I'm going to post a day by day trip report on the June 29 - July 7 Fiesta Espanda trip. I hope it's interesting, or at least useful. Disney has tried to include lots of magical surprises during the trip, and I've tried to keep some of them so that you can be surprised when you go on your own adventures.
Day One: Bievenidos
We arrive on time at Madrid airport after a good flight, and are met in the baggage area by Marc, one of our two
ABD guides. He is Spanish but lives in London. We have a LONG wait for our bags, but suddenly there they are. ABD has a skycap take our bags to a waiting minibus, which is just for us. Another family arrives at the same time as we do but they get their bags faster and take a separate bus. After a short ride to town, we arrive at small, pleasant Hotel Preciados. We check in effortlessly: thanks to ABD its the earliest check-in I've ever experienced. We meet Elizabeth, the other guide, who is from Salisbury, NC. We go upstairs our room isn't big but the bathroom is, and everythings clean and modern. There's a free minibar, a blow dryer, and a rollaway bed for our son, ready and waiting when we arrive.
After a siesta, we head out again we have free time until dinner. We take a cab to the Reina Sofia museum, which houses a large collection of modern art. We have lunch at a inexpensive cafe, El Brillante, around the corner from the museum - we eat outdoors and enjoy Serrano ham, manchego cheese, delicious heads-on grilled shrimp and excellent fried calamari. We spend about two hours enjoying a high-speed visit to the permanent collection of the museum, including an uncrowded view of Picassos famous Guernica (our son likes art museums, but he likes them FAST). We also stroll through the lovely, calm garden in the courtyard.
That evening, we meet up with the group for the first time in the breakfast room of the hotel and introduce ourselves. Theres 6 families with a total of 26 people, 12 of them children from ages 6 to 16. At seven and a half, our son is the second youngest, and the only boy under 10. One family is multigenerational, and theres a couple with their teenage granddaughter. Most families on the trip have traveled extensively, and for most this is not their first escorted tour (nor even their first ABD tour).
We walk as a group ten minutes to the restaurant Cafe des Orientes, across from the Royal Palace. We dine in a basement-level private room whose clear floor is built atop ancient Muslim ruins! Dinner includes various fun surprises, including music by a trio of singing law students and a birthday party for the youngest adventurer, who has just turned six. Dinner is good - we like the stuffed piquillo peppers - but it's weird for us to eat from a fixed menu. Finally we head back for some sleep after a long day!