I will start by stating, Harmony is as promised, a magnificent vessel and with nine straight days at sea, we had plenty of time to explore. After visiting all the neighborhoods, stopping a most of the bars and dining at few of the specialty restaurants, she didn’t let us down. This was our first transatlantic cruise and definitely not our last. My wife and I have been on over 30 cruises, RCL, NCL, Costa, etc, and we’ve come to the conclusion that the cruise lines have adopted the philosophy that “you can’t please all the people all the time, so please as many as you can”.

The plan was to fly to Barcelona a day early, explore Barcelona and then hop on the ship. We took Aer Lingus from the U.S. to Dublin and then a connecting flight to Barcelona. With Aer Lingus, you get what you pay for, safe delivery to another airport with no frills and that’s pretty much what we got. Our first mistake was not spending more than one day in Barcelona, there’s plenty of places to explore and visit, and one day did not do us justice. We did manage to walk from our Hotel (Hotel Serhs Del Porto) to most of the touristy sites, but, I’m sure we missed some. A journey down La Rambla on a Saturday afternoon is somewhat of a challenge, but, rewarding. Here’s a little hint, follow the locals to a giant food market where you can buy Serano Ham, other cut meats (charcuterie) and/or cheese in a paper cone. For a euro or two it’s great street food and quite tasty. Grab a cone of meat and glass of rojo wine and enjoy, you’re on vacation.

At the recommendation of our concierge at Serhs, we went to an area called Barceloneta in search of seafood paella, and of course they were spot on. An after dinner stroll took us to a very modern mall on the waterfront with a theater and even a McDonalds. At no point did we ever feel threatened or in any type of danger, everyone we met was friendly, helpful and spoke some English. Read more