Rogueperson's **Live** Scarlet Lady 4/21/2024 Transatlantic

[Rogueperson]

Valencia “food” tour.

 

Valencia is probably the least visually impressive ports of the ones we visited.  But it is a real city vs. a tourist attraction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So this tour was a little annoying.  It was not the tour guide’s fault, as throughout the tour, he was on his phone practically screaming. The tour part was fine.  The food i have issues with.  I *think* added this last minute as I do not remember seeing this tour available online when i booked.  

 

At our first stop.  We stopped at a market where he gave us some pastries.

 

 

 

This was not really memorable because i almost forgot about it when writing this.

 

We had to wait a bit as there was another group in the restaurant for our first stop.

 

We got this.

 

 

a drink was included with this including beer or wine.  This dish was pretty good.

 

Afterwards, we were told that we would swap the dessert portion with the lunch portion due to same said tour group.  We returned to the beach area and had either ice cream or real horchata as oppose to the stuff i’m used to.

 

 

This was ok, but i enjoyed it.  

 

Now we had to fight through traffic to get back to where we were.  Because of the time crunch, the tour guide would give us the sandwiches to go.  However, we had to wait in a real long line to get our drinks.  What’s worse, when we got our drinks, we had to drink it right there because the drinks came in glass bottles that had to be returned.  I thought we could get around it with plastic cups, which the guide suggested.  Cool, but driver would not let anyone on the bus with an open container.  I somehow got water to my wife who was dehydrated.  But now i have to return the bottle.  Guide just said don’t worry about it.  But then when we got on the bus, the driver said no eating allowed on the bus.  🤬

 

Worst of all, the sandwich wasn't very good.  

 

All this was due to the timing snafu.

 

I feel like the food portion of this tour missed the mark.

 

 

[Rogueperson]

On 4/29/2024 at 9:25 AM, Rogueperson said:

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, I’ve posted more bathroom pictures on this Live thread than any other.

 

Why?  Because these bathrooms fascinate me!

 

 

Look at this picture without the floor.  Even WITH the floor, its hard to tell in real life that the bathroom has a left passage that leads to urinals, sinks and additional bathroom stalls.

[CineGraphic]

3 hours ago, Rogueperson said:

 

Okay, I’ve posted more bathroom pictures on this Live thread than any other.

 

Why?  Because these bathrooms fascinate me!

 

This is a favorite bathroom of mine on board, and one of my favorite selfies. 🤣

 

 

 

[Rogueperson]

51 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

 

This is a favorite bathroom of mine on board, and one of my favorite selfies. 🤣

 

 

 

I saw this on Deck 16?  I think

[Rogueperson]

Got lucky and made it to Lolz supper club.

 

 

Menu

 

 

Roasted Vegetable Salad.  A little salty but good.

 

 

Burrata.  Its not really burrata, just fresh mozzarella.

 

 

Parmesan Chicken

 

 

Wife got Sea Bass

 

 

Chocolate Mousse

 

 

Only two comedians and the MC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

This dude i saw earlier and it was the same act.  I’m feel a little bit like i wasted my time here.  I probably won’t do this again if i catch comedians previous to this show.

[Rogueperson]

Another show.

 

 

So apparently this is not the same show as last night.

 

 

 

I heard it was better music and energy last night.  I chose not to go because we were not quite done with Gumbae at 10.  The trend is if i dont get in line, its hard to get in or get seats so i didn’t bother.

 

Still, it was a fun show/activity.

 

I have to admit that this kind of show happened on what I considered the best cruise I’ve ever been on.  It was on a NYE cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Grandeur of the seas 2014/2015.  I had never before seen that on a cruise.  And Virgin did it again.  You have to have a special energy to make this work.

 

 

Edited May 4 by Rogueperson

[Rogueperson]

Wow.  This represents the last of my Bar tab.  

 

Can’t believe I spent $800 on drinks.

[Rogueperson]

Good Morning from Barcelona.

 

 

 

 

 

A bittersweet day of disembarkation.  We plan to spend the day and night here and fly home tomorrow.  My plan is the hop on hop off bus which incidentally has a stop near my hotel.  So we’re not done yet.

[Rogueperson]

So we opted for a later departure and may now be paying the price.  I thought the ship was supposed to be empty by 10:30, but i guess that was a suggestion.

 

A huge line is waiting to get off.

 

 

 

Fortunately, we don’t have to be anywhere and are just chilling.  I Love the fact they don’t try to push you out of the room at 8am like other cruise lines i’ve been on.  I think the later embarkation is genius.

 

Other ships, later disembarkation is usually quicker as most people are already off the ship.  I guess its a balance thing. 

Edited May 5 by Rogueperson

[FionaMG]

2 hours ago, Rogueperson said:

So we opted for a later departure and may now be paying the price.  I thought the ship was supposed to be empty by 10:30, but i guess that was a suggestion.

 

A huge line is waiting to get off.

 

 

 

Fortunately, we don’t have to be anywhere and are just chilling.  I Love the fact they don’t try to push you out of the room at 8am like other cruise lines i’ve been on.  I think the later embarkation is genius.

 

Other ships, later disembarkation is usually quicker as most people are already off the ship.  I guess its a balance thing. 

I like the idea of a later disembarkation. Having to be up at 6 am on departure morning is always a real downer for me.

Enjoy your time in Barcelona. It's a great city and you're going to want to return for a longer visit.

[lesters]

Thank you @Rogueperson for taking us along and sharing this live journey!  One week until I board SL and I cannot wait! 
 

Safe travels home!

[CineGraphic]

Since you are spending the night in Barcelona,here's our favorite Wine Bar, "Cellarer"

We loved the it so much that for our next trip, I booked a hotel that's just a 3 minute walk away.

 

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187497-d10456682-Reviews-Cellarer_Wine_Bar-Barcelona_Catalonia.html

 

 

 

 

 

[Rogueperson]

I noted on the @laurieal’s live thread briefly how awful today has been for me.

 

Yes, getting off the ship stunk.  Technically, this is ship to door.

 

 

However, this is not accurate because i waited on the ship to let the slow line move before getting in line.  We were in the Roundaout just hanging out and waiting for the line to die down.  I don’t think we actually left the ship until 11:30.  And that is 18 minutes ship to door time.  We thought about getting an uber, but that didn’t work so we ended up waiting in a real long line for the cab.  The cab driver barely spoke english but i thought we conveyed the hotel to him.  I was staying at the hotel Indigo on Gran Via.  Apparently there are two Hotel Indigo on Gran via 10 minutes apart One was Hotel Indigo Plaza Espana and the other one was Hotel Indigo Plaza Catalunya.  Not confusing at all.  I have no data so i couldn’t pull up my hotel reservation only knew it was on Gran Via.  So I ended up at the wrong hotel and had to take another cab to my hotel.

 

I get to my hotel, thinking its late enough that my room was ready.  Nope.  Not ready.  Its 2:30 at this point.  The language barrier is proving to be more difficult than I expected so now my anxiety level is through the roof.  Fortunately, they offered to lock our luggage up while we had lunch.

 

Now that I’m writing this, it doesn’t sound too awful.  But the language barrier and the lack of connectivity that i’m used to has stripped all the tools i didn’t know i depend on.  Add to the fact that my wife was getting hungry because she didn’t have breakfast like i did and she has the allergies that could kill her and we have an iffy chance of conveying this to any food service staff.

 

we ended up having lunch in the hotel.  At least the menu was in english as we were finding many that were not.  It surprised me how good it was.

 

It was a light lunch.

 

Cheese plate

 

 

Fried anchovies

 

 

Steak tartare

 

 

 

 

 

[Tyler414]

Looks like Scarlet Lady docked at The World Trade Centre this morning, I was under the impression that Barcelona was banning large cruise ships from this terminal… Do you have any info if it will be home porting there all summer?   I ask, because if so I will book the hotel there pre cruise in August.   Thanks. Safe travels home. 

[Cloud9 Bob]

24 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

we ended up having lunch in the hotel.  At least the menu was in english as we were finding many that were not.  It surprised me how good it was.

I could make a meal of the fried ancovies, cheese plate and some bread...would pass the tartare up though 😜 BTW have you downloaded Google Translate? You set the language, point the camera at a foreign menu and you instantly see it in English. Not always perfect, but it works pretty darn well.

[Rogueperson]

36 minutes ago, Tyler414 said:

Looks like Scarlet Lady docked at The World Trade Centre this morning, I was under the impression that Barcelona was banning large cruise ships from this terminal… Do you have any info if it will be home porting there all summer?   I ask, because if so I will book the hotel there pre cruise in August.   Thanks. Safe travels home. 

 

For a little bit.  I know its next itinerary is a round trip from Barcelona but i didn’t see how many she did.

[Rogueperson]

20 minutes ago, Cloud9 Bob said:

I could make a meal of the fried ancovies, cheese plate and some bread...would pass the tartare up though 😜 BTW have you downloaded Google Translate? You set the language, point the camera at a foreign menu and you instantly see it in English. Not always perfect, but it works pretty darn well.

 

I’m assuming you would need data for that.  Things I take for granted at home, I’m having difficulty here.

 

The wifi in the hotel sucks.  I never thought i’d say this, but the internet on the cruise ship is better.

 

I can’t post because i keep losing the data.  Not the signal, thats strong.  I’m giving up and maybe i will have wifi at the airport thats better.

 

So guys, not done yet.

 

Edited May 5 by Rogueperson

[Rogueperson]

58 minutes ago, Cloud9 Bob said:

I could make a meal of the fried ancovies, cheese plate and some bread...would pass the tartare up though 😜 BTW have you downloaded Google Translate? You set the language, point the camera at a foreign menu and you instantly see it in English. Not always perfect, but it works pretty darn well.

 

Ooooh, google translate has offline mode!! 

[Tyler414]

35 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

 

Ooooh, google translate has offline mode!! 

Traveling E-sim.  Cheap and easy to use and refill. 

[Rogueperson]

Quick update to my adventures.  Wifi is worse at Barcelona airport.  No way i can upload pics easily.  At least I’m here.

 

I had to go through security 3 times!!!  They say you have to separate electronics.  Usually its just my laptop.  They wanted every thing and in separate trays so yeah…

 

But I’m at the gate for my first leg.  Delayed by 20 minutes .  Worse news.  No gate assignment.  So I could be here, i could be across the terminal.  This place is huge.  But pretty nice.

 

Edited May 6 by Rogueperson

[FionaMG]

3 hours ago, Rogueperson said:

Quick update to my adventures.  Wifi is worse at Barcelona airport.  No way i can upload pics easily.  At least I’m here.

 

I had to go through security 3 times!!!  They say you have to separate electronics.  Usually its just my laptop.  They wanted every thing and in separate trays so yeah…

 

But I’m at the gate for my first leg.  Delayed by 20 minutes .  Worse news.  No gate assignment.  So I could be here, i could be across the terminal.  This place is huge.  But pretty nice.

 

 

Sorry to hear about all your post-cruise trials and tribulations Rogue. 😕 Hopefully your return travel will be uneventful.

 

Definitely agree with @Tyler414 regarding the use of a travel e-sim. I have used these on our last couple of trips to the US to ensure that I have data when out and about so if you are planning further travels outside the US in the future you should definitely look into them.

 

My preferred provider is called Roamless. They're a fairly new kid on the block so their coverage is not quite as widespread as some of the more established operators but they have one huge thing in their favour as far as I am concerned and that is that they don't have "plans" that can only be used in certain areas and which expire after a certain amount of time even if you haven't used up all the credit (like when you have to put an hour's worth of coins in a parking meter because you're not sure how long you're going to be and then you end up only needing the spot for 15 minutes).

 

Instead, what Roamless do is a pay-as-you-go type thing, where you put a certain amount of credit into your account and you can use it wherever and whenever and it never expires. Then you just top up your credit as and when you need to. My daughter is currently working on a cruise ship in Europe and has been using it throughout the Med and the Adriatic with no issues at all.

 

If you think you might want to use them in the future, I have a referral code that will get both of us a little bit of free credit: XN58Y.

 

Safe travels.

 

 

[FionaMG]

20 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

Since you are spending the night in Barcelona,here's our favorite Wine Bar, "Cellarer"

We loved the it so much that for our next trip, I booked a hotel that's just a 3 minute walk away.

 

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187497-d10456682-Reviews-Cellarer_Wine_Bar-Barcelona_Catalonia.html

 

 

 

 

 

This looks wonderful. Duly noted for future use. 😍

[Rogueperson]

I was having such bad wifi at the hotel and airport.  I could not even post reliably.  Pics would not load, so I waited until now to post.  Lisbon’s airport wifi is way better and stable.

 

Recap of Yesterday.

Once all the crap passed and we were fed, we ended up on the Hop on, Hop off bus.  This like a low key affordable option to tour many cities.  I had never done it before.  You board a double decker bus.  They give you a set of analog headphones.  You plug it in and listen to the recorded program.  Its not interactive, but you get the info and see the sites.  My only issue was the “free wifi” they offer did not work well.  The router would not even reach the upper deck.

 

 

 



 

 

 

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Barcelona is absolutely stunning.  I love this place.  I need to find a way to mitigate the language and data barrier.  Someone said easy sim.  I will have to research.

 

[CineGraphic]

5 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

I need to find a way to mitigate the language and data barrier.

 

Our T-Mobile plan includes free international data....I think many of their plans include it.

As for language, I use the Google Translate App. It's a life saver, and it's free!

[Rogueperson]

We ended up at a restaurant in the arena they converted to a mall near our hotel.

Restaurant.

 



Menu

 

 

 




My wife said iberia ham was a local favorite.  I didn’t want to spend 28 euros for an app so i settled for an iberian ham croquet.

 



next was the clams with spicy sauce and wine from Malaga.  This was amazingly delicious.

 



I got the meat Paella which is a spanish rice dish.

 



Wife got seafood Paella. 

 



Night time is pretty here too

 



So this ends my Barcelona day.