October 2, 2016

Today was the final Sea Day returning to Barcelona, Spain, and the end of the cruise.

We set no alarms, but were up shortly after 8. The temperature was already 20 C with a little wind and a very thin cloud.  We stopped for cappuccinos on the way to the Deck 14 walking track, after the two mile point we went to the Oceanview Café for breakfast with 700 or 800 other hungry people.

When we returned to the stateroom, there was an invitation to a meeting for continuing passengers staying on board for the next cruise, for today at 11 a.m.  We changed and by 10 headed off to stop to visit with Christine and Jarrod at the Deck 3 Hospitality Desk.  We mentioned that we had just received notice about an 11 a.m. meeting, they noted the information to advise Pat and Frank, since they had changed staterooms.  We paused at the Deck 5 Destination Concierge office to order the shore excursions at a 10% discount for cruises booked on board.  However, there was a Northern Irish couple waiting and another couple in discussion with the Destination Concierge.  We had a nice chat with the Irish couple before leaving to attend the continuing passengers meeting. Pat and Frank were there, thanks to Christine telling them about the meeting. The meeting gave us details about tomorrow’s procedures for getting on and off the ship, when this cruise’s passengers leave and the next cruise’s passengers arrive. Vedrana’s presentation mentioned that taxis will be hard to find due to 36,000 international pharmaceutical representatives being in the city. We stopped for frappes, then back to the stateroom to complete yesterday’s blog.

We ate lunch in the dining room with two Americans couples who have travelled extensively.  They each had entertaining stories from their travels.  As always, watch for pickpockets wherever you travel.  After lunch, we browsed the ship’s shop to buy something with our remaining credits and found a men’s golf shirt.  We walked along Deck 5 in the shade of the lifeboats enjoying the 27 C temperature. During the day, there were lots of activities happening on the ship while most of the passengers were making last minute purchases at the sales on board or packing their belongings to have the luggage ready, outside their staterooms, to be picked up before 10 p.m. tonight.  Then taken to the ship’s holds to be unloaded at Barcelona and claimed in the luggage claim area after leaving the ship, before leaving for hotels or the airport.

At 3:30 p.m., the ship was parallel with Valencia on shore and a bit southwest of Palma de Mallorca.

Dinner tonight started with chilled seafood salad or a Cobb salad, then entrées of either Chicken breast stuffed with banana and rice or Beef Prime Rib with Yorkshire Pudding and mashed potatoes.  The two desserts that we shared were a chocolate wafer torte or sticky toffee pudding.

Tonight’s entertainers were the MacDonald brothers from Scotland playing guitar, violin, accordion and some Celtic flutes.  They were crowd pleasers.  There was a “surprise” small Flash Mob that appeared on stage after the brother show.  The Flash Mob rehearsals were posted in the daily newsletter every day.  After the show we went to the Café al Bacio for cappuccinos.

Today we logged 5.62 miles.

Tomorrow we will get off the ship to explore Las Ramblos in Barcelona and return to the ship on the first day of the next cruise.  A new blog will be posted for that cruise. We will be joining the other group of 10 for the Italy, Greece, Turkey and Malta cruise.