Brilliance of the Seas; Nov. 13 - 25, 2008 (Potty Squatties LOL)
First a little background on this Cruise.
We originally booked this cruise back in June 2008, and selected an E1 cabin, for $2,159 pp for the cruise fare and cruise airfare for $750 pp. My friend Theresa and I were going on this cruise since neither of our DH's want to go to Europe. After booking, I mentioned in an email to jasp (Robin) that I was going on this cruise and she and her DH decided to go also with us. This would be their first cruise and first time to Europe.
After discussing the cruise airfare with Lars and Hanna (this would have been my first time using it) and getting more nervous about being routed through Frankfurt to Barcelona from Philadelphia, and the fact that the cruise fare had went down, but we didn't qualify for the discount with cruise airfare, we decided to book our own airfare with US Airways from PHL to BCN via MAD.
Now that we had our own airfare booked, we would qualify for any discounts on the cruise fare that may happen, which there was now a rate on our cabin of $1,939 pp. We called RCI and got the discounted rate. We also decided, since booking our own airfare, to go to Barcelona 1 day pre-cruise and 1 day post-cruise in case anything unforeseen happened.
In August, our cruise fare again reduced. It was now $1,639 pp. We called and got the discount.
I returned from my cruise to Bermuda on Sept 11th to a phone call from Robin, there was another discount on the cruise fare. There were now Guarantee categories available. Balcony Gtys were $1,099 pp and Suite Gtys were $1,699 pp. On my Bermuda cruise we were all the way forward so I did not want to do a Balcony Gty, but I looked at the deck plans and decided that since no Suites were all the way forward on the ship, it would be worth the gamble for an additional $60 pp. We thought we would be assigned Junior Suites and I was in disbelief and quite shocked that we were assigned GRAND Suites I was afraid to ask any questions or bring the fact to the attention of any reservation agent at RCI for fear they'd move us to Junior Suites
During this time, US Airways had cancelled their flight from Barcelona to Madrid on the return. Of course they left the rest of my reservation there, I guess I was supposed to sprout wings to get to Madrid to catch the flight I called and had a reservation agent put us on a Spanair flight since they are an Alliance Partner of US Airways.
About 3 weeks later, they called me to tell me they had to cancel my entire reservation because the Spanair flight would not be operated by US Airways. We had a "Plan B" in the wings of driving to Newark from Philadelphia to get a Continental non-stop EWR/BCN, so we booked that. Our airfare with US Airways was $798.21; and we were refunded the entire amount and the Continental flight was $626.60. So we received $170+ pp back.
The final price drop happened the end of October. Robin called me at work and told me I needed to call RCI immediately. The price for Suite Gtys had dropped to $999 pp! I thought for sure we'd go back into the Gty Pool; but when we called we told them we were already in the Pool and assigned and were also linked; so they just did the price adjustment and left us in those Grand Suites We had the credit on our credit cards within 4 days
I'm still in shock that we were in Grand Suites for $999 pp! That amount does not include the taxes or tips, but talk about an unbelievable price for a 12 night cruise!
We left Philadelphia around 2:20 pm on November 11th for our drive to Newark. The last time I flew from Newark was 10 years ago and I was dropped off at the airport so I wasn't completely familiar with the area. I had made a reservation with SkyPark, an off-site self parking facility. They were located on 1 & 9 South. 1 & 9 is a divided highway and I was coming from the South so when I got off the NJ Turnpike, I was on 1 & 9 North. This was the most confusing thing I've ever encountered. There was no easy way to get over to the South side. Their directions said you could get to it from either Exit 13A or 14, but really they should probably have you get off at Exit 14 so you'd be heading South and then be on the correct side to access the parking lot.
I wouldn't really choose to fly from Newark again, even though now I'd know the way to get to the parking lot The area is just too confusing and congested. When we leave from Philadelphia, we get dropped off and it's only a 20 minute ride to the airport vs. the 1-1/2 to 2 hour ride to Newark.
We had a 7:10 pm flight that arrived in Barcelona at 9am the next day. The flight was with Continental on a 757-200. Kind of a smaller plane crossing the Atlantic, but each seat had it's own TV which was on the seat back of the person in front of you. I watched a couple movies and fell asleep during Mama Mia, I guess it didn't keep my interest
The flight was really uneventful. I had booked an aisle and window for my friend and I and we got lucky that noone was in the center seat so we had some room to move around a little. We were given dinner about an hour into the flight and breakfast about 1-1/2 hours before landing in Barcelona.
We arrived at the airport and went through Immigration. On the plane they had given us forms to fill out and we gave them to the Immigration Officer. He detached the bottom part that said to return to them when departing Barcelona.
We got our luggage and went through the Customs Line that said "Nothing to Declare" and found our way to the Taxi Stand in the RAIN! Oh no, it was raining and we'd planned to walk around Barcelona, we'll need the raincoats and umbrellas! Since there were 4 of us with luggage, we wanted to get the Mini-Van, which was the 3rd in the Taxi Line. I went to the Person telling you which taxi to go to and they kept telling us "DOS taxi's" while I kept repeating "UNO taxi!" They finally let us go to the Mini-Van
I cannot stress this enough! If you are going to Barcelona, learn enough Spanish for the Taxi Drivers! They do NOT speak English at all, or at least not to people arriving at the airport! I was prepared with my limited Spanish (4 years of it 20+ years ago helps a tiny bit! ) and a print out of the Hotel's information IN Spanish just in case and I needed to use it! I recommend for everyone who is not fluent in Spanish or Catalan to bring that printout...it was a lifesaver!
Since there were the 4 of us, the driver pulled out a rate sheet in English that said from Airport to City Center was €55. Who was I to argue with a Taxi Driver and his rate sheet after we were piled into the Taxi?
Be prepared also for Taxi Drivers to ride over the highway lines; in addition to motorcycles and scooters creating a lane which is the line! I'm amazed that our various taxis did not hit any of them!
Lars had recommended Hotel Curious in Barcelona. It was about 2 blocks off Las Ramblas, on Carrer Carme. The Hotel is a 1 Star hotel and included a continental breakfast, the rate for a double or twin room was €80. I reserved both rooms for the 4 of us for the pre and post cruise through BookAssist on the Hotel's website. There was a €7.20 charge per reservation that was deducted from the room charge when you checked in. Rooms are usually ready around 1 pm or 2 pm and we were at the hotel 9:45 am so we knew our rooms would not be ready, but they do store your luggage. We went to drop off our luggage and they had a bathroom where you could freshen up. The toilet was separate from a sink so it worked out well for 2 people to use the area at the same time.
We set off to explore Barcelona some of us armed with raincoats and others with umbrellas. We walked from the Hotel up to Las Ramblas and to the Gothic Area. We walked down to Santa Maria del Mar and went into the Church. Very pretty and it was nice to get out of the rain
After Santa Maria del Mar we went in search of Catedral de Barcelona. We almost missed it as the entrance is very small and does not really look like a Cathedral. Inside it was very pretty. There were religious statues on the outside of the walkway and an area that looked like a courtyard within the center.
Here are 2 pictures of Santa Maria del Mar; 1 is the outside and 1 the inside and 2 pictures from inside the Cathedral.
After the Cathedral we made our way to Playa Catalunya. We wanted to go to lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe in Barcelona. We found the Hard Rock and sat down to eat some burgers and fries. Nothing like travelling to Europe and having American food!
We got done eating and made our way to the Hard Rock Store for the mandatory T-Shirt purchases
By that time it was around 1:30 pm so we headed back to the hotel to check into our rooms, get our luggage out of storage and re-freshen up to head out again.
Here are some pictures of our Hotel Room. We had a Twin Room on the 2nd floor with a small terrace/balcony type thing Well, I forgot to take the pictures since we were rushing around on Day 1, so these are from Day 2, before we checked out At least I remembered before we left for the ship!
Luggage is in the Room, bathroom breaks finished, so we head out again
We headed to the nearest Metro Station (Liceu), along the way we saw a Dunkin Coffee so knew that would be hit on the way back! We decided since it was already the afternoon that the Single Day Ticket (€5.50) wouldn't be worth the money; so we bought T-10 tickets (€7.20) good for 10 1hr 15 minute trips on all the Public Transport and if we didn't use all the trips, we could use them when we returned to Barcelona after the cruise.
We got on the Metro...heading the wrong way Different entrances head only one direction at the Liceu Metro Stations. Well shoot, what now? Ok, not a problem, I have my Metro map with me and I didn't want to waste the trip to switch to the other direction so we went the long way to La Sagrada Familia.
Here are some pictures of La Sagrada Familia. We decided not to go inside. I think we were getting tired from the long day since sleeping on the plane is similar to short cat naps and not a good night's sleep and we'd pretty much been up since the day before and we also wanted to see La Pedrera.
We looked for the closest Metro Station from La Pedrera to head back to the Hotel and found 2 entrances closed Then there were 2 others that were open...thank goodness because by that time we were getting very tired!
We hopped on the Metro and made our way back to the hotel, stopping for coffee and tea at Dunkin Coffee, then a quick drop off of coats and other items to our rooms before meeting Lars & A and Linda & Art in the Hotel Lobby.
We were sitting in the Lobby when Lars & A came back from a quick shopping trip. We knew what they looked like from their Trip Report of their Voyager cruise! They were on their honeymoon and were married
While we were chatting Linda and Art came in from dinner. We had a nice get together and it was so great to meet the people we'd been chatting and planning with here on CLF!
Everyone was so nice and we knew we'd have a wonderful cruise with these great people
We didn't want a full dinner, but we were getting hungry so we headed out to Las Ramblas to find something to eat. It was 10:30 and I was wondering if anything would be open, our hopes raised when we saw a Trash truck picking up trash I guess they work nights since they take siestas? We found a place called Bocatta. I think it's Spain's version of our fast food I got a pork & cheese sandwich on a toasted roll that was very good! We may have thought it was better than it was though since it was so late. We ate and then headed back to the Hotel to get some sleep so we wouldn't look horrible for our embarkation pictures kidding!!! We were very tired and I was so glad we were able to stay up as late as we did. We didn't really get jetlag since we had such a long day. I found I had no trouble adjusting to the time change
We decided not to do any sightseeing this day and just get onboard the Ship and check that out instead
We checked out of the hotel around noon and asked the Hotel to call for a Mini-Van Taxi for us to go to the Port. Once again, the driver didn't really speak English, but it was easy to say Port, Royal Caribbean. That sounds the same in Spanish! We made our way to the bridge which heads to the cruise port and there was a Spanish Police Officer telling us we needed to wait. There was an oversized tractor trailer coming from the other direction so they were holding up traffic going our direction.
I didn't mind the wait, the Spanish Police Officer looked nothing like our Police Officers! He had shoulder length brown hair and could have been a Chippendale's dancer!
The only downside to the wait was that our taxi meter was running while we waited. The Taxi was €30.00 with tip for the 4 of us with the luggage surcharge.
We got onboard the Brilliance with a small line, about 7 people were coming off the ship, one in a wheelchair, so we had to wait for them and then we were getting our picture taken for our SeaPass, then to the photographer for the Embarkation Photo and then on the ship into an elevator up to Windjammer. We found a table and 2 stayed with the luggage while 2 went to the Buffet.
By the time we were done eating, the rooms were ready! We had to go check out these Grand Suites We were in Cabin #1030; Robin was in #1032 and Lars & A were in #1034. So all three of us were right together. We're wondering if they were trying to keep the trouble all in one place?
There were already 2 suitcases in the Cabin and we were checking out every nook and cranny of "home" for the next 12 nights We heard this funny sound as we were checking out everything and low and behold, we had a doorbell Our other 2 suitcases had arrived. We had our luggage by 2:30 pm.
We had a bar area where there was a Fruit Basket and a large bottle of Evian Water.
Once again, I forgot to take pictures on the first day It was one of those busy first days...and others, apparently, because I finally took them 5 days into the cruise
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Brilliance of the Seas; Nov. 13 - 25, 2008 (Potty Squatties LOL)
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I was afraid to ask any questions or bring the fact to the attention of any reservation agent at RCI for fear they'd move us to Junior Suites 
I called and had a reservation agent put us on a Spanair flight since they are an Alliance Partner of US Airways.
We had the credit on our credit cards within 4 days 
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Oh no, it was raining and we'd planned to walk around Barcelona, we'll need the raincoats and umbrellas! 
I'm amazed that our various taxis did not hit any of them! 
We had to go check out these Grand Suites 
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