We did a similar itinerary to Don. Lisbon to Rome.
We stayed three nights in Lisbon. What a beautiful city. We also stayed at the Lisbon Marriott, which was very nice, and only $55.00 per night all in on Pricline!
We spent a day in Sintra, a beautiful town just outside of Lisbon. We did have a lot of communication difficulties. Not as many people speak English in Portugal as other European cities. I ordered pork in a restaurant and they brought me goat! Then they wouldn't take it off the bill.
We got to the pier around 1:30pm. A white glove tuxedo clad member of staff came out to meet the taxi and escorted us onto the ship (carrying all our hand baggage) and into the Amundsen lounge. If you get to Seabourn before 3pm, they always have you wait in there. They do your ID badge in there while you wait. While waiting, there is champagne and canapes. We met some nice folks who we ended up spending quite a bit of time with on the cruise. We were then escorted to our suite. The room steward brought two glasses of champagne and more canapes. She then offered us a choice of soaps, such as Hermes. There was a bottle of perrier jouet chilling on ice.
After the life boat drill we went up to the sky bar. For sailaway they had the Seabourn quartet playing, lovely.
That night we had dinner with friends, (C & W, whom we had never met before) of friends. We hung out with them more than anyone else on the cruise.
On the second night(formal night) we were invited to dine with the Captain. He was just charming. I was seated next to him so it was a lot of fun.
The food on the cruise was unbelievable. By day three, when we went to the verandah for breakfast, two cappuchino and a glass each of grapefruit juice and orange juice would appear at our table. We had wonderful filet mignon, lobstah etc...
On two nights we had flambe and speciality coffees under the stars. The weather was perfect. We loved rock n' roll under the stars too. We danced all night.
The casino was fun. There were only about a dozen people on the ship who liked to gamble, so I made some casino buddies. One afternoon we played ocean poker for hours. It was very fun. When I left the ship I had netted $60. Yeah!
The "Seabourn Experience" is a complimentary shore excursion offered on every cruise. The last one was a private concert in the evening at the library at Kusadasi- magical. This one was a private flamenco concert at an estate in the countryside on Palma de Mallorjca. At the end of the dancing the main dancer wanted to get someone up to dance from the audience. She made a bee line for my husband. He did such a great job that for days everyone kept stopping him to tell him to give up his day job!
We had a great time ballroom dancing every night.
The entertainment on this cruise was the best I have seen on Seabourn. The cruise director, Eric De Gray, is immensely talented. He did a concert of broadway favorites. His piece de resistance is the music from Phantom. He just blew us away with that. They also had a soprano on board. She gave a lovely afternoon concert of arias in the observation lounge during afternoon tea. The duo in the club (piano and vocalist) were new and the best duo I have ever heard. In addition, the Seabourn quartet were terrific.
As we disembarked, the Captain waited at the end of the gangplank and shook hands with every single disembarking passenger.
Chester bought me a lovely ring on board. It was our fifth wedding anniversary. It's such a small ship that when I went through the receiving line at the Captain's gala he said, "Ok, show me the ring." I love that kind of personal service.
That's all I can think of. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.