August 10, 2013 Magic 7 Day Med!!

[RadiGoofy]

Hello,

We are spending 1 day pre/post cruise in Barcelona. Any suggestions for must-have food stops in Barcelona? Thanks.

 

[lsroka21]

Isroka21, if you are looking for Ideas for Barcelona, the Rick Steves' guide book has a bunch of great ideas with descriptions to help you select what might interest you in the city.

We are arriving in Barcelona on Aug 8th and staying at the Hilton Diagonal Mar we plan on going to the beach near the hotel and check out the area near our hotel for that day because we will be shot from the time change.

On the ninth we are planning on doing the HOHO bus, checking our the Rambles walking tour and going to Sagrada Família.

On the tenth we checkout of the hotel and go to the ship for lunch.

@Magic 2013 - those sound similar to some thoughts we had. We might take the tram up to Tibadabo and explore around there - the views are supposed to be superb. Will look for a copy of Rick Steves' guide book to Barcelona this weekend (or maybe see if I can get it on my Nook to read on the plane on the way over).

I think we are going to check out the outside of Sagrada Familia but skip inside - read it wasn't worth the 15 Euros each to see the inside. Has anyone been inside? Thoughts???

We are staying in the other Hilton prior to the cruise and the Hilton Diagonal few days after the cruise. Let me know if you find other good sounding places.

Maybe we'll see you on the cruise, if we don't run into you ahead of time in Barcelona.

 

[texasgirl29]

I think we are going to check out the outside of Sagrada Familia but skip inside - read it wasn't worth the 15 Euros each to see the inside. Has anyone been inside? Thoughts???

We have tickets for touring the Sagrada Familia -- the reviews I've read for the most part say it's amazing. 60 Minutes did a segment on it not so long ago -- it may be on their website.

For me, it's sort of a personal quest. I'm not Catholic (I'm Episcopalian) but I sat down in the very modern chapel at our diocesan retreat center and it just hit me that I needed to see the great cathedrals of Europe. Sagrada Familia is supposed to be a chance to see a great cathedral in progress.

JoAnn

 

[bats]

Sorry for any confusion .. that was me who put about a shortened visit in Naples, but I did mean our own personal trip and not the ship!!

We've done 2 Med DCL cruises before so will not be getting off very much, but we'll look after the ship for you all.

We board this Tuesday for the 4 nighter, so we'll see you a little while after that

 

[texasgirl29]

Since we'll all be meeting in just a week or so, I thought I'd post a photo so you can be on the look out for us! This was taken (obviously) in Alaska two years ago.

 

[JLSE50]

Kinda weird but I got an email from Ticketmaster this morning saying there were technical problems with the pdf I previously received and printed out for Sagrada Familia.

I printed out the new ones and took the old ones, taped them together. I'll bring both sets as well as the email. I'm just a little paranoid about not having the authentic printout.

GOOD PLAN

I have not been able to print my pdf at all. I emailed customer service and they said to try in 3-4 more days, which didn't work again. Yesterday, I just emailed Ticketmaster again. I am hoping to be going on Aug 9th at 11:00.

Our ticket time is 10 am on the 9th.

There are 12 of us in our group -- the 10 English group was full.

........
I think we are going to check out the outside of Sagrada Familia but skip inside - read it wasn't worth the 15 Euros each to see the inside. Has anyone been inside? Thoughts???
............

We have tickets for touring the Sagrada Familia -- the reviews I've read for the most part say it's amazing. 60 Minutes did a segment on it not so long ago -- it may be on their website.

For me, it's sort of a personal quest. I'm not Catholic (I'm Episcopalian) but I sat down in the very modern chapel at our diocesan retreat center and it just hit me that I needed to see the great cathedrals of Europe. Sagrada Familia is supposed to be a chance to see a great cathedral in progress.

JoAnn

YES IT IS AMAZING. THE INSIDE IS AMAZING TOO. THERE IS SYMBOLISM ALL OVER. Our Transatlantic DCL cruise in 2010 was chosen since it had Barcelona as a port of call so we could go to Sagrada. We did a DCL excursion. I have been following the construction progress and wanted to see it so we booked the Inaugural Venice-Dubrovnik Cruise this year with a pre-cruise day in Barcelona so we could see it. We got headsets with prerecorded English info and made our own tour at our own pace. I am not Catholic either--Presbyterian--but this is a structure built to honor God and it has fascinated me for DECADES. To be able to see it in person was beyond belief. I never thought I would ever see it, so never even had it on a bucket list. Then DH got me there twice!


We got strange print outs for Sagrada too so took them with us. It seemed there was some possibility that we could get tickets at a ticket master booth but the one we found in Barcelona only had English instructions in the first few screens, so with trepidation we went to Sagrada with the printouts from home.

I saw a LONG LINE so I asked a security guard and he showed me what window to go to at our appointed time. The lady there said that the ATMs do not work, we had done the right thing and here were the tickets. One did not work in the turnstyle so she gave us another.

Crazy system but everyone was very nice.
ENJOY!!

We had a great time on the June 27-July 9 Inaugural Cruise to Venice and Dubrovnik

(They had Venice shirts that were either polo shirts or button down short sleeved shirts but in a Mediterranean orange. I don't wear orange well but now I kind of wish I had gotten them. But keep reminding myself they were orange. And tell myself that I sure did not want to pay full price............
Now....... ....if there was an outlet for DCL items..... )


HAVE A GREAT TIME

Jan



.

 

[Twin mummy]

It get its premiere on the magic this Thursday, so will be showing when we are on it.
My son will be excited!!
They still don't know we are cruising yet

 

[CBEB]

I'm so very sad to say that we've had a medical emergency today and have to cancel our cruise. However, I'm glad we were still at home (set to leave later today!) when this happened.

Have a wonderful cruise, everyone! We'll be thinking of all of you!

 

[GW45]

Oh I'm so sorry to hear that- hope you're all okay? It's too bad that you had to cancel but better now than if you were en route to Barcelona.
Hopefully the situation will be resolved and you can reschedule your cruise at some stage. Take care!

(I'll leave a note with the other FE people in case some are already travelling and don't get to log on to Disboards before the cruise).

 

[CBEB]

Oh I'm so sorry to hear that- hope you're all okay? It's too bad that you had to cancel but better now than if you were en route to Barcelona.
Hopefully the situation will be resolved and you can reschedule your cruise at some stage. Take care!

(I'll leave a note with the other FE people in case some are already travelling and don't get to log on to Disboards before the cruise).

Thanks for letting the other FE people know. Nothing life-threatening - grateful for that - and definitely thankful that we had not started our travel (we were suppose to fly this afternoon). We're all very sad to miss this but we know there will be another chance sometime in the future.

Have a fantastic cruise!

 

[texasgirl29]

Liz, we're going to miss you! You have such a good attitude in handling your disappointment. Hope to see you another time!

 

[GW45]

All packed- better get to bed for a quick 3 1/2 hrs sleep. Have to be up at 3.30 as we have a 6.30am flight to Barcelona. See you all on the other side

 

[texasgirl29]

Off the ship and resting at the hotel in Barcelona. Had a terrible cold and meds knocked me out so napped instead of getting out and about. I think my body was trying to tell me -- enough already!

I wanted to thank everyone in the FE group. This was my first time to do it and my girls were delighted to come to our room and find little (and not so little) gifts. "Why didn't we do this before, mom?" "Thanks for signing us up!"

The collapsible water bottles toured Italy with us. They loved the signed frames. The packets of candy are going to work with me so I can extend the magic just a bit more and the planning box will get to good use as my mother in law is taking the girls on a 4 night cruise on the magic out of Galveston on New Year's Eve. The girls want to do FEs again but I'll have to do the coordinating.

Trip report will be forthcoming after we get back to Texas.

 

[GW45]

Hi JoAnn!
Glad you're resting- I'm a bit bleary eyed with tiredness after our early start and sad to be off the ship. You'll be glad to know your cooling neck wraps made it home in our luggage without any questions asked..... That's about the only good thing about our trip home!
After the 6.15 alarm call and rushed breakfast in Topsiders we were off the ship just after 7 and straight into a taxi and at Aer Lingus check in by 7.20 (first in line).......where we waited, and waited for it to open. By 8 am the three other Irish families I recognised from the ship had joined the line and when there were about 50 people in line the check in staff came along and informed us they wouldn't be opening for 20 mins. For the next 2 and a half hours they just chatted, looking at the ever growing crowd of people lining up to check in, were obviously joking about us in Spanish- whenever anyone approached the desk they s******ed '5 minutes, 5 minutes' - their systems appeared to be down, or they may have been on strike or a 'go slow' action but there were no announcements made or any info given. We expected to be waiting at the airport if the disembarkation and taxi went smoothly but figured we'd be shopping in duty free or sitting down having coffee in the departure area but this was infuriating- there was nowhere to sit , with lots of elderly people standing for 2 and 3/4 hrs. They eventually checked us in at 10 and the flight was late leaving. The Aer Lingus crew apologised for the way the Barcelona airport staff had treated us and also apologised for the plane's appearance as the contract cleaners in Barcelona airport had gone on strike!

After such a lovely cruise it was maddening to have such an irritable trip home but at least it was a short flight ( before we had another long wait for luggage!! At that stage it was all laughable!)

Thanks so much to the FE families for all the lovely gifts, the kids got a great kick out of finding surprises in our ( giant ) FE and the lollipops and jellies made the long airport ordeal a bit easier ! Hope you all get home safely

 

[kel585]

Hi all, we're also happy to be home after our crazy day of travel, it was a shame because our whole trip had gone perfectly up until our travel home, but we all go here in the end!

Thanks all for your lovely FE gifts too! It was also our first time to participate and we loved it! I kinda loved the panic of leaving the gift in the FE without being caught, it made all the kids giggle to try quietly put the gift in an then run as fast as they could!

Hope you all enjoyed you're cruise as much as we did!

 

[texasgirl29]

We're home again and it's back to work!

I'm starting my trip report -- http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3161128

 

[1travelgirl]

The FE gifts were great and came in handy on several occasions. Thanks everyone!