M&M@409

We are booked on the Barcelona to Barcelona October 14-28, 2024. Because I am one of those people for whom vacation planning is half the fun, I was browsing through various websites to see what our hotel options are for flying in a day or two before boarding the ship, just window shopping, but not intending to book quite yet.. I was amazed to see that many of the hotels are already fully booked or certain categories are sold out, particularly those on the high end, especially at the big hotel franchises like Hilton, Hyatt and Bonvoy. The closer you get to the harbor, the more scarce and expensive the rooms become. This is because The America’s Cup is being held in Barcelona in September-October, 2024. For example, rooms at the waterfront W are between $4,000 and 8,000:per night at that time, about 10X the regular rate. I did manage to get a mini suite at a hotel located between the airport and the main attraction area. Had I not been curious about our options, we might have ended up in Barcelona with no hotel or an undesirable hotel. So if you’re cruising in that area at that time, don’t wait until last minute to find a hotel.

Regarding the lobster thermador, we were on Odyssey last week. I asked the server in the TK Grill why was there no lobster. She said that the only lobster available for the past several weeks was not up to TK’s standards and he would not allow it to be served. Apparently he holds tight reigns on the food that bears the TK name. For instance, if the potato bun is not availablee at the patio, they can’t serve the Napa burger or the Yountville Wurst. Here’s a tip. If you order a regular burger or Hot Dog at the patio, ask for it to be served on a potato bun. The regular buns are not very good.