American Mom in London: Mediterranean Cruise: Barcelona to Cruise Ship

We are back from our amazing Mediterranean Cruise. I know I am going to forget a lot of the details of the trip so thought I would put together a number of posts with details and photos from each day of the trip as a "travel journal" that I can look back on.

Our trip started by flying from London Gatwick to Barcelona on Thursday, June 27th. After a short flight delay, we were on-route to Barcelona. We took a taxi to our hotel and then set out to explore the city. Colin pretty much immediately fell asleep in his stroller so we stopped at a bar off of Las Ramblas for a sangria for me and a beer for David. We walked down Las Ramblas stopping again to stock up on wine at a grocery store to bring on our cruise and then had a yummy dinner of tapas, paella, and sangria on an outside patio overlooking Las Ramblas. After dinner, we walked down to the beach before heading back to our hotel for the night.

The next morning, we had to get up early to get in the sightseeing I had planned before boarding our ship. We headed straight to La Sagrada Familia where I had pre-purchased 9:00am tickets. I am glad I did as the line was down the block and around the corner for people who had not pre-purchased tickets. The church is still a work in process but was amazing nonetheless. After that, we hopped on the metro to visit the Picasso Museum where I had also pre-purchased tickets. We then took the metro back to our hotel and checked out and took a taxi to the cruise terminal.

After arriving at the terminal, it took about an hour before we could board our ship. Fortunately, the terminal had a kids' play area which Colin loved. Soon, we were aboard the Carnival Sunshine! We had decided to cruise with Carnival mainly because they are the only U.S. cruise line to have a free children's program ('Camp Carnival') that starts at age 2. Most other cruise lines start their programs at age 3. It was great for us to have a little time to ourselves most evenings and great for Colin to have a chance to be around other kids and get to play with a lot of new fun toys. The Carnival Sunshine was formerly known as the Carnival Destiny before a multi-million dollar refurbishment this spring. The ship was great with a lot of fun new features like a water park with three giant waterslides, two kiddie waterslides, and a splash zone that we had a lot of fun at. There were a number of new restaurants and all of the rooms and common areas had been renovated. I know Carnival is supposed to be at the lower end of U.S. cruise lines, but we were very happy with the ship, especially all the services they had for families.

After getting on the ship, we headed to our room to get settled. We were in a balcony cabin, which was so worth the extra money. I can't imagine ever cruising without a balcony again. It was so nice to sit outside and enjoy a glass of wine after Colin went to bed at night. The rest of the day was spent exploring the ship and having our first dinner in the main dining room. We had anytime dining rather than a scheduled seating which worked out great as we usually arrived before most passengers so had no problem getting a booth for just the three of us. Colin was always given crayons and an activity book and could order things off of an extensive children's menu. Plus, we always had the iPad with us if he got antsy!

We were all very excited to be on the ship and ready for our first day at port in Marseilles!