The Spa Twins take on the Atlantic

It sure was!! When it started to thunder and then the lightening started, I really got scared. It took days for my sneakers to fully dry out.

Was that the Friday? If so Barcelona airport closed while we were enroute so we ended up diverting to Bordeaux for 2 hours before finally getting in around 2am Saturday!
 
....lol and we were diverted to Madrid for 3 hours on the tarmac before arriving at Barcelona at 3 am eventually!!!:rolleyes1


Love reading your TR Terry :thumbsup2







:littleangel:
 


I'm loving the trip report :thumbsup2 Can't wait to read more. It is kind of ironic that I read about your rainy adventures while we're in the midst of a Nor Easter here:rotfl: I'm sure I've seen a few cats and dogs hitting the deck;)
 
Was that the Friday? If so Barcelona airport closed while we were enroute so we ended up diverting to Bordeaux for 2 hours before finally getting in around 2am Saturday!

Yes, that was that Friday...
 
I'm loving the trip report :thumbsup2 Can't wait to read more. It is kind of ironic that I read about your rainy adventures while we're in the midst of a Nor Easter here:rotfl: I'm sure I've seen a few cats and dogs hitting the deck;)

Thanks Deb. It is still sunny outside here and warm but they are forecasting we are going to get some wind.
 


We planned this trip for two years. :cool1::cool1::cool1:

We had such a grand time turning fifty-five at WDW, that we asked our families to come and celebrate with us as we turned 60. We couldn’t get any of our family to sign up. They all had some excuse. Terry’s family includes teachers, so they had very valid reasons for not traveling at the start of school.

September is a busy month for most professional fund raisers, so it wasn’t a good time for my daughter. My son just said no. So it was meant for Terry and I to cross the Atlantic when I saw a voyage on the cruise thread that started on my birthday and was in St. Maarten on her birthday. :banana:

We called Disney cruise and found the perfect cat 6 room, midship on deck six. We booked it and started planning. We started posting on the Westbound Transatlantic meet thread. By the time we sailed, we were traveling with 300 of our closest friends. :thumbsup2

When we cruised on the Wonder in 2008 and rebooked, we were able to upgrade to a perfect cat 5 cabin midship on deck 7. A few month before we left, Terry noticed an offer to upgrade to a cat 4 room midship deck 8 for $55 each. So we ended up in cabin 8040. Score!

Neither of us slept well the night before we left. I couldn’t wait to pick Terry up and bring her and her luggage to my house so Al could take us to the airport. When Terry got in the car I asked her, do you have your passport? Driver’s license? Credit cards? Underwear? When she said yes to all the important things we excitedly drove to my house.

As we printed last minute things like Terry’s calling cards, she shot out her seat and screamed, “I can’t believe it! I left the door magnets!” :scared1::scared1: With a quick call to her daughter, and a small amount of begging my daughter, we convinced them to meet halfway so we could spend the last few minutes packing the car. There was no way we could go in any peace without our fish extender and door magnets. Terry had worked too hard on them not to have them for our two week trip of a lifetime. We were turning 60!!:love:

Al got us to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We got through security with nary a snag and got to our gate with all of our carryons. Woo Hoo! Vacation had begun. The first disser we ran into was Melody and her daughter-in-law Amy and son Dave. We also met a lady named Lynne. We were all transatlantic pirates. pirate:

We got on the plane and for whatever reason, our oxygen masks fell out. :confused3:confused3 The flight attendant kept asking if we had gotten them down. We kept saying no. Finally Terry told them her Pal Mickey did it. They sent the maintenance man out to stuff them back up. :flower3:

We were getting ready to pull back when they came on the air and asked everyone to look at their passport. Some guy had lost his. This was repeated a few times until they finally found it at the front counter. YAY.:woohoo:

As soon as we left the gate we pulled to the tarmac and stopped. The pilot came on and stated that we were sixth in line and the tower wanted him to cut the engines, but he was going to try and reroute us. My heart sank. How long would we be stuck on the tarmac? About an hour later he came back on and said we were going to be rerouted through New York. We were on the way!

We arrived in Barcelona two hours late. I didn’t care. We were there. We got all of our luggage! It was all there! YAY! So we got in the taxi line. No one wanted to take us. Finally we just started tossing our luggage in an empty cab. :drive: Big mistake. The cabbie didn’t speak a word of English. And when we told him the name of the hotel, he didn’t know what we were talking about. Crap. Terry's confirmation paper had the phone number, but no address!! :eek: She and the cabbie went to speak to the head cabbie. They came back and the driver called the hotel. He said, “Just Praktik, No Ramblas! Just Praktik.” We didn’t care what he called it so long as he got us there. So he rode all around the city and finally came to the hotel. Here is the sign. You be the judge.

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Anyway, we got there! YAY! Our room would be ready in an hour so we walked next door and got some tapas and sangria. Yum.

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We got back to the hotel and our room was ready. We gathered all of our luggage together and shoved it into the elevator.
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There were no porters at this hotel. We got to our room and I made a huge mistake. I had planned to go to Monesserat to see the Black Madonna and hear the choir sing at 1:00. It was after 1:00 by the time we arrived two hours late, ate and waited for the room to be ready. But we still wanted to go to La Ramblas and walk around. But as I said, I made a huge mistake. I sat down. And the jet lag literally knocked me right over. I was asleep in less than two minutes.

Seems Terry fell asleep right afterwards. We woke up starving and ready to go see our friends at the Hard Rock Cafe. I was so tired, but we were determined. So we got up and went to the HRC. We meet so many nice people. Almost 100 dissers were there.

We could finally put faces to all of the names we had corresponded with the past two years. This was going to be a fantastic voyage. :goodvibes:goodvibes
 
Saturday, September 18

We woke up, got dressed and went down the block to get something to eat for breakfast. Went back to the hotel to get our bags together. The elevator is very small and barely fit us and our baggage. Our driver arrived; loaded our luggage and we were off. His name was Armando and he was really nice and very knowledgeable. This is who we used for our tour. Janice made all of the arrangements. http://www.barcelonadaytours.com/barcelona-city-tour.html

Our first stop was by a beautiful church and an office building but I cannot remember the name. The outside was Gaudi inspired We walked down an alley and saw the church was open and decided to go in. I am glad we did because it was just beautiful inside. Around what looked like a courtyard were these little rooms with altars but had iron gates closing them off. I managed to take a few pictures and then we went inside the actual church. I cannot begin to explain how beautiful it was. So very peaceful and I got very emotional and started to cry that was how breathtaking it was. We took a few more pictures and went back out and found our guide.

The next stop was called Park Guell which is pronounced Park Way. This is Gaudi’s greatest park. It is like a gated community. I could have spent half a day just there. The two buildings at the gate were shaped to look like an elephant when you stood up at the top of the hill and looked down at them. The views from the top looking out over the city were awesome. The tile work was spectacular.

We then saw the statue of Christopher Columbus. Then we saw Pg. de Gracia the most expensive avenue in Barcelona and there were a few more buildings designed by Gaudi. There is a story with each building and I felt like I was getting the best history lesson and wanted to know more. We went to see La Sagrada Familia. This Cathedral has been worked on since 1882 mostly due to dwindling contributions at times. The roof has been finished because the Pope is coming I think next spring. They anticipate it will take about 23 more years to finish it. We did not go inside but just walking around is dramatic enough. Then Armando took us down to the beach. It was built because of the Olympics and has attracted a lot of shops and a marina. He then took us up to a great lookout point and we could see so much of the city but not the Magic yet. It was finally time to get to the ship and we were getting very excited.
 
I LOVE that the two of you are telling this story together. :cloud9: Actually, I LOVE the two of you!! :grouphug:
 
I LOVE that the two of you are telling this story together. :cloud9: Actually, I LOVE the two of you!! :grouphug:

Thank you Angie. You are too kind. Did you notice we posted at the same time? I swear we did not talk except when I told her this afternoon to please put her input on the TR.:goodvibes:goodvibes
 
Driving to the port was exciting and with every twist and turn, we could see the magic and then we couldn’t. Finally coming down the home stretch, there she was all in her glory. She was just beautiful.

Check in went relatively smooth and then we went to get our pictures taken. Mickey liked my Pal Mickey but he really liked Stephanie’s Sailor Mickey. Then we started up the gangplank. Excitement was growing. Then we heard it…

Please Welcome Stephanie and Terry…The Spa Twins from Pa!!!

We went straight to our cabin and dropped off our carry on bags and met our room steward Shaka. He is a sweetheart, and took real good care of us. Then it was up to Topsiders to grab some lunch. Right after that, we went to the DIS meet and got our lanyards and said hello. Time for a group picture and then off to the Safety Drill. Right after that was the Sail Away Party. It was weird having it then when we were not sailing until about 9:30pm but it was great. My ring tone when Stephanie calls me is the Disney Cruise Ship Horn and I love it but it was time to hear it again. I cry every time and I know Stephanie has a video of it.
 
We wandered around and got a few pictures and then went back to our cabin to unpack. I had ordered champagne and a little tray of goodies and we ate some of the candy and strawberries. With our packing almost finished it was time for dinner. Our tablemates were great. We sat with Jon and Candida,,,,Pilk and Photographer Goofy and Melanie and Gary,,,,Tweety0227. Our server was Sudama and assistant server was Marista.

As we were eating, Stephanie kept trying to do the face plant again. I kept nudging her so she could stay awake. :lmao::lmao: We wanted to go to The Treasure Ketch since it was going to be open and we wanted our purses. After dinner, more walking around and getting pictures. Finally, we waited in line and the store opened fifteen minutes early. We all rushed in and could see that there were no purses out except for the ones at the counter under glass. We asked why and were told that the purses would be available for sale on our first sea day. That didn’t make sense and kept asking why. So at that point, we asked Dawn to put our names on a wait list. Stephanie even tried the “It’s my birthday and can’t I buy it now and you put it in my cabin that day??” and was told no. :headache: Some were told there was not a wait list. We were all confused because they were not on the same page with their excuses and we all were very frustrated. Afterward, I went over to Guest Relations and talked to Nombusa. She was a sweetheart but really could only take our complaint. I felt better because I told her that if they didn’t have enough in stock, just tell us the truth or whatever reason they had. Don’t come up with some flimsy excuse that did not make any sense. It seems that the final excuse was that some people were buying the purses and then selling them at the ports. Now whether that is the real reason, we will never know, but we kept making sure certain folks were made aware of our displeasure. By then, it was getting late and we were both very tired so we headed up to the cabin. Did more unpacking and got ready for bed. It seems that while we were at dinner our room steward Shaka put up some Happy Birthday decorations. He was so sweet to do that!!! :goodvibes
 
Just loving your twin handed diaries. So much fun.
We are still trying to photoshop through far too many photos.
 
Thanks everyone for your kind words and encouragement.

Hubby had a small hernia operation yesterday and I was having major issues with my Vertigo. We looked kinda comical walking down the hallway out. :lmao: Today hubby is feeling a little better and I am not feeling dizzy.

I will be back tomorrow with another installment. I am still having major issues with my Kodak Easy Share. It will not recognize them when I try to get them on Photo Bucket. Gonna make a call this evening when we get home from DD's house.

I know Stephanie is getting ready for another post as well.
 
After the almost monsoon conditions of the night before, Saturday began with a much welcome sight. Here comes the sun! :sunny::sunny::sunny:

I was extremely thankful for that because, it's my birthday!! :bday::bday:party: We went to the corner shop and got pastries and "American" coffee. We brought it back to the hotel and ate in the atrium.

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We saw so many dissers there. Most were waiting for the bus that Stephen had hired to pick them and the dissers at Praktik Barcelona and get to the port.

We however, had a four hour tour planned. I was really excited.

The first place we stopped was this beautiful cathedral. At first we weren’t going to go in, but something drew us in. It was simply splendid. Took my breath away. I was really happy that I has some euros in coin, because I was able to light a few candles.

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My camera couldn’t begin to capture the stunning beauty of the place, so I bought a book. What a great way to start my birthday.

We drove around and hit the hot spots of Barcelona. I could definitely spend a couple of days there. Four hours was not enough.

But did I tell you it was my birthday? As much as I was enjoying the tour, (and I had to have the gelato in Spain on my birthday!) I wanted to get to the ship. So very soon, the tour was over and we were on our way to board the Magic!

As we got the luggage out of the van, I could smell Sangria. Here is a picture of the cute bottle of Sangria we purchased from the department store on our way home from the Hard Rock Cafe.

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Well my bottle had opened and it spilled all over my already soaked clothes. Phooey! I checked the bag and poured the rest of the Sangria down the drain. I smelled like a drunk. Terrific! Mickey would think I’m a lush. And I refused to throw away the bottle, so I had an empty Sangria bottle in my carry-on. Swell.

We got adorable embarkment pictures with Mickey, Pal Mickey and Sailor Mickey. My photos look horrible. I was so tired because I had to take Bonine to keep from getting carsick. I was also still exhausted from the jet lag. My eye’s bags had bags.

However, all that changed when we heard the words:

Please Welcome Stephanie and Terry…The Spa Twins from Pa!!

I can’t begin to tell you how wonderful it was to hear those words. Two long years in the planning, came down to 10 powerful words. We were actually on the Magic and we were going to bring her home.
 
Can't wait to hear about your trip!:cool1:
Hi Bernadette!

I'm in! Can't wait to read more! :)
Hi Amy!

I'm onboard! How's Chucky? We've got a few photos of the two of you.
Hi Joanne!

Wooooooo Hooooooo !!!!

Signing on for your trip report :yay::yay::yay:
Hi Sarah!

Im here too! Can't wait to read more! I still remember the facebook posts about the missing items! Scary!
Hi Sarah!

cant wait to read more!
Hi Jen!

I am looking forward to reading more.

Corinna
Hi Corinna!

What a great time both of you were having! Can't wait to read about it. :surfweb:
Hi luvdamouse!

I'm in, Terry! Can't wait to read about it ALL!
Hi Tammi!

Can't wait to hear all about it, Terry!!!
Hi Tia!

Terry,
can't wait to read all of your report.
Since we had to cancel this cruise I will get to live it through your report:goodvibes


Keep it coming!!


Kathy
Hi Kathy!

love it so far. Can't wait to hear all about it.
Hi Jennifer!

Yeah! Another TR to help keep the Magic alive!!
Hi Andrea!

I'm subscribing and can't wait to relive this trip with you!! :grouphug:
Hi Angie. I love you too.

Love it so far. Always like reading trip reports.
Hi Walt and Di!

....lol and we were diverted to Madrid for 3 hours on the tarmac before arriving at Barcelona at 3 am eventually!!!:rolleyes1


Love reading your TR Terry :thumbsup2


:littleangel:
Hi Mandy!

I'm loving the trip report :thumbsup2 Can't wait to read more. It is kind of ironic that I read about your rainy adventures while we're in the midst of a Nor Easter here:rotfl: I'm sure I've seen a few cats and dogs hitting the deck;)
Hi Deb!

Excited to follow your adventure!
Thanks!

Loving the "tag team" report!
Hi Debbie!

Just loving your twin handed diaries. So much fun.
We are still trying to photoshop through far too many photos.
Hi Albert! Hi Ann!

Thank you all for following us on our adventure. We had so much fun.

I can share that I have been suffering from the worst bout of post Disney depression ever. I had to slap myself and remind myself that the holidays were coming. I could plan Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. And then I'll be in WDW for the marathon in January. So not too long. :goodvibes

But i really miss my bed being made for me. Towel animals. Great meals served. Dessert. Second helpings. Great conversation. The spa. Drink-o-day.

And just the wonderful privilege of being only a few steps away from someone with a yellow lanyard to talk to, get a drink with, share a meal with or lie beside on a deck chair just watching the ocean go by. I think the knowledge that traveling with 300 of my closest friends is just never going to happen again, is what took me over the edge. It was so much fun. A true trip of a lifetime.:love::love::love::love::love:
 

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