CarolAnnC
<font color=blue>Caught Smuggling Jello Shot Syrin
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2000
I have enjoyed reading so many Med Cruise blogs and trip reports that I thought I would try to make a journal of my own here.
We are a family of 4 - myself, DH John, DD's Kristen and Jennifer.. We are heading off for our Trip of a Lifetime! We booked the Med cruise totally on DVC points but feel it will be totally worth it.
We left Chicago Sunday afternoon and arrived at O'Hare Airport via limo. Nice sunny travel day and flight was on time. I had not been to the international terminal at O'Hare before and have one suggestion for those who will be going there. We thought we would just pickup a quick snack there for lunch prior to boarding. The "quick snack" ended up costing $50 for the 4 of us! Prices are outrageous and selections are few and far between. I would suggest bringing food and snacks from home instead.
Security was long and crowded. Good thing we arrived 3 hrs early as we needed all that time to get through and out to our gate. Weren't there long at all then we were boarding.
We flew on SWISS airlines which was our first time with them. I was very impressed. The staff were very polite and attentive. They must have come by at least 6-8 times with the drink cart and also provided dinner and breakfast as well as a little snack. They even gave a light lunch on our connecting flight from Zurich to Barcelona. This was the first time since the 1970's that I had real silverware in Coach class on a flight!
We changed planes in Zurich, and it was very convenient that our checked luggage was transferred by the airlines instead of us. We just headed off the plane with carry ons and got on the new flight. I will mention that the Zurich Airport was rather unique in that the ladies room did not have any handicapped accessible stalls at all in the ladies room. I was surprised at this, and I guess we sometimes take the US amenities for granted.
Upon arrival in Barcelona (which was on time yay) we were met by our driver right after we picked up our luggage. Youtransfers was excellent! Very nice, good driver, friendly and lumped all our luggage (16 pieces total including carryons) into the vehicle. No small task I might add for this family lol.
We headed off to our hotel Rivoli Ramblas where we were able to check right into our rooms. It was about 3:30 pm when we were settling in our rooms. The location is excellent here right on Las Ramblas and our rooms look right over it. We headed out and were starving so had dinner right away. We crossed the street and found the first restaurant and headed inside. Food was ok, not great but beware of something here. I had seen this previously on Samantha Brown's show on the Travel Show but had not experienced it before. Remember, just because the waitstaff places food on your table, does not mean it is free nor "included". This waiter brought a small basket of breads and a plate of olives. Only John likes olives, so he proceeded to enjoy all of them. That plate of olives ended up costing us $9 US on our bill! So diner beware!
We found our way to a small supermarket on Las Ramblas after dinner trying to find distilled water for DH's CPAP machine. No luck there. It was sort of like an embellished Seven Eleven store lol. We then backtracked to a Farmacia (pharmacy) which we saw. We were able to purchase two small bottles there which will be a start but certainly not enough for the whole trip.
By now we were so tired, most of us having no sleep or very little for the past 24 hrs that we headed back to the hotel to crash. Slept in and not counting several wakeup times, lol, was asleep about 12 hours. More on our second day in Barcelona later....
We are a family of 4 - myself, DH John, DD's Kristen and Jennifer.. We are heading off for our Trip of a Lifetime! We booked the Med cruise totally on DVC points but feel it will be totally worth it.
We left Chicago Sunday afternoon and arrived at O'Hare Airport via limo. Nice sunny travel day and flight was on time. I had not been to the international terminal at O'Hare before and have one suggestion for those who will be going there. We thought we would just pickup a quick snack there for lunch prior to boarding. The "quick snack" ended up costing $50 for the 4 of us! Prices are outrageous and selections are few and far between. I would suggest bringing food and snacks from home instead.
Security was long and crowded. Good thing we arrived 3 hrs early as we needed all that time to get through and out to our gate. Weren't there long at all then we were boarding.
We flew on SWISS airlines which was our first time with them. I was very impressed. The staff were very polite and attentive. They must have come by at least 6-8 times with the drink cart and also provided dinner and breakfast as well as a little snack. They even gave a light lunch on our connecting flight from Zurich to Barcelona. This was the first time since the 1970's that I had real silverware in Coach class on a flight!
We changed planes in Zurich, and it was very convenient that our checked luggage was transferred by the airlines instead of us. We just headed off the plane with carry ons and got on the new flight. I will mention that the Zurich Airport was rather unique in that the ladies room did not have any handicapped accessible stalls at all in the ladies room. I was surprised at this, and I guess we sometimes take the US amenities for granted.
Upon arrival in Barcelona (which was on time yay) we were met by our driver right after we picked up our luggage. Youtransfers was excellent! Very nice, good driver, friendly and lumped all our luggage (16 pieces total including carryons) into the vehicle. No small task I might add for this family lol.
We headed off to our hotel Rivoli Ramblas where we were able to check right into our rooms. It was about 3:30 pm when we were settling in our rooms. The location is excellent here right on Las Ramblas and our rooms look right over it. We headed out and were starving so had dinner right away. We crossed the street and found the first restaurant and headed inside. Food was ok, not great but beware of something here. I had seen this previously on Samantha Brown's show on the Travel Show but had not experienced it before. Remember, just because the waitstaff places food on your table, does not mean it is free nor "included". This waiter brought a small basket of breads and a plate of olives. Only John likes olives, so he proceeded to enjoy all of them. That plate of olives ended up costing us $9 US on our bill! So diner beware!
We found our way to a small supermarket on Las Ramblas after dinner trying to find distilled water for DH's CPAP machine. No luck there. It was sort of like an embellished Seven Eleven store lol. We then backtracked to a Farmacia (pharmacy) which we saw. We were able to purchase two small bottles there which will be a start but certainly not enough for the whole trip.
By now we were so tired, most of us having no sleep or very little for the past 24 hrs that we headed back to the hotel to crash. Slept in and not counting several wakeup times, lol, was asleep about 12 hours. More on our second day in Barcelona later....