To Barcelona and Beyond!!!! May 26 - June 5 on the Magic

[wrennies]

Note to self.....Everything is a plan. Plans can change and things will still be fine!

Me - Mom to this "Crew" (and the only estrogen to be found...hahaha)
DH - Dad to the "Bunch"
DS - 15
DS - 13
DS - 12

We have been planning this trip since September of 2009. It was my idea and I quickly won the DH over. And off course the DSs were "onboard" from the beginning.
It is amazing that we are now a week away. I hope to update this as often as possible while we are away to keep everyone up-to-date on our trip.

 

[eeyorefanuk]

I hope you have a great time - cannot wait for your updates

 

[pixie08]

Note to self.....Everything is a plan. Plans can change and things will still be fine!

You sound like me! I am subscribing- have fun!

 

[wrennies]

Okay, time for a little more info....

Barcelona:
We will (plan to ....keeping fingers crossed that no storms or ash clouds get in our way) arrive in Barcelona on Tuesday, May 25 (8:55 am). We are staying at an "airport" hotel (I wanted to keep tranfers to a minimium with 5 people and tons of luggage). Our plan for the day to to tour Las Ramblas, espically the market (we saw Andrew Zimmerman on Bizzarre Foods and thought the place looked awesome). We are hoping to have an early dinner (espically compared to European standards) and be back at the hotel between 7 and 8 pm. I hope everyone can do this without a nap and maybe we will "conquer" some of the jetlag.

 

[wrennies]

With this being our first cruise as a family we want to get to the port pretty early, hopefully between 10:00 and 10:30. Other reports say that people were able to board around 11:30 on the the previous cruises. I figure once we get checked in and get our lugguage turned over we will be able to walk around the port for a few minutes until we board.

I am sure a good part of the day will be spent wandering around the ship. The boys will want to see the clubs and I am sure they will find their way to the pool. I am sure a lot of my time will be spent unpacking and trying to figure out how all 5 of us are going to live in one room for 10 days.....!!!!

 

[wrennies]

I am so looking forward to this day. I know that the boys will have plenty to do. As for DH and myself, I just want to walk on the decks, hopefully see a movie, cheat on my diet (at least once), hopefully there will be a galley tour, and I would love to see the "game shows".
I am also looking forward to "Formal Night" - when you live with 4 males, it is not often that you get to get dressed up...nor see them dressed up.

 

[wrennies]

This is the one and only Disney excursion that we are doing. It was just perfect for our family. We love the water and boats. On our "usual" summer vacation it has become a tradition to spend a day in St. Augustine and sail on the Schooner Freedom. We love it!!! So this one was easy.

I have included the link to the Disney description of the tour.

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/c...ns/valletta-malta/chartered-turkish-schooner/

 

[wrennies]

This is the one that is bothering me still. We were going to do the Beach Break Excursion - Three teenage boys need a "beach break" from all the history and culture of this trip - but disney cancelled it.
Still hoping to get to a beach. We may just spend a little while in the markets and relax on the ship in the afternoon.

Any help with beach info or drivers that anyone used in Tunis previously would be appreciated!!!!

 

[OurDogCisco]

I'm excited to hear about your cruise!

 

[Zoom]

I'm so excited for you and your family, Have a wonderful cruise!!! I'm in the process of convincing DH to take the Med cruise in June '11...... so far it's 90% yes , we have a 9 y/o son who is willing to cancel 2 of our cruises in exchange to this Med cruise!!!

 

[maynrive]

With this being our first cruise as a family we want to get to the port pretty early, hopefully between 10:00 and 10:30. Other reports say that people were able to board around 11:30 on the the previous cruises. I figure once we get checked in and get our lugguage turned over we will be able to walk around the port for a few minutes until we board.

I'm not sure that's a really practical plan. Once you get to where the ship is docked, it's a real pain to get back out to where anything is. There's a couple of duty free shops in the check-in area, but not much else. In the waiting area for boarding, they have a signup station for the kids programs and a character picture station. Aside from that, there's not much else to do at the port and you might as well board the ship.

They don't do the safety drill until about 4:30, so if you want to do some exploring in the city before the cruise, I'd suggest waiting until 3:30 to check-in. Personally, I think I'd rather get on board the ship as soon as possible, but that's just me.

Hope you have a good trip.

 

[wrennies]

First, for all the family members....We made it!!! We were delayed in Atlanta for about one and a half hours, but got to Barcelona about 50 minutes lates. We have checked into the hotel and are getting ready to go sightseeing....most of you are still in bed as it is 6:30 am there....here 12:30 pm.
I will try to post more later as the internet in the hotel is free and fast.

Tracy......let us know you got this either on facebook or here.

 

[pixie08]

Great news!

 

[mickeyluv]

First, for all the family members....We made it!!! We were delayed in Atlanta for about one and a half hours, but got to Barcelona about 50 minutes lates. We have checked into the hotel and are getting ready to go sightseeing....most of you are still in bed as it is 6:30 am there....here 12:30 pm.
I will try to post more later as the internet in the hotel is free and fast.

Tracy......let us know you got this either on facebook or here.

Keeping up with your travels! Are you going to post while on the cruise itself? I hope your family has a wonderful trip! We have friends from the UK on this same cruise.

 

[tkmcinturff]

How is the trip so far? What all have you done? Nate you made honor roll, I'm so proud of you.

 

[wrennies]

Just a quick note of what has "gone on" so far. We had a great first day on the ship. We mainly got used to our home for the next 10 days on Wednesday. The boys all went to their prespective clubs.
Yesterday was at sea. We went to a family game show together and the boys were off on their own again.
Today, we all went out on a schooner to the blue lagoon and around the island of Malta...beautiful!!!! And we did take a lot of pictures. We all swam in the Med. sea even though it was about 68 degrees. It was a very relaxing trip.
Tomorrow is Tunis (Africa). I will try to post more later.

 

[wrennies]

Today we visited Tunsunia (Tunis) in Africa. We were able to get a cab driver that took us to the market and waited for us. It was very different. The market was very crowded and people were constantly approaching you. Everything is on the barter system. When we first got off the ship a man was passing out flowers. Dallas and I already new how things worked in Tunis and we had briefly explained it to the boys, but they did not have a true understanding. As soon as we said we were not going to pay for the flowers, the man jerked the flowers out of our son’s hand.
We did have a great time in the market. We were able to get some great souvenirs for really cheap prices. We also got a few dinero as souvenirs as the people in Tunis will not exchange the money back to euros or American dollars.
Even though there were street signs posted everywhere, traffic and the driving was scary. No one paid any attention to the markings on the road. Luckily we made to the market and back without a wreck!!!

Jsut "FYI", I am just posting a short description while we are on the ship. I will be updating with pictures when we return to the states.

 

[wrennies]

Today we are in Naples. We hired a driver (much cheaper then going through Disney) that took us around Naples, to Mt. Vesuvius and to Pompeii. I have never walked up hill so much in my life!!! Pompeii was enormous!!! We had no clue how big it was. We could have spent all day there. Tomorrow is Rome!!!!!

 

[wrennies]

Today was Rome; it was amazing.....unbelievable!!!! We did a hop on hop off bus. It took us around the entire city. We were also able to go into the Colessum (I am sure I spelled that wrong). We had an English speaking guide and he was great. Again, we took lots of pictures.

 

[pixie08]

Thanks for the updates!