For a little background, my husband and I are in our late 20's early 30s and have cruised with Carnival, Princess, and Holland America. We were traveling with my in-laws and this was their first ocean cruise. We encountered a few problems but overall had a great cruise.

July 12, 2008 We left Boston flying on Aer Lingus. After a little trouble with figuring out which gate was ours (they kept flipping between gates 4 and 5). We settled into our flight and ended up arriving in Dublin a full half hour early. The Dublin Airport is a bit crazy! You first have to go through customs (whether or not you are staying), then through security, then to get to your gate you have to go through basically it's a mall with tons and tons of people. We found our gate and then decided that since we were in Ireland let's have a pint of Guinness - at 6:00 a.m. Boarded our next flight and again arrived in Barcelona a full half hour early.

July 13, 2008 Barcelona We went through customs, got in a cab and I had read on the boards to write down the pier and ship name for the cab drivers. What I did was learned how to pronounce and also wrote down the pier name but in Spanish. The pier in Spanish is called Muelle (pronounced Moya) Adosado. Our cab driver recognized it immediately. Read more