July 1: Barcelona
What does it say about you as a traveler if there are more suitcases than humans in your party? Apparently for us it says, “you must need TWO vehicles to take you to the port”. The transfer from luggage toting family touring on busses, trains and by foot to “just leave all your luggage here and we will take care of it for you” was… quite easy! We boarded the Royal Caribbean Brilliance of the Seas about noon and headed right for a nice air conditioned restaurant with walls of windows. The children discovered the soft-serve ice cream machine and began what was to be a record breaking consumption quest. (More on that later.)
Wow! The food. Not only the HUMONGOUS quantities of it but the presentation of things I had never seen and would also never eat (“Mushy Peas” was an actual offering… no thank you!) was staggering. British food connoisseur? Gotcha. Gluten-Free? Got it. Vegetarian? No problem. Only eat sugar and dessert items for every meal? No worries. There is an entire barge of sugar to choose from here!
Once we checked into our cabin we headed up to the lifeboat drill. Now I have been on several cruises with “Advenutures with Nana” and every single time we had to line up outside the ship in tight little formations facing our life boats…. NOT this time! Somehow Nana (I KNOW IT MUST HAVE BEEN HER) managed to wrangle us into a lifeboat area where we were not only inside the air conditioned ship but in the BAR LOUNGE! No lie! Our “emergency seats” are ten feet from the beer taps and cocktails! I think I may have several emergencies a day!
Shortly after our “very stressful” lifeboat drill, the boys and I found two self-leveling pool tables in a virtually empty club at the rear of the ship. While the rest of our cruise companions stood on the top deck sweating and waving goodbye to people they don’t even know, we played pool, drank margaritas, and enjoyed an amazing view of Barcelona fading in the distance from the comfort of several club chairs in the deserted stern area with a full glass wall. THANK YOU NANA!
Dinner for us is now at 9:00 each night and while that is my bedtime in Los Altos, it looks and feels like 5:30 here so it works out fine! We had time to swim, play mini golf, wander the ship, and unpack… all before dinner. You know what else there was time for before dinner? Time enough for the four kids (Riley, Jensen, Jordan, and Logan) to consume TWENTY-TWO ice cream cones in a span of about 5 hours. Logan, my nephew, is currently the reining dairy king with 11 to his name! It really was not a shock that they did not eat much dinner, and even passed on the dessert. Fortunately, we have not seen any “digestive” issues and we will encourage perhaps a small serving of something “fiber rich” to start tomorrow!
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