I have read so many TRs over the past few years, but this is the first one I am attempting myself. I hope to finish it!
Trip Background/Planning:
My family of 3 lives in Maryland between DC and Baltimore. My husband's family is all in the UK as he came over for work in '03 and has stayed. Our kiddo is 13. For the first time, we decided to go on a family holiday with my newly-widowed MIL and my SIL and nephew. [My brother in law died of brain cancer 9 years ago:(] The cousins are only 9 months apart but due to UK vs US summer break timings, finances, and Covid, we haven't seen them that much and never outside of the UK.
As the single parent, my SIL suggested Portugal was in their budget and had a direct flight to Faro from their town. Once we booked a resort for the week we planned to be together and got my MIL on a flight from London, I worked on our logistics of getting there and what we would do before and after the beach holiday.
Flight to Lisbon:
Thanks to points and a previous trip's Air Canada credit, we found flights for no additional cost from EWR on 24 July. Both the husband and I worked a part day and then drove up to EWR. I had used SpotHero to find a very good parking rate at Victoria Parking--I'd use them again.
Upon check in, the AC rep said our Zone 4 boarding wouldn't be good enough for our carry on bags (I almost always enforce this on European trips in summer), so he offered to check them to Lisbon for free. As we had everything important in our backpacks, we went for it. AC's bag tracking kept me updated that the bags made the flights, so I did not worry too much. Newark is much nicer than it was when I lived in NYC in the early 00s, but the recent stories about ATC had made me nervous. Luckily, we had good weather and our flight to Toronto left a bit early. Based on when we boarded, we could have easily carried on the bags. Oh well.
Toronto was fine--the international terminal felt full, and the thunderstorms that swept in just after our landing did not help that feeling. However, our delay was very small--20 minutes--and mostly just required a gate change due to crowding. The flight over was fine. We declined dinner as takeoff was after 11pm and we wanted to try and nap at least.
ARRIVAL - 25 July
Lisbon Airport. I'd read the warnings but missed the news of the strikes. We were parked well away from the airport and then waited another 45 mins on the plane/stairs as we were in the second round of buses and the strike included a slow down of the passenger buses to/from the terminal.
Passport control was as chaotic as promised because we had an under 18. Her age prevented us from using the e-Gates, and the family queue was approximately another hour of waiting. Husband was feeling ill from poor sleep and the waiting, so I sent him through the adults only line. He was through in minutes and able to secure our bags which had already been moved off the carousel.
Luckily, the time in line gave me a chance to turn on the Airalo eSim (had never used before and worked well overall) and correspond with our host in Alfama. She gave good advice about using Uber/Bolt vs the metro for this initial trip into the city. Eventually, we were in the car headed to the flat. As we drove through the sun-drenched streets, I noticed my daughter really flagging in the backseat in a way that didn't seem just tiredness.
In the next installment, learn all about a great walk-in Urgent Care clinic in Lisbon.