles of our travels yesterday from Oslo to Porto.

At 8am, the temperature was a pleasant 14C with a mixture of cloud and blue sky. We had a nice breakfast in the hotel restaurant at 9am. Chris and Janet had already been for a walk.

We had known that we needed to be on board the cruise ship by 6pm but we didn't know what time we would be allowed onboard. Thankfully, Chris and Janet had solved this problem when they'd gone out for their walk.

The cruise ship was close by and they had spoken to one of the staff on the wharf. Apparently we could go on board any time and leave our bags with them but check-in wouldn't be until mid-afternoon. So we decided to checkout from our hotel at 11am (instead of the official time of 12 noon) and then go for a walk into the town of Porto.

We dragged our bags up the cobblestone lane, along the street, across the road towards the wharf where were greeted by helpful Scenic staff walking towards us to take our bags. One of the staff escorted us on board and offered us an orange juice in the lounge.

Soon after, we set off on a walk into the town. Initially we walked along the river and then up the hilly cobblestone streets. On the river, there were tourist boats of various sizes going back and forwards. On the land, there were plenty of tourist groups and so the streets and plazas were quite crowded. At various intervals we came across buskers.

After going part of the way up the hill, the girls went shopping and Chris and I strolled back down the hill towards the ship. Near the bottom, we sat for a while on a bench in the sun to enjoy the scene and watch the world go by.

There was a variety of tourist vehicles including small  motorised carts and a single carriage tram. Just as we got back to the river, we were in the right place to see a large yacht arriving escorted by noisy tug boats.

Back on the boat, Chris and I went to the lounge where we overheard quite a few Australian accents. Pedro, the restaurant manager, introduced himself and offered us a drink.

When Suzy and Janet got back, we had a light lunch towards in the front of the boat past the lounge area. We then went up onto the sundeck but didn't stay too long because the breeze made it too cool.

While waiting in the lounge, we noticed staff taking bags, including ours, to the rooms. At 3:15pm, the staff announced they were ready to check people in. Filipe, our butler, showed us to our room and carefully explained each feature of the room.

Our room was on the Diamond Deck which was the same level as the lounge. It had a double bed with a control on each side that you can use to raise the head of the bed. At the end of the bed, there were two drawers for storage and on the sides of the bed there was a concealed space for storing our luggage. The bedside tables each had two drawers.

The balcony had two chairs and a table. Filipe explained the buttons that open and close the windows, the shutters and the blinds on the balcony.

Near the entry door to the room, there was a cupboard along the full length of the wall containing plenty of shelves and hanging space. It also contained a fridge and a safe. There was a small work desk and chair.

Filipe also explained how to use the shower in the bathroom. The Wi-Fi speed was only 3Mb/s down and 4 up. Internet reception was poor and intermittent in some areas but seems to be better in our room.

Chris and Janet were in the adjacent room.

At 5:45pm, we attended the welcome talk in the lounge followed by a test of the Scenic TailorMade app that we will be using on expeditions during the cruise. We needed to install the app on our iPhones and change some settings.

Dinner was in the Crystal Dining Room at 7pm on the Crystal Deck which was one level below ours. Apart from the items listed on the menu, they offer alternatives which suited me better namely sirloin steak. Suzy and Janet had butterfish which none of us had heard of before.

The waiter served us with a local red wine and later we had decaffeinated coffee. The service was very professional and attentive - just like a high-class restaurant. It was an excellent meal.

We sat at a table for six and the last two seats were taken by a German couple and so this gave us a great opportunity to get to know more people on the cruise. It turned out that they live in Frankfurt - where Suzy and I had been a couple of weeks ago.

At 9pm, there was entertainment in the lounge with Portuguese music. The band had a female vocalist and two guitar players. One man was playing a twelve-string Portuguese guitar. It was very entertaining and professional helped along by a glass of port.

We were in bed by 10:30 after a great start to our river cruise.