*Sept 10th 2011 WB Transatlantic* From Spain to Space Mountain - Part 3

[karentan]

at least if you do, you wont end up somewhere wierd, you'll just end up going round in circles!!

 

[Dgentrysim]

Thanks for this, Deb. . We arrive early on the Thursday morning and the HOHO bus seems ideal to see the main sights that day as we want to go to Montserrat on the Friday. I just hope I don't drift off to sleep on the bus with the jet lag

My DH and I are wanting to go to Montserrat on Friday too. How are you getting there? We won't be able to go until that afternoon....our plane lands at 10:30 Friday morning. We even thought about trying to go Sat. morning before boarding the ship. That's about the only thing we didn't do last May that I wanted to do.

 

[Dgentrysim]

at least if you do, you wont end up somewhere wierd, you'll just end up going round in circles!!

SO TRUE!!!

 

[Chris&Jeremy]

My DH and I are wanting to go to Montserrat on Friday too. How are you getting there? We won't be able to go until that afternoon....our plane lands at 10:30 Friday morning.

Maybe we are on the same flight - we land at 10:30am on Friday as well. Are you on American out of JFK?

 

[Dgentrysim]

Maybe we are on the same flight - we land at 10:30am on Friday as well. Are you on American out of JFK?

We sure are.....the flight times have changed a few times but that's the one we are on. I remember seeing one of your posts before thinking that we were probably on the same flight. I remember our flight to Barcelona last year....don't suppose it will be any shorter this time! UGH! I can't sleep on a plane no matter how hard I try!

 

[Pinky166]

Hi Claire

We have never used the hop on hop off buses, but my friend whom we met on last year's Dover Repo cruise swore by it. She has done all the previous TA cruises over the years and also does B2Bs as well every time and she highly recommended it. She said it was great.

Stevie and I used the metro a lot and bought the T10 ticket. If you buy one, it's a ticket with 10 journeys on it and we used it between us. One person scans and goes through the turnstyle and then you pass it to the next person who does the same, perfectly legal and saves you money if you don't need more than 10 tickets between you

I've got my BCN books and maps out too, looking at must sees for you

I've used the HOHO buses in other cities and always found them a great way to see the sights, even if you don't get off & do them all. So I was sure that they would be just as good in BCN but i'll let you know how we get on.

I had looked at the T10 tickets too but didn't realise you could share them so that is a great tip.

Thanks for your PM, i'll have a proper look in the morning.

 

[Chris&Jeremy]

We sure are.....the flight times have changed a few times but that's the one we are on. I remember seeing one of your posts before thinking that we were probably on the same flight. I remember our flight to Barcelona last year....don't suppose it will be any shorter this time! UGH! I can't sleep on a plane no matter how hard I try!

We were supposed to be on the earlier (6pm flight) before they canceled that one and we were moved to the 9pm flight instead:

AA 152 - Departs JFK 9pm (September 8), Arrives BCN 10:25am (September 9).

 

[Tod&Copper]

I've used the HOHO buses in other cities and always found them a great way to see the sights, even if you don't get off & do them all. So I was sure that they would be just as good in BCN but i'll let you know how we get on.

I had looked at the T10 tickets too but didn't realise you could share them so that is a great tip.

Thanks for your PM, i'll have a proper look in the morning.

We used the HOHO bus in Manhattan, now that was amazing and it was a brilliant way to see the Big Apple

I am so mega excited. We love F1 and we are getting on the med cruise 2 days after the Monaco Grand Prix. Apparently the HOHO bus in Monaco takes you round the F1 circuit... not the same as a racing car, but I'm excited about it anyway They'll probably be taking everything down by the time we circle back round to Villefranche towards the end of the cruise, but I'm sure we'll still see some traces of the F1 activity

 

[Dgentrysim]

We were supposed to be on the earlier (6pm flight) before they canceled that one and we were moved to the 9pm flight instead:

AA 152 - Departs JFK 9pm (September 8), Arrives BCN 10:25am (September 9).

That's the one! We were a little worried until this last time change.....from the time we arrived at JFK and when we left for Barcelona....we only had 35 minutes between flights! We kept thinking what if our flight from Raleigh was late! UGH! Now, we have a little more than an hour between when we land and take off at JFK. Whew! Still cutting it close but better than before!

 

[Chirpee]

My DH and I are wanting to go to Montserrat on Friday too. How are you getting there? We won't be able to go until that afternoon....our plane lands at 10:30 Friday morning. We even thought about trying to go Sat. morning before boarding the ship. That's about the only thing we didn't do last May that I wanted to do.

We're planning on going by train

We used the HOHO bus in Manhattan, now that was amazing and it was a brilliant way to see the Big Apple

I am so mega excited. We love F1 and we are getting on the med cruise 2 days after the Monaco Grand Prix. Apparently the HOHO bus in Monaco takes you round the F1 circuit... not the same as a racing car, but I'm excited about it anyway They'll probably be taking everything down by the time we circle back round to Villefranche towards the end of the cruise, but I'm sure we'll still see some traces of the F1 activity

Sounds fun.

We are going to the F1 race in Montreal this June...really looking forward to it and so glad that Formula 1 returned to Canada

 

[poohluv2u]

My DH and I are wanting to go to Montserrat on Friday too. How are you getting there? We won't be able to go until that afternoon....our plane lands at 10:30 Friday morning. We even thought about trying to go Sat. morning before boarding the ship. That's about the only thing we didn't do last May that I wanted to do.

We also want to go to Montserrat, probably on Friday as I would be a little nervous to be too far from port on Sat. We plan to go on the train, unless Disney would let us book a pre-boarding shore excursion. Anyone know if Disney allows that?

 

[Chris&Jeremy]

That's the one! We were a little worried until this last time change.....from the time we arrived at JFK and when we left for Barcelona....we only had 35 minutes between flights! We kept thinking what if our flight from Raleigh was late! UGH! Now, we have a little more than an hour between when we land and take off at JFK. Whew! Still cutting it close but better than before!

We have a SIX HOUR layover! The only direct flight between STL and JFK arrives at 3pm, so we opted to take that instead of having to do the whole fly to LaGuardia and take ground transportation to JFK thing.

I think we may spring for one day passes to the Admiral's Club to take advantage of the peace and quiet (and free internet & booze!) with such a long layover.

 

[auntlynne]

I did use the hop-on hop-off bus in Barcelona last spring. Barcelona is a city of varied architecture, which becomes evident as you ride. I picked the one that took credit cards; otherwise, I don't think they are much different. I think we used the red bus; there is also an aqua one (that's real techincal, isn't it?)

 

[JessicasMom]

I've used the HOHO buses in other cities and always found them a great way to see the sights, even if you don't get off & do them all. So I was sure that they would be just as good in BCN but i'll let you know how we get on.

We also used the BCN HOHO (bus turistic) last April with good results. I prepaid online (at a discount) and printed the internet voucher which stated it should be presented to the driver...fine, except the hostess and driver acted as if they had never seen such a thing and directed us (as well as another family with the same internet print-out) to a nearby kiosk....which was unstaffed . We all went back to the bus, pressed the issue , the hostess made a phone call, and we were all allowed on and given tickets. That was the only blip; otherwise, we had a great tour. The Magic was docked all day, and we wanted to be back onboard for dinner to say goodbye to our servers before disembarking very early the next morning, so we just rode all three loops to get an overview of the city. We walked down Las Ramblas and made our way back to the bus to return to the ship.

The only bad thing about the HOHO's is that they are one-way only. You can't backtrack without making an entire loop again, so plan accordingly (of course you can walk to the previous stop, but some are fairly far apart).

One of our favorite memories of that cruise was getting off the HOHO bus in Cadiz and having lunch at a little cafe in a park, where the man taking orders spoke absolutely no English. I took 3.5 yrs of high school Spanish but can't remember much of anything....we ended up with an interesting meal and had a fabulous time! We still laugh every time we think of it.

We'll be doing the HOHO again this year and will probably buy a 2-day pass since it's only a few more euros and we'll be arriving mid-afternoon on the 8th. That's the extent of my plans so far .

 

[Brookspayne]

ATTENTION all Mixology & Mojito tasting participants.

I am in correspondence with DCL regarding the tastings and have been asked for dates for the possible tastings.

Would everyone who has expressed interest please submit which dates are suitable.
I was thinking to do the meets on a sea day? If anyone has any other suggestions please post.
15th, 16th, 17th, 18th or 19th September?

Count us (3) in, any date we will be there.

Burnice, Lil and Ron

 

[LindaBabe]

Good Morning, happy Cruisers!

We're planning on Montserrat on Friday, also, by train & funicular. My goal is to be there in time to hear the choir at 1 pm.

The HOHO bus sounds great! I think we could do that on Wednesday when we don't have energy for hoofing it, lol.

Happy Day, ALL!

 

[MandyGirl]

Ed and I team teach the class just after nursery at church, the 3 year olds, we've served there for six years now and absolutely love it. My heart breaks every year when I have turn them over to the next teacher, but then we get a whole new set of kids to love

That's us... we serve in the 0-12 month old class. They just grow up way too quickly!!

ATTENTION all Mixology & Mojito tasting participants.

I am in correspondence with DCL regarding the tastings and have been asked for dates for the possible tastings.

Would everyone who has expressed interest please submit which dates are suitable.
I was thinking to do the meets on a sea day? If anyone has any other suggestions please post.
15th, 16th, 17th, 18th or 19th September?

Can you please add me for the mojito tasting?

$20 isn't too bad, compared with the price of a few drinks from the bar

I think when I have done it previously on Celebrity, it was $15. Always fun though!

We used the HOHO bus in Manhattan, now that was amazing and it was a brilliant way to see the Big Apple

Great tip! We are there a few days, and I have not even started planning that part out. Haven't been to NYC since my undergrad years!

We have a SIX HOUR layover! The only direct flight between STL and JFK arrives at 3pm, so we opted to take that instead of having to do the whole fly to LaGuardia and take ground transportation to JFK thing.

I think we may spring for one day passes to the Admiral's Club to take advantage of the peace and quiet (and free internet & booze!) with such a long layover.

I thought of you guys when I was connecting in STL Sunday morning. Hope you fared okay with the tornado that went through Friday evening. We were in the Southwest terminal, but could see the damaged terminal from the runway. I couldn't imagine being in there with all that glass when the tornado came through!!

 

[Chris&Jeremy]

I thought of you guys when I was connecting in STL Sunday morning. Hope you fared okay with the tornado that went through Friday evening. We were in the Southwest terminal, but could see the damaged terminal from the runway. I couldn't imagine being in there with all that glass when the tornado came through!!

We live about 20 miles from the airport, so no problems. I do work near the airport, though, and pass it every day, and the devastation in the neighborhoods surrounding it is CRAZY. Whole neighborhoods basically flattened. There was a large digital billboard next to the interstate - you know the ones that are like 60-80 feet tall? The steel pole that held it up was snapped completely in half like a toothpick. There is a warehouse right next to that where the steel skin has left a gaping hole in the side of it and you can see the storage racks and pallets inside.

I really don't understand how no one was seriously hurt or killed. It was an F-4 strength, they said.

You should search Youtube for "St Louis Airport Tornado" and view some of the videos that people took from inside the terminal. It catches the "freight train" sound and then windows blowing out. They also have surveillance footage from the concourse that shows basically everything not nailed down getting tossed around, the ceilings coming down, etc.

 

[MandyGirl]

We live about 20 miles from the airport, so no problems. I do work near the airport, though, and pass it every day, and the devastation in the neighborhoods surrounding it is CRAZY. Whole neighborhoods basically flattened. There was a large digital billboard next to the interstate - you know the ones that are like 60-80 feet tall? The steel pole that held it up was snapped completely in half like a toothpick. There is a warehouse right next to that where the steel skin has left a gaping hole in the side of it and you can see the storage racks and pallets inside.

I really don't understand how no one was seriously hurt or killed. It was an F-4 strength, they said.

You should search Youtube for "St Louis Airport Tornado" and view some of the videos that people took from inside the terminal. It catches the "freight train" sound and then windows blowing out. They also have surveillance footage from the concourse that shows basically everything not nailed down getting tossed around, the ceilings coming down, etc.

Amazing. I tried looking out the windows of the plane to see "the path" but could not. We did see some videos from inside the Southwest terminal -- I pointed out to my daughter "that's the Burger King we grabbed breakfast at!" when watching. I know the fuel farm had been a big concern getting the airport up and running again - having power for it to supply the airport with fuel. Some planes that had overnighted there needed fuel to be able to leave, and some coming in could at least "tanker" through but carry fewer passengers due to extra weight of fuel onboard. They finally got the power restored to the fuel farm. Surprisingly, the airport did not seem that crazy Sunday morning with all the cancelled passengers being rebooked on Southwest flights-- only the monitors in terminals were down so you had to ask a gate agent where your connecting flight was. Oh - and Burger King was out of EVERYTHING except ham-egg-cheese croissants LOL!

 

[Chris&Jeremy]

Amazing. I tried looking out the windows of the plane to see "the path" but could not. We did see some videos from inside the Southwest terminal -- I pointed out to my daughter "that's the Burger King we grabbed breakfast at!" when watching. I know the fuel farm had been a big concern getting the airport up and running again - having power for it to supply the airport with fuel. Some planes that had overnighted there needed fuel to be able to leave, and some coming in could at least "tanker" through but carry fewer passengers due to extra weight of fuel onboard. They finally got the power restored to the fuel farm. Surprisingly, the airport did not seem that crazy Sunday morning with all the cancelled passengers being rebooked on Southwest flights-- only the monitors in terminals were down so you had to ask a gate agent where your connecting flight was. Oh - and Burger King was out of EVERYTHING except ham-egg-cheese croissants LOL!

Since they have put the Dunkin Donuts in there, I prefer that to Burger King.

You need to see the videos from inside the main terminal - that's the one that had $10 million in damage and 75% of the windows blown out.

There was a photo in the newspaper yesterday that showed them removing the rudder of an American Airlines 757 that was damaged by some flying metal with a crane. When I drove by on my way home from work last night, I saw that poor plane sitting outside a maintenance hangar next to the interstate - rudderless, leaving it with only half of the AA logo.