Live from MSC Meraviglia Sailing from Barcelona 7/7/17 with lots of photos!

[Rossco01]

Great start Kikki. Loved Barcelona when I was there in the Autumn.

 

 

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[kikki21]

Fantastic review, thank you so much for going into so much detail. We will be sailing out of Barcelona on the 5th Jan. Quite Jealous of you only having a 2 hour flight, ours is 16 :(.

 

 

 

Ouch Bradtez that is a long flight!

 

 

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[kikki21]

Morning everyone I'm awake - was very tired last night. Going to get our tickets for the ho ho bus online but first we need to get ready to have some breakfast although I have a feeling it will be somewhat closer to brunch lol! [emoji23]

 

 

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[sverigecruiser]

Morning Sverigecruiser - honestly that last week went by so fast!

I'm now really excited for tomorrow!

 

 

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I know that it will be a fast week! We are going to Arlanda ( Stockholm airport) on Monday so not too many days until our vacation starts.

[little britain]

Love your pics from the plane! So clear! 3rd one down you can see Hayling Island, the beaches at West Wittering, and the inlet up to Itchenor and our favourite pub!!! I think you are about a millimetre away from seeing our [emoji537] lol! What camera are you using?

 

 

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[Lumee23]

Great pics! I can't wait to read the rest of your review. I hope you enjoy your cruise!

[AndyGurney73]

Great review, hope you have an amazing time

 

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[unikitty]

Great review so far, your aerial pics are amazing. It's really getting me excited for our trip in August.

I think you might have snapped a pic of the Disney Magic at the port. That's the ship that got our family addicted to cruising.

We have the Aurea package too and are looking forward to reading your review once on board.

I hope you have a wonderful cruise, keeps the pics coming please.

L

[kikki21]

Thank you everyone! More pics of Barcelona coming later on - just come in, quick shower & out again!

The ships at port yesterday were MSC Orchestra & Tui Discovery.

Today we saw Seabourn Odyssey & Tui Discovery again.

We did the red & blue route ho ho bus - red route is definitely the most interesting one to go on!

Blue route is great if you are visiting La Sagrada Familia, Park Guell & Nou Camp foot ball stadium otherwise the red route is the one to do!

We are eating out at 4 Gats tonight - no idea what it will be like, menu is a bit out there!

 

 

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[kikki21]

Well I can finally say that today is CRUISE DAY!!!!!

Ok & back to Barcelona for now. Simply had a superb day. We had a bit of a lie in & then bought the ho ho tickets at the tourist info place around the corner from our hotel. But first brunch!........

We walked to Ciudad Comtal - I've been here before & the tapas are really very good!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had croquettes, Russian salad, a prawn skewer, a Spanish omelette & fried Camembert - all delicious & a good start to the day!

 

 

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[kikki21]

We then headed to Placa Catalunya to catch the ho ho bus - we went with the Barcelona Touristic Bus, there are 3 lines - you can ride the route as many times as you like within the time they run. We did the Red route first which is by far the most interesting followed by the Blue route - a lot of which was snarled up in rush hour traffic!

 

 

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[kikki21]

It's important in Barcelona to look up as most of the interesting architecture is at neck craning level!

 

 

 

Gaudi houses on Passeig de Garcia.

 

 

 

We got off the bus at Port Vell - we needed some water & ice cream to cool off as it was a hot day & we did some shopping too!

 

 

 

Smiling lobsters anyone?!

 

 

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[kikki21]

Barcelona is full of quite bonkers stuff but it's all good fun!

 

 

 

The W Hotel right in the distance.

 

 

The bus doesn't really slow down at places of interest so you need to be quick at snapping them.

 

.

 

 

We then got off the red route to transfer to the Blue route bus at Passeig de Gracia.

 

 

 

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[kikki21]

One of the main sights to see on the Blue route is this.......

 

 

 

 

Not due to be finished till 2026!

We will hopefully go inside on our 2nd leg of Barcelona.

 

 

You also go past a big football stadium so if you or anyone else knows their football then this is the famous FC Barcelona stadium. Luckily my fiancé isn't a huge football fan.

We didn't get off the Blue route at all & it was rather protracted as I said earlier, we hit a lot of traffic.

 

 

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[kikki21]

We were debating where to go for dinner & one place kept shining out at me El 4 Gats which was 5 mins walk away from our hotel.

 

Very near the gorgeous fountain of St Anna.

 

 

We booked a table just in case & made our way to freshen up at our hotel.

 

Outside the restaurant

 

 

Inside one of the rooms.

 

This place was certainly an experience for sure!

 

 

 

This was the room we ate in.

 

The restaurant is famous as a meeting place for artists such as Picasso & Gaudi.

Certainly a lot of famous people have eaten here.

I can only describe the menu as obscure & it wasn't cheap either!

 

 

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[kikki21]

We decided to go for the full 3 course experience. The portions were good sizes.

 

We had a soup amuse Bouche

 

 

Typical Catalan tomato bread starter, followed by a very unusual starter for me which was served in a jar & contained sausage, egg & potatoes with truffle!

 

 

It was bonkers but tasty!

 

 

My fiancé had to take a photo of the men's toilets!

 

 

He had the fish stew main course which was very filling.

 

 

I had the beef tenderloin main course which came with some bonkers accompaniments & included a mustard toffee sauce! [emoji15]

The sauce was great & the beef was excellent!

 

 

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[kikki21]

We were quite full after all that food so we decided that we would share a dessert!

We had also had a litre of sangria which was really good & really strong!

 

 

I went for Pear!

 

 

It was rather delicious!

 

The moon was out again tonight & made for some lovely photos on our way back to the hotel.

 

 

Near St Anna's fountain.

 

 

Back to the Cathedral Square!

 

Right that's it for now everyone - best get some sleep ahead of a day of exploration onboard the Meraviglia!!!

 

 

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[kikki21]

 

Guess who is just parking up in Barcelona!

The scheduled arrival time is 9am so it seems as Bea said she gets in well ahead of schedule to her ports of call.

 

I want to get on her now! [emoji849][emoji38]

 

 

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[kikki21]

So we are back at our hotel after breakfast & a quick walk round & now it's time to check out & get a taxi to the port!

Literally so excited now!!!! [emoji4][emoji4][emoji4][emoji4][emoji4]

 

 

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[Rossco01]

Can't wait Kikki. Interested to know what your check in time officially was and what time you actually get on.

 

 

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[yra]

Love to follow your story! We board in Genova on July 16th so I am looking forward to every post!

[kikki21]

Finally on the way to the cruise port in a taxi - hurry up!!!!

Rossco01 my official check in time is 1.30pm I think!

I'll let you know how fast the process is when we get on board!

I'm a bit later than I wanted to be but did some last minute shopping [emoji849][emoji38]

 

 

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[kikki21]

 

 

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[LUGI]

Finally on the way to the cruise port in a taxi - hurry up!!!!

Rossco01 my official check in time is 1.30pm I think!

I'll let you know how fast the process is when we get on board!

I'm a bit later than I wanted to be but did some last minute shopping [emoji849][emoji38]

 

 

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Can't wait to see pictures. Have a great cruise. [emoji568]

[Rossco01]

That's a teaser pic Kikki! Bon voyage

 

 

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