10 days in Barcelona, Italy and France (Eurodam 10/28/17)

[Bxianesq]

We just got back from an amazing 10 day trip consisting of 3 days in Barcelona and 7 on a Eurodam Med cruise. We had a wonderful time, which was very much enhanced by the Cruise Critic friends that we met on the cruise. Most of them are still sailing on a repositioning cruise. Since I can't find our roll call, I thought that I would post a recap here.

[Bxianesq]

Day 1: Almost did not make it to Barcelona! My husband had a cold when we boarded our flight and was a little queasy, since he had not eaten that much that day. We learned never to ask for an airsick bag pre-flight. After I requested one, the flight attendant started giving my husband the once over, required that I feel my husband's head for any sign of fever, and

required that I exit the plane and meet with an AA representative on the jetway. They were trying to get us to leave the plane because my husband was not feeling well. All that they kept saying was, "If we have to divert this flight due to illness, it is going to cost AA a half a million dollars ." Using my best negotiating skills, I finally convinced them them that my husband only had a cold and just wanted to sleep on the flight over. Finally, they relented. I enjoyed the meal and comfortable seat in business class, while my husband enjoyed being able to lie flat and sleep!

[Bxianesq]

Day 2-Once more husband woke up for breakfast on the plane, he felt much better. We landed and grabbed a cab to to Hilton Barcelona. Our room was not ready, so we took a cab over to the Santa Catarina market in El Born and got some fruit. It was a fun place to walk around. After the market, we walked down the street to the Picasso Museum, which had a bit of a line. It was a good place to visit for about an hour or so. After the Museum, we went back to the room and crashed for a while. Later on, we went out for tapas at Pisco Labis across the street from the Hilton (thanks Sonora5) and then saw a wonderful concert at the Palau de la Musica. It featured 3 Spanish guitarists and 2 flamenco dancers. The theatre was ornate and had great sound quality. I heard about the concert from anothet member of our roll call.

[Bxianesq]

Day 3-Embarkation Day! We slept until almost 10 (unheard of for us). We ran to the executive lounge at the Hilton only to be told that breakfast was over. The woman in charge grudgingly allowed us a piece of fruit and some juice, but refused any requests for coffee or tea. We left the hotel around 11. Embarkation was incredibly orderly and fast. Once we got on board, we checked out our cabin and then went to the main dining room for lunch. Eating in the MDR was a really nice way to start our cruise. After lunch, we did our usual shipboard ramble, since we had not been on the Eurodam before. Of course, the dreaded muster took up some of our afternoon. When it was time to sail away, we went to the Seaview pool and found some of the Cruise Critic friends whom we had met virtually on our Roll Call. We loved talking with everyone, and the suggestion which someone made to wear Mardi Gras beads made it easy to find them. After the sailaway, we got ready for dinner. Our main dining room experience was one of the few downsides of the cruise. We did the anytime dining and were seated promptly on each evening except for the first formal night (and even the formal night wait was only 10 minutes long). However, food took FOREVER to be served, and the wine stewards (with one exception) did not seem to know anything about the wines that they were serving. We also realized (too late) that the wine packages are not a great value. Despite the dining delays, our dinner companions on the cruise were a real highlight for us. It was fascinating to compare travel notes-and as an added bonus, the people with whom we were seated were both interesting and fun. We especially enjoyed chatting with Gary and Mandy from Northern Ireland, who we ended up sitting with twice.

[Bxianesq]

Day 5-At sea. We spent most of the morning walking around the ship, and lazed by the pool in the afternoon. The weather for our cruise was spectacular, with sunny skies and temps in the low 70s and high 60s each day. I threw in my bathing suit almost as an afterthought, since our cruise was port intensive and I was a bit unsure about the weather. There is nothing like lazing around in a lounge chair with the Mediterranean all around you. After having dinner in the MDR, we checked out some of the music venues. The BB King band and the Lincoln Center musicians were amazing. The dueling piano guys were OK, but they did not seem to have much of an audience on our cruise.

[Bxianesq]

Day 6 Sardinia-We did not book an excursion, since we thought that it would be fun to wander around the older part of the city of Cagliari. We wandered the ancient streets and grabbed some gelato. it was fun running into HeleneK and Trish, Kelsey, Mark and Cory (Sunfunandsea) and Peter and Candy (PTCandy) as we wandered around. We spent the afternoon back on the ship (the pool beckoned us again). Our port stop was on a Sunday, so may stores and restaurants were closed. I am glad that we decided to do our own thing instead of doing an excursion-the in town ones covered the same things that we got to see for free by wandering around ourselves, and we heard that the Barrimundi excursion was not for the claustrophobic and involved walking on slippery rocks.

[Bxianesq]

Day 6 Siciily-This was the only day that we opted to take a cruise sponsored tour. It involved 3 stops in and around Palermo. We got onto a large school bus and had a quick tour around the city, and then drove about 15 minutes out of town to a pretty village known as Monreale. It had a very ornate cathedral with a nice park out back that had pretty views of the sea in the distance. After 1 hour in Monreale, we went into Palermo for some shopping and I snagged a pair of shoes. Our last stop was the small seaside community of Mondello right outside of Palermo. We had incredible seaside views during our stop there. We enjoyed the fact that our excursion made 3 stops, and that we got to see different parts of the Palermo area. However, our tour guide droned on a bit, and I don't think she made much of an effort to engage her group. We saw another HAL bus tour guide walk her group up to the cathedral in Monreale and show them around, but our tour guide disappeared.

After returning to the ship, we got ready for our dinner at De Librije. This was a special meal served in the Pinnacle Grille. It alternates with Dinner at Le Circ, with with either one or the other being offered once during a 7 day cruise. We found our De Librije meal to be a highlight of the cruise. The chef is from the Netherlands and owns a 3 star Michelin restaurant. We found the food preparations to be really inventive and fun, and they were tasty as well. The sommelier was knowledgeable and selected terrific wines to pair with our meal.

[Bxianesq]

Day 7 Rome-This was a group put together by members of our Cruise Critic roll call group. We had a wonderful day in Rome with HeleneK and Trish, Kathy and Bill and Helayne and Ed. HeleneK did an amazing job of putting the day together. I felt badly that she ended up having knee issues and could not get to see the inside of the Colosseum. We enjoyed our guide from Smartcruisetours-she led us around the Palatine Hill area and the ruins, and helped us get into the Colosseum relatively quickly. We also stopped for coffee, went to a gated area where you could peep through a keyhole and see St. Peter's Basilica off in the distance, and visited the Trevi Fountain. Since it was All Saints Day, the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum were closed, but we were able to stop briefly in Vatican City. It was amazing to see St. Peter's Basilica, although I found the Square to be much smaller than I expected. We had a great casual meal of pizza, meats and cheeses and a post lunch gelato before heading back to the ship. It was a great day-my only complaint was that the driver drove much too fast (100 MPH) to get us back to the ship, even though we had hours to go before the Eurodam sailed. After a full day in room, we were pretty beat, so we had dinner ad crashed.

[Bxianesq]

Day 8 Livorno. Oh, the wonders of Tuscany! Everything that you have read about the golden colors of the light in Tuscany is true. What a magical place! We took a private tour organized by dwaliaschief (Susan) and aliaschief (Bruce). I have to give a major shout out to Susan and Bruce (with help from RayNH and Janet). They put together an amazing community for our Roll Call, complete with spreadsheets with names and contact info, as well as day by day itineraries where people could advertise non-HAL excursions that they were hoping to fill. Susan worked incredibly hard on the spreadsheet and the roll call even though she still works and travels for work, and even though Bruce had several major surgeries as the trip planning was underway. We will never forget your generosity of spirit and great organizational skills! We started our tour in Siena with Susan and Bruce, Ray and Janet and Bill and Diana. What a fun group this was-it was a day that we will always remember. We started with a walking tour of the beautiful city of Siena (with a few churches for Bill :) After that, we went to a winery (Chez Emma) for an outstanding wine and food pairing). We finished off our day with a stop at the walled village of San Gimigno and the best gelato of our trip! Our tour guide was Daneli from Tuscan Heart-he was kind and funny, and best of all did not drive like a maniac. We will never forget our Tuscany group and hope that our paths cross again some day.

[Bxianesq]

Day 9 Monte Carlo Sad, because it was our last cruise day. Susan and Bruce had put together a group for a tour to a few spots in France. Others joined in, and we appreciate Bill and Diana doing a great job of putting together our mini group of 6. it was an added bonus to be able to spend a second day with them, since they were also part of our wonderful Tuscany group. It was a little stressful at first because our tour guide from Alycon tours was over an hour late-however, he managed to make up the time for the most part. We visited St. Paul de Vence, which is a stunning walled hilltop town in France. We also went to Eze (a similar, if steeper, walled hilltop town). Both were spectacular. We also visited Nice-our guide took us on a walking tour, and then left us to wander around the famous flower market (which has food and other things as well. It was hard not to purchase anything (and there may have been French mustards and soaps that wound up in my suitcase. We kind of sped through Monte Carlo, and then it was back to the ship to pack (ugh) and have our final dinner. Always festive with the twirling napkins and singing! It always brings a tear to my eye.

[Bxianesq]

Day 10 Embarkation/Barcelona I was amazed at how smoothly our embarkation went, as we heard horror stories about long cab lines for prior cruises. We cabbed it to the Hilton Diagonal Mar. In contrast to the coolness and less than helpful demeanor of the staff of the Hilton Barcelona, the Diagonal Mar staff knocked it out of the park. They could not have been kinder or more accommodating. The executive lounge there was great as well-with an open bar from 6 to 8 and a great breakfast that could be eaten on their outdoor terrace. After settling in, we cabbed over to La Sagrada Familia, an amazing church started by the architect Antonin Gaudi. It is still unfinished, but even in its unfinished state it is breathtaking. After taking a tour at La Sagrada Familia, we walked to L'Eixample where a number of other Gaudi bulings are located. We had a fun tour of a home known as Casa Batillo, which incorporated virtual reality into it audio tours. A bit pricey, but worth it. At night, we went on a 3 hour Devour Barcelona tapas and wine tour. This was another highlight of our trip to Barcelona, and Fintan was a masterful guide. We also heard about this tour from Cruise Critic member Sonora5-thanks!

Edited November 12, 2016 by Bxianesq

[Bxianesq]

Day 11 last day in Barcelona-we took a hop on hop off bus tour. By this point in the trip, we were pretty tired from our adventures, so we took the full route and did not hop off. We had wine and cheese to tide us over at El Vinya del Senyor, a cute little wine bar in the Barri Gothic area. We returned the our hotel room and were able to score a last minute flight change home. AA, in its infinite wisdom, had actually cancelled our flight home from Barcelona some months back, since they decided to make the PHL_BCN flights seasonal. They had rerouted us on an extremely ugly BCN_JFK_LA_PHL flight, with no way to get from JFK to LGA and a long layover. there was a much better BCN-MAD-PHL routing listed on the AA website, but they kept telling me that it was unavailable. Finally, I was able to switch t that flight the night before (even though we were using miles and have no AA status).. Score!Our last meal in Barcelona was at Arume-also recommded by Sonora5. It was an amazing meal, and a great way to end our stay.

I really enjoyed the chance to experience this cruise with my husband to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. The trip also helped underscore for me what an amazing community Cruise Critic is-we will never forget our Cruise Critic friends from this cruise! I hope that my tips are helpful if you visit any of the magical places that we got to see.

[Bxianesq]

I am so sorry-I just realized that I typed "17" as the date-we cruised in 2016.

[Mtn2Sea]

I've really enjoyed reading about your trip. Thanks for sharing. I agree CC members are a very valuable resource and just a great bunch of people.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

Wonderful.

Sounds like you had a wonderful cruise.

[puppycanducruise]

Thank you for taking the time to post your comment.

Glad you had a good cruise.