6-15-Greetings from Barcelona--Almost LIVE from Brilliance

6-15-Greetings from Barcelona--Almost LIVE from Brilliance

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Hi Everyone-

Greetings from Barcelona. Tomorrow (rather later today) we board the Brilliance for the 12 night Med-Venice cruise. I will try to post LIVE updates each day from the ship.

I´m escorting a group of 14 most of which are from Tampa with the exception of myself, from San Diego and my traveling companion from England.

I left San Diego on Monday for Amsterdam so I could visit with an RCI crew member friend who was home on break. I flew American Airlines using miles to upgrade to Business Class and the flight was exceptional. The rest of the group flew Delta from Tampa and they also reported a nice experience.

We all met in Barcelona this afternoon, and were met by Taxi Internacional (Angie) for transport to our hotel. I can honestly recommend Angie if you ever have a need for ground transportation in this city. She was very professional and prompt in responding to emails over the past year. Her driver was at the airport upon our arrival as promised and the bus they used was first class. We´re staying at the Apsis Hotel Splendid on 3 Muntaner. At 70 Euro per night this hotel is a hidden gem. Build in 1998 and renovated in 2004, the hotel is small with limited facilities, but very clean. The staff could not have been nicer in accommodating us with an early check in. They have a small restaurant with buffet breakfast and free internet in the lobby. The location is a 5 min walk to Las Rambla and is very convenient to most of the city´s attractions. This hotel books up fast as they only have 43 rooms so if you´re looking for a great deal, book early!!

Today, we took the Bus Turistic (Red Line) for 18 Euro per person and hopped off at Park Guell for a hike. After an enjoyable few hours there, we hopped back on the bus back to Las Rambla in the hopes of finding a nice little cafe to enjoy a glass of wine. By total chance we found the La Villa Restaurant which is directly on Las Rambla across from the Le Meridien hotel. We sat outside and had a few glasses of very nice red wine. I spoke with the Manager, Luis to see if it would be possible for my group to have dinner there that night which he gratiously arranged. This man was the nicest guy! His english is not great but his warmth and willingness to please was without compare! He only charged us 8 Euro for 2 glasses of wine and 2 bottles of water. We returned later that night with the group of 14 and he gave us all complimentary Tapas before dinner, free sangria ( several pitchers) and presented us with platter after platter of desserts, again all on the house! The food was very good and reasonable at approximately 14 Euro per person for an entree. They have a varied menu and all ordered was excellent. Most had the seafood paella, which was presented tableside and served. We wanted for nothing and were treated like family. After dinner the group returned to the hotel to get some sleep and myself and Kath decided to remain at the restaurant to finish our wine and buy Luis a drink in appreciation for all he had done. Instead, he wound up serving us different types of local liquors, again all on the house, and to put icing on the cake he sent us home with 2 bottles of the best wine they serve, with the promise we toast him from the balcony of our ship. This man could not have done enough for us and was tipped quite nicely for his kindness and frienship. I highly recommend you visit Luis at the La Villa Restaurant for excellent food and service. Please tell him Bob and Kath sent you!

Tomorrow we board the Brilliance for our adventure and I will post more once onboard. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask, but please don´t overload me as I will be going non stop these next 12 nights.

Stay tuned for more...

Wow, what an awesome start to your cruise! The hotel sounds wonderful and the restaurant and manager - you really scored the big one there. This ship and itinerary are on my "someday" list, so I'll be looking forward to your updates.

Tina-- yes we lucked out with both the hotel and especially the restaurant.

Dinner was a 3 1\2 hour ordeal, and Luis went above and beyond our wildest expectations. Several in the group were so amazed by his generosity. The food is all cooked to order so it takes 30-40 mins from the time you order for the food to arrive, but with the platters of Tapas and bread and pitchers of Sangria he gave it didn´t seem long at all. I tried to not accept the bottles of wine, but he refused to take them back or to allow me to pay for them. He only wanted a promise that we toast our new friendship from the ship. The food was excellent and very reasonable.

The wine we drank in the afternoon was very good and the sangria he served us at dinner was excellent as well. I´m really looking forward to trying these bottles he gave us as they are supposed to be the best they serve, but is only sold by the bottle rather than by the glass like the wine we were drinking. He gave us some very interesting shots of liquor one of which was made with herbs-- sorry I don´t know the name since his english is not very good and my spanish is non-existent. If you ever get to this city you can´t go wrong with this place.

I'd love to know if Katherine is back as concierge yet. She was going on holiday for 5-6 weeks starting the end of April. If you see her, send regards from Jane.

She was wonderful on our Panama Canal Holiday cruise.

Have a GREAT cruise!

Jane

Bob,

I am so excited about reading your threads. We leave on Brillance for the same cruise July 10. :) I am arriving in Barcelona with my son and elderly mother. I will defintiely use Angie for transportation. I was wondering what I was going to do. Thanks for the info. Is it really hot over there? I would like to know what people are wearing inside religious buildings/churches. I've heard shoulders and knees must be covered....but I don't do "hot" very well. Have a great time...I look forward to your next posting.

Thanks,

GA Peach

Jane- Yes Katherine is back. I've yet to meet her as we opted to use the secondary Concierge lounge set up in the Hollywood Odyssey. I will be seeing her in the morning for priority tender tickets and send her your regards.

Saunj-- I highly recommend Angie at Taxi Internacional. Her service is excellent and her prices are very reasonable. We've hired her for all 4 of our transfers-- airport-hotel-ship-hotel-airport at a cost of 125 Euro per transfer which is only 13 Euro per person/per transfer for our group. The weather is warm/hot but not unbearable. We had a little thunderstorm during embarkation which didn't last long. Today was sunny, not humid and tonight it's a bit windy and cool/chilly outside. I suspect July will be much hotter-- sorry.

We were picked up at the hotel by Taxi Internacional (Angie) right on time as arranged at 12noon. They sent a huge 50 pax bus for the 13 of us which was nice. We took the short ride to the pier arriving around 1220p and literally walked right onboard. Cabins weren't ready until 1p, but so we just dropped off our carry on bags in the cabin and took off to have lunch at the Windjammer- Our cabin was ready when we boarded so it would not have been a problem to hang out, but we were ready for lunch any way. The ship began boarding around 1130am and when we arrived we were some of the first people onboard. There were people boarding as late as 545p for our 7p departure.

The ship is still very beautiful, but is a bit worn in areas. Most noticable is the wood railings which are in need of some TLC-- sanding and varnish. There's also considerable rust in places, mostly on the balcony overhangs which I had not seen on a RCI ship before. It just seems like this ship could use a good cleaning overall on the outer deck areas. The carpet and furnishings in the public areas has some wear and tear which is to be expected but nothing that has jumped out at me at this point.

The mattresses in our cabin are horrible--!! Thin and sagging, but a simple request for an egg crate topper (a first for me in all my cruises) was gladly

taken care of by our wonderful cabin attendant Stacey from Trinidad who by the way is very sweet. We have an oversized balcony due to our location on the hump which has 2 chairs, 2 lounges and a small table.

The service and crew onboard are the usual friendly RCI gang and they can't seem to do enough for the guests. Because of the sold out sailing and the number of Diamond/+ C&A members onboard, there's a secondary concierge lounge set up in the Hollywood Odyssey Lounge in the Viking Crown which is our prefered place to go over the cramped Concierge Lounge on Deck 10. The bartender in the Hollywood, Angela from Romania is a riot. She had everyone in the lounge cracking up. She's a very hard worker and being the only crew member there she did not stop. We actually had so much fun with her we went back later tonight after dinner and suffered through the cigar smoke to have another drink up there.

The food tonight was excellent! They have 2 menus.. one is a set menu with 1 appetizer, entree and dessert which will change every night, and the other is the traditional menu with expanded choices in all the usual categories. You can pick and choose from either. Tonight there were no less than 8 choices for appetizer-- all of them favorites like the onion tart, shrimp cocktail etc. Choosing which to order was difficult. There were 3 salads and 6 entrees with several desserts. The food was excellent-- this chef really knows how to cook and if tonight is a preview of what we have to look forward to in the dining room I will hate to miss a meal there.

The Windjammer also had a nice spread for lunch-- I did not walk thru during the dinner service but I'm sure it was equally as nice.

All of the musicians onboard that we've listened to were also very good. We skipped the welcome aboard show in favor of enjoying more time poolside watching sail away.

By the way-- there are only 2 formal nights on this 12 night cruise-- they are the First sea day (Tues) and the second sea day (Sat). Most other nights are casual with a smart casual/casual thrown in the middle somewhere. As we are staying pre and post cruise in Barcelona and in order to keep our load as light as possible, we opted not to bring formal wear on this cruise and instead will dine in Chops and Portofino on those nights.

I'm sorry this post is a bit out of order and scattered, but it's 320am and I have a wake up call in 5 hours so I can get the group ready for a full day of touring Villafranche, Nice, Monte Carlo, Monaco, Cannes, Eze and St. Paul de Vence tomorrow. I'm running on about 6 hours sleep total since leaving CA on Monday.

In summary, all I can say is this trip is off to a wonderful start.. Stay tuned for more to come tomorrow.

Hey Bob,

Thanks for the wonderful review of Day 1! You said that you will eat at Portofino's or Chop's on formal night. I was under the impression that on formal nights that those restuarants are also formal attire. I would like to know if this is true or not. Keep up the reviews

Sue

Sue- glad you're enjoying my posts. It's been my experience on all the past cruises that the specialty restaurants are casual (no jeans) on all nights. We've even dined in the main dining room in casual attire on formal nights if we so choose and it was never a problem-- you're on vacation, be comfortable and enjoy-- you won't feel out of place no matter which to decide to do.

Thanks for the update, Bob!

Have a great day in France. We especially enjoyed Eze last summer.

Jane

Hi RDeagazio,

We are cruising to Europe next June on the Brilliance which will be a first for us so we are avidly reading anything that is remotely concerning our trip.

One question (at least for now[:D]). We have room 7606 which is an E-3 cabin on the hump on deck 7. It appears that the balcony is very small. By any chance, could you find out if it acommodates two chairs?

Please keep your posts coming as we have a lot to learn.

Thanks for any help,

Jackie

Thanks, I always love to read your posts. We will be doing the first panama canal trip when the Brilliance returns in November. I hope the food is still as good.

Hi, Bob! <waving>!!! you MUST go meet Katherine - she is amazing - she was our Concierge last year on the 3-nighter after the fisherman's strike that was a total DISASTER for the crew and passengers alike. She never lost her cool or her smile. That cruise was my first Concierge Club experience, and she set the bar very high for all the rest to come!

Jane- Yes Katherine is back. I've yet to meet her as we opted to use the secondary Concierge lounge set up in the Hollywood Odyssey.

.

Bob................we too, used the secondary Concierge lounge on the Jewel for the transatlantic crossing and again on the Baltic cruise. Margarita was our bartender, and she was outstanding!!

Enjoy your cruise. The Med right now is perfect for a cruise. Blue skies and calm seas!!

Thanks for keeping us informed!!!:)

Rick

We were picked up at the hotel by Taxi Internacional (Angie) right on time as arranged at 12noon. They sent a huge 50 pax bus for the 13 of us which was nice. We took the short ride to the pier arriving around 1220p and literally walked right onboard. Cabins weren't ready until 1p, but so we just dropped off our carry on bags in the cabin and took off to have lunch at the Windjammer- Our cabin was ready when we boarded so it would not have been a problem to hang out, but we were ready for lunch any way. The ship began boarding around 1130am and when we arrived we were some of the first people onboard. There were people boarding as late as 545p for our 7p departure.

 

Can you give me more info in this Angie?

What does she charge etc. There is 24 in my group and we need transportation from our hotel to the peir ( I am told its less than 3 miles )

We are on the August 15th sailing of the BOS and this information is in valuaeable!!!!!!!! Hope I spelled that right? Anyway, thanks and I'll be looking forward to your updates!

Angies is good, we used them as well. As far as the weather is concerned, e just got back from the 12 day Med. trip on the Brilliance and it was warm and even hot most days. Lovely trip! Your weather will be most certainly VERY hot! Wear AT LEAST capris and a shirt/blouse with sleeves when entering a religious venue. Ironically, I was asked to REMOVE my brimmed hat in a cathedral near the colliseum in Rome last week while on a R.C.C. excursion....?? Maybe the guard was having a bad day?? Hmmmm...

Have fun on your cruise! You will have the time of your life! :)

Thank you so much for your posts, I am sitting at work and you are helping to pass the time. Have a great time in France, I will be there one year from today!

We sailed Brilliance from Barcelona on the Venice cruise for our honeymoon.

Its a wonderful cruise. If you are in Venice over night make sure you stay in St. Mark's square as the sun goes down. Grab a table outside one of the cafe bars (we sat on the left right down near the Cathedral) and listen to all the different bands play. They have a little competition of sorts between the cafes. Great fun. The atmosphere really changes and although the drink prices are a little high - it was one of the highlights of our cruise. We felt we saw all of Venice from our little table.

Also, Villefranche is not to be missed. Not as famous as the other places but a beautiful town (If you have seen the film Never Say Never Again (James Bond) with Sean Connery you will see a shot of him standing on some steps - that is in Villefrance!!!!)

Re: entering churches etc. men should remove their head coverings and in some places women may be asked to cover their heads (not usual but depends on the church) so I always take a light shawl just in case. Women should not bare any leg above the knee and shoulders should be covered - that applies to men and women actually)

We had a wonderful wonderful time - I could go on forever about the ship and the itinery...but I wont bore you. If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them tho'.

Have a wonderful time - I would love to do this cruise again.

Angies is good, we used them as well. As far as the weather is concerned, e just got back from the 12 day Med. trip on the Brilliance and it was warm and even hot most days. Lovely trip! Your weather will be most certainly VERY hot! Wear AT LEAST capris and a shirt/blouse with sleeves when entering a religious venue. Ironically, I was asked to REMOVE my brimmed hat in a cathedral near the colliseum in Rome last week while on a R.C.C. excursion....?? Maybe the guard was having a bad day?? Hmmmm...

Have fun on your cruise! You will have the time of your life! :)

Thanks! Capris won't be so bad. If I'm asked to remove my hat...they'll quickly ask me to put it back on once they see my hair! Thanks!

We have never been on a Med cruise and are going in Late Oct on the voyager. Are there any ports that you can just walk to Town to or take a short taxi ride. We will do the rome and naples trips which I guess will be 8 hrs. but we may like to go for a short ride to a close town and spend the day. thanks for any help.

We had Angela as our barserver in the Hollywood Odyssey for the Brilliance crossing last November. She serves a real mean drink !! nearly blew my head off. Hate to bragg but we have been to Romania and visited her home town of Brasov, very beautiful. Like you we had so much fun with Angela we went upto the bar at night and tolerated the cigars. She is so funny and always smiling. Have a wonderful trip, wish we were with you.

:) Thanks so much for the info about the mattresses/egg crates....this will save us the initial poor night's sleep!

What to do in Nice?

Is there a wait to get off the ship at ports?...We'll have drivers waiting.

Thanks,

Saunj

We have never been on a Med cruise and are going in Late Oct on the voyager. Are there any ports that you can just walk to Town to or take a short taxi ride. We will do the rome and naples trips which I guess will be 8 hrs. but we may like to go for a short ride to a close town and spend the day. thanks for any help.

We can only suggest that you do the cable car ride to Santorini (AWESOME! - only 4 minutes up to the spectacular pinacle of awesome beauty!!,...AND, on a STABLE,... SWISS MADE cable car!! ;)........take the cheap bus ride to Fira/Oia (Where the famous picture of the blue domed church is!! ;)

By the way, DO NOT do the donkey thing unless you want to smell like a donkey in the most beautiful place on earth for the rest of the day!! It takes approx. 4 minutes by cable car (best plan!!) but again,......if you want to experience the "primitive way of travel" getting to the top of Santorini you will endure 45-50 minutes going up through VERY poopey streets that are narrow and cobble-stoned........Not a nice picture is it? We saw poor fellow cruisers (June 4th Med. Cruise) thinking they were "doing the native thing" FREAK OUT later when they reached the top as they suffered a "bottle neck" of donkeys on the 1000 foot climb from the dock at Santorini.....Worth it? It's your call of course.......:)

Bob, I will be embarking next Wednesday (6/28) for my Med cruise on the BOS. I would love more info on Angie, and the restaurant. I am in Barcelona on my own on Monday, and then the rest of the family arrives on Tuesday. I'd love to take them to this gem Tuesday night!

Thanks!