I took this cruise with 3 of my girlfriends. Three of us had never been to the Mediterranean before and one had never cruised before. We decided on the Gem because of the great itinerary and the newness of the ship. I volunteered to be our "cruise director" and did all the research for our trip. Even though I have been on more than 10 cruises, this was the first time I had the luxury of Cruise Critic and was able to get invaluable information from all the wonderful people out there. Thank you all.

Since we were going so far, we wanted to spend a little time in Barcelona before and after the cruise. We left Newark on Friday evening and had an uneventful flight and even landed in Barcelona almost an hour early. We had no problems with our luggage (unlike some others on our cruise). Our plan was to get some Euros from the airport ATMs but the only one that I was able to find wasn't working properly. Luckily our first time cruiser didn't realize you could do this and brought US dollars to exchange. We hailed a taxi to our hotel which I found on Tripadvisor. We were only staying one night and didn't want to spend a lot of money. The Hotel Condal was a basic, but clean hotel in a great location. We were less than 100 yards off Las Rambles near the Boquiera Market down a small side street. Our location was wonderful; close to a lot of great restaurants, bars and the excitement of Las Rambles.

Since we were so early, our rooms were not ready so we dropped our luggage off and headed out down Las Rambles to do a little sightseeing. We picked up the HOHO bus and enjoyed a tour of Barcelona. What a wonderful city. At this point, we were getting hungry so we found a little restaurant right around the corner from our hotel. Our waitress was very friendly and enjoyed the fact that we were Americans and she could practice her English on us. At the end of the meal to show her gratitude, she brought over 4 shot glasses for us. We asked what it was and she said Crème Catalan. It was like Bailey's only so much better. We thanked her and headed back to our hotel. I was starting to get a little worried at this point about the hotel that I picked out. My fears were for nothing. We had 2 rooms which each had 2 twin beds, a desk with chair and a large (by European standards) bathroom. The rooms were basic but clean and our windows opened into an alley so there was virtually no noise. I was extremely pleased with the hotel and for less than 100 Euros for each room, you couldn't beat the price. After settling in, 3 of us ventured out again for more sightseeing. After wandering around for a few hours, we found a nice little Irish pub and had a glass of wine outside. At this point, it was time to eat again and we found a wonderful tapas restaurant right on Las Rambles (La Xerinola). We sat at the bar and had the all you can eat tapas dinner for 14.95 Euros per person. The food was delicious and there was so much of it. I love the fact that you get a little taste of everything and not too much of any one dish. Back to the hotel after dinner. I knew we'd all sleep well - by this time we had been up for much longer than 24 hours. Read more