Barcelona and a mini Med cruise

For Carls Birthday I wanted to take us away somewhere new and had a couple places in mind but then I found a deal on a 4 night Disney cruise after after a lot of deliberation I decided to book and settled on Barcelona.

I had this grand plan to keep the cruise a secret and just tell him we were going to Barcelona. But as the trip drew nearer and things like check in opened up I thought I better tell him in case there was something he wanted to do which I needed to book.

We were at a wedding on Saturday 7th July after which we drove to Cardiff from which we flew the following day.

I had arranged a personal transfer to our hotel - Novotel city. check in was a breeze and we headed up to our room to freshen up and watch Andy Murray win wimbledon

Then we headed out for a stroll

It was SO HOT!!! we found ourselves buying oranges to snack on and quench our thirst as we were walking. We made our way down to the seafront where we stopped in a restaurant for dinner

We headed back to the hotel to chill in the pool, read our books and enjoy a cocktail

Monday 8th July we had booked to do the Hop on Hop off bus tour which started across from our hotel

We saw all the major sights, photos below

We basically spent the whole day hoping between the 2 routes. That evening we decided to get a picnic dinner together and head to Montjuic to see the dancing fountains. After a while of waiting we found out they weren't on that night. We were treated to a lovely sunset though

so we called it a night.

Tuesday 9th July we checked out of our hotel and were taken to the cruise port where we boarded the Disney Magic for the second time

Lunch with a view

To keep costs down I had gone with an inside room this time - my reasoning is I'd rather be on a Disney cruise in the "cheap" rooms then not on one at all. Although all rooms are decent and none are cheap!

Carl went for a swim before we went to the sail away party

We found some guys with noone else around them so went for a photo

Then headed for dinner where we found we had a table to ourselves and our server was our assistant server on our previous cruise!

(It feels strange looking at these photos now of a very hot few days knowing I have just bought a woolly hat and long sleeve T-shirt for our summer holiday this year!! (spoiler))

Wed 10th July. Our first full cruise day started with breakfast in the beautiful port of Villefranche

We were booked on the Monaco, Monte Carlo and Eze tour. We were taken ashore on a tender boat with our tour group where we boarded a coach to travel to Monaco

We walked led with our tour guide and saw the sights including the main church and palace for which we had tickets but I believe the royal family were in so most of it was closed to the public and photos were forbidden.

we then had some free time so we chose to meander through the streets and pick up something for lunch which we ate by the sea

then it was back on the coach to travel the short distance to Monte Carlo. My dad is a huge Formula 1 fan so it was quite exciting to see the track. Our guide walked us to the casino and then we had some free time. We’re not big gamblers so we bought some ice cream and slowly walked back in the direction of the coach before taking in the Japanese gardens.

With that we headed back into France and our final stop which was the pretty medieval cliff top village of eze.

This tour was was an all day tour which was ok. We were both glad we visited these places but both agreed we didn’t need to go back to them. We did not think much of the tour guide who gave very basic info and we had a lot of free time. We probably would have been better off doing a little online research and hiring a car and doing a self guided tour.

We had first seating for dinner and we got back to the ship with about 5 minutes before it started. We rushed to our room had very quick washes and changed (because of this rush we vowed to never do first seating again) for what you should know as my favourite night if you read the 2012 Cruise trip report.

I still dream of that beef meal.

Then it was was time to call it a night!!

Thu 11th July was a day at sea. Unfortunately this was the worst weather of our trip - cloudy and a little cold. We had booked the Exotic Rasul in the spa which is 2 hours in a private sauna area which had a shower, warm tiled seats, a sauna and all kinds of lotions and potions. Feeling relaxed we didn't seem to take any photos today other than this one from formal night.

Friday 12th July of the cruise saw us in Palma where we booked the Palma City tour which took us to Bellver castle

We then went on a walking tour of the city

ending in the Cathedral of Santa Maria of Palma—known to locals as La Seu, for an outside visit. Built on the site of a pre-existing mosque, the cathedral is an enormous achievement—though the bell tower remains unfinished to this day

Then we stopped at a local cafe to try a local pastry - ensaimada - with ice cream

Before heading back to the ship

We thought this tour was much better that the previous one. Back onboard we enjoyed the pool, played suffleboard and I took some photos

I won (This is my game ;-) against Carl at least)

This is also where we decided to use the European data to catch up on emails etc. We had bought a house the previous September but the elderly lady who sold it to us was taking a long time to move out and we had to keep extending our mortgage offer. Lucky I did check my emails as we had one from our solicitor saying she had pushed back again! We were able to contact the bank and solicitor when back in Barcelona and couldn't pushed it back so advised he she had to move or we had to pull out. That seemed to be the push she needed as we picked up the keys within 6days!

I digress... That night after dinner we made the most of having the pool to ourselves and watched Alice in wonderland on funnel vision

The only issue with this cruise... It was nowhere near long enough! We'll have to remedy that for the next one.

After 4 nights on the beautiful Disney Magic we disembarked on Saturday 13th July. We had opted to stay in Barcelona for one more night.

We spent the rest of the day just wandering around enjoying the sights and atmosphere and went to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner

That's the end of this trip and the end of international holidays for a while. Having moved into our new house a few days after our return from this trip we spent the rest of 2013 and all of 2014 on renovations. We'll see you again in 2015 - a year for making up for our hiatus ;-)