Saturday August 18, 2007
The internet on the ship is horrible. It's so slow it's not worth signing on. It can't even download my mail it's so slow.

We woke up early, all of us excited about the big day! We finished packing, ate breakfast and dragged down all of our luggage to the street. I was sick of the luggage at this point. My father and Victoria walked over to the hotel area and spoke with one of the taxi drivers waiting at the taxi stand. The driver drove down to where we were standing with the luggage. He looked at us and said, "Maybe you need two." We shook our heads and loaded the back of the cab and took off for ORLY airport.

About a half an hour later we arrived and dragged our luggage into the airport. The airport seemed unorganized and hard to find your way. We were fifteen minutes early for the check in allowance. We waited until the desk opened and we slung our cases over. After obtaining boarding passes, we headed out. This airline allows one carry on bag and 44 lbs max. per person. We were very careful about luggage. As it turns out, our friend Carol had no problems adding an extra case or two.

We waited almost three hours until we boarded our plane. The plane was one hour late. Once we got onto the plane, it was wonderful. The flight attendants spoke several languages smoothly and easily. The changed languages on a dime. The flight to Barcelona was smooth. We spotted Disney Cruiseline by the luggage area. After getting all of our luggage, we hoofed it over to DCL. The people working the area seemed to be people from the Barelona area. They definitely lacked the typical Disney cast member personality. After following a tiny woman holding a sign not much taller than 5’ tall, we boarded the bus. We waited about twenty minutes then left for the ship.

Arriving at the Barcelona terminal was exciting. We got off the bus and headed into the terminal. We went through security yet again, dragged out our paperwork, and checked in. No upgrades available, and I was still one of the (few) Fools who was in a category 12. We hopped on the elevator and went to our cabins on deck two.

I sent Victoria down the hall to place a door magnet on my parents door. The door magnets are festive and help folks recognize their room. When Victoria came back to the stateroom, she brought a few Fools with her. We sat around in the cabin catching up. BusBoyBob, Amanda, Addison, Lynn and company, and Mock had a lovely chat. Our luggage arrived and we unpacked a bit. The lifeboat drill was at 5:30pm. We were assigned to the theater rather than a lifeboat station on deck. It was nice sitting in the air conditioned theater rather than standing on deck in the sun near the lifeboats, but in the event of a real emergency, I want to be near the lifeboats, not in a theater.

We rushed back to our rooms and grabbed our meal tickets for dinner. We have tables one and three in the dining rooms. We do not have one big table as planned, but the eight adults are sitting at one table and the five children at the table next to us. The kids seemed happy to get together. Our servers Ramen and company (still haven’t remembered their names) are the best. The welcome aboard dinner was fabulous. I had grilled scallops as an appetizer and a salad before dinner. I think I had lobster over fetticine alfredo-like dish. It was yummy. Dessert was crème brulee.

After dinner we went to the Walt Disney Theater for the Welcome Aboard show. We saw a great dance team from Barelona, along with the usual acts. Michael Harrison, ventriloquist, seemed to be able to entertain the kids still. I’d like to see a new act from him if DCL insists on continuing to use him. We went to bed after the show. We were tired. A good first day.