Sailing from America to Spain's Gold Coast
This is part one of a two part trip.
- Part 1: Sailing from America to Spain’s Gold Coast
- Part 2: Spain and Portugal by Train
Introduction
I’ve always wanted to sail across the Atlantic, see Gibraltar and visit Spain’s Gold Coast. Lucky for me, I was able to engineer an offer for a cruise that did just that aboard Carnival Legend.
- Departing from Baltimore
- Ponta Delgada, Azores
- Straights of Gibraltar
- Málaga, Spain
- Alicante, Spain
- Ending in Barcelona, Spain
Booking the Essentials
Landing a Free Cruise
In the previous year, I parlayed Wyndham Diamond status into a “free” transpacific cruise on Carnival. During the voyage, I spent enough time in the casino to get additional offers. This particular cruise used an offer for a free inside cabin.
More on "free" cruises and why they are ideal for ocean crossings.
With Carnival’s “free” cruise offers, you get the cabin for free but need to pay:
- Daily gratuity.
$16 per day. - Port fees and taxes.
Varies: $40 per port day is typical, including embarkation and debarkation.
If you’ve read our guide on maximizing free cruise offers, you’ll know I like to use these offers on the longer, more adventurous, Carnival Journeys cruises whenever possible because they:
- Average roughly 33% lower cost per day versus shorter cruises.
You pay a lot for port days and these ocean-crossing cruises have a higher proportion of sea days. - Tend to use smaller 2,000 passenger ships sailing under capacity.
Lines are 1/10th the length of 4,000+ passenger ships on shorter cruises. - Save you money on trips to other continents.
You only need to book a one way flight.
Since I’d wanted to visit Spain and Portugal, the Baltimore to Barcelona voyage was really a no-brainer, satisfying all my critera.
Booking Baltimore
For the flight from Columbus to Baltimore, I wasn’t able to find any reasonably priced award availability, but the cash fares were quite good. Whenever this happens, it’s useful to have the ability to book cash fares with points for good value.
Using a perk of my Business Platinum, I was able to book a first class Delta flight through the American Express Travel Portal using Membership Rewards, and then get a 35% rebate on points, resulting in a 1.6cpp redemption.
How the 35% rebate works.
Anyone with Membership Rewards can book travel through American Express’s portal using points at a rate of 1 cent per point. Given that there are ways to cash out points at 1.1 cent each, this is a bad deal.
However, the Business Platinum card has a super power that gives you a 35% rebate on these redemptions when used to book flights:
- In a premium cabin.
- OR any cabin with your preferred airline.
By itself, the 35% rebate boosts these 1cpp redemptions to 1.54cpp, but it gets better because these are cash fares and earn miles. Yup. You actually earn miles from this redemption.
Factoring the value of these miles puts us in a range of 1.6-1.7cpp depending on your earn rate with the airline and how much you value their miles.
Pivoting to Norfolk
Two weeks before the cruise, the Key Bridge collapsed, closing the Baltimore Harbour indefinitely. Within a few days, Carnival announced the current cruise would be returning to Norfolk, with limited bussing to Baltimore, but there was no word yet on my cruise the following week.
Norfolk is not a big city and adding two thousand tourists can really move the market on flight and hotel prices. Rather than waiting for Carnival to announce the change for my cruise, I immediately booked a fully cancelable flight and hotel for Norfolk.
- American had cheap, fully refundable award flights as they often do.
- Wyndham had rooms for just 13,500 points despite most area hotels going for $300+.
How American and Wyndham excel at last minute travel.
American has several key advantages for last minute bookings in that they:
- Have reasonably priced availability close in.
- Allow last minute cancellations with full refund.
Cancel 30 minutes before the flight if you want. - Include connecting flights in the fare.
Essential for last minute bookings from mid size airports.
In my case, there weren’t any direct flights on the days I needed plus I was fairly certain I would be cancelling this flight in favor of a Delta change so American was the perfect choice. I actually like to keep a reserve of American miles on hand specifically for this kind of insurance flight.
Wyndham is a great option for last minute or high demand bookings because they:
- Are in low demand.
You’re more likely to get a room. - Use a fixed award chart
Award prices stay low while cash prices soar. - Points are easy to acquire.
Multiple transfer partners, shopping portal, high earn credit cards, point sales.
I don’t stockpile Wyndham points, earning a few thousand organically and then topping up with transfers when I need to redeem a night.
Ultimately, the itinerary was changed to Norfolk. I kept the Wyndham, changed the Delta flight to go to Norfolk instead of Baltimore, and cancelled the American booking, all in a few minutes online.
During embarkation, I heard lots of stories from people that had booked inflexible flights and hotels and then experienced an extremely stressful, expensive or painful beginning to their trip. Because I had so many tools in the toolkit, I actually ended up saving about $100 on the change.
Norfolk
There were no direct flights to Norfolk, and I didn’t arrive until late afternoon the day before. Other than a delightful grilled cheese restaurant, I didn’t get much of an opportunity to explore the city.
It was interesting to see all the activity related to NATO and the Navy. As the plane was landing, I saw the Navy’s Stiletto M80, an experimental landing craft designed to operate in shallow waters. Inside the airport, there were welcome signs declaring Norfolk to be NATO’s North American head quarters. Later at the hotel, there seemed to be an international rugby team staying, and I’m pretty sure it was related to NATO cross military competitions. The cruise ship itself was docked next to the Battleship Wisconsin, now a museum. A little further into the bay, there were a few navy vessels in dry dock.
I stayed in the Wyndham Garden for 13,500 points using the 10% discount from my Wyndham Business Earner. It was a nice enough hotel at the edge of walk-ability to the cruise terminal.
Wyndham Garden Norfolk Downtown
Comfortable hotel situated at the heart of the Neon District
The Cruise
Carnival Legend
Legend is a Spirit Class ship holding a little more than 2,000 passengers. They have almost all the amenities you expect on larger, 4,000 passenger ships, but share them with half as many people. This effect is amplified on longer one way voyages which frequently run under capacity. You could say Spirit Class ships have everything but the line.
Entertainment on the ship was good. I enjoyed several astronomy talks as well as a soloist.
In terms of the room, my offer was for an inside cabin. A little secret of Spirit class ships is that there are several cabins on deck four that count as “inside” but actually have floor to ceiling windows partially obstructed by a lifeboat.
Ponta Delgada
We crossed the Atlantic in four or five days, arriving first in Ponta Delgada on the island of São Miguel in the Azores. This is technically part of Portugal but administered as an autonomous region. I spent most of the day walking along the coast, inland, and then back through town.
Along the way, I stopped at Plantação de Ananás dos Açores, a pineapple plantation with free admission. They had a few exhibits, and you could walk through several of the crop areas. There was also a restaurant highlighting the pineapples. I suspect this place gets included in a lot of shore excursions.
Towards the end of the day, I stopped in Jardim Botânico José do Canto, a private garden with a small admission fee. José do Canto was a wealthy aristocrat with an interest in botany. He brought over 6,000 species to the Azores from all over the world in what eventually became this garden.
Straights of Gibraltar
After Ponta Delgada, it was another day and a half to the Straits of Gibraltar. We passed through the straits around midnight but this didn’t stop us from gathering at the bow, watching Africa and Europe slip by on either side and hoping to getting a glimpse of the rock. It was very windy and I wish I’d brought my strait jacket.
Málaga, Spain
Málaga is undoubtedly one of the more beautiful places I have ever visited. I spent the day hiking up to Fort Gibralfaro, at the top of a hill above the city. The path took me past beaches, through gardens climbing all the way up the hill, and then back through old town by the cathedral and shops. It was quite a steep climb.
Alicante, Spain
Alicante felt similar to Málaga, a little smaller and a little more quirkiness as betrayed by Callede Las Setas (The Mushroom Street). Still sore from the previous day, I took it easy, walking around town without scaling any mountain fortifications.
Alicante is the starting point for The Ocean Race, a sailing competition that circumnavigates the globe. They have a nice little museum in the harbour which has free admission.
Barcelona, Spain
I was only in Barcelona for a day, and I spent that time walking around the city, appreciating the architecture and exploring the parks and beaches. Towards the end of the day, I grabbed dinner in the gothic quarter before heading back to my hotel.
The main reason I only stayed one night in Barcelona is that hotels were very expensive and award availability extremely scarce. This proved an opportune time to use an expiring 85k certificate from my Marriott Ritz card for a stay at the upscale Cotton House Hotel.
Cotton House Hotel, Autograph Collection
High end hotel with luxurious common spaces in the heart of Lisbon.
Summary
This was a great trip and a fantastic way to get to Europe.
- $350 in cruise gratuities and port fees
- 13,500 Wyndham points
- 19,500 Amex points for the flight to Norfolk
- 85k Marriott Certificate
Had I flown on points, I’d still have needed to position and so the only difference would have been paying 60,000 points for a flight versus $350 for the cruise.
Keep reading with part two of this trip.
- Part 1: Sailing from America to Spain’s Gold Coast
- Part 2: Spain and Portugal by Train