The Air Canada 767-300 flight left Toronto on time just
after 7 p.m. (or 1 a.m. in Spain) to arrive in Barcelona, Spain, just over seven
hours later, about 8:30 a.m. The plane passed through six time zones crossing
the Atlantic Ocean.
There were not any back of the seat television screens on
the plane. The plane’s entertainment system was accessible from a downloadable
app that needed to be downloaded before you boarded your flight, which did not
include a map of where on the flight path the plane was located in real time. We were fortune to have booked seats that had
an extra 12 cm of legroom. You were able
to cross your legs or stretch your legs straight under the seat in front of you
without hitting the back of the seat in front of you.
For dinner on the plane, there was a chicken and
vegetable hot entrée accompanied by a corn, carrot and cabbage slaw, a roll, followed
with a brownie for dessert and a choice of an alcoholic beverage, juice,
coffee, tea or water about an hour after takeoff. As the dinner trays were
cleared, the captain announced that seat belts should remain in place because
there would be turbulence soon. Then an
hour later, the cabin lights were dimmed for people attempting to sleep. The turbulence lasted over two hours, feeling
like bumping along in an old car at 50 km per hour on a gravel road. Noise cancelling
ear buds and a sleeping mask did not coax sleep. Looking out of the window, despite
the reflection, some stars could be seen. About 90 minutes before landing, a slice
of banana bread was served with either coffee, tea or juice. As the plane
crossed the coast of Spain, the sun began to rise and below, the lights from
houses were visible, before layers of cloud obscured the view of the ground.
We arrived safely in Barcelona, over 300 people were on
the plane. Clearing Immigration was smooth and collecting the luggage for the
whole group of 16 people went well. The
temperature was 18 C. We were out of the
airport terminal by 10 a.m. and on to a bus which took us within 20 minutes to
the cruise terminal where six cruise ships were docked. We passed the 1929 “old”
Olympic stadium as well as the 1992 Olympic stadium. The group was checked in
and had to wait for the opening of the gate to board the ship at 11.
Guests were greeted with champagne or mimosas as we boarded
the ship on deck 4. Since the staterooms
would not be ready until after 1, we walked around some of the upper decks
seeing the two pools and six not tubs on deck 12 and the grass lawn and Corning
Hot Glass studio on deck 15, then we stopped on deck 5 for frapés. The casino and Decks 4 and 5 shops were
closed since we are in port. A Buffet lunch was served on deck 14’s Oceanview Café.
We sat a table with Ursula and Reiner who are part of our group. When the stateroom was available we went for
a short nap and then unpacked our luggage when it arrived, before going up to
decks 14 and 15 to walk in the warm air and take in the views of Barcelona from
the harbor. Not far from where the ship
is docked, there is an aerial tram travelling from the Barcelona habour, Port
Vell, to the suburbs of Miramar and Barceloneta. It is visible from the decks of the
Equinox. The lifeboat drill will be held
tomorrow just before the ship leaves in the late afternoon for Palma de
Mallorca.
There are 4 specialty restaurants serving either sushi,
steak, French or Italian cuisine at an additional cost, as well as over 14 bars
scattered around the ship. There are
2,859 guests and over 1200 crew on the ship.
As we walked to the deck 3 dining room, we passed through
the Grand Foyer where the band, Medley Jazz was playing. We
joined Pat and Frank from our group for the 6 p.m. dinner seating. We ordered appetizers of Red Beet and Feta Cheese
cubes, then Wild Mushroom soup, with entrées of Pork Chop with mashed sweet
potato topped with a marshmallow glaze or Roast Beef with Yorkshire
Pudding. Dessert was Dulce de Leche Crèma
Catalona or Chocolate Cherry Trifle.
After dinner we returned to decks 12, 14 and 15 to reach
our daily walking goal of 5.1 miles. At 10 p.m. the temperature was 17 C.
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