transam84

Here are some pictures of the boats and lake.

Heading out

The caves have beautiful water bodies within. They are ghostly blue and clear. Then at the bottom is a huge lake and musicians in boats serenade you in the dark. We really enjoyed this trip.

The caves were about an hour from the ship. We have visited caves before but nothing like these caves. The formations are so elaborate it is like being in another world. So incredible it is like Disney but the real thing. In fact we have said that about the whole trip. Disney on steroids in real life.

Today we were in Mallorca. As always, I got my Cafe Mocha, walked to the solarium and then back to the cabin. So peaceful in the morning.

Loved the Cantilevered hot tubs

Welcome to Mallorca

We wanted to visit the Drach caves so decided on a ship tour. Just needed transportation to the caves really. We had to meet in the theater. Not really fond of the entire herding thing. I felt like cattle. But it worked out fine. As I said I just wanted transportation to the caves and it was a short port day so I did not want to take any risks.

r

We walked around a bit. Then headed back to the room. Bet you can guess what was waiting for me.

The Promenade was finally pleasant to walk through! Second Oasis class ship and I still did not get on the Rising Tide. Guess I just have to go on Harmony!

Central Park from above

The Beach Pool at night

And... look who was waiting for me! Thanks Karen!

Dinner was at Giovanni's. It was delicious as always. I mozzarella and prosciutto baked and stuffed chicken for dinner. Tom had the stuffed shrimp for dinner. I had Tiramisu for dessert. My favorite.

r

Yummy dipping oil!

Appetizer. mozzarella and prosciutto, totally delish!

Stuffed Chicken also yummy

Stuffed Shrimp. A little tricky to remove from shell but with a little help from waiter it was all good.

Tiramisu and cannoli for dessert. Sorry, my dessert pictures did not come out good. I also got cappuccino. I got the Royal Replenish package. This is my third time getting it. I love it. I don't drink much liquor. I love foo foo drinks but I'm fine without the alcohol. And I'm a big coffee drinker. Cafe Mocha, yeah you know already, and cappuccino. So it works out great for me.

Then I went back to the cabin to watch the ship sail from there and get ready for dinner.

I was concerned having such a big balcony would be a waste on this fall cruise, but not so. We used our balcony more than any other cruise!

At 5:30 I went to the Dreamworks Sailaway in the Aquatheater. It was very cute and I got to see my favorite character Puss N Boots. I am particularly in love with orange kitties. We adopted an orange rescue cat with one ear named Evander. He was in a hoarder situation and probably abused. He is so sweet and lovable. My future daughter-in-law and I kid that Puss N Boots is really Evander and he wears that hat because he has one ear.

Now I wish I was already in Barcelona for our pre-stay to see all of the Gaudi architecture! Thank you very much taking the time to post your marvelous photos and review! :)

My pleasure. You are most welcome. Barcelona is beautiful. Be sure you get tickets for La Sagrada Familia in advance. I'm sorry we did not go inside on our tour. I heard it is incredible. Next time we plan on it for sure.

We were given an option to be dropped in town or return to ship. As beautiful as Barcelona is we were exhausted. We decided to go back to the ship. When we returned to the ship we immediately noticed the difference. No huge lines, or massive crowds. Seems the purple people had departed. Upon talking to others we realized we were not alone in our observations. Apparently a large company gave all there employees a free cruise. Nice deal and I mean no disrespect to anyone but it certainly made things interesting for a few days.

We went to the Boardwalk and ate at Sabor. The ship was quiet and it was a great way to spend the late afternoon. We both had quesadillas for lunch and I had churros for dessert and tom had a chimichanga. We both loved Sabor.

White Sangria, yummy

They bring yummy chips and salsa

quesadillas

Dessert!

Then we went to the gingerbread houses. The elaborate detail of the structures is incredible.

Some yummy treats.

We then saw a hotel designed by Gaudi

We walked down and saw the area of Roman columns with the ceiling decorated in mosaic pottery.

Amazing Art

After that we headed for Park Guell. This amazing park designed by Gaudi is fascinating.

We saw Gaudi's house the entered the main park center.

The beautiful bench made of many pieces of broken pottery circles the perimeter.

There are great views of the city and gingerbread houses below.

A few more

This is the first of the incredible Gaudi architecture we would see. The church is massive and has different look on each side. It is still under construction long after Gaudi's death. She explained how Gaudi's structures are based on nature. We walked around the church but on this quick trip did not go in. Next time we will leave time to go in.

Today we arrived at Barcelona. This is the main embarkation port and there was lots of activity. I noticed lots of purple bags at guest services when I went for my cafe mocha.

We had a semi private tour of the city arranged. Because I signed up first I was named group leader and because they filled the tour we got it free. Nice deal for doing nothing but post it on the cruise site.

Leaving the ship we saw what became know as the purple people leaving the ship in droves. This would bring about a tremendous change in atmosphere I will comment on upon our return.

Our tour guide Aida was waging with a sign. Once all the others arrived we were off a break neck pace.

We took in a few sights in route to La Sagrada Familia. Barcelona is a beautiful city architecturally.

Bull Fight Arena

Of course a picture of the Hard Rock

More beautiful colors

Awesome pictures of the shows. Question...do they allow photography or do you need to sneak pictures? I'd love to take some as well when we go so want to know if I have to be discreet about it 😉

No flash photography at ice, blue planet and oceanaria. You can take pictures without flash. Mama Mia has no photography at all, so I have no pictures of that show. Hope that helps.

Laura

A Few more from Blue Planet

After the show we were exhausted so decided to call it a night.

We walked through the Promenade and it was very strange indeed.

As I mentioned although we were loving our cruise something still seemed off. Lots of noisy people, yelling and pushing, elevators very crowded and the line at guest relations always across the promenade, And also people the purple bags were in the promenade everywhere. Tonight was particularly bad, we could barely get through the promenade as the line for guest relations stretched end to end. We decided it best to retire to peace of beautiful cabin.

And when I arrived there were TOWEL ANIMALS. When we boarded our marvelous cabin attendant asked what she could do to make this an amazing cruise. I told her please make me towel animals and leave them until all until the end. And so she did starting on day 2. So here are Day 2 and 3! She had to get special permission to leave them. I loved each and every one. And she got a very nice extra tip. She was fantastic!

Day 2

Day 3

After dinner we went to see Blue Planet in the theater. This was a new one for me, and I was very impressed. It was a combination part cirque, part singing and dancing. Great special effects, singing and acrobatics. Royal really has the best shows any where on land or sea in my opinion. It is one of the things that keeps me loyal to Royal.

Some highlights

For a main course I had scallops with risotto. They were excellent.

Tom had Salmon

For dessert we both had a salted carmel pudding

All in all a nice dinner

Now off to another show!

For dinner we ate in the suite restaurant next to the concierge club, coastal kitchen. The wait staff is excellent and the food is good. The view is spectacular.

Menu for Starters

They brought this to the table instead of bread.

I had Flatbread appetizer

Tom had the watermelon salad

At 4 we went to the ice show. This is a staple of the big Royal ships. This one based on Monopoly and good as expected. Having a son who was a competitive figure skater I appreciate how hard it is to perform on that small rink.

As I said I was not disappointed about the spa reservation mess up, actually it worked out for the best. I got to see 3 shows that we enjoyed.

First we went to see Oceanaria at 1pm. When we sailed Oasis we had the aquatheater suite so we only saw the diving show from the balcony. I loved seeing it from a different vantage point.

I want to point out that there really are reserved seats for suite guests. You do not need reservations. There are great seats reserved for all shows. We just flashed our cards and in we we went.

So here are some highlights

We loved the concierge lounge so much we really did not go to the diamond lounge at all except to take some pictures. It is a lovely space though.

Central Park is always a nice place to relax. We at Chops, Giovanni's and of course Park Cafe.

Looking up

We headed to the spa at 1:00 for a 1:30 appointment only to find they messed up my facial reservation. After a great deal of confusion we headed down only to find they messed it up again. At this point Tom wanted to skip them so we did. I was not really disappointed as there were a bunch of shows we wanted to see at the same time.

Spa Entrance

Hi Laura! Thank you so much for posting this! I have a question about the picture above. I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Rome on two occasions back in the late 1970's. I took quite a few pictures of the above ruins & the huge home/palace(?) on the hill above it. Since we went in the off season & it rained both times we visited this site, I never did get to ask anyone what these ruins were (we had the site pretty much to ourselves because of the rain:rolleyes:). Can you enlighten me and answer my decades long 'mystery'?:o

 

Thanks so much!

Judy

Hi Judy, I think it was some sort of stadium. At least that is what I remember her calling it. It was such an information packed two days. It was almost history overload. But I loved every single minute. Hope that helps a little. Laura