Momma Mojito

Thanks, we are on the Royals TA so a good cd can really help

Ron Goodman is coming on the ship for the TA

I have to agree with the reason everyone's favorite is the Coral. We have sailed on the Coral three times and now are looking forward to sailing on the Royal next week. I know that the two are very different and can't wait to see how

I feel about such a large ship.

Who believes Sky ?

 

Check your State Dept advice.

 

Annie

Thanks

news.sky.com/.../barcelona-mayor-warns-against-catalonia-independence-declaration-

We will be in Barcelona a couple of days before our Royal Princes's cruise on October 21.

With all the unrest that has been going on in Barcelona would you consider canceling tours

Thankful, did he mention how Long he was onboard

As of today he is still on the Royal

The U.S. Embassy in Madrid and the U.S. Consulate General in Barcelona inform U.S. citizens thatdemonstrations related to the political situation in Catalonia are expected to continue to take place in Barcelona, Madrid, and in other locations across Spain in the coming days and weeks. Even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence. Avoid areas of demonstrations, and exercise caution if in the vicinity of a demonstration.

U.S. citizens traveling or residing in affected areas, including Barcelona, should expect possible disruptions to public transportation and other services. We encourage U.S. citizens to check for updates at the following Twitter accounts of local authorities:Mossos d’Esquadra, Guardia Civil, Spanish National Police, Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona, Guardia Urbana de Barcelona, Rodalies Catalunya, Emergencies Catalunya, Catalan Transit Services.

For further information about security in Spain, including our most recent Security Messages:

· See the State Department's travel website for the Worldwide Caution, Travel Warnings, Travel Alerts, and Spain’s Country Specific Information.

· Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive security messages and make it easier to locate you in an emergency.

· Contact the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, located at Calle de Serrano, 75, via email atAskACS@state.gov or by phone at + (34) 91-587-2200, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The after-hours emergency number for U.S. citizens is the same: + (34) 91-587-2200

· Contact the U.S. Consulate General in Barcelona, located at Paseo Reina Elisenda, in the neighborhood of Sarria at + (34) 93-280-2227, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, or via email at BarcelonaACS@state.gov. The after-hours emergency number for U.S. citizens is + (34) 91-587-2200.

· Call 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the United States and Canada or 1-202-501-4444 from other countries from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays).

· Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Just saying .... I've always seen women washing their hands after using the "Lady's Room".

Seems almost all do. :)

I agree with what you said women do take the time to wash their hands.

Many a time my husband has come out of the men's room and pointed to a man who came out just before him telling me that the man over there DID NOT WASH HIS HANDS

I'm all for personal hygiene, but if you are worried about the menus, why aren't you taking your dishes, glasses and flatware back to the cabin to wash them before being served food? What about your chair? Oh wait, the dishes come from the kitchen with food on them. The waiters handle the dishes. Oh oh. Don't mean to make fun of you but we can only go so far within reason.

There have been studies on what type of germs that are on the menus in restaurants and you would be surprised at to just what is on them

And was directly related to the election held this past weekend.

 

We will be in Barcelona on October 21st and would be incredibly disappointed if Princess cancelled the port based on this past weekend. Considering that the Royal Princess is disembarking/embarking thousands of passengers on the 21st I think it isn't likely that the port will be cancelled.

We will be boarding the Royal Princess on the 21st from Barcelona and really can't see Princess changing ports.

I've done this a couple of times on a couple of different ships. Works out great....:):):)

 

Bob

I too have done this.

I feel that if they aren't very bright and you get enjoyment out of them then go ahead and bring them. We have been through the Panama Canal three times and each time we have hung our STEELER flag over our balcony. My DH securely had it tied down with no problem and never once were we asked to remove it. We will do the same on our upcoming cruise.

We will be on the Royal Princess for the TA cruise in October. After doing research on what would be interesting for us to see I realized that we would be there on Sunday and most of the places will be closed or either only open for a short amount of time. Lladro Museum and the Mercado de Colon Market plus having a paella dinner. Any ideas on where I could purchase Lladro in Valencia? I have looked into the Hop on Hop off Bus and right now am considering it. Also, another of my choices was to go to the beach because I read that there was a restaurant there that was open and served paella. Would it be easy to get there from the ship? Our time there will be from 7a.m. till 5 p.m.

Thanks for your suggestions

"since I won't have car"... boy, be thankful for that, finding a spot for parking in Barcelona is harder than in Chi-Town... and it's never free, you can't park anywhere in the city for free -not in downtown anyway.

 

For staying, I personally would choose somewhere in L'Eixample, it's a pretty nice area (see Barcelona's neighbourhoods: http://monbarcino.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/barris_bcn.jpg ) or if you prefer something more historical, but also a bit more rowdy, somewhere in El Gòtic or in La Ribera.

 

There's this absurd notion to stay "close" to the port (or to the airport), which is the dumbest thing to do... there's nothing much near those two sites and even if it's for a night, you surely won't spend all the time in your room, right?

 

I don't want to queer anyone's pitch but Les Rambles is no longer what it had been for decades, if not centuries, when was one of the main places in the city. Barcelonians of all walks of life mingled to get their fresh food in the markets, attended its opera and the theatres, strolled to see and be seen, etc.... but that's now pretty much over.

 

For the past say, 20 years, Les Rambles has degraded to an overcrowded boulevard flooded by zillions of tourists, full of tacky souvenir shops selling cheap Chinese-imported crap and bars with terraces offering unpalatable food and even worst booze at outrageous prices. Some of the most iconic stalls and shops in the boulevard are now almost all gone. Take for example the florists, there was a time in which dozens of stalls filled Les Rambles with a beautiful multi-colored landscape and a magnificent fragrance. They populated La Rambla for nearly two centuries, ie https://cloud10.todocoleccion.online/postales-cataluna/tc/2014/12/23/20/46911159.jpg or https://i2.wp.com/secretolivo.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Sobre-las-Ramblas-de-Barcelona.jpg There's a reason why one of the stretches of Les Rambles was called "La Rambla de les Flors" (Catalan for the "boulevard of the flowers") but now only a few of them survive. In its place, stalls selling unrelated stuff, that should be in a shopping mall instead, have taken the boulevard.

 

Yet, yes.... it's *a must* to pass by and stroll, it still has a bit of a flair indeed... but just to tick it off your list or if you're going to somewhere in that area. Don't keep your hopes too high.

 

As per shuttles, as I've mentioned in other posts, there are very few companies offering them and hardly any hotel use these services because mobility in Barcelona is excellently served by a modern, clean, safe, cheap and efficient network of public transportation of buses/metro/tramway. Pss, our network is far (far!) better than the Metra! :) We also have a large fleet of taxis, bigger than NY's (13000 serving 8 million residents vs 11000 for 1.6 million residents in Barcelona) and they are pretty inexpensive.

 

There are no unsafe areas in Barcelona -none that you or I'd be going anyway. Having said that, there are some less 'savoury' than others, of course (ie the lower part of El Raval, where the Red Light District is located). Despite we do have crime --it's a city, after all-- I hate to remind this, but we don't have guns or gangs here -you know what I mean!- thus most of the crime is "minor" so to speak.

 

Check out www.timeout.com/barcelona ... it's pretty handy for going out.

 

And don't forget to browse these as well: http://www.barcelonaturisme.com/wv3/en/ - http://www.infocatalonia.eu/ - http://lameva.barcelona.cat/en - http://www.barcelonaesmoltmes.cat/en/inici

 

Enjoy!

Thank you so much for your excellant information on Barcelona. I wish I had only seen it earlier as we will be in Barcelona for two days before our cruise in October and already have made arrangements for a couple of tours, but it still is very informative and I plan on using some of the information

We took a two-day pass on the Barcelona HoHo bus this past May. There are three separate routes, all of which were interesting. It was well worth the money.

 

http://barcelona-spain.ca/transportation/hop-on-bus.html

Even though I didn't ask the question I'm glad to hear that HOHO buses are such a good way to see the site of Barcelona

What a wonderful review. We are going to be on the Royal in October. This will be our first time on the Royal and after reading your review I am really looking forward to our cruise.

Isn't it a shame just how some passengers treat the crew? I'm sure we have all seen it but the crew just has to smile and do their job!!

I sometimes have had a hard time not speaking up to those rude passengers, but I know I have given them a dirty look!

If you've booked through a TA, the TA receives all notifications. It's their responsibility to notify you. Sounds like your TA dropped the ball. Nice upgrade, though.

 

Princess can change anyone's booking at any time even if you're linked to another booking or changed your booking to "No upgrade." The default for all bookings is "Will accept an upgrade" so Princess really doesn't need to notify you. Your chances of being changed are reduced if you have it as "No upgrade" but Princess retains the right to move you.

I'm really confused about upgrades and changing your cabin. If there is another one in the category you booked available can you request to be moved? There are still cabins available on our Oct cruise.so I contacted my TA to see if he would change our cabin and he said because when we booked it was a special and because of this he really couldn't change our cabin. Last night I needed to have an issue with our EZAir resolved, so when it was done I explained my situation to the Princess rep and she said my TA would have to change our cabin. By the way, we do have that we would expect an upgrade..Do you think my TA is giving me a run around

We would love to do a cruise to Alaska, but being Brits have no idea when the best time of year would be. Could any of our cruise critic friends help?

 

Any replies much appreciated.

I would go in May. We have cruised to Alaska twice. The first time was the very first Alaskan cruise for the season on the Diamond Princess, the weather was fantastic. With going at this time of the year there was still snow on the mountains, in fact, they had to remove snow from the train tracks for us to ride the White Pass in Skagway. The second time the weather was about the same but the scenery wasn' the same.

On the TA too, what kind of music does this group play? Understand next to the Crown Grill, so wondering what music we will hear eating dinner.

They play a variety of music. If you are dancers I'm sure you will really enjoy their music.

Has anyone heard Phoenix Rising lately? They are currently on the Royal. We've always heard them playing and danced to them in the Wheelhouse, but the Royal deck plan doesn't show a dance floor in the WH. Looking forward to seeing them again in November, just wondering where they usually play on this ship.

This is great news for us. We are doing our first TA in October so we will look forward to hearing them once again. We have been on quite a few cruises when Phoenix Rising has played in the Wheelhouse. From what I've been told the Wheelhouse is carpeted but some do manage to dance. I understand that most of the dancing on the Royal takes place in the Piazza.

We will be on the Royal Princess for the TA cruise in October. After doing research on what would be interesting for us to see I realized that we would be there on Sunday and most of the places will be closed or either only open for a short amount of time. Lladro Museum and the Mercado de Colon Market plus having a paella dinner. Any ideas on where I could purchase Lladro in Valencia? I have looked into the Hop on Hop off Bus and right now am considering it. Also, another of my choices was to go to the beach because I read that there was a restaurant there that was open and served paella. Would it be easy to get there from the ship? Our time there will be from 7a.m. till 5 p.m.

Even though we do not always order two entrees if there is one I would like to try I will order it as an appetizer portion. We always order extra lobster when it is served! We had a table of three couples two years ago and all of us ordered one dinner entree of lobster and asked for just the lobster. We asked for the extra lobster to be brought out with our entree and there was no problem. We cleared the center of the table and had the waiter put the extra dishes there.

My Dh and I like most of the pasta dishes especially the Farfalle a la Rustica but even with that with will have it as an appetizer.

I'm sure we did this on one of our cruises but I honestly can't remember how it worked. Have any of you done it recently?

I myself think it's a great idea!!!

What Astro Flyer said is so true!! We have saved thousands of dollars over buying direct. I also monitor prices daily and they do fluctuate! I find prices cheapest on Wed & Thursday! Good luck

 

 

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How do you monitor your air prices? When I get on Princess website to check my flight arrangements I'm afraid that I might click the wrong thing and change the flight I already have.

We have always booked our own airfare, never thinking to book through Princess, until we booked a TA from Barcelona to Ft Lauderdale. I had been checking airline prices Wow!! was I surprised when the Princess rep gave me their price. I will always check with Princess for our future cruises