TravelBluebird

After lunch we visited the. Athexrzl and Roman Theater then walked the charming streets. Back on board 4:30. 13,500 Steps and that was with Taxi to and from the ship.

Couple more! IMG_7968.MOV

We are in Malaga! Been having an awful time still connecting to Cruise. Ritz-Carlton on the ship. No problem at all on cellular. This is a quick update on today—when I get back to the ship I will try to fill you in on our il Viaggio experience last night. We visited Alcambra this morning and the asylum. What views! Quite the climb. Then we went to the whimsical Javier Calleja Art exhibit. Having tapas now then Cathedral and a Museum.

Christine Duffy was a surprise guest at the Wave Morning show this morning which was nice. And she did a Fireside Chat with Emeril today too; it was great to hear that he is an active participant in working with the chefs and kitchen staff, not just a figurehead as the Chief Culinary Officer of Carnival. I have some video excerpts that I’ll share at a later date. About the cooking class? It was a raffle to take the class with Emeril. There were 40 spots. It was $200 a person, all proceeds to go to St. Jude’s. The $$ went to the charity whether or not you were selected for the cooking class. We felt a little bit like bad people because we would have paid it for the charity if we TOOK the class, but didn’t want to donate the $400 if we were not selected. So no cooking class for us, And I got to meet MarQ this afternoon. Really enjoying him; great cruise director! Good energy without being crazy in your face, and a really nice person to boot, too.

Breakfast in the Carnivale area for Terrazza guests was fantastic—we are not huge breakfast people, so a small bite and a nice espresso and we are done! We can get our espresso coffees right at the breakfast bar—they are $$ so not included (for what we pay extra for these rooms it would nice if the espressos WERE included, but I digress) but SO convenient t get espressso a few steps from our room, and no Java Blue line! We had the homemade granola (yummy!) with yogurt and the fresh squeezed orange juice (included). Also on offer were fruit, pastries, cereal. This is a great perk that we will use nearly every day. It was not crowded out on the deck but rainy so we had it under the little covered area.

I believe if you don’t have the app you can go to the restaurant to put your name in and wait there. I highly recommend the free app—no internet purchase needed—if at all possible. If you don’t get off the list see the M’aitre D first day he may be able to accommodate you.

@latebloomer56 No noise at all last night! The Latin live music was loud inside the Carnivale lounge but did not hear it at all in the room. Same for the 7 piece band in Gondola Lounge.

Also another video ship tour for you on YouTube—this one is on Deck 5 lots of restaurants and bars and shops—can see some of the layout. I’m trying to post 1 video a day—have to upload over night and it takes several hours. Tonight we eat at il Viaggio! Video tonight May be of that plus I’ll put images and review here The Deck 5 Video Ship Tour: https://youtu.be/VG7h8O4pqQI

This is the life. I love my cabana room: My view right now:

Dinner photos:

I don’t understand it, but I can’t access Cruise Critic on May iPad right now—the page just hangs up and stays there. So I’m on my phone which is NOT ideal as it’s SLOW typing. Also tried to upload videos on dinner at MDR and the Terraza included breakfast this morning. I’ll try a few photos instead. one of best MDR dinners we’ve had in awhile! Our favorites were the poblano soup —perfect seasoning AND the right temperature and the delicious Pollo Arrosto—the half roast chicken with roasted broccoli and potatoes. This is a new menu item. Again, well seasoned, hot, perfectly cooked, not dry. Liked the Your Time Dining room with Gondola! Only a 10 minute wait for dinner via app at 6:30. Could hear well—enough broken up areas in MDR. Good windows out to sea. We’ll done Carnival! Dinner photos in next post—aww heck they just called medical response team to room over loudspeaker. Hope they are OK.

I agree on a little less storage-less room to store things in bathroom and very few drawers. We made it work but was a little tight

We are on board! Very easy boarding process; Taxi was 11EU to terminal. Long line at the terminal was only 20 minutes. Helix terminal is very beautiful, with shops, liquor, coffee. We grabbed Guys Burgers and Fries (our tradition) for lunch, then we explored the ship and took video tours for everyone. Our first video tour is of the Terrazza Cabana Room and Carnivale area—it took forever to load, but it is up! Of course YT approved my live video request right after I would have done the live. Sigh. Anyway, I have tours of the Lido, Deck 5 (lots of bars and restaurant!s) and Deck 4 coming, hopefully another 1 or 2 later tonight! I’ll also have photos right here and more about how today went this evening. This is a lovely ship! Definitely a more upscale feel than most Carnival ships. We were surprised to find La Strada Grill—an Italian Barbecue place—on deck 5, open for lunch today! Here is the tour—room and Carnivale area: https://youtu.be/uwoyjPWRWBA

Update from people that I’m in a cruise group with—the line at Helix Terminal E (where Venezia is departing) is LONG. Very long. And everyone has all their luggage with them…evidently you can’t just drop it off and stay in line. We debated leaving earlier than planned, but decided maybe the line will be shorter later? Opinions welcome. We currently have our cab scheduled for 11, but could move it up.

I will see if I can find that out; not sure if we can get access//can see that area from the aft part of the ship, but I’ll try! We board in about 3 hours!

I will find out for you re the Behind the Fun tour! I’ll be interested to see how your first round trip from NY goes as well. Just having coffee and we’ll be heading to the port for boarding soon!

All right that is it for me for the night! Our luggage is all packed, we have a plan for espresso and light breakfast in the morning and one last walk in Barcelona, and a taxi will show up at our hotel for us at 11am (another nice thing about the hotel is that it is just 15 minutes from the port). The next you’ll hear from me is either at the port or on the ship!!

Someone asked me about how much walking in total I’ve done in Barcelona. A ton! about 14,000 steps the first day, 20,000 steps the second day, and 14,000 steps today. I could have done more today but decided to cool it and take more Metro trips so I won’t be exhausted tomorrow.

OK well don’t any of you wake up early for my LIVE ship tour because I went to pre-schedule and arrance the LIVE broadcast this evening, and found out YT has a 24 hour waiting period before your first LivE. I mean, the stupid “tape live” button has been on my YT forever, but with no warning about that. I wish I could do the LIVE right here 😭 BUt no worries…I’m just going to tape the embarkation//tour anyway and then upload it right after. I assumed most people would watch it later anyways. I’ll have running commentary during the tour. I’ll. also have a ton of photos of the interior for you right here. Also, hope to both post a tour of the Terrazza Cabana Stateroom and photos of the stateroom here, so look for that! Can’t believe the long awaited journey is here! looking forward to the Venezia, the ports, the Transatlantic00the whole thing! Plus meeting some of the other LIVE bloggers on the trip.

We passed by these before dinner and were joking about the fake roman ruin—and it turns out it really is fake!

Dinner tonight was our best one yet! Had a lazy walk-about this evening and found a charming, hole-in-the wall Tapas Bar (It felt like it was 8 feet across at best!) in the Gothic Quarter, about a 10 minute walk from our hotel, callefd La Alcoba Azul. Packed (we got the 1 remaining table) and menus only in Spanish, we were treated excellent tapas including a burata salad, a delicious pork dish, spiral potaotes in 2 sauces, chicken satay and a proper 5-cheese cheese course to eat in chef suggested order with roasted pecans and apricot sauce. We enjoyed the stroll as well; a perfect ending to 3 nights in Barcelona. We are back at the hotel and packed and ready for tomorrow! Very excited for the cruise!

Thanks re my Mom. ❤️ It was a little less quiet last night—lots of Saturday night really loud music and shouting and hoopla, but it was all over by 11pm-ish so not a problem for sleeping.

I’ve got time to catch you all up with our adventures today, then I need to try to figure out some tech stuff for my LIVE YT ship tour as I board the Venezia tomorrow. I apologize in advance that due to the time change the ship tour is starting early, perhaps as early as 6am EST (exact time depending how quick boarding is) but it will be available on YouTube to replay at any time AND I’ll post still images here later in the day as well. If you haven’t found my YT channel yet; link is in my signature below or just look for Cruising With Dee. OK, back to our last full Barcelona day! We did try the hotel breakfast today. Pricey for sure at 18EU per person. It is served in a lovely breakfast room with views right onto Las Ramblas. Standard European Hotel Breakfast—pastries, cold cuts, bread, eggs, mushrooms, fruit (not enough variety on that for me), and decent espresso coffee machines. We wanted to eat in as we had an early morning ticket for Casa Milla, another Gaudi masterpiece//UNESCO World Heritage site. We get back to the room after breakfast, and Russ decides to do all his yoga stretches. I’m looking at the clock and say we should really leave, and he gets all snippy and says he’s worked out the time to get to Casa Milla on the Metro. I think we need to leave time for errors, misdirections, late trains. Typical marital travel argument. He won, so we left the hotel with NO time to spare. We get on the Metro, and 2 stops in we realize we’ve gone in the wrong direction. Took a bit to sort that out and trains not as frequent on a Sunday, so we end up 20 minutes late for our ticket time, which was still OK. I stand vindicated but still annoyed 😂 Casa Milla is not to be missed. It’s so…Gaudi. Who makes a roof like that, all steps and monuments and wavy lines? Who has an attic that resembles the interior of a whale? We really loved it, and I loved the rooftop with the sculptures and the view. I didn’t really love the 7 flights of stairs we had to climb down after the visit (At least 140 steps; probably more) I believe a lift was available for the disabled. We people watched at the outdoor cafe, then took the Metro to the Maritime Museum without incident. We love Maritime Museums, and this one was spectacular, set in a Barcelona shipyard build in the 1300s! I could go on for pages, but I won’t—well worth a visit if you are interested in Maritime history. Then up the Columbus monument in a teeny tiny elevator (not for the claustriphobic, either the elevator or the viewing area) for some views, cost was 8EU. A final long walk down La Ramblas and I’m back at the hotel. So much to do for tomorrow—some re-packing included as we want to walk on with just 1 carryon. The restaurant we wanted to try thanks to @IntrepidFromDC ‘s LIVE is closed on Sunday 😂 so we need to find something else. Excited tomorrow to start our cruise part of this journey on the Venezia! 🎉 IMG_9130.MOV IMG_9124.MOV

@Hogladyrider Thank you! She always wanted to go on a cruise and we tried to take her on one but she wouldn’t leave my Dad behind who was impaired by a stroke. We agree to do all you can when you can—tomorrow and health is not guaranteed! I think all of us here at Cruise Critic share that philosophy.

We wouldn’t mind that! We will try—thank you!