mimmy52

We heard we were going to pass Gibraltar starting at 6:00 for about two hours.  But at 6:00 we'd been chugging our free drink and didn't think about it, then it was time for dinner, and then it was dark.  We were told by someone later that they couldn't see anything.

In the dining room, we settle into our chairs, Muller hands us our menus opened to the page that's in English, then either he or Kathy bring bread and we choose from about four bread options, we get our bottles of water, and I get my glass of wine.  We have time to peruse the menu, then we order.

My starter was the Williams salad. It is supposed to contain pear and carmelised walnuts.  I had one bite of pear but there were some walnuts.  The dressing is really bland, almost tastes as if there's nothing on it.

My main course was Tortelli with asparagus tips and toasted hazelnuts.

Dessert was a Choco-granduja sundae.  Gelato, whipped cream, chocolate sauce and some kind of nuts but I don't remember.

Dinner is not hurried, and except for the first night, we were finished about 8:00 or 8:15.

We went to the show that evening.  The cruise director is Nicholas and while I admire someone who can speak so many languages, we were never able to understand his English.  First up, all the officers were introduced.  That's only about half of them in the picture.

The show followed and was called "Abyss."  It included aerial acrobats, contortionists, dancers, smoke effects and strobe lights, and fantastic costumes.  We all enjoyed it.

Tomorrow is an early excursion in Casablanca, so after the show we all went to our rooms.

After lunch was balcony time again.  Mamy had opened the partition between our rooms.  That's me, Mary, waving and my roommate Mari.

We went up to the pool deck around 4:00 to watch the "acrobat cocktail demonstration."  The entertainment crew would put drink ingredients in a shaker, then one would juggle the shaker and some bottles (not glass bottles), then award the drink to someone in the crowd.  This only lasted for 15 minutes then they moved to a dart game with Velcro balls.

Unsurprisingly the pool area was crowded every day.

Everyone has to post this picture, don't they?

Tonight is Gala Cocktail night.  Suggested dress for the evening is "gala."   This is our opportunity to get a picture taken with the Captain in the Zebra Bar and to have a free drink.

Jo, Nan and Carol in the Zebra Bar.  We had a choice of champagne, a Manhattan (I think) or some kind of punch.

This couple really knew Gala.  And they were terrific dancers.

We didn't see the captain.  That was probably because we didn't check the time he'd be available, and that was after our dinner.  However, the duo providing entertainment, a singer and a keyboardist who sometimes joined in the songs, were great.

They were so good I hated to leave but it was time for our 6:30 dinner.

Although we weren't planning to eat lunch in the buffet, I paid another visit to get an idea of what they had for lunch. 

The diagram for lunch.

They have an ethnic corner and a kids corner.  You must be this short to use the kids corner.  No one paid attention to that. I checked out the kids corner every breakfast and never did see peanut butter which I like to put in my oatmeal.

Some of the food in the kids corner.

Time to head back outside to the sunshine.

The Mojito Bar

Did you know bingo is the same word in every language?  At least, it's the same in all of the six languages announced on the boat.  Some announcers were more enthusiastic than others with, "Bingo, bingo, bingo!"  

Some bingo players watching numbers on the big screen.

There was also a buffet with German food outside near the pool.  It was too crowded there to get a picture.

The six of us went to lunch at 1:00 in Le Fontane.  It was nice and quiet.  Even though they had a buffet, there was no jostling.  You could get food from the buffet or you could order off the menu or you could do both.  We usually did both.  Three of the group are studiously studying the menu.

I just used Le Fontane's buffet for lunch today.  I had a small salad, fried fish, potatoes, and risotto.  It was all delicious.  We also got a couple of bottles of water.

Bar dei Poeti.  A craft session is in progress.

Zebra Bar. My favorite.

The casino

Teatro Carlo Felice.  I think it's beautiful.

The library.

Il Grappolo d'Oro, the wine bar

There is a light breakfast and a light lunch/snack served in the wine bar.  I was there around noon and they offered three types of small sandwiches and three types of small desserts.  There wasn't much left though.

I didn't see any way to get to the front of the ship.  I guess that's the exclusive area for the higher paying customers.  Maybe if I'd gone into the spa I would have had a view from the front, but I didn't go in so I don't know.

Friday, October 25 - Sea Day

Ahhhh, hello sun!

When I showed pictures of our room, I forgot to include this.  We brought our European plugs but wouldn't have needed them.

We went up to the buffet for breakfast, and it is a madhouse!  I have never seen such pushing and shoving.  It's like people haven't eaten for a week.  I was reaching for a serving spoon when a man inserted himself between me and the woman next to me and grabbed the spoon.  I know it isn't possible to have an orderly line, but there's no call for rudeness. Later in the week, one of the other ladies in our group said this was her 15th cruise but the first time she'd ever seen so much pushing and shoving in the buffet. 

I took a photo of the diagram of the buffet area.

They have a lot of options and although there are many stations that are the same, you still might find something different on another side.  Then there are the round stations with fruit and cereals and the omelette station where you can request an omelette.  So there's plenty of food.  Something weird was going on with the orange juice this morning.  It was coming out of the machines like tinted water.  I passed.  I thought the buffet food was okay.  It tasted like most buffet food.

It's such a beautiful day, we spent some time on our balcony.  We asked our steward if he would open the partition between our balcony and our friends' balcony, and he did that a little later.

Let's take a tour of the ship.

First off, the lobby area.  What doesn't show up is that it's water flowing down.

Guest services is right there and there's a shelf with maps of the ship.

Looking up.

The stairs.

16 hours ago, Oakman58 said:

I was surprised to read about needing life jackets for the muster drill.  I didn't think any cruise lines required wearing life jackets anymore.  Maybe it's a European thing.

So if something happened, you just figure out then how to don a life jacket?  

Farewell, Barcelona.  See you again in 12 days.

We went right from the sail away to dinner.  We have first seating at 6:30 and we are assigned to Il Palladio.  Second seating is at 9:00 and we were glad to get first seating since none of us like to go to bed with full stomachs.  We had walked through the other main dining room, Le Fontane, earlier and thought it was the prettier of the two.  I think it was the ceiling that made it more attractive.

Le Fontane

Il Palladio

Nan, the fifth member of our group, joined us for dinner.  We had still to see Carol, Nan's roommate.  Our waiter is Muller from Brazil and his assistant is Katiusca from Peru.  Since we had trouble pronouncing her name, she said to call her Kathy.  The menu is multi lingual.  We get free bottled water at lunch and dinner in the MDRs (not everyone does).  I ordered a glass of the 5 euro Pinot Grigio Canti.  I'm not a wine connoisseur and I found it good.

My starter was the Sunday salad of lettuce, tomato and something called sumuri or samuri.  I still don't know what it was.  It had a delicious dressing.

For the main course I had asparagus risotto.  It was out of this world delicious.

I enjoyed the cheese selection for dessert.  Mari ordered decaf coffee and at first Muller seemed stymied.  He brought instant, and there was sugar and sweetener, but when she asked for milk, the answer was no.  They did not have milk in the MDR.  She ordered a second dessert of coffee ice cream which happened to be the ice cream flavor of the day, and she put some of the ice cream in her coffee.  She said it worked.  This became her habit throughout the cruise no matter what the flavor of ice cream was that day.

Although our bottled water was free, we had to sign for it.  They put 2.90 per bottle on the bill, then zeroed it out.  We finished dinner about 8:30 so they must have had to scurry for the second seating.  I didn't go to the show that night which was "Evergreen Classics" with a classical trio, a mezzosoprano and a tenor.  Shows for first seating begin at 9:15.  Shows for second seating begin at 7:30.

I finished unpacking, set my clock back one hour as the Daily Program instructed, and went to bed.  A long and fun day.

We sat at the table until it was time to get our life jackets and go to the 5:00 muster drill in Teatro Carlo Felice.  The theater seemed filled, at least on the lower level.  The explanation for using the life jacket went so fast and I had so much trouble getting it un-Velcro'd that they were on step 3 or 4 before I had the thing over my head.  Then we were led to our muster station in the Pigalle Lounge.  Our leader walked so fast he lost half the group.  We had trouble finding him, but it turned out the Pigalle Lounge is at the back of the ship, one deck below our deck 8.

I forgot to mention that we are in cabin 8165.  A lot of the cabins on this deck have an obstructed ocean view but they must mostly see life boats.  Our cabin is far enough toward stern that we are past the life boats.

We registered our cruise cards, then Mari and I went up to watch the sail away.  I took some shots of the pool while we were waiting.

The logo

The Celebrity Reflection left first.

I was hungry and headed directly up to deck 13 and the buffet.  When I entered, one way was marked L'Obelisco Restaurant and the other way was marked Villa Pompeiana Buffet.  It all seemed to be the same place, although that first day I didn't realize how very extensive the buffet was.

My notes say the buffet area is nice with a good view out the windows.

I had tilapia, pea soup with mint, a rice ball, bread and butter.  Plain food lover that I am, I would have preferred the pea soup without mint, otherwise the food was good.

And a cream puff for dessert.  Dessert is important.

Back in the room, I looked over the Daily Program.  It included a note from Pietro Maresca, the Master, welcoming us aboard.  Another note mentioned that on the third day a service charge would be automatically added to our accounts.  The last sentence read, "We do not recommend tipping individual members of our staff."

Jo and Rose have the cabin next to ours and the four of us decided to go up and relax at a table on the pool deck.  First a photo from our balcony.

When I looked through the bar menu on the pool deck, I was happy to see that there was a Pinot Grigio for 5 euros a glass (plus a 15 percent service charge).  We enjoyed the weather, our conversation, and the wine/snacks.

Back at the hotel, I packed up the remainder of my belongings and checked out.  There's a taxi stand right outside and the plan was for me to get a taxi and stop at Hotel Monegal to pick up my two friends who would be waiting outside.  There was some kind of mixup, they weren't outside and hotel reception said they'd left, so I took the cab solo to the port.  (After we met up on the ship, they said they waited outside for me for 45 minutes before taking their own taxi, so I never did figure out where they were waiting.)  The ride to the port was slow--lots of traffic.  I think it took 15 minutes to get round the roundabout near the port.  I was amazed at how many were walking with their suitcases.  The bridge had a very steep incline and once we were over the bridge, the people walking formed quite a line.  A Celebrity ship was also in port as was a German cruise ship.

There were no porters waiting to take luggage which surprised me.  I rolled my suitcases to the canopy in front of the terminal where a mass of people were packed together, all pushing toward where a single line formed near MSC crew members waiting to check documents and take luggage.  The luggage area was really the only one that took time.

Once we entered the terminal building, there was another line, but it was a real line not a jam-packed mess, and it moved quickly.

The photographer was in the terminal and I wanted to skip past since I was by myself, but it became easier to have the picture taken than to protest.  After that it was up the escalator, through the walkway and onto the ship.  No waiting in the terminal.  Inside the ship, I followed the signs for entrance, then had my picture taken for ID purposes and was told my cruise card would be in my room.  At one point I was accosted by a crew member pushing the drink package.  No thanks.

My roommate, Mari, was already in the room.  She had come to the ship directly from her flight that morning and had no problem checking in about 10:00.  The other two in our travel group had also flown in today.  Our two beds were pushed together and Mari had asked our steward, Mamy, to move them apart.  We had lots of requests for Mamy the first two days, and he was always quickly responsive.

Some of the photos I took of our room are from later that evening after the room had been straightened.

The TV sits on top of the mini-bar fridge, the closet is on the left side of the door and the bathroom is on the right.

This photo was taken before the beds were moved apart.  After that it became a tighter squeeze to get to the balcony.

Some photos of our room.  Some were t

The audio guide informed me that there are almost no straight lines in Casa Batllo.  The only place you would see them is in the attic that was the service area.  But also in the attic are catenary arches.

The next stop was the roof terrace.  Spectacular!  Yet so different from the intriguing rooftop of La Pedera.

Closeup of the dragon's scales.

And a closeup of the tower that somewhat resembles an ice cream cone.

The rooftop is the last stop on the tour unless you visit the gift shop which of course I did.  Then I went back to the hotel to check out (noon is checkout time) and head for the port.

Whoops, almost forgot to add this closer look at the chimneys.

Detail of one of the doors.  I think I could fill a book with all the detailed photos I took of Casa Batllo, but I'll restrain myself in this review.

The room that is the first stop.

A room at the back of the house looking onto a courtyard.

In the courtyard looking back toward the house.

The back of the house.

The interior is bright because of the lightwell.  It's also where the stairs are that we used.

Thursday, October 24

Woke up this morning to beautiful weather.  After the included breakfast in the hotel--they had cheesecake this morning!--I headed out to visit Casa Batllo.  I bought my ticket online for the opening time, 9:00.  Next door to Casa Batllo is another house with modernisme architecture, Casa Amatller.

Casa Batllo.  To me the balconies look like Mardi Gras masks.  I've read that they remind some of skulls.

A closeup of the dragon on the roof.

It's window washing day.

Closeup of an architectural feature on Casa Amatller.  I like the gargoyles.

There were several lines for entry, one for those of us who had purchased advanced tickets, another for those who were buying tickets that morning, and I believe two more, one for those who'd purchased silver entry and one for gold entry.  Precisely at 9:00 the doors opened.  I picked up my audio guide, included with ticket price, and went up the stairs to the first stop.  Window washing is still going on.

Thanks, JP82, CruiseIreland, and DCGuy64.

4 hours ago, Oakman58 said:

 

I'm looking forward to more of your report.  When I first looked at your picture of the Cod I thought it must be served with decorative rocks.  The custard creme looks delicious.

Decorative rocks!  That made me laugh.

Two of the other ladies in our cruise travel group had arrived this morning, and we were meeting for dinner.  They were staying at Hotel Monegal on the same street as my hotel but about half a block away on the corner of Carrer de Pelai and Las Ramblas.  I walked to their hotel at the agreed upon meeting time and we walked a few blocks to Julivert Meu restaurant on a side street off Las Ramblas .

The ambiance was great.

Jo and Rose.

The food was also great.  I had Cod "a la Lluana" with beans.  Jo and I shared a half liter of white wine and a bottle of water. Rose had lamb chops which you might be able to see behind my cod.

We all had Catalan Custard Creme for dessert.  It was a delicious meal.

They invited me to see their room on the way back.  It is a strange hotel.  The entrance is through a watch shop.  At the rear of the watch shop is a counter, and that's hotel reception.  Their room was fine although small.  They did have a narrow balcony overlooking Carrer de Pelai and the bathroom was a good size.  They paid almost the same price I did, though, and Hotel Lleo was much nicer.

Time for bed after that.  Tomorrow is embarkation day, but I have one more site to see in the morning.

Thanks to my brother, my photos now should be more consistent.

A picture of me in the Teleferic gondola.

It was a short walk to the Castell de Montjuic area.

  I didn't go inside the fortress.  I was just up there for the views.

I didn't spend a lot of time by the fortress.  Things to do, people to see.  But I walked around and took in the views from several places before heading back to the Teleferic and down.

Then across the street and onto the funicular.  I could use my T10 metro card for the funicular, but I paid 12.70 euros for a round trip on the Teleferic.  A tunnel on the funicular.

Hotel Lleo where I'm staying has a rooftop pool.  I didn't have time to use the pool, but I was curious to see it.  The rooftop had been closed yesterday because of the rain, but this afternoon would have been a wonderful time to use it.

It's a nice view overlooking the city too.

Thanks, xznwfd.

There is a lovely garden on the side of the terrace where the benches are.

And a flock of these green birds nest in the palm trees.

Another structure as I was leaving the park.  This is in the free area.  There are a lot of walking areas in the free area if you didn't want to pay to enter the Monumental Zone.

I was meeting friends for dinner, but there was still enough time for one more site, Montjuic, if I hurried.  I took the Park Guell shuttle (you need to save your ticket so you can show it to get back on the shuttle) to the Alfons X metro stop and took the metro to the Paral-lel stop.  A walk through the underground and there's the entrance to the funicular.

You don't see much going up in the funicular since it's mostly a tunnel.  At the top, I crossed the street and bought a ticket for the Teleferic to get to the top of Montjuic.

The book shop is in this building.

This structure was for an automobile and a cart.

It was getting hot, and when I came across a little cafe that had sandwiches and snacks, I relaxed for a while with ice cream and water.

Continuing through the park, I took stairs up to the pathway of columns.

There's a washer woman on one of the columns.

The mosaic bench from another angle.

The tower on the building that houses a book shop.

I started down a stairway next to the Marketplace aka The Hall of 100 Columns.  About 75 percent of the hall is covered in netting for renovations and is out of bounds.  The part that was open was still pretty amazing.

Some colorful mosaics on the ceiling.

From the hall, I worked my way down the stairs with the fountains and the dragon.

He doesn't breathe fire but instead drools water, and he looks more like a lizard.  But a beautiful lizard.  It's really hard to get a picture of this guy without someone being right in front getting their picture taken.

This is the building that houses a museum.  I didn't go inside.

After the morning at Sagrada Familia, I had a timed ticket for 1:00 at another Gaudi development, Parc Guell.  But first I wanted something to eat, so I walked across the street to Friss Cafe.

I ordered inside, tortilla de patatas and a Coke, but ate outside under an awning. 

So far my umbrella hadn't been needed and I was starting to see patches of blue in the sky.  I had a nice view of the basilica from my table at Friss Cafe.

To get to Parc Guell, I took the metro to the Alfons X stop where there is a shuttle that takes you to the park.  When you buy a ticket in advance, the shuttle is included in the price.  All you have to do is show your ticket for the park.  I managed to find the correct exit from the metro and when I came up the stairs, the shuttle bus was parked right outside.  The bus filled up until it was a sardine can, then left for the park.

Gaudi had intended the park to be an upscale housing development.  It was started in 1900 but stalled during WWI and never resumed.  Now it's an interesting place to visit.  The bus drops you off at the free area.  The entrance to the timed ticket booth for the Monumental Zone was farther than I expected, and I had started thinking I'd somehow passed it when I came upon it.  Some renovations are in progress, and the tiled bench area was covered on two sides leaving only the middle section open.

Overlooking the Monumental Area from the benches.

16 hours ago, 2013cruiser2013 said:

I'm really enjoying your posts and photos. 

Thanks 2013cruiser.

The crucifixion

Then it was my time to enter.  An audio guide was included with admission cost.  I think I gasped when I entered, and I'm disappointed that the stained glass doesn't show up as well in my photos.  I can see why people say that a good time to visit is during sunset.

The crucifix above the altar.

The supporting columns are made to resemble trunks and branches of trees.

Stained glass on the other side of the basilica.

I spent some time inside the church but I didn't go up the tower.  I wasn't certain how timing would work out.  There is a museum on the lower level with a window to the workshop and a craftsman was at work (although he isn't in the picture).

On this side is the Glory Facade.

Then on to the Passion Facade.  The Nativity Facade, the story of Christ's birth, is supposed to be joyful, although all that melting stuff makes it seem less so to me.  The Passion Facade is sad.  It's the story of Christ's crucifixion.

Next to the Passion Facade is this, I don't know if it has a name.

A closeup of one of the statues on the Passion Facade.