First Day of Cruise #1 – Embarkation in Barcelona

Awoke to thunder and lightning at 5am this morning and there was some rain until about 9am when the Spanish sun appeared!

We spent a quiet morning re-packing our suitcases and lingering over coffee.  About 11:30 we caught a couple of cabs and made our way to the pier where we found our timing to be impeccable!  Just as we arrived at the top of the escalator we were directed to the check-in counter where there was no line and we grabbed Michele and Tom (she was my sister!) and got them priority boarding as well.  Check in was a breeze and we walked right on to the ship just as they opened the gangways for priority boarders!  Hello!  That would be US!!!  Slam, bam and we were in our staterooms!  Thirty minutes from the hotel to the cabin which has to be a new record!

The ship is huge and gorgeous!  It is Princess’ newest ship and was just christened in May of this year.  She even has the “new car smell”!  There are over 3000 passengers but it feels the same as the smaller ships.  Lots of small spaces to relax and never once today did it feel crowded even when everyone was exploring the ship at the same time.  The rooms have some changes that are very nice and you can tell that a lot of thought and research went into the design.  This ship has a “seawalk” on the 16^th floor that has a see-through floor so you are “floating” over the side of the ship!  Tremendous!

We all got settled pretty quickly and before long it was time for the muster drill and one of the best changes is that you don’t have to drag your lifejacket along anymore!  Yay!  Makes the drill much shorter and you don’t have all the dum-dum’s trying on their jackets before they’re told to!  Genius!

We had a nice dinner in the Crown Grill and, naturally, we all ate too much!  The Commodore and I made small donations in the casino and we called it a day!  Tomorrow we are in Toulon and have an early call for our tour to Aix en Provence and Cassis.  Looking forward to seeing the beautiful country there.

I had a great surprise at lunch when I ran into a couple we sailed with 12 years ago on the old Royal Princess!!  We’ve kept up on Facebook and just found out two days ago that we were going to be on the same cruise!  Looking forward to some catching up!

It’s getting late….10:35 and the Commodore just fell asleep!  I am on my way!

XOXOXO

M