Day Two - Valencia

What an amazing, wonderful, superfluous, fantastical day!  

We were up by 8:00 and in the dining room just in the nick of time for breakfast at 9:00.  Here’s today’s breakfast menu:

I had oatmeal and sweet mamma went with the special Caribbean Sunrise - A fresh pineapple boat filled with tropical fruit salad and yogurt.  The were super fast with service today and before we knew it we were headed off the ship into the beautiful city of Valencia.

We were here in 2018, so we’d already taken the big tour and today were doing a wine tasting and paella lunch with our friends, Lew and Nan.  We went a bit early to enjoy sometime walking through the beautiful old streets of Valencia.

Love, Love, LOVE the architecture of this city!

We connected with Lew and Nan at 11:45 at the restaurant and our guide Valeria.  Lew has toured with Valeria on several occasions and I’d met her during our tour in 2018.  She’s down right amazing.

We enjoyed 2 wonderful hours learning about Spanish wines, feasting on salad, calamari and paella, and did I mention the wine?  One white, two reds, three bottles, and fabulous company!  It was a day made in heaven!!  Did I mention the three bottles of wine???  Fantastic!

Valeria arranged our cab back to the ship (15 minutes flat, record time) and we were back well before the all onboard time of 2:30.  Well, we got back at 2:15 and by the time we stumbled (okay, me stumbled) through security and were actually onboard the ship, we still weren’t late...

Dropped our stuff at the cabin and headed down to deck 5 to meet our friends Kathy and Mike for a drink.  Just love connecting with old friends.  Lots of catching up and laughing.  This is going to be a spectacular cruise!

Time to run upstairs and get into our finest for tonight’s formal night.  We have traditional early seating (5:15).  We aren’t thrilled with the time but were able to make some slight tweaks tonight after speaking with our waiter.  We made a quick pit stop at happy our for sweet mamma to get her nightly cocktail before we made our first appearance of this cruise in the dining room (Estrella, deck six, mid-ship).  

I began with the mango mimosa soup and had the lamb (eh, don’t even know why I ordered that, I don’t even like lamb....probably the day drinking made me do it).  Sweet mamma went with a salad and the beef tenderloin.

Of course, no Princess formal night is complete without a Normal Love Chocolate Journey Dessert!!!

As soon as dinner was complete we high tailed it for the theater to make the first showing of the new production show, Rock Opera.

IT IS DOWNRIGHT AMAZING....Of all of my cruises, on all of the different lines, this is the most outstanding production I have ever seen. Some of the songs include:  The greatest show, Never Enough, This is me (all three from “The Greatest Showman), Sound of Silence, Total Eclipse of the Heart, Dream on....Amazeballs, totally amazeballs.  Kudos to Princess for pulling together such an outstanding show!

Quick run upstairs to deck 7 mid-ship for our first game in Princess Live - Majority Rules.  We were lucky enough to be joined by the incomparable Nathan for a fun time!

Back to the casino to make our daily deposits before finally calling it a night and finally having time to sit down and update this blog!

Tomorrow, big, big day awaits.  The port of Malaga and a trip to Granada.  To be continued...thanks for coming along!

Day One

And finally...we were on the ship!

Up early by 7:15, we cleaned up and started to organize our bags.  Why is it I spend days packing to leave, and the moment I arrive at my destination, all of that organization goes right out the window???

We enjoyed a nice breakfast at the hotel (buffet included with the room price).  Don’t forget, they have wine!

The buffet was extensive.  Eggs (scrambled, hard boiled), bacon, sausage, LOTS of pastries, cereals, yogurt, yummy Spanish omelette, etc...I settled on a slice of omelette and some sausage with fresh pineapple juice.

It was back to the room to finish packing.  Excuse the mess, but here are some pictures of the room!

Large vanity with double sinks, hairdryer and makeup mirror

Jacuzzi tub with jets 

Multi-head shower

Gotta love the bidet!

Two beds, made separately, each larger than twins but smaller than double size

Balcony with zero view!

Finished packing and ran outside to take a few pictures of the pool area.  It’s up the roof, same floor as our room!

Sun deck

City View

At 10:45 we wrangled our bags and headed downstairs to the lobby.  We were meeting a sweet couple who were also on our ship to share a cab to the port.  The port is literally an 8 minute cab ride from the hotel.  And this is where things got interesting.

Lucky (not) for us there was a marathon in Barcelona.  One that closed almost every single street used to get to the port.  Supposedly, the cab driver had NO idea that all of the roads would be closed.  45 Minutes and 40 Euros later we arrived at the port.

A porter took our bags and what followed was the easiest embarkation we have ever experienced.  Through security, one swipe of our medallion at the check in kiosk, and we were walking toward the gangway.  Easy Peasy!

We headed straight to the cabin to drop off our wine.  This cruise, we are in a Deluxe Obstructed Balcony on Emerald Deck.  

After dropping the wine we headed straight for the dining room for our traditional embarkation lunch.  Salad and spinach ravioli for sweet mamma, bay shrimp with avocado appetizer and hamburger for me.  Finishing it all of, the fabulous orange soufflé.  My goals for the day were met and I was set!

Bay Shrimp Appetizer

Orange Soufflé 

With lunch finished we set out to explore a bit.  We saw Take Five - the new jazz club.  Very pretty venue!

Then we wandered by these pretty balloons on deck 7 near the new Le Mer specialty restaurant.

We found Princess Live, and all I can say is WOW!!! It’s fabulous!!!

We headed to the room and sure enough our bags were already there.  By three o’clock we were completely unpacked and organized.  Well, maybe not totally organized...it did look like a small bomb exploded, but we’d get there.

After the fabulous muster drill (always riveting and exciting), I tried out my medallion app and ordered my first drink to be delivered.  A tropical Bellini.  Folks, vacation mode was officially switched on!

After a quick change of clothes, sweet mamma and I headed to the Vista Lounge for our first (of many) nightly cocktail hours.  We sat with a sweet couple from Wisconsin and truly enjoyed their company.

Another reason we were excited for this trip was that our our friend Nathan was working onboard (just until Lisbon).  We’d met Nathan in February of 2018 while we were sailing on the Star Princess.  At the time, Nathan was a member of the Cruise Director’s staff.  He’s moved on to a new position with corporate, but was here helping get the Sky ready.  We arranged to meet for dinner.

At 6:30 we headed to Sabitini’s (the Italian specialty restaurant) to meet Nathan.  We had an amazing meal with outstanding company.  I started with the calamari, followed by carbonara and then veal Marsala.  Sweet mamma had a salad then a trio of pasta dishes.  The food was delicious!!!  But the best part, dessert!  I have the Roche.  Just like the candy, but filled with vanilla ice cream all on top of delicious chocolate cake.  To Die For!!!

It was GREAT to see Nathan again and catch up.  He was just married in August, so it was great to hear about the wedding and his lovely bride.  Nathan is one amazing young man. Princess is darned lucky to have him!!!

Before we knew it, the ship was pulling away from the dock.  We were leaving Barcelona and on our way to begin our excellent adventure!!!

An hour in the casino and it was time to call it a night.  A long, wonderful, amazing first day on the Sky Princess!

Thanks for coming along for the ride!