Teeara

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

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!

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 😉😁

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!

Joseph Mary Jesus

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!

Some beautiful architecture during our walk to La Sagrada Familia:

A few photos from our flight:

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!

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.

This photo doesn’t do justice to the massive scale of this plane that just pulled in next to our gate.

We skipped lunch at the Admiral’s Club. It was horrible compared to Boston’s breakfast. But the showers here at JFK were fantastic.

Here’s our luggage. We’re NOT light packers 😉😁

I wasn’t sure if they would let us have breakfast there when we arrive since we aren’t technically checking in until after 3 pm. Sure would be nice if we could.

So for those of you who know me here on Cruise Critic, I'm Theresa, also known as Teeara, also known as the keeper of the spreadsheets on our rollcall here on the WOTS 2022 WB TA. 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. Grrr..... So some of us agreed that the next time Allure opened up for booking a Fall TA again we would, too, since we had such a great roll call group going here on CC. We figured that wouldn't be until 2025 when Allure would be due for her next dry dock. Well imagine our surprise when Allure came up for another TA for this fall instead and was open for booking a year after they kicked us off of our canceled cruise. Many of us immediately booked this cruise. THEN we were in for yet another shock when it was announced that we weren't going to be on Allure after all. That they were transfering all of us to the brand new Wonder of the Seas instead AND that we would keep the same rates we paid for Allure and in some instances our same cabins. Some people, unfortunately, were not able to keep their same cabins since Wonder doesn't have the same categories of cabins (especially in the higher tiers) and they were bumped down to junior suites). So some of us were over the moon and some of us were less than overjoyed. Having said all of that, I just wanted to impart a bit of the backstory to some of the drama that so many of us have endured in order to reach today as we start our journeys to reach Barcelona and our ultimate destination, Wonder of the Seas. This will be my ninth cruise with Royal Caribbean and after the second day at sea I will finally become a Diamond member (Woo Hoo!). This will be my roommate Pam's fourth cruise and she will become an Emerald member during the cruise (Woo Hoo!). We are staying in an Owner's Suite for this cruise and are very excited about it having only stayed in interior, balcony and junior suites before. This will also be the first time we're staying on Deck 18, the highest deck ever for us. My preference is for a lower deck (around 7) and aft. On Wonder, all of the Owner's Suites are on Deck 18 so we don't have a choice as to deck location (and no, I'm not complaining and no, I won't give it up for you!). Today is Wednesday, October 26th and it is our travel day. So we flew from Boston to New York this morning. The flight was a bit bumpy thanks to the storm off the Eastern Seaboard, but my SeaBands worked perfectly and I had no discomfort. We have a 7.5 hour layover here at JFK until our flight leaves this evening to Barcelona. I purchased a day pass for the Admiral's Club from American Airlines and it has been very nice so far. We had a breakfast of eggs, hash browns, fresh fruit, yogurt, pound cake and cappuccino at Logan. We'll have lunch here at JFK later on this afternoon. Right now we're sitting next to the window watching them load planes. We hope to be able to snag some showers later this afternoon before our flights, too. It's first come first served. So that's about it for now. I plan on posting every day to let you know what's going on. I'll post the Cruise Compass every day and share some photos as well. I also plan on shooting a lot of video for my YouTube channel until after I return from the cruise. If there's anything you would like to see please post it here and I'll see what I can include. So since today is travel day you might not hear from me again until tomorrow night (Thursday, October 27th), so here's what's on the agenda tomorrow. We arrive in Barcelona around 6:45 a.m. We're staying at Hotel Jazz near Plaza de Catalunya and will be hunting down someplace to have some breakfast. We have a tour lined up at 12:30 at La Sagrada Familia, so we will be heading over there for that. Once done, we will be heading to the Obama Gastropub near the Plaza de Catalunya (they have a pretty good American style menu and my roommate does best on travel days to stick to American style food) for an early dinner. Then we'll head to the hotel and get settled for the night. That will be when I check in with you again and give you the day's update. For those of you who are on our sailing, I wish you safe travels and I can't wait to see you in Barcelona!

Have a great time! I'd love to do this itinerary some day. We love the Voyager class ships. And living in MA and sailing out of Boston is great. Puerto Rico is fantastic. One of our most favorite places to visit. One of my co-workers just visited her family and she said the power is pretty much all back on there. We also stayed at the Casablanca Hotel back in 2017. Fun place. Here are a few pix: We had a great time there. We were on the top floor I think. It was very spacious. A couple of restaurant suggestions: the Waffle House for breakfast! They don't have air conditioning, but the waffles were to die for. Yum Yum! The Chocolate Bar for brunch - anything is fantastic, but the churros con chocolat was divine. I will follow your live stream. We'll be boarding Wonder on 10/30 for the TA from Barcelona. I'm doing a live stream, too. We leave tomorrow morning! Very excited. Our first TA!

All caught up now. I love your reviews. I really like the split nature of them, too. I think I might try that, too. I love your photos and descriptions. Have the seas calmed down for you? How have the temps been? It looks like they have warmed up a bit based on what the Compasses are listing. Have they said anything about the new system that's brewing off the East Coast and how you might be affected by it? Continued safe travels to you! We fly to Spain tomorrow and our adventure begins. Oh, and if you run into that Spanish gentleman again... Strawberry: Fresa Mango: Mango Rum: Ron Peach: Durazno Mango Lava Flow: Flujo de lava de mango Peach Lava Flow: Flujo de lava de melocotón Please keep your hands off me: Por favor, mantén tus manos fuera de mí.

Thanks for this one! I got it for my Kindle. Backup reading for the TA next week in case I need it.

I think you can email anthemevents@rccl.com and someone on Anthem will be able to work directly with you. I was able to work directly with someone on Wonder at wonderevents@rccl.com in order to get Music Hall for our upcoming Wonder TA next week.

That is a great suggestion.

Thanks for that info! I've never heard of iScanner before. Going to try that for my Wonder TA livestream.

Hey Deb, you can always "gift" me with one of those "extra" drinks during the Wonder TA ;o)

I'll be giving you the dirty look as you reboard ;o))) Remember, I'm in the 10:00 Party-on group ;o)))

I'll have to remember to give you a really dirty look when you board ahead of us on Wonder ;o)))