mom2mybugs

Just FYI...6 seats on solarium by pool by 8am available...by 830 none. These chairs have been empty since 8 The roof has been closed at least since yesterday... Not sure why ? Wow.. and that's my thumb. Pics take too long to upload so my thumb is staying! Jane

Look...I'm back and didn't drown! voom has been slow and sprint free data in Europe is really slow. That's partly why I haven't scoped muchI have to add my exciting, exciting news! Our pins came!!!! Platinum here we are lol! We got invited to our first to tier event lol, but I don't think we can go. We will see ..we have izumi at 630 and the event is at 745. If we are done, we will go! CANNES day 2. We have spent a fortune on excursions so decided to be cheap and low key in Cannes. We slept in and caught the tender boat after all the numbers were called. If you want to get a tender do a royal excursion or get there early because they were still calling tender numbers after 11! When you have a 16 year old fashionista, you shop. I bought some soap and we went to a million little clothing boutiques... Mads had a blast! We walked around for a while and then hit the public beach just to the left of the port when you really by. Madison has now experienced 2 public beaches without flinching too much. There were only a few topless today. It was warm but not horrible and we enjoyed it. We were back on the ship by 430 to relax and get ready for chops. Chops service was very good. When we mentioned Madison's vegetarianism, he offered a couple options and she chose the eggplant parmesan from Giovanni's, which she enjoyed. Our food was very good...my steak was a bit overdone but if that's all I'm complaining about, I'm happy!! The steak pics liked kinda gross, lol, but here are some other pics! I apologize for all the Jane, Jeff and Madison pics but I'm trying to use this as a memory as well!!! After dinner we headed to the show... The barrade boys are 4 theater singers who all performed at some point in Les Mis. They did a wide selection and we enjoyed it. Red velvet cake martini and off to bed!

Oh yum....just yum! Jane

I did what you call a Poloroid if it's layered last night and thought of you! It's just vodka, Curacao and Sprite... They shook it... Still tasted good!

I think you are right but ugh... the Kendall Jackson is still cheap lol!! Jane

Ok... While I wait the 20 mins for the teenager to make curfew I can update the day!! We didn't get our luggage until after muster drill and sailaway so we couldn't really unpack. Here are some pics: We did my time dining... The food was really pretty good... Best prime rib in a while! I forgot to take pics until Madison reminded me I was the worst blogger ever... So I took dessert pics! I even forgot to snap the menu! After dinner we came back and I unpacked. It is incredible how much for we have! We definitely could stay in this room with more kids. Then we headed to the headline show. It was a shadow show where they did hand s hadow shapes on the screen. I didn't take my camera out early enough... It was actually really good, hokey as it sounds! I missed pics of the animals but here are some singers! I can't remember all of them, but it was fun. The people who come in late, walk down the middle aisles talk during the show, and basically are rude as heck just kill me! Visions rows at least have tons of leg room so you can let all these people in and out several times!! Argh.. After the show we hit cafe latte-tudes and then schooner for the amaretto for the and then to bed. Update on the teenager... She made it back 1 minute late and apparently meet a group of 7 high school girls who all speak English. She is very happy and meeting everyone at 10 tomorrow after everyone's formal night! Huge load off my mind. Tomorrow is Cannes. The plan is to sleep in, eat, take the tender after the initial rush is all over, shop and then hit the public beach. Looking forward to a very laid back day because many of our other excursions start before 7am!! Oh... And I forgot to ask for my robe! Gotta do that tomorrow...I mean today! Jane

Nope... We didn't hang in the schooner bar tonight!! For @JLMoran and anyone keeping track, the drink count....hmmmm....I might have lost count. Miami vice (that should have been a lava flow), insanely strong Bahama Mama, blue Hawaiian, at Germaine and champagne, 2 glasses of wine and 2 shots of amaretto. Whoever (and I'm so sorry I can't remember) suggested white mocha coffee and adding amaretto... Amazing!!! So good. Anyway team drink pkg made out today for sure. In other news, on allure in March and majesty in June, a glass of Oberon Cabernet was 15. It is $18/glass on this ship. Crazy ridiculous :(. I will miss it!!! Jane

I love vodka tonics. I wonder since they have the lavender daiquiris at schooner if they could make that. No trellis bar on my baby ship ?Jane

So our room is very cool! I just scoped it but unlike @Lovetocruise2002 I have no idea how to link it here! We are in a spacious family oceanview or something like that ..4032! What I hear is that we were fortunate because we only have 3 people and they often make you have 4 or 5. We booked the week after the rooms opened up and it is going to be so nice to have all that room!! Here are a few pics! For sure the paintings have been refreshed since 2015. Everything seems very neat and clean so far on the ship. I may need to nap in my solarium chair ... Jane

We are on board! We waited almost longer for the cab then we did too board the ship. We used the cabify app... No Uber here in Barcelona. The driver was a bit crazy because traffic here is fast and busy! I was stressing because this was the latest Ive ever gotten to the port. Didn't need to worry though!! We pulled right up to terminal B with no wait. No porter needed as we walked 10 feet to the cart where the nice porter loaded our luggage. We had expedited arrival but it wouldn't have mattered because nobody was there at 1045. We literally walked through security and on to the ship.. LESS than ten minutes!!! By 1105 I was making our dining reservations... Got everything we wanted including chops night 2 formal night 630. By 1115 had lava flow with kraken (well training bartender so first drink turned out to be a Miami vice actually) and eating in the windjammer! The windjammer want crowded and the food was typical fare... Food Temp was warm and everything seemed fresh. We were offered there STRONGEST Bahama Mama welcome drinks I've ever had! It's now 1245 and be we are in the solarium waiting for the room to be available! Book in hand I am relaxing!! Oh, and so excited... The solarium roof is OPEN!!!!!! Happy happy happy! More later! I will see how the voom is (can't tell if I'm still on data or voom) for periscoping. A lot of those may end up replays for people with the time change! Jane

Hayley you have been such a wealth of knowledge! Thank you so much!! Jane

And that's how it should be! No time to blog. So glad you had a great time and can't wait to see all the pics!!!!! Good luck on the work thing... Not looking forward to that in 2 weeks either!!! Jane

This was my favorite part of the ship I think! I will really miss vintages on this trip What is a lavender tonic? Jane

We leave for the boat in about an hour! I have to figure out there whole cab thing before then lol! Jane

Thank you!!! Enjoying all your pics!!! Jane

Lol...I thought about that when I typed the me lol. I think I ordered anniversary decorations for the ship but I can't remember... That will make up for that if I did lol! Jane

I'm glad!! We are scheduled to go on rhapsody next spring break for a western Caribbean cruise... Hoping we can take it as my husband hasnt sailed out of Tampa and we've never been on her. However, the Europe bug has us bad and we might try to go to England, Scotland and Ireland next summer... Money with a kid in college (and one just done and one in 2 years) is beginning to run out lol!!! Jane

So did you find anything??? We had Kermit's key lime pie... Amazing and I don't like key lime. We also got the schnauzers some key lime doggy treated... They were happy!! Jane

Ok...I teach preschool ...I hear that song in my sleep lol! Jane

Today!! Almost caught up! And happy 29th anniversary to me!!!! Cannot believe we are spending it here in Barcelona! We had gone back and forth whether to try and get ourselves to sitges, a beach town best Barcelona. We found a tour that combined it with a trip to Tarragona to see the ancient Roman ruins. We left at 830 (walked a half hour to get there... Which was awesome! I have over 6 miles a day walking here to balance out the gelato!). It was amazing! Tarragona has an incredibly well preserved aquaduct you can actually walk on top of! It was so cool. In addition the city has an ampitheater, a circus, City walls... It was amazing! Cannot wait for Rome and Athens! I can't believe NONE of my ampitheater pics were on my phone lol!! I'm an awful blogger! You will have to come to Tarragona to see it! Then it was on to the beaches at sitges. We decided to do lunch first at a cafe for, what else, cheese and ham table and paella. Oh yes, and finally tried cava sangria...yum, just yum! I keep forgetting to take pics BEFORE we eat most of things!!! We spent about an hour in the water and on the beach with a beautiful breeze blowing and incredible waves to jump in! It was totally packed so I'm glad we didn't spend the whole day, but we came home tired and happy! So by the time we showered and packed it was close to 9...we decided 2 Spanish heavy dinners was not going to happen, so we did the pathetic American thing and ate Five guys with an amazing view of Sagrada familia! I know... Pathetic! Finally impressions of Barcelona:. We enjoyed it but not as much as Paris. 4 days was plenty and we feel we missed some things we wanted to hit (the Miro museum and the magic fountains, and a few better restaurants) but overall had a nice time. We enjoyed the openness and ease of the Sagrada neighborhood but wouldn't be opposed to bring closer to old Town. Our favorite things were Sagrada familia and the neighborhood Cafe by the Picasso museum that was totally off the beaten track! And so tomorrow morning we board vision of the seas! Apparently the last sailing had some tough weather and seas (they were unable to go to Santorini and the water is really rough right now as they head towards Barcelona. We forgot to buy sea sickness meds for Jeff just in case so I will try and do that tomorrow morning! Hoping we get calmer seas!!! Jane

After the rain passed it turned into a gorgeous don't day. The heat has definitely broken... It's still summer but the nights are cool and it hasn't been deadly during the day. We wandered all over the Gothic quarter... Kinda following the lonely planet waking tour and stopping when we wanted. We finally found Madison her espadrills (she has been looking for months for the pair she wanted!), Watched street performers, enjoyed the many plazas and basically got a feel for the old area. It was a cool way to spend most of a day. Did I mention more gelato? It may be a theme!!! Ones to the ramblas. It was an interesting area...my favorite part was the huge food market. I will be honest... There is so much being sold on the street that it is overwhelming. I actually felt pretty safe but it was daylight and nobody grabbed anything. After wandering all day we ended up at a horrible little cafe for dinner... It really wasnt good. We have found that the than the pizza find, we have ended up mostly in tourist trap eateries because of where we are staying. But that's been ok....I think actually we have been spoiled by the amazing tapas place we have at home! Jane

I'm a day behind lol!! Gotta catch up! So yesterday we wanted to do the ramblas and the Gothic quarter. We got to the Barcelona cathedral around 9 and looked at every single chapel! All 10 million pics are on my other camera but here are the amazing geese that live in the cathedral. So the funny story is that we went into the chapel to pray... And then Mass started! We were stuck for 45 minutes. We do NOT understand Catalan, so we didn't understand anything, but it was still cool! So we walked out and the predicted thunderstorm opened up from the heavens. We ran to the tourist trap across the street from the cathedral and tried to sit outside before moving inside when the rain was going sideways. We spent a lovely 2 hours drinking wine and eating tapas and vegetable paella while the rain poured (with sorbet and cafe con leche for dessert).

Really enjoying the pics. It really does feel like a bigger ship with all those big open areas. I found all the windows helped a lot on makes. Thanks so much for the galley tour... So interesting! And the flag ceremony is one of my favorite things on the ship... Especially in the centrums! Jane

I grew up flying out of that airport and that is definitely crazy! Yuck... Not a fun way to start the trip! Jane

Day 2 pre-cruise Barcelona was a great day. Once again my good pics are on my camera but if you do one thing in Barcelona, go to the segrada familia. It was amazing. I hadn't seen pictures if the inside and it was spectacular. The audio tour talked about how all the sculpture and status are outside (except one of each of the hold family), which makes the inside more about the amazing space and structure. It was incredible!! We spent probably close to 3 hours there before heading back to the Airbnb to rest for an hour or so. After that we headed to the Picasso museum which was very interesting. It's not crowded or hard to get to and while it doesn't have many Davis paintings there, there is an incredible amount of his early work. It was interesting to watch him try out different types of painting before he found his own unique style. We left and decided to sit for a bit before heading back on the metro. We locked into a really great neighborhood Cafe that we enjoyed! We tried our first glass (well maybe 2) of cava and were getting ready to go when a street performer showed up with his sax to play American jazz. So we ordered a cheese plate and another glass of cava and stayed for awhile. It was so incredibly relaxing! I wish I'd taken more pics on my phone. There were so many people just out walking their dogs and chatting with each other. It was wonderful and relaxing and I could do it every day! In attempting to walk back to the metro, we happened upon the back of a big church. Walking around to the front we realized it was the cathedral of Barcelona. A street performer was getting ready to perform and there were a bunch of small cafes for dinner, but Madison was fading. It never feels late but it was after 10 by the time we got home. Hopefully we will get to the Gothic quarter and the ramblas tomorrow but there is an 80% chance of thunderstorms. Oh well...we will give it a shot and if it falls, then we head to a cafe for lunch! Jane