This was our first Transatlantic cruise and hopefully not our last. I am not an English whiz and I tend to ramble, so beware. We left southwest Florida on Wednesday the 22nd of October so we could have a few days in Barcelona before the cruise back to Fort Lauderdale on the Liberty of the Seas. We flew out of Miami on American Airlines flight 112. This was on a 767-300, seats 25 H & J. These seats were OK, you get what you pay for. We, 10 in our group, pre-booked limo service from our home to Miami and from Barcelona airport to the Hotel Arc La Rambla. All that went smoothly. However, we did have problems at the hotel. First, this is a beautiful hotel, perfectly situated for us tourist. But we will not stay there again as our room and the room safe was broken into and everything removed from the safe. So much for worrying about the pick pockets. The same happened to my brother and son in adjoining rooms. This just gives us a bad feeling about the hotel, and the hotel Director just did not seem to care. Other than that, as I said, it is a beautiful hotel, the staff, other than the Director, were friendly, helpful, and pleasant to talk too. Anything else on that subject will be on TripAdvisor as I know that the Hotel monitors that site, and can respond if they wish.

Our time in Barcelona was well spent. On our own, we toured the city on Thursday evening, Friday evening and all day Saturday. Friday we went to Montserrat. We took the Metro from a station near the Columbus statue to the Plaça Espanya station. From there we took the #5 train to the Rack Railway (Cremallera) station, then on up to the Monastery. By the way, you can purchase the train and Monastery tickets at the information both near the Columbus statue. We used the T10 ticket for the Metro rides. This worked out pretty well. By the way, it helped that we had a Spanish speaker in our group. She sure earned her keep, but with a little planning and taking time to read the directions that were everywhere, you should have a good time. Day time meals were at the most convenient spot we could find, except for international chain restaurants. We ate all our evening meals on La Rambla. Yes, this is a tourist area but we found out early on, that the prices are reasonable and the food was just as good as the some other spots we tried. We found one spot on La Rambla with a waiter named Theo, and frequented it several times. It is one of those white tent restaurants about 100 yards up La Rambla from the hotel. Truthfully, the food and beverage may have been just as good anywhere else, but the service was exceptional. The beer and sangria were excellent and large. Yes, Theo took good care of us and of course we let him know of our gratitude. During all our tours of the city, we saw most of the sites we were looking for, as we had been making plans well in advance. We even used Google Earth to do preliminary “walking” tours of the sites we were interested in. We saw the old ruins, the churches and side streets galore and had a wonderful time. We did not let our rocking start ruin our vacation.

On Sunday morning we packed, had breakfast locally with some last minute exploring, then caught our limo to the cruise port. Initially, the port was crowed as several buses arrived about the same time. But things moved quickly and we were soon on-board. After some more last minute shopping right after you check in. Thank goodness we didn't have a weight limit on our luggage for the cruise. The Boss and I had a Junior Suite, deck 10, port side aft. Just a few doors down from the bulge (elevators). This was a convenient location for us as it afforded quick and easy access to get to coffee for the early riser. Also, as the Boss is a smoker, and you cannot smoke in the cabins or balconies, she had a quick trip up to deck 11 port side for her morning absolution's. During the entire voyage, we found the food in the Windjammer to be as always, normal, crowed sometimes and not on others. It is cafeteria style food after all. However, breakfast, lunch, and dinners in the Main Dining Room were much better fare. Our dinner waiters, Arlene and Kareem, took very good care of us. The food was very good and there was always a selection even though this was a 13 day cruise. The only problem, if you could call it one, was that the waiters take care of everything at the table, including wine and bar service, in addition to the food service. If you request the wine and bar service, it can slow down the food service as it takes away the manpower. But as I said, our waiters took very good care of us and if we needed to get out early for a show, they pressed the food service for us. And I bet the wine drinkers at our table didn't even notice the change. At least after the first bottle or two. As for the 13 day cruise, it was for relaxing. The sea days were some of the best we have ever had. We did have some rain, but very little, and the crossing was mostly sunny and warm and smooth. The wife spent her time and money in the casino, I spent mine on deck reading and touring the ship. There is photographic evidence that I did take a nap or two, maybe more, from time to time, while “reading”. We saw the East Coast Boys in the Main Theater and they were very good. As for the rest of the shows, they were OK. Of course, Quest was fun as always. That old nightmare of running around in front of a crowd of people in just your underwear, does not apply to some people. Our section did not win but we sure had fun. We stopped in Cadiz, Tenerife, and La Palma. Cadiz and La Palma, we just toured the city, but in Tenerife we took the Volcano tour and had a wonderful trip. Lots of beautiful scenery and overall an excellent trip. Read more