Long line in Lisbon

When my husband, Ted, and I flew on TAP Portugal from Boston to Lisbon, Portugal, in February 2017, we landed at the airport on time, at 7:15 a.m. We were certain we would make our 9 a.m. connection to Barcelona, Spain, where we were booked for both ground transportation to the port and a cruise embarking that afternoon. However, we hadn’t factored in the enormous queue at Immigration in Lisbon.

TAP officials invited some travelers to join a fast-track Immigration line and kept telling us we would make our connections. We didn’t.

TAP covered the reroute to Casablanca, Morocco, on one of their planes, but we had to cover additional expenses, including the cost of the train from the airport to the port in Casablanca, two nights in a hotel and meals. At least a dozen others on our cruise had the same experience we had in Lisbon, missing the first couple days of the cruise.

After returning home, I wrote to the airline and received a response saying they have no control over Immigration.

In the future, we will plan to arrive a day ahead when embarking on a cruise.

CINDY PALMER

Southampton, MA