Barcelona and the Disney Magic

Finally it was time to leave Barcelona and begin our Med Cruise, but not before a little more sightseeing. We had decided to book a half-day city tour that would take us to some of Antoni Gaudi's most famous works and then drop us off at the dock for our cruise. We had to walk up to near the Hard Rock with our luggage to meet the tour, so we ate a quick breakfast, checked out of the Hotel Barcelona Catedral and walked our luggage up Los Ramblas. We arrived early and had to wait around awhile, but our van arrived on time and we and our luggage were on our way around Barcelona.

Casa Batilo

We drove by Casa Batilo, which was disappointing because we had expected to be able to stop and see this sight rather than having it pointed out to us out a window. This Modernisme home is decorated with colorful mosaics made of broken ceramic tiles, which would have been nice to see up close.

La Pedrera

We did get to stop at La Pedrera, with its undulating stone facade and twisting wrought iron balconies, although we were unable to go inside. The story of how the person who had commissioned this home was disappointed in Gaudi because he wanted a home like Casa Batilo was interesting, especially considering how famous this house is now.

Park Guell

Our next stop was Park Guell, another Gaudi creation. The Park was originally designed as housing community, but was too far from the city center to be effective and has since been turned into a public park. The center of the park features a large terrace, surrounded by a sea serpent bench. The highest point of the park provided a beautiful view of Barcelona and the sea. There were also a number of parrots hanging out in the trees. We spent way too much time here for our tastes. We didn't really need a guided tour as there was really not a lot for the guide to describe.

La Sagrada Familia

The next part of our tour was one of the highlights and also one of the disappointments. We stopped outside Gaudi's gorgeous La Sagrada Familia, which Gaudi began building in 1883. Unfinished at his death in 1926, construction has started and stopped throughout the years to try to complete Gaudi's vision, which they now expect to complete in the next few years. Unfortunately, the tour company never explained, either on their website or in their confirmation, that we would only get to see this masterpiece from the outside. We had decided not to visit it on our own when we booked the tour, since it was listed as one of the sights on the tour. So we never got a chance to see inside. We would not recommend the "Barcelona Day Tour" from Barcelona City Tours for that reason. We understand time is limited and the cost of going inside is high, but there was no explanation or communication that their tour was primarily a driving tour of the city.

Montjuic Again

The rest of our tour was spent in the van driving around Barcelona, although we did get to stop briefly to take a picture of the Magic Fountain at Montjuic, which was not running the day before when we had visited. We would have been disappointed if we had not gone to Montjuic the day before as we only stopped for a brief moment here and did not get to see much of the area on this tour.

Disney Magic

Our tour dropped us off at the cruise terminal, where we dropped off our luggage and walked inside to check in for our cruise. As we were checking in, Disney called for all guests to board, which meant very little waiting for us inside the terminal. The lines onto the ship were, however, much longer than we usually experienced, but we were on board the Disney Magic, and that was all that mattered. We walked up to Cabanas for lunch, because we were really hungry and then Rebecca changed for the pool while J. R. enjoyed a 'Refashioned' at the pool bar and Janie had a Rekorderlig cider, one her favorites. The Refashioned features a muddled orange slice, cherries, whiskey-smoked sugar and bitters with Port 365, bourbon whiskey and ice and is garnished with an orange-honey rock candy skewer. The bartender said it was a complicated drink to make, but very popular. After drinks, the adults went down to our room, where our luggage was already arriving. After quickly unpacking, we went up to the theatre for the muster drill and then up on deck for the sail-away party, where Rebecca scored an Avengers cup with her non-alcoholic drink-of-the-day.

Rapunzel's Royal Table

Janie and J. R. decided to skip the Twice Charmed show, as we had seen it several times, and opted instead to have a drink in O'Gills. Rebecca went to the show, however, and enjoyed it. Soon it was time for dinner in the new Rapunzel's Royal Table. Rapunzel is Rebecca's favorite princess and Tangled is her favorite Disney movie, so she was over the moon at this reimagined restaurant. We had been very disappointed in DCL's last attempt at updating Parrot Cay, the supposedly Brazilian themed Carioca's, which was just a paint job and a Rio backdrop. But they did a much better job with this new themed dining site. We met our tablemates, Steve and Christina. Their 16-year-old daughter Catalina was sitting with a friend she had made that afternoon in the teen club, whose parents were at Palo. Christina talked Rebecca into sitting with the two of them, so the adults had a nice meal together, except for Rebecca reappearing once or twice to steal bread from our table since we had two baskets and they only got one. Christina gave Becca the whole basket at her second stop-by. We all thought the restaurant was overly loud, which made it hard to talk. It was 'Thug Night' to celebrate Rapunzel's birthday so a lot of loud music, clapping and stomping was going on.

Whiskey Tasting

Dinner took a long time and our waiter was disorganized, bringing wrong meals to the wrong people. Drink service was also pretty slow, and that never really improved, although our waiters were very friendly. We ended up leaving without dessert because we had a tasting scheduled at 10:30, which meant no Red Velvet Cupcake for Janie. Tonight was whiskey tasting, where Fletcher in the Cove Cafe took us through a variety of scotches and whiskeys. We started out with a Glenmorangie followed by a Johnnie Walker Island Green, which is a peatier whiskey like an Islay. J. R. would have preferred they just served an actual Islay than this blend, although it was okay. After that, it was a switch to American bourbons, which Janie liked better.

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