GEM Oct 11—18 Ports: Barcelona, Malta, Naples, Rome, Pisa/Florence, Cannes, Barcelona

I would like to start this review by saying I am not a real spontaneous person. Sure, maybe going out to dinner unplanned, or even a trip to the mall, but I always plan my vacations VERY far ahead. Well, this vacation broke that rule for me. Less than 24 hrs before take off, I planned the entire thing! I enjoyed this adventure from start to finish. I love the GEM, and everything about her. The staff was excellent as usual, the food was good to great, as was the entertainment. I made some new, albeit temporary friends, spent some quality time with my DD and enjoyed a getaway I desperately needed.

Pre-Cruise Flew from Newark to Brussels to Barcelona. Great flight, easy connects! Arrived in Barcelona on Saturday, check into the lovely Hotel Eurostars Grand Marina (full review on TA)—just one dock over from where the GEM docked at the World Trade Center. They graced us with a complimentary Cava while our room details and keys were prepared. From our window we could see the pier, and Sunday morning were able to see the GEM from our window. We were hungry and went "next door" to the shopping mall and had tapas and paella at TapasTapas. I know it seems sacrilegious to eat at a mall in such at beautiful city, but we were able to dine outdoors overlooking the sea on a beautiful sunny afternoon. The seafood crepes were divine, and the paella delicious—full of seafood. The white sangria was a little sweet, but the sunny afternoon assured it went down easily. From here we took the metro to Park Guell. We had not visited the Park on our previous trip to Barcelona, and were anxious to see it. From the metro, the walk was up a steep hill, but there were several escalators (yes—on the street) to help with the upward climb. Once you get to the park there are lovely hiking trails to get to the "famous" Gaudi bench area overlooking the city. The view is lovely, as are the wonderful mosaic benches. We continued up the trails to the castle area, with a walkway carved into the stone of the mountain. Gaudi's love for combining his art and nature are very evident here. We found our way back down to the metro—leaving by a less steep pathway than we took up and enter the metro closer to Las Ramblas. We got out at La Catalunya, and made our way down Las Ramblas, stopping at the famous market, where I purchased a bottle of Cava for the evening. We freshened up, and were talking about dinner, but were so tired, we completely crashed at 9pm. I awakened about 12am, and bored, but not tired, I made my way down to the lobby to take advantage of the free internet. Unfortunately, the computers were turned in for the night, so I spent some time chatting with a lovely couple from the Netherlands who had attended a wedding that day, and a gentleman from LA who was heading out on RCCL the next day also. Next day we had a lovely breakfast at the hotel. Large buffet that for some guests was complimentary. We were not one of those guests and paid 25E, but were still a bit tired and didn't feel like walking up to Las Ramblas to find the pastry shop we had planned on eating at. We checked out, they hailed a cab for us (after first trying to convince us to use their Mercedes car service for 50E—for heavens sake the ride all the way from the airport was only 24E!). A quick ride and we arrived at the pier Read more