Mediterranean Cruise aka Mysterious and Multi-cultural - Aug. 7th, 2010

[abayaflowers]

I started this thread, because many of us has started our journey to get to Barcelona for the Mediterranean Cruise beginning August 7th.

It will be good for those to know what we have done collectively to help out other future Med discruisers.

 

[abayaflowers]

So, we woke up early. My alarm woke me up at 4:30 a.m. I hit the snooze button twice. I finally woke up at 5:15 a.m. Then, I started load of laundry. I put the dishes away. Loaded up the dishwasher. Loaded up the car with carry-ons. Everyone had breakfast. Showered, brushed teeth, brushed everyone's hair, switched off the lights, and off we go by 6:40 a.m.

We arrived at the long term parking by 6:55 a.m. We took the shuttle. This is where the adventure begins.

A nice lady driver picked us us and we loaded up. Really nice. Once we started, she told us that at the next stop, she will be taking a break You got to be kidding me. Well, another driver took 5 minutes to inspect the shuttle and off we go. It took us another 15 minutes to stop at every shuttle stop. Then, we got to the exit gate. The arm wouldn't lift. Yes, wouldn't lift. We sat there for 5 minutes until someone actually came out to manually lift it. We finally arrived at the terminal to unload. Our airport was recently remodeled so I was not sure where to go. I found the elevator and WOW! what a beautiful airport so I thought. The security line was amazing. I am glad that we arrived early. I forgot to take the passport and tickets out. So, we let about 50 people pass us by before we got to the security.

As we proceeded to unload the liquids, lunch pails, purses, shoes, electronic devices, and luggage onto the screening belt, we had 10 trays out.
I looked like a sherpa unloading the pack. We let all the business and single travelers ahead of us. They were amazed and so was I that I got through with all that stuff. A nice gentleman helped push the luggage and trays through. At the receiving end, it was an amazing site to see. I wish that I took a picture. It took another 10 minutes to put everything back into the carry-on and purses.

We finally made it! 7:40 a.m. Yes!

Then, we boarded on time. Our flight has WiFi except with a fee. Our flight crew is wonderful and everyone is jovial including the Captain.

Neat experience. We should be at our next stop around 2 p.m. We have 4 more days until with embark on our cruise in BCN.

 

[abayaflowers]

We are now headed to PHL. The gate changed on us twice as we approached each gate. It was 106 degrees when we left DFW.

The DD's are so tired and so am I.

I just learned that the Spanish Air Traffic Controllers will go on strike as of August 18th, the day we disembark.

Well...we will either have to take a train back into one of the other countries and take a flight back.

 

[abayaflowers]

We arrived in Philadelphia really late. We took a taxi from the airport to Crowne Plaza Downtown. Neat hotel! It cost $33.50 to get there. We could have taken the SEPTA, but lugging all those carry-ons and tired children was out of the question.

Since we arrived around 9:30 p.m., everything was closed except for room service. I wished that something else was open, because the food was heavy. It was hard to get to sleep thinking about our future adventure.

The next day, we walked over to the Reading Terminal Market. That was a great experience. Very hot though! Sticky hot! Yuck!

We went back for a quick swim in the pool and then ventured out again to get the last minute items for our cruise.

I also toured a couple of the museums. Then, back to the hotel and relax.

Finally, my DH met flew in from a business trip.

Be aware that if you stay here overnight and have a car, one will be charged approximately $30 for parking.

The day of the flight, we did last minute laundry and went around to the historic district. We saw the liberty bell, and tour Benjamin Franklin's home. Then, to the local icecream parlor on 2nd street/Market. Lastly, my DH wanted to get Pat's famous cheesesteak to take on the plane.

Finally, we were on the road to the airport. There was an accident. Our flight was scheduled to leave around 6:30 p.m. We left around 3 p.m. We arrived early to find that there were other discruisers traveling on the same flight. We thought that it was crowded after we dropped off the rental car and did the bathroom break.

Wow! I was very wrong. When we prepared our things for security, there were approximately twenty people in front of us and 10 people in back. Only one line.

Then, when we turned back to look, the lines were packed and a line down the escalator. Whew! We made it in time.

We had two hours to spare and picked up a couple of things at the shop. When we returned, it was time to board.

Almost there!

Our flight on the plane was so "painful". Our DD's could not sleep while everyone else was snoring. A 7 hours 2 minutes flight was a big challenge. They finally slept 1 hour before we landed in Barcelona.

As for me, I barely had any sleep. My DD's kept kicking me. Oh! Well.

 

[abayaflowers]

We arrived by US Airways at the Barcelona Airport. First, I have to say that this is the MOST BEAUTIFUL AIRPORT that I have ever been and traveled to and from. I thought John Wayne Airport in Orange County was beautiful. The BCN airport trumps them all - clean, beautiful, access, etc.

We arrived at 8:35 a.m. We were all exhausted. Long flight

We went through Customs with our paperwork which was handed out to us on the flight. There was only our flight collecting our luggage. We were in awe. Just awe. I can't stop mentioning it.

Remember to use the ATM machines to get EUROS before you get to the public transportation. It's a better exchange rate.

There are a lot of quick snacks. All the drinks/bottles of beverages were smaller compared to what I am accustomed in CA.

The luggage carts are FREE.

The taxis are tiny. They will easily fit two large luggages or 4 small luggages.

We had 7 luggages: 2 big ones which were checked in and 4 carry-ons and a work bag. There is a surcharge of $1 EU per luggage.

You can only fit 4 people legally in a tax even if it is a van. Therefore, plan accordingly when travelling with more than 4 people. A transfer booked with your TA is better.

Our taxi driver was a kick. We told him to take us to the Hotel Fira Palace which he had to look up in a book. He read the directions while driving. He also put on some great techno music. I think what made our morning was when we asked for a dinner place recommendation for 11 people (5 DDs). He recommended CHINESE food.

Ok. We live in the San Francisco Bay Area where great Chinese food can be found anywhere. We were thinking of TAPAS.

Oh! Well, to them it was a big deal for Chinese food. We just take it for granted, because we have often.

So, we finally checked into our hotel. The architecture of Barcelona is amazing. Absolutely amazing. I am biased, because I hold Art History degree and my husband is an international architect.

So, the hotel lobby was HUGE and always clean. There were always 4 taxis outside.

We had no problem checking in even if the room was not ready. We dropped off our luggage and took another taxi to the Chocolate Museum where the DD's took a Chocolate Artist Class.

Musei de Xocolata was amazing. Every display was made of chocolate. Excellent chocolate. My daughter who is highly allergic (anaphylactic reaction) to milk finally had excellent chocolate. The class was one hour long. I sat there with my best friend and my DH and my best-friend's DH went and took a walk over to the masterpieces of Picasso. Absolutely amazing!

We were done around 2:30 p.m. We were exhausted. My DD10 was almost done when we took the HOHO bus. There is a Starbuck's near the bus stop, but none like you have ever experienced in the US. The food is not the same and the coffee is neat!

We took the Red/ROJO route. It cost about $80 for 4 in our family. $22EU for adults and $14.50 EU for children.

We took the bus back to our hotel and literally CRASHED. The DD's took a 3.5 hours nap. MY DH and I had a rare opportunity to nap for 1.5 hours.

Then, we headed off to dinner at Il Golfo Di Napoli which was a great restaurant next to the hotel. Fresh lobster and pasta.

Around 10 p.m., we all walked 1 block to the Magic Fountain...beautiful. Lights, music, and water...

Finally, we all said goodbye to our friends and went to bed.

Side note, we stay in an Executive Suite for $150 EU. The beds were huge, and could easily fit 2 on each bed. There's also a sofa bed.

The bathroom was huge: marble tile, bath tub separate from shower, two sinks, toilet, and bidet.

There was an inroom safe and lots of storage room.

However, bell service, room service, and housekeeping were really slow. Expect about 30 mins. for each service requested. Dining in the hotel was SO EXPENSIVE. Eat out. Save your money for the cruise and excursions.

Checking out was interesting, but that's for Aug. 7th.

 

[jd99]

More Geri more!!

 

[abayaflowers]

As we slept so well, I set our alarm to 9 a.m. to wake us up. The hotel room had no clock.

I needed more towels. Can’t find extra. We called housekeeping and 45 minutes later no towels. I called again and no one answered. Where are those towels?

Our DD7 woke up after I did. She was ready to go even in PJ's. I told her that we needed to get packed up, dressed, fed, and gather the items that we needed for our "magical" entrance onto the Disney Cruiseship.

She put her bathing suit, goggles, and bottled water into her carry-on.
She, then, decided to wake everyone up.

DH woke up and still did not feel well-rested I think he was too anxious to get on with his vacation. Unfortunately, he was still in work mode.
Since he and our DD10 are not morning people, he struggled to gather everything up. Once he got dressed, he left the hotel room in search of towels and inexpensive breakfast items.

Meanwhile, our DD10 was still sleeping. AH!! It’s almost 10 a.m. and she’s not up.

Unpacking the right things for the special day was a big task. So, here it is. Finally!

DH shows up with 3 bottles of water and two loaves of bread. No towels. OK. Where were the towels? Where was my breakfast? He forgot. ☹

This is where the mysterious experience begins… how to get towels and breakfast. Simple, which I thought. DH went down the hallway to find a housekeeper. Yeah! Towels! Showered, shampooed, and shined! I would just head down to the hotel restaurant and sit down for breakfast. Everything packed and we just have 1 hour and 15 minutes left before we have to check out.

Our DD10 struggled to get dressed, grumbled a little and off we went downstairs.

We walked into the almost empty “breakfast buffet” hotel restaurant. Well, I was told that they were closing. So, the head server recommended for us to go to the piano bar. Yes, they drink beer and alcohol with their breakfast. Honestly, I don’t want to eat breakfast in a piano bar.

We decided to go back into the room and order room service. Around 11 a.m., I order breakfast, and literally 45 minutes later, it arrived and $20 EUROS for an omelette. So slow! Everyone seems to be on vacation except me.

We also called for a bellperson to come help us with the bags. A handsome man and those shiny dress shoes showed up 30 minutes later and before room service brought up breakfast. We thought that the hotel was busy. It was not really. He was the only bellperson in the hotel.

Once down in the lobby, we saw other families leaving for the ship. EXCITING! 30 minutes later, we were checked out. But where was the bellperson with our bags? Nowhere to be found! Oh! There he was walking by us several times. 15 minutes later, he showed up with our luggage and we headed outside to catch a “taxi”.

Mystery?!? Where were all the taxis that were lined up outside the hotel? The bellperson did not understand it either! He informed us that the taxis are abundant. This was a first. 30 minutes later, a taxi finally shows up. The driver was very quiet and polite. We had 2 big luggages and 5 small ones. I thought that we had to take an extra taxi, but the driver managed to put it all into the “tiny” taxi.

Was our morning experience a bit of a cultural difference? Slow customer service? Or bad timing on everything?

Note: everyone assumed that I was a Spaniard or Italian. When I spoke back in my terrible Spanish, they did not seemed to be bothered. No one tried to speak English to me. They only spoke English to DH. Our children actually speak Spanish, but decided to forget the basic sentences.

Off we go…we were still exhausted from our air travel and in a daze of what type of monuments and architecture are around us.

The port was near our hotel, but that BRIDGE was something that I would have melted if I had to haul our entire luggage up and over the bridge.

We all see Terminal C with the GREAT DISNEY MAGIC! Woohoo!!!! We made it.

It was after 12:30 p.m., and we missed our friends who we were scheduled to meet at the port. Well, we checked in and showed our passports to everyone under the sun ☺

We received our Key to the World Card, took pictures, registered the children, and waited for our group to be called. No announcements for any groups. We realized that families were just walking in whenever they wanted.

Another mystery!

Then, we heard our family name announcement. Ok! MARQUIS is not our family last name, but the announcer has a hard time with figuring out how to pronounce our last name. So, that was close enough!

We headed to topsiders buffet for a late lunch. The girls want to go swimming. Oh! It was almost 2:30 p.m. and headed over to the goofy pool for our group's meeting.

Along the way, I dropped off my DD’s with DH. Then, I headed to the pool. I heard my name called… my family wants to swim at the goofy pool. They all staked out one recliner and started their water adventure. I finally met most of the fellow discruisers who we chatted on the disboards. We met jd99, pennymike, amyferret, Lorraine, GreekMinnie, LisaWalkerC21, GW45, and I know that I met more people, but I don’t remember their ID’s.

Anyways, once I met them, I wanted to introduce my DD’s and DH to them. I walked over to the top deck of the pool and back down. Simple, right? Wrong… I couldn’t find my family, walked back down the stairs and across the pool deck. Just then, I felt like the world was turning. Was the boat rocking? No! It was I slipping and falling on the wet pool deck.

Thank you to the ladies who helped me get up off the wet deck. Embarassing! Painful! AH!!! Then, I took my flip-flops off to walk better. AH!! I burnt my soles of my feet. The pool deck was SO HOT!

Ok! Enough of this physical adventure.

I said, “Good-bye” to the group and to find my family. We strolled back to our cabin and started unpacking, decorating doors, and rooms.

We finished around 6 p.m., and headed out to meet with our friends. Still trying to get over the time-difference and jet lag. Still walking around in a “foggy state”.

We were ready to give up and just sleep, but our friends convinced us to “party like rock stars”.
We walked into Walt Disney Theater and sat down. I really loved “Alfred & Seymour”. They were so funny! I realized that the fellow cruisers laughed more either because they were from California like myself, been in the Los Angeles area, or have experienced the “experiences” which Alfred & Seymour joked about in the skit.

We left after the show and headed to our first dinner. We had 11 people in our party. Our servers were from Jamaica and the Philippines. We were spoiled with our server and server assistant on the MR Cruise July 2008 and were disappointed to not have them again. We had to get over our disappointment and get use to our new serving team. They seemed to be overwhelmed somehow. I could not put my finger on it. We had second seating. I wanted to use Dine n’ Play, but the children did not get served until 9:45 p.m. They were so hungry. After they ate, we checked all 5 DD’s into the OC/OL/OQ. They were off on their adventure. We finally wrapped up dining around 10:30 p.m. SO LATE!

I did not understand why everything was late for our first day on the ship. WHEW! We walked around the ship an enjoyed our “alone time”. Then, we picked up our exhausted DD’s and turned in.

We were so happy to get to our stateroom. We said, “Good-night” to our friends and planned to sleep in.

We were surprised to have a nice quiet room (7535). We had two neighbors. I believe one was French and the other family was from another country, which I only heard them speak once in the hallway.

DD’s decided to watch a Disney movie. I forgot to mention that DD10 developed a cough from all the smokers wherever we went. Both our DD’s are asthmatic. It was a challenge on our first two days in Barcelona. I thought it would clear up on the ship.

After the late night movie, we said “Goodnight” to our DD’s. DH and I settled and off to sleep. In the middle of the night DD10 woke up coughing and I made her drink some water. Then, she went to the bathroom. She came out and I wanted to check her throat and temperature just in case. So, I depressed the miniature flashlight and found her eyes starting to swell. Whoa! I was taken aback. I immediately went into anxiousness. Was she having an allergic reaction? She’s only allergic to seafood, peaches, grasses, trees, and mold. She did have a funny reaction to a drink at a Barcelona Starbuck’s citrus drink. She started getting hives around her mouth. So, I gave her Benadryl.

I gave her more water to drink and she used the bathroom again. Then, she came out. AH!!! Her eyelids looked more swollen just like a goldfish. AH!!! I started to freak out and gave her more Benadryl. I just couldn’t figure out what made her react. I kept asking her if she can breathe. I had an epi-pen ready just in case she couldn’t speak or breathe. I kept looking at her tongue and color of her lips. I gave her more water. Then, she went to the bathroom again.

In the meantime, DH decided to the laundry since we had so much from our Philly mini-trip and two days in Barcelona.

When he returned, I was absolutely freaking out. Her eyes were almost swollen shut, and I was ready to call the Medical place. DH said to give her more Benadryl. I also gave her the inhaler just in case. She tried to go to sleep, but felt uncomfortable.

DH left the room to get the laundry, and a big “AH HA!”. I jumped up from the bed and started reading the ingredients on the soap bar box. There it was… citrus products. She was having a bad reaction to the soap’s ingredients. When I realized what it was, I threw it away and removed all the products from the bathroom. I brought out good old DOVE soap bar and made her wash her hands and face. Whew!

The swelling started to subside around her eyes. By this time, DH and I did not sleep until 4 a.m. to make sure DD10 was recovering ok. Whew!
We finally went to sleep. Breathe in…breathe out… breathe in… breathe out… Vacation… Vacation… Vacation…

August 8th is a new day at sea.

 

[tinkerbellandeyor]

 

[jd99]

Wow Geri
I didn't know about your daughter's reaction to the soap. How scary. Glad you figured it out!

 

[Displaced CA Girl]

Loving your report, Geri! Can you believe a week ago we were enjoying our last at sea day!? Lisa

 

[abayaflowers]

Loving your report, Geri! Can you believe a week ago we were enjoying our last at sea day!? Lisa

Hi, Lisa! It's great to hear from you! I know. I am still in a daze from the time difference. Hope that you and your family had a great trip back!

 

[abayaflowers]

Wow Geri
I didn't know about your daughter's reaction to the soap. How scary. Glad you figured it out!

We were glad, too! Very glad. I thought that we had to use our trip medical insurance.

Can you send me a cheat sheet or short-cut on how to add photos? When I click on insert image, it prompts me to enter the image URL. I don't have a URL for the image. I have it on my laptop. Thanks!

 

[jd99]

We were glad, too! Very glad. I thought that we had to use our trip medical insurance.

Can you send me a cheat sheet or short-cut on how to add photos? When I click on insert image, it prompts me to enter the image URL. I don't have a URL for the image. I have it on my laptop. Thanks!

It's kind of a pain. YOu have to load on Photobucket or similar first then you get the url code. I wish it was like facebook where you just load and go.