Sep 29

Sep 29 Day 07 - Funchal, Madeira

Ship: Princess Cruises’ Sun Princess
Itinerary: 16-Night Transatlantic - Southampton to Fort Lauderdale

Today, Sun Princess is docked in Funchal, Madeira. Funchal is the capital city of Portugal's Madeira archipelago. It's backed by hills, and known for its harbor, gardens and Madeira wine cellars. Fronting the harbor is the São Tiago Fortress, built in the 1600s. It now houses the Contemporary Art Museum, with a large collection of Portuguese works.

On our last visit to Funchal in 2019, we rode the cable car to the top of the mountain, and rode the wicker basket down the streets. It was great fun, and, something we can highly recommend. Today, however, we decide on a more sedate activity.

As we disembark Sun Princess and walk through the cruise terminal building, local musicians and folk dancers are on hand to welcome us.

A little more than a mile from the cruise terminal, we walked by a Hop On/Hop Off bus stop and decided to give it a try. We have done these tour buses in many cities around the world and, typically, they offer a good, affordable way to see a new city. When you purchase a 24-hour ticket, you can hop on and off as many times as you like along the route. The ticket here was 19€, or about $21.

Any time we ride a Hop On/Hop Off, we insist on sitting on the top deck, otherwise, what is the point? Therefore, we usually only do these when the weather is nice, and today it is a perfect 85 degrees (F).

Early in the tour, we drive under the cable cars that we rode to the top of the mountain on a previous visit here.

There are many roundabouts in Funchal, and most are decorated with sculptures like the one below.

We rode the HoHo bus for about an hour-and-a-half and enjoyed some of the great scenery from the top of one of the mountains. There are many places where you can hop off the bus to do some shopping, or have lunch at a local restaurant. I should also mention that each person on the bus is provided with earphones that you can plug into the back of the seat in front of you to get an audio guided tour of the sights and attractions during the route. The narration is offered in several languages.

We are back at the cruise terminal by about 1:00pm and appreciate the refreshment station that Princess offers guests returning from excursions. Our favorite is the cucumber water.

As I have mentioned previously, we usually only do one large meal per day and, since today is Sunday, we thought we would visit Alfredo’s Pizzeria on Deck 9 for pizza. Sunday is my “cheat day” on my Carnivore diet, and I allow myself to eat anything I want, so my go-to is pizza!

We arrive at Alfredo’s at around 2:00pm and were surprised that the restaurant was full! We put our name on a list and the hostess gave me a beeper so she could notify me when our table was ready. It took about 15 minutes for a table to open up and we were seated.

Our waitress presented us with our menus and pointed out that, as Premier Package holders, we could order one item from the antipasti menu, a pizza or calzone, and a dessert. She made sure to inform us that the specialty pizzas (Tony Gemignani Pizzas) were not included in our package and would be at additional cost. It was at this point that we realized, much like our experience at Kai Sushi, that “unlimited” has a different meaning on Princess.

I ordered the Mozzarella Fresca e Verdure Grigliate as a starter which was a giant ball of Mozzarella covered in a pesto and drizzled with a very high quality olive oil. It was very good. Rickee’s Insalata Mista was equally delicious.

Rickee ordered a half Margherita and half Bianca. I think she preferred the Bianca to the Margherita.

I ordered the New Yorker pizza from the specialty menu ($12). The restaurant manager even came to the table to remind me that my order was not included in the Premier package and would be an additional $12. I told him that was fine and I was okay with that.

The service was extremely slow at Alfredo’s. It took nearly 40 minutes for us to get our pizza after we had finished our salads. The restaurant manager apologized for the delay when our pizzas finally did arrive and even offered to remove the charge for the specialty pizza as compensation. That was a nice gesture.

So, how was the pizza? In my opinion, it was good and near the top of the best pizzas you will find on a cruise ship. However, a few days later I would discover that best pizza on Sun Princess was not at Alfredo’s.

To cap off my cheat day, I decided to go to Coffee and Cones on Deck 17 poolside to try one of the Premium Desserts (see below). There are six different Premium Desserts from which to choose and the Premier Package offers unlimited Premium Desserts. I ordered The Godfather and it was delicious. However, I don’t think there is any way I would pay $17, which is the listed price.