Hi, this is my first post on this site. We are going on a short cruise in Feb 09 from adelaide, on a portugese ship 'the funchal'. It is our very first cruise, and am wondering if anyone else here has been on her... cheers

Hi shazz_1958 and welcome to Cruise Chat!

I'm not familiar with Funchal but perhaps others on this board can give you some information. I can tell you that cruising is addictive, so prepare yourselves!

Sandy

I can tell you that cruising is addictive, so prepare yourselves!

You are so right, Sandy. What other vacation can please such a range of people? Cruises offer something for everyone.

When a neighbour recently broke her leg, she considered cancelling her cruise with the family. Fortunately she didn't, and said that she was lucky to be cruising because she didn't have to bother with cooking or cleaning. They found excursions that she could still enjoy (the children and their families took excursions more suitable to their interests). She even got preferential treatment with the airlines! She also got a loaner wheelchair on the ship.

Obviously she would have preferred not to have a broken leg but she still had a wonderful vacation instead of sitting home feeling sorry for herself.

Sorry to hear about your neighbor, jmcs, but very glad she went ahead with her cruise. You are so right, you are truly pampered. Cruising is addictive!

Thanks for the welcome Sandy. I have been surfing this site since we booked our cruise. It is very helpful and interesting. I am still hoping for a reply from someone that has been on the funchal. It is a smaller ship, only 500 or so passengers, so should be cosy. Look forward to any information ppl can give me.. cheers

We cruised on the Funchal from Fremantle in January 08 .. it's claim to fame is that she was once used by the portugese president [or something similar] .. this is a well maintained but old ship .. service and amenities on board are nothing like the modern vessels .. enjoy the experience then go on a real ship .. social club standards not country club ..

Hi renard,Thanks for that. Im glad that you have noted that it is well maintained, the thought of sinking doesnt appeal to me, even if it is just off of the coast. This cruise is a fore runner to see if we like the experience. Were you on the ship for a long period, or just one of the short trips to nowhere? I am thinking that even if it isn't country club standards, we are only on for 3 nights and 2 days, so hopefully we wont get bored.

Hello shazz_1958,

the Funchal is a very nice ship. She is small an beautiful.

Here is the Funchal at the Kiel-Canal in germany:


Best Regards from germany
Mathias K.

Thankyou so much for that. The picture is lovely, even though she is a small ship, she looks magestic, carnt wait for our little cruise. I have been looking at some of the bigger liners on here, and think that we would be totally lost on them. At least this way we will know we are on a cruise. If we where going for such a short time on one of the big ones, we would never see all of the ship