NCL Jewel Review 7/16/06 Sailing Before I begin my review of our trip to Europe aboard the NCL Jewel, I want to thank everyone on this board for all of their help. We were able to get so much more enjoyment from our trip due to the advice, recommendations, counsel and suggestions of all of the members. To let you know a little bit about us, my DW and I are 44 years old (we have 2 kids in sleep away camp), celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary, taking our 4th cruise (twice on Royal Caribbean and once on Disney) and our first trip to Europe. We booked this trip about 10 months ago through our TA. We did our own air and transfers, our own pre-cruise hotel. Ok here we go.  We left JFK airport on Thursday afternoon July 13. We had a 5:40 PM flight that arrived in Barcelona at 7:45 AM on Friday. Although JFK was a little disorganized, Delta was just great. The flight was smooth as can be. When we arrived at BCN (Barcelona airport) we waited on a very short line (maybe five minutes) to pass through customs and immigration. Our bags were waiting on the carousel and we grabbed a luggage cart (there are no sky caps at the Barcelona airport and the luggage carts are free to use, just walk to the side of the carousel and grab one) and proceeded to the taxi stand. There was a long line of taxis waiting. We knew from these boards that the fare for the cab to the Majestic Hotel should have been around 25 Euros and it was exactly that price. We arrived at the Majestic about 9:00 AM. Great Hotel. As this was our first time in Europe we had nothing to compare it to, but we have stayed in the Plaza Hotel (not so great) the Waldorf Astoria (very nice) The United Nation Plaza (very nice) in New York, The Fairmont in San Francisco (best bed we ever slept in) as well The Princess in Acapulco (beautiful grounds) so even though we've never been to Europe we've been to a couple of nice hotels and the Majestic was certainly nice.

We had room #701, a junior suite overlooking the Passeig De Gracia, the hotel is situated between two Gaudi buildings, the Batllo and La Pedrera. The hotel is just a few blocks from the top of Las Ramblas (there are definitely hotels a lot closer to Las Ramblas) and is on both the RED and BLUE line of Bus Turistic. The staff and concierge at the hotel were excellent. Everyone speaks English, the hotel was immaculate, the staff very friendly, and the room huge. We freshened up and hit the streets. When my DW and I talked about jet lag with our friends, everyone advised us "not to go to sleep" so we didn't. Even though we hadn't slept the entire evening (save for a few winks on the plane) we forged ahead and went for a walk and breakfast on the Passeig De Gracia. After a nice omelet at an outdoor cafe we bought tickets for the Bus Turistic and made the Sagrada Familia our first stop. The church is quite impressive from the outside so we decided to go inside as well. The line in front of the bus stop was huge so my DW and I figured that we would just walk around the church, see the whole thing take a few pictures and get back on the bus. As we circled the block we found another ticket window around the corner that had absolutely no line, so we bought tickets and went inside. There is an elevator that goes to the top, but the line was very long and we didn't want to wait. We asked if there were stairs but we were told that there weren't, so we just walked around for a little bit and left. My DW then walked through the small, limited gift shop but didn't get anything. Across the street from the church was a great gift shop that had some really beautiful things. We went to a local supermarket in the neighborhood, walked around a little bit and then got back on the bus and made the Parc Guell our next stop. The bus stops on at the bottom of the hill several blocks from the parc. It is a long uphill climb on a very narrow street to get up to Parc Guell. It was very hot (the middle of the afternoon in the middle of July) but the views from the Parc were well worth it. The parc has a beautiful entrance (mosaic dragons and lizards line the steps) and the columns, corridors, open spaces and buildings are really incredible. The panorama overlooks all of Barcelona. Just an incredible view. There is a small snack stand with shaded umbrellas at the top where we enjoyed some ices. We then took the outside path of the parc down to the main street, which led us back down the hill to the bus stop. By now it was about 4:30 or 5:00 PM. We took the bus back to the Hotel Majestic (seeing quite a bit of the city along the way) and took a short nap and got ready for dinner at 9:00. The concierge recommended a restaurant called Botafumiero. It is a seafood restaurant that had great fish and Paella. With wine and tip, dinner for 2 was 100 Euros. Certainly not cheap, but we loved it. When we arrived at the restaurant at 9:00 PM we were one of the only diners in the restaurant. When we left at about 11:30 the place was packed. We took a cab back to the hotel to get ready for tomorrow.

We woke up Saturday morning and my wife asked me to look at her watch to see what time it was. I asked her if she had changed her watch to Barcelona time. She said she had, and I said "well, then it's 12:15 PM." She made some comment about my age and my ability to see small numbers so I checked her cell phone and sure enough, it was 12:15. We felt great but we had slept for about 11 hours. We thought it was a small concession to the travel and the time change, went down to the internet cafe at the hotel (20 Euros for the duration of your stay), did our business and then I went out to get us some coffee and rolls. We are both big coffee drinkers so we didn't mind the espresso that they serve in Spain. Got dressed and then took a cab down to the Plaza Catalunya, so that we could walk down Las Ramblas. After a few blocks of the human statues, the bird salesman and postcard kiosks, we took a left hand turn and entered the Barri Gotic (the Gothic Quarter). We found ourselves in front of a beautiful church and sat down at a cafe (Estruch) for pizza and salad. The plaza was a beautiful place to have lunch and watch the action. After lunch we began our search for the Picasso Museum. We only had the map from the Bus turistic (and because the museum is not one of their stops, its not on the map) so we really weren't sure where it was. We saw some signs pointing in the general direction of the museum and we gladly followed. The time that we spent lost (there is no other word for it. We didn't know where we were or where we were going) in the Barri Gotic was magical. We loved it. We found wine shops (you can bring wine on the ship, but I'll talk about that later), alleyways, incredible architecture, friendly people and eventually the Picasso Museum. The line was about 25 minutes and the entrance fee about 8 or 10 Euros. My wife loved the museum and all of Picasso's works. I'm not as sophisticated as she is, so she tolerated my opinions for the 45 minutes we toured the museum. After we left we walked toward Port Vell. It was a pretty good walk to the port, but we were there to see Barcelona so we didn't mind. The port is fantastic. I'm not sure which part was old and which parts were built for the 1992 Olympics, but the cool breeze, open space and views of the Marina were beautiful. We walked all the way down (and it was a pretty long walk) to the bus stop for the Bus Turistic. By now it was 8:00 PM (although it seemed like the middle of the day) so we took the bus back to the Batllo (the stop closest to our hotel) and got ready for dinner. We wanted to visit an acquaintance in Barcelona so we asked the concierge to change our dinner reservation at Aqua to 10:30 PM. By the time we finished our visit and got down to Agua (a great restaurant on the beach) it was after 11:00 PM. The hostess wasn't too happy that we were so late for our reservation so she made us wait till 11:30 for our table. We sat at the table closest to the Mediterranean and settled in. By the time our food came it was midnight and the restaurant was still packed. I guess it's true&they have dinner at midnight in Barcelona. Food was very good (service just OK). Wife had fish, I had chicken. With wine and tip, about 65 Euros. Grabbed a cab back to the hotel about 1:30 AM to get ready to board the Jewel in the morning. I guess that since we were doing a pre-cruise, we should have packed our luggage with that in mind. I would definitely recommend packing a bag for your pre-cruise and then packing bags for your cruise. We spent a lot of time on Sunday morning having to repack all of our luggage. On Sunday morning, again, I went down to the Fresh and Ready (that was the name) to get coffee and croissants. After breakfast and packing we left our bags with the hotel to do a little last minute sightseeing. We stopped in the Casa Batllo (a famous Gaudi building on the Passeig De Gracia) for only a moment. From the brief glimpse we had it was great. We bought a few souvenirs, took a stroll around the neighborhood (everything was closed on Sunday morning. The streets were deserted) and then went back to the hotel. Grabbed a cab to the port (I don't remember exactly, but I'm going to say it was about 15 Euros) Read more