Grandeur Live! New York to Barcelona Transatlantic Crossing

[GMIAC]

1 hour ago, cruisevirgin24 said:

We haven't heard from you for nearly a week. I hope you weren't thrown overboard whilst dealing with the lounger hogs!

Been too busy to post! It’s been a wonderful trip, so much to do on the ship and see in the ports. 

 

I and my team did raise the ire of some other fellow passengers, however, by placing first in all three Guess That Tune contests, the passengers having accused us afterwards of cheating, or being “producers,” whatever that means. What they don’t know is that pop songs and movies run through my veins, and I found 88 of the 90 songs/artists over three quizzes a cinch. Luckily, we have a nice British couple on our team who immediately knew “She,” from Notting Hill, as it was their wedding song! I would not have known that one. 

[RachelG]

April 22, 2024–Cartagena, Spain

 

We awoke to a bright sunny day.  We were just pulling up to the dock in Cartagena.  Temperature again mid 60s.  The port is quite a lot smaller than Malaga, and the ship is docked right down town.  I appears much drier than Malaga too, with the hills surrounding being covered with short dry looking bushes.

 

Our tour for the day was a walking tapas tour which didn’t start until 10:50, so we had a leisurely morning.

 

Our walking tour took off from the ship right into town, walking along a long esplanade with beautiful palm trees. The walkway as well as the sidewalks in the city was marble.  Very beautiful, and there was a really cool map of the world embossed in the pavement.  We walked past several historic buildings then went to 3 totally different tapas places,one a very old traditional one, the next more of a sidewalk cafe, and the third more modern.  The best of them was the last with a potato omelet. 

 

We then went to the Roman theater, interesting as it was only discovered in 1986, but has now been excavated and is in good shape.  We then broke off from the group and went for lunch at Tagliatelle which is a great restaurant with probably the best pizza I have had outside of Naples and a huge salad.

 

Back on board, we won at trivia.

 

Dinner at Compass Rose was great though I wasn’t really that hungry given the huge lunch.  I had falafel, mushroom soup and a asparagus ravioli.  The soup should have been hotter, but otherwise everything was perfect.  

 

The show was another by Duo Esencias, the violin and dance duo.  Again, very good. I mainly go to see her costumes which are fabulous.

[CruiserFromMaine]

23 hours ago, edgee said:

I have read about lack of good sound insulation between cabins on Grandeur.

We were on the Grandeur just before the crossing and heard a little sound carryover from our neighbors. Not much though. 

[GMIAC]

Sound carryover is (almost?) always an issue of neighbors, and there’s no control over that. 

[RachelG]

 

Roman theater in Cartagena

[RachelG]

Cartagena theater kitties

 

[RachelG]

Bull in the last tapas place

[RachelG]

Downtown Cartagena

 

[RachelG]

The ship

[Gilly]

12 hours ago, RachelG said:

The show was another by Duo Esencias, the violin and dance duo.  Again, very good. I mainly go to see her costumes which are fabulous

They were on Voyager earlier in the month too and we thought they were excellent.  Lovely people too.  Did they offer a dance class?  I rather regret not taking up that offer - can you imagine how useful learning to do that Flamenco "stamp" might be in certain situations!? 😉

[RachelG]

6 hours ago, Gilly said:

They were on Voyager earlier in the month too and we thought they were excellent.  Lovely people too.  Did they offer a dance class?  I rather regret not taking up that offer - can you imagine how useful learning to do that Flamenco "stamp" might be in certain situations!? 😉

No Eason given that I know of, but I could have missed it.

[RachelG]

April 23, 2024–Valencia, Spain

 

When I awoke, we were just sailing into a large port.  It was bright and sunny, but distinctly colder than yesterday, with the temp in the low 50’s.  There was a large city sprawled out in from of the ship.

 

Our tour for the day was to visit L’Oceanografic (largest aquarium in Europe) and the old town.  I am not really particularly super interested in aquariums unless I am taking my grandkids, but the architecture was supposed to be really impressive.

 

We set off by bus, stopping first to look at the fabulous architecture of the City of Arts and sciences.  It is really other worldly, very creative. Then on the to aquarium.  We had about 2 hours there but could have spent much longer.  There are all sorts of exhibits and not just fish.  They have penguins, several aquatic mammals, and a lot of birds.  Unfortunately I apparently am terribly allergic to something there and started sneezing non stop.  But it was very interesting.

 

We then drove to the old town alongside what used to the the channel of a river, but now is a huge park.  Valencia really is a lovely city with lots of history.  The buildings in the old town are well preserved and impressive.  We broke away from the group as we were having lunch at a place I had found called Santa Rita.

 

Wonderful fresh food—salad, burrata, pasta, pizza.  We were stuffed.  We walked back to the shuttle bus stop. Back on the ship, it was time for packing then a terrible showing at trivia.

 

Final farewells with lots of friends. We were still full from lunch so had a light meal in Compass Rose.  The Beatles show was to follow, but we have to be up at 5 am as we have a pretty early flight—so we finished packing and we’re off to sleep.

[RachelG]

City of arts and sciences

 

 

 

[RachelG]

Aquarium pics

 

 

 

 

[RachelG]

Old town Valenci

 

 

 

 

 

a 

[RachelG]

Burrata for lunch

 

and caprese salad

[lincslady]

I now prefer Valencia to Barcelona, only the Gaudis missing.  A very interesting and attractive city and less full of tourists.  Thanks for the nice photos.

[Gilly]

Thanks @lincslady and @RachelG for highlighting Valencia, now on my wishlist!  (Cartagena too...)   

Safe travels home RachelG and thanks for taking us across the Atlantic with you.  It's been a fun trip!

[RachelG]

7 hours ago, lincslady said:

I now prefer Valencia to Barcelona, only the Gaudis missing.  A very interesting and attractive city and less full of tourists.  Thanks for the nice photos.

We weee surprised how much it has to offer.  I could spend several days there.

[UUNetBill]

On 4/20/2024 at 8:48 PM, NDOMA said:

I just asked my husband the K2 question and he knew the answer.  He is so good at geography! 

 

We were recently on the Grandeur and were doing quite well at Trivia the first few days until blatant cheating began.  We were quite surprised one group used a cell phone right in front of the crew member, another team had eight people a couple of times, and by the end of the cruise the majority refused to let another team grade their answers.  No surprise that we suddenly no longer came in 2nd or 3rd.  Why do people do that?  Surely the points and trinkets aren't worth cheating for. 

 

On 4/20/2024 at 9:42 PM, GOARMY said:

NDOMA:

 

Your negative experience is not a one-off.  Back in the day--participants utilized more subtle, clandestine methods of communication to circumvent decorum.  That decorum was to assume folks would rely on in-person brain power (or, luck) to come up with an answer.

 

So-many petty, sophomoric modes of deception. As opined in an old SNL "Weekend Update" skit:  "Really, really?"  Yes, really.  How can about 10% of your fellow passengers caste a bad vibe?   

 

Thus, spouse and self eschewed joining this venue a year or two before the Pandemic.  Have had no reason to consider further Post-Pandemic participation.  

 

But, whatever floats your boat.  

 

GOARMY!

This is precisely why my wife and I only partake in trivia on about half of our sailings - on occasion it gets so cutthroat as to not be enjoyable, which is the entire point of doing trivia if I'm not mistaken.

 

We've met some good people in trivia, and we've also done the first day or two and not returned, so much of it depends on who's playing.

[1982CruzStart]

Thank you fro taking us along on your trip. As always your pics and commentary were fabulous. Sorry that it has come to an end. I will really miss my daily read.  In particular, I appreciate the review of some of the ports that we will be visiting this summer as we do the Barcelona to NYC on Grandeur. 

[Redking]

5 hours ago, UUNetBill said:

 

This is precisely why my wife and I only partake in trivia on about half of our sailings - on occasion it gets so cutthroat as to not be enjoyable, which is the entire point of doing trivia if I'm not mistaken.

 

We've met some good people in trivia, and we've also done the first day or two and not returned, so much of it depends on who's playing.

Out of interest, where is the trivia quiz held? We're not quizers and on our most recent cruise (another cruise line) found that we couldn't enjoy a quit pre-dinner drink because the quiz was held in the only lounge bar at the same time. Being much larger ships, I'm sure this won't be an issue on the Explorer class ships but we're curious newbies to Regent.

[Redking]

Just now, Redking said:

Out of interest, where is the trivia quiz held? We're not quizers and on our most recent cruise (another cruise line) found that we couldn't enjoy a quit pre-dinner drink because the quiz was held in the only lounge bar at the same time. Being much larger ships, I'm sure this won't be an issue on the Explorer class ships but we're curious newbies to Regent.

*quiet not quit although maybe quit did apply to the situation 😉 

[UUNetBill]

1 hour ago, Redking said:

Out of interest, where is the trivia quiz held? We're not quizers and on our most recent cruise (another cruise line) found that we couldn't enjoy a quit pre-dinner drink because the quiz was held in the only lounge bar at the same time. Being much larger ships, I'm sure this won't be an issue on the Explorer class ships but we're curious newbies to Regent.

As I recall it’s held in the Observation Lounge on deck 11 forward?  But you’ll have no problems finding a nice place for a cocktail before dinner.  Several other lounges and I believe there’s even a small bar outside P7 and/or the other restaurants.

[frantic36]

Thank you for your blog @RachelG as it was interesting and the accompanying photos excellent. We were in Valencia for the first time last year and really enjoyed it and are looking forward to returning next year.