Sunday

Our first day at sea was a busy one!  Between getting our selves straight I did a lot with the DIS family with regards to tastings.  I had my massage with Boris at 1030, and while I was getting kneaded Glenn took Becca to the Mickey Pool to do the slide!  We made it to a late lunch of Pizza with Becca, had some photos taken, scheduled hair braiding and then it was off to our first of many private tastings – Mojitos.  Benjamin was great!

Captains gala tonight!  Everyone looked great!  Pictures when we get home…

Sunday

Embarkation Day!!

Our bus arrived at the Praktik early, and the poor driver looked at our group and asked me "Dees-ney?"  Of course, the answer was YES!!!  He was a bit shocked I think.  We kept bringing more and more luggage out!  We managed to fill the under bus luggage area, but we didn't need to bring anything into the bus itself.

Unfortunately, the Bus driver didn't follow directions.  Or, fortunately, depending on how you look at it!  The driver only went to our hotel and not the Praktik Barcelona.  So, Stephen (Nacho – who organized the whole thing) was left behind!  They did finally get to the port, and since we were sneaking Hayley and her family in with us she passed her #3 boarding card to him and Becky so that they could board earlier.

After boarding, we left the Littles and headed to the Concierge reception.  We met Lynda (SHE IS AWESOME!!!), got our stuff straight, grabbed a drink and a snack and before we knew it, the rooms were available.

We had the kids watch the doors, and they found ours.  Still oblivious to what was about to happen, we entered the room.  Stephen went first and exclaimed "This is different…This is really different…There are 2 rooms!!!".  He is much better with the surprise this year!

We went to the DIS meet, got most of the shirts handed out, picked up lanyards, met more of our DIS Family and got a few group shots,  and then headed up for sail away party.  First time we made it there.  We grabbed streamers and proceeded to have a great time!  Becca got into the dancing as did the Little girls!  A good time was had by all.  After sail away we headed down to the room to unpack.

I was a bit worried as the hall was not filled with cases, but upon opening the door, we found all of them in the suite.  A nice perk, totally unexpected!  Got unpacked, met Marilo, Lynda popped in and then we set off to see Maricar!  (Who says  HI! To Mark, Lynn, Scott and the rest of the family!!  It is nice to be remembered!)

We finally made it to dinner, and found Depesh to be our server with Hector as assistant server.  Not impressed with Hector straight off, and made mention to Ivo our head server.  We shall see…  Stephen headed to Ocean Quest after dinner, and Becca, Bella and Lucy headed off to the lab. 

All in all a wonderful start to our trip!

Rain, rain go away don't come back until after sail away...

It poured all day, but that’s OK - we still saw a lot.

We did Sagrada Familia and Park Guell, as well as getting to Disney store 2 of 3. Tons of walking, and I was again reminded that a tired 6 year old is a miserable thing!
If you ever get a chance to go to Sagrada Familia - jump on it. I was awe struck. I am not normally a church tourist, but come-on.... This is amazing. We did the audio tour and we learned so much. Cool thing is that Becca for kids audio and the rest of us got standard versions. She stayed with it for quite a while and then that was that. Did I mention that tired 6 year olds that get hungry are more than miserable? The church was, again, amazing! Have pictures - will try and post them tomorrow.

We stopped at a small sandwich shop near the bus stop for a quick bite. OK, we are in Spain - there is no such thing as quick, unless you are in a cab... Anyway, we chose it for because they claimed to have hotdogs. Well, the menu said hotdogs and there was a picture of a hotdog, and our 6 year old will eat hotdogs... Guess what? Yep, tired, miserable, hungry, more than miserable and we told her she could have a hotdog - so I was dubbed the one that never loved her... UUGH!!! Finally got her to eat the standard fare - ham and what appears to be a tomato spread.

After lunch we jumped back on the HOHO bus and headed to Park Guell. HEY - here’s a tip... IF you take the HOHO bus, do NOT take it to Park Guell. Take the standard metro. HOHO = very bottom of a fairly steep hill. Standard Metro line = TOP of hill... Let’s just go with my calves hurt and if KERMIT ROCKS is right, I am not going to wake up pain free in the morning...  Oh, outside of the hill, it is an amazing place.  We didnt'do it justice.  They say it takes hours.  We just didn't have hours...  We just really need to come back!!

This evening was the HRC meet. TONs of our new DIS family there! It was great, but I was running near empty, and there were so many and poor Becca was a bit overwhelmed... We grabbed a table with Hayley, Terry and the girls and let the girls get acquainted. I can't wait to really meet Lynne and Len! I was flitting around so much that I think I kind of blew her off - and that was not at all intended!!!
Post HRC it was the magic Fountain display. Wish I could say it was wonderful, but to be brutally honest, it was cold, windy and wet. A total bust. We got some cool pics of the museum though, but any pics of the fountain show in my scrapbook will be from GOOGLE!!!

Getting up early tomorrow to gventure out and see if we can get breakfast somewhere.  We need to meet the bus griup  here at 830ish to get a group photo.  Then we board the bus around 9 and we are off to the Magic!!!

Cant wait!!!

We have arrived!!!!

Words can not describe how bad clothing worn for 40 hours smells!!!  Especially after one tours for a day in hot, humid weather...  UUGH!!!  I will be doing a load of wash right off...

Obviously by this time you have figured out that we have arrived in Barcelona.  It is an awesome, gorgeous city, with ancient, old and modern feels to it.  Absolutely wonderful.  Saw the Futball Staduim, port, the Diagonal and the platform diving stadium today in addition to the rest of the Barcelona City HOHO Orange line.  OMG - the arcitechture!!!

Was really kind of PO's at the Futball Mega Store....  Nothing says BAD customer service like telling the last person in line tha the line closed and they will have to wait in yet another line to spend money....  We tossed our purchases down and were heading out when I noticed that upstairs there were cashiers BORED!  Sent Stephen racing down the escalator to gather our shirts from the bin of soccer balls (where we tossed them) so Glenn and Stephen have shirts...

Luckily this was overcome by going to the DISNEY Store at stop 14 or so.  I love great customer service, and Disney Barcelona did it!!! 

Overall, the city is great - and we are having a riot!!!  Want to see the scrap book page for day 1 post airport?  Look here...  https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5sI02Bp3EwTM2Q2YjFlYjctNmY0OC00Nzc3LTgxNzctNThkZjg2NjQzODhi&hl=en&authkey=CKfXwMwG

Loose ends...

Well, we are getting down to the loose ends of preparing to leave.  Really, the last of the packing can be done in under an hour, so it is all about the house...  I hate to come home to a messy house...  So...  This morning I cooked the last of the breakfast food that is in the house.  Cleaned out the fridge, and now it looks like I don't buy food.  I cleaned the washer (front loader) so it is done.  I have 3 or so loads of laundry to do before we leave - including sheets and towels, so we are in good shape there.  If I could get the kids to stop making messes I would be ready to go!  unfortunately at 13 and 6 messes are abundant, and their idea of cleaning them up isn't always on par with mine...

We are also making the last entries to the website (www.transatlanticpirates.com) to show everyone in the tastings that I set up.  So, that is that.  now DH needs to step away from baseball and concentrate on getting the last minute to do list knocked out.

If all goes as planned, I am three posts away from leaving for the airport!  I can text and email to the blog, so hopefully I can give frequent updates.  Heard that blogging on the ship may be blocked - but they can't stop my emails from going - so there is a way!  Just not sure how we will do photos...  I hope to test this as well.  I think worst case I will have to upload pictures to my photobucket and then imbed the links into my email...  With internet fees so $$ on the ship I will have to type everything I can into word first.  Somehow we need to work it out as Stephen will be blogging for school as well...

Most Cheerful!!

Well, as luck would have it Becca won Most Cheerful at today's football game!  We didn't win, but we did score, and we didn't fumble so that was great!  Becca now has one of the coveted cheer sticks in her possession!  She gets to keep it for the entire time we are gone, and we were asked to get pictures with her and it everywhere we go!  So, I am trying to find room for her uniform...  Hope to get pictures of her in uniform with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and the rest of the gang!  I am aiming for uniform pics in one afternoon, and then just any old picture with it as we go.  I guess the stick will be a permanent part of the excursion bag!

Took 4 things off the to do list today as well.  Not a bad morning so far!  Still need to do about 15 more, but we are getting there!  Hopefully we knock most of it out the rest of today and tomorrow so that Monday and Tuesday night can be spent cleaning up the house and getting as much homework done as possible.  Wednesday will be packed with last minute details so the more we get done now the better!

Off to do something cruise related...  Just not sure what yet...

Last weekend to prep!

It is getting so close now!!  5 more sleeps until we leave!  2 more work days, 1 football game to cheer for and that is it!!

Ive been reading Erik and Jason's blog and they are knocking my socks off!  I need to get better at this and fast.  They did point out that blogging from sea will be a challenge.  We need to figure that out as well as Stephen needs to do this for school...

lots to do and so little time!

5 DAYS before we had out!

Hi ho everyone!  Thins time next week we will be ensconced in Barcelona!!  I am so excited!!  

Lots to do before then, and as fate would have it DCL made changes that threw me for a loop on Tuesday and I spent too much time on getting my cruise mojo back.  So, we ended up doing an about face and changed our philosophy about where we dine on Pirate night, and moms desire to do formal night in the most formal restaurant won out.

All that aside, the to do list is getting down tot he nitty gritty.  there are roughly 22 things to do for the cruise - including packing lists, pictures and actually packing!  In addition to that there are 6 things to do at the house, 1 more cheer practice and one game.  Then it is just making sure that my mom is good to go, and we can try to knock out the list.

OK - anyone reading that has a good idea for a gift from Georgia?  I am stumped and need something special for my Secret Mickey recipient!!

Later!

T-10 and counting!

So, today is the 7th and we are leaving on the 15th.  So much to do and only 9 (partial and full) days left to get it all done.  We are getting there, but I have to say that this is a lot harder than I thought.  I am worried about the luggage weights and this could be the thing that blows it all out of the water.  We get 50LBS per person, and one would think that with 200 lbs of checked luggage that we would be OK - however, I am starting to worry as we get closer to the date.

As it stands right now, my daughter, the Diva is 100% packed.  Her Disney dresses arrived on Saturday and they fit perfectly!!  Thanks to Mickie for doing an awesome job!!  She also has 11 other dresses - yes, you read it right - 11!, to wear for dinners, etc.  She couldn't decide and I got tired of the battle, so I gave in.  And, as she will change clothes 2-3 times a day I also have 14 outfits for her packed.  Hope she still likes them - she picked them all out, but its been a month...  In addition to all of that there are 4 pairs of shoes packed for her, plus whatever she wears to school that day!  How I got her to agree to NOT wear the clothing, but to leave it all in the suitcase is beyond me, but she agreed and her case including about a dozen t-shirts for our extended DIS family all come in at under 50lbs.  And the case is full.  I think that the weight was 43 lbs, so I may space bag her dresses and put in more of the DIS shirts to get the case to 48 lbs.  Oh - and I need to pull clothing for Barcelona out...  Oy Vey!! 

Like I said, so much to do and so little time!

And, while all of this last minute stuff is happening, my better half is trying to finish up a myriad of last minute stuff around the house so when we get back we don't have to do it all...  Stuff like baseboards. window casings, etc.  Yes, that right, he is trying to finally finish the basement project! 

So, in addition to all of this, did I mention that there is still laundry to do, cheer practice, gymnastics and wrestling is about to start?  Oh - and yes, I did do laundry over the weekend!  5 loads or if...  I love my washer and dryer!!  It holds double what the old ones did.  So, all the sheets went in one load!  3 twin sets, a king set and a double set, and one mattress pad.

All I need to do tonight is get Becca to cheer, grab stuff for my other (who I blew off all weekend) and get it to her.  Wish me luck!!