We made it! After a very long (9 hour) plane ride, during which I might have received around 3 hours of sleep (and poor Kurt didn’t sleep at all) we arrived in Barcelona right after 9am this morning. The airport is stunning, with lots of open space and made almost of all glass. There is even courtyards outside to relax. We easily make it through customs and get our luggage, then quickly find the Carnival cruise transfer to the pier. I am very pleased at how easy and smooth everything is, and our bus ride to the pier is less than 20 minutes. Although the airport is on the coast, and obviously so is the pier, the way there is pretty much through an industrial area. So we didn’t get to see much of Barcelona, but we’ll remedy that in 12 days when we come back!
The ship itself is humongous. We are on deck 7 in an inside room. We immediately come into our room at 11:30am when we board the ship and I go to sleep. Little did we know, we are not supposed to be in here yet! We kind of sneak around the Carnival people and go up the elevators…well, the cleaning crew starts freaking out and knocking on the door. I am already asleep and Kurt tells them so, but they insist on taking our ice bucket to sanitize it. Never did get it back yet…but that’s okay, I did get another 3 hours of sleep!
After our safety drill, we semi-explore the ship. It truly is a beautiful ship, and so many people are enjoying it already. Somehow, our dining reservations get screwed up. We are supposed to have late dining at 8:15pm, but on our sail and sign cards, it says 6pm. We realize that this is a blessing in disguise, as we have a lot of early mornings, and if we have late dining, we wouldn’t be finished until 9:30pm, which is when I’d want to be in bed if I have to wake up at 5:30am to be ready by 7am. Plus, we receive one of the best tables, at the exact end of the ship, against the window, with a panoramic view of Mediterranean. We are seated at a four person table, but our waiter says no one is scheduled to sit with us. So we get an awesome table to ourselves at the better time. Thank goodness for mistakes in our favor! Kurt has the spring rolls for a starter, which sweet and sour shrimp as a main dish, while I have cream of sun ripened tomato soup with herb croutons and a flat iron steak. Dessert is the glorious warm melting cake, with vanilla ice cream. I do not even like chocolate and this dessert is just a warm, gooey, heavenly mess.
In all, today was sort of a blur, but we did get some good food and views at dinner. Hopefully this headache I currently have goes away, and tomorrow we’ll be having fun in Marseilles, France, with a visit to a winery and to Avignon to visit the Palace of the Popes!
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