Carnival Magic 2011 Med Cruise Review - Part 1 - Philadelphia to Barcelona

Here are all the little details that made up this wonderful second trip to Europe.

There is a prelude to this cruise. Over seventy people on cruisecritic got to know each other well over the past year and a half. A number of them set up private tours for Rome, Florence, Taormina, Aix-en-Provence, and other places. Some arranged group dinners on and off the ship. And some performed "random acts of kindness" for members of the group.

Half of us stayed in the same hotel and a number of us arranged “do it yourself” tours at several ports. I even got to meet Debbie, Snowball on cruisecritic, at Dave ‘n Buster’s about a month before the cruise. All of the time spent online at cruisecritic ahead of time helped to make this a great cruise.

After dropping off the car at Central Airpark, we went to PHL to get on flight 742 to Barcelona. Debbie and her husband, RJ, were already at the gate. We left at 6:25 PM our time and got to BCN at 8:45 AM, Barcelona time.

October 6, 2011 - Barcelona
We spotted RJ and Debbie in the line for customs clearance and, together, we went off to retrieve the luggage. I think our bags were the last ones on the carousel. As soon as we had them, the four of us jumped into a taxi and took the half hour trip to the Hotel Continental on La Rambla. The taxi to Hotel Continental cost 32.5 Euro.

The hotel was on the 2nd and 3rd floors of a very old five-story building. As soon as we got there, CC's, Kelly and Kelley, from Florida, came over to us and we talked for a short while.

The room rate included coffee, wine, beer, soda, juice and food and, since we needed to wait an hour until the room was ready, we left our luggage in a secured area, filled two small plates with eggs and potatoes and ate while we waited on a patio at the rear of the building. The food and cappuccinos were delicious and we were joined by CC's, Gary and Sandi, on the patio.

The man who helped us with our luggage came about 45 minutes later to tell us that our room was ready. He showed us to our room. To get to our room we went past the lobby to the elevator, up one floor, to the right, through a second automatic door, around a wall, up a hall, and turned right. Our room was on the left. Everything in it was pink – very pink. It was well equipped, clean, and the bed was comfortable.

We left the hotel and strolled down La Rambla to La Boqueria. We checked out the candy, produce, seafood, ham, and cheese stalls and wound up buying some candy and nuts.

After we left the market, we went into a sheet music shop and a church. We finished our afternoon sitting on a bench on La Rambla and people-watched. When we couldn’t get our eyes open any longer, we went back to our room and took a nap.

CC, Joyce, had made reservations at Taller de Tapas, a restaurant that she had visited in January, but thinking that we’d be too tired, we opted not to go. Instead, after our nap we went back to the hotel buffet and filled our plates with chicken and potatoes. We met CC, Libby, at the food station. She told us to join her and the others on the patio. Outside, we met her husband, Jack, and CC, Beverly, and her husband, Bill. It turned out that they are all political liberals. Frank was in heaven. Besides politics, we heard about Jack’s campaign to spread the word about the healing powers of Siaracha, a Chinese hot sauce that takes away aches and pains, and our personal experiences for a long time. During that time, we also met CC, Annette, and her friend, Joy. We all retired when we were thoroughly exhausted but completely satisfied.

October 7, 2011 - Embarkation

The next morning, we awoke, dressed, and, after getting lost in the maze on the second floor of the Hotel Continental, we found our way to the lobby where we paid for the room, had, you guessed it, some more delicious potatoes, and left to meet up with CC, Theresa, and her husband, Mark, who had ordered the bus that was to take us to the ship. Although the hotel elevator got us from the second floor to the lobby, it wouldn’t take us to the street level. Frank had to carry his 40 lb. bag down two flights. At my suitcase.

After paying Mark for our bus rides, we pushed our bags around the corner to the Hard Rock Café and waited for the big, silver bus across from Placa Catalunya.
Loading and unloading was smooth. However, I was surprised that no porters rushed over to get our unloaded bags. We pushed them to the conveyor belt outside the Carnival terminal building where men put them on the belt and then we headed inside the clean, modern building where we had our hand luggage scanned and took an elevator to the VIP Check in on the second floor.


On to the ship!