“Live” trip report with pics, Celebrity Constellation, Venice-Barcelona, 8/25-9/03

[cl.klink]

I appreciate live trip reports where I feel like I’ve being taken on a trip with the traveler. That’s my aim here. When I travel I like to enjoy myself and find good experiences, so I intend to slant positive, but I will share what happens as I see it. I’ll yield to the expertise of those more travelled / insightful, and instead just share my pictures and a record of events, thoughts, feelings, somewhere on the naive-wise continuum. 

 

For DW and me, this will be our 9th cruise, 6th time on Celebrity. We like non-cruise travel, too. We live in Columbia, MO, USA, a small college community, where we’re blessed to have all our adult kids and our grandkids in town. But my work days are long, and with limited vacation time, I want to enjoy time off when it comes. 

 

This cruise is a twice re-booked reservation, after a deposit on a previous cruise. We’ve rescheduled a few times since. On this trip, we’ll be with my cousin and her husband who live near San Francisco, CA, USA. On Celebrity we once had a suite (a random upgrade), else usually go in Aqua, but this time a Concierge balcony, port side, mid-ship.

 

Itinerary is:

• Fri, 8/23: drive Columbia to St. Louis, fly to DFW, change planes to fly to London 
• Sat, 8/24: land in London, change planes to fly to Venice, Italy
• Sun, 8/25: board ship in Venice
• Mon, 8/26: Zadar, Croatia
• Tue, 8/27: Dubrovnik, Croatia
• Wed, 8/28: sea day
• Thu, 8/29: Catania, Sicily, Italy
• Fri, 8/30: Valetta, Malta
• Sat, 8/31: sea day
• Sun, 9/01: Palma de Mallorca, Spain
• Mon, 9/02: Valencia, Spain
• Tue, 9/03: Barcelona, Spain

 

We’ve been to the Spain ports, but not the others. Disappointed I couldn’t arrange for more time in Venice pre-cruise; we’re really not going to get to do much. On some cruises I’ve done a lot of reading and pre-planning, but this time, while I’ve read some, I’ve booked nothing, as there are 4 people to please with different wants and needs. We will take each day as it comes

 

We used frequent flier points to book flights. Where we live means three airplanes to get to Venice. I hated the idea of starting a trip with a day and a half of airplanes and airports and fitful or no sleep sitting upright in a cramped seat. So, took the plunge and used (just enough) points for business class, one way to Europe. Very excited (never done it before). Hoping to have a good night’s rest on a proper flat bed.

 

I travel light. Ok, I obsess over it. I got hooked about 15 years ago, and since then I’ve gone on every cruise (actually every trip since the 2000s, short trips, long trips, summer, winter) with one bag, a carry on, nothing else, no checked bags (alas, DW is no longer of this pure faith, making us a mixed marriage).

[Solution]

Thank you and following.....

[jimbri]

Looking forward to your review!

[Highpeaklad]

I’m on that cruise so it will be interesting to compare experiences. We don’t set off until Sunday morning though. 

Good move with the business class to London should be a lot more refreshed, are you staying in Venice Saturday night?

[cl.klink]

26 minutes ago, Highpeaklad said:

I’m on that cruise so it will be interesting to compare experiences. We don’t set off until Sunday morning though. 

Good move with the business class to London should be a lot more refreshed, are you staying in Venice Saturday night?

 

Good to hear! Yes, we’re staying at Hotel Santa Chiara Saturday night. 

- Joel

 

[cl.klink]

On the shuttle between Columbia and St. Louis! Got up early, got a bit of work done, my one bag already packed. It’s a pleasant sunny morning. A (usually) easy 90 minute drive awaits on a freeway through the rural US Midwest. 

 

[Cruisenouvelle]

You'll be glad you flew business class. Looking forward to your thoughts and pictures,of course.

[cl.klink]

Heading across I-70

[cl.klink]

Heading across I-70

[cl.klink]

Approaching and crossing the Missouri River 

 

[cl.klink]

At the airport!

 

Flight is on time. 

[cl.klink]

Through security, time to relax and finish the work week

[cl.klink]

At the gate. And, of course, my One Bag fits!

[cl.klink]

On board STL—>DFW!  When we booked Business class, we got First class for this leg. Nice. 

Edited August 23, 2019 by cl.klink
Left out a line

[Highpeaklad]

1 hour ago, cl.klink said:

On board STL—>DFW!  When we booked Business class, we got First class for this leg. Nice. 

 

Sadly it won’t be quite like that from London to Venice 🙁

[AppyAmmer]

Looking forward to keeping up with this.

[cl.klink]

Admirals Club in terminal D in Dallas is bigger and nicer than St. Louis. Still a nice place to relax. Work emails and tasks finally wrapped up. Vacation starts. 

 

 

[cl.klink]

British Airways crew arriving 

[cl.klink]

Breaching the barrier to approach the plane!

 

[cl.klink]

This is really cool.  The business class seats are very comfortable, lots of room, and the seat folds flat. With the footrest ahead unlocked, it will be a full bed. 

 

Therein lies some advanced planning. Many of you no doubt know about the controversial design of BA business class seats on this 777, where each row is 2-4-2. To make each seat fit, the aisle seats face forward and all the other seats face to the rear. What this means is that when a seat is in bed mode, you have to climb over each other to reach the aisle (see below; red is my seat area, blue is DW’s seat area, green is the path I have to take to reach the aisle). So, I chose these seats in the front of the section. DW has braces on her feet and could not climb over another person, and we don’t want to risks that her feet will be injured as others climb over her. So her aisle in the front avoids both things.  I’m next to her in the window and it creates a nice little secluded area.

Edited August 24, 2019 by cl.klink

[cl.klink]

My trip’s first champagne has arrived!

 

[cl.klink]

Doors closed, taxi-ing out.  London, here we come!

 

- Joel

[beachlovergirl]

Following 

[Highpeaklad]

4 hours ago, cl.klink said:

This is really cool.  The business class seats are very comfortable, lots of room, and the seat folds flat. With the footrest ahead unlocked, it will be a full bed. 

 

Therein lies some advanced planning. Many of you no doubt know about the controversial design of BA business class seats on this 777, where each row is 2-4-2. To make each seat fit, the aisle seats face forward and all the other seats face to the rear. What this means is that when a seat is in bed mode, you have to climb over each other to reach the aisle (see below; red is my seat area, blue is DW’s seat area, green is the path I have to take to reach the aisle). So, I chose these seats in the front of the section. DW has braces on her feet and could not climb over another person, and we don’t want to risks that her feet will be injured as others climb over her. So her aisle in the front avoids both things.  I’m next to her in the window and it creates a nice little secluded area.

 

You’ve chosen well there. Some people don’t like that arrangement but I love the lack of a foot “coffin”. Those seats are very comfortable. The weather in the U.K. today is warm and sunny so you should get a good view of Windsor castle just before landing as planes are landing from the west today and hopefully a smooth connection. 

 

Your Venice flight is on time so you should have time to relax in the lounge and freshen up using the showers. 

 

Just in case you’re in the business lounge, champagne is available but only on request so just ask a server and they will bring you a glass. In the first class lounge it’s help yourself. 

All other alcohol is self serve. 

Edited August 24, 2019 by Highpeaklad

[cinnamon]

Flooring along. 

I live 13 miles from Heathrow and it’s a beautiful day here. In fact it’s due to be a glorious Bank Holiday weekend.