daniTS

2 hours ago, apatchetear said:

How does the muster drill work? Do you all have to stand in the sun or one location or is it like the new muster drills?

As of this past Monday you had to go to your muster station (theatre, coffee shop etc) and stand there for 20 mins. Its boring and a bit chaotic, but fine.

6 hours ago, Rothko1 said:

I wish there was a less expensive way to get over to GB than taking a cruise ship, even if you are using it as a ferry.

I think flying and the actual ferry (https://www.baleariacaribbean.com) are both a little bit cheaper but not by much; you save a bunch of time tho!

Great review! Pretty much aligns with our experience too...I think they might try and time the jump across the Gulf Stream a little bit for weather--we had a decently rolly crossing in February and we were across and into the lee of GB by 8pm; I'm sure they wanted people feeling up to drinking and gambling! On the way back we floated around by GB until well after midnight and then popped back across, it was funny to keep looking out at the port's lights (and pick up Bahamian cell signal for so long!)

On 4/4/2023 at 12:15 PM, kidz_rn said:

Hard to believe anyone would pay for round-trip airfare to take a 2-night cruise. Perhaps these were folks who added days in Freeport and sailed back on a later cruise?

I have family that lives in Freeport and they use it like a ferry (as we do when we go visit them), so we've flown in/out on the day of the cruise. I think it's pretty common for people to live on GB to do it--you can even use it to transport cargo like furniture and whatnot from Florida via big crates at the Port!

We did cruise and stay (but with family that lives there, so no hotel involved, we/they just use the boat like a ferry), anyway, check in to return was definitely possible earlier than 3pm in February--I think we were on around noon (definitely in time for lunch), and told that it was as late as...4? Double check with them when you get off, though, I don't remember 100% but it was later than we thought.

Check in in PPB was fairly slow for us (2.5 hours), especially after 27 hours of travelling from Vancouver, but checking back in on GB is super quick since not too many people are doing it, we didn't wait at all.

Have fun! We just booked again for June, looking forward to it! Freeport is fun, especially if you are going to rent a car and can explore a bit more 🙂

I used it on Epic in 2017 (BCN-Orlando). It didn't work the first day or two but they flew in a tech and got it working. I had the unlimited plan and it worked well enough the whole way to stay connected to work (up and downloading small PDFs, email, etc). I don't think I streamed anything but I did voice call my husband a couple of times via whatsapp. I imagine it's only gotten better since then, but overall I thought it worked pretty well!

We've done it as part of the 'lottery' and thoroughly enjoyed it. Once we had a guest services manager and her assistant and no one else showed up, so we had three of us and two of them and a great chat. The second time we got an Assistant cruise director doing his first dinner (recent promotion?) and he was a hoot as he was so into it all.

As for the dinner, at least with these ones, its in one of the MDR, they usually buy a bottle of wine for the table, and it's a table for 8, so 1-3 officers + guests. I hope they come back as we will def put our name down on any future cruises, they're really interesting evenings imo.

I haven't flown after a cruise but I've been through KEF a few times and found it extremely well organized. Most flights come in from North America, re organize and fly on to their EU destinations and vice versa, often with tight timelines (like an hour). It's compact but they get a lot of people through it.

(I do agree with pp that there's more than a few days worth of stuff to do, though. I've spent about a month there over two trips and we'd like to go back sooner than later. Have a great trip, it's gorgeous!).

We were meant to be on Joy to Alaska May...16? cancelled by NCL and requested when the window opened, around May 7. Received our refund yesterday, July 1 so we were pleasantly surprised.

I'm wondering if anyone knows about hiking in ISP? I know there is a nature walk on the shore(?) but I'm not sure how long it is. The three of us are fairly experienced hikers from Canada (BC) and Colorado and would be open to something a little more involved than what I believe to be quite a short boardwalk? I'm having trouble finding either a trail map or information about guided hikes (we're open to exploring both options). Does anyone have any suggestions? We'll be there on the NCL Joy in May 2020.

Thanks!

Dani

The Cruise next coupons are a good deal (saves you 100$ or whatever it is). You can use them within 4 years or with a TA if that's your choice, but sometimes there are bonus offers for booking on board (being able to use two certificates, balcony promos, etc). We've booked on board but they were having computer issues so we just put some deposits down on a cruise for far out and then called to transfer our booking when we got home and had a chance to properly look @ the itineraries--at that time we were told that the promos would transfer over, and they did, but I'd double check that as it was a couple of years ago.

We did the Epic TA last fall and I liked having the extra entertainment options and not having to choose between ship and shore. I'd do the Star for a port intensive cruise and Epic for one with so many sea days.

Like a pp we did Canada at Par vs a promo. We don't drink, are on a TA so no shore ex to speak of, and figured we can go to a few speciality dinners for less than the price difference (200$ each--3 adults--in a mini suite). Also, when I called to rebook at Canada at Par and the person on the phone said we would lose the promos she also said we would lose the OBC, but we didn't, it went down slightly but I think we got 100US vs 125US for the cabin.

Lovely, thanks so much!

Thanks very much! There's also an option to just be dropped in Gibraltar for 4 hours, but the St. Michaels caves look interesting. I know you'll never see it all in an afternoon, but given the small size of the area do you think a couple of hours plus a few stops would be a better use of time than 4 hours in one place?

Cheers,

Dani

I hope this is OK to post here and not the port of call board, but I'm looking specifically for info on the NCL excursion Gibraltar and St. Michael Caves offered from Malaga. (We're on the Epic in November).

Has anyone done it? Did you enjoy it? We normally tour on our own/book privately, but since the next port is something like 8 days later we may end up going with a ship's tour this time, just to be safe!

Anyway, my main question is that in the description it says there will be about 1.75 hours on your own. Is that time on your own in the town area of Gibraltar? Or in the caves or some other part of the tour? If the former, is there enough time to have a quick poke around? Just trying to get a sense of the tour timing and how rushed it is (I know there's lots of driving so it would be somewhat rushed).

Is the 'pause' at the Moorish castle long enough to see anything?

Thanks!

Dani

Oh my goodness, I'm about the worst "live" blogger ever, yikes! We are on the last week of our trip right now, hiding from the end of hurricane Nicole as it hits Iceland (as a tropical depression, but we are camping in a van, so it's bad enough!). I'll be picking this up full steam when we get home....hopefully it ends up useful to someone on the Spirit in the next year or so.

Day Six—Port Livorno; Tour: Cinque Terre and Pisa

Our first day in Italy dawned even earlier than the previous day in France, with our Papillon tour starting at 8:30. We met up with half our tour mates (a lovely couple from Australia) in the coffee shop before heading off the ship. We ended up arriving at our driver at exactly the same time as our other tour mates for the day—a very sweet couple from Maui and their 18-year-old son. Perfect timing!

Our driver, Nicoletta, was born in southern Italy, but moved at a young age to Livorno, where she currently lives in an apartment with her husband, who seems to have also inherited family property near Pisa. There, they grow wine grapes and olives, as well as raising goats and maybe a few other animals. The goats, I gather, are pets—her husband wanted milk goats, accidentally bought meat goats, and now can’t stand the thought of moving them along, so to speak, so around the farm they frolic, I suppose.

Anyway, she was a lovely guide and a suitably-aggressive driver for the Italian freeways—we all decided the posted 110km was just a tentative guideline as she went 140+ between the port and the first town we stopped at in the Cinque Terre region. However, she certainly seemed entirely competent, the van, as they all were, was in great condition, and the roads were great—and mostly empty. Nicki said that she liked driving on the weekends the best as the big transport trucks don’t drive then, so the roads are much faster and clearer.

After about an hour of driving, where we saw some really cool ‘umbrella’ pines and also drove through a busy port town (La Spezia), we were delivered to our first town, Portovenere. Despite not being an official one of the ‘five’ towns it is intimately connected to the Cinque Terre because it is where the ferry stops, and also has a similar look and feel, from what we saw.

This whole area is beautiful! One of those places where everywhere you look is a bit like a postcard. We had 45 minutes to explore here before catching the ferry, so we decided to walk down along the water towards an old fort and church. We aren’t sure exactly what the history of this place was, though it appears that the church is still in use, and it all looked very old, though for us in Canada just about everything here is VERY OLD(!).

Toryn and I enjoyed walking up the stone stairs and taking photos of the sea and the area and enjoying the beautiful day, and then collected Grampa from the bench he was relaxing on to walk back through town on the second road it offered, which was pedestrian-only and raised up and back from the ocean-hugging road we had taken to the fort area. I wish we had more time to poke around here (as with the whole day, really!) but we got a nice sense of the place and I started to make a shopping list for Venice, which is currently centred around aged balsamic vinegar, gorgeous pastas, pink risotto mix, and other dry goods.

At 10:45 we all reconvened at the ferry dock and got our marching orders from Nicki. While we had been looking around she had done some research and discovered that the ferries were indeed running that day—apparently they need good weather to run. At first we were confused with that, especially thinking back to the day before where we got thoroughly sloshed around with nary a mention of onboard life jackets. Then we thought perhaps they were skiffs more than ferries, and then were just thoroughly confused when we saw the 70-ish foot, two deck boats which acted as ferries. Unless the gelcoat was covering one heck of a defect they looked like solid, sea faring vessels, and the repeated warnings they might not run on this beautiful, sunny, and calm day were confusing.

However, luck was on our side and we all purchased our tickets (22E each for the full journey), got our multi-part schedule and itinerary from Nicki, and headed off on our adventure while she drove the car around to meet us in Vernazza. The first ride was 45-minutes and her advice to sit on the starboard side was spot on; we had incredible views of the coast line and marvelled at both the terraced farms carved into the hillside and also the houses—some of which were more like castles—perched on the cliffs.

Once we arrived at our next destination, Manarola, the ferry’s issues with weather became more apparent. Instead of sidling up to a dock, they basically drove bow-first into a short, narrow jetty and then rolled a gang way off the prow onto shore, creating a narrow, mildly bucking plank over which to walk. As the boat bobbed up and down, the wheels pushed forward and back, and you had the impression of moving off one of the people movers at the airport, but by some order of magnification. It was smooth enough when we did it, but one can imagine that there’s no way they could safely move 100s of tourists on and off the boats when the sea is even the least bit up. This method of loading and unloading was what we experienced in both stops. Should the ferries not run, you can either take the train, or your guide can drive you to the top of the villages, but the ferry is really a fantastic way to see the region.

Once we arrived in Manarola, we had about 50 minutes there, but were shocked and a bit concerned to see the sheer number of people waiting to get on our boat—there were a couple of bus tours and maybe a cruise tour or two in line and it didn’t seem that everyone would make it. Since our departure ferry was ostensibly the next boat arriving, we were all concerned that we wouldn’t make that ferry, thus disrupting the whole rest of the day.

Having all had the same thought, we hurried up to the town (which involved quite a walk through a narrow channel cut through some rock walls and then a steep set of rock stairs). Once we made it to the top of the stairs/bottom of the town, we noticed the wooden fishing dories brought up to the street and were all impressed that they can get them down to launch! Later we noticed both a long ramp and what appeared to be perhaps a boat lift, but no matter how you slice it, it’s impressive going, and probably indicative of seas which can kick up, otherwise I’m sure they would leave the boats nearer to the water.

Once in Manarola, I enjoyed a delicious gelato (strawberry and lemon) and Toryn and Grampa both purchased their way into the washrooms by buying cappuccinos, which they proclaimed delicious. The custom here is to either pay for the use of a WC (about 0,60 from what we’ve seen), or to make a purchase in a bar or restaurant which tacitly gets you into the loo. Generally they have been clean, by may not have the amenities you are used to in North America (soap/TP/seats). We also purchased postcards and a tile, which we will turn into an ornament. Ever since I was last in Europe in 2011, Toryn and I have collected Christmas ornaments everywhere we have been. I think this year we will have a separate tree for our travel ornaments, and they are some of my favourites to unwrap each year.

Many places make ornaments specifically for this, but we’ve also found that a lot of places don’t (or that the ones they do make are entirely un-inspired balls printed anywhere but where we are visiting) so we’ve gotten creative over the years. For example, on the small Dutch Caribbean island of Statia last year I purchased a tiny hand tatted lace locket (hand tatted lace is what that island is known for, along with red roofs and an American Medical School) and then cut the ribbon down to make it into an ornament as opposed to a necklace. On this trip alone, we have already collected magnets, coasters, tiles, and desk-top trinkets, all destined to be hot glued, drilled, lasered, or otherwise modified before December.

By chance we ended up back in line right with our other tour mates and all chatted for a few pleasant moments before loading up and luckily making the boat. I have to say that the swimming area near the waiting spot for the ferry is one of the most appealing I have ever seen, and I am very much NOT a beach person. The rocks made naturally-protected pools and there were little ladders to get in and out. It looked amazing.

The next stop, Monterosso, was the final one we would visit via ferry, and I think we all loved it. You get off the boat near a beautiful protected swimming (and dinghy) harbour, which has a beautiful town square open all around it. There were so many nice looking cafes and cute shops (more delicious food!), I would love to come to come back and spend some more time here, perhaps doing the hike that links the villages together.

As we were walking up the street, we also saw a Lagotto Romangolo! I had just said in the car to Toryn that morning, ‘maybe we will see a Lagotto here’ and there one was! Lagotto are one of the oldest known breeds of dogs and date back to Roman times. From Italy, they are the original water dog and are where poodles and Portuguese water dogs descend from. They are now used for truffle hunting and other scenting tasks. We have a Lagotto named Spartacus (Sparty) at home and he is the BEST dog ever! There are only about 500 of them in the US (and I’m not sure how many in Canada) so it is very rare to see them there, which is why I was so excited to see one here in Italy. I actually trotted after the dog and owner to ask if it was a Lagotto (they look a lot like Doodles and I’ve been tricked before), which it was. While he didn’t speak much English, and was probably pretty confused to have me come up to him, it was exciting to see none the less!

We continued our walk up through town to the Post Office, which was our meeting point with Nicki and the car. After piling in, we drove on some very windy cliffside roads to Corniglia, which is also one of the Cinque Terre, but not one we reached by ferry. Another adorable, colourful town, we also loved this one! Apparently all of the houses are painted bright colours (pinks and oranges and yellows) to make it easier for fishermen to pick our their individual homes from sea.

During the drive to Corniglia, Nicki had said it was well-known for its gelato, so of course we had to try some; making it a two-gelato day for some. Well, when in…Cinque Terre, I guess! Toryn and I also walked through town to a look out point to the ocean, which was beautiful, and we got to see some local boys playing soccer, using the church as their goal. It was really lovely and local, and I wanted to join in more than a little bit!

Back into the car we went for a bit of a tight squeeze out of there (to call these one-lane roads would be a little bit generous by North American standards and they accommodate traffic in both directions) and the drive to Pisa. Along the way, we noticed little ‘trains’ parked along the road every couple of kilometres or so. It turns out these are farmer owned and operated and allows the farmers to travel up and down the terraced farm lands more easily. There is room for one or two people and a platform for stuff, and they travel up and down little one-rail tracks. The whole system is ingenious.

After about an hour (and a nap) we arrived in Pisa, where we were, of course, after seeing the Leaning Tower. We learned that the architect who designed the building was so horrified by its slanting countenance that he actually committed suicide. It’s truly tragic, especially given how important it is to Pisa’s modern image (and economy). The tower was pretty cool, and the Basilica near it was beautiful as well. None of us climbed it, but we had enough time to walk all around it, take lots of photos, do a bit of quick shopping for postcards and an ornament, and then gather back to the car for the relatively short drive back to port. Again, we were delivered back exactly on time in terms of the tour schedule, and with about 30–45 minutes to spare before cast off.

That night was another quiet one—I went up to the coffee shop for my by-now customary coffee, work, and blog, and later Toryn and I had dinner at the Garden main dining room. It was pretty good but not overly inspired. I ordered off the ‘classic’ menu, mostly because I randomly wanted the broccoli promised with the chicken breast. I had to laugh when there were just 2–3 tiny pieces of broccoli on the side, not the pile I had been imagining.

We also—finally—made it to a show, this one featuring 4 flamenco dancers from Spain. I’m glad we went as we had run out of time to see a show in Barcelona, but to be honest I don’t know much about Flamenco and I really can’t comment on how good—or not—they may have been. It was certainly enjoyable though, and a good way to spend an hour.

Lots more pictures at fromyyj.com. Now that we are (sadly!) off the ship I'm hoping to have a bit more time and better internet to catch up! :)

Day 5; Port: Toulon, Tour: Aix en Provence and Cassis

Today was the first of four shore excursions we booked with Papillon Services/ShareExcusions Italy and it was fantastic. We were lucky to arrange three tours with the same family and the fourth with two other groups, all from our Cruise Critic roll call. This allowed us to chat a little bit before hand and also share the expense of private tours while avoiding the large ship excursions. I haven’t compared prices to the tours offered by NCL, but my sense is that we got good value for money and we were definitely able to see more things than we would have on a big-bus tour. Plus, the ability to ask tons of questions, find out about our guide’s lives in France and Italy, and customize on the go were all big perks.

Many people worry about taking independent excursions, but given both the proximity from port to port (during these days we covered an average of under 100 nm per night) and the company’s guarantee to get you back on board, which includes hotel and transfers to the next port if they mess up, all make this a pretty risk-free proposition, in our opinion.

Anyway, back to day one of the tours, we met up with the family we would be doing three tours with, a very nice group of 4 from Tennessee, at the very non-vacation-like time of 8:10am and headed ashore where our tour guide, Cecile, was waiting with my name on a piece of paper and another very new, very clean van waiting to take us to sights beyond Toulon, the naval port town where we were docked.

Known for their very good rugby team, Toulon is home to the French navy (or much of it), and because of its important defensive position was bombed during the war. The rebuilding was not entirely beautiful, but I think there are some interesting things to see here including a good naval museum.

We drove straight through town, however, and were on the freeway heading towards Aix En Provence when the clouds opened and it absolutely downpoured on us. We had some inkling of the weather that day due to the multiple weather warnings put out before we arrived—they called for flash floods, thunderstorms causing damage, and even included a warning not to use the phone! We didn’t see any thunder or lightening when we were out and about, but the storm was quite something, and Cecile did well to guide the car through the torrential downpour.

Luckily, no cloud can rain that hard for long, and it was soon drastically cleared up as we drove through the French countryside and heard about local legends (Mary Magdalene spent thirty years of her life in a cave on a mountain we drove past), the best local wines, what to see in Aix, and more. Once in Aix, we parked in an underground parkade which had the most ingenious system of green LED lights showing you which spots were still open to save time endlessly circling.

Once back on ground level, our group decided to split into two; it was Grampa’s big goal in Aix to finally go into Cezanne’s Atelier, while the rest of the group had either seen it before or preferred to look elsewhere. It was a very simple matter to chat with the tourist info desk, get a great map, and jump on the number 5 bus towards the Atelier. A return trip was a very reasonable E 2,10 and the bus had a handy screen showing you not only the stop you were at but also the next six or so stops and the ETA to the final destination on the route. About 10 minutes later we were delivered to the north of the town and the stopped named ‘Cezanne.’

After walking about 100m downhill to the entrance to the grounds we paid our entry fee (E 6,00) and were informed that we needed to wait for a few minutes before going in. It was funny as the woman just said ‘this floor was built for one artist, not so many tourists.’ We waited for a few minutes by looking at a modern art display in a very old shed beside the house, where the artist (a graduating student, as far as I could tell), put white sheets of drywall up around the shed and then walked around it thousands of times holding a piece of charcoal and letting her arm move organically, creating some kind of swirly radio wave pattern thing.

After a few minutes of watching the video of her doing that, we were called to heading to the Atelier, which was a large room on the second storey of the house; I think his living space must have been converted into what looked like an office and the gift shop on the ground floor. Anyway, upstairs and in contrast to the Gaudi house, which had to scrabble to find artefacts, Cezanne’s Attic looked roughly like he died yesterday, with still life tableau set up (down to the wrinkly fruit), a few skulls casually tucked away near the floor for future examination, some big ladders set up, and coolest of all, a several foot high, but few inch wide door in the back wall, cut and hinged to allow for the passing of large paintings.

One interesting thing we learned from our tour driver was that before Cezanne’s death, he tried to donate much of his life’s work to the local museum, but because he wasn’t recognized widely as an artist during his life, the museum director turned him down. Of course, soon after he died his popularity exploded, and today the museum of his home town can’t afford to purchase the works they would now so dearly love to have.

After we got our fill of Cezanne’s attic, we walked straight back onto a bus and were quickly back into the centre of town, with enough time to walk around the weekly market. There were so many amazing-looking food stalls, and Grampa tried some brilliantly green cheese, while Toryn and I tried a hard cured salami with nuts, which was delicious. I desperately wanted to buy some of the sausages, but sadly CBSA doesn’t take so kindly to such things passing through the border.

After meeting up with the rest of our group, it was back in the car for the drive to Cassis, a small fishing (and tourist) village on the coast perhaps best known for its Calanques (cliffs). This town was adorable! We all loved it and wished we could have looked at it at all, but we only had time to quickly pay 0,60E to use the loo and then jump straight onto a boat for a tour of three calanques. These popular climbing, swimming, and boating areas are formations created by ancient rivers, causing cliff-edged fingers to spread away from the ocean and into the coast.

What we could and should have better predicted was the sea state which would have been left by the storms we spent the day driving through. We were in a 40-ish foot power boat with about 50 people on board, and the lack of a heavy ballast or deep keel became apparent as soon as we rounded the breakwater into the confused 4–6’ seas. It was sloppy as we bobbed around through the bay on our way to the first Calanque. Our original disappointment at not getting a seat on the front bow was quickly allayed as we watched everyone up there get absolutely soaked as we pounded through the surf. One poor guy looked like he had spent 20 minutes in a nice shower, and at least one lady was surely regretting her fashion choice, as she was dressed in head to toe white and her pants weren’t event pretending not to be see through at the end. Oops!

Anyway, once we bobbed our way in there, the cliffs were pretty cool and you can only imagine how amazing they would be on a calm, sunny day. With lots of mooring balls and the odd sailboat tucked away, it definitely looked like an incredible place to potter around in a boat. Coming back into the harbour we had a great view of the cute town and the castle (now high end resort) perched up on the hill above it.

We had to head straight back into the car to make the boat, so we piled back in and travelled back to Toulon, where we purchased a Christmas ornament from a little market in the cruise building, and were back on board right around 4:30.

I headed up to the coffee shop to work and blog while Toryn and Grampa went for a little snack before coming to join me. We had a few hours to relax before dinner, which was Teppanyaki. Compared to the Jade, we had a great chef on the Spirit, who did more ‘tricks’ and performed much more enthusiastically. As with on the Jade it was entirely too much food, but it was certainly tasty; however we were all pretty happy to see a fruit plate for dessert as compared to anything heavier.

After reading for a few minutes it was off to bed for another busy day the next morning. So far this cruise has been strange in that we haven’t had the time or inclination to explore the ship too widely, nor have we made it to the shows, the club, the trivia night, or really much of anything. It’s much more of a floating hotel situation than a party resort like the cruise from Houston (by 48 hours into that one we had seen 2 or 3 people dumped into wheelchairs due to over indulgence!) Not so here.

More soon and more pictures at fromyyj.com

Day 4, September 30: Embarkation

Once again I woke up early and headed to Starbucks to do some work, and had a pleasant surprise when I got 1/2 a pound of coffee free with my drink (well actually vice versa, but the price was the same). Some sort of that-day-only promotion, and quite nice since coffee beans at home are typically WAY more than a drink.

Anyway, after I finished my work, instead of heading right, back to the hotel and the incredible task of re packing the explosion of our hotel room (how three people and three nights created that I will never know!), I turned left and walked down to Placa Catalunya to impulse purchase some new glasses. I was lured into the Solaris + store by the combination of remembering how inexpensive my beloved ZOFF glasses from Japan were, and the 29E signs in the front window.

Everything went very smoothly (in English) and luckily they had my Rx in stock so it was just one hour from order to pick up. Of course somehow (thanks to my strong Rx and the frames I picked) I walked out with rather more expensive glasses than the promised 29E, but still a deal compared to at home, and quick as well. Here I was also given the regular ‘adult’ exam which involved reading letters as it does at home—in Japan, lest you accidentally confuse a か with a が due to lack of kana knowledge, not nearsightedness, they give foreigners a test based on looking at horse shoes and having you tell them which direction the opening points. One of my proudest moments in Japanese was ordering myself my own glasses from start to finish, but the process in Spain was much easier. However, I felt terrible that woman helping me felt the need to apologize her (really very good) English wasn’t better. It was, of course, I who was rightfully apologizing for my utter lack of Spanish.

Speaking of the language (and Japanese) I noticed how much I’ve been thinking in Japanese here. I guess my brain knows English isn’t quite right and sends the next thing out that it can. I haven’t remembered this much Japanese in years, which is both entirely bizarre and utterly useless!

After I ordered my glasses I headed back to the hotel to pick up Toryn and Grampa, and after packing and checking out it was perfect timing to go pick up my glasses (luckily I liked the frames after I could actually see them!) and then jump in a cab to the port.

It was a short 15 or so minute drive to the modern port building, and we arrived at about 12:30. It was a quick process to drop our bags and go through security, and because Grampa has a cane we were directed straight to a special assistance line, where we were at the check in desk before we even had time to fill in the 4-question health form.

By the time we arrived they had finished numbered boarding, so we were allowed straight on board after the cheesy welcome photo, and after dropping off our carry on bags in the stateroom (an outside on deck 6), we headed up to the buffet for lunch (breakfast).

After lunch Grampa headed to library for a bit while we went to guest services to put our name down for an officer’s dinner (as of night four no luck, but fingers crossed!) and then we all read and relaxed up in the ‘reading and writing room,’ as it is known, until we were all about to fall asleep. I collected my computer and headed to the coffee shop in the Atrium, which is becoming a daily afternoon stop for me (as I catch up on my blogging 5 days later!), to do some work and download pictures.

After the muster drill Toryn and I headed up to the Raffles Terrace for the informal Cruise Critic meet and group, which was really nice—there were probably about 30 people there and it was great to finally put a face (and name) to a screen name. Many of us were meeting up with people we had booked tours with in the coming days and it was a bit of a funny game of ‘have you met such and such’ as we all tried to find each other and tick various families and groups off our list. It reminded me of a combination of Memory and Guess Who?.

After a pleasant hour or so of chatting, we relaxed around the ship until the gift shop opened as we pulled away. I wanted to make sure to get a ship’s Christmas ornament before they sold out, and since there was about to be some kind of welcome raffle, we decided to hang around for that. We didn’t win, but someone got a Pandora bracelet, and someone else got a pair of earrings. Not bad for a free raffle!

Shortly after that was dinner, which was booked at La Trattoria for 9pm. It was the same menu as on the Jade this January, and I think we all ordered about the same thing as we had enjoyed then. It was a little odd as the restaurant was entirely deserted by the time we got there. Apparently an empty first night is normal, but I thought more people would have had the same idea as us, which was to book in to the specialty restaurants for sea days; given how intensive the port days are on this cruise.

With early alarms set for the next morning—Toulon, France—we headed to bed watching the Rick Steves show offered on the in cabin TV.

<<I'm going to do more of an overall ship thoughts summary at the end of the cruise>> More soon and pictures at fromyyj.com

I will try and ask about the dry dock. So far we have heard that it is 5 days (according to CD Gio) and that they don't know yet what will be done (according to the Guest Services Manager). I can try and confirm when it's going to be.

Day Three—September 29, More Barcelona

Toryn was coming down with quite the cold by today, so while I got up at 7:30 to go work, he and Grampa snoozed at the hotel, and were still asleep when I woke them up just after 10am. We eventually rolled out of there and down to a cafe called, appropriately, Cafe Cafe. This tiny restaurant offered a great breakfast for just 6,50 including toast, eggs, bacon, orange juice, and coffee, and the BEST part of it was that it all came delivered via dumbwaiter to the surprisingly large second floor eating space. Delicious!

Thus fortified, it was off to start our Hop On Hop Off (HOHO) tour of Barcelona. We began with the green (east) line, which takes you down to the port area, along the beaches, through the Olympic Village (be still my nerdy Olympic heart), through the ‘modern’ area of Barcelona, past the Sagrada Familia, and up to Parc Guell, which was our main destination.

In combination with our Sagrada Familia ticket from the day before, we had timed tickets for entry to Gaudi’s house, at 1pm. Getting off the bus at 12:40 or so, we figured we were in great shape, until we discovered that the bus stop was approximately a million miles (up hill) from the bus stop (which we later realized was a provisional bus stop, possibly due to construction). We really should have taken a cab, but we had no idea how long a walk we were in for so we persevered, up and down, and up and up, and up so much that the city had installed an outside escalator, then up some more, down a hill such that there were then stairs to regain the lost elevation. Suffice it to say that we were well past 1 and well ready for a nap by the time we finally appeared at the house.

Luckily my pleas of ‘my grandfather is so old, he doesn’t walk so well, blah blah blah’ got us in the door over an hour past our timed entry ticket. The house was pretty interesting, though no so much of his personal ephemera remains. I think at the time of his death (squashed by a tram, as it happens) he was living in the Sagrada Familia, and so the house we visited was a former residence, which took a bit of time to get back into the public trust. At that point I think they basically had to scavenge estate sales to find items of his to include in the museum.

Anyway, what I found most interesting was actually the purpose and history of the house, designed by Francesc d’Assís Berenguer i Mestres, Gaudi’s right hand man. The house is situated in Parc Guell, a proposed housing development which never got off the ground. I think they had imagined 60 houses, each with about 1/4 acre of land, on which people could build a house covering up to 5% of the land (it was meant to retain its park-like aspect). Gaudi designed the park itself, and the entrances, walls surrounding it, and some other buildings, but in the end only two residences (Gaudi’s and one other) were ever built, and the project ended up a total flop at the time. I can only imagine how many euro they would go for now, between the amazing city views and the big-name architect behind the project.

After a quick trip through the gift shop we hiked back down to the bus, completed the loop, and shuffled back to the hotel—by this point Toryn’s sniffles had gone full man-cold and Grampa was rightfully tired from the walk, so they took to the beds for a nap. I worked for a little bit and then decided I didn't want to miss the rest of the day in Barcelona, so I headed out for a solo adventure in the old quarter.

Just a short walk from our hotel, I walked down Las Ramblas, just to say I had seen it, and then took a left into the Bari Gotic, stumbling out by the Gotic Cathedral, which is in a beautiful square. I was pretty thrilled to discover that there was what appeared to be an antiques flea market on, so I poked around and looked at the vintage jewelry, religious figures, books, American bond papers, clothes, silver, comics, and other knick knacks and treasures before taking to the back alleys and getting pleasantly lost as darkness fell.

I managed to stumble into a TIGER, which I vaguely remember from either Iceland or Copenhagen. Anyway, it’s like what would happen if IKEA and a dollar store had a baby, and it was a minor miracle I got out of there only 12E poorer.

By the time I got back to the hotel, Toryn was not looking his sharpest, but Grampa had recovered enough to try our second Fork-found restaurant, Il Tonorio. Located right beside Casa Batlo, it was delicious and served largely Spanish cuisine. We had a couple of tapas, with Grampa’s crap and shrimp being an apparent highlight, then moved onto traditional mains (I had a sausage and white beans) and dessert. Grampa also tried—on the recommendation of Erika (the tour guide from the day before)—Cava, which he thoroughly enjoyed. After walking back to the hotel I gathered all the throw pillows I could find to make a nest on the wooden floor to avoid Mr. Snivels, counted my ability to sleep anywhere blessings, and headed to sleep. Tomorrow was cruise day!

More soon, and more photos at http://www.fromyyj.com Thanks for reading!

Day Two—September 28

On our first day in Barcelona, we all woke up at about 8:30 after a good sleep—we were all pretty happy to have cheated jet lag. I’ve never struggled with it as long as I’ve waited for a reasonable time to go to bed on night one—nap during the day and you are messed up for days, but stick it out until 10pm or later on the day of your arrival and jet lag seems to be fairly willing to disappear.

After a quick trip to Starbucks (very close to the hotel and fast, given the timing), we got back to the hotel just in time for our 9:50am pickup with Barcelona Day Tours. Our driver Erika was waiting for us when we walked up, and had her brand new Mercedes van ready to whisk us an hour out of town to Montserrat. As we drove out of town and towards the mountains where this interesting monastery and basilica is nestled, Erika told us about Barcelona, a bit of the history of the area, and about Montserrat itself. Originally from Italy, she has lived in Barcelona for 11 years, knows a lot about the region, and speaks excellent English.

We thoroughly enjoyed the drive out of town, but were excited to be dropped off in Montserrat. With a history dating back to 880, Montserrat was originally developed when some sheep herding children saw a religious vision there. Townsfolk made regular visits to the Virgin, but given the terrain (it’s steep!) they decided to move the stone her vision appeared on down to the town’s church. However, when they tried to move her (stone?) down the hill, she became incredibly, inexplicably heavy and they realized that she wanted to remain on the mountain.

In response, a huge, beautiful church was built on the mountain, which must have been quite a feat! Much of the building material was quarried from the surrounding mountains, and the rough and textured limestone adds an interesting dimension to the building.

After Erika oriented us to the area, which included a few restaurants, the basillica, a funicular, a supermarket, bar, apartments, bakery, and gift shop, she headed back to the car and turned us loose to explore.

We first walked through the tents of local wares (mostly food, including cheese, honey, marmalade, and sweets), testing some delicious local cheeses. After that, we took the ‘upwards’ arm of the funicular, which runs both up and down from the main area. For about 10E each, we received a round-trip ticket. The funicular, which first opened in 1916, covers a grade as steep as 65 degrees, creeping up it in that strange way funiculars do. After a 7 minute ride, we disembarked and had a look around the area. There were climbing points in the rocks if you brought gear with you, and many hiking trails start from this point as well. It seems a popular option is to ride up and walk down.

We got some photos from the viewing platform and had a quick look in the attached room full of information about the local geography, as well as taking a quick walk before heading back down. We were lucky to get in the very front of the funicular, and had a great view of the church and surroundings as we headed back down.

Each day at 1, the oldest boy-choir in the world performs two songs in the church, and so next on our schedule was to try and find a scrap of space in there to listen. While not a school for monks, per se, boys 9–14 can attend school here, where on top of their regular studies they learn piano, another instrument, and sing in this world-renowned choir. The church area was packed to the gills with people interested in watching the performance, not the least of which were hundreds of elderly Spaniards in Montserrat on a Red Cross-sponsored day trip/jamboree for old people. We managed to get in and could even see courtesy of the people in front of us filing with their iPads (so we could look at their screen). It was definitely something interesting to experience and while it was extremely crowded and a little hard to see, the space is beautiful and the choir was certainly interesting. I’d certainly try and time your visit to see it, if you can.

Following the choir, it was time for a quick spin through the gift shop, and the purchase of some sheep cheese we all loved (we were assured it would last 6 months with no fridge!) before we met back up with Erika for the drive back into town. She took us on an alternate route so we could see more scenery, and we enjoyed chatting with her and comparing life in Canada with her experiences in Spain and Italy.

Our tour was about 5 hours long, bringing us back into Barcelona at 3pm. As an efficiency manoeuvre, we had Erika drop us off at the Sagrada Familia, where we had timed tickets for 4pm. After a quick but tasty lunch at a random Italian place across from the Basilica, we had our bags thoroughly searched by security, picked up our audio guides, and started to explore this incredible and utterly insane building.

Under construction for over a century already, the current team of builders is hoping to have it finished for 2027…it’s really quite something! Every inch of the building was intricately planned and developed by Gaudi, who left detailed models, drawings, and concepts behind after his death (by tram accident). He drew his inspiration form nature and his perception of its relation to God, and the entire facade drips in symbolism. It would be well-worth reading about in more detail.

Inside, we all agreed we were shocked at the relative austerity compared to the outside, which could hardly get more covered in carvings. The interior has absolutely soaring spaces, supported by innovative columns, which were designed to evoke trees in a forest. My favourite part was the expansive stained glass windows which were plentiful throughout. It’s amazing how huge they are, how many there are, and how much the colours from the glass change the colours inside. The columns looked like they were bathed with theatre lighting!

Outside, you can see the school which Gaudi designed for the children of the workers. No squat block, it has extremely interesting curves and lines in an of itself. Underneath the Basilica is an interesting museum with tons of info about the design and building process, including a movie, real models showing how Gaudi’s ideas evolved over time and testing, and even a peak into the studio where architects and modellers continue to work on the creation of models and test pieces to this day. They had rather more extensive CNC machines than Gaudi, though!

By the time we reached the gift shop at the end of our hour and a half at Sagrada Familia, we were all flagging a bit, so it was time to grab a cab and head back to the hotel.

I’d made dinner reservations on thefork.com, a Trip Advisor-owned website which allows you to search for restaurants based on date and experience, read reviews, check out menus, and book your table, all online. The best part is that many restaurants offer 20–50% discounts for those who book through thefork, which is a free site.

By the time we were supposed to leave the hotel, Grampa had decided to call it a night and just have a snack in the room, so T and I headed out to Restaurant Plassahola, which is a tapas restaurant walking distance from Placa Catalunya. We sampled about five types of tapas including squid croquettes, oven baked egg with ratatouille, baked zucchini, and Iberian ham croquettes. All were delicious! We finished it up with an AMAZING lemon parfait-style dessert. Highly recommended! We both really enjoyed the meal, and the 30% off certainly didn’t hurt. After a pleasant walk back to the hotel, it was time for bed.

Hi all, I'm obviously already behind with this, but we still have 4 days on board, so I'll be posting as we go and catching up with my blog--tomorrow is a sea day, so I should be able to get a little bit more caught up in my writing.

Anyway, below is a copy of my blog, which is also posted (with lots of photos) at http://www.fromyyj.com. We have 4 nights in Venice, 1 in Rome, 2 in London and 6 in Iceland after the cruise, so if you are curious about any of that, I'll be blogging over there about that, not sure how much post-cruise people are interested in here. Maybe just Venice? I hope it's not too long-winded overall! Cheers, Dani

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Sept 25–27, getting to Barcelona

We are three on this trip—myself, Dani (29), my husband Toryn (34), and my grandfather Colin (in his ninth decade, as he likes to put it). We all live in Victoria BC on the west coast of Canada, and this is our second cruise as a threesome (4th for Toryn and Grampa and 5th for me. I’ve also cruised with HAL and Toryn and I got married on the Disney Wonder in 2014).

Grampa, who grew up in England, has been all over Europe (though there are some new-to-him stops on this trip), I’ve been to North and Central Europe but not to the stops on this cruise, and it’s Toryn’s first time in Europe.

I’m going to try and live blog every day or so, but we’ll see how that goes, internet being spotty and days being busy! I usually write a lot when I do blog, so apologies if it’s too much detail for some! I know there aren’t too many blogs about this Spirit route, so hopefully I can be of help and/or interest to someone.

Toryn and I left Canada on Sunday September 25 and took the ferry to Anacortes in Washington State, where we spent the evening visiting with his sister and her family. The next day they generously drove us down to Sea-Tac where we boarded a flight to Europe on Icelandair. This is an interesting, not-quite-budget airline which features great prices (we got a return flight to London for $500 r/t each), convenient flight times and best of all, the Iceland Free Stopover program. This allows you to spend up to 7 nights in Iceland on your way to or from Europe, at no additional airfare. We will be taking advantage of that later on in this trip.

One of the coolest parts of the first flight, I thought, was that instead of the typical ‘mood’ lighting above the bulkheads, they had a flickering northern lights tableau that moved and danced. Inflight entertainment was plentiful but random (for example, they had Friends, but only episodes 15–17 of season 3). I have no idea about food as I’m a nervous flyer and try and sleep through most of it. I know it was for sale, not included, but there was water as you got on board, super thick blankets and loads of pillows.

The stopover program means that no matter what, you stop in Iceland on your way across the pond, so our first flight was a quick 6 hours and 50 minutes to Reykjavik, leaving late afternoon and arriving early the next morning. We had about an hour to change planes (with a small airport and no customs to go through this is very easy) before continuing on to London Gatwick, which is just 2.5 hours away.

Because we booked the next ticket separately, we had allowed over three hours for our connection, which we didn’t really need but it was a relaxing trip through customs, back to check in with BA (for our Iberia-booked code share flight, it was a bit odd), back through the most efficient security I have EVER seen, and then time for a quick lunch (breakfast? dinner? who knew) before heading to our gate. We had a 40-minute delay taking off but that was eliminated by one heck of a tailwind and we ended up landing right on time. An impressive feat given it was only a 2-hour flight originally!

Barcelona El-Prat is a lovely airport and we were quickly through immigration before a short wait for luggage. At this point Toryn and I were about three hours ahead of Grampa, who flew Air Canada, so we headed off to the Aero Bus (E5,90 one way). After riding to Placa Catalyuna (about 35 minutes and fast on-board wifi), we walked the 700m or so to our hotel, the Sansi Diputachio (booked on Priceline). Check in was quick and we headed up to the room. We have two beds, but they are only separated by about 4 inches and are both full size. The other funny thing about the room is the bathroom door, which is a glass shower door with some frosting on it. Luckily it faces into the hallway of the room, not the bed area, but it could be awkward if you are sharing with someone you don’t know so well!

After a quick shower and change of clothes, it was back to the Aero Bus to pick up Grampa, who arrived via Vancouver and LHR on Air Canada. We ate a brief meal at a cafe in the airport and then all piled back onto the Aero Bus to get back into town. We never waited more than a minute for a bus the whole time, it was great.

It was straight to the hotel and off to sleep, at about 11pm local time.

This would not surprise me. Airlines are considering a similar system for FC upgrades, some have tested. I know a few other cruise lines were considering testing this as well.

 

I would suspect this email is also a test and may be limited to a single cruise or at most ship.

Yes, I just got one for my SEA-LGW Icelandair flight next week. Interesting strategy! I'd be much more likely to try it out for a cruise than a flight, though!

Like others have said, call NCL, but it's definitely potentially possible. We were given permission to meet the ship in Tortola on a Miami-Panama Canal cruise a few years ago. Something came up and we didn't do the cruise in the end, but it was theoretically allowed by NCL in that case. Good luck!