LIVE from the Wonder of the Seas 2022 WB Transatlantic Cruise and our 4 year journey to get on this TA!

[Jimbo]

7 hours ago, Coralc said:

I'm sorry we're not with you Theresa & Pam! Have a wonderful time! We spent our Allure TA refunds on having some house remodeling done. 

 

~Patti ☺️

We did the same, we will enjoy our new kitchen for a lot longer then the cruises we have missed. Going to be well worth it. 🙂

[chawkjewel]

On 10/26/2022 at 10:55 AM, Teeara said:

Many of us were originally booked on the ill-fated Allure WB TA scheduled to set sail in October 2020 and had made our final payment and were excited about setting sail when Royal canceled the cruise thanks to Covid. 

 

We were to be on the Allure WB in 2020 as well.  We have rebooked for Symphony WB next October (2023).  Sorry we will miss you all on Wonder.

[Teeara]

10 hours ago, kali101102 said:

I’m sad to not be cruising with you my friend but hope you have a wonderful time!  I will be here cheering you on!!

I miss you so much, Kalina!  I wish you and Will were sailing with us.  But you have your hands lovingly full with your beautiful Brooklyn now who I know you will teach to absolutely love and adore cruising.

[Teeara]

So here we are at 5:48 pm Barcelona time.  I think the last time I posted here on CC was about 3 pm NYC time (9 pm Barcelona time).  We haven't slept since 2:30 a.m. NYC time and we're pretty pooped.

 

First off, let me say that we did NOT lose our luggage as I mentioned earlier (yay!).  Ours was among the first 2 dozen bags off the flight which was freaking awesome.  Being able to see on AA's app that our luggage was loaded in their storage containers was a huge load off our minds.  

 

We flew Premium Economy and had a less than pleasant experience.  There just wasn't anywhere to store the things we wanted during our flights.  Plus, we forgot that since we had bulkhead seats we couldn't put things under the seats in front of us since there were no seats in front of us.  We did like the recliner seats, though, that popped up from under the seats.   Those were very nice indeed.  But the chairs themselves were extremely hard and Pam had a difficult time getting her headset in so she could watch "Elvis".  

 

Our dining experiences were much better.  Dinner was fantastic.  We had the beef pasta with an herb cream sauce and it was lovely.  Not salty or spicy.  Perfectly flavorful and with the roll the gave us lots of yummy bread to sop up all that yummy extra sauce.  We had some spreadable cheese and crackers and finished it off with a slice of tiramisu which my roommate said was not as good as Olive Garden's.  Tough competition indeed ;o)

 

We hit some turbulence during the crossing, but not too much or for too long.  It was a fairly uneventful flight.  They finally brought breakfast out a shockingly 1 hour prior to landing.  We had a plate of fresh fruit:  pineapple, canteloupe and honeydew slices with blueberry and raspberries and a sprig of mint; a container of vanilla yogurt and some grain free granola, some raspberry preserves and some unidentifiable cinnamon flavored bread item that tasted delicious (albeit a little dry) without any clue as to what it was.  

 

The landing was smooth and we were off the plane lickety-split at 6:45 a.m.  We breezed through customs (most likely because it was so early in the morning.  After gathering our luggage we exiting the luggage area to meet our driver from Welcome Pickups who quickly brought us to Hotel Jazz.

 

Since our room wouldn't be ready until 11 a.m. at the earliest and since we had to be at La Sagrada Familia by noon, we decided to walk the 2.1 miles slooooooowly since Pam has her bum knee and we really needed to walk after being so cooped up yesterday and last night.  We stopped at Starbucks for a Venti Nonfat Latte, two bagels and a shared slice of lemon loaf.  Hey!  We're on vacation and walking ;o)  We stopped often and enjoyed the architecture, but, but eventually we had to reach La Sagrada Familia.  Naturally we arrived on the wrong side to meet our tour so we had to walk all around the building to find our tour guide Victor with Get Your Guide.  

 

Victor was fantastic and the tour was the one of the best tours ever.  He was extremely knowledgeable and friendly and knew all the answers to the questions we tossed at him.  He was patient and funny the way you want a tour guide to be.  The tour lasted 1.5 hours, but he said that when it was done we could go back into La Sagrada Familia and send as much time as we wanted to.  If we weren't so freaking exhausted and Pam's knee didn't hurt so bad I'm sure we would've stayed.  So instead we bought our books and postcards at the store (a must do when you're a scrapbooker like me) and then off to find a taxi to drop us off at Obama Gastropub.

 

I wanted to stop by the place since it was close to Hotel Jazz and had tapas and was open in the mid afternoon when we would want to be eating.  It was perfect for us.  The food was cheap, the portions were way larger than we expected and were right tasty.  If you're staying close to Plaza de Catalunya and are looking for a sitdown place to eat, this was a nice place to go.  They had soccer playing on multiple screens and there were wooden floors with tables and chairs.  It is not, however, handicap friendly, so be forewarned.

 

So after our "linner" we are finally esconced in our huge room here at Hotel Jazz.  We have a huge Family Deluxe Room with 2 single beds, a sofa, a table with 2 chairs, and a corner chair.  Our room is a corner room with 4 windows that look out onto the city streets.  It's going to be very pretty at night.  But seeing as how the sun is starting to set and I really need to start winding this down I just want to say that Barcelona so far has been fun even though we're really tired.  We've had our cranky moments (but who hasn't during their travel days?).  

 

Tomorrow is our Spain Day Tours all day trip to Montserrat and tour of Barcelona followed by our first Cruise Critic gathering up at the pool deck here at Hotel Jazz followed by the most stressful part of the trip---the dreaded Covid test.  See you on the other side!

[crzndeb]

Got to Hotel Jazz at about 9pm, and was ecstatic to jump in the shower. I felt like I walked for 2 hrs to get to baggage claim. I didn’t go through customs in Barcelona. Maybe because I went through passport control in Helsinki?

Have fun tomorrow. It’s beautiful. My Covid testing is by Sagrada, so since I’m doing the HOHO bus, it drops off there and will be a closer walk.

See you tomorrow!

[FionaMG]

30 minutes ago, crzndeb said:

I didn’t go through customs in Barcelona. Maybe because I went through passport control in Helsinki?

Yes. Finland and Spain are both in the Schengen zone, so to all intents and purposes your flight from Helsinki to Barcelona is classed as a domestic flight.

Fingers crossed 🤞 for the covid test!

[Teeara]

A few photos from our flight: 

[Teeara]

Some beautiful architecture during our walk to La Sagrada Familia:

 

 

 

 

 

[island lady]

We are about to get tested on board in a few minutes.  Yes, I have my #2 pencil.  😄 

[Teeara]

Our first view of La Sagrada Familia:

 

 

We approached from the back side of the church.

 

 

We moved to the front entrance to meet up with our tour group.

 

We made it!  Guess who forgot her sunglasses back at the hotel? D’oh!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kali101102]

2 hours ago, Teeara said:

Some beautiful architecture during our walk to La Sagrada Familia:

 

 

 

 

 

Gorgeous pictures!!!!

[island lady]

Testing was simple, quick, easy and no charge.  Strange to have it two days before on the ship, usually the day (morning) before.  

 

Good luck to all, and being positive about being negative!  🙂 

 

[Teeara]

 

 

 

 

Joseph

Mary

Jesus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Teeara]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[crewsweeper]

Glad you had a safe flight and looks like a wonderful time in Barcelona.  Love how the light shows through those stain glass windows.

[R & T]

Thank you for posting the church pictures.  

[loupana]

Amazing start to your live thread. Thanks for all your work on the roll call. Wish we were there now but our flight leaves YYZ in about 6 hours. Should be arriving around 12PM on the 29th. Hope to see you onboard.

Edited October 28, 2022 by LouTheGlue

[Teeara]

Today was our tour of Barcelona and Montserrat with Spain Day Tours.  We were going with Andrew (AWaters) and Bob and Cindy (Grandpabobbylew).  We also ended up with a German couple who were on an Azimara cruise.  Unfortunately, since their ship was late in disembarking their passengers we were unable to get to Montserrat in time for the early viewing of the Black Madonna before they closed it for only paying clientele.  Such is life.  However, because we now had over six people on the tour we had the benefit of a tour guide in addition to a driver, so that far outweighed the inconvenience and we had a gem of a tour guide in Marta.  She was simply splendid.

 

So we started off with a quick jaunt down Las Ramblas to the Columbus Monument while our driver Wilfred went to pick up our German partners at their ship.  Then we were off to Monjuic since the early morning fog had finally started to burn off and we could see the top of the mountain.  We drove by the cable cars that Pam and I hope to take tomorrow morning to the top of the hill to see the fortress and we drove by the Olympic Stadium where the Barcelona 1992 Olympics were held.  The beautiful torch that had been lit with a bow and arrow still stands tall next to the stadium.

 

Next we went to the National Museum of Catalan Art to gaze down at the Magic Fountains and the beautiful city of Barcelona gleaming in the early morning sunlight.  Such a lovely sight to see today.  Then we were back in our Mercedes Sprinter van to drive by the Arenas de Barcelona where the bullfighting takes place.  Our next stop was La Sagrada Familia.

 

This time we were outside the four sides of the church as Marta explained the different towers, their meanings, the construction, the plans, and challenges that lie ahead.  We even went to see a chocolate representation of the completed church.  Now that's something I could dig my teeth into ;o)

 

Back to the van and the hour long drive to Montserrat.  It sped by quickly and Marta was an engaging historian and answered all of our questions on a range of subjects.  I was very grateful that we didn't have to walk all the way back to the parking lot where the majority of the cars and buses were parked.  Pam's leg is still bothering her and I knew that today was going to really take it's toll on her.  

 

Marta stopped to show us the view across the long valley towards Barcelona far in the distance as well as the winding roads we had recently climbed on our way up to Montserrat.  She showed us where the previous monks were buried on the site and where the choir boys live and go to school here on the mountain during the week, but said that they go home with their parents on the weekend.  We walked past the cafeteria and the gift shop (always Pam and my favorite places to visit) before heading up the steep street up to the church.

 

I wish I could say that it was beautiful inside the church, but we got there and they said it was going to be a 45 minute wait before we could go inside.  Since we were only going to be there for 2 hours and needed to eat, shop and explore the grounds we decided to skip the interior of the church.  I have to say, though, that this is one place that I would absolutely return to some day and that I would take an entire day to explore.  There is so much to see and that I would not want to rush it.  I felt so rushed and didn't feel that I was able to do it justice at all in my photos and videos.  I hate that.  So we as a group decided to scrap it and left.  Pam and I lost track of the group and thought they had decided to go back to the cafeteria for lunch so we made our way back down to it.  We had to go slow since by now Pam was in quite a bit of pain.  When we got to the cafeteria we discovered that no one had gone there so we decided to just have our lunch, do our shopping and return to the pickup point at 2 which is what we did.  In the end we both agreed that the gift shop was disappointing.  Nowhere near as good as La Sagrada Familia's was (I could've spent a fortune there).

 

So back on the bus and we were headed to Park Guell as our last stop.  We had skip-the-line tickets there and I'm glad we did.  Here was another place that you will want to spend a lot of time at with minimal people there.  I hate it when people pop into my photos as I'm taking them.  Sorry folks.  That's the scrapbooker speaking ;o)  And there were so many people there it was just nuts.  Just like at La Sagrada Famila.  But it was beautiful with all the trees and birds and water.  The buildings mimicked nature in such a holistic way that it felt "right".  I have to say that when I first started seeing Antony Gaudi's work when I originally booked the Allure TA in 2018 I thought he was a bit over the top and wacky.  I still think that way, but I can appreciate his artistic talents more when I can see and understand where he is getting his inspiration from.

 

So we walked all through Park Guell.  It was hot and the sun's glare made it hard to enjoy some of the things we were looking at (the mosaic benches in particular were really hard to photograph due to glare), but the shady places were a joy.

 

Finally it was the end of the tour and time to return "home".  We said our goodbyes at Hotel Jazz to Marta, Wilfred and our German friends.  Then it was time to face our destinies.  It was time to take our Covid tests.

 

Now I know all of us on Cruise Critic come from all backgrounds and all countries of the world.  But I think we can every single one of us agree on this one thing:  we hate taking those Covid tests in order to cruise.  But to know that they've now been pretty much eliminated for everyone else EXCEPT for transatlantic cruises is really frustrating.  And terrifying.  I've waited 4 years for this cruise.  I've paid a LOT of money for this cruise. and airfare. and hotel fees. and Covid insurance.   You get the drift.  So to finally have to face the dragon with only a nasal swab and an iPhone was scary.  I'm glad I had Sir Andrew come to my (and Pam's and Bob's and Cindy's rescue).  Andrew brought 4 extra proctored Covid tests with him and walked us all through them BEFORE we started taking them since none of us had done a proctored test before.   But having him with us was the best thing ever.  Well, the 2nd best thing ever.  The best thing ever was when all 4 of us got negative Covid results!  Woo hoo!!!  We're going on a cruise!!!!  So now we really can go up to our Unofficial Meet & Greet tonight up at the Pool Deck here at Hotel Jazz and have a great party!

[Teeara]

Our room at Hotel Jazz: 

 

 

 

 

One of my biggest gripes about traveling in Europe is trying to get our two beds split far apart.  I like my roommate but not that way 😉😁

[FionaMG]

So glad to hear you're all covid-clear and good to go. Now you can really look forward to your cruise. 

[Teeara]

Today I had a couple of plans in mind, but I had to readjust them based upon how Pam was doing and how we felt.  We're both a bit tired and I think that the underlying stress of the Covid tests has been pressing down upon both of us for so long that having that weight lifted has been a bit of a shock to the system.

Anyway, we had a great time last night up on the pool deck meeting up with the Cruise Critic gang.  Thanks to Jack and Sandra (Jpres) for a lovely breakfast yesterday morning and shared Margarita pizza last night, Debbie (Crzndeb) for holding down the fort for us until we arrived upstairs at the pool area; Bob and Cindy (Grandpabobbylew) for sharing in the Covid testing experience with us; Andrew (AWaters) our hero for walking us through the procedure and holding our hands through it all, we would've been lost at sea without you and for everyone who had kind words to say last night I say "thank you" (Steve, you almost made me cry).

So this morning we caught a cab and went up to catch the cable car to take us up to the Castell de Monjuic.  The ride on the cable car took us 6 minutes and I prepurchased the tickets online.  Once you get off the cable car at the top of Montjuic you exit and walk along the moat, cross the bridge and enter the castle.  It cost us 9 Euros to enter the castle and there was an elevator that took us up to the ramparts where we could look down on the port.  Unfortunately it was a pretty cloudy day.  Or maybe that was to our benefit.  It seemed rather glary, but looking at my photos now it doesn't seem so bad.  In any case, we could see two ships docked at Terminals B and C where Wonder will be docked tomorrow.  I can't believe that tomorrow we will be onboard her after all this time.  It seems so surreal.

We walked along the outside of the castle and Pam made the comment that it felt like El Morro in Puerto Rico and the windows with bars felt like dungeons.  There was a sign next to one of the windows and as we got closer we saw that it read that it was, in fact, the castle dungeons.

We walked through some other portions outside that felt somewhat like California with the damp coastal areas in the morning before heading inside to view the parade grounds then heading back to the cable car.

Our next destination was the Maritime Museum which is located next to Las Ramblas.  It is the location of the former Royal Shipard that built ships for the navy and has more than 700 years of history attached to it.  "It is also one of the largest and best preserved medieval shipyards in the Mediterranean area."  The displays are laid out in a linear fashion and they had very interesting displays showing the differences between the types of ships and how they operated or how people traveled.  There were many displays of actual ships which are always a pleasure to see.  Toss in a figurehead (or two) and you've got the makings of a great maritime museum.

We were hungry and one of the things we also love to do is eat at museums so we decided to check out the restaurant here, but we were very disappointed with this one.  Once again, the menu wasn't very descriptive for us since the English translation was minimal and what we did see on the menu that we did understand they didn't have in stock.  Heavy sigh.  Another meal of bread with ham and tomato.  After lunch we went to the gift shop hoping to score some treats there and this was when we hit our ultimate disappointment.  There was literally nothing to buy.  Nothing.  The books, of course, were all in Spanish.  I get that and I have no problem with that.  But no postcards?  No ornaments?  It was pretty much all ship models, a few bags, some scarves, stuffed animals, and some nautical theme items that were poorly thought out.  They could use some help in their merchandising department.  I saw quite a few people walk in and walk right back out.  Very sad indeed.  Half the store was very expensive ship models.  That's not what people want to buy!  So we left.

Now it was time to head back to the hotel and walk Las Ramblas.  We knew what to expect but wow.  It sure was crowded for sure.  Pam was hurting by now.  We stopped along the way for me to get a few more postcards and we had to stop at La Boqueria for a quick walk through.  The stalls were starting to shut down for the night but you could hardly tell that to the hordes still pressing inside.  We continued on our way back to Hotel Jazz.  

We decided to stop for dinner at New York Burger which is around the corner from the hotel.  Pam said she would rather eat now and not have to leave the hotel.  She ordered a chicken sandwich and I had a pastrami sandwich.  Can I recommend this place?  Not wholeheartedly.  The food was okay, but nothing special.  I want to say that the sauce they used for the pastrami had a bit too much vinegar in it.  If you like that in your sauce then you will like it. It wasn't horrible.  It just isn't the kind of sauce that I like.  Their taters were great, though.  They were nice and meaty with the perfect crunch.  Those I give a 10.
So we're back up in the room now and getting ready for bed.  Fingers crossed our phones make the time change tonight!!!  Our boarding time in 10 a.m., but we got the invite to board 45 minutes later, however we're in a suite so we can board an hour earlier, so who the heck knows when we can board.  All I know is that I have Welcome Pickups coming at 9 a.m. so we have to be ready then ;o)  

So that's all for this pre-cruise livestream.  Tomorrow starts the real deal.  The next time I start posting we'll be onboard Wonder of the Seas.  I'm really looking forward to having you along with us for the journey!  See you then!
 

[bobmacliberty]

Congrats on the negative test!  Bon voyage.

[Steeler Nation At Sea]

Glad you finally made it!  I'm bummed that I didn't, but, am happy for you and looking forward to following along!

 

 

[Teeara]

55 minutes ago, Steeler Nation At Sea said:

Glad you finally made it!  I'm bummed that I didn't, but, am happy for you and looking forward to following along!

 

 

We’re so bummed you won’t be with us, too, Kim!

[Teeara]

Some pix from our Barcelona city tour:

Columbus Monument 

Olympic Stadium entrance 

 

Olympic torch

Looking down towards the Magic Fountains 

 

Bullfighting Arena (now a shopping mall)

Casa Batllo 

 

Chocolate La Sagrada Familia 

 

Montserrat in the distance 

 

Looking down towards Barcelona 

 

The entrance to the steep walk

 

Inside the outer courtyard 

Inside the inner courtyard 

 

 

Heading back down