We arrived in BCN via JFK on Saturday around noon and stayed at casp74. A wonderful condo style apt in l'exiample, 2 bedrooms, 10 min walk east of playa catalunya. We took the aerobus in for 5.60 euros each. I prefer to take public transportation once I get to a new city, gives me a sense of direction and comfort. Also there was no chance of getting 4 people into a cab withnour luggage. There are mini van and stationary style cabs but very few. We went straight to parc guell from the hotel on a beautiful afternoon. Had an early dinner at cerveceria catalunya, good solid meal, and partied a bit in the area west of las ramblas. Sunday was spent touring the gothic qtr, area around Picasso museum, parc de la ciutadella. Spent the night walking and eating our way through the gothic qtr and del born neighborhoods which were a 15 min walk from our hotel. Please don't let the guide books scare you from exploring this area at night. There are great places around every corner. Monday we took the 8:43ish train to Montserrat. None of us are religious, this place is somewhere very special. A cathedral that seemed to be carved right into the mountain. The entire trip, it seemed we were an hr a head of the tour buses. It was so peaceful for about an hr before the crowds showed up. Tons of hiking trails from easy to very challenging, we were able to find some great views from a few hundred feet over the monastery. We made it back to BCN and walked las ramblas and shopped in la boqueria market. We ate our way through the market and brought some great snacks back to the hotel. That's same evening we took the funicular up montjuic and hike to the top to the castle, note the castle closes around 6. We then got lost and walked all over the mtn, ard the Olympic stadium towards the museum and the majic fountain, after 3 hrs, ouch no majic on mondays. Bunch of mad hikers. We had to checkout at noon so we finally made our way to la sagrada famiglia, got there around 10, big mistake. The line was around the corner. We managed to just see the beautiful structure from every angle, especially from behind the small pond on the north side. Didn't make it in, but gives us a perfect reason to come back to BCN soon.I would not recommend how we got tom the ship. We walked to playa catalunya and took the metro to the end of las ramblas, one transfer with way too many steps. We than took the port bus for 2 each. There is no chance anyone is walking to the ship, even with no luggage. It's way over 2 miles. From the colombus statue. Check in was a breeze. We bought our wine at duty free after we checked in and headed straight onto the ship. Had mimosas upon embarking and our cruise was on it's way. You can purchase all your water and sodas a the duty free, it is a bit more expensive but there is no way I'm lugging all that along with my bags.

It is October so there were mostly seniors on board. I use the term seniors lightly, these people were up at the crack of dawn and off the ship early. Many of them toured like we did, by using public transport and DIY. We are in our 20-30s and had a great time. Had great conversations with many other passengers, all sorts of languages were heard. Europeans, Asians, English, and Americans were all represented. We were in room 6101. Do not get a room this fwd. The noise and vibration on the first port day almost made me crap myself. No exaggeration, it was as loud as having a jack hammer in the room. Everything was shaking and it lasted an hr. This was at 5:45 every time we docked. Good thing I was ready to get up. Our room steward was professional and perfect. Room was exceptionally clean and the few needs we had were quickly taken care of. We only ate in the MDR. We were already spending quite a bit for our budget. The specialty rest were beautiful and I would love to try them all someday but for $40pp was a bit steep. They did have specials during the cruise. The MDR food was good to great. Our waiters Vincent and Jeyson were superb. Wines by the glass were fairly priced. The sommelier was knowledgeable with sales push on wine at all. We took full advantage of the activities onboard on sea days. Trivia, dance classes, demos were all fun. The hot glass show was unbelievable. They had a auction one day and the last day they raffles off a bunch of gorgeous pieces. These people were real artisans from corning NY. Only negative might have been the cruise director staff. The young ladies who did the trivias and lawn games were sometimes impatient with the senior passengers, often times I would go as far as saying rude. The shows were the best I've ever seen. The cirque de soleil type show was simply amazing.We had 1 sea day followed by Rome and Naples another sea day, than Athens, Mykonos, kusadasi, and santorini,sea day, Malta, sea day, and back to BCN. Off the ship at 630 for our 10:15 fly back to JFK. there had to be 40-50 other passengers on our flt. So this flt is easily accessible. The cab ride was no more than 15 mins. This was one of the greatest adventures thus far. Will be on celebrity again soon.